Jaclyn Freeman Hester of Foundry Group on investing in emerging manager funds, venture trends, and mistakes fund managers can avoid when raising - Venture Unlocked Episode 017

Venture Unlocked: The playbook for venture capital managers

We’re excited to release our newest episode with another great guest, Jaclyn Freeman Hester, Partner at the Foundry Group.

Founded in 2007 by Brad Feld, Jason Mendelson, Ryan McIntyre, and Seth Levine The Foundry Group has $2.4B under management and has invested in startups such as FitBit, SendGrid, Beeswax, and Notion. Several years ago the firm, led by Jaclyn and Lindel Eakman, started investing in interesting emerging manager firms, and have acted as LP’s in firms such as Forerunner, K9 Ventures, Founder Collective, IA Ventures, Homebrew, and Ludlow.

Jaclyn got her MBA/JD from the University of Colorado and practiced corporate law advising startups and private equity firms as well as buyers and sellers in M&A transactions. She also worked closely with her husband and his family on their SaaS startup, FareHarbor, from the earliest stages through acquisition.

In this episode we discuss the following topics:

04:59 The catalyst for Foundry starting to invest in Emerging Managers

08:54 Her view on emerging manager trends and opportunities

11:42 What she looks for when evaluating new managers

20:59 Do competitive moats in venture exist?

24:51 What type of characteristics she’s sees a critical for successful VC’s and teams

31:06 How they evaluate managers that are going from proof of concept to raising the first institutional fund.

35:37 Common mistakes emerging managers make pitching

38:45 The best questions that GPs have asked her

41:08 Jaclyn’s biggest career mistake

43:26 Her best advice to new managers

Mentioned in this episode:

* Foundry Group

* TechStars

* Mucker

I’d love to know what you took away from my conversation with Jaclyn Freeman Hester. 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