Making a difference: Jim Casper
‘Walking the walk’ for more than a decade
October 6, 2022
GREEN BAY – If you were to ask Matthew Kee, the co-founder and manager of Tundra Angels, a Green Bay-based angel investor network, how he feels about helping those looking to make the leap into entrepreneurship, one word would about sum it up – “jazzed.”
“We have the ability to shape and change industries from Green Bay, Wisconsin – that is remarkable stuff,” he said. “And that’s what gets me so jazzed up for our community. We can play at that level, and we are playing at that level.”
An unplanned beginning
Kee said his dip into the world of entrepreneurship was something he stumbled into through what he said his father called a “side project,” which sent him down a completely different career journey than the one he thought was meant for him.
“I started my career at JPMorgan Chase – so, a big corporation with more than 200,000 people,” he said.
Kee said if someone would have asked him what he wanted to do when he graduated from college, international business of some sort for a big corporation would have hands-down been his response.
“If somebody would have said, ‘what does an entrepreneur do?’ I would have said, “well, at Chase we work with a lot of business owners, and I think you have to be a risk taker. I think you’ve got to be somebody who pulls yourself up by your bootstraps and everything like that,” he said. “I had not planned on being an entrepreneur.”
But as fate would have it, Kee said, life had another plan in mind for him.
“Quite frankly, I stumbled into (the world of entrepreneurship), but I fell in love with it,” he said. “One of the things I loved about it was the ability to have unlimited creativity in terms of business model, in terms of the product that gets built and the ability to move people in a powerful way with the intersection of technology, vision and company direction.”
Kee said it was then that he knew it was something he wanted to be involved in for the rest of his life.
“I would love to continue doing this work, and I would love to make the Greater Green Bay an even better place to be an entrepreneur,” he said.
The right move
Kee said he made his way to Northeast Wisconsin in 2016 when he and his wife Elizabeth began thinking about where they would like to raise a family.
“(My wife is) originally from Green Bay,” he said. “When we were looking at starting a family, we asked ourselves, ‘Where should we raise a family in the Chicagoland area or Green Bay?’ I would say a bit of a no brainer.”
After the move to Green Bay, Kee said he continued to work with his father on the “side project turned tech start-up” for a few years, until it abruptly came to an end with the passing of his father.
“It’s a part of my story I don’t get much into, because I’m still getting (to a point where I can) talk about it more,” he said. “Early 2019 was a struggling (time), not only for me personally, but also for the business, because we couldn’t continue.”
A shared passion
Kee said his passion for entrepreneurship didn’t diminish, and it eventually led him to the Greater Green Bay Chamber’s economic development department.
“I joined the Greater Green Bay Chamber in an ecosystem building role – with an aim of ‘how do we build a local ecosystem for technology startups, startups in general?’” he said. “So, I worked in that role using my technology, startup mindset.”
It was in this role that Kee first ventured into the angel investing realm.
?
“One of the things we at the chamber noticed, as well as through my own experience, was this need for pre-seed angel capital in Northeast Wisconsin,” he said. “The chamber’s economic development strategic plan spells out basically the need for capital source. So, we created Tundra Angels to target the need for pre-seed capital in Northeast Wisconsin.”
Though the angel investor network is now independent of the chamber, Kee has remained involved – now serving as its manager.
He said being able to continue supporting those starting out is an opportunity he takes seriously.
“One of the things I love about what I’m doing is the ability to make a difference for other people who were like me,” he said.
Kee said the thinking outside the box mentality he gained through his own trials and errors helps fuel his desire to lend a helping hand to others on the cusp of where he once found himself.
He said having someone in your corner who has done what you are about to do before, is a huge advantage when starting a business.
“And when I say, ‘done it before,’ I mean, specifically has done what you’re about to do before,” he said. “I think one of the things I’ve seen is the ability to say to a startup founder, ‘I get you.’ And that is immensely powerful.”
Kee said he considers helping others a privilege.
“There’s always a part of me that understands what they’re going through, because I’ve been there,” he said. “I consider it a great privilege to be able to have that role, and not only be in a place where I can provide capital to them, but if I can’t provide capital, I can hopefully provide sound advice and an empathetic perspective.”
Kee said his overall goal – both professionally and personally – is to make the high growth startup journey for fundraising easier than it is now.
“I believe if you make the startup fundraising journey way easier, meaning we help companies with their pitches and help them understand how investors think, it will create a better environment for startups and investors in general,” he said.
The drive behind what he does, Kee said, is simple – “I believe in Green Bay.”
“I believe the potential we have is far beyond what we currently can imagine,” he said. “The reason I am here and not in Chicago or in a coastal city is not only because of the quality of life. I have this conviction I’m playing the long game in Green Bay, and I want to help make the community a vibrant startup community.”
On the other side of the coin, Kee also helps companies/entrepreneurs prepare for the investor pitch through his company, Upward Initiative.
“We do investor pitch and storytelling, coaching for startup companies,” he said.?
As he looks to the future of Tundra Angels and his place in the entrepreneurial realm, Kee said he’s excited.
“Our investors are from all over the bay, the Fox Cities, Oshkosh and beyond in Northeast Wisconsin,” he said. “And one of the things I love is coalescing like-minded people together into one group of people who are hungry, who are entrepreneurial, who are opportunistic.”
Kee said he looks forward to not only growing the group of like-minded investors but impact the lives and families of entrepreneurs.
“That is what gets me super excited,” he said. “It’s way beyond Tundra Angels. We’re able to elevate Green Bay and the startup ecosystem onto the world stage.”
