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Masterclass Live! How Castor Ventures Evaluates a Deal

Join us for a 30-minute presentation hosted by Castor Ventures Managing Partners Chris Sklarin and Cainon Coates. In this session, you will discover the framework our team uses to evaluate promising startups, walk through the process, and learn how you, too, can invest in startups just like this through Castor Ventures.

Castor Ventures is Alumni Ventures’ fund for MIT alumni and friends of the community. Watch on-demand below.

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During this session, we discussed:

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    Understanding the time horizon of venture investments
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    Performing due diligence and reviewing the typical types of materials available in a deal
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    Weighing some of the challenges, key risks, and how to factor those into the ultimate decision
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    Tracking companies after investment and the purpose of portfolio monitoring
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    More details about Castor Ventures

Note: You must be accredited to invest in venture capital. Important disclosure information can be found at av-funds.com/disclosures. 

About your presenters

Chris Sklarin
Chris Sklarin

Managing Partner, Castor Ventures

Chris has 30+ years of experience in venture capital, product development, and sales engineering. As an investor, he has deployed over $100 million into companies across all stages, from seed to growth/venture. At AV, Chris has built Castor Ventures from Fund 2 – 7 to over 150 portfolio companies. Prior to Castor, Chris was a Vice President at Edison Partners, where he focused on Enterprise 2.0 and mobile investments. Previously, Chris served as Director of Business Development at a biomedical venture accelerator and at an early-stage venture firm. Earlier in his investing career, as part of JumpStart, a nationally recognized venture development organization, Chris sourced and executed seed-stage investments. Chris received his SB in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1988 and his MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Cainon Coates
Cainon Coates

Managing Partner, Castor Ventures

For the past 15 years, Cainon has worked with startups as an entrepreneur, advisor, and investor. Previously, he helped co-found several companies, including: Viafy (acquired by Constellation Software [TSX:CSU]), Human Design Medical (merged with Breas Medical of General Electric [NYSE:GE]), Triangle Research Labs (acquired by Lonza [SIX:LONN]), Revive Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Concordia Healthcare [TOR:CRX]), and University Laundry (acquired by a national operator, then Procter & Gamble’s Tide [NYSE: PG]). Cainon also worked at PBM Capital (a $500M healthcare-focused VC firm), Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Goldman Sachs, and NASA. He has an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a BS from the University of Virginia in Systems and Information Engineering.

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