Washougal’s Resect AI among region’s start-up businesses seeing more access to venture capital

Washougal isn’t known for its tech riches. But $25 million in venture capital is heading to Washougal-based Resect AI, the most recent example of a Clark County startup securing millions in venture capital despite its postal code. The tech company seeks to bring accountability to AI, eliminating hallucinations and improving the accuracy of large language models. Southwest Washington is home to several successful high-growth startups: nLIGHT, ZoomInfo and Absci all started here before their stocks hit Wall Street. The area isn’t known for its access to capital, essential for growing a company. But that’s beginning to change as angel investors come out of the woodwork and an effort continues to create a Vancouver seed fund. Ryan Fink founded multiple businesses in Oregon before kicking off his Vancouver AI homebuilding company Digs with co-founder Ty Frackiewicz. Digs offers digital blueprints of homes and collaboration management features for homebuilders and service technicians. Digs recently made headlines for receiving $25.3 million in Series A funding, the first major round of investment a company gets after its initial seed funding. Fink said venture capital offers startups many benefits — not just the money to attract and recruit the right people, but also investors’ connections and mentorship. “They help you stay on top of how you’re presenting yourself to other investors, how you’re bringing your product to market,” Fink said. And good investors, he added, will open doors to recruiting talent and maybe even finding the first customer or two. Angel investors Southwest Washington lacks institutional venture capital firms, but businesses here can draw from firms in Portland and Seattle — or even larger venture capital cities like New York or San Francisco. Angel investors, however, abound here. These high-net-worth people invest their own money into startups at their own risk. Matt Dittrich, a local angel investor, has had numerous coffee meetings in downtown Camas with other potential investors who retired with some money and are wanting to give back to the community, invest in the future and make some money at the same time. These people aren’t really visible to the public, he said. Dittrich called angel investing an altruistic endeavor. “There’s a little bit of an expectation you’re not going to get your money back,” he said. Dittrich said the best angel investors tend to be people who worked in startups or innovative companies and are ready to be mentors. Angel investors can offer some of the benefits of institutional venture capital, Fink said, particularly if they have a lot of experience or knowledge about an industry. Fink’s team at Digs brought on one such investor, the founder of one of the largest project-management software companies in the country, who now is serving the company as a mentor. “That’s adding a lot of value to the company,” Fink said. Having a lot of angel investors, however, results in a lot of voices at the table. And some may be harder for a founder to appease than others. Fink flew around the country constantly with his first two startups, fundraising for investments with venture capital firms big and small. The flights followed hundreds of emails and hours of research trying to get introductions before ultimately pitching his company. “Once you get a lead investor, then it becomes a bit easier to get more investors to come in on those terms. But it’s always really tough getting the first one,” he said. The shift to video calls during the COVID-19 pandemic made it easier to meet with investors, Fink said. And large Northwest companies like Amazon and Microsoft have created wealth for people who have founded venture capital funds in the region. That has made Digs’ fundraising efforts in the Northwest a bit easier, Fink said. Fundraising always will be challenging, said Will Finney, general partner at Breakwater Ventures in Seattle. He has funded Portland-area companies before, including Vancouver-based Slumberkins. Finney doesn’t think those challenges are necessarily related to geography. His fund has invested in companies across the country, from Hood River, Ore., to New Orleans. It might be easier to find investors if you’re networked in a larger city, he said. But he calls himself a believer in meritocracy. “It just kind of comes back to the right people and the right idea,” Finney said. “The capital will follow.” The city of Vancouver instituted its Five-Year Economic Development Strategy in 2025, aiming to help the city grow and sustain its economic competitiveness. Part of the plan involves establishing an early-stage startup investment fund locally, akin to a seed fund providing smaller amounts of capital needed to grow companies in very early stages. Chris Harder, deputy director of economic prosperity and housing for the city of Vancouver, helped launch a similar project in Portland in 2010, the Portland Seed Fund, when he was economic development director for the Portland Development Commission, now Prosper Portland. The city of Vancouver hopes to provide an initial round of funding for the possible new seed fund, which would be managed by a private partner selected by the city. That partner would then be charged with doubling or tripling the city’s contribution, creating a fund with continuous investments in local businesses. Before launching the project, the city must navigate both budget and legal constraints. Harder said he expects the fund’s creation will take a couple of years. “There’s no reason Vancouver can’t be a center regionally and in the state for entrepreneurship and innovation,” Harder said. Dittrich said economic ecosystems need a few things to be healthy — a successful business that can spin off and attract great people with great ideas, a world-class research university and risk-loving capital. The last element is toughest for the Pacific Northwest, he said. “A big piece of the puzzle is just having access to capital and having your investor partners in close proximity,” Dittrich said. The area may be ripe with eager angel investors, he added. But it lacks the institutional money to grow businesses. A Vancouver-specific seed fund could bump the area in the right direction, Dittrich said. If he saw other firms in Southwest Washington deploying capital 10 years from now, Dittrich said, that’d be a big win. “The region is very conservative in the way that it approaches capital,” said Dave Barcos, executive director at North Bank Innovations, a local startup incubator. Barcos works with startups at various stages. He says most founders who come to him with an idea aren’t ready for a big injection of capital. Some local startups — ClassHero and Perfect Company — went outside the region to get capital. “They did because they were great companies and great ideas,” said Christopher “C3” Croteau, a North Bank board member who spent time working at Intel’s investment arm, Intel Capital. “The real story isn’t about the investors,” Barcos said. “The real story is about building viable business that attracts investors when that’s the right move.” North Bank’s team, which mentors startups, has connections with several venture capital funds around the Northwest. “It’ll be there when we need it,” Barcos said.

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