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- [00:00]
Jessica Carr
We know how to pick, like, who's going to be the winner. We've seen, we've talked to a lot of them. We know which one, like, they're not going to get a patent on it, so they're, like, not going to be as successful. We have databases of, like, how many companies there are in each sector. We have a database of exits, which is really important. A lot of even other investors were saying, like, they don't know how many exits there are.
- [00:26]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Welcome to the Investor, a podcast where I, Joel Palo Thinkle, your host, dives deep, deep into the minds of the world's most influential institutional investors. In each episode, we sit down with an investor to hear about their journeys and how global markets are driving capital allocation. So join us on this journey as we explore these insights. Okay, I think we're live, so we'll just jump into it. So we've got Jessica here, Jessica Carr from Coyote Ventures. So thanks so much for popping in and, you know, awesome to meet with you the last couple of weeks and it's great, you know, when we always have common friends, right. I think we met through a few, few friends. I'm good friends with Ariana as well. I think. I think you guys built that. Yeah, I guess. I think you guys did the dinner together, right?
- [01:22]
Jessica Carr
The sort of gathering in L. A. Yeah. The night before the LA Bridge dinner. So, yeah.
- [01:28]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, I'm still like a little. A little bit of a foreigner from the West Coast. You know, I don't go there that often, so I'm excited to kind of try to send some more time over there. So hopefully we can get together and then, you know, if you, if you. Are you from New York?
- [01:41]
Jessica Carr
No, I'm originally from West Texas. I've been out here in SF for about 10 years, so definitely let me know when you're out here.
- [01:49]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, same thing with, with New York, if you ever make it out here. Happy to try to get some other investors together and do something. But, you know, tell me about you. So excited to have you on the show. You know, we just kind of keep you casual and, and hear everybody's story and everyone has broken into VC and, you know, came into this career from a different path. So just excited to hear, you know, your story. Growing, I guess you grew up in Texas and, you know, what you studied and then how you. How you pivoted in your career and you started Coyote Ventures too, so we'd love to know how that started. And I know you had a co founder too, so I want to hear it all and then I can try to guide maybe different topics around your investment thesis. I really like your thesis as well, so would like to go deeper on that and learn your insights on those trends.
- [02:43]
Jessica Carr
Definitely, yeah. Thank you. I'm super excited to be here. And yeah, I think a lot of venture capital is a non traditional path overall. So definitely spent the first maybe 15 years of like, what am I doing? What's the pattern, where am I heading? So probably a lot of people out there that could relate to that. So I was born and raised in Amarillo, Texas. Didn't know much about like, you know, what else is a successful career besides being a doctor or a lawyer? So I started studying as a pre med. My dad is a dentist and grew up, you know, around that. And My mom's an OB GYN nurse and I started working when I was 14. I worked in my dad's dentist office and I loved it. I love like helping the patients and I loved like the administrative things as well. Filing, tried to making appointments. It was a good time. And so in college I was pre med, I studied biochem and I loved understanding sort of why like how bio worked because to me bio couldn't really memorize everything. And I double majored in philosophy. I really enjoyed, you know, like thinking about the different topics in philosophy and reading a lot as well. And then I was really fortunate. I spent a summer at Berkeley as a research site scientist as an undergrad. But I was working in a lab doing research and I enjoyed it and I said, okay, I think I'd rather go this path rather than the med school path. So I went to UC San Diego, entered in as a PhD student, but I left after I finished the master's coursework, just like the lab itself was not. I didn't feel like my work was really reaching an impact. Like I would want it to. You publish papers and then it might not go anywhere. Really fortunate that I put it out there that I was looking for something impactful that I got connected to. The founder of what became Impossible Foods when it was less than a year old. I was the 12th person. It was really small and scrappy, tiny little office in Menlo park. And it was a really good experience. Just, you know, everybody was very collaborative and working on the initial like prototypes and a lot of the basic research and development and what went into the intellectual property. So Impossible spent about the first five years of the company's life in research and development. And then it launched, you know, had like a small launch to the public in 2016. And so I had been there for four years at that time and I missed the early days. I really loved the idea stage. The research and development had to go through like a scale up mode so it wasn't as focused on innovation like for that period. So I decided to go do an mba and I stayed as a consultant with Impossible for another two years. So I was still pretty involved in the company and yeah, really great friends with a lot of the folks there still. And after my mba started consulting a lot like with lots of early stage startups and after a while said, okay, I understand my science and product really well. And I had been working sort of in the financial aspect as well as like early stage modeling and everything. So I wanted to get into vc. So I said like, I think I have a different perspective here, especially as I was in food tech. I kind of knew a lot of the players and was successful and I saw a lot of things that I would never find. And I said like, I think I could be really successful with that thesis as well as like expanding it to other basically science based, impactful products. So I started working at a fund that was a general impact fund. There was a sole LP and started seeing women's health deals before I knew it was its own sort of area. Fintech. That term was only coined in 2016, so I hadn't been too familiar with it. But I had seen a few things here and there over the last few years. And then when I started working with the fund, I became completely obsessed and realized that gender equality is really where I wanted to make an impact and not work on sustainability, sort of in a silo. So worked with that fund for a little while as a principal and then hopped off to start my own. And I had met my co founder Brittany on originally was a LinkedIn cold ad, but we started having regular phone calls. I was working at the other fund so I would talk about the deals that I was seeing and just kind of general get to know each other, talk about the space and just get to know what she was up to. She started the nonprofit Fintech Focus. She had a podcast, she still has this, has a podcast and virtual community and resources. And she kept saying, I'm starting a fund. And finally I was like, did you start the fund? What's the deal? And I had built sort of my ideal pitch deck and she sent me hers and they were very similar. So we said, okay, let's just take this. We applied to the VC labs at the Founder Institute and the application was due like that night and we got in. So we're super excited. And that program was about four months. Started raising towards the end of the four months and completed our first close and deployed a few of our first investments.
