131. Tech Entrepreneur and Investor Daren Cotter

By All Means

If you spend any amount of time in or around the startup community in the Twin Cities, you will no doubt hear the name Daren Cotter. Today, most people know him as an investor and advisor—his personal portfolio includes more than 100 startups—primarily software as a service and tech. But before Cotter could focus full time on investing, he had to have an exit of his own. That was InBox Dollars, the rewards-based digital advertising platform he built in his college dorm room, scaled to a peak of $25 million in annual revenue, and sold, some 15 years later in May 2019, to a leading market research and insights firm, Prodege. Cotter shares his entrepreneurial journey, from concept to acquisition, as well as his investment philosophy and advice for founders—including not raising funds prematurely. "My personal viewpoint is a founder is often much better served by building the product, finding a few customers, proving that they're solving a real problem that the customer is willing to pay for, and then they think about raising capital." Takeaways Following our conversation, we go Back to the Classroom with the University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. Professor John McVea who talks about the entrepreneurial mindset. "It's a stance you take towards problem solving and getting things done that is distinctly different." Key traits, McVea says, include, "A comfort, a joy in ambiguity, in dealing with problems, being drawn to messy situations that are hard to solve...and the relentless ability to pivot from those learnings and to take a different direction."