TMB E32: Venture Partners, Business Advisors & Space

Tucson Business Radio

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SOCIAL MEDIA: LinkedIn |

Born and raised in Tucson, Andrew is a native Tucsonanand is what is known as a “boomerang”. Andrew moved away in 2008 when he graduated from the U of A, but found his way back to Tucson in 2018 when he turned down a job offer from Amazon to join their Seattle headquarters. Instead, Andrew decided to move back to Tucson and help launch BlueStone Venture Partners with BlueStone co-founders Mara Aspinall and Tom Nickoloff.

After moving away, Andrew received his Master’s degree from USC in 2009 and soon after began his career with Ernst &Young’s M&A Transaction Support team in San Francisco. In2012 he joined a Palo Alto-based private equity firm where he invested growth capital into a variety of private companies across a diverse set of industries.

BlueStone Venture Partners is a Tucson-based venture capital fund capitalizing on the strength and innovation found in entrepreneurial companies in the Southwest.BlueStone invests in early-stage life science and healthcare startups based in the “NATO” states (New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma).

We seek companies that have developed transformative platforms or disruptive technologies, are protected by strong intellectual property and will have a meaningful impact on healthcare. Our preference is for companies residing in the NATO States (New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma), however, as a return-driven fund, we will make investments regardless of geography if they fit our “Southwest-like” metrics.BlueStone provides growth capital and strategic support to our portfolio companies in addition to privileged access to strategic partners including investors, customers, and other partners residing within the supply chain.

Jim Cantrell, Executive Vice President

R2 Space

Email:jim@r2space.com

www.jimcantrell.com

SOCIAL MEDIA: LinkedIn |

Jim is the founder of several entrepreneurial start-ups, including vector, StratSpace and Vintage Exotics Competition Engineering.

He was on the founding team of Moon Express and SpaceX and has worked closely with Iceye, Skybox Imaging, PlanetIQ, PlanetLabs, and Rocket Lab.

He has worked on 45 satellite missions including iridium Next, the Pluto mission, Osiris-Rex, and Lightsail. Jim also served as CEO of IDair, a bio-metrics company.

He holds Board and Advisory positions at The Planetary Society, ATLAS Space, Morf3D, York Space Systems, Infinite Composites, Iceye and the Sports Car Club of America and is an active angel investor.