Episode 35 - Andrew Heintzman - Founder & Managing Partner of InvestEco
Description
In Episode 35 we speak with Andrew Heintzman, who is a managing partner of InvestEco. This venture capital fund focuses on high-growth North American companies that promote health and sustainability in the food & agricultural sector. InvestEco's mandate is to deliver strong financial returns to its investors while helping its portfolio companies build a better world.
Andrew gives us his feedback on the current fundraising market, and its changes over the past couple of years versus today. He's bullish on the North American market due to its large size and its competitive landscape, as it is a market that is so large that U.S.-based VCs have the bandwidth to help accelerate their growth. This translates to Venture Capital firms being more open to providing higher valuations due to the market size which offers the potential to expand. Andrew also provides his feedback on what he would expect to see from a European company were InvestEco to consider an investment.
InvestEco has had positive experiences in their portfolio company's exit strategies. Andrew confirms that there is no one way to exit an investment and focusing on only one could become a struggle; so, being flexible is essential given market conditions, timing, the ability to be patient, etc. You need a good operating business, a good process and to create optionality, and this will create the best outcome.