Women in VC have caught the entrepreneurial bug.
Over the past year, numerous notable women investors have left their roles at established firms to launch funds of their own. From Katie Haun spinning out of Andreessen Horowitz to Sydney Thomas leaving Precursor Ventures to, most recently, Sarah Guo moving on from Greylock, we are amid a wave of new emerging women managers.
There isn’t one specific reason why so many women have chosen this path this year, but rather a multitude of possible catalysts.
“It’s very personal,” Guo told TechCrunch about her decision to leave Greylock to start her own project. “Why does any founder start anything? They see a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and they go do it.”
For Guo, after nearly a decade at enterprise-focused Greylock, she said she saw an opportunity brewing that had the potential to be a gold mine. Guo said that she thinks the market is at the beginning of a new tech cycle. After years of entrepreneurs building infrastructure technology, she thinks a new cohort of companies will emerge across machine learning, AI, data and crypto.
“If I’m right, and that new wave of businesses is just around the corner, then doing early-stage investing now in a bear market that sweeps out pretenders is exceedingly good conditions,” Guo said.
Sydney Thomas told Natasha Mascarenhas last week that she was leaving Precursor to capitalize on an opportunity she couldn’t ignore either. In her case, it’s investing in companies at the pre-seed stage before doubling down at seed, a funding void she noticed throughout her time at Precursor.
Thomas and Guo are not the first women to find a niche in venture and go after it. For Julie Wroblewski, it was hard to ignore the chance to focus. In 2019, she noticed a growing number of solid early-stage companies trying to solve problems in the care economy. While she was able to invest in some in her role at Pivotal Ventures, she realized it was a big enough opportunity to form an entire thesis. So she found a partner, Joanna Drake, and launched Magnify Ventures in 2020.
Spinning out has also given women the chance to break from the traditional venture mold and build firms that have different governance or structure.
“One or two women, that I can think of, have left their firms and are pursuing very different structures,” Wroblewski said. “I think it’s a big opportunity for the future of venture to see new leaders rise up like this and build the firms that become the next big mega-funds in venture.”
Guo plans to get experimental. She said she wants to build a firm that operates like a professional sports team. The players would each have different skill sets ranging from talent identification to capital allocation. She thinks all these players should be able to work in coordination to create a model that shows up to practice every day and is competitive out in the field. She also wants to build a firm that excels in areas where it’s hard for traditional firms to be successful, such as helping portfolio companies secure talent.
While this isn’t the stated case for Guo, Thomas or Wroblewski, some women may spin out because the rigid structure of traditional venture firms and succession strategies may prevent VCs from moving up into more prominent roles. Only 14.3% of check writers are women and well over half of venture funds still don’t have a woman partner — but probably women in other roles — according to industry nonprofit All Raise.
Theresia Gouw, the founder of Acrew Capital, told TechCrunch over email that she thinks more women feel comfortable taking the plunge now than in the past because they can point to women who have done it before.
“It’s no longer the fear of the unknown,” she said. “There are case studies of women who have been successful in leaving well-established firms to pursue and create their own venture funds.”
Especially recent examples, like Mary Meeker and Katie Haun. Meeker, who left Kleiner Perkins in 2019 to launch Bond, has since grown the firm to more than $5 billion in AUM while gaining meaningful stakes in notable companies such as Nextdoor and Maven Clinic. Haun, who announced her departure from Andreessen Horowitz in December, has since closed on $1.5 billion in new funds, setting a record for a first-time fundraise by a woman.
The fundraising numbers for women-led VC firms also currently look pretty good. According to data from PitchBook, women-led firms have raised $3 billion so far this year. That compares to $3.8 billion in 2021 and $1.8 billion in 2020.
In addition to Haun’s $1.5 billion haul, Meeker’s fund closed on a fresh $2.5 billion in April. Wroblewski’s Magnify Ventures raised $52 million in May, and women-led f7 Ventures just closed on $50 million.
While starting a new venture firm isn’t easy for anyone in any market conditions, many women are getting the itch, capitalizing on the momentum and riding the wave. Wroblewski said she even knows of a handful of other women who will soon be joining the list.
“I can’t tell you why it’s happening right now — there must be something in the water,” Guo joked. “People see the platform shifts that are out there and want to capitalize on it.”
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