Dougal sat down with Jason and Michael Scharf from the Austin Next podcast to talk about the Houston innovation ecosystem from his perspective as an investor in early-stage B2B SaaS companies. Dougal shared his journey as a founder, and investor in this space.
The highlights of the interview were:
- Local venture firms and family offices tend to focus on Seed and Series A, while the larger rounds are driven by capital from outside of Houston
- Given the region’s strong history in oil/gas and real estate, educating LPs on venture investing is a key component for firms here
- The popping of the valuation bubble recently will have a downstream effect on LPs appetite for the space as they are likely getting burned if they were not diligent and diversified.
- Dougal’s ask of the Austin ecosystem, “And so my request of both Austin and Houston Ecosystems is that they spend more time, elevating all of the players or thinking through what elevating one or two success stories in those towns does to the ecosystem.”
- What’s next Houston, “I think families learning to invest in venture is next for Houston. We’re seeing that happen a lot and we’re really excited about it. So I think emerging managers, more emerging managers, training families on how to make effective direct investments is what’s next for Houston”
You can access the full podcast titled “Road Trip to Houston – Innovation through the Investor Lens with Dougal Cameron, Managing Director of Golden Section” here.
We continue our dive into the Houston innovation ecosystem from an investor point of view. Dougal Cameron is a co-founder and the managing director of Golden Section, a venture capital firm, engineering organization, and early-stage venture partner serving business software companies from ideation to $5M in revenue. We talk about the types and scale of startups, the Houston LP market, and how our ecosystems can connect.
Austin Next Podcast
