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David Wieland

Founder of Firesale.ai

Greater Chicago Area

Overview 

David Wieland is the Founder and Managing Partner at Motivate VC, with a strong background in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Highlights of his career include founding Firesale.ai and serving as Chairman and Primary Owner of Interviewing.com, showcasing his leadership and strategic acumen in the startup ecosystem. Wieland has made significant investments in companies like Fulcrum, Frontdesk, and Unsplash, demonstrating his expertise in identifying and supporting successful ventures.

Work Experience 

  • Founder and Managing Partner

    2019 - Current

    Motivate Ventures is a ~$200M AUM investment firm that primarily invests its flagship VC funds into high growth potential startups. Our target first check size is $500K-$3M and ours is typically the first professional capital in a business. We invest at the pre-seed and seed stage and lean toward Fintech and B2B SaaS. Entrepreneurs: warm email intros from other professional investors are best or you can reach out and tell us more about your startup and its funding needs here: www.motivate.vc/funding

Motivate Venture Capital is a venture capital firm that invests in Pre-seed and Seed-stage companies across the US and Canada.

  • Founder

    2023

    Firesale connects buyers and sellers of technology company assets that need to sell quickly.

  • Chairman and Primary Owner

    2022

Interviewing is an online resource that provides content for job seekers, hiring authorities, recruiters, and small business owners.

  • Board Member

    2021

Valiot is an AI company with products to optimize manufacturing and supply chain operations.

Raised $7,600,000.00 from Stage Venture Partners.

  • Board Member

    2020

    www.fulcrumpro.com

Atlas Solutions is a software development company for enterprises.

  • Owner

    2015

    Our family office that primarily invests directly in early stage ventures, venture and private equity funds, commercial real estate, and other alternative investments. www.cardigan.com

  • Co-Founder and former Chairman

    2012

    www.irishangels.com

  • Founder, Managing Director

    2007

    iEstates is a holding company focused on small cap digital assets. We acquire and operate a portfolio of high margin digital businesses and assets. Portfolio companies and assets include: Austin.com, Bourbon.com, Employer.com, Interviewing.com, MBAs.com, LTE.com, Auditioning.com, eStores.com, TheCrowd.com, SalesPitch.com, Previewed.com, iDeveloper.com, Veneer.com, Improve.org, Smart.org, Volunteer.org, Create.org

  • (Acquired) Founder, Founding Investor, Board Member

    2012 - 2022

    Nearly 1000 companies like AT&T, Dell, CareerBuilder, and Monster.com utilize the RIVS video hiring and interview scheduling platforms to increase quality of candidates and improve the speed at which they're hired. www.rivs.com

RIVS is web software facilitating voice and video interviews, job application management, and efficient hiring.

Raised $4,087,999.00 from Delancey Street Partners and Clovis Point Capital.

  • (Acquired) Founder, Director of the Board

    2011 - 2015

    Transitioned from CEO to Director at Innflux, a company I co-founded in 2003 after selling a majority stake in 2011 to private equity and then again in 2015 to Cloud5. Cloud5 owns and operates public-use WiFi and VOIP networks in over 5000 hotels, hospitals, and MDU/MTUs.

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