Seed Strategist

As a successful residential real estate agent, Brianna McDonald had the means to make her first investment of $25,000 at age 26. She was already well on her way to a new career.

McDonald has since become a seasoned private investor, serving as president of investment community Keiretsu Forum (launched by her husband, Nathan); an influential angel investor; a charter member of entrepreneur organization TIE Seattle; and a managing partner at her own family business, consulting firm McDonald Ventures.

Now, McDonald is launching what she says is a first in the Seattle area: Ecosystem Venture Group, which will operate like a private equity investor but at earlier stages, working with businesses from inception and guiding them through various stages of growth, including strategic investment analysis, operational guidance, and capital support.

The fund will begin with a target of $10 million and focus on a variety of industries and regions, including but not limited to Seattle and Washington state.

“There’s something about innovation that really excites me,” says McDonald, who has served as Keiretsu Forum president since 2018. “We like empowering people to build great businesses and get them to profitability.”

In her own words:

I had no plans of getting involved in this world. None whatsoever. My business partner, husband, and father of my children started Keiretsu Forum 20 years ago. We were engaged then.

I was selling real estate. I thought it might be great to go to these events, meet some people, and pick up some clients. I never took a business class. Unconventional, right? But it took me a year before I had the courage to even
ask a question.

I thought it was fascinating, so interesting, listening to these people pitch these deals, these companies, and their vision.

Now, we want to create something like private equity, but on the early-stage side to be able to be a resource for people to invest in funds that are diversified across multistage. The focus is a clear path to profitability.

We’re creating support and consulting to help these companies understand what it means to raise capital, to understand how to build a go-to-market strategy effectively. We’ve been doing this work for so long, and now we’re putting it under one umbrella.

It is a community of investors and entrepreneurs working together to solve big problems and support economic development. We’re a family of funds. We allow for active engagement.

Most venture capital funds don’t work with founders the way we have with our work through Keiretsu Forum. It’s been our events business for 20 years. Our funds are members of our events business. It gives people access to learning. There’s so much learning that can be done.

Our industry is broken. We see this as a solution to be able to bring the entire ecosystem together.

I’m not out unicorn hunting. I’m not competing with (traditional) VC firms. I think they have their place in the ecosystem. I respect where they are.

How can I help people learn from the mistakes that I’ve made over the past 20 years? For instance, my first investment was in a food company. I knew nothing about the food industry, but I loved the product. It wasn’t a good investment. I don’t invest in food anymore.

I really want to help solve the problem of our broken industry. I want to get the ecosystem moving again. I work with a lot of different people across the nation in this space, and we all see the problems that are there. I want to build something different to change the narrative, the perspective, to inspire anybody to get involved in innovation.

I think one thing that’s really lacking here in the Seattle area when it comes to the investment space is a strong sense of community. It feels very untouchable.

I don’t look at myself as a female investor. I don’t look at myself as a female CEO. I am an investor. I am a CEO. That’s how I show up in the world. I don’t ever hear men saying ‘I’m a male investor, or I’m a male CEO.’

This is aimed at both investors and entrepreneurs. The thing is, Nathan and I have worked in a two-sided marketplace through the Keiretsu Forum for the last 20-plus years. We’re entrepreneurs ourselves. We’ve never taken a cent of capital for the businesses that we run.

We have a really unique perspective where we understand the entrepreneurial journey as well as the investor journey. And if we can get the two parties working together more effectively and empower people to talk to each other and build community, then we’re going to be able to really do some amazing things, especially here in the Seattle area.

Seattle is ripe and has been for years. I mean, we’re the land of unicorns and have done a lot, but it’s tapered off. It’s not what it used to be in the ‘90s with what we saw in innovation at that time.

Others might say they’re doing this in the Seattle area, but no, I don’t think they are. We’re essentially going to have a menu of items on the consulting side, and we have our vast network of individuals that we’ve worked with for over 20 years, including ourselves, to be able to help and support entrepreneurs understand what they need to do.

I don’t think we’ve seen that at all here in Seattle. I know that there are people who would beg to differ. We can agree to disagree, but I don’t think investing is accessible. And I want to make it accessible.

I would love to change the narrative from raising hundreds of millions of dollars to being able to build businesses. Economic development is the building of businesses. When we’re building together, then we’re able to do things.

We do have different cities that we want to launch our hubs in to help support the ecosystems there as well. In my roadmap we want to be in at least two to three additional cities. (In 10 years) I want to be global, at least jump the pond to London, over to Europe. I just think the messaging stays consistent when it comes to venture capitalists.

Keiretsu Forum will eventually be rolled in as just an events business that brings together the companies under Ecosystem Venture Group. It’s consulting, the funds, and the events. It’s not a simple business model. It’s quite complex.

I see where we want to go. We want to build a board with great thinkers. I also need help and support in bringing in this board and key players that see what’s broken in this ecosystem and can be part of the change.

When you first sit in the room and listen to the pitches, they all sound really exciting. Don’t do anything. Just sit and listen. As the year goes on, you start seeing all the patterns. Then you start digging in and asking more questions, and you hear other people’s expertise and you become more discerning. And the excitement of the pitch falls away. I usually don’t invest on a pitch ever.

I love patterns and bias. So, that’s what I actually focus on when I’m looking at deals.

The thing that gives me hope every single day is working with people who have ideas, businesses, and beliefs that they’re going to solve some big problems out there.