(Founder Stories) Mick Mountz: East Coast VC’s “Are Willing To Look At More One-Off Type Opportunities”
Summary
In episode II of his Founder Stories interview with host, Chris Dixon, Kiva Systems founder, Mick Mountz discusses traversing the country in search of capital shortly after launching his company almost a decade ago. With plans to disrupt the picking, packing and shipping industry, Moutz went shopping for investors on Sand Hill Road and found none. He notes “they were like wow, $100-billion dollar material handling industry, tell us about how you are going to disrupt this again?” Mountz adds, “Out east my sense is that they are willing to look at more one-off type opportunities.” Drilling down on what accounts for the high concentration of Boston area based companies manufacturing robots, Mountz believes it’s the combination of “technical talent” pouring out of the surrounding universities along with machine shops in the New England area “that can do sheet metal … or stamping of parts” or any necessary work need to bring the robots to life. Make sure to listen to the entire video for additional insights and be sure to catch the first part of this interview here. Past episodes of Founder Stories, featuring interviews with Drew Houston, Eric Ries, Dustin Moskovitz, and Fred Wilson are here.