Chuck O’Neill was looking for a way he could do something for the university he graduated from and is so passionate about.
St. Bonaventure University alumni, known as Bonnies, form a tight community that some joke is more like a cult, so whenever they can help or support their alma mater, they’re often all in.
After selling his 11th startup two years ago − O’Neill Marketing, which facilitates the sale of health insurance − he had a chance to focus more on that effort.
O’Neill started a venture capital fund a year ago, using $1 million of his own money and the backing of a legion of investors who are St. Bonaventure graduates. The private fund, Brown and White Ventures, is committed to giving 10% of its net profits to St. Bonaventure University’s School of Business.
This week, the fund announced that its first-ever investment in a regional startup will be a six-figure commitment to 2023 43North winner KAV, a bike helmet maker preparing to open a new manufacturing facility just outside downtown Buffalo.
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KAV founder Whitman Kwok makes his pitch at the 43North Finals in 2023 before being awarded $1 million. Brown and White Ventures has announced a six-figure commitment to KAV, a bike helmet maker preparing to open a manufacturing facility near downtown Buffalo.
“We went out and started talking to Bonnies in Buffalo and all over the country and everywhere else, and we’re getting to the point where we have money in the bank and we’re a serious entity − not just as a concept but reality,” said O’Neill, a native of Orchard Park who moved to Tampa over three decades ago.
This is hardly a new idea. There are funds connected with the likes of Rochester Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan and Penn State. The Irish Angels at Notre Dame are also well known as an angel society.
But this venture fund does not operate like many of these traditional funds, which usually work exclusively with talent that comes from the university, and it is not directly connected to St. Bonaventure, said Jim Aroune, also an alumnus, who co-founded the fund with O’Neill, his brother-in-law.
Brown and White Ventures is focused on investing in regional startups in the sectors of health care and medical tech, artificial intelligence and energy and manufacturing. It is looking for community-driven, women- and minority-owned companies that are beyond the idea stage and have reached pre-revenue or early revenue. Companies do not need to be led by St. Bonaventure graduates.
“We are focused on attracting investment from alumni first – they’re the ones who believe in this because we have this philanthropic mission and idea that it’s going to go to our alma mater,” said Aroune, who runs the fund out of his home office in Fairport, a suburb of Rochester.
“While we’re bootstrapping the operation with a small pool of investors, we are limitless when it comes to where we seek opportunity,” he added.
From left are Brown and White Ventures co-founder Chuck O’Neill, board member Neil Bommele, board member Denzel Gregg and co-founder Jim Aroune.
In August 2023, O’Neill met with university officials to pitch the fund, which he was first calling the St. Bona Venture Fund. He got the university’s blessing, but St. Bonaventure officials asked that the company change the name to make sure it was clear that there was no direct affiliation with the university. Aroune came up with Brown and White because it represents the university’s colors.
There are now 65 alumni who have invested, with three non-alumni investors, and they’ve raised over $3 million. The goal is to get to $10 million.
There are a few other Bonnies who run venture funds, but O’Neill said he wanted this company to do things a little differently to further benefit its investors. So, he has set up a money market account where investors’ funds are held to make money on their money while companies to invest in are sought.
Ultimately the goal is to provide venture capital to a region in need of that type of energy, Aroune said. They saw KAV as an ideal company to help start that mission.
KAV founder Whitman Kwok is awarded $1 million at the 43North finals in 2023. Brown and White Ventures announced a six-figure commitment to KAV, a bike helmet maker preparing to open a new manufacturing facility just outside downtown Buffalo.
KAV, which was founded in Silicon Valley by Whitman Kwok seven years ago, is focused on enhancing the safety of cycling helmets. It creates 3D-printed, custom-designed helmets, using an AI component.
Customers order helmets online by using a phone app to take pictures that provide exact personal measurements of their head, helping produce equipment that ensures maximum protection and comfort. Customers can also customize the helmet’s exterior design.
“Brown and White Ventures has made a bold, but well-considered investment in KAV. It is an innovative company with a passionate, committed founder and team that could revolutionize how things are made in this country,” O’Neill said. “A tech company that manufactures in Western New York is the kind of startup that will do well by its customers and this region. It’s exactly the kind of startup we’re committed to backing.”
O’Neill said he’s been impressed with Kwok, who’s a cyclist himself and passionate about what he is doing. He also likes that Kwok is thinking about how the business can go beyond just bike helmets. And Kwok is planning to open an additional helmet manufacturing facility in Buffalo. His current factory is in California.
“It started when we won the 43North competition, but Brown and White’s another great organization to help us become part of the community,” Kwok said. “It’s always nice to have a friendly face in an unfamiliar place to make initial connections. 43North did that for us. And their help led us to Brown and White and they’re helping us with our factory in Buffalo, and really, so much more.”
Colleen Heidinger, president of 43North, chats with Whitman Kwok of KAV at the offices of 43North.
Aroune said it’s also been important to create a connection to startup accelerator 43North. Brown and White Ventures additionally enlisted 2021 43North $500,000 prize winner Verivend, which offers a payments solution in the private capital space, to be a third-party software-as-a-service partner.
Brown and White Ventures is not releasing how much it has invested in KAV, but it is likely similar to the $200,000 number it is also putting into Counsel Stack, an AI-based management platform for law firms out of Pittsburgh.
O’Neill said the fund’s focus this year will be helping these two startups grow and continuing to raise money to invest in additional companies.
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