Dan Moyers

Where thought meets action


After 28 years as an operator at early-stage startups I strategically transitioned into venture in 2023 when I joined Purdue Ventures as Associate Director. I made this transition because it allows me to live at the intersection of innovation and entrepreneurship, to back the next generation of entrepreneurs with impactful capital, and also provide them with value-added support by drawing on my operating experience and network as they pursue their vision and dreams.


My style and ethos marries strategic thought with disciplined action. I'm a builder who finds comfort and enjoyment in the early-stages as I truly embrace "Zero to One" and "One to Two" opportunities. Within venture, I work in and impact the functional areas of venture organizations such as investing and portfolio management, strategic partnerships and programs, and also organizational operations. At present, and as part of my upcoming move to back to the Denver Colorado area, I'm seeking a new senior leadership (or individual contributor) role with an early-stage oriented venture capital firm, non-profit, university venture arm, impact fund, or family office.

(317) 517-5990
[email protected]

danmoyers.com

strydeventures.com

Zionsville, IN at present and moving to Longmont, CO in 2025

At a Glance

I am extremely well-rounded, versatile, and entrepreneurial and think of myself as a cross-functional "business athlete". I think and act strategically and especially enjoy tech and tech-enabled venture scale early-stage companies. My career has provided me broad experience through working directly in and/or venture investing and portfolio management exposure to numerous business models, industries, and sectors including B2B, B2G, B2C, DTC, SMB, Enterprise, SaaS, AI, services, hardware, life sciences, advanced materials, health tech, aerospace, mobility, defense, IoT, water, sports, and ag tech.


Through my highly diversified career, including its distinct phases of operating and venture, I've been able to:

  • SOURCE, DILIGENCE and INVEST IN early-stage startups and SUPPORT them post-investment
     
  • LEAD and MANAGE people, functional areas, project teams, and partner relationships
     
  • IDENTIFY needs through empathy, elicit and prioritize requirements and then map to solutions through roadmaps

  • ARCHITECT, design and deliver technology-based business solutions
     
  • HELP businesses and organizations achieve substantial new capabilities
     
  • SELL products and services directly as well as establish/manage channel sales partners
     
  • CO-FOUND a SaaS CRM co. and an entrepreneurial/coworking NPO, bring products to market and grow them

  • FOUND a B2C (DTC and wholesale) casual footwear brand in the fishing industry
     
  • ANGEL INVEST in numerous SaaS technology startups and advise dozens of startup founders 

Experience

Purdue Innovates Ventures - Associate Director; 2023 - 2024

Venture organization investing in and supporting Purdue connected startups


My role spanned investing, portfolio management, and operations for Purdue Ventures which is an early-stage focused venture organization with $20M+ AUM across four (4) distinct venture funds/pools of capital and 40+ portfolio companies. 
  • INVESTING -- I was involved in the sourcing, exploration, diligence and decisioning of new and follow-on investments

  • PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT -- I led and managed the support for our entire portfolio including understanding strategic needs, providing hands-on advisory, facilitating connections, managing our Expert Advisor Partner program, and overseeing and evaluating the status and progress of each investment. 

  • OPERATIONS -- I led and managed our definition of business processes, organizational and fund performance, and the implementation and use of the systems used to run the organization such as CRM.

Stryde Ventures - Founder & Owner; 2016 - Present

My personal venture platform


Stryde Ventures is my platform for three (3) things I love, have deep expertise in, and experience doing successfully.
  • STRATEGIC SERVICES -- I am able to work as a fractional executive for startups and scale-ups in the functional areas of customer success, product, and/or operations. I'm also open to working as a venture partner or operating partner for venture organizations such as VC and PE firms, family offices and/or corporate development-innovation arms.

  • BUSINESS CREATION -- I create, self-fund, and operate niche businesses in areas of personal passion for me such as fly fishing and outdoor experiences. I am also open to new business collaboration including helping entrepreneurs in the idea stage. My businesses include: Catchflo — catchflo.com — fishing’s first and only fishy casual footwear brand; Catcha (2018 - 2022) — fly fishing's only digital stream knowledge marketplace; and Basecamp (2021-2023) which is a turnkey RV glamping experience I owned and ran in southwest Colorado.

  • STARTUP INVESTING -- I selectively angel invest in seed-stage startups. My investment portfolio includes 120Water (exited via PE/GE investment from Edison Partners 2023), Clear Software (exited to Microsoft 2021), WorkHere/PivotCX (exited via merger with Daxtra 2024), and Groundwork. I am also an LP in M25's Fund III and advise and mentor founders and their startups through accelerator organizations such as Gener8tor, The Heritage Group, and Techstars.

120Water - Various VP Roles (Product | Delivery | Projects | Ops); 2018 - 22

Digital water platform consisting of SaaS software, services, and water testing kits

  • Very early team member and played key functional area leadership roles across product, operations, strategic projects and customer success/delivery and part of growing growing revenue 15X+ and customers 50X+ during my tenure

  • Led product including creation of the 120Water SaaS platform working closely with the CEO, CRO, CTO and development team as well as UI/UX partner, customers and cross-functionally within the company

  • Led operations (inclusive of finance) by establishing business processes, structuring P&L, managing cashflow, and supporting CEO and board in capital strategy planning and in successfully raising $7M in Series A funding

  • Led customer success/delivery by building team to 28 people, establishing org and role structures, defining processes, overseeing supply chain, and developing managed services offerings that grew Services revenue 30X+ in 2 years

  • Worked cross-functionally with sales and marketing to ensure product-market fit and delivery excellence

zWORKS - Co-Founder & Past President; 2014 - 21

Entrepreneurial and co-working center in Zionsville, IN


zWORKS is a membership-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit entrepreneurial and co-working center that serves as an economic development engine for the Town of Zionsville, Indiana. The co-working space serves as a hub of work and its startup incubation resources help speed the establishment and growth of Zionsville area startups.
  • I co-founded zWORKS with 7 other Zionsville residents and led the organization from the idea stage to its founding and on through its initial formative years.

  • To date, 28 startups have incubated at and grown through zWORKS. Collectively they have raised over $75M+ in angel and venture capital, created 100+ jobs, and several companies have exited through acquisition and/or mergers.

KSM Consulting (now Resultant / acquired by Renovus) - Practice Manager; 2012 - 18

Technology, data analytics, and management consulting firm

  • Led and managed practice focused on application strategy, roadmapping and portfolio management, product management and new product/solution development, and software project implementation

  • Worked within both the private and public sectors with startup, SMB, mid-market and enterprise size organizations and across various industries including health and human services, municipality, real estate, healthcare, and startups

  • Led product management efforts for two startups resulting in their commercial product launches
     
  • Established product management framework and led its implementation at a large state Indiana human services agency
     
  • Led and managed completion of strategy and solution development application and data analytics projects including a first of its kind data-science driven project for Indiana’s Management and Performance Hub focused on infant mortality

  • Project manager and key member of PMO responsible for successful turnaround of struggling project leading to the development and successful launch of the Indiana Department of Workforce’s UIM system
     
  • Coached and mentored several young team members in business analysis, product, and project management

digitalKnowledge - CRM Practice Manager & Part-Owner; 2005 - 11 

Solution development firm focused on CRM, business intelligence and application development

  • Created highly differentiated CRM Practice by focusing on being technology agnostic and putting strategy first

  • Created CRM Success Path – a proven, repeatable and adaptable CRM solution delivery methodology

  • Drove $1.4M+ in CRM sales; also identified another $650,000+ in new and cross-sell business for other practices 

  • Delivered numerous full-lifecycle CRM projects for small and mid-market size companies using Agile oriented methods
     
  • Worked directly with the leading SaaS CRM platforms –Salesforce, Microsoft CRM and Oracle CRM On Demand

  • Led CRM Practice externally through speaking engagements and helping launch local CRM user group

  • Played key leadership role in company as part-owner, sr. management team member and mentor to 3 staff members 

Target 20 CRM - Co-Founder and President; 2009 - 11

SaaS startup company that created CRM sales management product for the home healthcare industry

  • Led and managed all aspects of the business since its founding – strategy, product, sales, marketing and service

  • Brought product to market 6 months after founding; grew business to serve nearly 20 customers in 15 states

  • Created 2 sales channels; led all efforts to raise seed capital to accelerate growth through direct sales 

TurnLeaf (acquired by CTB/McGraw-Hill) - Regional Sales Executive; 2003 - 05 

SaaS startup company with business intelligence solution for test data analysis for K-12 school districts

  • Helped secure U.S’ largest K-12 assessment company CTB/McGraw-Hill as channel sales partner

  • Worked with and through the channel partner to sell to K-12 districts and DoEs in 18 states

  • Secured TurnLeaf’s first 3 joint district customers through the channel sales model 

Delcom Educational Resource Group - Sales Executive; 2002 - 03 

Sales channel partner for SaaS software and other technology products focused on K-12

  • Sold a diverse portfolio of software and curriculum products to K-12 school districts nationwide

  • Achieved $170,000 in sales starting without a base of existing accounts

Growth Works Business Development Services - Owner; 2001 - 02 

Sole proprietorship that provided business development services for B2B technology products and services

  • Sold $125,000 of e-learning courseware to Fortune 5000 call center and corporate training managers

  • Led a web design and development firm into a new regional market and federal government projects 

Neovation (Division of Ciber) - Project Manager and Business Analyst; 1999 - 01 

Software development division of Ciber focused on B2B and B2C web and e-commerce solutions

  • Managed entire design and development process for 4 large website and e-commerce projects; $1M+ in billings

  • Led 8 person team in the creation of a first of its kind social recommendation marketplace for a VC-backed startup

Winteractive Sports - Marketing Manager; 1998 - 99 

Loyalty direct marketing program and events company focused on the winter sports industry

  • Managed all aspects of design, functionality, development and e-commerce for the company’s consumer website

  • Executed grassroots winter sports events and created an entirely new winter sports event concept

Pikes Peak International Raceway - Sales Executive; 1997 - 98 

Professional motorsports facility focused on NASCAR, IRL & AMA racing events

  • Sold sponsorship, advertising and hospitality packages in the Denver market and select national accounts

  • Achieved $415,000 in sales starting without a base of existing accounts; including a multi-year event title sponsorship

Summit Sports and Events - Regional Event Director; 1995 - 97 

National event marketing and management company focused on grassroots/amateur sports events

  • Handled all sales, marketing, and operations for 16 (3-on-3) soccer events; created/managed 40+ partners

  • Turned territory performance completely around taking it from ($4,000) loss in 1995 to $70,000 profit in 1997

Activities

  • Mentor to startups through numerous accelerators

  • Co-Founder, past ED, and past Board President of the zWORKS Entrepreneurial and Coworking Center

  • Board Member at the Venture Club of Indiana

  • Seed stage angel investor

  • Former Board Member / Zionsville Education Foundation

Credentials and Awards

  • 2015 Zionsville Business Professional of the Year

  • Project Management Professional (PMP) from 2007 - 11

  • Association of Advancement of Relationship Marketing - Certified CRM Professional (P.CRM)

  • 2009 digitalKnowledge MVP Award winner

  • 2010 digitalKnowledge President's Award winner  

Education and Campus Involvement

Indiana University - Degree in Sports Marketing/Management; Certificate in Business

Kappa Sigma Fraternity - Chapter President for the 80+ member Beta Theta chapter