I’m so excited to be talking today with my guest, Chris DeVore. Chris is a entrepreneurial change agent here in the Pacific Northwest. His unique interest in the Seattle start up eco system, drove him to start a seed stage venture fund called Founders’ Co-op, which helps extraordinary founding teams located *outside* Silicon Valley build companies that the best venture capital firms in the world choose to back.

Chris also runs Techstars, Seattle’s most selective start up accelerator, which is based at the University of Washington’s Start up Hall. Participants in the program receive seed funding and the chance to participate in a three-month immersive startup experience, which includes extensive mentoring by a group of experienced entrepreneurs and venture capitalists.

During our conversation, Chris and I talk about the prevalence of racism and sexism in the venture capital innovation industry and how Chris has committed to broadening the diversity, shifting the balance between male/female entrepreneurs.

We also discuss what it was like to be a software entrepreneur in the early 2000’s and the how he’s seen things shift for the better because of local tech giant, Amazon.

For those of you who are looking to get involved or invest in local entrepreneurship, Chris sheds light on the kind of entrepreneurs AND investors he wants to work with.

I hope you really enjoy this one, because it is a powerful one!

If you haven’t done so already, please subscribe and review the show on iTunes. I’d love it if you’d share with me the biggest take away you had on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. You can find me at @jcchristianson or shoot me an email at john@highlandprivate.com.