Showcasing early-stage companies from southeast Michigan to top investors.
Congratulations to M-Vision, Jottful, and Functional Fluidics!
These three companies won their categories at Invest360 and then competed for the People’s Choice Award and an additional $50,000. Congratulations to Jottful for taking home the grand prize!
This series is presented by Ann Arbor SPARK.
Kurt Baumgarten
GM Ventures
Biography
Kurt Baumgarten
GM Ventures
Kurt Baumgarten was named Partner effective May 23, 2022.
Kurt has been involved in Michigan’s investment and entrepreneurial communities for most of his career. In 2014, Kurt co-founded Applied Licensing, LLC, an angel investment organization specializing in the development and monetization of intellectual property. As Vice President & General Counsel, Kurt oversaw operations, sourced investment opportunities and managed deal flow, conducted due diligence, drafted and negotiated deal terms, aided in the development and execution of intellectual property strategy, and engaged with portfolio companies in a variety of ways to contribute towards their success.
Kurt is a founding member of the Pointe Angels investment club and served as the group’s Lead for over three years. As Lead, he managed deal flow, organized monthly pitch meetings, and supported members throughout the process of engaging with, vetting, and closing investment opportunities.
Kurt is also a board member of the New Enterprise Forum, a volunteer organization dedicated to providing coaching and other critical resources to technology-focused startup companies and entrepreneurs, and he regularly participates on coaching teams.
Kurt holds a BA in Public Policy from the University of Michigan Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and a JD from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Jessica Robinson
Assembly Ventures
Biography
Jessica Robinson
Assembly Ventures
Jessica Robinson is a Co-Founder and Partner at Assembly Ventures. She is a mobility investor, entrepreneur, educator, and champion of Detroit.
As co-founder and partner of Assembly Ventures, she invests in and strategically supports the entrepreneurs and mobility companies moving the Western world. She joined Assembly Ventures from her prior role establishing the Michigan Mobility Institute, an organization she co-founded to accelerate talent readiness for the mobility industry.
Jessica previously led the development of next-generation mobility efforts at Ford Smart Mobility where she was the Director of City Solutions, a team which supported go-to-market strategies for the company’s entire mobility portfolio. An early arrival to the new mobility industry, she was a key field leader at Zipcar, the world’s largest car sharing organization, where she held roles in growth, operations, and marketing across North America.
Her background in technology and innovation includes prior work at Techstars launching corporate startup accelerators with industry-leading partners like Target and Virgin Media. In 2020, Jessica was named Entrepreneur-in-Residence at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation. She is an active startup mentor, advisor to the Zell Lurie Commercialization Fund at the University of Michigan, serves on the advisory board for the MS Robotics program at Wayne State University, and micro-lender who invests in women entrepreneurs and business owners in Detroit.
Jessica served as a 2021 Detroit delegate to the Harvard Business School Young American Leaders Program, an initiative that brings together cross-sector leaders to drive new strategies for shared American prosperity. In recognition of her public-private work, she has also been named a Next City Vanguard, a competitive distinction for top young urban innovators working to make change in global cities. She also previously served as a Governor’s appointee to the State of Michigan’s Workforce Development Board representing mobility businesses.
Jessica graduated with highest honors from the University of Massachusetts with a BA in anthropology and brings an unexpected perspective to the challenges that fall at the intersection of mobility and technology.”
Kristin Welch
Ford Next Ventures
Biography
Kristin Welch
Ford Next Ventures
Kristin Welch is a veteran of the mobility ecosystem in Southeast Michigan and beyond. For two and a half years, she helped lead the ride-sharing startup SPLT (Techstars Mobility ‘15) through growth, globalization, and acquisition by Robert Bosch GmbH in 2018.
Subsequently, Kristin has been an advisor and strategist for numerous startups, including an autonomous delivery/robotics company, a next-gen parking/payment technology, and an innovative solution in the pharmaceutical industry. Kristin coaches founders through the New Enterprise Forum (NEF), works on the organizing committee for the Global Automotive & Mobility Innovation Challenge (GAMIC), and judges multiple pitch competitions nationwide.
Prior to startups, Kristin spent ~15 years at Deloitte, including leadership roles in Boston, Zurich, London, and New York City. In 2015, she obtained an Executive MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Kristin now enjoys working with Ford Next Ventures, Ford Motor Company’s venture incubator, to validate new mobility products and business models, to help shape the future of transportation.
Throughout the pandemic, she led a team in the healthcare solutions/crisis response space. Working with program partners, they developed the Mobile Health Unit- innovating solutions for improving public health in the future. Kristin now focuses on pipeline analysis for Ford Next Ventures as well as various opportunities with connected vehicle data and other movement applications. When not focused on innovation at Ford Next Ventures, Kristin enjoys traveling, reading and eating great food with friends and family.
