Meet the team
Greg Syrup, MBA, SHRM-CP
Founding Partner
Greg Syrup, MBA, SHRM-CP, is a Grand Forks native and the founder of 701 Fund, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage companies in the region. He launched the fund in 2015 with the support of local and regional entrepreneurs who shared his belief that promising founders here deserved access to capital and experienced, committed partners. The fund made its first investment in 2016.
Greg began his investment career in 2012 as an Associate with Dakota Venture Group, the student-managed venture fund at the University of North Dakota. He went on to serve as Managing Director and then President, helping raise capital and manage investments for Harvest Fund I, the nation’s first student-managed, for-profit venture fund. That early experience gave him a practical foundation in sourcing deals, evaluating companies, and working alongside investors. He later served as Executive Director of one of the region’s top angel networks, based in Minneapolis, where he worked closely with investors and founders across a broader Midwest market.
Over the past decade, Greg has worked with startups across the region and built relationships with like-minded investors. His professional background includes work as a business advisor with entrepreneur centers and SBA partners, where he helped small business owners and founders with planning, growth, and access to resources. Today he advises several portfolio companies, serves on the Advisory Board of Dakota Venture Group, and sits on the boards of two nonprofit organizations. He values the long-term relationships that come from staying involved long after the check is written.
Since 2018, Greg has taught at UND, first as an adjunct instructor and now as a Lecturer in the Middleton School of Entrepreneurship and Management. In the classroom, he shares his experience in entrepreneurship and human resources, helping students connect business concepts to the realities of building and leading organizations. Many of the lessons he teaches come directly from his own work with founders and growing companies. He is also committed to giving students practical exposure to startups, investing, and the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Outside of the fund, Greg consults on HR initiatives for growing companies, drawing on his SHRM-CP certification and his experience as a fractional HR leader. He helps organizations build the people practices, structure, and culture they need to scale. Across all of his work, his focus remains the same: supporting the people and companies building the future of North Dakota and the Upper Midwest.
Dr. Todd Pringle, PhDx2
Partner
As a manager, I try to remember that enabling agency with accountability is more impactful and efficient than “managing” with process enforcement. Most managing is just burning money in a barrel and pretending it’s value-add.
As an entrepreneur, I am humbled by the disconnect between one’s reductive understanding of business models, markets and customer decisions, and the actual ridiculous complexity of the unforgiving and dynamic “real.” I also tell myself that licensing your tech can still be considered a successful exit.
As an investor, I am inspired to work with entrepreneurs who are putting everything into the discovery process of the “real”, and the fight for their sapling.
As an adjunct, I am renewed by the connection to eager minds, and committed to improving the student experience and exploring how technology can improve pedagogy.
As lifelong learner, I try to understand humans from first principles, as well as the interplay between technology and culture. I am also grateful for Audible and YouTube enablement of 2X Speed (and higher with javascript).
As an engineer, I try to figure out how things work, and how we can make things work better (with a few patents in composites, coatings, outdoor products, and healthcare).
As a scientist, I have collaborated and co-authored in material science, nanocrystals, virology, healthcare, and psychology. But I remain mostly a tourist in these domains.
As an expert in obscure and esoteric things, I have found myself in interesting places helping people solve interesting problems (especially during COVID).
As an autistic, I am reminded daily that most human's inference operates with wider prediction error tolerance bands than mine. This difference results in most people saying and doing things that seem to me to be sub-optimal or even unreasonable. I must also stay vigilant, keeping my nested scripts handy, in order to navigate the interpersonal topologies of small talk. But I remain fond of these humans, despite their need for a binding narrative written in absurdly large font… I digress.
As a husband, I should be grateful that I married someone so successful, disciplined, focused, and conscientious. But I apply all of my gratitude points to her tolerance and acceptance, because I am rather difficult.
As a father, my cup is full of pride, and deep fulfillment… and terror as I’ve been horcruxed into three pieces that walk around and make their own decisions.
Dr. Blake Feil, DDS, MS
PArtner
Blake Feil, DDS, MS, is a general partner at 701 Fund, where he brings operational expertise, founder experience, and strategic insight to early-stage investments. His perspective is shaped less by theory than by years of building and running a business himself, and he approaches each opportunity with the eye of someone who has signed the checks, hired the team, and lived with the consequences of every decision.
As the founder and operator of Feil Orthodontics, Dr. Feil has built and expanded a multi-location healthcare practice. That experience has given him hands-on knowledge in market entry, team development, customer experience, and sustainable growth. Opening new locations required him to evaluate markets carefully, recruit and develop talent, and maintain consistent quality as the organization scaled. He has a proven track record in launching, growing, and managing customer-focused service businesses, which gives him a grounded, practical lens for evaluating and supporting startups. Founders who work with him benefit from candid advice on the operational realities that often determine whether a promising idea becomes a durable company.
Dr. Feil is also the co-founder of The Junto, a North Dakota-based investment syndicate and business development group. The Junto connects founders with capital, mentorship, and a network of experienced operators and investors across the region. Through this work, he has helped bring together people who might otherwise never meet, creating pathways for local entrepreneurs to access the resources and relationships they need to grow. His role at The Junto complements his work at 701 Fund, giving him broad visibility into the companies, leaders, and opportunities emerging throughout the area. That vantage point helps him spot promising ventures early and make meaningful introductions.
Deeply committed to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Upper Midwest, Dr. Feil believes that great companies can be built anywhere, and that the region’s work ethic, community ties, and practical problem-solving are real competitive advantages. He focuses on backing resilient teams, real-world solutions, and ventures that create long-term value. He is drawn to founders who understand their customers deeply, execute with discipline, and are building businesses meant to last rather than chasing short-term attention.
Outside of his work in investing and business, Dr. Feil enjoys reading, conservation, and spending time with his wife and four children. Those interests reflect the same values he brings to his professional life: curiosity, stewardship, and a long-term commitment to the people and places that matter most.