Participated · Seed · Sep 2023

MessageDesk, led by CEO Clint Vernon, provides text-messaging software that lets businesses text-enable their phone lines, send mass broadcasts, optimize delivery rates, and route, assign, and automatically manage conversations across an organization. The company is based in Reno, NV. MessageDesk plans to use its recent funding to accelerate growth and expand into new markets. It aims to surpass $1M in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in 2023 and expects to reach 1,000 SMB customers by the end of Q1 2024 while also expanding its mid-market customer base. The product and GTM focus are centered on improving business SMS delivery and conversation management for SMBs and mid-market customers. The company intends the seed proceeds to support those operational and market-expansion efforts.

Participated · Series B · Nov 2022

Qwick operates a marketplace that connects hospitality professionals with food-and-beverage shifts in real time, using a matching algorithm that considers distance, VIP availability and supply. Workers complete a profile, a five-minute virtual orientation and a one-to-one interview before gaining access to the app; Qwick also employs a two-way, five-star rating system. The platform serves thousands of employers — including stadiums, senior living facilities and corporate catering — and is active with over 7,000 businesses across 23 metro areas. Qwick says its app has been downloaded by hundreds of thousands of professionals and has facilitated over 500,000 shifts to date. The company reports workers earn, on average, $9 above minimum wage in the cities where they work. After pandemic layoffs that cut the team by 70%, revenue has since grown 10,000% over the past three years and the company employs just over 270 people, with plans to expand to about 300 by year end. Qwick is a Phoenix, AZ-based on-demand staffing platform that connects service industry professionals with hospitality shifts in real time. Workers provide their work experience and availability while businesses post shifts that need filling; Qwick texts workers shifts that match their skills and schedules. The company is led by co-founders Jamie Baxter (co-founder and CEO), Blaine Light (co-founder and COO) and Chris Loeffler (co-founder). Qwick raised $1.3M in funding from a group of investors including Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, UA Venture Capital, Moving Capital, Desert Angels and XG Ventures. It intends to use the funds to hire five additional people across engineering, operations and business development in the next month. The company plans to expand to four additional cities in 2019, including San Diego in January.

Participated · Seed · Sep 2019

Aural Analytics develops a cloud-based, model-driven speech analytics platform that combines speech signal processing and cognitive-linguistic analysis into extensible APIs and clinical-grade mobile and web products. The platform is mobile-first, disease-, language- and device-agnostic, and has been deployed in eight languages across four continents. The company’s technology is grounded in more than 25 years of NIH- and NSF-funded speech neuroscience research and has been clinically validated in multiple disease indications. Aural’s tools are used in interventional clinical trials, observational research, and clinical and consumer settings to detect speech changes associated with neurological conditions. Planned uses of new funding include expansion of the clinical trial platform, a global release of a next-generation integration portal for easier speech collection and analytics, new clinical-grade mobile and web products, and researcher tool kits to accelerate speech neuroscience breakthroughs. The company was founded in 2015 and maintains headquarters in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2017

ClickIPO is a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based mobile-first platform that enables individual retail investors to participate in IPOs and Secondary Offerings using their existing online brokerage accounts. The company does not house investor accounts, allowing it to aggregate investors from multiple brokerages at scale. ClickIPO has launched the first version of its public offering technology through its wholly owned subsidiary, ClickIPO Securities, LLC, and the app is currently in beta testing. The app presently provides information and alerts on new offerings and lets users share offerings via social media. Led by CEO Scott Coyle, the company plans to use the newly raised capital to expand its technology platform and begin offering access to a larger group of retail investors. Financially, ClickIPO recently raised just over $3M in seed funding from a group of investors.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2017

NuvOx Therapeutics is a Tucson, Arizona–based clinical-stage biotechnology company developing NanO2, a first-in-class oxygen therapeutic platform to treat diseases where hypoxia is a driver. NanO2 is designed to improve oxygen flow from lungs to blood and from blood to tissue and has shown therapeutic effect in over 30 animal studies across seven indications. Positive clinical efficacy was demonstrated in two completed Phase Ib/IIa studies—as a radiosensitizer in glioblastoma multiforme and as a neuroprotectant in stroke—and the program has safety data in more than 2,000 subjects. NuvOx has commenced a Phase IIb glioblastoma multiforme trial in the United States and is preparing two additional clinical trials slated for late 2023. The program holds Orphan Drug Designation for glioblastoma multiforme and sickle cell disease and was reported to be the most effective oxygen therapeutic among 74 clinical-stage compounds. The company has attracted $14 million in non-dilutive funding from the NIH, Department of Defense and other government funders and recently completed a bridge round in which VisionTech Angels invested $196,500 following a $10.4 million Series A. NuvOx Pharma develops an intravenous oxygen-delivery platform based on dodecafluoropentane emulsion (DDFPe), a contrasting agent repurposed to deliver O2 to hypoxic tissues. Its lead program is poised to enter Phase 2 trials in glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) to restore tumor oxygenation and improve response to cancer therapies. Additional programs target acute stroke neuroprotection and treatment of sickle cell crises, and the company positions DDFPe as a platform for multiple hypoxia-related indications. The DDFPe formulation was previously approved in Europe and used in roughly 2,200 patients; FDA has granted permission to reference that historical data for new indications. Financially, NuvOx has not taken venture capital — it has raised $6 million from angel investors, including the Desert Angels, and supplemented that with grants from the NIH, the State of Arkansas, the Arizona Commerce Authority, the military, and other sources. To conserve cash the company uses capital-efficient practices: employees accept equity as part of compensation, the CEO has worked for equity, and company rent has been paid in equity.