- [08:48]
Joel Palo Thinkle
That's so exciting. Yeah, I love that you guys jumped into it. I always love origin stories. I also speak to a bunch of founders and that's always something I'm curious about. So backing up a second because you're very similar to me. I had a tech science background. I was doing my PhD as well. So what advice do you have for people that come from like a deep science or tech background trying to work at a fund? I guess any tips? And some of these people in the audience are looking to break in. So any tips or the best?
- [09:28]
Jessica Carr
We have all the practical experience, I would say. And it's really helpful for due diligence. So I would say it's really good to be able to go deep in a subject. But when you're in vc, you need to go really broad as well. Like how they talk about the T. So you've already kind of learned how to go deep and then work on like learning how to broaden out. If you're working on a deal by yourself and you can really get at the science part, figure out what else you need to learn right away. So like when we're looking at deals, we look at. I think everybody would share the same thing in the diligence is like we're looking at financial model, we're thinking about marketing, evaluating team and operations. And so maybe there's ways that you can learn from someone who knows a lot about marketing. He wants to learn about what you know. So.
- [10:19]
Joel Palo Thinkle
And tell me how you've you evolved your investment thesis because it looks like you've done, you know, you have some operational experience in food tech. So I've also invested in food tech. So we'd love to go deep on that. And then I have friends and I also have an interest in femtech as well. But tell me how your strategy and your thesis has evolved kind of from food tech to femtech. And are there any other sectors or industries that you're excited about?
- [10:49]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, I'd say food tech. I recognized Impossible Foods 10 years ago wasn't really a thing. Not a lot of VC money going into it. And so I would say it was before sort of it became mainstream. It's kind of down in the early adoptive adopter phase that was impossible 10 years ago. And that's where women's health is now. So I think that was sort of relevant learning that I can take to a new industry. And I would say a lot of the women's health companies are very science focused as well, very innovative. And, and sometimes it can be sort of like impossible is taking an existing technology and applying it to something where it can have a massive positive impact. So I don't think my thesis really changed. I think it just evolved and is being applied somewhere where it's really, really needed now. And I think it has even once I started in women's health, I think definitely their thesis has changed a little bit. Where I got to see more where there's a lot of innovation and looking mostly at where there's not enough innovation. And so fertility is great, it has a positive impact. But there's more to women's lives than having babies. And that's like a lot of our lives. And so there's a lot of problems that women face that are not being well addressed. And so I'm a little more interested in those. One of our investments is in endometriosis, which actually 1 in 10 women suffer from. There's not a good diagnostic right now and the NIH is barely even funding it. So you can kind of see that there's a lot of examples of inequalities that need to be addressed.
- [12:40]
Joel Palo Thinkle
What are some trends that you're seeing in the food tech space? Because there's plant based and then there's lab grown and then there's. I think there's like a hybrid now where there's companies that are obviously doing both. And I've been, I've been, I've been involved in both of those areas. But what's next? You know, there's cell based. I think the, some of the challenges with cell based meat is just the bioreactors, right? If you want to scale, you need, you know, the bioreactors. You got to grow the, the, the, the cells, right? So I guess what, what, what have you seen any, any thoughts on that issue and mitigating that? That's kind of like the latest insight I got. And then any foresight into like where food tech is heading. I know there's vertical farming now, right? People can grow plants. There's a big startup in Brooklyn. I forget the name of the company, but they're pretty much growing crops on top of a building.
- [13:38]
Jessica Carr
I think that's awesome. Yeah, I love that one because it kind of brings in the plant based movement and then solves a lot of supply chain issues of bringing food into cities. And also it's really Healthy because there's less pesticides or probably not pesticides and everything. So I love the vertical farming space. I think they have like engineering sort of problems to deal with, but and a lot of times they're growing like green, like leafy greens or herbs. So they're. I think they're still figuring out like how to efficiently grow other types of crops as well. And then lab grown. Yeah, I think scaling is still a long way out. I think regulation, like they are passing it in Singapore. So I think you can launch there and see if Singapore can be an example of regulating it. I definitely would want to make sure that it's really well evaluated for safety and making sure there's not any kind of like harmful chemicals that stay in the basically in the bioreactor and the meat. So yeah, and I think plant based. There's lots of like niches within plant based. Whether it's like, you know, towards an Asian market or towards like certain types of flavors or healthier. There's a lot of sort of niches, but I'm not sure any of the niches will grow to be as large as, you know, impossible and beyond. So yeah, I think there's still like the way I look at it isn't really like trends. I look at it as like the. There's still a lot of problems to be solved. So yeah, lots of opportunities there still.
- [15:14]
Joel Palo Thinkle
And yeah, I mean the last I read to the, you know, to your point, right. It was legalized in Singapore. Do you see, do you see that happening in the States and the more, you know, developed countries as well? And if not, you know, what is the, what do you think the holdup is from kind of seeing a lot of the lab grown stuff become more mainstream?
