Episode Transcript
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Carl Grant (00:12):
Welcome to
Rainmakers. I'm here with
Kathryn Cartini, founder andpartner of Chloe capital.
Welcome, Kate.
Kathryn Cartini (00:20):
Thanks so much
for having me, Carl.
Carl Grant (00:22):
So Kate and I have
known each other for a while
now, I don't know how many yearsit's been, but we got to know
each other when you were wearingone of your many hats. You wear
a lot of hats, and we can talkabout that you were the
marketing person for Upstateventure connects, I believe when
we met, and you were up therelarge and uncharged speaking on
(00:44):
the podium. And and then webecame friends as coolie
sponsored that event. And thenyou've done all sorts of
entrepreneurial things sincethen. And let's talk about some
of them.
Kathryn Cartini (00:55):
Yes,
absolutely. So you're right, I
was with upstate ventureConnect, working with the
founder of trying out Martinbabic. And was is my honor, I
had left upstate New York andpursued my career in journalism,
and then became a marketer, andopened up a little marketing
firm. So when a family memberfell, ill and I moved back home
(01:17):
to upstate New York, I connectedwith Martin, and he had just had
a successful IPO with hiscompany. And he wanted to create
a connected ecosystem in upstateNew York that was similar to
what he was seeing in SiliconValley. And recognizing that I
had that marketing experienceand sales experience, he tapped
me on the shoulder to assist himand growing upstate venture
(01:41):
Connect, which is really justabout connecting entrepreneurs
to the resources they need togrow businesses, like trying to
in upstate New York, andtherefore create a bunch of jobs
and make sure that all of thestudents that we graduate from
our upstate New Yorkuniversities don't have to leave
us, they can stay right here andprosper.
Carl Grant (02:01):
And he did a great
job with that I'm friends with
him as well, knowing him back towhen he first got the company
started, believe it or not. Andso he was our common connection
there. And then you've gone offand let's talk about your
current role. Four and a halfyears, you've been developing
Chloe capital, this is a womenfocused venture fund. Yes. And
(02:23):
these things are not easy to do.
I did a small fund, while back.
And I know how hard it is. Sotalk about the challenges and
the relationships you've had todevelop to do this.
Kathryn Cartini (02:34):
Yeah. So you're
right. It's It's not an easy
task for certain. But here iswhat I learned from my time at
Upstate venture Connect, itreally is all about
relationships and businessdevelopment. And no one does
that better than you, Carl. Sowhen we set out to create a
movement to invest in women, allof our mentors said, it's not
(02:57):
going to be easy, it's going tobe expensive, it's going to be a
long journey, etc, etc. And wetook it on the chin, and we
said, but if we can just getfive people to support us, and
then those five people told fivemore people and etc, etc, then
we might have a shot at this.
And that's exactly what we did.
(03:18):
We started about four or fiveyears ago. And it really was
just a program to teach womenhow to invest. And we went to
the Mohawk Mountain House, andit was just a beautiful retreat.
And alongside us, we invitedexperts in the industry from
portfolio and Ostia angels inGolden seeds. And we said,
(03:39):
Please teach us what you know.
And then we invited five womenLED technology companies into
the experience so they couldlearn alongside the investors.
And at the end of the day, weended up making an investment,
and a woman from Ann Arbor,Michigan, who is a mother of
five, and she had actually hadher baby or fifth baby during
the due diligence process. Soshe brought Lucy to the event.
(04:00):
Still breastfeeding wasbreastfeeding in the back of the
room when we announced her asthe recipient of our first
investment. And you know, whatis a mom, CEO to do, but she
just threw the blanket overLucy. And you can see in the
pictures, Lucy's little feetsticking out from underneath the
blanket. And at that time, Elisaand I looked at each other and
(04:22):
several members in the roomsaid, you know, ladies, this is
more than what you think it is,and what do you need to bring
this experience to our city? Andwe looked at each other and we
said, You know what, well, weneed to raise more money. We
need to have sponsors to go ontour. We certainly need to be
connected with more amazingwomen like Kim gammas from meet
(04:45):
bettino to invest in and theysaid, done, done and done. So
you see Carl, that was themovement just sparking itself
and it was all about gettingsome amazing people in the room.
That I wanted to support what wewere doing, and they wanted us
to succeed.
