We are passionate about people and believe that an idea is only as good as the entrepreneur tasked with turning that idea into a great business model. The roots of NCT Ventures go back to 1986, when Rich Langdale sold his car to invest $5,000 in a start-up business - Digital Storage - a wholesaler of computer supplies. The company grew and diversified into international markets through a series of
partnerships, joint ventures and wholly owned subsidiaries
In the early 90's the team recognized the components of its traditional business - marketing and logistics - were actually more valuable when unbundled, so they began to establish new companies focused in these areas. By the mid 90's there were a total of eight start-ups that were organized under one umbrella company. At this time the Partners moved into a role as investment operators and began looking for ways to re-invest the profits from its existing ventures. By the late 90's several of NCT’s portfolio companies were well positioned to benefit from the valuation trends in the market, and NCT began exiting many of its investments. Along the way the Partners realized there was a lot of key learning in their business practices, so over the next few years they documented these experiences, and applied some academic rigor to refine them. This documentation was named the "Ideas to Business" model, which is the core curriculum for the Tier 1 Entrepreneurship program at The Ohio State University. For the last few years NCT has focused both on investing in their community and their core competencies of marketing, logistics, and disruptive platform technologies. The Partners are very excited about the current portfolio, and believe NCT’s best years are ahead. It takes one to know one. As serial entrepreneurs ourselves, we know an idea is only as good as the person behind it. At NCT Ventures, we invest in people first, ideas second. We like to share. We are passionate about sharing our experiences, methods and time with great entrepreneurs. We get the most excited about early/early growth stage companies because we know our experience allows us to impact those businesses dramatically. We have built businesses from the ground up and are able to transfer those experiences through hands-on operational support. Our experience is in marketing and logistics having built and exited several successful companies in that space. However, as a rule of thumb, we like any business model that disrupts traditional thinking or meets a need more efficiently through technology. Take a look at our current portfolio companies for some great examples. Venture Highway Model. NCT Ventures, in conjunction with The Center for Entrepreneurship at The Ohio State University, created the Ideas-To-Business Model in 2001. The model was created to provide an infrastructure for bringing an idea to market effectively through a series of well defined development phases. The model has recently been expanded and is now available to all entrepreneurs as Venture Highway. For more information, please see www.VentureHighway.com. The diagram below represents the Circle of Prosperity that the system is based upon.
