Women Of Influence

Paradoxically, many technology companies have been historically wary of running their business in the cloud, connecting only through technology instead of face-to-face.

Working from home was seen as a temporary or emergency fallback, say when a child was home sick. Then the coronavirus pandemic sent pretty much every office worker home, and entrepreneurs were pleasantly surprised to find out how effective that arrangement can be.

“(Remote work) was never seen as a viable option on a regular basis,” said Mark Kvamme, partner at Drive Capital LLC. “What this has shown us is, for us at least, is it’s a viable option.”

Now he and Chris Olsen, his partner in the venture capital firm they left Silicon Valley to start in Columbus seven years ago, are even re-thinking the need to travel for in-person meetings with every new investment. During this period, Drive came close to offering a term sheet after meeting only by video conference – it was the startup that backed out.

In the latest episode of our Crisis Management podcast, Kvamme talks about this evolving conception of the workplace, the pandemic’s varying effects on different companies in Drive’s portfolio, and why he thinks Ohio can seize the opportunity in this economic crisis to build tomorrow’s billion-dollar companies.