Texas Venture Spotlight: Jarett Rodriguez

Apr 9

Texas Venture Alliance conducted an interview with Jarett Rodriguez, named by the Austin Business Journal as an Austin tech scene person to watch. Here is a snippet from Jarrett’s biography:

I have spent the last 25+ years building and leading privately funded companies and public organizations. I’ve founded or co-founded companies in the US and Australia – some winners, some survivors, and other interesting experiments. I have experience leading innovation, business strategy, operations, customer service, and technical teams, and I am passionate about building and sustaining high-performance teams.

Congratulations on having been named one of the "2 People to Watch on Austin's Tech Scene" by the Austin Business Journal! Can you share with us what you believe led to this recognition and how it has impacted your work and the Texas Alternatives Foundation?

I think it involved discretely handing a crisp $100 to someone. At the time, I was still somewhat new to Austin having moved here while the Chief Innovation Officer of a company based in Louisiana. I had the pleasure of being introduced to Pete Winstead and he got me involved in a health data project. The concept solved a big problem in health data portability and we had encouragement from key people in that space. For me, it married my background in startups, technology, and education in allied health. We were going to develop a pilot project to serve underserved people in East Austin. The project didn’t work out but the biggest benefit for me was the people it connected me with.

Can you tell us more about your role as the CEO of Texas Alternatives Foundation? What are your key responsibilities and objectives in this position?

The idea for the Texas Alternatives Foundation really originated from Dr. Philip Sanger. He and others wanted a way to allow donors to contribute their LP interests and closely held business interests to support public higher education and allow the recipient educational institution to benefit from any growth in the value of the donations.

How does the Texas Alternatives Foundation maximize the value of illiquid assets for the University of Texas and the communities it serves?

First, the most important part of this is likely the peer to peer network we’ve created and are growing. Historically, a holder of such investments has a nice exit and then makes a generous donation to a charity such as their alma mater. We’re trying to create the conversation earlier, before the liquidation.

The reason for that is that if the donor were to contribute the illiquid asset instead of the proceeds, the donor gets a current fair market value tax deduction AND avoids capital gains taxes. By contributing the interest and not having it diluted by capital gains taxes, the donor can have greater philanthropic impact.

Then, on the other side of it, we have a finance committee and advisors who make their living in venture capital, private equity, alternative assets, etc. They know the space exceptionally well and are volunteering their time to develop the appropriate exit strategy and timing. Many of these assets will grow in value if allowed to mature a bit longer.

That then leads to an even bigger gift to the educational institution. We know it’s important to the key people at the fund that have to sign off on the transfer to look at us and see people they trust to steward that gift appropriately.

What are the criteria or considerations you use when evaluating potential illiquid assets for donation to the fund? How do you ensure the alignment of these assets with the foundation's objectives?

There’s a multitude of things to consider that are really all around de-risking the acceptance of the asset. Ideally, if it’s private equity, it’s beyond the investment period. We need to know what documents and approvals will be necessary to complete a transfer and understand the potential for UBTI. We need to know if the general partner plans to redeem the donated interest from the charity for cash and, if so, be certain that the redemption price is reasonable compared to the appraised value.

Looking ahead, what are your future goals for the Texas Alternatives Foundation? How do you plan to further expand and enhance its impact on education, arts, scholarship, and research?

We’ve spent considerable time with experts gaining lessons learned and best practices. We know that the peer-to-peer network is vital to create awareness of the possibilities at the right time. So we focus on growing our network of advisors and friends while continuing to create content to inform potential donors and trusted advisors to those potential donors.

What do you think are the opportunities for Texas’ future that you look forward to?

I spent some time living in Dallas where I owned (and successfully exited) a business. Now we’ve been in Austin for a decade. Texas is home to us. We’ve seen tremendous growth throughout the state in the time we’ve been here.

The spirit of Texas and the innovation happening here is unmatched elsewhere. There are bigger pockets of investment activity on the west coast for sure. But they don’t have the allure of the Texas spirit that can be felt here. It really is special. Whether you’re interested in health tech, rocket science, defense tech, electric cars, chip making, life changing medical research, or the greatest taco truck you’ve ever experienced, Texas offers it for you. I think for me personally, the really cool things happening in health around the Dell Medical School are exciting. There’s so much stuff happening in space and medicine here that people really aren’t aware of. I also very much look forward to when I can use eVTOLS to get me from Bee Cave to downtown Austin.

What are the things you like to do in Austin? Places to eat, activities to do, etc.

We love taking in activities at the new Moody Center (if you haven’t been to a concert there, go.) While the Moody Center is a fantastic indoor venue and as we approach our first 100°F day of the year, I still have to say that I love that Austin offers so many ways to be outdoors. Whether it’s dining on the patio at the original Jack Allen’s, hiking the many trails around the metro, or enjoying a great beverage at Treaty Oak, the list is long of things to enjoy.

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