“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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