Episode 50
2000 Startups, Billions Raised: No Playbook to Launch a Fund, So 2 Women Wrote Their Own | Haley Kendrick, Gener8tor
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Episode 50 is a milestone! — Dr. Haley Medved Kendrick has spent her entire career unlocking capital for the founders everyone else overlooks. She's Senior Managing Director of Investment Accelerators at gener8tor — a platform that's worked with more than 2,000 startups that have gone on to raise billions — and a Principal of the gener8tor Alabama Fund, which she and her partner raised with a cap table that is majority women. Before that she built and ran the Bronze Valley Accelerator for underrepresented founders. Her PhD is in medical sociology, and it shows: she thinks in systems and access. Brandi and Haley get into the real mechanics and the real interior of this work — launching a fund with no playbook, getting "skin in the game," the Series 65 moment when it got real, and why a first-time investor should almost never start in venture. They also go somewhere most investor conversations don't: rituals, intuition, and trusting the "hell yes or no." In this episode: → Why "overlooked opportunities, in the places not everyone's looking" is exactly where she plays → Prosperity as "a bigger menu" — freedom, optionality, and seeing what's even out there → The bold plunge: raising the gener8tor Alabama Fund and taking on real fiduciary weight → There's no playbook for building a fund — and why a strong team de-risks the leap → Women launching funds in a brutal market, and a majority-women cap table → First-check advice: what NOT to do, and why a fund beats picking one winner → Integrity and the long game — the relationship read that no pitch deck survives → Place-based capital: keeping returns in the community instead of exporting them to the coasts Guest: Dr. Haley Medved Kendrick — SMD, Investment Accelerators, gener8tor; Principal, gener8tor Alabama Fund. Find her on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/hmkendrick and at gener8tor.com/alabama. ⟶ Not sure if you're ready to launch, build, or scale with investors? Take the Capital Readiness Scorecard at PlungeIntoProsperity.com. Until the next plunge — make it a prosperous week!
Show Notes
CHAPTERS 00:00 → Episode 50: Why This One's Different 01:35 → Meet Haley Medved Kendrick (gener8tor) 01:51 → Why You Should Keep Listening 02:31 → Prosperity Is a Bigger Menu 05:17 → The Accidental Plunge Into Capital 07:13 → Launching the gener8tor Alabama Fund 10:25 → There's No Playbook for Building a Fund 13:40 → Women, Funds & the Funding Gap 15:07 → Moving Upstream: From Jobs to Companies to Capital 21:09 → Data + Spirit: Rituals, Healing & Signs 33:31 → Networks That Actually Move Capital 37:00 → First-Check Advice for New Women Investors 43:00 → Integrity, the 90-Day Read & "Hell Yes or No" 47:50 → Place-Based Capital & Keeping Money Local 50:26 → Who to Send Her Way + the Close
About the Guest
Dr. Haley Medved Kendrick is Senior Managing Director of Investment Accelerators at gener8tor, one of the country's most active startup platforms, which has worked with more than 2,000 companies that have collectively raised billions. She is also a Principal of the gener8tor Alabama Fund, which she helped raise with a cap table that is majority women — still a rarity in venture. Based in Birmingham, Haley built and ran the Bronze Valley Accelerator, a gener8tor program for underrepresented founders, and previously served as Executive Director of Innovate Birmingham. She holds a PhD in medical sociology, which shapes how she sees her work: as a systems problem of who gets access to capital, and who doesn't. Her focus is the overlooked opportunities in the places most investors aren't looking.
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