The Exchanges

Q brand and how that leads to differentiation. You mentioned that they kind of the thought of moving that thinking forward quite a few years because we chatted before and you said about focusing on, I love this term, non-obvious opportunities. So I have to ask though, Annie, what do you mean by non-obvious opportunities? And are there any cases where this has really played out for you in reality? Sure.

A So by non-obvious, I mean opportunities that may not be as apparent from a consumer perspective and also from a traditional perspective. VC perspective. So for example, we have a thesis that we've been excited about around the rise of alternate communities linked to the decline of organized religion, particularly amongst the millennial audience. So, you know, traditionally you, you saw the church or the mosque or the synagogue is really the gathering place for various communities. And we're seeing this really on the decline. And what we feel this has led to is the need for people to connect both online and offline through specific interests. So a few examples of companies in our portfolio that we've invested in that follow the thesis include costar, which is an astrology app peanut, which is a social network for modern motherhood and hip sobriety, a holistic alternative for alcoholics anonymous. So all three of these companies are very much centered around community and are not your typical quote unquote venture investments. They speak very much to the zeitgeist of today's young consumer, particularly the female consumer.

AI assessment note: “So by non-obvious, I mean opportunities that may not be as apparent”

Q of kind of speaking about introducing more female investors into the network, how that changes deal flow, I'd love to touch on one element that you actually mentioned at the start of the show, which is the power of the female network. Can you talk to me a little bit about your thinking behind this, and how it's maybe allowed you to see the best deals through the network? Sure.

A So we really feel strongly that there's tremendous opportunity around the power of the female network. As a fund from day one, we've invested heavily in this through our events and our community strategy, as well as developing relationships with the broader female VC network. What I think is really exciting now is we're seeing deals get done that are shared from one female VC to another, resulting in real dollars being moved. So a few examples of this that come to mind include Winky Lux, the company I mentioned in the beauty space, In this case, we led a two million dollar seed round with a fantastic group of female investors, including Robin Lee from GGB, Susan and Nisha from BBG Ventures, and Elizabeth and Pocket from Sogal Ventures. This intro to the Winky Lux CEO, Natalie Mackey, also came from one of our Female Founders Fund CEOs, Mariah Chase, who also happens to be an LP in the fund. So we led that deal. Fast forward eight months later, Robin from GGB preempted a Series A. And all of this happened entirely through a female network, which I think is really powerful. Similarly, this fall, one of our companies, Maven Clinic, was raising a Series B and made an intro to Jess Lee at Sequoia, which resulted in a twenty-seven million dollar Series B that was led by both Sequoia and Oak. So these are just a few examples of where we truly see that the power of the female network t…

AI assessment note: “all of this happened entirely through a female network, which I think is really powerful”

Q of kind of speaking about introducing more female investors into the network, how that changes deal flow, I'd love to touch on one element that you actually mentioned at the start of the show, which is the power of the female network. Can you talk to me a little bit about your thinking behind this, and how it's maybe allowed you to see the best deals through the network? Sure.

A So we really feel strongly that there's tremendous opportunity around the power of the female network. As a fund from day one, we've invested heavily in this through our events and our community strategy, as well as developing relationships with the broader female VC network. What I think is really exciting now is we're seeing deals get done that are shared from one female VC to another, resulting in real dollars being moved. So a few examples of this that come to mind include Winky Lux, the company I mentioned in the beauty space, In this case, we led a two million dollar seed round with a fantastic group of female investors, including Robin Lee from GGB, Susan and Nisha from BBG Ventures, and Elizabeth and Pocket from Sogal Ventures. This intro to the Winky Lux CEO, Natalie Mackey, also came from one of our Female Founders Fund CEOs, Mariah Chase, who also happens to be an LP in the fund. So we led that deal. Fast forward eight months later, Robin from GGB preempted a Series A. And all of this happened entirely through a female network, which I think is really powerful. Similarly, this fall, one of our companies, Maven Clinic, was raising a Series B and made an intro to Jess Lee at Sequoia, which resulted in a twenty-seven million dollar Series B that was led by both Sequoia and Oak. So these are just a few examples of where we truly see that the power of the female network t…

AI assessment note: “we're seeing deals get done that are shared from one female VC to another”

Q of my favorite topic in the world being fund mechanics. Is that the fund not coming from maybe a A twenty-year venture career, like many, maybe others have when they start their first funds. With that in mind, a question from Shanna Zola. How did you find the experience of the first fundraise? We mentioned the 5.7 million dollar fund, I think it was. How was that experience for you?

