Hello! I am Nin Desai. I started my professional career at Merrill Lynch with their private client group. At Merrill, we managed portfolios of high net worth individuals. While it was great to trade stocks and bonds, I was always curious about how these companies went public. Thus, after business school I joined Pacific Crest Securities.

 

PCS (now Key Bank) is a technology focused investment bank, with a global presence focused on software, communications, semiconductors, and Internet & Digital Media. Some of the transactions I worked on at PCS are RACK, LOOP, LQDT, DBTK, AMIS, SLRY, VOCS, OWW and others. In 2005, IPO’s were at the peak and it was amazing to take all these companies public, but that lead to another question, every company we took public was Venture backed, so how do VCs know what companies to invest in and which ones to take public?

 

Thus I joined Alpha Capital Partners. Alpha was a generalist fund with about $135m of assets under management. My most recent transaction at Alpha was Sircon, a software as a service provider company. 

 

In 2008-2010, the market tanked and most companies, entrepreneurs, VCs, and LPs were facing a liquidity crises. Fewer IPOs means less exits for VCs, no returns for LPs and as a result Venture Funds were on a decline. When Venture Funds are on a decline, startups don’t get funded, lower employment rate and slow economic growth. 

 

Thus on April 5, 2012 President Obama signed into law, The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (the JOBS Act) which enables crowdfunding for all Americans and that’s how NIN Ventures came into existence. 

 

Crowdfunding is a practice of funding a project or venture by raising contributions from a large number of people, typically via the Internet. I launched NIN Ventures (or NIN.VC) in 2013, which was a first of its kind technology venture capital fund to be marketed, raised, managed, and reported online. Our sweet spot was investing in series A and B rounds of Disruptive Technology companies like 3D Printing, Ad Tech, 4th Industrial Revolution, Fin Tech, Ed Tech etc., and write checks anywhere from $1-5m based on the industry sector and stage.

 

NIN.VC has been the recipient of numerous awards and I was also awarded, 2015 CEO Of The Year – Illinois, for innovation and contribution to the Venture Capital & Private Equity industry. 

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Also, Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Threads, Instagram and, YouTube @NinDesai

 

Interested in discussing Crowdfunding or Venture Capital or Technology or Startups for FREE?

 

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