Managing Partner Mark Hasebroock founded the firm in 2010 and leads our commerce theme, leading investments in Bulu, Summersalt, Amify, and AddStructure. Mark got his entrepreneurial start selling colored moccasins to pay for a spring break trip while at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (he paid for the trip, then had to issue refunds upon his return when his customers quickly realized that the moccasin dye stained their feet).
After a stint as an investment banker – and another as a popcorn distributor – Mark founded his first company, giftcertificates.com, in 1997. Mark founded Hayneedle, which raised capital from Sequoia and Insight Venture Partners before exiting to jet.com in 2016 (Hayneedle went on to become part of Walmart). In 2010, Mark launched Dundee VC to solve the problem he faced as an entrepreneur building startups in Omaha: the lack of early-stage capital available throughout the Mighty Middle. Mark is the first Nebraska-based member of the Kauffman Fellows (Class 22). He previously served on Omaha Children’s Hospital Board of Directors, is part of Omaha Westside’s Hall of Fame, and plays in the Beer & Pretzel Hockey League (BPHL). Importantly, Mark has played for and is GM of the BPHL’s Team AU (Gold) as part of ten championship teams.
Still want to learn more about Mark? Look here!
Partner David Mann joined in 2016 and oversees our Chicago office. He leads our supply chain and logistics theme, and currently serves on the boards of Fooji, PartySlate, and MissionControl. David brings to our team two decades of varied investment, operations, and legal experience. David graduated Cum Laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in Government, then earned his J.D. from the Northwestern University School of Law, spending two years as a corporate attorney thereafter.
Immediately prior to Dundee, David managed Lakewest Venture Partners in Chicago with Dundee advisors Jon McCulloch and Buzz Ruttenberg. Lakewest invested primarily in Chicago from 2010 to 2015 and David quickly became enmeshed in the Chicago startup and VC ecosystem. David and his family reside in Chicago in the shadow of Wrigley Field, and he’s sadly starting to forget the excitement of the Cubs’ World Series in 2016.
Partner Greg Beaufait joined the firm in 2013 and leads our Minneapolis office, where he lives with his wife Ingrid. Greg has degrees in Finance and Economics from the Heider College of Business at Creighton University, and started with Dundee as an intern in undergrad.
Greg leads our FinTech investing theme, and has led investments in ANRA, ZoroCard, Omnia Fishing, Ripple Science, Costello (exited), DAtAnchor, Gather, and Pear Commerce. Greg is a semi-retired pro-poker player and an avid traveler, having been to 23 countries. He successfully climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2019 despite a fear of heights (he swears it is mild).
Partner Ron Watson joined the team in 2020 and leads our St. Louis office. Prior to joining Dundee, Ron was with Lewis & Clark Ventures, a $129M venture fund in St. Louis, Missouri. At Lewis & Clark, he led investments in Beam Dental, Territory Foods, Summersalt and Waldo Photos. Ron also sourced the fund’s investments in Springbuk and Blue Medora. Before Lewis & Clark, Ron was a management consultant with A.T. Kearney where he led projects focused on strategy, sales effectiveness, M&A, and supply chain for over a dozen Fortune 500 clients.
Ron has a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from Indiana University, a M.A. in International Economics from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studied (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins, and a Ph.D in Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis. Ron is an avid golfer and a diehard Philadelphia Eagles fan.
Senior Associate Allie Esch joined the team full time in July 2017 after spending a year as an intern. Throughout her internship, she conducted market research, evaluated investment opportunities, assisted in the fundraising process for Dundee’s prior fund and created a more effective means to measure and track deal flow. Her current focus is on sourcing and underwriting investment opportunities and cultivating Dundee’s brand in key sourcing markets. Allie has recently sourced investments in two new areas for the firm: pet telemedicine and blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Allie graduated Summa Cum Laude from Creighton University’s Heider College of Business with degrees in financial analysis and business analytics. She enjoys spending time outdoors, and is a proud dog mom of two Shiba Inus, Sage & Pretzel, who helped Dundee achieve “dog-friendly” status. Other passions include painting, cooking, gardening, and wine, in no specific order.
Chief of Operations Kalli Mustard joined the team in 2020. Based out of our Omaha office, Kalli manages internal operations, finances, investor relations and provides portfolio support. Prior to joining Dundee VC, Kalli served as Executive Director for the Association for Corporate Growth Nebraska, growing the organization from inception in 2010 to one of the best performing ACG chapters world-wide. Prior to that, she worked as a tax associate at Deloitte focusing on both the corporate and individual tax sectors.
Kalli graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Nebraska Omaha with a B.A. in Business and Accounting. Kallie has a love of running, as much for the mental clarity it provides as for the fitness. Other hobbies include traveling, reading, and spending time with her family… preferring to do those on a beach as often as possible.