- [15:36]
Jessica Carr
I know they at least were last. I haven't been up on this really. I know last we're defining like which like if it's FDA or usda that's like going to regulate it. And that was sort of the last I heard. So they were talking about it and getting it organized, but I didn't hear much what happened after that.
- [15:55]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, I've heard also sometimes the incumbents, it's not, it's not great for the incumbents. Right. Because instead of buying Tyson meat, you know, you can just kind of talk to a new startup and buy, you know, that kind of meat in bulk. And you know, another thing is the texture. A lot of times the test texture is like a slush. Right. So it's not necessarily like the look and feel. You could probably create some Chicken nuggets or something like that. But it's not, I think, what you.
- [16:25]
Jessica Carr
Like the mixtures because it's like to me, plant based. The thing that's missing the most are some flavors and some of the fat. And so I think like a mixture could be where it starts with like fat meat and like cell based fat where you wouldn't need a lot of it. And the muscle you need like way more. And to have it like properly structured for it to have the texture like you said. So like something where it's like fat or functional might be a good start.
- [16:57]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, no, that's helpful. And then going a little deeper on the femtech, the femtech and female health sectors, can you unpack that a little bit? So I'm assuming there's some digital software components, but then there's like hardware and sensors. So can you maybe just break out how the software and devices get deeper, get broken out into the different areas of femtech or maybe just break down the industry?
- [17:26]
Jessica Carr
The word itself can also be controversial and confusing. The word tech was only added to it to emphasize innovation. And so it's not necessarily all tech driven, I would say. Yeah, it's, it's more just like where is the innovation happening? So I usually just say women's health and wellness. It's a little easier to sort of picture like, okay, it could be a diagnostic or it could be like something really, you know, like something that's not really science based but still needs innovation. There's still happening in like marketing for example. So there's like kind of two different ways you can break down the whole industry of women's health. So you could do it by sort of what type of product is it? There's like cpg, digital health, telemedicine, diagnostics. So you kind of like think about industries like therapeutics, med devices, they're all like affecting women's health. Then you could also say, what area of women's health is it affecting? Maternal health, Sexual wellness, menopause? There's all these different conditions that either solely or disproportionately or differently affect women. Even we experience heart attacks differently than men. There needs to be innovation around understanding women's heart health and how to treat when there's something wrong. Yeah, they coined that term because Clue, it's a tracking app for when you're on your period basically. And so they were raising money and they said like we were just going to add the word tech to it. So it sounds like something an investor would want to Talk to. That's really how that term came about. And then there's a sex tech as well. So it's kind of similar thing where it's like, doesn't have to be like that tech forward. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's like a social network or things like that.
- [19:27]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, I feel like there's also mental health components to that too. Right. Because sometimes wellness just comes from just general mental health as well. And then I think if there's specific applications to women that are more relevant than for men, then I think that's a unique niche as well.
- [19:47]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, we're definitely really interested in mental health and I would say we're really interested in everything that's really taboo and makes people uncomfortable to talk about. That's like where we're gonna flock to. So it's the best. And that's where there's a lot of opportunity and finding the right people that you can really align with there.
- [20:05]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Well, I think there's also an opportunity. What I've been noticing too. Cause I've been speaking to a lot of LPs and a lot of the LPs. The reason why they invest in these funds is because they just don't have access to the femtech deals and they don't know how, you know, they don't know where the events happen, they don't know where the who the accelerators are. So being able to invest in a fund, it's almost like being able to invest in an index of like all the femtech opportunities instead of having to do all the diligence and all the work of like just doing one. I look at it similar to like the S&P 500 versus just buying Tesla. You can kind of get access to like an index of, you know, you.
- [20:45]
Jessica Carr
Know, and we know how to pick like who's going to be the winner. We've seen, we talked to a lot of them, we know which one. Like they're not going to get a patent on it. So they're like not going to be as successful. We have databases of like how many companies there are in each sector. We have a database of exits, which is really important. A lot of even other investors were saying like, they don't know how many exits there are. There's actually over 100 average exit value being around 400 million. And so we put some of that info straight into our memos as well of like thinking about what kind of exit strategies some of the companies could have. And so it's not only about us having like Way more deal flow. But it's also being like so ingrained into the space and being able to make those like corporate partnerships as well.
- [21:36]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah. And tell me about the femtech community that you guys have. I guess what are the best communities to. To learn more about femtech? Are there accelerators now that people can go to to kind of meet these kind of companies? And then you guys have a community as well. So is that community more of a consortium of investors that have the same investment mandate?
- [21:58]
Jessica Carr
It's a lot of innovators from different sides. So I would say very. Probably the most active people are founders or some really talented people who are looking for new like career opportunity in fintech. There's definitely investors, whether they're funds like us or some angels. And so yeah, it's a virtual community basically can go on and start a conversation or ask something. So that's one. And then there's another Women's Coalition, Women's Health Coalition on Springboard. I think that one's really active as well. So I'd say those are two really active communities. There's also Hit Lab that gives awards to women's Health. That's probably one of the biggest ones of like Hit Lab and Women who Tech. Yeah, they both done femtech competitions. In terms of accelerators, I would say a lot of them. Like, I wouldn't say there's a top like femtech one specifically. I know there's some in Europe that are kind of starting but I don't know if they totally have it down yet. I would have to explore a little bit more. We're super us focused but like Plug and Play has a. Right now they're working with PNG so there's a cohort and it's not specifically femtoc but there's like maybe 4 out of 12 are like women's Health and Plug and Play has some in general that have been. And indie bios had a lot so tech stars. So they can be kind of intermixed in some of the top accelerators and incubators too.