Abhinaya Konduru
M25 Ventures
Biography
Abhinaya Konduru
M25 Ventures
Abhinaya Konduru is an investor at M25, where she invests in Midwest HQ’ed tech or tech-enabled companies. Aside from finding and investing in companies at M25, she helps founders find product-market fit with various strategies. Additionally, she is the co-moderator of Women In VC’s 500+ junior VC community, the world’s largest global community for women in VC residing on Slack. She founded AskVCs, a community of 200+ investors who ask and answer questions every week to learn from peers in a safe environment and lift each other.
Abhinaya studied Finance and Mathematical Computer Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago and co-founded the Portfolio Management Team, one of the largest organizations at UIC. Her introduction to venture and entrepreneurship was through creating a YouTube video series interviewing local startup founders while in college. Along with that, she helped make some viral videos. Outside of investing, she loves building the tech community in the Midwest by hosting various events and initiatives to bring everyone together.
Adrian Fortino
Mercury Fund
Biography
Adrian Fortino
Mercury
Adrian Fortino is a Managing Director at Mercury, where he leads Mercury’s Midwest office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and focuses on investments in enterprise SaaS, industrial IoT, and tech-enabled service companies. Prior to joining Mercury, Adrian was the Managing Director of Detroit Innovate, a seed stage investment fund targeting seed investments in enabling technologies in healthcare, transportation, and industrial applications. During this time, Adrian was also the Managing Director of the First Step Fund, a micro-investment, industry agnostic fund focused on seed-stage companies in Southeast Michigan. Prior to Detroit Innovate and the First Step Fund, Adrian co-founded three software companies: Sidecar (acq. by GM), ShepherdIS, and FlockTAG. Prior to founding startup companies, Adrian was the Manager of Powertrain Development with Ricardo, a global engineering consultancy focusing on the automotive, cleantech, military, and industrial sectors. Adrian received his BSE in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA with High Distinction from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Outside of Mercury, Adrian teaches venture capital classes at the University of Michigan College of Engineering. He also serves on the board of Michigan Venture Capital Association and the advisory boards of First Capital Fund and the Ann Arbor Entrepreneurs Fund.
Dr. Dawn Batts
Commune Angels
Biography
Dr. Dawn Batts
Commune Angels
Dr. Dawn Batts has over two decades of experience, analyzing business opportunities, developing and implementing strategic plans, and managing their subsequent operations and compliance processes. Her diverse professional experiences and research have led to her solutions-based approach in addressing the myriad of factors causing the economic disparity between women and men.
As a Capital Strategist for Tech Town — Detroit’s entrepreneurial hub — Dawn secures and aligns resources that help Detroit-based entrepreneurs achieve the vision and goals of their businesses. She also manages the Catalyst Angel Program which trains, mentors, and engages emerging underrepresented angel investors in the Great Lakes Region. She extends her work as co-founder of Commune Angels, a diverse community of investors who seed scalable consumer, enterprise and life science companies that transform lives.
Dawn has served on a variety of local and national non-profit boards. She was recently appointed to the Michigan Early-Stage Venture Investment Corporation Board of Directors.
Dawn has a B.A. in Accounting from Michigan State University, her MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and her PhD in Anthropology from Wayne State University.
Dan Kidle
Arboretum Ventures
Biography
Dan Kidle
Arboretum Ventures
Dan joined Arboretum Ventures, a healthcare-focused venture capital firm, in 2011. In his role as a Managing Partner, Dan identifies promising investment opportunities across Arboretum’s sectors of interest, with particular emphasis on life science tools. Dan currently serves as a board director for Jumpcode Genomics, Flosonics Medical, Akadeum Life Sciences, and Enumera Molecular. His prior investments include Swift Biosciences (acquired by IDT) and Dropworks (acquired by Bio-Rad).
Dan earned a BBA and MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
Diane Bouis
MedTech Innovator
Biography
Diane Bouis
MedTech Innovator
Diane is the Program Director for MedTech Innovator. She has extensive experience designing and running innovation programs through her previous roles as the Innovation Manager at the University of Michigan’s Innovation Partnerships Startup Incubator and as an innovation consultant with The Inovo Group, Diane co-designed and -ran the HealthSpark Accelerator program at 20Fathoms in Traverse City, MI. She has lived and worked on three continents, speaks six languages, holds a PhD in Oncology from the University of Groningen, Netherlands and an MBA from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan and enjoys being the designated Eastern Time zone person for the team.
Sara Risch
Rev1 Ventures
Biography
Sara Risch
Rev1 Ventures
As Managing Director, Venture Development, Sara leads the Rev1 advisory team and guides spinout projects from our research partner institutions through Rev1’s customer, product, and market validation process. She provides extensive guidance to multiple high-tech, high-growth companies, remaining deeply involved through the development and execution of research & development, capital access, and go-to-market strategies.
Sara has extensive experience in commercializing innovation—from analyzing complex technologies to determine the market potential to working directly with innovators to advance their projects from laboratory to seed-stage funding. She is an expert in developing commercialization roadmaps, matching technologies to appropriate academic exit strategies, and then assembling the right team to make that happen.
Sara earned a Ph.D. in Biomedical Science from The Ohio State University and a BS degree in Biology from Kent State University.