Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2017: Brian Kaas

“People helping people” is probably not a bad way of describing how corporate venture capital should work but when it comes from Cuna Mutual Group, the main US-based financial services provider to credit unions and their members, it carries more significance.

Brian Kaas, president and managing director of CMFG Ventures, the corporate venturing group for Cuna, which has relationships with more than 95% of all credit unions that collectively have membership of at least 107 million consumers in the US, said the one-year-old unit was exploring “startups that align with the credit union mission, ‘people helping people’, with the intention of mutual success for credit unions and their members”.

CMFG has already closed six investments, including Cumulus, CUnexus, Forevercar, SmartAsset and Springboard Auto, and Kaas said it had several more under consideration. He added: “We have also implemented commercial arrangements with two of our portfolio companies to introduce their products and platforms into the credit union ecosystem with more to follow.

“Our ability to move quickly is attributable in large part to our organisation’s commitment to innovation. This commitment is driven by the senior level of our management on down and is being embedded into the culture of our organisation.

Kaas is also head of corporate development and said the ventures’ unit “biggest challenges at the moment are finding bandwidth within our team and working through our growing pains.

“Both of these challenges are attributable to our rapid growth in relation to our team size. We have only three members at the moment [the others being associates Brent Greiber and Mandi Salo].

“As the dust starts to settle on our first wave of investments, we continue to refine our processes and learn from our successes and failures.

“Another challenge we face is common to many CVCs operating within a broader organisation. Namely, it is the challenge of navigating the many layers of a large organisation while working under tight timelines.”

Still, as a former partner at law firm Foley & Lardner, Kaas said: “CVCs should be mindful to weigh their internal strategic goals with the broader goals of their portfolio companies. Nothing can be more damaging than a misalignment of interests in the VC world.

“For example, while our organisation is deeply committed to the credit union ecosystem, we do not impose limits or restrictions on the ability of our portfolio companies to pursue other markets.”

But he added their first priority should be in remaining committed. “History has shown periods during which CVCs have abandoned the VC market, especially during down markets. This historical lack of long-term commitment can dampen the reputation of CVCs and cause us to be viewed as unreliable partners.”

And while Kaas has apologised for his own unreliable driving skills in golf, he said “when I take off my work hat, I enjoy spending every moment I can with my wife Sarah and two children (ages 11 and 9)”.