Ignite VC: Building Scalable Investment Platforms for VCs with Winter Mead

Episode 114 of the Ignite Podcast

In the latest episode of Ignite Podcast, Brian Bell interviewed Winter Mead, the founder and CEO of Coolwater Capital. Known as the “Y Combinator for emerging VCs,” Coolwater Capital is a game-changing platform designed to help new venture fund managers launch, scale, and connect with institutional investors. If you’re an aspiring fund manager or simply curious about the evolving venture capital ecosystem, Winter’s insights provide a fresh perspective on how the industry is being reshaped.

The Journey to Venture Capital Innovation

Winter’s path to becoming a leading innovator in venture capital wasn’t linear. Growing up on a farm on the East Coast, he had little exposure to the world of finance. It wasn’t until grad school, where he studied disruption and innovation, that Winter became fascinated by how new technologies are developed and adopted.

A move to San Francisco at the advice of a professor introduced him to the tech ecosystem, where he gained firsthand experience working with startups and later joined a multi-family office. This exposure to private equity…