Jennifer Fonstad

Jennifer Fonstad is an American venture capital investor and entrepreneur. She is the managing partner and a co-founder of the Owl Capital Group, a venture firm based in Silicon Valley. Fonstad was Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) for 17 years. She is also co-founder of angel investing network Broadway Angels. Fonstad has been recognized as a top 100 tech investor on Forbes’ Midas List twice and was named 2016 Venture Capitalist of the Year by Deloitte. She is also a Founding Member of All Raise.

Education
Fonstad earned a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University and an MBA with Distinction from Harvard Business School. While a student at Harvard, Fonstad co-founded the New Venture Competition, an annual competition for HBS student entrepreneurs.

Early career
Fonstad began her career at Bain & Company after spending a year teaching high school math in sub-Saharan Africa. She joined venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson as a Kauffman Fellow in 1997 and became a partner in 1998. Fonstad spent 17 years with DFJ, helping to grow the firm from $150MM to $3.5Billion under management. Through her career Fonstad has participated in many successful investments including Athenahealth, Tesla, Solarcity, the Real Real, Chime Bank, Hotmail, Netzero, Box, Redfin, and others.

In 2010, Fonstad and Sonja Hoel Perkins were among the founders of Broadway Angels, an angel investing network of senior women from the fields of technology and venture investing.

Aspect Ventures
In 2014, Fonstad co-founded Aspect Ventures, an early stage, all-female venture-capital firm, with fellow venture capital investor Theresia Gouw. Gouw and Fonstad worked together early in their careers at Bain & Company and at Release Software.

During the first year, Aspect Ventures made several Series A and seed investments funded by the co-founders' personal capital. Aspect secured $150 million for its debut fund, which included outside capital from Limited Partners, and followed it with a second fund of $181 million in early 2018. It had 116 rounds of investments in 67 companies and had 13 exists.

The firm made investments in companies including ForeScout (FSCT), Cato Networks, Exabeam, The Muse, Crew, Silverfort, Eden Health, Pie Insurance, and PredictHQ.

The founders decided to split in 2019 over clashing management styles. In the same year, both founders started new venture capital firms.

Owl Capital Group
Fonstad launched Owl Capital Group, which focused on early-stage startups. Her current investments include Vida Health, Ohmconnect, Grokker, Stem.io, Roofstock, WelcomeTech, and Owlet.

Board member and advisor
Fonstad serves on the Board of Directors of several private companies. She also serves on the board of the Mastercard Foundation, a $35B AUM foundation based in Toronto, Canada. She is a Founding Member of All-Raise, a Managing Member of Broadway Angels, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Recognition and awards

 * One of “The 50 Most Powerful Moms” by Working Mother (2017)
 * “Venture Capitalist of the Year” by Deloitte at the Technology Fast 500 (2016)
 * Portraits of Power, Marie Claire (2016)
 * Forbes Midas List (2008, 2009)

Speaker and commentator
At the Catalyst Conference 2017, she spoke at the Fireside Chat.

Fonstad is a frequent media contributor on issues pertaining to women in tech, cyber-security, the future of healthcare and the venture capital industry. Her commentary appears in Fortune, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Re/code, Yahoo Finance, Forbes, Bloomberg, and CNBC.