A Yeah, so fundraising for fund one was incredibly difficult, and I think that's a very similar story to, to other first-time fund managers. So over 700 meetings, over 70 LPs, um, for a 5.85 million dollar fund over a two-year process. So, you know, I would say that the core challenge is, it was really being a first time fund manager. Unlike my experience as a founder, there's no product or deck that really shows the vision for the fund. And I think that LPs were really investing in my capacity to access good deal flow, as well as the larger vision that female founders had the potential to build massive venture backed businesses. I would say that that was, and that continues to be the biggest challenge. I think our thesis It's possible to generate great returns by investing in a portfolio that is a hundred percent made up of female founders is something that most traditional institutional LPs have found to be somewhat non-obvious, but you know, we really feel strongly that there's a lot of opportunity here.

AI assessment note: “fundraising for fund one was incredibly difficult... over 700 meetings, over 70 LPs”

Q brand and how that leads to differentiation. You mentioned that they kind of the thought of moving that thinking forward quite a few years because we chatted before and you said about focusing on, I love this term, non-obvious opportunities. So I have to ask though, Annie, what do you mean by non-obvious opportunities? And are there any cases where this has really played out for you in reality? Sure.

A So by non-obvious, I mean opportunities that may not be as apparent from a consumer perspective and also from a traditional perspective. VC perspective. So for example, we have a thesis that we've been excited about around the rise of alternate communities linked to the decline of organized religion, particularly amongst the millennial audience. So, you know, traditionally you, you saw the church or the mosque or the synagogue is really the gathering place for various communities. And we're seeing this really on the decline. And what we feel this has led to is the need for people to connect both online and offline through specific interests. So a few examples of companies in our portfolio that we've invested in that follow the thesis include costar, which is an astrology app peanut, which is a social network for modern motherhood and hip sobriety, a holistic alternative for alcoholics anonymous. So all three of these companies are very much centered around community and are not your typical quote unquote venture investments. They speak very much to the zeitgeist of today's young consumer, particularly the female consumer.

AI assessment note: “So by non-obvious, I mean opportunities that may not be as apparent”

Q Absolutely. I mean, if we contrast it then, how was raising the second fund having the chance to maybe build a more tangible product around the kind of thesis itself? How did that experience differ raising the second to the first?

A So I would say that from a macro point of view, and I'm sure you're aware of this as well, I believe there were over 400 funds in the market last year that were sub a hundred million. So I would say the environment from a traditional LP perspective has become incredibly competitive. And for us, it was definitely still challenging. It was two year process. The biggest difference I would say is that from a trend perspective, you know, you touched on this earlier that The recent focus over the last 12 to 18 months on female founders, on women in tech, on female fund managers, has really given us momentum with foundations and some of the newer institutions, particularly fund-to-funds that are looking to back more diverse managers. The other thing that helped for our second fund was that Lightspeed Ventures was an LP of ours, which has been tremendously helpful and validating for traditional institutional LPs. So I would say, you know, still challenging, but the macro trends were definitely in our favor.

AI assessment note: “The biggest difference I would say is that from a trend perspective”

Q Not at all, but I'd love to kick off today with a little on you. So tell me, how did you make your foray into what I always call the wonderful world of venture capital and really come to found Female Founders Fund?

A Sure. So my foray into the world of venture capital was very much a result of my experience as a So prior to starting female founders fund, I co-founded an e-commerce company based in India called exclusively in and through that fundraising process really saw that there was a huge lack of diversity from an investor perspective, which I thought was really interesting. Given I was a female founder, we were clearly addressing a female market and felt that there was a real opportunity to build a brand that focused on addressing and funding these female founders, providing not just capital, but But also creating a very powerful network of female operators that could really help them along their, their journey to build their businesses. So I started the fund in 2014 after a very long fundraising process, raised about 5.85 million of capital and had a fantastic group of LPs in that first fund, including some great female entrepreneurs, the founders of guilt, birch box, stitch fix, Care.com, as well as really supportive male investors like Josh Koppelman, Brad Feld, Albert Wenger, David Bonderman, and more. So that first fund was really meant to invest primarily in female founders at the seed stage. And Shan from Zola knows this, you know, Zola was, was one of our investments out of that fund, as well as companies like Eloquii, which recently had an exit, um, Neven Clinic and Primary K…

AI assessment note: “my foray into the world of venture capital was very much a result of”

Q Absolutely. I mean, if we contrast it then, how was raising the second fund having the chance to maybe build a more tangible product around the kind of thesis itself? How did that experience differ raising the second to the first?

