Lance Dietz @ KB Partners on Lessons from the Military, Sports Tech Investing, and Chicago's Place in Sports Tech
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“The best units in the military are ones that are built on mutual trust and respect, and that takes time to build. I think in venture a lot of times, that's the most important thing as well.”
Lance Dietz is a Principal at KB Partners, a Chicago based investment firm that focuses on early stage venture capital investments in the Sports Technology Industry. Prior to KB, Lance attended West Point for his undergrad where he played Division one basketball. After graduating, Lance served in the US Army as an engineer officer, was deployed in Afghanistan, and thereafter received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
Once Lance graduated from Booth, he began in investment banking at JP Morgan. He spent time in the M&A group. In 2018, Lance joined KB Partners where he now leads due diligence and sourcing for early stage startups in the Sports Tech space.
I am so grateful to Lance for joining me on a Saturday to chat about Venture. In this episode, we covered
Lessons Lance took from his time in the military
The nuances of Sports Tech investing
The thesis behind KB Partners
The maturity and state of the Sports Tech industry
Chicago's place in the Sports Tech scene
Please Enjoy!
You can connect with Lance via Linkedin or Twitter and KB Partners on Twitter, Linkedin, and their website.
Organizations & Reading recommendations from Lance:
Manifold Group is a venture holding company based in Chicago with offices in Dallas, Los Angeles, and soon Atlantic Canada. Early stage private investments represent an extraordinary investment opportunity, but existing investment models in the space leave much to be desired.Manifold is a new model for growth in the new economy, designed to create and capture value at the early stage through synergies across its venture fund, incubation and acceleration studio, and advisory firm. Learn more about Manifold at https://www.manifold.group.