Carl Grant (05:05):
That's great. So, I
was surprised to learn when you
and I caught up recently thatyou have not just fun focused on
women, but half of your fund isfocused on minority women.
Kathryn Cartini (05:15):
Yeah.
Carl Grant (05:16):
Talk a little bit
about that.
Kathryn Cartini (05:17):
Yeah,
absolutely. So uh, you know,
again, this has been about fourand a half, five years now. And
our investment thesis, or shallI say our impact thesis is to
invest in women LED technologycompanies. And that means at
least one person who identifiesas a female owning 20% of the
company. So sorry, guys thatemailed me on LinkedIn that say,
(05:39):
I'm married, and my wife owns50% of what I own, that is true.
But in our case, that does notqualify it, you need to have 20%
on the cap table. But inaddition to that, we are
recognizing through not onlystudies out there from
pitchbook, and Cambridgeassociates, but now our own
portfolio, that women LEDtechnology companies with
(06:02):
diverse leadership teams areperforming better, they're
generating more revenue, they'reexiting a little bit faster,
they're producing greaterreturns for investors. So not
only is our impact thesis, theright thing to do, it's good
business. And we now are, wehave always said, wouldn't it be
wonderful if we could really goout there and find amazing
(06:26):
champions, and those champions,when we look back, we're 50%
people of color. So we had it asan intention. And we are very
pleased to have made thatintention come to life. And now
with the support of some amazinginvestors and the successful
second close of our impact fund,we can really go out there and
(06:49):
put that intention to good use.
And we can be truly searchingfor bipac founders.
Carl Grant (06:56):
So what most people
listening to this, don't realize
they think of the venture fundbusiness as glamorous, glorious
business where you invest money.
But you also have to raisemoney. That's the really hard
part of this business. And sowhen you have a focus like that,
where you're focusing on womenand half minority women, what
kind of limited partner base Doyou raise from and how do you
(07:19):
get to them?
Kathryn Cartini (07:21):
Yeah, that is a
great point. So for us, even
though we in before we startedour impact fund, we had already
been investing on specialpurpose vehicles, and already
had six investments that weredoing very well. So when we
opened our $25 million impactfund, we were still considered
first time fund managers, andwe're women. So as much as
people don't want to admit thatit is more difficult for a woman
(07:46):
or a minority to raise funding,it truly is. So we had a lot
stacked against us, Carl, butagain, we had developed what
other people were calling amovement, and they were all
willing to assist us in some wayshape, or form, and invest in
women to ask me so much morethan writing a check again, it's
really more about who do youknow? And how can I help. So
(08:08):
what we are looking for rightnow, since we are a little too
small for institutional capital,is we love to surround ourselves
with high net worth individualsor family offices. And we see
that the family offices andindividuals who come on board
with us already have in theirline cites the impact mission of
(08:32):
their own. And so it's reallyjust about them already aligning
with the opportunity to investin women and people of color.
They come on board, and theysupport us wholeheartedly.
Carl Grant (08:44):
Let's talk about
some of the other hats you wear.
How many hats Do you wear today?
Kathryn Cartini (08:49):
Oh, I don't
know, really, honestly, I'm
really just spending time on twoon two things, and then just
helping others whenever I can.
Okay, and so probably isprobably the other hat that I'm
wearing the most right now. AndI gotta tell you, if if founders
out there do not know or notembracing crowdfunding Republic
has really taken the world bystorm. It's a crowdfunding
platform that allows you toraise up to $5 million from
(09:12):
accredited and non accreditedindividuals. And they really do
a stellar job at handling themarketing that we need in the
digital age to get youropportunity in front of the
masses.
Carl Grant (09:27):
Talk a little bit
about how the crowdfunding
process works, because I thinkrelationships being very
important in fundraising, peoplelike to get deals referred to
them by people they know angelslike that. Venture Capitalists
like that. Who are thesecrowdfunders and how do you
establish that relationship?
Kathryn Cartini (09:44):
Absolutely. So
it is a new dawn of fundraising.