A So I would say that from a macro point of view, and I'm sure you're aware of this as well, I believe there were over 400 funds in the market last year that were sub a hundred million. So I would say the environment from a traditional LP perspective has become incredibly competitive. And for us, it was definitely still challenging. It was two year process. The biggest difference I would say is that from a trend perspective, you know, you touched on this earlier that The recent focus over the last 12 to 18 months on female founders, on women in tech, on female fund managers, has really given us momentum with foundations and some of the newer institutions, particularly fund-to-funds that are looking to back more diverse managers. The other thing that helped for our second fund was that Lightspeed Ventures was an LP of ours, which has been tremendously helpful and validating for traditional institutional LPs. So I would say, you know, still challenging, but the macro trends were definitely in our favor.

AI assessment note: “The biggest difference I would say is that from a trend perspective”

Q of my favorite topic in the world being fund mechanics. Is that the fund not coming from maybe a A twenty-year venture career, like many, maybe others have when they start their first funds. With that in mind, a question from Shanna Zola. How did you find the experience of the first fundraise? We mentioned the 5.7 million dollar fund, I think it was. How was that experience for you?

A Yeah, so fundraising for fund one was incredibly difficult, and I think that's a very similar story to, to other first-time fund managers. So over 700 meetings, over 70 LPs, um, for a 5.85 million dollar fund over a two-year process. So, you know, I would say that the core challenge is, it was really being a first time fund manager. Unlike my experience as a founder, there's no product or deck that really shows the vision for the fund. And I think that LPs were really investing in my capacity to access good deal flow, as well as the larger vision that female founders had the potential to build massive venture backed businesses. I would say that that was, and that continues to be the biggest challenge. I think our thesis It's possible to generate great returns by investing in a portfolio that is a hundred percent made up of female founders is something that most traditional institutional LPs have found to be somewhat non-obvious, but you know, we really feel strongly that there's a lot of opportunity here.

AI assessment note: “fundraising for fund one was incredibly difficult”

Q Not at all, but I'd love to kick off today with a little on you. So tell me, how did you make your foray into what I always call the wonderful world of venture capital and really come to found Female Founders Fund?

A Sure. So my foray into the world of venture capital was very much a result of my experience as a So prior to starting female founders fund, I co-founded an e-commerce company based in India called exclusively in and through that fundraising process really saw that there was a huge lack of diversity from an investor perspective, which I thought was really interesting. Given I was a female founder, we were clearly addressing a female market and felt that there was a real opportunity to build a brand that focused on addressing and funding these female founders, providing not just capital, but But also creating a very powerful network of female operators that could really help them along their, their journey to build their businesses. So I started the fund in 2014 after a very long fundraising process, raised about 5.85 million of capital and had a fantastic group of LPs in that first fund, including some great female entrepreneurs, the founders of guilt, birch box, stitch fix, Care.com, as well as really supportive male investors like Josh Koppelman, Brad Feld, Albert Wenger, David Bonderman, and more. So that first fund was really meant to invest primarily in female founders at the seed stage. And Shan from Zola knows this, you know, Zola was, was one of our investments out of that fund, as well as companies like Eloquii, which recently had an exit, um, Neven Clinic and Primary K…

AI assessment note: “my foray into the world of venture capital was very much a result”

Q word brand. You and your partner have built an incredibly strong brand with Female Founders Fund, so I'd love to hear, when you look back now, what are the things you think that you've done well? And maybe if you were to, actually, perfect, if you were to advise me, new fund, what would you advise in terms of Building a brand as a new fund in a busy market.

A Sure. So just starting with the way that we've thought about it, you know, my background is very much as an operator and really kind of building brand through various measures. So, you know, when you think about the venture capital world, it's always been an asset class. So you're investing dollars and, and working with founders, but waiting for those returns. For me, when I started the fund, the idea was we were very small and how do we put ourselves On the same playing field as our peers. And so the fund's DNA has very much been around events. So, you know, when I started the fund in 2014, that was 12 events a year. Fast forward to today, we do 40 events a year, big and small, inviting, you know, we do a CEO series once a month where we invite different CEOs to come in and share their stories. We do, you know, larger events that we co-host with funds like General Catalyst and Lightspeed. So I think for us, it's really been about building a brand via that Content and event strategy. And I think that we've also really focused a lot on content creation that features our founders, but also highlights thought pieces around the amount of funding that's been raised by female founders. We published an annual review on the amount of series A funding that went to female founders in 2014. And, you know, since then we've seen Crunchbase, TechCrunch, and a host of other journalists in the…

AI assessment note: “for us, it's really been about building a brand via that Content and event strategy.”