- [23:38]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, no, it's exciting. Yeah. I mean it's growing and there's just a lot of cross pollination. Right. Because some of it, I mean a lot of the deals, especially food tech, there's an impact focus as well. And then there's a hybrid between Deep tech because you're looking at a lot of the science and the research. So do you feel that sometimes universities are good places to partner? Do you see any of going Back to your PhD days. Are you seeing some of the tech being created in the lab?
- [24:07]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, there's one I haven't caught up with her in a while but my grad advisor is an advisor to that one and that's sort of a microbiome center that they've created at ucsd. Super excited about the whole innovations coming out of there and I've seen like another couple other UCs that have. Yeah, some companies that are in women's health spinning out of there. So definitely a good opportunity.
- [24:36]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, no, it's exciting. And what are some tips that you would give for, for some of the, for the people on the line here in terms of sourcing deals? You know, it sounds like you're connecting inbound and outbound, but you know, any career advice for the people on the line as far as just connecting with founders? Maybe sourcing and screening deals?
- [25:00]
Jessica Carr
Definitely. So if you're just starting out, one thing I like to say is do some equity crowdfunding, especially if you're not accredited yet. I'm part of Republic, really love their platform. High quality deals, you can read the whole page and it tells you a lot of like learning about due diligence and I think that's a good place to start. If you haven't done much at all, you can invest like a minimum usually of $100 so you're not gambling a ton and you get investor updates. It's really fun. So I check out some of those sites. If you want to be a little more serious and you're still starting out, you could do something like Pipeline Ang one that I did is called Vectors Angel. It is impact focus and you can sort of learn the ropes on angel investing and how to evaluate deals. And then they have some, sometimes some of them have their own deal flow. So yeah, angel groups are really great. Some of them are structured where you can learn and I think yeah, if you're like start to generate more and more of your own and an angel, you could even syndicate some of your own deals and get some experience doing SPVs. And then yeah, I mean like with our fund we also have a few fellows that we're teaching. So if you start developing your own thesis and figure out where you want to invest, you can reach out to some of the funds and ask for opportunity offer. A lot of us are early so we're not paying. So sort of have that in mind of like what offer and what you would like to learn in exchange, not necessarily while earning money while you're learning. Yeah, I've done that too. Like, I've done a lot of free work. So you're not above it, probably. Yeah.
- [26:49]
Joel Palo Thinkle
I mean, there's a really good YouTube video by Gary Tan, and it's earn while you learn. So you could, you know, you could keep your day job and try to learn on the side and try to build, build that experience. I think that's definitely a good, good way to learn. And it's a win win. Right. If you can get help and value to your fund and then you're also able to mentor and coach somebody else, then it's a win win. So I do have some people that are interested in women's health, so happy to take that offline if there's, you know, if there's anyone that you need, if you need more help. And I guess what you've chosen some people on your team. This is for the audience. Again, what do you look for in. And I'm also thinking about this too, so I also want advice. So what do you look for in a good analyst or an associate? What are some of the traits that you think are important to you?
- [27:42]
Jessica Carr
Sorry, my dog's barking. He wants to talk to you. Sometimes he helps. Everybody's pretty different. So I say one is that we're very science focused. We have a scientist who's doing her PhD now, and then we have another girl who's been around women's health for a while. So having something that, you know, you can usually offer. And some of the others are like MBAs, and they're really good with the financial analysis. But usually I have, you know, a conversation, understand what they're motivated by, why they're interested in helping. And usually if I get along with them, I'm like, well, they'll. They'll learn. If I think they can do a founder's call without making it really awkward or bad, I guess I could set the. I. Yeah. Anyway, I guess I just kind of know when I talk to someone that they would.
- [28:43]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, I think also it's kind of, you know, that person should also be really excited about the sector, too, because I think part of what gets you up in the morning is really just, you know, the. The excitement to learn and go deep and then meet new people. So I think that's a huge thing too. Just that enthusiasm to always be learning and get feedback and get better and better every day.
- [29:05]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, they definitely need to be, like, pretty independent thinkers and also can sort of keep them. Like, you can't answer a lot of questions all the time, especially because we're remote so definitely like self starters and independent thinkers and you know, can solve a problem if we're not all like together and talking all the time because we're remote. So I definitely think that's something where I can see that they can like really pursue one of their ideas. And yeah, they've done a really good job so far.
- [29:39]
Joel Palo Thinkle
So one thing that I've done last week is I've reflected over the last four months from launching this fund accelerator and I sat down and I wrote like, and collected and kind of organized all of my learning. So I'm going to try to get that out soon once it's, you know, looks like it makes sense. But what I also want to hear learn from you is what did you learn, you know, maybe some learnings from when you worked at a fund and then, you know, just taking the plunge into starting a fund. What are some of the biggest takeaways, things that you didn't expect would happen that you, that you know, that you take away now is kind of a huge life lesson or learning in your career.
