The Story of Scale VC: Building a Venture Powerhouse in America’s Heartland

While most venture capital firms cluster in Silicon Valley or New York, Scale VC is writing a different story from an unlikely location: Columbia, Missouri. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Managing Director Brett Calhoun shared how this unconventional base has shaped their unique approach to early-stage investing.

From Finance to Founder-First

Brett’s journey into venture capital wasn’t the typical coastal elite path. “Got into the venture space in grad school and obviously wasn’t exposed to it until then, which a lot of people in the Midwest aren’t,” he explains. This outsider perspective would later inform Scale VC’s approach to finding and supporting founders.

After starting in valuation work and M&A, Brett discovered his passion for working with early-stage companies. “Obviously fell in love with backing founders who were really passionate about building their dreams,” he recalls. This led to roles with startups like Patient, a fintech company, and founding positions at Cap Gains and Charlie Mike.

Building Scale VC

Two years ago, Brett and his partners Willie Schlax and Jane Malik launched Scale VC with a distinctive vision. Rather than trying to replicate coastal VC models, they leveraged their unique position in the heartland. Their first fund was intentionally small, allowing them to test their thesis: “Fund One, which is kind of our dip the toes in the water first fund was friends and family. We put essentially like an SPV together and deployed that over twelve months into about 20 companies.”

The success of this approach led to Fund Two, raising $5 million from 34 LPs including the University of Missouri Endowment and Shelter Insurance. But what makes Scale VC truly different isn’t their check size ($50K to $150K) – it’s their hands-on support model.

The Missouri Advantage

While many might see being based in Missouri as a limitation, Scale VC has turned it into an advantage. The region has produced remarkable successes: “Two of the top 25 YC companies actually came out of Columbia, Missouri. So one being Zapier and the second being Equipment Share, which is the company my partners in scale started.”

This track record isn’t just coincidence. Brett notes that Missouri founders “have a ton of humility and tend to fly under the radar and to move away from press.” This culture of focused execution over hype has produced multiple billion-dollar companies, including Carfax and Beyond Meat.

Looking to the Future

As tech talent disperses across the country following major layoffs, Brett sees unique opportunities ahead. “We have a lot of founders starting companies, less people investing. Angel investors have really dried up,” he observes. This market dynamic, combined with Scale VC’s position in the heartland, creates promising conditions for early-stage investing.

Looking ahead, Brett remains optimistic about the venture landscape: “I think precede early venture is fine and it’s always kind of sheltered by markets… because you’re coming in at what you hope to be the lowest valuation the company is ever going to raise at.”

For Scale VC, the future isn’t about chasing coastal trends or playing the valuation game. It’s about continuing to find and support founders who embody that combination of paranoid perfectionism and humble execution that has defined the best Midwest success stories. As tech ecosystems continue to develop outside traditional hubs, Scale VC’s model might just represent the future of venture capital – one that’s more distributed, more founder-focused, and more attuned to building sustainable businesses than chasing quick exits.