Partner
Nate Cooper
Nate started Barrel Ventures out of a passion to help others disrupt the status quo. Surrounded by entrepreneurs at a young age, Nate became an operator himself as a founder of L3 Hospitality Group and later Wise Apple, a company that set out to change kids' lunch.
Nate is a graduate of the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University and received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management where he was awarded a Kellogg Scholarship and named a Zell Fellow.
In his free time, Nate is a passionate endurance athlete and movie quote savant. He lives in Chicago and serves on the associate boards of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Social Venture Partners.
Partner
Carey Cooper
Carey is a serial entrepreneur who has served as the CEO and/or chairman of firms throughout the food & beverage & supply chain industries such as Redi-Cut Foods, Danaco Solutions, L3 Hospitality Group, and Chicagoland Equipment & Supply. He has served on several boards as a director or chairman, CES (Chairman), Edward Don & Co (Director), Maxi Canada-(DBA Dino Nuggets) (Director), Enjoy Life Foods (Director), L&L Foods (Director).
Carey is equally as passionate about philanthropy, having served as President of the North Suburban Jewish Community Center, Vice President of the National Fragile X Foundation and President of the Board of Trustees for The Cove School in Northbrook, Illinois. He is currently a Board Member for the Jewish Community Center Chicago and a member of the Young Presidents Organization.
Carey has a BS from the University of Illinois, his CPA designation, and a JD from Loyola University in Chicago.
Strategic Advisor
Joel Warady
Joel Warady most recently served as General Manager, Chief Sales & Marketing Officer of Enjoy Life Foods, a leading brand in the Gluten-Free, Allergy-Friendly snack category experiencing 18 consecutive years of growth under his guidance, achieving $100 million in North American consumption in 2019.
In 2015, Joel was part of the two-person management team that successfully negotiated an acquisition by Mondelez International. Post-acquisition, Joel was tapped to provide valuable insights to the Mondelez management team in helping them create best practices on how best to merge the culture of emerging brands whose foundations are built on trust and transparency, while taking advantage of the global expertise that a large multinational can bring to the business. He played varying strategic roles in Mondelez’s investments in Hu Kitchen, Perfect Snacks, and Uplift Foods.
Advisor
Elliot Wheeler
Elliot is the Chief Investment Officer of Cooper Management, a Chicago based family office. In his role, he evaluates a variety of investment opportunities across private equity, public equities, and real estate. He currently serves on the board of directors of Chicagoland Equipment & Supply, and Lagunita Franchise Operations.
Prior to Cooper Management, Elliot worked in the Global Equities division of Citadel where he invested in the consumer sector. Prior to Citadel, he worked at Freeman Spogli & Company, a Los Angeles based private equity firm focused on the consumer and distribution sectors.
Elliot attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated cum laude.
Venture Partner
Rob Schoder, Jr.
Rob is currently building a startup in the financial services industry called Vinyl Equity.
Prior to Vinyl, Rob was the Head of Portfolio Operations at AngelList, where he was responsible for operational processes and systems for the company's 35,000 active investments from capital deployment through liquidity.
Prior to AngelList, he spent 5.5 years at Flexport in a series of commercial, operational and general management roles, culminating in his founding and building the Chicago office to a $250 million P&L. Rob's experience runs the gamut from getting lost containers out of stacks at the Port of LA to building and implementing Flexport's Purchase Order Management solution with his client base. We'll lean on Rob's operating experience and connections in supply chain and logistics technology world.