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Brianne Kimmel

Founder & Managing Partner, Worklife Ventures · 1 appearance on the record.

computed by AI from the episodes · how this works → · full disclaimer →

investorfounderoperatorauthor@briannekimmel ↗LinkedIn ↗worklife.vc ↗Wikipedia ↗

Brianne Kimmel is an early-stage venture investor who launched Worklife Ventures in 2019 to back future-of-work, SaaS, and creator economy startups. Prior to running her fund, she led go-to-market initiatives and created the Zendesk for Startups program at Zendesk.

19statements → 5claims → 0claims resolved → 3.79/5average certainty → 2.21/5average debate potential → ≈4.0/5argument clarity, estimated → 17said about them ↓

5 not checkable as stated how the 5 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

2 predictions · 3 assertions · 4 opinions · 6 insights · 4 disclosures · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 5 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 0 are resolved, and 5 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Brianne argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

How they sound: speaking style how? →

219 words/min while actually speaking · 2.6 um and uh per 1k words

No argument clarity score for Brianne Kimmel: no usable question→answer exchanges on raw tape (a fair score needs 8+). We do not score a sample that small. Roundtable and news formats yield far fewer direct exchanges than interviews. Their coarse estimate from 24 exchanges on the produced feed is ≈4.0/5, shown at half point precision because the sample is small and produced tape scores higher.

Measured by listening to 6,100 words across 1 episode, but every recording we have of Brianne Kimmel is the aired feed, and an editor cleaned that audio before release. Some of the hesitation was cut before we ever heard it, so read these as floors: the true rates are at least this high. These are measurements of speaking style, not scores. How it's measured →

How the interview went all their pushback → series average →

Across 1 rated episode:

host pushback ▾ 2/10
pushed back at the host 2/10
setup questions received 75%

Everything Brianne Kimmel said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Opinion
Multi-stage firms issue seed checks quickly with little diligence
“And I think, to be honest, like one of the challenges that the existing seed funds face is that because of the large fund-sized From these multi-stage firms, then they can very quickly write a check with very little diligence, or they can do it based on existi…”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 11:10 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Opinion
Seed funds struggle to compete on hot startup deals
“So I do find that once a company starts to gain some momentum and some heat, it is more difficult for a seed fund to compete with one of the sort of top tier multi-stage funds.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 11:24 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Repeat founders bypass seed funds for multi-stage firms
“I think you have enough repeat entrepreneurs who are working on their second or third idea already have a Establish relationships in Silicon Valley. They kind of already have a sense for who they want on their board. And for those individuals, they already hav…”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 10:45 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Opinion
Multi-stage firms expect founders to solve tactical problems alone
“Multi-stage firms typically view this as things you should figure out on your own, where I think that a lot of the boutique seed funds already have the infrastructure in place.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 12:49 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Insight
Founders should focus on their core company over angel investing
“I think the greatest thing an entrepreneur can do today is to stay focused, and I know that that's quite a conservative point of view. However, I think that right now in the ecosystem, there are a lot of distractions, and I think that when you look at the hist…”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 15:11 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Insight
Founders should mix 'show horses' and 'workhorses' on cap tables
“Founders should find both show horses and work horses.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 20:17 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Opinion
Traditional B2B marketing language is dead and irrelevant
“The traditional B to B language is entirely dead and irrelevant.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 25:58 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Prediction Not checkable as stated
The scrappy freemium SaaS era is slowly ending
“You see this sort of freemium model where I think that era of SaaS is slowly going away.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 28:20 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Insight
Traditional mentorship fails due to over-reliance on single perspectives
“I disagree with the traditional notion of having a mentor. And the reason for that is I often find with a mentorship relationship, I think that oftentimes the mentee is typically over indexing on information and inputs from one data point.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 36:17 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Alternative SaaS funding models will grow in Silicon Valley
“It's been really interesting to see. I think this is something that It will be a growing trend in Silicon Valley.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 7:03 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Insight
Hot tech company operators easily obtain VC scout roles
“If you're an operator at an interesting, you know, hot tech company, it's fairly easy to become a scout for a VC fund.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 13:39 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Elad Gil and Scott Belsky drive strong Series A signaling
“Investors like a lot Gil, Scott Belsky, the entire collective of hashtag angels, angels who are both helpful, but I think most importantly, they've established this track record in the ecosystem where they have the ears of series A investors.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 20:29 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Insight
Sourcing one key hire delivers full value for a $50k check
“If an angel sources and closes one key candidate, or they give you one to do dedicated hours per month, they've delivered their value for say a 25 to 50 K check.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 22:41 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Insight
Workplace productivity software must incorporate consumer-grade user experiences
“If we want to build a highly addictive product, or if we want to really solve some of these core like productivity challenges that we faced in the workplace, Then we have to look outside of traditional SaaS, and we actually have to look at the types of consume…”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 31:02 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Early-stage venture investors are currently on the sell side
“I highly encourage entrepreneurs to really keep in mind that at this moment in time you know, in the tech ecosystem, investors are on the sell side.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 33:47 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Disclosure
Kimmel typically backs technical co-founders needing go-to-market help
“Oftentimes I invest in two strong technical co-founders where typically they need a little bit more support on the go-to-market side.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 5:35 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Disclosure
Worklife Ventures writes $100k to $150k checks
“My average check is around a 101 50 and I can scale up to 200 K.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 9:19 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Disclosure
Worklife Ventures invested in Pace, a flexible payment platform for SaaS
“So my most recent investment is a company called Pace. Pace enables SaaS companies to offer flexible payments on annual contracts while getting paid up front. So there's no debt, no payment risk. You can think of it as a firm for software businesses.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 37:58 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Disclosure
Kimmel wrote $25k to $50k checks as an angel investor
“Coming from an angel point of view, I was typically playing around the 25 to 50 K check mark.”
Brianne Kimmel Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 9:06 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class

