Chat with Kate Brodock, Founding Partner at W Fund

The Investor With Joel Palathinkal

Join Joel Palathinkal and Kate Brodock as they dive into Kate's journey in tech startups and her efforts in representation. They discuss her launch of W Fund, strategies for scalable community building, and support for early-stage founders. The episode covers designing accelerator programs, engaging global communities, and managing LP feedback. Discover how to leverage unique strengths to attract LPs, the role of community feedback in investments, and promising sectors. They also address ethical boundaries, founder qualities, mental health challenges, product-market fit, future marketplace trends, and traits LPs seek in fund managers.

Kate is Founding Partner of W Fund (want to talk about investing with us?) and CEO of Women 2.0. She’s lived in the tech startup world for over 15 years and has played an active leadership role in the women in tech ecosystem for over a decade, having previously led a global organization focused on women in technology and entrepreneurship as its President for several years.

She's also an EIR at LaunchNY and a long-time mentor for Techstars. She enjoys putting her 15-year experience in the tech industry to work advising and mentoring startups.

She was previously COO at Atribute (a corporate EdTech startup based out of San Francisco), CMO of untapt (an AI-driven tech talent marketplace based in NYC), and has held the role of Adjunct Professor in PR and Marketing at Syracuse University.

Kate has spoken at and been featured in 100s of places, including SXSWi, Collision Conference, Fast Company’s Innovation Uncensored, IBT, MSNBC, TechCrunch, and Al Jazeera America and writes for Forbes.

Music credits: Clouds by MBB | https://soundcloud.com/mbbofficial, Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en\_US

IMPORTANT NOTICE: This web series and podcast is intended for informational purposes only. The views expressed are not, and should not be construed as investment advice or recommendations. Recipients of this should do their own due diligence, taking into account their specific financial circumstances, investment objectives, and risk tolerance (which are not considered in this web series and podcast) before investing. None of this information communication is an offer, nor the solicitation of an offer, to buy or sell any of the assets mentioned herein.

(0:00) Introduction and background of Kate Brodock (0:52) Discussion on emerging managers, opportunities, and challenges (1:12) Kate Brodock's tech startup and representation efforts (3:12) Launching W Fund and community building (5:39) Strategies for community building at scale (9:04) Support for early-stage founders and business basics (12:22) Accelerator program design and educational content (15:18) LP involvement in accelerator programs (17:04) Virtual vs. in-person global community engagement (20:37) Managing LP feedback and involvement strategies (23:00) Attracting LPs by leveraging unique strengths (27:15) Importance of community and peer feedback in investments (29:15) Investment criteria and exciting sectors (34:18) Ethical boundaries and unattractive sectors (36:32) Founder qualities, coachability, and COVID-19 challenges (43:32) Mental health issues among founders and innovations (48:07) Advice for startup founders on achieving product-market fit (52:07) Future trends in marketplaces (54:16) Traits LPs seek in fund managers (58:57) Sales CRM strategies and expectations for institutional investors