Mar 24, 2020
Steve Beck is a managing partner at Serra Ventures, an early-stage venture fund focused on IT and agtech. The Illinois-founded fund has about 85 portfolio companies.
Steve grew up in the Bay Area, where he lived an adventurous childhood. After high school, he moved out to San Luis Obispo to pursue his bachelor’s degree at Cal Poly SLO. During his 13-year stint there, Steve became serious about entrepreneurship. At 23 years old, he was managing a surf shop and convinced his employer to help him start a mail order skateboard company, which was named California Cheap Skates. CCS went on to become the world’s largest action sports retailer and was later acquired.
After leaving his first company, Steve went on to start a church with young surfers, he then started a skateboard church, and a couple more after that. Something he learned about himself through this experience is that he would get bored with projects after a few years and was always looking for the next thing. Someone from the last church Steve built approached him about starting a tech company, which went on to become Steve’s first big exit.
After his big exit, Steve began dabbling in investing. He banded with a few others to form a small venture fund with $25 million of their own money, which is when he started to learn more about venture capital.
Listen in to hear about Steve’s journey from entrepreneurship to church founder, investor, and avid mountain biker. Al Bsharah and Amy Chang join in for a fun group chat.
Thanks to our partners at Cox Business for their support in enabling us to grow the San Diego ecosystem.
Steve’s favorite tacos:
Mobile truck Taquizas Los Chuchy’s
Keep up with Steve:
Instagram: @srbeckster
Keep up with Serra Ventures:
Twitter: @SerraVentures