Leila Zegna

Leila cofounded Kindred Capital in March 2015. Kindred aligns their ambitions and achievements with their portfolio. In structure and in spirit. Every entrepreneur Kindred invests in becomes a co-owner of the fund - creating a new category called ‘equitable venture’. Kindred backs companies early and works with the community of founders and advisers to help founders get further, faster from the very beginning. Prior to setting up Kindred, Leila helped start, advise, and grow start-ups since leaving Bain & Company back in 2007. She has worked with start-ups across 3 continents - Argentina (through the Endeavor network), the UK, and across both coasts of the United States. After earning her MBA from Harvard Business School, Leila moved to Silicon Valley to work in the beating heart of the tech ecosystem. Leila is passionate about supporting women leaders, and specifically finding ways to enable women to work on their own terms - she followed that passion to Plum District (a Kleiner Perkins and General Catalyst backed daily deals company focusing on the mom space) and joined as the General Manager. Leila left Plum District to join the founding team GenapSys, a groundbreaking genomics start-up based in Menlo Park. As the sole business hire for the first 2+ years, Leila was responsible for building the business and operating plans, creating and refining the financial model, and leading the fundraising efforts, successfully raising $50M in venture capital from top investors in seed, Series A, and Series B rounds of financing. The team grew from just a small few to over 50 people under Leila's leadership. Leila has angel investments in 18 early stage companies in both Silicon Valley and the UK, where she now resides. She is an active advisor to several others, and always looking for new ways to engage with and support great founders.