Home - être Venture Capital

Valuable. Validated. Vital.

Deploying capital into frontier technology startups for social good that are on a trajectory toward market leadership and an initial public offering (IPO).

Why us? Why now?

We’re managing partners: Jenny Kuan, PhD and Hillary Talbot at être Venture Capital. We combined research on what made Silicon Valley VC successful with startup growth experience and a philosophy that capital, support, and follow-on funding are needed to get a startup to a successful exit.

We help founders navigate business problems and exit — historically this partnership between VC and entrepreneurs built great companies.

We see great technologies and promising entrepreneurs all the time in sectors that are under-hyped and where valuations are fair.

We're lead investors — this is core to traditional VC, but many VCs never take on that role. So startups with a credible value proposition, and investors ready to invest, may fail because they can’t find a lead to price the company.

Our portfolio companies sit at the fulcrum of large market problems and unlock transformative change for their customers.

Across five investments, être’s $2M Thesis Fund has achieved early validation by Year 4:
Hexas has exited and Obatala Sciences is cash-flow positive, confirming our ability to pick founders, lead rounds and generate returns through hands-on support.

Hexas was acquired  by Bioleum and is  now on an IPO track.

How être added value: As one of two early investors in Hexas, être supported founder Wendy Owens to bring the company to market in a capital-efficient way, then guided acquisition efforts, resulting in an acquisition by Bioleum.

Obatala Sciences is cash flow positive and growing.

How être added value: Co-led Obatala’s Series A and provided ongoing support, talent, investor introductions and follow-on funding.

LEARN MORE

Founders partner with être because we lead funding rounds, help them achieve profitability, scale to their next funding round, and engineer successful exits.

Startup Team Development

We recruit coaches, founders and fractional talent; sales training.

Go-to-market

We make customer introductions; design experiments and validate.

Fundraising Support

We align milestones with funding, valuations, investor storytelling, pitch coaching, investor relations training, & introductions.

Why invest with être?

“être is bringing about actionable change by providing capital, mentorship and strategic thinking to teams like Obatala Sciences. Their knowledge of the venture capital landscape from both the existing and historical perspectives, and their willingness to step up to lead are invaluable to traditionally under-invested founders.”

— Trivia Frazier, PhD, MBA | Co-Founder & CEO | Obatala Sciences

Support in action

Venture capital has been a male-dominated field with only 2% of venture capital invested into female-founded companies. être is opening up this field. We're developing an inclusive ecosystem, education, and resources to supercharge the potential of talented founders, managers, and investors.

Open Access Venture Capital Education

We provide educational resources to increase the knowledge, imagination, and opportunity that was often stifled by the exclusivity that dominated VC.

Venture Capital Ecosystem

We're building an ecosystem of diverse fund managers, limited partners, founders, talent, and service providers who will mutually gain from — and contribute back to — the community.