- [30:27]
Jessica Carr
It's a big one. I think it just my whole, like I said, my whole career made more sense to me. I was like, yeah, even like the philosophy major for a long time, I was like, does that even tie in anywhere? But I feel like really now I can see it in terms of like making arguments. And so for me it just like makes my life way more holistic too and being like a big proponent of like health and wellness.
- [30:53]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Well, I mean like you're kind of, you feel like you're kind of doing your, your life's purpose. You're, you're kind of in the sector where you think you should be. And, and I'm, I'm kind of like saying this verbally because that was kind of same way I was. You know, like I came from a tech background. It was, I had a good job, I was getting paid really well. But it didn't for, for the longest time, it didn't feel like it was what I was supposed to be doing. I was like, is this it? You know, so I think that's kind of, it sounds like that's what you're saying too. But I don't want to like put words.
- [31:29]
Jessica Carr
Oh yeah, that is how I feel. And it's. And yeah, I think some of the lessons of like how things tie in together, like when it makes sense would be like my philosophical lesson and not.
- [31:42]
Joel Palo Thinkle
That I feel like the things that you did as an operator though, like those come back, like sometimes when I Worked as an operator. Like, those lessons I learned in like, corporate America, like just email etiquette. Right. Like, if I never learned that and I just jumped into vc, I'd probably be a really horrible VC with really bad etiquette. You know, Some of those corporate structured experiences I think do help, and I think that's why a lot of people do. There's different VCs, right? There's people that are, that are right into VC right after college, and then there's people that kind of have some really good industry experience and then they break in. And I feel like they're both great in different instances. But I think for me, some of that corporate larger company experience kind of helped a little bit as far as, like, making me a little more mature. But I feel the same way. I'm like, man, I feel like I'm doing something that is more aligned to my mission.
- [32:39]
Jessica Carr
Yeah. And like, for me, working on Impossible, like, I loved it. And also sometimes I was just like flipping and eating burgers all day. But also I work with some of the highest quality people I've ever met there. Some of the smartest people. And so definitely, like, raises the bar super high on my investment criteria. Now.
- [32:58]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, you also saw the founder side and then you were there. Were you there till the exit or did you leave?
- [33:05]
Jessica Carr
Impossible has not exited.
- [33:07]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Oh, I'm thinking. Sorry, I'm thinking about beyond me when.
- [33:09]
Jessica Carr
Probably I can possibly raise in another round. So still, I'm still waiting on my, you know, coming into wealth moment.
- [33:18]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, no, sorry. Yeah, it was just for some reason I actually bought a bunch of. I bought both and they're both in my fridge. So I got mixed up for a second. But yeah, Impossible still. Still private, but. But, you know, you got. The main point was that you got a lot of that, you know, founder experience being on the team early. So you kind of had to wear a lot of hats and, you know, you're. You're a founder now, right? Starting a fund. That's a, That's a business. You're building a firm. So it's also an entrepreneurial.
- [33:46]
Jessica Carr
Definitely helps relate with a lot of the founders because they're not, not all their investors are the, you know, founders of the fund. And so like some of the. The last deal I got into, she, I. It was a little later stage and so mostly were seed, but I was like, well, this one seems interesting. I'll check it out. But it's later. She might not even be interested in our small check size. But like, the fact that we are both founders and women and passionate about a lot of the similar things. She was just like, I'll take your small check. It's okay. And so it's like, okay, this is like, it's really cool.
- [34:21]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah. So we, you know, that really aligns with a piece of advice that we got, you know, I got last night, we had our cohort last night, and one of the mentors came in and, you know, it. The earlier fund managers, fund one, fund two, they're going to pick up the call because these companies, these hundred K checks, like, that's like make or break, right? You know, you have to make those companies win to really count towards your performance and then, you know, get you set up for. For fun, too. So I feel like, you know, the bigger checks, you don't get that kind of love, you know, and probably don't resonate in the same way that you do because you'. You're also a founder. So that was a really unique insight and I'm glad that kind of what you're saying is, you know, into that same tone as well.
- [35:08]
Jessica Carr
Definitely. Yeah. Some of ours are where, like the first fund that's in, so it's really exciting. So, yeah, I'm maybe naive right now where I'm like, I don't imagine any of them failing because they're all so amazing.
- [35:25]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah. I mean. And then what are your thoughts on just crossover funds now coming in earlier? Are you seeing any crossover funds getting into women's health and then also in food tech? Because that's also something that, you know, I ask every person that comes in, what are your thoughts on that? Because, you know, just these bigger. These bigger Tiger globals and CO twos are getting in earlier and earlier. So I think that's on any women's.
- [35:51]
Jessica Carr
Health deal, for the record. Not. Yeah, I don't think they're going to. I don't know if it's because they're not seeing that deal flow or they're not looking at women's health that much yet or what. But most of the deals I'm in. Women's health is still a growing sort of area, especially investments. So most of the deals I'm in, I mean, I'm in like one that was oversubscribed and like, done in two weeks. But a lot of them are like, raising over several months. They need a lot of intros. At least on the seed stage, hopefully later stage, it'll be all set up for success. But it's not a. Most of the deals are not very competitive.
- [36:32]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Right now are you seeing, you know, so I'm seeing more retail investing across different industries and platforms. Right. So I'm seeing like space, I'm seeing like healthcare, there's like the Republic for space, Republic for healthcare. So are you seeing that as well in any other verticals like femtech or Food Tech where smaller non accredited investors can now get in? And do you see that just from a macro standpoint, do you see that kind of unbundling? Because right now we have Republic, we have we funder. But do you feel that there's going to be more niche kind of retail opportunities?
