Managing Director at Ohio Innovation Fund

Bill Baumel is a seasoned venture capitalist with over 20 years of experience investing in Silicon Valley. In 2016, he returned to his home state to establish the Ohio Innovation Fund. His investment portfolio spans AI/ ML, data networking/semi, cybersecurity, SaaS, biopharma and medtech. His past investments have led to five IPOs and 15 major acquisitions by companies such as Dell, SAP, Medtronic, Intuit and Stryker. Recognized as one of the Venture 100 Top VCs based on exits, Bill currently manages 17 active investments. These investments have strategic partnerships with leading companies like Microsoft, Meta, Salesforce/ Slack, Snowflake, ServiceNow, DataBricks, Intel, Epic Games, Uber Health, Sanofi, Cardinal Health, Johnson & Johnson and Genentech.

Bill graduated summa cum laude with a business degree from Ohio State University and earned his MBA with high distinction from the University of Michigan.

Professional Background and Current Role

I grew up in Ohio, went to The Ohio State University as an undergrad, worked at Deloitte & Touch in San Francisco where I was exposed to startups and venture capital and fell in love with innovation, disruption and growth. I went back to the University of Michigan on a full scholarship sponsored by the Regents and Time Warner, where I was a Teaching Assistant for Professor David Brophy's Venture Capital Class. I spent a few years at Brinson Partners in Chicago—now called Adams Street Partners—and then spent the next approximately 20 years in Silicon Valley. My investments began in telecommunications, data networking, specialty finance and software and expanded to cybersecurity, cloud computing, AI/ML and about twenty percent in biotech and medtech. In 2016, Ohio Innovation Fund was founded to invest in the industries of the future and scale these startups using my Silicon Valley experience and understanding of Midwestern culture to achieve similar success here in the Midwest. Over 20 successful exits have been achieved across this investment spectrum (semi, networking, SaaS, cyber, AI/ML, medtech, biotech) both in Silicon Valley and the Midwest.

“Running a property like Plaza requires complex and interconnected systems that work behind the scenes to ensure the reliable services we provide. Building on this vision, the hospitality industry is progressively shifting toward offering worldclass entertainment to customers”

Preparing Startups for Scaling Challenges

The interesting challenge is to scale while maintaining focus and making sure everything you do is adding value. Too many companies talk about how much money they raised or how many people they've grown to, versus a maniacal focus on delivering an amazing product/ experience and gaining significant market traction. While scaling, a new level of talent is needed, both skill-wise and process-wise. The first salesperson who landed the first few deals may not be the right person to lead a sales team. However, the laser focus on the company's mission and goals that was there on day one must be maintained. In addition, the culture of seeking, learning, pivoting and admitting and fixing mistakes must be preserved. Startups succeed because they avoid the bureaucracy that causes innovation to stagnate in established companies.

When Startups Pivot

The time to pivot is learned by constantly seeking and taking in market feedback. For example, your first product may grow from $0 to $500 million in 3 years, like at Infinera and then you start to grow slower as you saturate your position in the initial market segment. You may find no one wants your first product, requiring a redesign, new messaging, or targeting new customers. In rapidly evolving or emerging industries, constant adjustment may be necessary. The most painful situation though is being way early to a market that will eventually happen, as seen with Optical Solutions that ultimately dominated fiber-to-the-x once that market took off. Scaling slowly while waiting for the market can be sustainable, but high operating expenses while still figuring things out can lead to failure.

Fostering Innovation and Staying Competitive

Proactively seek customer and partner feedback all the time. Have an open environment that welcomes challenging assumptions and decisions as part of collaboration. As Steve Jobs said, the product process requires pressure to create a diamond. Before investing, we conduct extensive market and customer reference calls to listen and learn—sometimes it kills the deal, but it also allows us to provide helpful feedback to companies.

Shaping and Preserving Company Culture

You as the founder must embody the culture. Successful companies almost always have strong personalities as leaders, from Larry Ellison to Bill Gates to Steve Jobs to Diane Greene. Ensure everyone sees you as the picture of the culture you want to create, both in meetings and informal interactions. Reinforce this through activities and rewards. For example, at Aware, we had early team-building outings and everyone—including the founder— sat in the main area to foster a culture of teamwork, transparency and focus.

Emerging Technologies Shaping Startups

We are looking at TechBio—leveraging AI in drug discovery, clinical trials and more. Given the Midwest's dominant position in med with institutions like Wexner Medical Center, Nationwide Children’s, Cleveland Clinic and Cincinnati Children’s and our strong history in tech, medtech and biotech, we believe this area is ripe for disruption to deliver better treatments to market faster. In addition, we are doubling down on the access, security and movement of the massive amounts of enterprise data, growing exponentially with AI and perhaps lower cost LLM’s that will further accelerate demand. We were early in this space with Immuta and Aware/Mimecast, and have added Eridu.ai and Niobium, partnering with hyperscalers.

Advice for Aspiring Startup Professionals

Find a problem or area you are passionate about—startups are a ton of work and you must love what you are doing. Then figure out how your startup will disrupt, change, or create how things work and how it will change the world. Lastly, identify your meaningful role in making it happen. Every day, week, month and quarter, ensure you can articulate the value and impact you bring on that journey. You may get lucky with a quick exit, but most successful startups take five to seven to ten+ years to exit, your personal alignment with the startups mission and role for you is critical to you and your statups success.