You're right. Whereas beforewhen you're just starting out
and raising preseed you had toconnect with local angels in
your town, right? And it wasmore of an affinity based on
where you went to school or,again, who you knew. But mostly
geographic with crowdfunding,it's about the experts at
(10:05):
Republic performing the duediligence for you, since maybe
you might just be dipping yourtoe into the investing arena,
and you need someone to kicktires and learn from them. And
then going out there and seeingwho, what industry or what
product or what service fromyour experience in business
(10:27):
resonates with you. And there'swhere you're finding the
affinity, right? It's like ifyou know about a certain topic,
and you can really see, alright,this solution is really going to
go the distance, then you'resupporting it based on that, and
the in the due diligence isalready done for you and wrapped
up in a bow, I can say that themarketing certainly plays a
(10:47):
strong, a strong card in all ofit. And that's why a platform
like Republic is so stellarbecause they are amazing at
digital marketing. But people doattract people. And it gives
others the confidence to putdown a little bit of a bet when
they see that so many othershave supported the company. So
(11:08):
it's kind of like, catches onfire, wildfire is at the is at
the same, but it catches onfire, when you see so many
people put in little bets oncrowdfunding, and then it you
know, it all adds together. Andthen if you're a founder or even
an investor, you may say, butno, I don't want all of those
investors on my cap table. Well,that's not how it works. It's on
(11:30):
a crowd safe. So all of theinvestors regardless of how
small could be $100, you are nowall bundled together, and you
only see the investment in itsentirety in one line on a cap
table.
Carl Grant (11:45):
Alright, now I'm
going to ask you in off the wall
question, but I only because Iknow this about you, I've walked
down the street with you inSaratoga Springs. Yeah, with
your dog, you have a Dalmatian.
And you know, nobody noticed me.
Perhaps they noticed you. Buteverybody noticed your dog and
your dog. I forget the dog'sname, but I remember that it has
(12:06):
its own Instagram page, or evenmonetizing it at one point. So
how does the dog play into yourbusiness development?
Kathryn Cartini (12:14):
Oh, Angie.
Alright, so my dirty littlesecret. My dog son checks ch e x
is my best salesperson. Becauseeveryone loves him. You're
right. He's striking. He'sfriendly. And you know, I love
living in Saratoga Springs, NewYork, because we're known for
horse racing here. And there area few months in the summer,
(12:35):
particularly, where tons ofpeople come in from all over the
world, for the horse races. Andwalking up and down Broadway is
like the equivalent of owning asandwich shop and being like a
sandwich costume. And, you know,we enjoy it, he enjoys it, but
it's more than just business. Wedo a lot of community service
(12:57):
where Carl, and you know, we'reout there with the fire
department in the parades andwe're welcoming people to the
town alongside the chamber. Andhe really enjoys it and I really
enjoyed giving back becausepeople adore him so much.
Carl Grant (13:13):
That's cute. So
you've made some hard decisions
regarding you know, developing afamily and things like that
you're very driven woman but Idon't think everybody has to
make that decision. You talkedabout funding the woman with
five kids which amazing Yeah, Ihave five kids and I know what
that's like and and you know, Idon't know how I don't know how
she was building a business andhaving a fifth kid it just seems
(13:36):
nearly impossible but I guess itis possible. So for the young
woman listening who's is likewow, you know, I want to I want
to do what she does. What advicedo you have for her?
Kathryn Cartini (13:50):
That is a har
one because it is just so spe
ialized. But you know, the advce that we got before we sta
ted closing capital though itas difficult to swallow it was
true. It is very difficult andjust like anything, if you are
going to go all in and be pasionate about something that the
more yes you say you have to sayno to other things. So you kno
(14:14):
before you do anything in lif, and it doesn't have to be ven
ure it doesn't have to be stating a business. It could be rai
ing a family, just know that thee are only so many hours in a d
y, so many days in a week, soany weeks in a month. And you
really have to commit to whaever in your heart you are pas
ionate about and understand thayou just can't do it all You
(14:38):
will never be able to do at allthere's no such thing as per
ect and as much as we all wiltry there really is no such thi
g as balance in life. If you sayyes to one thing, you will hav
to say no to something els. And as long as you can be sec
re within yourself to know thathe things that you are say
(14:59):
ng No two are the things thayou were not the number one mos
passionate about and be okawith that. Then in my book, you
are doing the right thing youshould never have any reg ets.
Carl Grant (15:12):
Katherine Kartini,
co founder and partner of Chloe
capital. Thank you so much.
Great advice. appreciate youjoining us.
Kathryn Cartini (15:19):
Thank you Carl.
Carl Grant (15:21):
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