- [37:14]
Jessica Carr
When I heard about what's involved in actually creating a platform like that. Because actually Cheryl from Republic on the podcast and Britney, let's start a Republic for fintech. And Cheryl's like, you know, what's involved in starting this type of, you know, security. So it's, it sounds like to me that you know, the ones that are dominant are able to add more industries more easily than an industry coming in and doing their own thing. Yeah, I don't, I don't see, I don't see it happening as much but maybe there could be more. I mean there are syndicates focused on. But yeah, I haven't seen anybody say that they're going to start their own Republic for Women's Health or Food Tech, but. And those ones already have a lot of those deals there too.
- [38:06]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah. Speaking of Republic, I've heard some really good stuff from founders and then obviously there's been some funds that have been raising funds on Republic. So I've heard just really good stuff as a platform which is kind of the support with trying to achieve the goals you need to achieve. So that's really great to hear. And I'm also excited about just where capital is being formed. Right. Like so new investment managers. I feel like in the future it's going to be easier and easier hopefully to start a fund. You know, platforms like Republic, there's hopefully easier ways for people to spin up the formation or do SPVs much faster.
- [38:51]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, I'll say. Yeah, I used Carta fund formation, it was very affordable. Great team. I'm having great experience working with Carta and I know there's a few others like Angellist and there was another allocations. I've heard good things. So it's great that it's becoming more affordable. We just need more LPs out there investing in small funds, a lot of LPs. Yeah. The institutionals, they cannot write small checks. So some of these newer fund of Funds that are raising from them are really good in between.
- [39:30]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, no, I totally agree. And just from all the data I've been looking at, just people have been saying good things about just tech operators, right? So I mean even angel checks, if you cobble together a couple of those angel checks, you've got a couple million, right? So I think that's an untapped market. And again, because you have a unique access point into a certain niche that's very attractive, I feel, to a lot of LPs. So that's really, I feel like that's a really cool edge that you have. And you know, what's your advice on helping to build that engaged community? You know, are the dinners effective to kind of build community or is it webinars or content? You know, any, any advice for like, you know, I think there's one or two people that are looking to start a fund as well. So, you know, maybe building the brand and then, you know, just community building or pipeline building with lp.
- [40:27]
Jessica Carr
One thing like early on, like when we didn't have our pitch deck and all, you know, we hadn't formed any entities or anything, we did talk to the people we thought would be most interested that when materials and gather like soft commits right away and figure out how much soft commits you have and then maybe you could that, you know, if your first close with that is 10%, which ours was, then you assume that that will lead, you know, one person can lead to another. You can kind of 10x what your first close was. Or a lot of the people that you've been talking to that are kind of skeptical or they want to, you know, a lot of them are like, come back when you're 50%. I'll come back if I still want you when I'm 50%. But yeah, building community can be hard. During COVID and sf, everybody's left. I have barely even meeting anyone in person in sf. So if you're in sf, please meet me. I went to la, had way more meetings than I had in the last year. And just a few days dinner was really good. That was just last week. So I don't know if anything. Well, you know, maybe it's like long term relationship building or get a commitment out of it. I'm not sure yet. But it was really nice.
- [41:44]
Joel Palo Thinkle
The, I've noticed the multiple touch points really helped too. So like you do an event, it's really awesome. I feel like education really helps too. So like, you know, you have a couple cool panels and it's a really cool Curated event and then, you know, they, they want to come back again. Then there's like another touch point. So I've heard some good, some good results from just kind of like to your point. Right. It's a long game, so there's like multiple touch points and follow ups.
- [42:11]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, people want to do different things too. Like some people might not want to go to a dinner, but they'll go to like Zoom webinar or maybe, maybe they're not doing that. They'll read your newsletter and they'll sit down and like, you know, evaluate something you sent them and. Or some of them might just love Brittany's podcast or. Or we might do. You know, my preference is to just do one on one meetings in person rather than like dinner with 50 people for me is very like intimidating because.
- [42:39]
Joel Palo Thinkle
It'S, you know, when you have dinner, you can't really meet. Like maybe the LP that you want to meet is like at the other end of the table.
- [42:46]
Jessica Carr
They did design it well, though. Everybody got up and said a few words, which did take a very long time. And then there was like a wine hour before we sat down, had a first course, moved for the main course, moved again, like more wine, dessert, More wine. Yeah, the wine was.
- [43:07]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah. Because you don't want to make it like an obvious like meat market where it's just drinks and then you just have a badge that says like your LP versus GP.
- [43:15]
Jessica Carr
LPs. Didn't really want to talk shop. It was more just FaceTime, say hi, who we are. Yeah, yeah.
- [43:25]
Joel Palo Thinkle
It's a fine balance too, because some of them. Yeah. And I mean, some of them also, you know, I think, what are your thoughts? And we, we've gone through this a lot. You know, just the finessing of sharing deal flow. Right. You don't want to get, you know, this was, this is Lula mentioned last night. Like, you don't want to get into the trap where you just kind of like someone that just shares deal flow and then that person never.
- [43:48]
Jessica Carr
That's the first. I had one other GP who's like, yeah, if somebody says that, I tell them the pecking order and they're like at the end of the pecking order of who I share deals with, because it's like, yeah, first I share deals with my little group, their investors, who I know are amazing. And then I do this and this and this and that. Like famous, sorry, family offices. They're kind of down low because I don't know. Yeah.
