VC Feature: “Founders in Europe were so underserved relative to what I experienced raising money in Silicon Valley”, with Kindred Capital’s Leila Zegna

40 Minute Mentor

“Create an anxiety balance sheet with the things you have control over and the things you don’t have control over. Put the things that give you anxiety into these credits and debits and you’ll realise that actually there’s a lot more that’s in your control than you think.”

Kicking off our VC feature series, we’re joined by Leila Zegna, the Founding General Partner of Kindred Capital.

Kindred are building a new model for Venture Capital where every Founder they back becomes a co-owner of the fund. Launched in 2015, Leila and her Co-Founders are on a mission to create the venture firm they would have wanted to work with when they were running Startups themselves.

Leila tells us more about their Equitable Venture model in today’s episode, along with some candid mentorship, including:

• How she made the transition from Operator to VC [10:55]
• Why more Operators should work in VC [19:18]
• What European VCs can learn from their US counterparts [22:22]
• How Kindred’s Equitable Venture model works [25:27]
• What advice Founders should keep in mind as they face the economic downturn [29:00]
• What Leila and the Kindred team are looking for when assessing businesses and their Founders [32:25]
• How Leila does everything she does all while having three kids under the age of 6 [37:21]
• And why she wants Kindred to be the best of its kind and not the biggest [41:36]

⛳️ Helpful links:

➡️ More about Leila: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leilazegna/

➡️ More about Kindred Capital: https://kindredcapital.vc/

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