#363 - Jason Illian - GP & Co-Founder @ Highmount Capital - Growth Equity, Investing in Dude Perfect, Launching Koch Disruptive Technologies
Description
Jason is the General Partner and Co-Founder of Highmount Capital, a unique investment firm focused on growth stage and middle market investments in transformative technology and other growth-related platforms. He is the former Managing Director and founding member of Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), the venture and growth arm of Koch Industries, the largest privately-held company in the US with over $130B in revenue. Jason was responsible for helping KDT grow to billions in AUM across 40+ companies.
We discuss:
- What makes a great venture partner
- What venture firms look for in late-stage companies
- The process of making a $100mm investment in DudePerfect
https://www.thefortpod.com/survey
Links:
Topics:
(00:00:00 ) - Intro
(00:05:23 ) - Jason's Early career
(00:10:03 ) - What makes a great venture partner
(00:13:23 ) - Joining Koch Industries
(00:15:18 ) - Building the venture framework for Koch
(00:19:48 ) - What does a great late-stage company look like in the eyes of a venture firm?
(00:26:40 ) - Founding Highmount Capital
(00:29:56 ) - Building a great origination engine
(00:35:44 ) - Investing in Dude Perfect
(00:40:18 ) - The craving for family-friendly brands
(00:44:10 ) - How do you think about your role post-investment?
(00:46:44 ) - What are unique ways to make money in the creator economy?
(00:54:14 ) - Are the Dudes a technology business or technology-enabled business?
(00:57:34 ) - How do you find a CEO for a company like DudePerfect?
(01:01:18 ) - How is Highmount structured?
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