Why This VC is Investing in Humanity

By Nick Copping, Co-CEO

I love questions. I love people who ask questions. So much so that I’ve made it my life’s work to ask questions. As a scientist turned marketer, I’m here to ask the important questions of our clients, their customers and prospects, testing hypotheses to land on their data-driven positioning that drives growth.

But it’s not just about completing a workshop, or filling in a survey. People aren't just data points. They have hopes, fears, and aspirations. By asking questions, we peel back the layers and uncover their true needs. This allows us to craft solutions that resonate, not just features that impress.

Stepping into someone else's shoes is key to genuine human connection. Questions force you to listen actively and see the world from their perspective. This empathy allows you to create products, services, and experiences that truly serve them.

I recently met a VC firm who did that just—they stepped into the shoes of the founders they support. This is what happened.

What Makes Inovia Different

I was invited by Steven G. Woods and Isabelle Audette to the Inovia Capital CEO Summit. It just so happens it was held in, “The STORYS Building Toronto.” Turns out it was an incredibly apt name. Inovia, it turns out, are all about stories. They collect them. Nurture them. And, they want to share them.

In marketing, that’s not odd. In VC…it’s radical. VCs are hard numbers people, after all, and their slogans and positioning reflect that.

Steven Woods, Partner & CTO, Inovia Capital

VP, Marketing and Communications, Inovia Capital

Y Combinator calls themselves “A startup factory,” Benchmark says they are ‘partnering with extraordinary people to build enduring businesses” and GV says their firm is “where moonshots happen.”

Inovia states that they are a “venture capital firm partnering with founders to build impactful and enduring global companies.”

This goes beyond simply providing funding. Inovia emphasizes a collaborative approach. They see themselves as working alongside founders, offering guidance, mentorship, and support beyond just funding. Not for a short term, or to reach a specific return. To build global companies that endure and have an impact.

They do this in two ways: by investing their skills and expertise in the companies they support, and by bringing in outside expertise when they need to.

Partners in AI

A few years ago everyone was vying for a position on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant. That has changed. Medium (and even small) companies are disrupting enterprise-level businesses by solving customer problems. They have the agility to adapt and act when problems crop up without the corporate red tape. Instead of fitting into a category or quadrant, they are building their own.

Let’s take a look at AI. The top 5 AI stocks could reach a market cap of $25 trillion by 2030. That is the equivalent of 12 Amazons. If AI reaches $80 trillion, that’s more than 40 Amazons or 30 Apples.

Founders mingling at the Inovia CEO Summit

During the Summit—the actual event, and the social event afterwards—you saw everyone reaching for ChatGPT to try ideas out the way we all used to intuitively reach for Google a year or two ago. During one conversation, someone had the idea that they wanted to add value on top of their Ring security system. They wanted Ring to text their neighbor whenever movement was detected that wasn’t their dog. ChatGPT not only explained how to build that app; it wrote the code right there and then.

In other words, AI isn’t just becoming an important tool, it’s democratizing the tools that companies have owned and putting them in the hands of consumers.

Are you ready for the change? What story are you telling your customers about the transition to AI? What are you telling your staff that are worried about being replaced?

Inovia has been shepherding companies through the trend. They have incredible technologists working with their teams to figure out how to bring AI into the business where relevant. And they have us working with founders on their strategic positioning from the start.

How do you position when tech is changing at warp speed? I wrote about it before, but it’s a topic we have to keep reminding ourselves about. Even if the world is changing faster than you can, focus on your core values and how your company can leverage breakthroughs to deliver unique value.

Break out of the box. Define how your company uses new technology to solve problems and be the one shaping the market narrative.

A compelling story not only explains what a company does, but also why it matters. This involves developing a clear strategic position that highlights the company's contribution to a better future.

That is why Inovia wants to invest in stories – not more features added onto their products. Stories are what makes the sale.

Expertise From Outside

Inovia principals told me—repeatedly—“We’re good, but we want to get better.” Not better at tech or process or tasks, but better at telling the stories of their founders. That’s because Inovia doesn’t pick investments based purely on proprietary tech or patents or recurring revenue stats. They focus on founders who are laser-focused on their customers…and then they laser-focus on helping them succeed.

Inovia has acknowledged their strength in identifying great technology, but they want to go further. They're playing the long game. They invest time and money and mentorship into ensuring that their founders are set up for long-term success. They examine their processes, their resources, their people, and their technology and make sure that every department is set up in a sustainable way.

Where do we come in? Inovia wants to help founders tell their stories in a way that becomes a real competitive advantage – connecting the amazing founder's products and services to the right audience takes the right story. That's where ZOOM comes in. We find the stories behind the screens and tech, and help brands tell them.

Stories matter to Inovia because Inovia goes beyond just funding. They seek to build long-term partnerships with founders, focusing on the global impact of their ventures. They believe a company's story should be more than just technical specifications; it should evoke an emotional connection with potential customers.

Most founders know their product down to the last line of code, and trust me, some of the technology on display is breathtaking. But when you ask them what their end user thinks of the product, or the problem they are trying to solve, the room gets a little quieter.

The story is what resonates with the prospect, not the technology. It’s an astute investment move on Inovia’s part. Think about it this way. Many founders create companies out of sheer frustration with technology that doesn’t work the way they need it to. If you go to a prospect with a list of features, you lose most of them right off the bat. But if you talk about the frustration and the problem that they have likely experienced, too, it’s going to resonate.

We test this every day with our clients. For example: FloQast was created for accountants by accountants--two of the three founders were CPAs at a Big4 consultancy and struggled with the long, chaotic accounting processes at the month-end close. Chronosphere was built by founders, who back in 2014 while at Uber, struggled to make their APM tools and infrastructure monitoring tools work for the company’s modern, hybrid architecture. It goes on and on.

When you tell that Founder’s story—you are telling the customer’s story, too. And you’re connecting with your audience and showing them how you can solve it in an unique way.

The Power of Story—Backed by Data

Think of the brands that you feel connected to. Odds are, the messages they speak about mirror your values, beliefs or interests. Human beings have always connected through stories. Our brains literally light up when we’re listening to a narrative (not so much when we’re reading a spec sheet).

By using emotion-evoking narratives, you can establish a value-driven connection with your customers. It humanizes your technology and makes it easier for your customers to connect with. When you buy from companies that foster that emotional connection, it becomes a memorable experience instead of a transaction. Your customer is the protagonist, they are participating in a broader narrative.

Of course, narrative should be rooted in facts. You can’t promise one thing and deliver something entirely. That’s why Inovia Capital is so dead-set on getting processes and procedures up to scratch before telling the brand stories: what you say has to match up with what you do.

Meeting the founders and principals of Inovia Capital was an eye-opening experience and we look forward to telling their stories to the world. Not because they have all the answers, but because they were open to asking, “What if…”

There are great start-ups that fail every day. Because the timing was wrong. Because they didn’t have support. Because they grew too fast, or because they failed to capture the imagination. In many cases, that represents great technology that the entire world has lost.

Inovia Capital is doing it differently. They are looking at the big picture, from every angle: technology, task, people.

By investing and nurturing companies who invest and nurture their clients, they are slowly making the world a better place: one start-up at a time. They aren’t just company builders, they are world builders. And stories are their foundation.

I’d love to hear your founder’s story.

Reach out anytime and schedule a call.