Two highly successful female entrepreneurs, Krista Morgan and Ingrid Alongi, now have controlling interest in Stage, a private equity group founded by Daniel Frydenlund in 2009. Together the three are managing their recently closed committed fund, pursuing early-stage companies that have the potential to become profitable mid-sized businesses.
Frydenlund, having established a successful funding track record over the past ten years, now has two partners who understand the challenges faced by entrepreneurs. Both women entrepreneurs built and successfully exited their startups to take on the challenge of being investors.
“We could not be more excited about the impact we have seen over the past decade as we have developed our approach. We will be focused on a portfolio of companies we can quickly and effectively grow,” said Frydenlund, Chairman and GP.
The two female entrepreneurs had major achievements in their respective ventures and in their other entrepreneurial activities. They gained the experience and skills to assess the long term potential of early stage companies and how best to work with founders and startup teams.
Morgan was co-founder of fintech P2Binvestor, lending over $1B to small businesses, which was acquired in 2020. She then co-founded aelin.ai, a tool for businesses to translate their financials into a format that banks can easily understand to speed the loan process.
Alongi founded Quick Left, a custom software company for Fortune 500 clients and startups that was merged with a Portland-based product company. It was later acquired by Cognizant in 2016, with the purpose of developing an internal startup Accelerator that evolved into Cognizant’s internal product division.
Having Morgan and Alongi on board and a committed fund in hand Denver based Stage is now well positioned to scale, building a portfolio of companies that fit their hybrid model.
“We have enhanced our proven early-stage investment model and are seeking post-series A companies who need an alternative path when Series B may not present itself for businesses; as Series A rounds grow, a lot of good companies will not necessarily become unicorns but will need a strong capital and operating partner, that’s where Stage comes in,” said Morgan, GP at Stage.
Stage already has five portfolio companies in which they applied their investment approach that draws upon the best practices of venture capital, private equity, and the venture studio model for shared services. They closed Fund I early and are currently raising Fund II to scale even further.
“Joining the Stage portfolio has given new opportunities for businesses. Each partner and Stage team member brings value which gets directly applied to the portfolio from day-one. Stage is relatable, trusted and is seeing growing opportunity in providing a path for founders and their teams to accomplish their goals for growth and exit,” Alongi, Stage GP said.
The two female entrepreneurs joining with their experienced investor counterpart are building a portfolio of growth companies that do not align with the high expectations of many investors who are seeking future unicorns—that are emerging at a faster rate than any other prior period due to the acceleration of the digital economy.
The Stage team offers early-stage, small and medium-sized companies a timely combination of capital and management expertise that helps them grow. But they realized that their efforts are best realized when venture founders and leadership teams have re-thought their approach to growing their enterprise.
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