“Neutral references are worse than negative references.” – Kelli Fontaine
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 this episode's sponsor, Alchemist Accelerator: https://alchemistaccelerator.com/superclusters
OUTLINE:
[00:00] Intro
[02:11] How Kelli became a figure skater
[06:59] Kelli's football fandom
[08:47] Picking schools for critical thinking for children
[10:55] The difference between likeability and founder-friendliness
[13:35] Correcting biases as LPs
[15:07] Examples of what makes GPs unique
[19:53] What kinds of data was Cendana NOT measuring when Kelli joined?
[21:58] What are datapoints that LPs should measure but aren't?
[23:45] Startup metrics that LPs should track
[26:16] Can you trust the data out there?
[32:05] How does one start building a GP dataset from scratch?
[37:38] Why does Cendana do 40 reference checks per fund?
[39:47] Neutral references are worse than negative references
[42:28] The questions Kelli asks founders when diligencing GPs
[43:44] How Cendana does monthly calls with all their GPs and large LPs
[47:57] How often does Cendana send investor updates?
[49:13] The difference between monthly calls and taking an LPAC seat
[51:19] Kelli's indelible sports moments to witness
[52:37] What makes Kelli laugh?
[56:14] Thank you to Alchemist Accelerator for sponsoring
[57:15] If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean a lot to me if you shared it with one other friend!
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