E117: Kristina Chapple: 11 Tribes VC

In this episode of the Female VC Lab podcast, host Barbara Bickham sits down with Kristina Chapple, General Partner at 11 Tribes VC. Kristina shares her journey into venture capital, driven by a passion for supporting founders beyond just financial returns. She discusses 11 Tribes’ unique thesis: investing not only in business outcomes but also in founder well-being, allocating capital specifically for founder resilience initiatives such as coaching, therapy, and even marriage counseling.

Kristina dives into why a founder’s personal health, relationships, and identity are crucial for long-term business success, and how 11 Tribes underwrites for sustainable, middle-market exits rather than chasing billion-dollar unicorns. The conversation touches on industry shifts, with founders raising less and pursuing earlier, impactful exits. Kristina also shares her current reading—Katherine Graham’s autobiography—and reflects on identity and confidence themes that resonate both with her work and personal growth.

Tune in for an insightful look at how venture capital can evolve to truly put founders first, and why “founder outcome” might just be the next big metric in investment success.

Title: Rethinking Venture Capital: How 11 Tribes VC Prioritizes Founder Outcomes
A conversation with Kristina Chapple on supporting founders, redefining startup success, and the evolving venture funding landscape.

Introduction: The Human Cost of Venture Capital

Venture capital, for decades, has been driven by the pursuit of outsized returns. The stories that dominate headlines frequently focus on billion-dollar company exits and entrepreneurial hustle. Yet, beneath the surface, a very different narrative often unfolds: one of burnout, fractured relationships, and founders sacrificing their well-being for the sake of their startups.

On a recent episode of the Female VC Lab podcast, host Barbara Bickham spoke with Kristina Chapple, General Partner at 11 Tribes Ventures. Kristina shared her unique perspective on how VC firms can—and should—redefine their relationships with founders. In an industry grappling with its own "buyer's remorse," Kristina and her team at 11 Tribes are pioneering a new model that puts founder outcomes on equal footing with business outcomes.

Rethinking the "Exit Conversation"

For 70 years, Kristina notes, the focus of most investors has been exclusively on business outcomes: valuations, exit multiples, and cash returns. While these metrics are essential for fiduciaries, 11 Tribes Ventures believes there's a critical missing dimension: the founder's outcome.

"What’s the state of the founder's most precious relationships when they walk away from their company? Are their health, family, and sense of self intact?" Kristina asks. The firm approaches investment with a broader lens, considering not just the commercial success of a company, but the holistic well-being of its leadership. This perspective emerged from their own journeys—of taking the "downward journey of entrepreneurship," where personal sacrifices became existential threats to both the founders and their companies.

Putting Money Where Their Mouth Is: Investing in Founder Resilience

11 Tribes Ventures operationalizes this philosophy in a tangible way. For every investment, they allocate an additional 2% of capital—non-dilutive—to directly fund founder resilience. This pot of $20,000 to $30,000 per founder is earmarked for coaching, therapy, health professionals, financial planning, or even marriage counseling.

As Kristina explains, these resources aren’t just “nice-to-haves”—they are core to helping founders sustain themselves through the multi-year, often tumultuous journey of building a company. The goal is to help them maintain strong family ties, good health, and groundedness, recognizing that founders are multidimensional humans, not just money-making machines. This, Kristina believes, is a key ingredient in building companies that can endure the long road to exit.

Measuring the Impact: Do Happier Founders Build Better Companies?

The commitment at 11 Tribes isn’t based on gut feel alone. Kristina says they’re collaborating with a sociologist from Baylor University to rigorously study how investing in founders’ well-being translates to leadership effectiveness and financial returns. Early evidence—and their lived experience—suggests a dramatic impact.

When founders have clarity, peace, and a healthy sense of identity that’s not solely tied to their company’s success or failure, they’re able to lead more effectively and make better decisions in crisis. If a founder’s sense of self-worth is inseparable from the fate of the company, every challenge can become crushing. But with strong personal foundations, founders weather storms more resiliently—a win for both people and profits.

Changing the Funding Playbook: Aiming for Realistic, Life-Changing Exits

Kristina also highlights a shifting trend in startup funding: a move away from “swinging for the fences” toward more attainable, life-changing exits. Rather than betting only on potential billion-dollar companies, 11 Tribes looks for founders building toward exits in the $50 million to $300 million range. With lower capital requirements and smaller, more nimble teams, these businesses can create meaningful generational wealth for their founders without the pressure of hyper-growth.

This approach is not just founder-friendly but is also becoming more practical in a changing market, where the cost to build a company is falling, and “unicorn or bust” thinking is no longer the only viable model.

Conclusion: What’s Next for Venture Capital?

Looking ahead, Kristina predicts more founders will raise less money and focus on sustainable, earlier exits. VC firms, in turn, will need to get creative with underwriting and embrace this new normal. Ultimately, the evolution of the industry hinges on supporting founders as whole people, not just as financial assets.

For founders seeking both capital and care, the future of venture may feel a little more human—thanks, in part, to trailblazers like Kristina Chapple and 11 Tribes Ventures.