Tuesday, September 19, 2017

On Monday, September 18, 2017, Daniel Einhorn of Capital Midwest Fund Visited Marquette's AIM Program

Daniel Einhorn, Venture Capitalist, Visited Dr. Krause’s AIM Class and Talked about Disruptive Technologies

Dan Einhorn in the AIM Room in Fall 2017
Daniel Einhorn, General Partner of Capital Midwest Fund, visited the AIM Room to talk about his recent venture capital experiences.  

Mr. Einhorn has over a decade of venture investment experience, evaluating, screening, and investing in private technology companies based primarily in the Midwest.

The students in Dr. Krause’s AIM class had the opportunity to hear about venture investing from Mr. Einhorn. This is the seventh year that he has visited students at Marquette and discussed private equity investing.  
Dan Einhorn and Dr. David Krause


A list of Capital Midwest's current portfolio companies can be accessed on their website

Disruptive technology is a term which refers to an innovation that creates a new product or market and eventually disrupts an existing market and network, displacing established market leading firms, products, and alliances. The following is from WhatIs.com:

Image result for disruptive technology“Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen coined the term disruptive technology. In his 1997 best-selling book, "The Innovator's Dilemma," Christensen separates new technology into two categories: sustaining and disruptive. Sustaining technology relies on incremental improvements to an already established technology. Disruptive technology lacks refinement, often has performance problems because it is new, appeals to a limited audience and may not yet have a proven practical application. (Such was the case with Alexander Graham Bell's "electrical speech machine," which we now call the telephone.)

Here are a few examples of disruptive technologies:
    Image result for disruptive technology
  •  The personal computer (PC) displaced the typewriter and forever changed the way we work and communicate.
  • The Windows operating system's combination of affordability and a user-friendly interface was instrumental in the rapid development of the personal computing industry in the 1990s. Personal computing disrupted the television industry, as well as a great number of other activities.
  • Email transformed the way we communicate, largely displacing letter-writing and disrupting the postal and greeting card industries.
  • Cell phones made it possible for people to call us anywhere and disrupted the telecom industry.
  • The laptop computer and mobile computing made a mobile workforce possible and made it possible for people to connect to corporate networks and collaborate from anywhere. In many organizations, laptops replaced desktops.
  • Smartphones largely replaced cell phones and PDAs and, because of the available apps, also disrupted: pocket cameras, MP3 players, calculators and GPS devices, among many other possibilities. For some mobile users, smartphones often replace laptops. Others prefer a tablet.
  • Cloud computing has been a hugely disruptive technology in the business world, displacing many resources that would conventionally have been located in-house or provided as a traditionally hosted service.
  • Social networking has had a major impact on the way we communicate and -- especially for personal use -- has disrupted telephone, email, instant messaging and event planning.”


Image result for capital midwest venture einhornMr. Einhorn serves on various board of directors including: LiquidCool Solutions, Rapid Diagnostek, Physician Software Systems, Always In Touch and PreEmptive Meds. He is a member of the Board of the Entrepreneur Center at Illinois Institute of Technology, and the Southern Methodist University Alumni. He is on the board of COA Youth & Family Centers and the Jewish Museum in Milwaukee. He is a member of the Midwest Health Investment Network. In 2012, he was named Man of the Year for the Milwaukee Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  

Capital Midwest Fund is a Milwaukee-based venture capital firm that invests primarily in the areas of life science and information technology. The fund concentrates on investments where companies have excellent management and technology, are performing an important function, and will address significant markets. He said that they look for management with successful previous experience; markets that are established and growing; defensible IP positions; and sustainable competitive advantages. 

Image result for capital midwest venture einhorn
Dan Einhorn
Dr. Krause said, "It is a privilege to have Dan join us each year in the classroom. His experience adds to the curriculum and the students enjoy learning firsthand from investment professionals. The students had an interesting and productive dialogue with Dan about disruptive technologies. They appreciate his real-world experiences and straightforward communication style." 

Mr. Einhorn and the other principals of the fund are professionals who have operated in the investment banking, investing, life science and technology industries for many years. They have significant experience in raising money for early-stage companies and sourcing deals. In addition, they have significant experience in assisting management teams prepare viable business plans, evaluate strategic partnerships, and craft lucrative exits.