EP 47: HOW TO INVEST IN A VENTURE FUND WITH KERRY RUPP
This episode with Kerry Rupp, General Partner at True Wealth Ventures is a deep dive into being an LP and investing in a fund. This is a really good in-depth overview of how VC funds work and how investors participate in a fund, touching on minimum check size for investors, the number of investors allowed in a fund, capital calls, and fund investment strategy. Kerry walks us through how they raised Fund I and Fund II and the community they’ve built among women investors along the way by hosting events here they educated accredited investors about the opportunity to invest in funds. Women aren’t often presented with fund investment ops, but funds like True Wealth are changing the investor landscape.
Kerry Rupp is a General Partner at True Wealth Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund investing in women-led businesses that improve human and/or environmental health. She is a board director for True Wealth Ventures’ portfolio companies Partum Health, Rosy and RubyWell, and a board observer for Atlantic Sea Farms. She previously served as board director for BrainCheck, Flourish, reHarvest Provisions and VidaFuel.
She has also taught as a nationally-certified instructor for the National Science Foundation’s Innovation Corps (I-Corps) program, helping university-based teams to commercialize their science and technology research. She is an active startup coach who is asked to judge at startup competitions nationwide and is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship, innovation and early-stage investing. She has served as a mentor at Capital Factory, on the Advisory Panel of the Texas Health Catalyst program at Dell Medical School, on the Advisory Board at Jon Brumley Texas Venture Labs at UT Austin, and on the Founding Steering Committee for Beam, an organization focused on making Austin the best place to be a woman entrepreneur.
Previously, Kerry was CEO at DreamIt, a Top Ten US startup accelerator and early-stage venture fund, where she was directly involved with the launch of over 150 companies. During her 5-year tenure with DreamIt, she grew its programs to five cities, raised a $20M follow-on fund, and initiated the DreamIt Access (minority entrepreneur), DreamIt Athena (female entrepreneur), and DreamIt Health programs.
Before DreamIt, Kerry was herself the founder of an online travel service, Holiday Golightly, which organized unique group travel excursions for women. She has also advised senior executives at Allrecipes.com, ReadersDigest, LexisNexis, Payscale, and Taleo on stategy, business development and marketing. She has held Vice President level positions at AllRecipes.com, Jobster, Classmates.com and LexisNexis. Kerry began her career as a consultant with McKinsey and Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).
Kerry holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA in Biology from Duke University. In addition to her startup ecosystem service, she serves on the board of the Ascension Seton Foundation and on the Innovation Roundtable for the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Dell Medical School. She previously served as Board Chair for the Texas 4000 for Cancer, was a Member of the Austin Area Research Organization (AARO), and served on the Host Committee for the Austin Community Foundation’s Women’s Fund Keyholder event for several years. She is an avid adventurer that has visited over 50 countries and all 50 US states.
For more details, see www.linkedin.com/in/kerryrupp or www.kerryrupp.com
True Wealth Ventures invests in early-stage, women-led companies that are explicitly improving human and/or environmental health. Women-led companies have proven they deliver higher returns. It’s time to invest in new perspectives.
Watch the VC Primer for Women Investing in Women! True Wealth Ventures GPs share insights on the current landscape of women investors, female-led startups and the importance of diversity in the venture capital industry. They discuss the logistics of and key factors to consider when evaluating potential venture capital investments and share tips on how to navigate the often male-dominated VC world. This primer is designed to empower women investors to make informed decisions and support the growth of female entrepreneurship.
