Through the Start-Up Lens

I founded Bison, the go-to resource for private fund investments, motivated by a need to solve a problem for institutional investors. I was clear about my mission to create the best source of information for the institutional investing industry. My mission sustained me through tough times in the early days (and beyond).

I founded Bison, the go-to resource for private fund investments, motivated by a need to solve a problem for institutional investors. I was clear about my mission to create the best source of information for the institutional investing industry. My mission sustained me through tough times in the early days (and beyond). 

Sleepless nights are typical. Which brings me to my first lesson learned. If launching a startup is your ambition, you need a mission statement as the North Star to get you through.

The rewards of never giving up is another critical lesson from my Bison days. I must have pitched to hundreds of potential investors and institutional clients, practically begging them to give us a chance.  Doing that over and over again was sometimes a drag. Fortunately, my passion showed in my telling of the Bison story, which gave the business traction and helped it take off.

My final lesson in entrepreneurship was the importance of recognizing when it was time to let go and sell the company. I had been taught the value of this lesson when we went through TechStars, but applying it is a whole different story when it is your company — your baby that you need to let go. There’s a lot of  joy in serving clients, taking care of your team and bringing on investors and generating returns for them. No matter how you look at it, moving on stirs up a lot of emotion. 

Mike Nugent
Managing Director