- [44:13]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Oh. So they do it based on the type of LP or they do it based on like, if you are circles.
- [44:19]
Jessica Carr
Like, I have a little circle of my first, you know, or like people if I pass. But I'm like, oh, I think, you know, so and so would be super interested. Yeah, there's not a good way. There's not a, like, platform that I know of where it's just, it's like all manual, like sending decks in an email. Maybe that should.
- [44:39]
Joel Palo Thinkle
No, I agree that there should be a cool platform where like you can see deals, but there's like a teaser of a really hot deal or something, but you can't see it unless you invest in the phone.
- [44:49]
Jessica Carr
Do I send it to first?
- [44:50]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, that's similar feedback that I got. So I think, you know, I think what you're trying to say is, look, you know, they, there are some deals that maybe you can, you can talk about so that they can understand your ability to source deals, but you want to gate it in some way where, you know, the people who are LPs do get, you know, first more exclusive access. And then if those people want to get upgraded, you know, that's like, it's like a SaaS platform, right? You got to upgrade to the premium to be able to get access. Right?
- [45:23]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, yeah. And I know it's the thing now where a lot of, you know, people who were investing in funds are trying to do more directs. But so I like, yeah, we're so thesis driven and we know the market so well that like when some of the people who we share deals with send us something, we just like sometimes laugh like, oh my gosh, this is their deal flow. It's that they need us more than we need their deal flow, but we need other things.
- [45:50]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Sure, yeah. No, I agree. I think there's different profiles. Right. So I think you, you mentioned it. Not to Harp anymore, but there's some people that they just want to be information gatherers, right? They just want to learn and then it's kind of a waste of your time. So I think like trying to. And I think it helps too when you have a community. Right. So you and I right now are having a therapy session. But you know, when you have a community of people where you're doing this together, like you can kind of get intel on who's an awesome LP and who's not. And what's been really great about our community too is people have been kind enough to refer, like mentors, you know, that are LPs to kind of come in as well. So that's been really amazing. But you know, just part of the community. Right. It's like, hey, is this person, like, a waste of time? And a lot of times you can just save a meeting just from, you know, just pinging a few people to get. Get some of that intel.
- [46:46]
Jessica Carr
Yeah. There's a new app for, like, email intros. It's called the Bridge, and you can actually give feedback at the end. And so I think that could be a good way to like, Like, Yeah, the community too. But this way you could sort of like, see, like, I introduced them to, like, three gps, and they all said that it was a waste of time, and that way you don't have to always ask them directly, too. I would check that out.
- [47:09]
Joel Palo Thinkle
That's really cool. So it's for GPs and LPs?
- [47:12]
Jessica Carr
No, it's for anybody.
- [47:13]
Joel Palo Thinkle
And so you get reviewed based on how your.
- [47:17]
Jessica Carr
It's not like an Airbnb review. It's not, like, public, but it's sort of, like, private. Like, Anna was the one who told me about this. She introduced me to Taryn. And then first it's like, taryn, do you want to meet Jessica? And we both, like, opt in, so she doesn't have to manually do that part.
- [47:34]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Manually. The email opt in. Right.
- [47:36]
Jessica Carr
Yeah. And then afterwards it's like, was this introduction useful? And you can, like, write a note or something.
- [47:43]
Joel Palo Thinkle
So I think they know that you. Do they know it's from you or is it anonymous?
- [47:48]
Jessica Carr
I don't think I see any of my reviews. Okay. The person who introduced us.
- [47:55]
Joel Palo Thinkle
The person. So let's say. Okay, so we both know Ariana. Right? So, like, so who gets reviewed? Does Ariana get reviewed for the quality of her intro or do I get reviewed in terms of, like, how I interact with you?
- [48:09]
Jessica Carr
You. You get.
- [48:10]
Joel Palo Thinkle
I don't want to be a. I don't want to be a horrible. You know, get revealed.
- [48:13]
Jessica Carr
I think it's more for, like, if somebody ghosts you or something like that.
- [48:17]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Oh, that's good.
- [48:18]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, yeah. Not like. It's not like a star system or. Yeah, it's like, was this a good connection or was this useful? Yes or no? Any notes? It's not. Yeah, it's not gonna be like, don't worry. It's like star public. Like.
- [48:35]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, it's like VC guide for. For warm intros. That's cool. Yeah. I mean, it helps just, you know that that's kind of. It's just. It goes back to, like, corporate experience. Right. Being professional. Right. So if you're gonna set up a meeting and you can't make it, you know, just cancel it and let them know. So I think that, you know, I think for me, you know, some of those things I kind of maybe take it for granted. But I think some of that, you know, that more mature experience was helpful. But, but, but that's cool. What are some other cool tools that you know? So that's an interesting one. Any, any other tools that you're sharing in the community that, that I should also share with everyone?
- [49:14]
Jessica Carr
I mean the other tool that I love is Superhuman. For email I get really.
- [49:19]
Joel Palo Thinkle
What do you like about Superhuman? What's, what's unique about it? I mean I know they're crushing it.
- [49:26]
Jessica Carr
I can get to Inbox zero by just setting like this one. Come back. I got to do this one at this time. I can. This is super easy.
- [49:34]
Joel Palo Thinkle
It kind of helps you manage your inboxes like to do's. Okay, so you like Superhuman.