Operating Partner Beth Engel joined Dundee in 2013. Her path to a career in venture capital is unconventional; start in 1997, where Beth realized her undergraduate degree in biochemistry from Notre Dame was better suited to teaching middle-school science rather than attending med school. After two happy years of teaching, and subsequent jobs at two Omaha-based startups, Beth was hired as the twelfth employee at Hayneedle, helping manage the company’s growth at a time when they were launching dozens of new product categories and websites every single month.
Following a move to the East Coast, Beth received her MBA from Georgetown and worked for four years for the FBI, creating a leadership development program for the Bureau before returning home to Omaha in 2013 to be Dundee Venture Capital’s first partner.
Beth is primarily responsible for internal operations, investor relations, and some portfolio management, specifically supporting Phone2Action and Summersalt. Beth loves the flexibility and energy of working with startups. She hosts an annual Christmas “Caroloke” party where she wows a crowd playing the piano while her brother leads the assembled in a rambunctious holiday sing-a-long.
Jon’s technology venture experience began in 2010 when he, Buzz Ruttenberg, and David Mann formalized Lakewest Venture Partners. Making early stage investments between 2010 and 2015 expanded Jon’s network of entrepreneurs, service providers, and co-investors in the VC industry. With the merging of Lakewest Venture Partners and Dundee in 2016, Jon’s involvement ranges from diligence to investment committee review to active board involvement, particularly on real estate technology deals such as The Minte and Realvision.
His business experience deepens into real estate development and investment: Jon is the Senior Vice President at Belgravia Group, Ltd., a leading Chicago real estate development firm, as well as Principal for Lakewest, Inc. Jon joined Lakewest/Belgravia in 2004 and he manages Belgravia’s residential developments, performs underwriting analysis for new company endeavors, and oversees the company’s equity raises. For Lakewest, he has led the execution of real estate acquisitions totaling over $250MM as well as the creation and management of private equity and venture capital investments. Jon sits on the board of directors of Accel Entertainment, the market-share leader of video gaming terminals in the Illinois video gaming market. He’s a magician in more ways than one.
Venture Partner John Jenkins joined in 2017 after 20+ years building and exiting three highly successful businesses. After getting kicked out of his first sales job, John built and sold his first company, AlterBen, a regional employee benefits brokerage firm. Next, he launched COBRA Outsourcing Company, which became the largest stand-alone COBRA and direct billing administrator serving over 4,000 employers nationally, before exiting to a strategic buyer in 2007.
John didn’t stop there. He founded Benaissance in 2007, a cloud based advanced billing solution for benefit administrators, insurance carriers, insurance exchanges and governmental entities. Benaissance was purchased in 2015 for $80M by public company WEX Health.
John lives and breathes the start-up journey, having built companies in partnership with investors and by brute force bootstrapping. He knows where the landmines are, he knows the shortcuts and loves building high quality companies who deliver amazing outcomes. John is expanding Dundee’s presence in Healthcare IT, fintech and insurance tech worlds, focusing on those three sectors, while also being a resource to all existing portfolio founders. JJ’s favorite place in the world? Jackson Hole, where he was during the 2017 total solar eclipse.
Venture Partner Jessica Straus joined Dundee in 2019. She has spent her career at the intersection of venture capital, technology, and impact. Most recently, Jessica was an Entrepreneur in Residence for GE Ventures, where she led the development of Flux (diversitytoolkit.org) in collaboration with IDEO CoLab to enable startups to build diverse, inclusive, competitive teams.
Jessica started her career in 2007 as a staff member in the U.S. Congress, where she worked on the JOBS Act, ERISA, and the Affordable Care Act. Inspired by the entrepreneurs who advocated for the JOBS Act, Jessica joined in the startup ecosystem in 2013 as head of product communications for SocialFlow, a New York-based enterprise social media platform. Her experience at SocialFlow connected her with the venture capital community. Jessica joined the National Venture Capital Association and worked with the industry to support venture capital investors across the U.S. as VP of Development.
David W. “Buzz” Ruttenberg co-founded Lakewest Venture Partners with David Mann and Jonathan McCulloch in 2010. He is also the President and Managing Broker of Lakewest, Inc., Founder of Belgravia Group, Ltd. and a Principal in the law firm of Ruttenberg, Gilmartin & Reis LLC.
For more than 40 years, Mr. Ruttenberg has been actively involved in the development of residential, retail and commercial properties, principally located in the core communities of Chicago. An active investor in various alternative strategies throughout his life, Buzz was eager to participate in the growth of Chicago’s tech ecosystem upon co-founding Lakewest Venture Partners. With the merging of Lakewest Venture Partners and Dundee in 2016, Buzz’s strategic advisory role has proved invaluable in the areas of deal sourcing, due diligence and business development.
