Charlotte Angel Connection Episode 068: Seth Twery: A successful corporate life leads to angel investing and entrepreneurship

A successful corporate career with travel and very good compensation with a well-respected Fortune 500 company comes to an end in 2012 – so an individual can pursue ‘growth.’ What does ‘growth’ even mean as a pursuit?  Can you find it in Charlotte?  What does it look like? How about ‘consciously stumbling’ into the very early days of a little parking app in Charlotte, offering a 5 page critique of their software and eventually becoming an early investor as part of the friends and family raise?  What happens when that company goes on to become Passport and raises in excess of $40 million from the likes of Bain Capital and chases the opportunity to become the next unicorn in Charlotte? What happens when pursuit of ‘growth’ leads you to mentoring early stage companies at QC Fintech and several years later you have the opportunity to work with a successful foreign based company looking to establish their US headquarters in Charlotte, not New York or San Francisco or Austin?  Tookitaki is a Singapore based company with a very well respected founder, who is the process of completing a funding round and is looking to expand rapidly now. Tell Seth Twery in 2011 that will be his path – along with some other twists and turns – through 2018 and he’d ask why does it have to be so hard. But he'll readily admit the path he took then looks to be much easier today for those looking to follow in his footsteps. Along the way, Seth has become an investor in IDEA Fund Partners, gotten very involved in the Charlotte startup scene and is working to increase the number of early stage investors through a series of quarterly events targeted at investors – who like him are craving the opportunity for growth. Listen to Seth talk about his story today and how it all came together.  Listen to what is now a seasoned investment professional who made the leap and talks openly about what from his corporate life was applicable and what he’s learned along the way.