Ryan Broshar is the founder and managing director of Matchstick Ventures, a Minnesota-based venture capital firm, where he focuses on early-stage technology companies. He has also served as Managing Director for Techstar’s Minneapolis-based retail accelerator. In partnership with Target, the accelerator is a three-month intensive startup accelerator focused on bringing new technology, experiences, products, and solutions to retail. On this episode you’ll learn: What should startups be looking for in an early stage VC and how can a founder filter out the ones that are truly early stage? How does Ryan look to differentiate Matchstick in a sea of seed-funds? What are the most important traits Ryan looks for in early-stage teams? Ryan has said that partnerships are incredibly important for startups playing in the retail space, but why? What makes retail so different than other industries?