#363 - Jason Illian - GP & Co-Founder @ Highmount Capital - Growth Equity, Investing in Dude Perfect, Launching Koch Disruptive Technologies

The Fort - An Entrepreneurship Podcast

Jason is the General Partner and Co-Founder of Highmount Capital, a unique investment firm focused on growth stage and middle market investments in transformative technology and other growth-related platforms. He is the former Managing Director and founding member of Koch Disruptive Technologies (KDT), the venture and growth arm of Koch Industries, the largest privately-held company in the US with over $130B in revenue. Jason was responsible for helping KDT grow to billions in AUM across 40+ companies.

We discuss:

- What makes a great venture partner

- What venture firms look for in late-stage companies

- The process of making a $100mm investment in DudePerfect

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Links:

Dude Perfect

Highmount Capital

Jason on X

Topics:

(00:00:00) - Intro

(00:05:23) - Jason's Early career

(00:10:03) - What makes a great venture partner

(00:13:23) - Joining Koch Industries

(00:15:18) - Building the venture framework for Koch

(00:19:48) - What does a great late-stage company look like in the eyes of a venture firm?

(00:26:40) - Founding Highmount Capital

(00:29:56) - Building a great origination engine

(00:35:44) - Investing in Dude Perfect

(00:40:18) - The craving for family-friendly brands

(00:44:10) - How do you think about your role post-investment?

(00:46:44) - What are unique ways to make money in the creator economy?

(00:54:14) - Are the Dudes a technology business or technology-enabled business?

(00:57:34) - How do you find a CEO for a company like DudePerfect?

(01:01:18) - How is Highmount structured?

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