Before
A career in advertising and brand roles at Apple, Red Bull and Chanel, then founding Proday, a fitness startup backed by the LA Dodgers, then a stint at Mohr Davidow Ventures.
The move
She used operating credibility and public visibility to raise an independent debut fund rather than staying inside someone else's platform, built on a thesis that funding female founders was a structurally underserved gap. Cleo Capital now runs its own scout fund for female investors, which means the door she went through is one she has since built for other people.
The turn
She founded Cleo Capital in 2018 and closed a 3.5 million dollar debut fund, reported at the time as the second largest debut fund raised by a Black woman in the United States.
Timeline
- Brand roles at Apple, Red Bull and Chanel
- Founds Proday
- Mohr Davidow Ventures
- 2018 founds Cleo Capital with a 3.5 million dollar debut fund
- Cleo later launches its own scout fund for female investors
What this route asks
Her own numbers are the honest answer: plan for at least three hundred meetings and expect twelve to eighteen months without a paycheck while fundraising. Treat that as the ordinary cost of entry rather than a worst case. She is very widely described as a former Sequoia scout, including in otherwise careful summaries; no primary source supports it, and her documented pre-Cleo investing seat was Mohr Davidow Ventures.