VC Founders: to Create the Next Sequoia, Do it ‘From the Ground Up’

Women founders who started their own venture firms say the autonomy has allowed them to alter stubborn industry practices—a benefit that’s worth the risks of failure.

“If I'm going to do this, I'm going to build it from the ground up,” said Rachel Holt of her decision to co-found early-stage venture fund Construct Capital in 2020, after more than eight years at Uber. She said “challenges” at existing VC firms dissuaded her from joining one of the VC firms that had tried to recruit her. “You have to be really deliberate about how you start a fund.”

That sentiment, echoed by two other VC founders speaking at The Information’s Women in Tech, Media and Finance conference on Wednesday, illustrates why tech leaders and experienced venture capitalists continue to raise new VC funds. These endeavors have grown increasingly tough this year as funding for new fund managers plummets.