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Dan Conner
General Partner at Ascend Venture Capital
St Louis, Missouri
Overview
Dan Conner is a Partner at Ascend Venture Capital in St. Louis, Missouri, where he has successfully invested in companies like Lumate and Astrapi. With a background in finance and operations, Dan has held leadership roles at companies like Invisibly and FreightWaves, showcasing his expertise in renewable energy and sustainability.
Dan's career highlights include serving as a General Partner and Managing Director at Ascend Venture Capital, where he focuses on investing in sectors such as EnergyTech and Web3/Blockchain, and his successful investments in innovative startups like Utopia Labs and REFASHIOND.
Work Experience
General Partner
2015 - Current
Investor in early stage enterprise software and partner to relentless founders who are shaping new & existing industries.
Managing Director
2014 - 2015
Consulted with early-stage companies to assess and polish the financial sections of their business plans in preparation for fundraising, and provided deal flow to the Ascend Private Equity Group.
Ascend Venture Capital is a venture capital company that supports data-centric companies.
Board Advisor
2021
Sojourn provides a unique and first-of-its-kind tech solution that enables customer intent to be incorporated into drone or human courier delivery via mobile app. Check out https://www.sojourn.ai to learn more about the sojourn platform.
Sojourn delivers a breakthrough computer vision platform that solves drone delivery's last-meter navigation challenge.
Director Of Finance And Operations
2018 - 2018
Responsible for designing and building scalable operational and financial infrastructure for Invisibly, a high-growth venture in the digital advertising industry. Tasked with engineering operational excellence by anticipating future bottlenecks, creating a robust operations playbook, implementing an iterative system of processes, and enabling seamless information flow.
Say goodbye to paywalls. Say hello to content & news you'll love.
Raised $20,230,000.00 from Founders Fund.
CFO
2017 - 2018
Chief financial officer of a subsidiary at FreightWaves, responsible for oversight of financial operations including strategy, controls, projections, and budgeting. FreightWaves (formerly TransRisk) was founded in 2016 with one objective: to bring better visibility and transparency to the freight markets. We are a data-centric company that provides products and solutions to help transportation industry participants efficiently manage risk, consume data, and absorb market insights & commentary. Our products enable both industry veterans and disruptors to succeed in the digital world. FreightWaves is founded and managed by a highly experienced team of Trucking industry, Financial/Capital Markets, and Regulatory executives; our executive team has collectively managed over $40B in trucking logistics and deeply understands the significant market volatility challenges within this space. That experience, coupled with a cross-pollination of capital markets and regulatory executives, has allowed us to develop game-changing solutions that help solve an untapped, highly addressable, and enormous market opportunity.
FreightWaves is a data and content forum that provides market participants with near-time analytics.
Raised $92,400,000.00 from 8VC, Triangle Peak Partners, Prologis Ventures, Kayne Anderson Growth Capital, Hearst Ventures, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Erik Levy, Fontinalis Partners and Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors.
Senior Associate
2015 - 2017
Identifying, researching, and analyzing the highest-potential, growth-stage investments for the Lewis & Clark venture capital fund.
Lewis & Clark Ventures is an early-stage tech fund that invests in B2B software companies.
Financial Advisor
2012 - 2014
• Portfolio Manager: Launched a sustainable-investing practice, providing investment guidance and portfolio management for environmentally responsible investors. • Financial Advisor: Worked with clients to realize meaningful and measurable financial goals by utilizing knowledge of international markets, a unique and award-winning investment philosophy, and effective planning tools. • Specializations: ESG Investing, Investment Analysis, Portfolio Management, Financial Marketing.
Morgan Stanley Venture Partners is a private equity firm that invests in high-growth companies in the technology and healthcare industries.
Graduate Student Representative to the Board of Trustees
2011 - 2012
One of two representatives of the graduate student body to the Board of Trustees. Conducted a year-long project on Innovation and Entrepreneurship commencing in a presentation to the full board.
Research Associate
2009 - 2012
• Facilitated stakeholder discussions and constructed behavioral simulation models to build organizational consensus in solving complex problems. • Projects Include: - The Energy-Conservation-Livelihood Nexus: an award-winning analysis of household economy, energy usage, and conservation policy interaction - Energy Entrepreneurship: An internationally accepted approach to project decision-making based on resource availability, social consideration, and political climate - REWatt: Auditing and retrofitting to reduce energy costs for local impoverished housing
Co-founder
2011 - 2012
Providing affordable energy consulting services to nonprofits abroad to reduce energy expenditures and promote conservation of natural resources.
Intern
2011 - 2011
Analyzed financials, strategic positioning, and management quality of emerging-market companies for long-term investment potential. Participated in engagement of corporate, community, and financial stakeholders to practice Environmental, Social, and Governance principles in the promotion of responsible investment. Fronted the inception of shareholder return-on-resources-utilized data into company analysis.
Intern, Asian Equity Desk
2011 - 2011
Researched and reported on long-term investment potential of 16 companies operating in 7 Asian countries. Gathered information from company meetings with senior management, annual reports, financial statements, and analyst data in order to maintain the highest quality of due diligence.