The other half of the tape: Brianne Kimmel's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 14 times in 10 episodes on 20VC. 3 statements on the record name them. every mention, with the transcript →

Who brings them up most Harry Stebbings 7Sahil Lavingia 2Katie Stanton 2Todd Jackson 1Mike Maples 1Emil Michael 1

Statements about Brianne Kimmel, by other people (3)

Disclosure
Todd Jackson is an LP in funds by Stanton, Ling, and Kimmel
“I've gotten to see a lot of my friends who are great investors. Katie Stanton, like you mentioned, love, love the episode with her, by the way, Ben Ling, Brianne Kimmel start their own funds as solo GPs. And I'm actually an LP in those funds.”
Todd Jackson Feb 4, 2020 ▶ 25:32 Breaking News: Meet First Round Capital's Newest Partner, How To Approach Generational Transition as a Venture Firm & The Dangers of Attribution In Venture
Assertion Supported
Zendesk for Startups grew to 3,000 startups under Kimmel
“And prior to starting Worklife, Brianne spent two years at Zendesk on their go-to-market strategy, building Zendesk for startups, ultimately representing 3000 startups and 250 accelerators.”
Harry Stebbings Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 0:36 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class
Assertion Supported
Kimmel's angel portfolio includes Webflow, Tandem, and Lunchclub
“To date, though, Brianne's also invested in the likes of Webflow, Tandem, Lunch Club, and Girlboss, just to name a few.”
Harry Stebbings Oct 14, 2019 ▶ 0:30 20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, How To Structure Your Round for the Highest Signal Round & What The Multi-Stage Funds Playing At Seed Means For The Rest of The Asset Class

Every mention by year

tap a year for its mentions
00531062019202020212022episodesmentions
0362019202020212022episodes it came up in
0013262019202020212022episodesmentions per episode
2022 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2021 1 mention in 1 episode
2020 9 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2019 2 mentions in 1 episode

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
20VC: Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on Why More Operators Should Start Their Own Fund, Oct 14, 2019 30m
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