Michigan Capital Network Ventures

John Hancock serves as President and oversees deal sourcing, while Matthew McLaughlin as Vice President manages portfolio operations. The final investment decisions are made by the joint investment committee, which includes representatives from member families who vote on each deal.

The firm draws on relationships within its network of over 100 West Michigan families, each of which provides industry intelligence and access to private companies. The shared due-diligence process allows member families to evaluate investment opportunities collectively, often leading to co-investments alongside institutional venture capital or private equity firms.

It operates as a multi-family office, where multiple families pool capital and share operational resources. Each member family retains independent control over its own wealth, but they join together for collective deal-sourcing, underwriting, and portfolio management to achieve scale typically available only to larger institutional investors.

The firm uses both approaches. It commits capital to select venture capital and private equity funds to gain exposure to diversified portfolios, and it also executes direct investments—typically co-investing alongside those fund managers—to capture higher returns and maintain control over specific companies in sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, and technology.

The firm focuses on early- and growth-stage venture capital, lower-middle-market private equity buyouts, commercial real estate, and direct lending across its various strategies. In venture, it targets Series A through Series C rounds; in private equity, it seeks industrial and manufacturing companies with EBITDA of $5–50 million.

The firm does not publicly disclose a list of excluded sectors. However, based on its announced investments and the industrial focus of its member families, it typically avoids early-stage biotech, energy exploration, and pure-play consumer internet companies without clear path to profitability.

The firm is a separate legal entity owned collectively by the participating families, not by any single family. Member families have ties to operating companies in West Michigan manufacturing, automotive, and healthcare sectors. Some families also run independent philanthropic foundations through the Grand Rapids Community Foundation.

The wealth originates from multi-generational West Michigan industrial, automotive, and manufacturing businesses. These include family-owned companies that grew over decades in sectors such as precision machining, metal fabrication, plastic molding, and industrial distribution.

Member families maintain their own independent philanthropic foundations or give through donor-advised funds at the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. These structures are legally separate from Michigan Capital Network Ventures, which is purely an investment vehicle.