IVCA Profile: Bruce N. Barron, Founding Partner at Origin Ventures, 2025 Richard J. Daley Award Recipient at the IVCA Awards Dinner
For the 25th Anniversary year, the IVCA has announced their 2025 honorees at the upcoming (December 8th) IVCA Awards Dinner recently, and the recipient of the Richard J. Daley Award is Bruce N. Barron, Founding Partner at Origin Ventures.
The Richard J. Daley Award, a traditional IVCA honor named for the former Mayor of Chicago, and acknowledges a single individual who has given direct and extraordinary support to the State of Illinois by participating in or being an advocate for the Venture Capital and Private Equity industry.
Mr. Barron received a B.S. degree in Accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1977. He earned his C.P.A. certificate and worked as an accountant in the Chicago office of Touche Ross … the predecessor of Deloitte & Touche … and other medium-size public accounting firms. He left the practice of public accounting in 1985 to begin his entrepreneurial career. He leapt into that world, serving as president, chairman, CEO and/or CFO of several startup medical technology companies and has also served on several boards of med tech startups.
A lunch meeting with co-founder Steve Miller became the 1999 origin of Venture Capital firm Origin Ventures. One of their first major investments was Grubhub, taking the food delivery service from a modest local start-up to a high-value public company. Today, Origin Ventures is a leading firm that collaborates with entrepreneurs and founders to build high-growth, innovative and category-defining technology companies.
Mr. Barron philanthropically serves on the boards of the American Cancer Society, the Chicago Baseball Cancer Charities, and Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) Chicago and International Chapters. He also provides funding for the Origin Ventures Office of Entrepreneurship at the University of Illinois and the Jacki & Bruce Barron Cancer Research Scholars Program, a collaboration between ICRF and City of Hope.
The IVCA recently interviewed Bruce Barron for insight into his career.
IVCA: The Richard J. Daley Award acknowledges your significant contributions to the Venture Capital Industry, and in that contribution as it applies to the State of Illinois. What is your assessment about the Venture Capital industry currently in Illinois and Chicago, and what are your thoughts about how to remain competitive?
Bruce N. Barron: Over the years the Venture Capital Industry in Chicago and Illinois has experienced exceptional growth. The quantity and quality of VC funds have continued to increase. Several funds have recently raised new funds at increased amounts of capital in a difficult market.
I am also encouraged by our state’s academic institutions’ increased focus on teaching entrepreneurship and hosting prestigious business plan competitions. I believe that these factors will contribute to the VC Industry in Chicago and enable Illinois to remain competitive.
IVCA: You transitioned from a career in public accounting to an entrepreneur in the mid 1980s. What opportunities did you see at the time in the start-up world you focused on, and what do you think is different about those industries now?
Barron: When I entered the world of start-ups as an entrepreneur in the mid 1980s, there just were not many start-ups in Chicago, and there was not a lot of competition for talent and recognition. There was not much of an entrepreneurial community and there were few sources of capital here. To raise money back then, I spent a lot of time traveling to both coasts.
Today we have a mature start-up community with a vibrant ecosystem supported by leading academic institutions, serial entrepreneurs, various sources of capital, accelerators, hubs, communities, and excellent publications. I am very enthusiastic about the current state of the local start-up community.
IVCA: You have an article on the Origin Ventures website about the founding of firm in 1999 and your first meetings with Steve Miller, the co-founder. What is your advice on recognizing the strengths of colleagues in venture investment, and collaborating those strengths towards successful outcomes?
Barron: I was very fortunate that I met Steve Miller in 1998. We both quickly realized that we had many synergistic qualities and complementary skills. The strength of our relationship and our ability to be successful investors utilized these qualities and skills.
Our most important synergy centered on how we shared strong cultural values. These values included doing business with integrity and honesty and treating people with respect. I take tremendous pride that all current Origin Ventures team members continue to exhibit these same qualities and cultural values.
We also understood how to maximize the value of our complementary skills. Steve is a genius in understanding technology and has a strong background in marketing, while my strengths are in finance and accounting. I believe that combining those strengths helped Origin Ventures realize its successful outcomes.
IVCA: In that same article you talked about how Miller recognized the internet as a force at the time of Origin’s founding, and now Origin Ventures is focusing on the AI revolution. In your long career and lifetime, what is your view on the investment philosophy regarding staying ahead of or taking risks in emerging technologies?
Barron: I believe that our firm has done an excellent job of developing investment theses that stay ahead of the curve and have allowed us to invest in emerging areas of opportunity early. I view this philosophy as a reason for the excellent returns for our funds.
I give a lot of credit to the leadership of our Managing Partners, Brent Hill, Jason Heltzer and Alex Meyer. Together with our great team, I believe we have succeeded in investing in emerging industries and have taken appropriate risks to generate great returns.
Our current investment thesis is focused on the Artificial Intelligence Economy. The world has entered a fifth economic era, which will fundamentally redefine how value is created, delivered, and scaled across industries. As such, we are actively investing in breakthrough early-stage ventures that are building the infrastructure, software, and frontier technologies that will shape the future.
IVCA: You have sat on the board of the IVCA, which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary. What have you observed about the importance of the association to the health of the Venture Capital and Private Equity industries, and how being together makes the industries better?
Barron: I was fortunate to be a member of the IVCA board for many years. During my tenure on the board I was privileged to work with great fellow board members from the VC and PE industries and wonderful leadership and staff, with a nod towards the former Executive Director Maura O’Hara, and associate staff Kathy Pyne.
I believe that the IVCA has done an excellent job of bringing value to its membership by providing many things, including outstanding programming, access to our state legislators and opportunities for networking. Our VC and PE communities are much better due to the value provided by the IVCA.
IVCA: You sit on many boards having do with cancer research, and also fund the Origin Ventures Office of Entrepreneurship at the University of Illinois. How has this philanthropy enriched your journey, and how would you encourage others to get involved?
Barron: I was blessed to have two wonderful mentors who, early in my VC career, taught me the importance of philanthropy … my co-founding partner, Steve Miller and his father, Harvey Miller. The examples they set for me by supporting many charitable organizations with both their time and money were very meaningful to me.
I believe we all have a responsibility to give back and to help society. These are important lessons that I learned from them and have followed. By doing so, my life has been greatly enriched. I am hopeful that my philanthropic endeavors have benefitted people as much as I have benefitted through my involvement and support of these causes.
I encourage young members of our community to find causes that you are passionate about and to donate your time and efforts to these causes to help make the world a better place. I trust that you will find, as I did, that you will benefit from your efforts as much as, if not more than, the charities.
IVCA: Finally, what does it mean to you personally to be recognized by the Richard J. Daley Award from your peers in the IVCA?
Barron: Receiving the Richard J. Daley award from my peers in the IVCA means so much to me. The IVCA is the leading organization in our industry and has done such great work for 25 years. I am humbled and flattered to be in the company of so many amazing previous winners of this award.
I joke with Steve Miller … the recipient of the Daley Award in 2014 … that it only took me 11 years to catch up to him.
The 2025 IVCA Annual Awards Dinner – sponsored by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, White & Case LLP and Aprio – will be on December 8th, 2025 (5:30p-9:30p) at the The Four Seasons Hotel Grand Ballroom, 120 East Delaware Place, Chicago. For details and registration info, click here.