Jan 27, 2020 · 38m · 20vc
20VC: Moxxie Ventures' Katie Stanton on What It Takes To Raise A First Time Fund As A Solo GP, The Entrance of Multi-Stage Funds Into Seed Rounds and The Inverse Relationship of Those That Fund Diverse Managers and Those That Say They Do
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In this episode of The 20 Minute VC, host Harry Stebbings interviews Katie Stanton, founder and General Partner of Moxxie Ventures, about her transition from angel investor to institutional fund manager. Katie shares insights on raising a debut venture fund as a solo GP, navigating shifts in early-stage investing, and solving gender equity disparities on startup cap tables.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Harry holds 35.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Harry as informed peer 2.7 Guest teaching 2.4 Guest disagreement 0.7 Harry pushing back 0.9
speaking balance: gold is Harry, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 16:20 Calling out LP diversity hypocrisy
Katie forcefully criticizes LPs who publicly champion funding diverse managers while privately failing to allocate capital to them.
Hardest push from Harry ▶ 22:00 Challenging valuation discipline vs FOMOHarry pushes Katie on whether walking away from sky-high seed valuations causes investors to miss out on generational winners, citing Bill Gurley.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 24:50 Revealing the equity gap statsKatie educates the host with concrete Carta study data showing women hold only 9% of cap table equity value and receive under 3% of total VC funding.
Harry holds his own ▶ 21:50 Citing Clearbank venture ad spend statHarry demonstrates sharp technical awareness by instantly providing the exact 43% metric when Katie asks how much VC capital flows back into Facebook, Google, and Amazon ads.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Harry as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Harry pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Katie Stanton's Career Journey and the Founding of Moxxie Ventures | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Harry introduces Katie with a warm overview of her career and asks standard biographical questions. Katie shares her trajectory across major tech giants and early angel checks like Lowercase Capital. | |
| Transitioning from Angel Investor to Institutional Fund Manager | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Harry references Andy McLaughlin to discuss becoming more conservative when moving from angel to GP. Katie outlines her strict fund criteria and check size adjustments in competitive seed rounds. | |
| Fundraising Lessons and Advice for First-Time Fund Managers | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Harry and Katie swap LP pitch numbers in a friendly exchange. Katie delivers a blunt critique of institutional LPs who publicly talk about diversity but fail to back diverse managers. | |
| Evolutions in Venture Capital and Multi-Stage Funds at Seed | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Harry quotes Semil Shah on multi-stage funds entering seed, prompting Katie to outline the four historical waves of VC. Harry adds industry context about GP time constraints at mega-funds. | |
| Addressing Cap Table Equity Disparities and Industry Reform | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Harry cites Bill Gurley on valuations and Peter Fenton on distribution. Katie educates on cap table gender disparities using Carta data showing women receive less than 9% of equity value. | |
| Moxxie Ventures Strategy and Solo GP Decision-Making | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Harry cites Monte Carlo fund construction simulations to discuss portfolio math. Katie outlines her solo GP decision process and her network of advisors and LP sounding boards. | |
| Quick Fire Round with Katie Stanton | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | A rapid-fire exchange covering favorite books, board members, and turning down Juul. Harry pushes briefly on whether ownership targets matter for angel investors. |
Statements from this episode (18)
Stanton: Lowercase Capital Is One of the Top-Performing Funds Ever
“Lowercase Capital became one of the, if not the top-performing fund of all time”
Stanton: Hashtag Angels Backed 120 Startups, 40 Personally
“Over the course of about five years, we collectively had invested in about a 120 companies. I had personally invested in 40”
Katie Stanton limits Moxxie Ventures to seed deals under $15M cap
“For example, I'm only investing in seed stage deals. I'm looking for valuation caps of less than 10 to fifteen million. I'm requiring a certain allocation level to make sure that it's, you know, time and money well spent.”
Stanton: Small angel checks are easy, but seed funds get squeezed
“I think almost anyone can come in for a friendly 25 to 50,000 dollar check, but in the most competitive deals, you often get squeezed as a fund manager.”
Katie Stanton Contacted 279 Potential LPs for Moxxie Fund One
“In terms of stats, I ended up meeting with or contacting 279 potential LPs.”
Harry Stebbings Met With 412 LPs During Fundraise
“We met 412 LPs in our fundraise, and everyone was as joyful as the first.”
Stanton: Large Institutional LPs Rarely Commit Early to First-Time Funds
“Most institutions that have AUMs exceeding, say, two billion dollars are probably unlikely to invest in you early on, but they take a long time to get to know you, so start that clock early.”
Stanton: LP diversity statements inversely correlate with actual diverse manager investments
“And in my experience and several other people I know, we found an inverse relationship between the LPs who are very public about funding diverse managers and those who do so”
Stanton: Early-stage founders should include specialized micro-funds over mega funds
“I do think it's better for a lot of founders at the earliest stages to have at least one or two of these micro funds who specialize in this stage or in a particular sector and who truly care that can roll up their sleeves and add value to the teams and be part…”
Stanton: Seed valuations reaching $10M–$30M pre-product are unjustifiably high
“As you know, too, valuations in venture right now are just unjustifiably high. And it's so difficult to invest in a company that is pre-product, pre-revenue, basically zero data, valued between 10 and twenty million dollars. I've seen some seeds in the thirty …”
Stebbings: 43% of venture dollars go directly to Facebook, Google, and Amazon
“I think it's 43%, according to Clearbank. I might have to check that, but I believe 43% of venture dollars goes directly back to Facebook, Google, and Amazon, as a fun fact.”
Stanton: Venture check sizes should fit fund size, not ownership targets
“Bottom line, like, if you have conviction on the team, you should write the check, and you should right-size it for your fund, not necessarily your ownership target.”
Hashtag Angels and Carta study finds women hold only 9% of equity
“When we partnered with Carta to measure the gap on the cap table, aka the gap table, we found that only nine percent of equity value goes towards women, and that's looking at over 6000 companies, 15,000 founders, 180,000 employees”
Stanton: Less than 3% of VC funding goes to all-female founder teams
“Less than three percent of funding goes to all female founding teams.”
Stanton: Female-led YC startups valued under $15M, male-led up to $37M
“What I found was that the female-led companies at YC that I met with were valued less than fifteen million. The male-led companies were valued much higher, as high as thirty-seven million.”
Stanton outlines $25M Moxxie fund strategy and target deployment criteria
“It's a twenty-five million dollar fund. I'm looking to invest half of the capital and reserve the second half for follow-ons. Only investing in seed, so pre-seed, seed, seed plus, what have you, basically anything before the A. Open-minded with respect to sect…”
Stebbings: 23 investments yields 83% of venture portfolio diversification benefits
“We're actually at 23 is what we found when we ran the Monte Carlo simulation. It gets you 83% of the benefits of diversification.”
Stanton turned down Juul CMO role, calling the company ridiculous
“So Jewel is a ridiculous company. They had approached me while I was working at Color, and Color, as you know, is a health tech company trying to help people stay healthy by understanding their genetics and predispositions to things like cancer, and a recruite…”