Prota Monthly Newsletter

Aug 19, 2021

Prota Ventures

Prota Monthly Newsletter :: August 2021

Welcome to Prota’s first ever monthly newsletter! 👋

Look for new issues of this newsletter on the 3rd Thursday of every month.

Click here to view this newsletter in your web browser

At Prota we believe in human flourishing; in the power of the human spirit to build companies and grow value for communities.

Our core values and beliefs can be summarized by G.E.E.K.:

Generosity
Empathy
Excellence
Kindness

Our purpose is to promote human flourishing by investing holistically in entrepreneurs.

Real Stories of Human Flourishing

Covid-19 hit Washington State hard. A state that was equally known for its 500 year old trees and its thriving tech community had some of its most brutal months during January and February of 2021. Confirmed cases were still high and the state’s resources were stretched thin. There had never been a global health crisis of this magnitude and no one had a playbook.

There was some light at the end of the tunnel; the FDA had approved two Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use. As states worked to secure their share of the vaccine, a new problem arose, distribution. Like most states, Washington wanted to prioritize its most vulnerable communities. The irony being that the vulnerable communities had the hardest time finding vaccine appointments.

Spotlight

Walter Thorn

https://www.linkedin.com/in/walterthorn/

Walter is from the Leavenworth, Washington area. He has been part of the Prota team for 2 years. In addition to the excellent and inspiring work he has done with VACCS, Walter has also enjoyed working on projects for Wave Neuro, Nest product development, and Foray Coffee growth. His Superpower is solving complex problems in stressful environments. Thank you, Walter, for your continued good work and leadership.

Check out our new podcast

In our inaugural episode, hosts Jameeleh Shelo and Will Little tee up the purpose of The Prota Podcast, including an introduction to our initial 4-part series answering the question What is Prota Ventures? They discuss their personal stories and motivations for becoming Managing Directors, and explain in detail why Prota is different from a traditional VC group.

We’ve also decided to release five additional episodes (!) as well to kick us off right 😊:

Episode 2: we continue our four-part series defining Prota Ventures by focusing on defining in more detail what we mean by Human Flourishing. We also dive into a summary of G.E.E.K. i.e. Generosity, Empathy, Excellence, and Kindness, which summarize our core values as an ecosystem.

Episode 3: In this third episode of The Prota Podcast, we focus on our structure and ecosystem. We talk about how Prota Holdings relates to Prota Studios, Prota Labs, and Prota Ventures, and how our investment strategy works to be generous first, then invest our time, then invest our capital.

Episode 4: We complete our initial four-part intro series by detailing our vision, high-level strategy, and tactics. Borrowing from Jim Collins’ approach to vision in his book Beyond Entrepreneurship (and, more recently, BE 2.0), we talk about our core values/beliefs, purpose, and mission. We also boil down the strategy we’ve talked about in previous episodes and talk specifically about why you should (and how you can) contact us to get involved in the Prota ecosystem.

Episode 5: We share a conversation from one of our weekly Tuesday meetings in Summer 2021 where we talked about the types of founders that we work with (i.e. provide services for and/or invest time and capital into). We cover the purpose of the Tuesday pitch meetings, how to identify founders to invite into the ecosystem, at what stages and levels our current funds and angel networks invest, and who would overall be the best fit to partner with us.

Episode 6: We also share a conversation from one of our recent Tuesday meetings where Dr. Said (one of our Managing Directors) presented a “primer” on the problems with the practice of medicine in the USA. This episode kicks off our “Prota Primer” series that we’ll be interweaving within this podcast as we go. You can contact Dr. Said at yasser.said@protaventures.com.

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Search for “The Prota Podcast” in your favorite podcast app and it should show up (if not, it should soon). We certainly welcome any reviews to help us get off the ground. Thanks!

Prota Weekly Call Highlights

On August 17th, we heard from Tom Malone from VR Ulysees. A spatial computing environment for Network Operators and Cybersecurity. It is called Valkure, and it enables the users to interact with their network visually and with gestures. Their on-prem & cloud networks are all visible. They can navigate the environment, query, see metadata and log files. Users gain situational awareness, massive networks become manageable. Valkure built for both virtual reality and interactive on a desktop. To learn more and/or raise your hand to get involved, contact sol.cates@protalabs.com and yasser.said@protalabs.com

On August 10th, we heard from Scott Bernstein from Harold. Harold is a new brand of consumer products that are designed to treat its customers like people and not patients. The first product in its portfolio will be a reimagined "walker" that contemplates a fresh aesthetic and thoughtful enhancements. Contact Kyle@protalabs.com to learn more.

On August 3rd we heard from Matthew Foran from leAD Sports and Health tech ecosystem, academy and incubator. leAD vetts promising software and hardware startups, provides mentoring and business development, and access to funding either directly from leAD or through their investor network. Contact yasser.said@protalabs.com to learn more.

On July 27th, we heard from Heather Stratford at drip7.com. They offer cybersecurity training experience unlike any other LMS and fits the need for personalized, enjoyable, effective online cybersecurity training. The platform is mobile and desktop friendly, trackable for progress metrics, customizable to an organization's needs, and provides frequent and engaging "drips" of content to increase retention in a gamified setting. Contact sol.cates@protalabs.com to learn more.

Are you interested in helping with any of these projects? Please reach out to the contact mentioned for more information.

Help Wanted

Prota is currently looking to hire a Director of Prota Studios. This person will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of our consulting and agency division, which works closely with our Labs and Ventures divisions as well. To learn more about the position, click here.

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Founders Corner

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Help Suplmnt fight plastic waste and bring Hydration to Urban communities. Follow Suplmnt on Instagram: @suplmnt where they will be announcing new limited edition bottle drops!

Start a revolution in snacking with Snacktivist! Follow them on instagram @snacktivistfoods

Upgrade your birding game with Bird Buddy! Pre-order your Bird Buddy today and join the over 40,000 backers who have taken their bird watching to another level!

Take control of your decentralized future by learning about Web 3.0 with Figment.

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We’d love to hear from you!

Looking to get more involved in Prota? Do you want to share a story of human flourishing? Do you have content you would like to contribute to future newsletters? Would you like to nominate a colleague who is walking the walk? Contact us below!

Jen Cates

Managing Director, Office of Organizational Development

jen.cates@protastudios.com

Topics: Monthly Newsletter