Paige Finn DohertyFounding Partner, Behind Genius · Founding Partner at Behind Genius Ventures

How does Cendana Capital Partner Kelli Fontaine explain the similarity between venture and art?

31 Jan 2023 · 1 min

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In a brief interview, Cendana Capital partner Kelli Fontaine explains that venture firms view entrepreneurs as artists, and extend this analogy to seed managers. She describes Cendana’s approach as taking a lead investor role that is hands‑on, providing operational guidance and strategic investment decisions such as pro‑rata allocations and portfolio construction. Rather than merely attending board or LPAC meetings, the firm actively shapes and adds value to the funds it backs, mirroring the supportive relationship an artist might have with a mentor or collaborator.

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In a Medium article written by Silicon Foundry, he said that entrepreneurs are artists. And would you mind elaborating on how this applies to seed managers and your work at Sandana?
Yeah, I think as venture firms look to work with entrepreneurs, they look to see how they can help, what value they can add, right? And hopefully they can help shape the companies and help the companies along the way. We view ourselves The same way we view ourselves as a lead investor in a fund, and we want to do our best to help the fund, you know, with operations or investment decisions around pro rata portfolio construction and really shape, you know, what works for a venture fund. And so that's really how we work with our managers is taking a lead investor role. So we view ourselves not as just attending a board meeting or the LPAC meetings, but really being hands-on and trying to add value that we can to the managers.