Startup Grind Columbus: Lindsay Karas Stencel - Partner, NCT Ventures

For more than 10 years, Lindsay has served as Partner and the Chief Legal Counsel to NCT Ventures, a VC firm based in Columbus, OH that manages nearly $100MM in assets. Presently, NCT has 37 investments between its two funds, and Lindsay oversaw the investment (or on occasion, multiple investments) in all of them. At NCT, she focuses on deal structuring for each and every investment that walks through the door for funding, vetting of investments in due diligence on the legal side, and overseeing all M&A and corporate structuring for the firm. Additionally, she also runs her own boutique law firm, Lindsay Karas Stencel Law LLC, which focuses on working with small businesses in Ohio, Michigan and New York to properly set up their corporate documentation and structure, strategically design their funding paths, and serves as their outside general counsel on various matters. Since 2008, Lindsay has assisted clients in closing nearly 1,000 investment deals and contacts. Between NCT and LKS Law, Lindsay is incredibly passionate about investments in their seed and early stages, where she excels at vetting ideas, assisting with customer discovery and assisting companies to always think three steps ahead, functioning as a true partner to try to increase each startup's likelihood of success. Lindsay also spends significant time understanding what the then-current market standards are, both nationally and in the Midwest, specifically. Lindsay is a respected and sought after guest lecturer for the Ohio State Bar Association for startup formation, organization and financing, and a guest presenter at various OSU law school business courses. Lindsay attended The Ohio State University where she earned her JD and MBA through their dual degree program. There she served as Student Body President to the Fisher Graduate Student Association. Prior to OSU, Lindsay attended Canisius College in Buffalo, NY, where she also served as Student Body President and two-time captain and two-time Defensive Player of the Year of the Division I Women's Lacrosse Team. In her limited spare time, Lindsay enjoys spending time with her husband, Chris, and dogs, Ogie, Pearl, Matti and Molly and exercising at one of the two CrossFit gyms of which she is a founder and co-owner, CrossFit Westerville (Ohio) and Rust Belt CrossFit (Buffalo, NY). This is the audio recording from the live event on 1/8/2018. https://nctventures.com www.startupgrind.com/columbus www.awh.net www.rev1ventures.com