Q&A with Maxwell Swicegood, vice-president, and Min Park, director, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital
Maxwell Swicegood, vice-president, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital
1. First, just give us a quick overview of who you work for, what you do, and how long you have been doing it.
Max Swicegood is a vice-president for Wells Fargo Strategic Capital (WFSC)’s technology division, the bank’s principal investment group, where he specialises in venture capital, growth equity and private equity investments across an array of software and tech-enabled subsectors. Swicegood has been part of Strategic Capital for nearly two years.
2. What attracted you to corporate venture capital (CVC)?
Swicegood believes companies that are fundamentally reshaping how the enterprise conducts business make for the most exciting investments. CVC has allowed Swicegood to invest in companies that are doing just that, but in an environment where he can see and experience the impact firsthand.
3. What have been your greatest successes at your unit?
Swicegood was on the deal team for the series D of Reonomy, a commercial real estate data platform, and helped lead the series C financing for Mynd, a tech-enabled property management company. Both of these investments were in the property technology sector and allowed his deal team to leverage Wells Fargo’s real estate presence and expertise for the diligence process.
4. What have been your biggest challenges?
Swicegood is continuously learning new ways his team can provide important, differentiated value-add to portfolio companies by leveraging the resources and network of Wells Fargo.
5. What is your main professional ambition for the future?
His top priorities are to connect with companies that are reshaping and adding efficiency to the enterprise, help those companies succeed, and help Wells Fargo become synonymous with forward-thinking technology and innovation.
6. What do you think all CVCs could do better to make it a stronger industry?
A key focus area for Swicegood this year has been developing diversity and inclusion resources for WFSC’s portfolio companies. CVCs are in a unique position to provide the resources and guidance to help portfolio companies continue to provide a workplace that benefits everyone.
7. What are some of your corporate parent’s technology needs and corporate strategy amid the pandemic, as well as your CVC unit’s pain points?
Considering the vast size of the Wells Fargo organisation, Swicegood was impressed with how seamlessly his team transitioned to a remote working environment. In this new environment, his team continues to look for new and unique ways to stay connected and maintain their team chemistry.
8. And, finally, for colour, what did you do prior to CVC or in your spare time?
Prior to working at Wells Fargo, Swicegood worked at Vista Equity Partners’ credit fund, investing in middle-market software companies. Before Vista, he worked as a generalist credit investor at Ares Management and Medley Management. Upon graduation from Georgetown University, Swicegood began his career at PwC in the corporate and structured credit valuation division. In his spare time, he enjoys playing the guitar as well as writing and recording music.
Min Park, director, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital
1. First, just give us a quick overview of who you work for, what you do, and how long you have been doing it.
Min Park is a director at WFSC, Wells Fargo’s multi-strategy private investment arm. He is part of the principal technology investments team, which focuses on technology venture capital, growth equity and buyouts, and invests directly from the bank’s $1.9 trillion balance sheet. Park has worked on a wide range of subsectors, including enterprise software, consumer internet, financial technology, agrifood technology and real estate technology.
2. What attracted you to CVC?
CVC has the potential to provide meaningful, differentiated value-add to portfolio companies through the parent company’s ecosystem and resources. Especially at Wells Fargo, the bank’s vast network of relationships, institutional knowledge and resilient balance sheet can provide value across a company’s lifecycle, from its earliest stages to a hopeful initial public offering or mergers and acquisitions.
3. What have been your greatest successes at your unit?
Since joining WFSC in 2018, the group closed several deals including a $40m series C for tech-enabled property management provider, Mynd, a $60m series D for property intelligence platform, Reonomy, an $80m series D round for flexible workspace provider, Industrious, a $200m series D round for on-demand storage company, Clutter, and a $34m series B funding for enterprise asset management software platform, Sitetracker.
4. What have been your biggest challenges?
Given the abundance of private capital, it is increasingly important to differentiate via true, tangible value-add. Park is constantly seeking to learn how to leverage his network, resources and experiences to support Strategic Capital’s management teams.
5. What is your main professional ambition for the future?
Park looks forward to continuing building a platform where Strategic Capital can eventually become one of the first calls for high growth technology companies and world-class founders who are looking for meaningful capital partners.
6. What do you think all CVCs could do better to make it a stronger industry?
CVCs should constantly self-examine and innovate on their own internal processes and approaches to venture investment. We should apply the first principles around serving the entrepreneur and adjust our approaches wherever possible: be swift, transparent and realistic.
7. What are some of your corporate parent’s technology needs and corporate strategy amid the pandemic, as well as your CVC unit’s pain points?
Considering the vast size of the Wells Fargo organisation, Park was impressed with how seamlessly his team transitioned to a remote working environment. In this new environment, his team continues to look for new and unique ways to stay connected and maintain their team chemistry.
8. And, finally, for colour, what did you do prior to CVC or in your spare time?
Before WFSC, Park worked at innovation advisory platform, Silicon Foundry, then known as Sherpa Foundry, where he supported several global corporates across direct investments, M&A and strategic partnerships. Prior to this, he was an investor at Samsung Ventures, the $2bn CVC arm of consumer electronics producer Samsung, where he oversaw investments across mobile, consumer, enterprise software, digital media and financial technology. His notable deals included e-commerce software provider, BigCommerce (IPO), gym membership service, Classpass, database technology provider, Couchbase, and online television streaming service, Pluto TV (M&A). He holds a bachelor of science degree in economics from Duke University.
