DW

David Wieland

Founder and Managing Partner at Motivate VC | Top Venture Capital Voice

Greater Chicago Area

Work Experience

  • Founder and Managing Partner

    2019

    Motivate Ventures is a ~$200M AUM investment firm that primarily invests its flagship VC funds into high growth potential startups. Our target first check size is $500K-$3M and ours is typically the first professional capital in a business. We invest at the pre-seed and seed stage and lean toward Fintech and B2B SaaS. Entrepreneurs: warm email intros from other professional investors are best or you can reach out and tell us more about your startup and its funding needs here: www.motivate.vc/funding

  • Founder

    2023

    Firesale connects buyers and sellers of technology company assets that need to sell quickly.

  • Chairman and Primary Owner

    2022

2021

  • Board Member

    2021

2020

  • Board Member

    2020

    www.fulcrumpro.com

  • Owner

    2015

    Our family office that primarily invests directly in early stage ventures, venture and private equity funds, commercial real estate, and other alternative investments. www.cardigan.com

  • Co-Founder and former Chairman

    2012

    www.irishangels.com

  • Founder, Managing Director

    2007

    iEstates is a holding company focused on small cap digital assets. We acquire and operate a portfolio of high margin digital businesses and assets. Portfolio companies and assets include: Austin.com, Bourbon.com, Employer.com, Interviewing.com, MBAs.com, LTE.com, Auditioning.com, eStores.com, TheCrowd.com, SalesPitch.com, Previewed.com, iDeveloper.com, Veneer.com, Improve.org, Smart.org, Volunteer.org, Create.org

  • (Acquired) Founder, Founding Investor, Board Member

    2012 - 2022

    Nearly 1000 companies like AT&T, Dell, CareerBuilder, and Monster.com utilize the RIVS video hiring and interview scheduling platforms to increase quality of candidates and improve the speed at which they're hired. www.rivs.com

2011 - 2015

  • (Acquired) Founder, Director of the Board

    2011 - 2015

    Transitioned from CEO to Director at Innflux, a company I co-founded in 2003 after selling a majority stake in 2011 to private equity and then again in 2015 to Cloud5. Cloud5 owns and operates public-use WiFi and VOIP networks in over 5000 hotels, hospitals, and MDU/MTUs.