Worklife Ventures' Brianne Kimmel on finding the right LPs, the big differences between angel investing and being a solo fund manager, and the main thing she looks for in founding teams

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.

This week I’m thrilled to bring you my conversation with Brianne Kimmel, founder and managing partner of Worklife Ventures, a San Francisco-based firm that invests in seed-stage companies focused on the future of work. Worklife started in 2019 with a $5M fund (which included 7 unicorns), and is now investing out of Fund II.

One interesting point about the fund is that she intentionally was very strategic about building an LP base and has LPs that include Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, Matt Mazzeo, Alexis Ohanian, Garry Tan, and others.

About Brianne Kimmel:Business Insider recently named Brianne a top angel investor that every startup should know alongside Ellen Pao and Cyan Bannister.

She previously worked on the go-to-market team at Zendesk focused on self-serve growth, technology integrations and built Zendesk for Startups.

Started with SaaS when she was Head of Social Media at Expedia leading paid acquisition, customer support, and community.

Brianne runs an invite-only program called SaaS School for startup founders to learn from the fastest-growing companies like Airtable, Drift, Dropbox, Slack, and more. 

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In this episode we discuss:

01:09 Brianne’s life prior to investing and what led her to become a full-time investor

03:39 Her motivation for becoming an investor rather than staying an operator

08:51 Experiences that led to Brianne’s investing thesis

12:39 How she spends her time as a solo GP

17:40 What she’s found to be the most valuable use of her time as a solo GP

21:14 The difference between investing in Fund I and Fund II

28:16 The importance of building community within her LP base and learning by investing alongside other investors

32:55 Non-negotiables she looks for in founders and founding teams

37:40 The importance of founder/investor fit and personality traits she thinks attracts top-talent

41:41 How culture is conveyed through remote work

44:14 The best piece of career advice Brianne has received

I’d love to know what you took away from this conversation with Brianne. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you’d like to be considered as a guest or have someone you’d like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.

Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee Agency

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com