Chris Udall
Venture Capitalist & Fund Manager, Innovate Alabama
A frontiersman by lineage and by choice — chasing elk in Oregon over ammunition he machined himself, hogs in the mountains of Oahu, and red stag abroad, and using the woods and the fly rod as the reset that keeps his head clear for the fund.
- Venture Capital
- Fund Management
- Startup Accelerators
- Founder Evaluation
- Innovation Ecosystems
About Chris Udall
What Chris built
A venture capitalist and ecosystem builder whose path into capital started far from any trading floor — building vocational and entrepreneurial schools for refugees in the Kingdom of Jordan through his nonprofit, Rebuild for Peace. From there it ran through Oxford (social entrepreneurship), Notre Dame, an early startup acquisition in Seattle, and growth-strategy consulting, before a LinkedIn "easy apply" landed him in Huntsville running an AgTech accelerator. Today he manages a $15M evergreen fund through Innovate Alabama — the state's only public-private innovation partnership — and just launched the $5M Capital Access Fund to pull outside venture capital into the state and keep founders rooted where they build.
Chris in the field
A hunter from a long line of frontiersmen — third-great-grandson of Cowboy Hall of Fame diplomat Jacob Hamblin — who came to it on his own at 16, chasing coyotes and rabbits in Arizona, then learned to hunt deer and elk from an 80-something family member in the mountains near Glacier while managing a Montana farm. That season turned him into someone who cares about where food actually comes from. He's hunted elk in Oregon over hand-loaded, custom-machined ammunition, hogs in the mountains of Oahu, and red stag and fallow deer abroad — and he uses hunting and fly fishing as his hard reset, the one place his problem-solving brain finally goes quiet.
Why this conversation matters
Chris sits exactly where the show lives — at the seam between building wealth and designing a life worth living. He explains what venture capital actually does (Shark Tank, minus the rules), why he bets on founder grit and coachability over the originality of the idea, and why a second-time founder who has failed is worth more than a first-timer who got lucky. Then he draws the throughline to the backcountry: preparation, resource allocation, and clear decisions under pressure and fatigue are the same skill whether you're stalking an elk or pitching a fund. His core conviction — the only real failure is the decision to stop trying.
“I think the only failure is when you decide to fail. It's the decision point that I'm no longer going to try and make this work.”
Chris Udall on The Hunt for Success
Sam McGough's full conversation with Chris, available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.
Key takeaways from Chris Udall
The ideas Chris left on the table in episode 11.
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Venture capital is Shark Tank without the rule set.
Chris's simplest definition: VCs hear pitches, judge whether a technology is hyperscalable and could sell for hundreds of millions in five to ten years, then open doors to help founders get there. They take the risks banks won't — funding the founder still working out of a garage — because that's where the 10x returns live.
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The path into capital doesn't have to be linear.
Chris started building entrepreneurial schools for refugees in Jordan, then moved through Oxford, Notre Dame, a Seattle startup acquisition, and consulting before a LinkedIn "easy apply" put him in charge of a fund in Huntsville. The résumé looks scattered; the throughline is building things and backing builders.
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Create capital gravity so talent stays home.
Chris's new $5M Capital Access Fund exists to attract outside VCs to Alabama so founders can get a check locally instead of moving to the coast. He calls Alabama the last great deal in America — top-tier engineers, low cost of living, and shelves of unfunded university technology waiting to be built.
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Bet on the founder, not just the idea.
At pre-seed there's often one person, a patent, and a belief. After checking the tech is possible within the laws of physics, Chris evaluates whether that person can withstand the emotional headwinds — and whether they're coachable enough to hear "your product is garbage" and iterate instead of quitting.