Archive for category Biographical

Joining the Lightbank Team in Chicago for the Summer

Posted by tloverro in Biographical, Venture Capital on May 22, 2010

Lightbank

"You're not in the Valley anymore."

I’ll be spending this summer, between my first and second years at Kellogg, with the experienced team at Lightbank, the newly formed $100mm Chicago-foucsed venture investment vehicle led by Mssrs. Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell. Eric and Brad were co-founders and investors in Groupon, Echo Global Logistics, InnerWorkings and MediaBank. Lightbank isn’t traditional VC as it’s more like a very large angel fund since most of the capital belongs to the GPs. It’s more of an angel fund, VC and incubator all rolled into one flexible environment. They operate out of 600 W. Chicago Ave along with all of their aforementioned successes. This is what excites me most-the possibility for a “600 W. Chicago Mafia” to emerge and kick-start some real innovation in Chicago, vis-a-vis PayPal.

Having worked in the industry as an entrepreneur and VC in New York and manager in the Valley, I am very excited to try Chicago out. If you’re around this summer give me a shout.

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Backlog of Posts

Posted by tloverro in About this Blog, Biographical, Personal on September 26, 2009

School life at Kellogg has kept me away from my blog the past few weeks. However, I’ve got a large backlog of ideas I’d like to write about.

Some of the topics that have been occupying my mind include:

  • The importance of explicitly defining what you’re not going to do / customers you are not attempting to reach in business strategy. This is partly inspired by a conversation with my buddy Evan Doll, the former Apple iPhone programmer who is now co-founding a startup. It’s also inspired by a brilliant article by Michael Porter titled “What is Strategy?”
  • The divide (at least in the media) between entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. Does this divide exist? Or is it the press looking for a story? If it does exist, why does it exist? What does it mean for the industry?
  • Why I really like “medium-sized” business plans–these are business plans that don’t say “We are going to dominate the world’s operating system world” but likewise don’t say “We are going to be a tool for an existing service.”

Finally, on a personal note…everything here at Kellogg is going well. I am looking to join the Private Equity Venture Capital (PEVC) Club and make any contributions I can. I am also getting active with both the High-Tech Club and Investment Management Club.

In the next couple of months I will be considering my options for summer internships.

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My Background

Posted by tloverro in About this Blog, Biographical on June 2, 2009

You’re likely to see some common themes appear in this blog that have roots in my educational and professional background. I’ve worked in technology both on the finance side, as an investment banker with Goldman Sachs and a venture capitalist with RRE Ventures, and on the entrepreneurial/startup side, as the Director of Product Marketing at Data Robotics, Inc. and the founder of a handful of ventures and websites dating back to 1996. I grew up on Long Island and then earned my BA from Stanford during the height of the dot com bubble and the nadir of the bust. I’ve spent roughly five of the past ten years in Silicon Valley and five in New York City. I’d like to think I can bring the best of both perspectives to the table.

This means I don’t fit in perfectly with the cultures of either the Valley or NYC. I am rarely if ever impressed with technology for the sake of technology and I shudder at thought of making a living purely off of financial engineering. I like to see companies created, teams built, problems solved and value created. Maybe that’s why I’ve decided to spend the next two years of my life living in the Midwest (attending the Kellogg School of Management).

You can expect blog postings about topics within technology and finance that I have experience in as an operator, investor or consumer including:

  • Storage
  • Mobile
  • Consumer HW & SW

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