About TechNexus Venture Collaborative

TechNexus Venture Collaborative was founded in 2007 in Chicago as a first-of-its-kind Venture Collaborative. TechNexus empowers corporations to invest in early-stage companies and foster collaboration between the corporations and entrepreneurs. It serves as the intersection between corporate innovation and early-stage investing. TechNexus’ portfolio consists of over 150 companies and includes startups like Tonal, Harbinger Motors, Krisp AI and Scope AR.

The Problem

When we met the team in 2020, TechNexus was using multiple separate systems to manage its growing portfolio. Not only did this mean there was no single source of truth, but they also lacked a reliable way to proactively monitor company performance and health.

The TechNexus team was craving centralized data, which would help them provide better real-time support to portfolio companies and share timely data with their Corporate Partners (who serve as TechNexus’ Limited Partners). There was a growing internal sentiment that the team needed a more comprehensive solution that was easy to implement.

Starting Out: Building Relationships and Gathering Data

Ellie Davis, TechNexus’ Venture Impact Manager responsible for post-investment relations, began by focusing on fostering stronger relationships with portfolio companies and setting up a system to track key performance data.

The team’s initial efforts were simply centered on visiting companies and building trust so the Portfolio Companies would be comfortable sharing more data points than they previously provided. While efforts to build stronger relationships were successful, the data gathered was still inconsistent, and the team knew they needed a more effective solution in order to scale with their growing portfolio.

Finding a Better Approach

TechNexus sought a tool that was both practical and respectful of founders’ time. They needed a system that could streamline data collection without being intrusive or burdening their portfolio companies. According to TechNexus, “It felt like Standard Metrics was a system built with that in mind. We didn’t want to micromanage; we wanted to be better investors and offer more proactive support to our portfolio companies.”

The Solution: Standard Metrics Comes on Board

The implementation of Standard Metrics marked a turning point for TechNexus. The platform provided a centralized system for tracking both investment and portfolio data. This change brought about several key benefits:

• Streamlined Tech Stack: By integrating Standard Metrics, TechNexus was able to consolidate multiple systems into a single source of truth. This not only simplified their tech stack but also improved efficiency across portfolio management and reporting.
• Enhanced Portfolio Communication: TechNexus saw a significant increase in portfolio company engagement, with response rates rising from 25% to 70%. Additionally, there was a 2.5x increase in the amount of data individual companies were sending, all achieved with minimal onboarding effort.
• Improved Investment Decisions: With accurate, up-to-date data, TechNexus was able to make better-informed investment decisions. The centralized data enabled more proactive conversations with portfolio companies and facilitated deeper insights into their performance. Having a central source of truth for portfolio company data has also transformed the way TechNexus performs their diligence process.
• Strengthened Partner Reporting and Trust: The enhanced data visibility and reporting capabilities have significantly improved TechNexus’s ability to provide comprehensive updates to corporate partners (LPs), strengthening trust and fostering strong investor relationships.

The Result: Better Data, Better Relationships

Today, TechNexus manages over 150 portfolio companies and continues to benefit from the improved data and insights provided by Standard Metrics. As Ellie Davis reflects, “I don’t look at this as software; I look at it as an extension of my team.”