Mentors stand on the shoulders of giants

James Lancaster is currently Fund Manager of Research Valley Funds, LLC, dedicated to making early-stage angel investments in science and technology ventures in and around the Research Valley.

Other positions include CEO of Shape Memory Therapeutics, a medical device R&D company and CEO of Ecolyse, Inc., an industrial biocontrol company. Previously he was the founding General Manager of the Research Valley Innovation Center, a science and technology incubator teamed with The Texas A&M University System. With an extensive background advising entrepreneurs and early-stage companies, Lancaster has co-founded multiple technology companies in addition to the Research Valley Funds LLC. Lancaster is an ongoing volunteer and contributor of the Center for New Ventures and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M University. Lancaster currently serves on the boards of Shape Memory, Ecolyse and the non-profit BrightMinds Foundation.

Lancaster holds a BBA from Texas A&M University and a MBA from The University of Texas at Austin.

From Seed Sumo:“James has been engaged in innovation in public and private sectors as an entrepreneur, strategist, and educator for decades. As a director of various funds his knowledge and guidance in fundraising is vital for our startups.”

Robert began his professional career in Dallas, Texas at PegasusAblon, a startup Commercial Real Estate investment and development company. As the third employee, Robert analyzed office, multifamily and retail acquisitions while the company grew to employ 40 professionals and manage $500M+ in assets.

Following his successful tenure at PegasusAblon, Robert moved to Utah in late 2012 to join Summit Series, an event-based business focused on curating events for millennial entrepreneurs. In a pioneering effort to create a full-time home for the organization, Summit Series bought Powder Mountain in Eden, Utah in early 2013. Within his role on the development team, Robert coordinated acquisition financing and contributed to the planning and design of the community.

Prior, and throughout his time at PegasusAblon and Summit Series, Robert launched, advised and invested in numerous successful start-up companies across a variety of industries. In December 2013, Robert launched Coalition, a venture capital fund based in Austin, Texas focused on seed round investments.

From Seed Sumo:“Robert is an active investor and mentor.  He is extremely well connected so he sees a lot of deals and has a knack for steering startups in the direction everything is going rather than where we are now.”

Chuck is a serial entrepreneur with over twenty-five years of experience in starting and growing successful venture backed companies in the fields of chip design, mapping software, networking, and broadband video services.  He is an active angel investor and member of the Seed Capital Fund of CNY.  The companies Chuck led have had acquisition exits totaling more than $100MM.

From Seed Sumo:“Chuck is an amazing addition to our program.  He helps our startups with growth hacking.”

Dave has been startup CEO/COO for seventeen venture backed startups, and has served as an independent director in two additional medical technology companies.
Dave has a Ph.D. and a BS in Nuclear Chemistry from Texas A&M University.

Dave retired in 2012 as CEO of Clear Vascular, a virtual, venture backed life science company. Before joining Clear Vascular, he was involved in the venture capital industry for 12 years as a general partner in the AM Fund, and also as a venture partner with Vanguard Venture Partners. Prior to being a venture capitalist, he was General Manager of BCM Technologies, Inc., the for-profit technology transfer company owned by Baylor College of Medicine.

He has been a Manager in the Corporate Development Group at Medtronic, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota as well as the Director of Product Development for their Instruments Division. He has also run product development groups for Tracor’s Analytical Instruments Division in Austin, Texas and Beckman Instruments’ Scientific Instruments Division in Irvine, California. Prior to that, he was a Member of the Technical Staff at Texas Instruments Central Research Laboratory in Dallas, Texas.

From Seed Sumo:“Most likely you will be needing more funding after our program, whats better than having a seasoned veteran venture capitalist coaching you on your pitch and business model? Dave’s experience spans product development, acquisitions, fundraising, mergers, and years upon years of experience in an array of startup activity. Dave also helps to make sure the fundamentals of your business are sound and you are ready for the next level.”

As both a high-tech entrepreneur and former elected official, Chris has skill-sets that are valuable to a wide variety of organizations.

After selling his interest in AgniTEK, a successful IT consulting company founded in 1995, Chris has provided leadership and consulting services to a variety of organizations and start-ups.

From Seed Sumo:“He not only gives extremely valuable insight to our startups in regards to fundraising, but has been in these entrepreneurs shoes and understands what they are going thru. He’s a great coach and an extremely valuable addition to our team.”

An entrepreneur, investor, and mentor with an array of talents. Trey has started, bootstrapped and sold several business from scratch.

As a founding member and managing partner of several startups in everything from construction to software I know what its like to be in the trenches doing the busy work while trying to keep the big picture in mind and working toward a long term goal. Going from $0 in revenue with 0 employees to $20 million in revenue with hundreds of employees; my many successes as well as many failures provide me a unique personal history to draw inspiration and perspective from.

From Seed Sumo:“Trey brings a lot of energy and excitement anytime he is in the room. Probably one of the hardest workers you will ever meet, and he instills this in each of our startups. He will challenge you in various ways to constantly be improving your business model.”