*Photograph By Shane Van Boxtel/Image Studios
Venture capital and the Midwest don’t often go hand in hand, but Cordero Barkley and the team at TitletownTech are on a mission to change that. Born and raised in Racine, Barkley moved to the New North to attend the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay on a basketball scholarship and never left. Today, as a partner at Green Bay-based venture capital fund and studio TitletownTech, Barkley’s eclectic background in athletics, wealth management, investing and youth mentoring coalesces into a job he thought only existed in coastal economies. Barkley sat down with Insight to share his story and why he thinks the Midwest may just be the nation’s next tech startup hot zone.
Insight: What was your career path that led to your role as partner at TitletownTech?
Barkley: I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay during the Great Recession, so there weren’t a ton of opportunities. But UWGB made sure all their athletes were well connected in the community, so I had multiple job opportunities in the region upon graduating even when we couldn’t find them back home in Racine. After I graduated, I dove into the banking industry. I really was interested in finance and how capital works. I started at Wells Fargo and then moved to Associated Bank, and that’s where my banking career took off. I had a number of roles there — from small business lending to retail banking to corporate financial education. That’s where I began working with the Packers. I did a financial education program for their rookies for five or six years, and tangentially I was also moving into wealth management and started to build up a book of business there in the trust department. I ended up working with [TitletownTech Managing Director] Craig Dickman, who was at Breakthrough at the time. So as TitletownTech was coming together, I reached out to learn more and they reached out with an opportunity to join the team as one of the partners. I started at TitletownTech in April 2019.
What piqued your interest about TitletownTech?
It’s venture capital in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was unheard of. I figured I’d have to go to the coast to get an opportunity to be tied to an organization like the Packers and venture capital. You don’t find those opportunities in the Midwest. When I learned that Microsoft was involved, it was even more interesting. I knew startup founders who were clients of mine. I heard the stories of how hard it was to get capital here, so when I found the opportunity to jump into that space I at least wanted to express my interest. Luckily for me, I’d been “interviewing” for six years without realizing it. I’m grateful to have built those relationships.
TitletownTech was formed from a partnership between Microsoft and the Green Bay Packers. How is this unique?
It’s literally the only type of partnership like it in the world right now. Microsoft doesn’t have another for-profit investment to a venture capital firm; the only one they have is in Green Bay. Microsoft has their TechSpark Hubs across the country and we fall into that category, but the difference is we are expected to get venture-level returns. The other unique piece is all the ties back to the state. Brad Smith, who is the president of Microsoft and who was very instrumental in making the partnership happen, is from Appleton. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, is a UW-Milwaukee grad and a lot of people don’t realize that. There’s strong ties in Microsoft’s leadership to the region. It’s really unique, but when you pull it back it makes sense.
Why is it important to invest in early-stage and startup tech companies?
Most legacy companies can’t necessarily move at the pace of change. People are realizing problems and putting their energy into solving these problems every day. To be able to move at the rate of change, to be able to adjust to the marketplace and solve these problems in real time, that’s going to come from the early-stage and startup community. Those won’t be legacy companies completely shifting their entire company focus to solve a problem. As our state continues to evolve and things get more diverse, cleaner and tech driven, a lot of that change won’t happen with legacy companies. It will happen because those legacy companies support some of the energy that’s happening in the early-stage space.
TitletownTech focuses on industries core to the strengths of the region. Where are you seeing the most momentum?
All our verticals are busy, but sports & media, digital health, and agriculture, water & environment (we call this vertical AWE) are the most active. Obviously digital health was impacted with COVID and the disruption that happened there where they completely had to evolve how they interact with patients. We also have very unique bodies of water here in the Great Lakes region. There’s only so much fresh water on Earth, and some of the things we are doing in this region to make sure it stays that way for generations is creating opportunities for new technology to be built. We’ve seen a massive uptick in our manufacturing and construction tech vertical recently as new projects have come in and the way things are being built evolves.
Are there misconceptions about innovation and the startup ecosystem in the New North?
I think people forget that this is one of the most innovative areas in the world. Much of the tech that’s being used currently, when you look at industrial, manufacturing and logistics spaces especially, that happened here. I do think some of the misconceptions are that there’s not enough talent. That’s a total misconception. That’s one of the things we enjoy about our jobs every day at TitletownTech. We get the opportunity to help facilitate that bridge. We’re still finding new companies and new founders with great ideas. We are still pulling in some of the top talent from around the country by engaging them in our space or bringing tech back to our state. What’s exciting for us is seeing the change in that mindset — that founders can build, find investment and scale talent here in our region. To me, that’s been very exciting.
