About Gateway
We back the overlooked — before the opportunity is obvious.
Gateway Capital is a Milwaukee-based venture firm writing first institutional checks into pre-seed and seed founders across the Midwest. We lean in where others hesitate, because financial returns and social returns are not mutually exclusive.
01 — Gateway to Success
Do well & do good — held together, on purpose.
Great ideas can be found everywhere — including here, in the Midwest. Gateway backs high-potential founders in emerging entrepreneurial geographies that traditionally lack venture capital investment.
The firm began with a simple observation: capital clusters on the coasts while resilient, capital-efficient companies get built everywhere else. Founder Dana Guthrie left a 13-year engineering career, built an angel network, and raised an oversubscribed $13.5M Fund I in roughly eight months. Today, Gateway is first-closing a $25M Fund II and expanding from Wisconsin across eight Midwest states.
Currently, close to 80% of the portfolio is minority-led — Black and brown entrepreneurs the rest of venture routinely overlooks. We aim to be the preferred investment partner to young startups by making venture capital as simple and transparent as possible.
02 — What we believe
Three convictions, written into a fund.
Back people before the world does.
We look for the overlooked — founders and geographies that lack access to venture capital — and write the first institutional check that turns an idea into a company.
Returns and impact aren’t a trade-off.
When venture capital becomes accessible to those who haven’t had access, it acts as an equalizer — an opportunity to attain generational wealth. We hold financial and social returns together.
Capital-efficient, next to the right industries.
Proximity to supply chain, manufacturing and logistics — the “right to win” industries — uniquely positions the region for innovation the coasts miss.
03 — The Archetype
Underestimated once, too.
Gateway’s thesis isn’t borrowed conviction. It’s Dana Guthrie’s own arc — engineer, operator, investor — written into a fund.
“When venture capital becomes accessible to those who otherwise haven’t had access, it acts as an equalizer — providing everyone with an opportunity to attain generational wealth.”Dana A. Guthrie · Founder & Managing Partner
- St. Louis
Raised by a single mother in the inner city.
Five uncles, a lot of sports talk, and a work ethic that stuck.
- 2006 · Milwaukee
B.S. Computer Engineering, MSOE.
Basketball captain at a school where she was one of few Black students. Later: M.S. Energy Engineering, UIC.
- 13 years
Johnson Controls — engineer to global product manager.
Two-time patent recipient. Thinks in systems and problem statements, not hype.
- Angel years
Founded Alchemy Angel Investors.
An angel network focused on early-stage startups — the proving ground for the fund.
- 2021
Fund I: $13.5M, oversubscribed in ~8 months.
Anchored by a $1M commitment from the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.
- 2026
Fund II: first close on the $25M target.
Wisconsin becomes eight states. ~20 more companies get their first institutional yes.
A fact of record: Dana Guthrie is the first Black woman in Wisconsin to raise a venture capital fund.