Q is you build a really attractive top line, but when it comes down to it, you sell for 1.6 EBIT and actually it's just not attractive and you will continue to see these hundred to hundred and fifty million exits in the consumer space because the multiples just aren't there on exit. Is that something that you've seen and would maybe agree with or would you take an alternate view?

A So I think it really depends on the category. So I think that when you think about traditional retail from a fashion perspective, it can be really challenging. I think that if you are building a business with very strong margins, beauty, as an example, in the consumable space, there's a LTV for consumers that is different necessarily from a kind of pure play fashion company. So I think that for us, we want to see high margins. We want to see repeat purchase behavior and we really want to see brand differentiation. From an exit perspective, you know, I think that you have the likes of Walmart and Amazon, as well as, you know, the P&Gs and Unleavers and L'Oreal's of the world that, from a multiple perspective, you know, we've seen can be willing to pay for the right opportunity.

AI assessment note: “I think it really depends on the category.”

Q with a little bit of the why, because looking today, it seems absolutely obvious with the brand that you've built and the focus that you have obviously on female founders, but at the time it maybe wasn't so obvious. And so a question from Shana Zola was, what was it that made you decide to exclusively build a fund with the sole focus on female founders really before anyone else?

A Sure. So exactly to your point, looking back in 2013 and 14, It was not an obvious investment thesis, but when you looked around for me, especially after our company got acquired, I started doing some angel investing in New York and got introduced to some great female founders, and a lot of them had very relevant backgrounds. They'd worked at large technology companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and had very relevant skill sets, had been part of these companies scaling, and were really looking to apply these skill sets to solve problems they faced As consumers, as well as problems they identified in their workplace. And so the disconnect was really getting that first round of funding. And obviously you can't get that first round of funding. Um, it's very difficult to build a venture backable business. And so I felt the opportunity was looking from a macro point of view, five to 10 years forward, that you were definitely going to see large companies being built by women that were really addressing consumer needs and reinventing old industries. And there was a real opportunity to build a brand that would be the first place that these founders came to when they were looking for capital. And for me, you know, obviously now you have so many micro funds in the market, which is great, but differentiation is incredibly important. And so I think a lot of what I focused on in the ear…

AI assessment note: “I felt the opportunity was looking from a macro point of view, five to 10 years forward”

Q with a little bit of the why, because looking today, it seems absolutely obvious with the brand that you've built and the focus that you have obviously on female founders, but at the time it maybe wasn't so obvious. And so a question from Shana Zola was, what was it that made you decide to exclusively build a fund with the sole focus on female founders really before anyone else?

A Sure. So exactly to your point, looking back in 2013 and 14, It was not an obvious investment thesis, but when you looked around for me, especially after our company got acquired, I started doing some angel investing in New York and got introduced to some great female founders, and a lot of them had very relevant backgrounds. They'd worked at large technology companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and had very relevant skill sets, had been part of these companies scaling, and were really looking to apply these skill sets to solve problems they faced As consumers, as well as problems they identified in their workplace. And so the disconnect was really getting that first round of funding. And obviously you can't get that first round of funding. Um, it's very difficult to build a venture backable business. And so I felt the opportunity was looking from a macro point of view, five to 10 years forward, that you were definitely going to see large companies being built by women that were really addressing consumer needs and reinventing old industries. And there was a real opportunity to build a brand that would be the first place that these founders came to when they were looking for capital. And for me, you know, obviously now you have so many micro funds in the market, which is great, but differentiation is incredibly important. And so I think a lot of what I focused on in the ear…

AI assessment note: “I started doing some angel investing in New York and got introduced to some great female founders”

Q is you build a really attractive top line, but when it comes down to it, you sell for 1.6 EBIT and actually it's just not attractive and you will continue to see these hundred to hundred and fifty million exits in the consumer space because the multiples just aren't there on exit. Is that something that you've seen and would maybe agree with or would you take an alternate view?

