Chris Dykstra
Partner at Brown Venture Group
Chris Dykstra
Partner at Brown Venture Group
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Overview
Work Experience
CEO and Founder
2004 - Current
Warecorp was founded in 2004 in Minneapolis to provide affordable web and software services to the impact economy. Since its founding, Warecorp has earned the loyalty of change agents and innovators working in coworking, media, health care, education, open government and non-profits. For more information, visit www.warecorp.com. Follow Warecorp on Twitter @warecorp.
Founder/CEO
2005 - 2010
Zanby is a way to manage enterprise groups and groups-of-groups. Zanby profoundly changes the time, expense and feasibility of connecting one organization or coalitions of organizations on a single, elegant, social collaborative software platform. We converted the platform to Open Source in 2010 after building 25 communities with the platform.
Founder
2020
At GoodCarts, we’re on a mission to help 10,000 purpose-driven entrepreneurs use commerce to create change. From our unique business model and tools to our helpful resources, we see our business as a vehicle to help others make a bigger impact on the community and world we all share.
Partner
2020
Founded in 2018 in Minneapolis, MN, Brown Venture Group (BVG) is a Black-owned venture capital firm focused on Black, Latino, and Native American technology entrepreneurs. BVG provides technology founders of color a studio environment from which they can launch and scale their startup, including capital, training, and networks. We believe that technology entrepreneurship can bypass many of the cognitive and racial biases that have historically prevented communities of color from flourishing. Moreover, generation after generation of adversity has made entrepreneurs of color particularly resilient. This resilience, combined with the fact that investment in entrepreneurs of color has been almost non-existent, represents the best un-activated market for technology-focused venture capital.
Publisher and Founder
2012 - 2022
TheContributor.com is a news organization drawing from a network of hundreds of blogs, online submissions and original reporting to deliver stories you may have missed. We cover everything from local city council meetings to international events; from Mars to your backyard. We feature citizen journalists alongside seasoned professionals with the occasional concerned taxpayer. All are welcome to contribute to the conversation.
Founder and Partner
2012 - 2022
DrupalSquad provides expert, on-demand Drupal maintenance and development. Through our easy-to-use ticketing system, we can handle any size assignment, no matter how small (or large). Estimates are always free and 100% guaranteed. Whether you’re an agency looking for an a la carte technology partner, a development shop looking to expand your engineering capacity for the tasks you’d rather not have to do, or just need help maintaining your own website, DrupalSquad is here for you.
co-Founder/Chairman
2007 - 2013
The UpTake is a media and technology services organization focused on developing a national network of citizen video journalists, integrating our community of users in our editorial workflow, marrying professional production techniques with citizen-produced video and publishing the work of our journalists with speed and integrity.
Vice President – Ecommerce Systems
2000 - 2004
Global responsibility for eCommerce, UI and Interactive Services in an 800 person, CMMI Level 4 off-shore software development firm. Negotiate and close deals for outsourced IT services delivery, then manage accounts, assign and manage resources to implement them.
Director of Interactive Alliances
1999 - 2000
In the role of Director of Interactive Alliances, negotiated global strategic partnerships with world-class interactive agencies for a pre-IPO front office software company.
Director of Interactive Design
1996 - 1999
Built an industry best global interactive team as part of Fireponds IPO strategy, growing it globally from 14 to 40 in four months. Negotiated contracts with Fortune 1,000 companies. Managed resources in US and Europe to produce client websites, kiosks, interactive feature/benefit stories, UIs for dynamic proposal generation software and enterprise-wide eCRM implementations.
Education
Bachelor of Arts (BA)
1979 - 1987
BA
1980 - 1985