- [49:41]
Jessica Carr
Look at it. I'm just like remind me of all these at like 5pm and that's my email hour. I think that's really helpful. And when I look at Gmail again I'm like, how did I ever use this clunky old technology.
- [49:54]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Man? Check it out. And then I'm assuming obviously that the default tech stack is calendly zoom. And there's probably. There's one more.
- [50:05]
Jessica Carr
There are deals on Monday.com which is maybe not the most go to one you like Monday.
- [50:10]
Joel Palo Thinkle
I use Trello. I mean you kind of use like the Kanban board.
- [50:15]
Jessica Carr
I don't know. I think just like the list view and all these like tags we can use and we can sort of analyze how many deals we looked at sector there and I think it's useful for kind of that analysis.
- [50:29]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah. Monday.com is good. You know obviously people use notion as well.
- [50:38]
Jessica Carr
Yeah.
- [50:38]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Thinking back.
- [50:40]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, like a better CRM. But I'm using airtable.
- [50:46]
Joel Palo Thinkle
So. Oh, so you use Airtable as yours. So that plugs into like your like.
- [50:52]
Jessica Carr
Airtables for LPs and Monday.com is for the deals.
- [50:57]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Deals. Does Airtable connect to your. Your inbox? So it pulls in like you do a manual. Okay.
- [51:04]
Jessica Carr
I mean something. But sometimes the manual like helps me like process my thoughts about like person, the conversation, the status. Yeah, yeah.
- [51:14]
Joel Palo Thinkle
That's much better than Google Docs. I mean I know you know it's a lot of people do use HubSpot. I think HubSpot has a free, free version. I have HubSpot. I just don't use it like I should, because I've heard some good stuff. But, you know, Airtable seems like a good one too. I mean, all of them seem better than Google Google Spreadsheet. But, you know, sometimes I've used a lot of these fancy tools and then I end up still going back to Google Spreadsheet because you can kind of like sort and, you know, play around with the spreadsheet and stuff like that. So it's kind of, kind of helpful.
- [51:45]
Jessica Carr
So, yeah, I also use Evernote. That's not a standard one either. But just like every time I'm getting on a meeting, I have a new, like a note and it's very searchable. You can use it offline. I'm like, yeah, Google Docs. So those are my main ones.
- [52:01]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Evernote is good. I haven't used Evernote in a while because I started using the, just like the Apple notepad. But yeah, I used to use Evernote a lot. Like, I would use it a lot also when I would go to events, like just typing the notes on my phone and then I knew that it would sync. So that was really, really helpful. So. Well, cool. We got like four minutes. So, you know, any, you know, I'll let anybody chime in if they have any questions. They've been pretty quiet, really good listeners. So, you know, with the four minutes, if anybody wants to chime in with questions, that's fine. But I always ask every guest to just maybe share a piece of wisdom from like a mentor. You know, if there's like a family member or someone you look up to that gave you some advice or tips for life or your career, would love to hear it.
- [52:55]
Jessica Carr
I think basically it has to do with sort of like tuning into intuition, sort of knowing, you know, what I, how I feel about things and how I can use that as, as my guide. So I've like had mentors who have helped guide with how to do that. And I think, yeah, it's great. I get advice, I have mentors, I talk to people about everything that's going on. In the end, I sort of like, after I talk a lot, I'm like, I think I know the answer myself and I can get some validation or pushback to challenge it. But I think that's something that's really valuable to learn.
- [53:38]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Thing is, get, get a lot of feedback, but then try to internalize it yourself and maybe come up with your own internal view.
- [53:45]
Jessica Carr
Is that it's, it's like using, like learning how to use intuition to make decisions. They're also very informed by advice and Feedback.
- [53:55]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Yeah, no, that's. That. That's really good advice. There was like a fireside chat with Jeff Bezos, and he also said something that resonates with what you just said. He just said. He said some of his most important decisions were done with. With his intuition. So. So I totally agree with that. I mean, Jeff Bezos does. So.
- [54:20]
Jessica Carr
Good to know.
- [54:21]
Joel Palo Thinkle
I guess you're good. You're right up there with them. Well, hey, if anybody, if no one else has any questions, thanks for your time. You know, really appreciate you being generous with, you know, your. Your time and kind of chatting with me for a little bit. And, you know, I hope to see you in New York or on the west coast, so good luck with everything.
- [54:41]
Jessica Carr
Oh, someone's off mute.
- [54:42]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Oh, Philippe. Yeah. If you don't mind, I have a very quick question, as usual. I just recently joined, but. Hi, Jessica. Your. Your background is very similar to mine. I was a pre med student, then I got a BA in economics and then landed in technology, so. But what I wanted to ask you. Impossible food. At what level did you invest? Were you part of the first round and how much was put in?
- [55:10]
Jessica Carr
I was an employee when it was less than a year old, and so I vested my equity as an employee and I purchased my shares in that way. But I didn't invest. I didn't invested in one of the rounds.
- [55:25]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Got it.
- [55:27]
Jessica Carr
Okay.
- [55:28]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Well, thanks very much.
- [55:30]
Jessica Carr
Yeah, thank you.
- [55:31]
Joel Palo Thinkle
Thank you. Cool. Awesome. Well, have a good evening and hope to catch up soon.
- [55:37]
Jessica Carr
Thank you, John. Thanks, guys.