A So I think it really depends on the category. So I think that when you think about traditional retail from a fashion perspective, it can be really challenging. I think that if you are building a business with very strong margins, beauty, as an example, in the consumable space, there's a LTV for consumers that is different necessarily from a kind of pure play fashion company. So I think that for us, we want to see high margins. We want to see repeat purchase behavior and we really want to see brand differentiation. From an exit perspective, you know, I think that you have the likes of Walmart and Amazon, as well as, you know, the P&Gs and Unleavers and L'Oreal's of the world that, from a multiple perspective, you know, we've seen can be willing to pay for the right opportunity.

AI assessment note: “So I think it really depends on the category.”

Q Can I ask, is there anything that can be done? And please do advise me here. It's a brilliant thing about the show. I use it for a personal advice. Is there anything that can be done to really enhance this shift and further generate that kind of cyclical motion of increasing that, so to speak?

A I think it really depends on the fund. I think that as you see more of the traditional Silicon Valley funds backing female founders, seeing those founders scale, there tends to be kind of an awareness that female founders can go on to build interesting businesses, and I think on the other side, as these funds are hiring female partners, You're also seeing their deal flow change. I think that we've seen with our female founders is that if you are looking to pitch a fund with a website that's full of all men partners, that tends to really signify a certain culture within that firm, and so I think that as VC funds add more diversity to their teams, that will enable them to attract different types of deal flow, which I think is very educational, and I think that as they start investing Investing in categories and founders that are outside of what they've done before, they also recognize the true potential in that.

AI assessment note: “as VC funds add more diversity to their teams, that will enable them to attract”

Q opportunities that maybe male VCs maybe don't identify with. You mentioned Billy there. I guess Yes, that could be one that would be aligned to this. I guess a slightly sensitive one for me to broach on here, but can one blame male VCs for sometimes not being able to comprehend maybe a specific pain point related to female kind of founders' missions that they're building? Can we blame them?

A Sure. So, I mean, you know, from what I've seen, ultimately what drives venture capital is FOMO, particularly when it comes to missing out on, on returns. And, you know, Katrina Lake is obviously a great example with Stitch Fix in terms of, you know, a company that I think most traditional investors initially were not excited about, but clearly, you know, went on to really prove the potential of that business. I think what we've seen over the past two or three years is really a strong shift that's happening in terms of how male VCs are thinking about opportunities that speak to a female market. So when I look at even in our own portfolio or outside companies like Zola, Glossier, Maven Clinic, you know, these are categories, weddings, beauty, women's health, That I think two or three years ago maybe weren't as interesting, and I think that there may have been a challenge around investors understanding truly how large these categories are. What we've seen since then is, you know, more and more male investors are really recognizing the size and the scale of these businesses, and it's really exciting to see this shift happen.

AI assessment note: “Sure. So, I mean, you know, from what I've seen, ultimately what drives”

Q opportunities that maybe male VCs maybe don't identify with. You mentioned Billy there. I guess Yes, that could be one that would be aligned to this. I guess a slightly sensitive one for me to broach on here, but can one blame male VCs for sometimes not being able to comprehend maybe a specific pain point related to female kind of founders' missions that they're building? Can we blame them?

A Sure. So, I mean, you know, from what I've seen, ultimately what drives venture capital is FOMO, particularly when it comes to missing out on, on returns. And, you know, Katrina Lake is obviously a great example with Stitch Fix in terms of, you know, a company that I think most traditional investors initially were not excited about, but clearly, you know, went on to really prove the potential of that business. I think what we've seen over the past two or three years is really a strong shift that's happening in terms of how male VCs are thinking about opportunities that speak to a female market. So when I look at even in our own portfolio or outside companies like Zola, Glossier, Maven Clinic, you know, these are categories, weddings, beauty, women's health, That I think two or three years ago maybe weren't as interesting, and I think that there may have been a challenge around investors understanding truly how large these categories are. What we've seen since then is, you know, more and more male investors are really recognizing the size and the scale of these businesses, and it's really exciting to see this shift happen.

AI assessment note: “more and more male investors are really recognizing the size and the scale”

Q word brand. You and your partner have built an incredibly strong brand with Female Founders Fund, so I'd love to hear, when you look back now, what are the things you think that you've done well? And maybe if you were to, actually, perfect, if you were to advise me, new fund, what would you advise in terms of Building a brand as a new fund in a busy market.

