McKeever (Mac) Conwell II of Rarebreed VC

On this episode of The Jason Cavness Experience I talk with McKeever (Mac) Conwell II of Rarebreed VC | BBJ Tech 10 | Investor | Founder | Disruptor

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We talk about the following

His new Venture Capital firm, RareBreed VC.

His experience as an entrepreneur.

What are some misconceptions people have about being an entrepreneur?

Lack of diversity in tech and VC.

Mac’s Bio

Mckeever (Mac) Conwell, II is the Founder and Managing Director of RareBreed Ventures, a pre-seed stage venture fund based in Baltimore, MD. is a Pre-seed Fund that is investing in exceptional founders outside of the large tech eco-systems earlier than everyone else.With early meaningful cash upfront, wraparound services to increase capacity, and institutional knowledge from the additions of an executive RareBreed Ventures accelerates a companies' growth at the earliest stages

Before starting Rarebreed Mac worked at the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO) as the Portfolio manager. There his role was to find, help make investment decisions on, and help build Maryland-based startups. Mac works closely with many TEDCO portfolio companies to help them secure customers, partnerships, and funding. Mac also conducts extensive outreach to all of the tech communities and ecosystems in Maryland and does a lot of work supporting founders who consider themselves to be economically or socially disadvantaged. In 2017 Mac helped launch the Minority Business Pre-seed Fund and what was later transitioned to the Builder Fund which is the first state-backed pre-seed fund for women and minority-led startups.

Mac uses the knowledge he gained working in both public and private sectors as a software engineer and CEO to help startups be successful. A Baltimore native, Mac joined a co-op program with the Department of Defense in 2006 and obtained a top-secret security clearance. He went on to become a government contractor working in software development for several companies, including Northrop Grumman and Booz Allen Hamilton.

In October 2009, he co-founded his first tech startup, Given.to, which completed two accelerators, Accelerate Baltimore and NewMe Accelerator. Mac was later named entrepreneur-in-residence at NewMe. Mac and his team sold the technology in 2014. His next venture, RedBerry, was accepted into the Dreamit Ventures Accelerator in Philadelphia.

Mac has been a guest on Huffington Post Live several times and his companies have been featured in many media outlets such as USA Today, Washington Post, BET, CNN Headline News, and Black Enterprise. He attended Morgan State University, majoring in Computer Science.

Mac’s Social Media

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mckeever/

RareBreed VC Twitter: @RareBreedVC

Mac’s Twitter: @MacConwell

Mac’s Advice

Do your best to manage your own internal emotions. Ups and downs can happen in the span of minutes. Take the time to manage your own emotions. The hustle is real. I understand you're hustling and working hard to make this money. But take time to take care of yourself because this is not worth your health and your life.

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