Molly Mielke at Moth Fund uses small grants to build long-term relationships with promising young founders, not as a pipeline to bigger investments. Grant recipients join an annual retreat community with no formal obligations, just ongoing mentorship and the possibility of future funding if they start a venture.
Chapters
Can you talk a little bit about what that model looks like in practice, or perhaps like the graduation from grants to like a full check from the fund? Yeah, it's a huge open question now because the fund's so new, but I think that it's something that for me feels like a long-term bet of if I find an amazing person and they are young and interesting and I see a glimmer in their eye that I want to shine a light on, I want to bring them in close and I want to have a method and apparatus to do so. And my grant program is that. So there's no, like, I don't have any graduation stories yet, but I have a group of people that are awesome and I will bring to a retreat every year, probably indefinitely. And if they ever do start something, I would love to potentially fund it. There's no, like, actual contractual obligation on their side or mine, but it's more just like building the relationship and supporting them. And I think it's more just about the friendship and connections than anything else. And the grant is just like a nice byproduct. It's like an invitation to the community.