Chris Van Dusen
Entrepreneur, speaker, investor
What if the key to scaling a company isn’t just capital, but someone who’s done it all, from the front lines to the boardroom?
Meet Chris Van Dusen, a former athlete-turned-serial entrepreneur who pivoted into private equity with the grit of a storyteller and the mindset of an operator. Today, as Senior Partner at Solyco Capital, Chris doesn’t just invest, he gets hands-on. He has built and exited multiple companies across various industries (CBD, liquor, consultancy), launched a marketing agency, and scaled Balanced Health Botanicals to a $75 million sale.
At Solyco, Chris is known for taking the “operator approach” to venture by embedding experienced leaders into portfolio companies, helping them scale like Fractional C-suite executives. It’s a model he’s lived, from co-founding Surf City Still Works to growing Parcon Media and orchestrating three exits.
He lives by a blue-belt mindset, more Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu than boardroom, by embracing friction, resilience, and breakthroughs under pressure.
This is a conversation about building businesses from grit, turning discomfort into strategic advantage, and why growth succeeds when backed by real-world execution, not just capital.