Kelli Fontaine from Cendana Capital joins David on El Pack to answer your questions on how to build a venture capital fund. We bring on three GPs at VC funds to ask three different questions.
The Council’s Amber Illig asked what happens when a solo GP is incapacitated or passes away.
Oceans Ventures’ Steven Rosenblatt asked why most LPs follow the decision-making of other LPs.
NeuCo Academy’s Jonathan Ting asked what LPs think about GPs asking for help.
From investing in great fund managers to data to investor relations, Kelli Fontaine is a partner at Cendana Capital, a fund of funds who’s solely focused on the best pre-seed and seed funds with over 2 billion under management and includes the likes of Forerunner, Founder Collective, Lerer Hippeau, Uncork, Susa Ventures and more. Kelli comes from the world of data, and has been a founder, marketing expert, and an advisor to founders since 2010.
You can find Kelli on her socials here:
X/Twitter: https://x.com/kells_bells
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellitrent/
And huge thanks to Amber, Steven, and Jonathan for joining us on the show!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also watch the episode on YouTube here.
OUTLINE:
[00:00] Intro
[01:26] Kelli’s new data discoveries
[04:32] How did Kelli underwrite a manager with no LinkedIn?
[06:19] Is too much data ever a problem?
[08:18] Vintage year benchmarking
[09:49] Telltale signs on GPs’ social profiles
[10:57] Data Kelli wishes she could collect
[15:59] Enter Amber and her new podcast
[18:08] Amber’s background and The Council
[19:08] How does Amber define top companies?
[24:25] How can a solo GP set the firm up well in case they’re no longer there?
[26:11] Kelli’s number one fear with solo GPs
[28:30] Best practices for generational transfers
[32:28] Solo GPs and their future plans
[36:51] Enter Steven and Oceans
[42:38] Would Kelli ever include AI summaries as part of the get-to-know-someone phase?
[44:18] Why do LPs follow other LP’s decision-making?
[48:43] What are the traits of an LP who is likely to have independent thinking?
[51:16] Why don’t LPs talk directly with founders?
[57:59] Enter Jonathan and NeuCo Academy
[1:00:05] Is Kelli seeing more secondaries firms?
[1:01:56] How often should GPs lean on LPs for help?
[1:07:22] Are most LPs helpful?
[1:12:21] What kinds of questions does Kelli get from her own GPs?
[1:15:39] Kelli’s last piece of advice
SELECT LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:
- Cendana Capital
- “The GP Data You’ve Never Collected Before” with Kelli Fontaine on Superclusters
- Founders Fund
- PitchBook
- Irwin Gross
- Sequoia Heritage
- Carta
- Cambridge Associates
- Affinity
- Attio
- Gmail
- Clay
- Amber Illig
- The Council
- First Builders podcast
- Apple
- Eli Lilly & Company
- Snap
- Cruise
- Atmos
- Palantir
- Chime
- Intercom
- Flexport
- Uber
- Anduril
- Sequoia Capital
- Emergence Capital
- Michael Kim
- Josh Kushner
- Thrive Capital
- Greenoaks Capital
- Elad Gil
- Steven Rosenblatt
- Oceans Ventures
- Graham Pingree
- Quattro Wireless’ acquisition by Apple
- Foursquare
- Ben Horowitz
- A16z
- Albert Wenger
- Union Square Ventures
- Bijan Sabet
- Spark Capital
- Barry Schuler
- DFJ Growth
- Bryce Roberts
- Bob Davis
- ChatGPT
- Anthropic
- Jonathan Ting
- NeuCo Academy
- Milken Institute
- Industry Ventures
- Blake Robbins
- Hidden Capital
- Ludlow Ventures
- Benchmark
SELECT QUOTES FROM THIS EPISODE:
“If that fund deployed over a year versus a manager of ours that deployed over four years, they’re going to look very different. So we do vintage-year benchmarking to see how their MOIC stacks up against how the revenue of companies stack up.” – Kelli Fontaine
“Team risk is the biggest risk in venture.” – Kelli Fontaine
“The same top ten firms are not the same that they were 15 years ago, and probably Silicon Valley. Generational transfer is very hard.” – Kelli Fontaine
“If you make the brand bigger than just you that it comes from DNA, support systems, things that you stand for that have had support to get there—so once that brand is made, the other team members embody that brand as well. That’s the way to do it. It’s really empowering other team members to own a part in that brand-building—outwardly and inwardly in decision-making.” – Kelli Fontaine