Partners
Three partners, each one for a specific kind of help.
ITQAN keeps a short partner list on purpose: one partner for technology, one for research, one for the philanthropic commitment. What each one means for a company the fund backs is set out below, and none of it is a condition of an investment.
How the partners work
An introduction against a gap the team has named.
A partner is brought in where a company is short of something specific — an engineering review before a major decision, somewhere to test hardware outdoors, a senior technical hire — and not otherwise. Three organizations cover more ground than a long list would, because the fund works with each of them often enough to know what they are good at.
The relationship belongs to the company. It chooses its own providers, negotiates its own terms, and is free to decline any introduction without it costing anything.
Technology partner
withRemote
withRemote tests the technology before the fund invests, and helps portfolio companies build, hire and ship afterwards.
Before, at and after the investment
Before the investment
Technical diligence workstreams: the architecture, the code and the roadmap read by engineers who build the same kind of system. A founder gets the review itself, not only its verdict.
At the investment
Runway design priced in engineer-months, so the plan a company is funded against is costed in the people it takes to build rather than in a round number.
After the investment
Product builds, managed engineering and senior technical hiring, for the stretch where the roadmap is further ahead than the team.
Portfolio companies choose their own providers, and withRemote pays no fee, rebate or referral to the fund or its partners.
Research partner
9H Research Foundation
Laramie, Wyoming
9H Research Foundation advances clean energy and agricultural technology research in Laramie, Wyoming, alongside the University of Wyoming.
What a company can reach
Clean energy research
Solar research, and a clean energy engineering curriculum built with the university — so the work and the people being trained for it sit in the same place.
A working testbed
Autonomous drones and geothermal systems running on a working ranch: hardware tested on real ground, in weather, instead of on a bench.
Students and interns
Funding for student research and robotics internships, which is where a hardware company's next engineers come from.
Philanthropic partner
Above The Best Foundation
Arizona
Above The Best Foundation runs the National Military Helicopter Museum & STEM Learning Center in Arizona, preserving military aircraft and the firsthand stories around them as immersive learning for students, families and veterans.
The commitment
Where the giving goes
A portion of the management team's carried interest is donated to the foundation. The commitment is made as the fund is formed, rather than later, out of a budget.
Service, education, legacy, innovation
Veterans sharing their stories and their skills in aircraft restoration, hands-on STEM workshops that use helicopters as the learning tool, seventy years of rotary-wing history, and the future of vertical flight.
Next
The partners are part of what comes with the capital.
Engineering, market entry, hiring and diligence sit alongside them. Bring us a company and we will be specific about what would be useful to you.