Hopping Over the Fence: I am Joining DFJ Portage Ventures
Posted on March 2, 2008
After considering a handful of great opportunities here in Chicago I have decided to join up with DFJ Portage Ventures as an associate. I am really excited about this opportunity for a handful of reasons which, you guessed it, I am going to outline below. Here it goes!
Working for the Best
DFJ Portage is the most respected and knowledgeable firm in the Chicago/upper Midwest area (at least in my humble opinion). In keeping with my theme of working for the best DFJ Portage fit the bill and then some.
Commitment to building up Chicago and the Midwest
DFJ Portage has been, and is, very committed to bulding Chicago and the Midwest up as the technology hub it should be. There are a lot of great people here along with great Universities and DFJ Portage wants to make sure talented entrepreneurs and technologies can stay in this great city/region and build world class companies here.
As you all know I share this committment to Chicago and the Midwest and this has manifested itself in many ways but most famously as the TECH cocktail gatherings I put on with my co-founder Frank Gruber. Working at DFJ Portage will allow me to continue to push this mission forward.
Desire to build a better VC firm
The partners at DFJ Portage are committed to building a VC firm that is much more friendly to entrepreneurs. As long time readers know I have written about “fixing” VC since the early days of this blog so I am very excited to be able to take some steps toward building a better, more entrepreneur friendly, VC firm at DFJ Portage.
Learning from the best
At DFJ Portage I will be able to learn from Matt McCall and Ed Chandler which is a great opportunity in and of itself. However, I will also get to learn from all of the entrepreneurs I meet and that we end up funding. The potential to pick up new things in incredibly high at DFJ Portage and that gets me pretty fired up.
Working with technology in and outside the web
While I love the web and I will be spending a lot of time on web related deals at DFJ Portage I also have a love of other technologies like nanotechnology and biotechnology. At DFJ Portage we have five focus areas which are:
- Consumer Web
- B2B Web
- Nanotechnology (and clean tech)
- Life Sciences/Biotech
- Financial Services Technologies
Since we have these five focus areas I will be able to branch out and look at another technologies I am passionate about while still working on web related stuff. I will also get to work on clean tech deals which fall under the nanotech space. Being a sustainable/green advocate I am excited to be able to help entrepreneurs in that space as well.
There are a number of other reasons why I think DFJ Portage is the right place for me but I think these five really sum things up. At a high level I believe working at DFJ Portage will allow me to be the change I want to see and I’ll get to work with a world class team and top notch entrepreneurs on technolgies and businesses I am passionate about while creating that change. That is really all I can ask for.
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[…] one just stood out to me for a host of reasons. I elaborate on those reasons on my blog so please check out my post for more. I am really looking forward to working with some top notch entrepreneurs in Chicago and the […]
Congrats on the decision. I’m sure you are going to bring some new ideas to the team and I look forward to hearing more about the company and what you do for them.
Best of luck!
Congratulations, Eric. Glad to hear you’ll be sticking around Chicago for a while.
congrats. best of luck. keep up the blog.
This is great news — for both Eric and Chicago tech community. Eric will bring with him a passion for and belief in Chicago tech entrepreneurs.
Cheers Eric! DFJ is lucky to have you.
- Carson
CEO Mediafly.com
Eric, congrats on the new gig!
Hey Eric,
Best of luck at DFJ! I’m sure your first order of business will be to ax their corporate website. Dear lord! And designed by Cherryone no less. Ew!
Anyway, best of luck,
Jeff
Eric,
Congrats, that is awesome! Having Matt as a mentor should be an awesome experience as I always get a lot out of interacting with Matt!
See you soon.
P.S. I’ve got a zip file with 30 business plans coming your way.
congrats Eric. maybe a DFJ/TechCocktail 8?
TC7 was a blast, thanks!
Eric,
Congrats man. We need to go get a beer, soon!!!
-Jeff O’Hara
Eric,
Congratulations on your new position with DFJ Portage. I have attended a few of your TechCocktail events but really don’t know you personally. Thank you for your hospitality and organizational ability. Your events are great.
Since my company serves smaller companies, we often meet entrepreneurs that are seeking venture capital. How can they reach you directly?
Joe O’Malley
The Alliance Group.
@Jeff W: Funny you say that. One of the first things I am working on is fixing up the site. I am working on a quick face lift now but we’ll do a complete overhaul after that.
@Joe: Entrepreneurs can get a hold of me at olson [at] dfjportage [dot] com Thanks in advance for thinking of me/us!
@Everyone: Thanks for the kind words and encouragement. I am looking forward to continuing to fight the good fight while over on the VC side of things.
[…] across Eric Olson’s blog while perusing Brazen Careerist and it turns out he accepted a new job […]
congrats man! this is HUGE news
Congrats Eric! Chicago is lucky to keep you around. Would love to hear more about the financial service technology.