MidCon VC Summit 2023

Thank you to everyone who joined us last week for the inaugural Midcontinent Venture Capital Summit. We had over 230 attendees join us from 35 different cities, 14 states, the District of Columbia and 5 different countries including Mexico, Pakistan and India. Read local media coverage here.

Throughout the event, we heard from numerous speakers, starting with a Founder Panel moderated by Will Gray of Atento Capital. The panelists represented companies across the region from Tulsa, OKC, Bentonville and Dallas, from industries including health/biotech, logistics, AI, and future of work.

We then heard from Oklahoma Ecosystem Builders, including State Senator Jessica Garvin, Build in Tulsa’s Ashli Sims, Kristin Garcia of Verge OKC and Oklahoma State University Research Foundation President Elizabeth Pollard. The panel was moderated by AJ Griffin, Paycom’s director of government & community affairs.

Our Managing Partner Nathaniel Harding moderated the GP Panel which included local GP Erika Lucas of StitchCrew and regional GPs Dan Kerr of Flyover Capital, Michael Mann of Anchor Capital, and Sarah Chen-Spellings, the Managing Partner of Beyond the Billion.

After lunch, we had a lively discussion with institutional investors led by Goldman Sachs Managing Director and former Oklahoma Sec. of Commerce Scott Mueller. Scott was joined by Chase Rankin of the Oklahoma Firefighters Pension and Retirement System, Ashley Roche of the Multilateral Endowment Management Company (MEMCO), Secretary Dan Whitmarsh of the Commissioners of the Land Office, and Winter Mead of Coolwater Capital.

Our final panel focused on family offices, moderated by Aaron Pierce of Perot Jain, with panelists from Koch Industries, RZC Investments, Square Deal Capital and George Kaiser Family Foundation.

The inaugural summit concluded the day with a riveting hour conversation between two-time New York Times best-selling author David Epstein and successful startup founder Dr. James Rogers of Apeel Sciences, a $2B company in the global food space.

We would like to express our gratitude to our sponsors for their generous support, including Citizens Bank of Edmondthe University of Oklahoma Price College of Business, Oklahoma State University Cowboy TechnologiesHoganTaylor, Citizen Capital, Atento CapitalGKFFSaxumRegent BankMcAfee & TaftBison TechnologiesBeneficentBarnes & Thornburg,  SpiritHR, and the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce.

Check out OETA’s highlight of the Summit: