Dan Conner is the General Partner and founder of Ascend Venture Capital, a micro-VC firm he established in 2015 in St. See sector focus and contact routes.
Dan Conner is the General Partner and founder of Ascend Venture Capital, a micro-VC firm he established in 2015 in St. Louis, Missouri to support early-stage startups with both capital and operational expertise. His investment thesis focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage companies building data-centric B2B software, applied artificial intelligence, machine learning, and mission-critical technology that enable the future states of major industries. Ascend typically invests between $50,000 and $1 million per deal, often acting as a lead investor while providing hands-on operational support to help founders scale without slowing down. Notable portfolio companies include 13 active investments with one exit, though specific named companies are not publicly disclosed in available sources. Conner, a CFA charterholder and FSA with degrees from Yale and Washington University, previously led operations at high-growth startups before founding Ascend, bringing deep technical and financial expertise to Midwest founders. He has described his firm’s strategy as filling a gap in the Midwest venture ecosystem by targeting pre-Series A startups positioned to power the data-ce
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