Maxine Minter on 'portfolio careers' and raising Australia's first solo female VC fund
Maxine Minter was bemoaning the lack of pre-seed capital when she had another revelation. Australia had never had a solo female fund manager. She decided to fix both.
Maxine Minter was surprised to learn that no woman in Australia had raised a fund as a solo manager. She decided she'd do something about it. She's currently raising for her fund Co Ventures and spoke with Capital Brief about her ambitions for the fund.
What was it that inspired you to raise a fund as a solo female fund manager?
The catalyst for me was a conversation I had with a friend of mine sitting in the park at Crissy Field in San Francisco, where I was talking about angel investing and what kind of woeful support the majority of folks were getting at pre-seed in Australia. And my friend asked if there had ever been a woman in Australia who’s raised a fund by herself? She's also Australian, and I was like, “ah, I don't think so.”
In the Bay Area, I have a ton of close friends who are fund managers and have their own funds. You can swing a cat and hit a woman who has her own fund kind of thing. And the fact that it's never happened in Australia, is not a good outcome. I really do believe in my own experiences and that you can't be what you can't see. And so it was a kind of natural progression for me to take on the challenge of becoming Australia’s first solo female GP and try and have an impact.
I am driven by enabling others to do their most impactful work. There is no better dopamine high in the world for me than watching someone take an opportunity and make it into something amazing. Investing is one of the two best ways to participate on this journey with founders. The other is executive coaching.
I've been an angel investor for years, but the absence of solo female GPs in Australia's ecosystem struck me as a gap that shouldn't exist. Firstly, I wanted to lay a paver on the path of other incredible investors considering building their own funds. Secondly, the creative latitude and the unique returns profile that come with being a solo fund manager in Australia, a country rich in entrepreneurial talent and still building its start-up ecosystem, felt like an untapped opportunity. It was the perfect nexus of personal philosophy and market opportunity.
Tell me about your focus on a micro-fund (usually $5 million or below) and keeping cheques small and pre-seed?
