The GP Team
1885 Capital is led by a team that has spent decades at the seam where industry, innovation, and economic development meet. We've backed 80+ companies that have generated $4.5B in enterprise value — and we've been founders, funders, board members, and economic developers ourselves, often at the same time.
Jim Baker
General partner
Jim Baker is the Senior Associate Vice President for Research, Innovation at Michigan Technological University. His responsibilities include technology commercialization, startup business development, intellectual property management as well as support for research contract negotiation and campus-wide innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives.
Jim is actively involved regional early-stage investment and business development organizations as a board member of Invest Michigan, Operation Action U.P., the Michigan Small Business Development Center, Global Detroit, and past-president of the Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance. Jim is the co-Fund Manager for the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund and regularly supports early-stage technology companies as a board member, co-founder, or advisor.
Jim is also a practitioner as a co-owner and VP of Iverson Outdoors Inc., which manufactures traditional outdoor products including snowshoes in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Jim is a registered U.S. Patent Agent, Certified Licensing Professional, and holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Michigan Technological University.
Vince Nystrom
GENERAL PARTNER
Vince Nystrom is an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Innovate Marquette SmartZone and Headwaters North in Sault Ste. Marie. He also serves as Strategic Advisor to Research Universities for Michigan—a collaboration among MTU, MSU, U-M, and Wayne State—and is an active angel investor and advisor to multiple early-stage companies. Previously, he was a partner at Renaissance Venture Capital, where he helped drive more than $2.3 billion into Michigan. He also led the creation of the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund, a $5 million pre-seed fund investing in outdoor recreation technologies. Vince has held pivotal roles in economic development, leading state and local business development efforts and serving as an executive on the 21st Century Jobs Fund, a $2 billion initiative to accelerate high-tech company growth. Vince is supporting the state in facilitating SmartZone 2.0 strategy development to strengthen Michigan’s accelerator ecosystem and programs.
Vince also plays an important role in the state’s Innovation Alliance, an initiative to reshape Michigan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Vince holds a BSME from Michigan State University and spent a decade in robotics and automation, including several years in a startup.
Jim Tenzillo
GENERAL PARTNER
Jim Tenzillo is an early-stage investor whose mission is to empower tenacious founders with the capital and strategic guidance needed to maximize their growth and impact. He has spent the last 13 years backing and advising early-stage founders across the state of Michigan and the Great Lakes region. Through two venture funds and angel investing, he’s invested in over 80 startups in the region, which have gone on to raise over $1 billion in follow-on capital and create over $4.5 billion in enterprise value.
In 2024, he co-launched the Michigan Outdoor Innovation Fund, a $5M UP-based, early-stage fund focused on investing in technologies that increase the sustainability, accessibility, and enjoyment of the outdoor industry. Through this work, Jim has helped pioneer new investment vehicles, offering founders alternative ways to fund their companies. These funding mechanisms provide for faster liquidity to the fund and reduce dilution for the founders.
Jim actively serves on multiple venture investment committees for venture funds in Michigan and, in 2023 and 2024, was recognized by Techstars as an All-Star Mentor, a cohort of their top 1% of mentors globally.
Regionally, Jim was one of the co-founders of VentureNext, a 501(c) organization the helps expand capital access and collaboration across the Midwest.
Jim holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a Bachelors of Science in Finance with honors from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.