David Velie, AMEND Founder, and AMEND Ventures CEO, recently caught up with Steve Watkins from the Cincinnati Business Courier to share some of our plans for helping the Queen City reign supreme.

 

Q: What’s AMEND Ventures all about?

A: We want to help local companies grow and we want to support the local economy. That’s it – that’s what we’re all about – changing lives, transforming businesses, and growing communities.

 

Q: What’s your motivation? What’s driving this change for AMEND?

A: We’re excited about what’s going on in this city. This is more than our home, it’s our hometown. We’re rooted here, invested here. We love seeing stories about how the startup scene is exploding in Cincinnati, how it’s one of the best cities to live and work, and how manufacturers are finding great success here. Our motivation is simple – we want to do all we can to help Cincinnati be the best damn city in the midwest.

 

Q: How does AMEND Ventures fit with your existing consulting business?

A: AMEND Ventures is a perfect extension of our mission. We’ve been working with talented, middle market business leaders to improve their performance and grow at a faster rate for more than a decade. We love this work and it will continue to grow as we move forward.

We’re now looking to extend our operational and professional management skills and expertise to local start-up companies; to create more jobs, more opportunities, more prosperity.

 

Q: Why take the ‘investment’ path? Why partner with startups instead of just extending your consulting services to this new group?

A: We’re not putting in 14, 16, 18-hours+ every day for the money and we’re not just tossing cash around like a traditional investment firm. We have no interest in making great returns on the sweat equity of others.

We’re moving down this path because it’s part of our life-long mission. We’re called to change and transform – ourselves, others around us, and our community.

We founded AMEND Consulting more than a decade ago to do work that’s beyond the 9 to 5. AMEND Ventures takes this initiative one step further, allowing us to come in alongside strong leaders to create higher, more sustainable returns. Our consulting work allows us to transform businesses from the inside out. Our partnership work allows us to transform lives from the company in.

 

Learn more about AMEND Ventures
Read the full Cincinnati Business Courier article