Ryan Kole
Partner
VCapital
Judge
- Ryan made the rare transition from an options trader at the Chicago Board Options
Exchange to a founder of a startup and a venture capitalist. It helped that while trading he
formed a company, RK Inventions, LLC, focusing on bringing innovative products to
market plus consulting for others. He has six patents issued and numerous more pending.
Ryan has licensed out one of his inventions and is in the process of licensing out others.
He also is the Co-Founder of Beyond Barriers Therapeutics, Inc., a clinical stage company
developing a therapeutic for traumatic brain injury and other disorders of the CNS. After
graduating from business school, Ryan joined VCapital (a Chicago-based venture capital
- firm) where he is currently a Partner. His role at VCapital is to source, review and analyze deals for consideration of becoming a
portfolio company and then working with the startups once an investment is made. Ryan formed the Midwest Venture Capital
Consortium which merged with VentureNext, where he is now on the executive committee. Ryan received his BS at the University
of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.