A Sure. So just starting with the way that we've thought about it, you know, my background is very much as an operator and really kind of building brand through various measures. So, you know, when you think about the venture capital world, it's always been an asset class. So you're investing dollars and, and working with founders, but waiting for those returns. For me, when I started the fund, the idea was we were very small and how do we put ourselves On the same playing field as our peers. And so the fund's DNA has very much been around events. So, you know, when I started the fund in 2014, that was 12 events a year. Fast forward to today, we do 40 events a year, big and small, inviting, you know, we do a CEO series once a month where we invite different CEOs to come in and share their stories. We do, you know, larger events that we co-host with funds like General Catalyst and Lightspeed. So I think for us, it's really been about building a brand via that Content and event strategy. And I think that we've also really focused a lot on content creation that features our founders, but also highlights thought pieces around the amount of funding that's been raised by female founders. We published an annual review on the amount of series A funding that went to female founders in 2014. And, you know, since then we've seen Crunchbase, TechCrunch, and a host of other journalists in the…

AI assessment note: “for us, it's really been about building a brand via that Content and event strategy.”

Q Can I ask, is there anything that can be done? And please do advise me here. It's a brilliant thing about the show. I use it for a personal advice. Is there anything that can be done to really enhance this shift and further generate that kind of cyclical motion of increasing that, so to speak?

A I think it really depends on the fund. I think that as you see more of the traditional Silicon Valley funds backing female founders, seeing those founders scale, there tends to be kind of an awareness that female founders can go on to build interesting businesses, and I think on the other side, as these funds are hiring female partners, You're also seeing their deal flow change. I think that we've seen with our female founders is that if you are looking to pitch a fund with a website that's full of all men partners, that tends to really signify a certain culture within that firm, and so I think that as VC funds add more diversity to their teams, that will enable them to attract different types of deal flow, which I think is very educational, and I think that as they start investing Investing in categories and founders that are outside of what they've done before, they also recognize the true potential in that.

AI assessment note: “as VC funds add more diversity to their teams, that will enable them”

Q opens and expands to the much larger TAM that kind of VCs always suggest they look for. When looking at an example like the astrology app, is that the thinking that you have there? Because it's not the initial huge TAM of, say, A shipping market or millennial shopping. How do you think about how you approach market sizing, especially with elements like that, where it maybe seems more niche?

A Sure, sure. So as an institutional fund, we closed our second fund earlier this year. We share many of the same views as our VC peers in, especially in the micro fund market. So we look to invest early at valuations that really allow us to generate significant returns at scale. And when we meet founders, we're very clear with this Point of view In terms of alignment, and particularly as that relates to building a scalable, massive business. So an example of this in our fund two portfolio particularly would be our investment in the millennial focused beauty brand Winky Lux. So again, beauty can be somewhat of a non-obvious category. Obviously the success of Glossier has shown that there's a real potential for growth, but we think it's an exciting category for a few reasons. So healthy SAS like margins, Repeat purchase behavior and really strong exit multiples. So seeing the growth in a company like Winky Lux, which, again, may have been non-obvious, and really leveraged the authenticity of brand and the strong social performance, it was really a no-brainer for us that the founder was special, shared very similar views around building a beauty brand at scale, and had the potential to really generate those significant returns.

AI assessment note: “beauty can be somewhat of a non-obvious category”

Q opens and expands to the much larger TAM that kind of VCs always suggest they look for. When looking at an example like the astrology app, is that the thinking that you have there? Because it's not the initial huge TAM of, say, A shipping market or millennial shopping. How do you think about how you approach market sizing, especially with elements like that, where it maybe seems more niche?

A Sure, sure. So as an institutional fund, we closed our second fund earlier this year. We share many of the same views as our VC peers in, especially in the micro fund market. So we look to invest early at valuations that really allow us to generate significant returns at scale. And when we meet founders, we're very clear with this Point of view In terms of alignment, and particularly as that relates to building a scalable, massive business. So an example of this in our fund two portfolio particularly would be our investment in the millennial focused beauty brand Winky Lux. So again, beauty can be somewhat of a non-obvious category. Obviously the success of Glossier has shown that there's a real potential for growth, but we think it's an exciting category for a few reasons. So healthy SAS like margins, Repeat purchase behavior and really strong exit multiples. So seeing the growth in a company like Winky Lux, which, again, may have been non-obvious, and really leveraged the authenticity of brand and the strong social performance, it was really a no-brainer for us that the founder was special, shared very similar views around building a beauty brand at scale, and had the potential to really generate those significant returns.

AI assessment note: “So an example of this in our fund two portfolio particularly would be our investment”