Kathryn Finney

My Work

Two decades of
building things.

The ventures, funds, books, and programs I have founded and led, in reverse chronological order. Each one is a chapter in the same story: building what was missing, then teaching others to do the same.

AllProgramsVenturesFundsBooks

  1. 2020 to Present

    Genius Guild

    Venture Capital Firm

    Managing General Partner of a Chicago-based venture capital firm Kathryn founded, built, and scaled with a team of 10 investment professionals. She set the strategic direction, led fund formation and GP structure with outside counsel, and raised more than $10M for the venture fund, overperforming funds of the same vintage by 60% with a 1.6x MOIC against an industry average of negative 0.97 for vintage 2021. Genius Guild oversees a portfolio of 10 investments, including 3 LP positions in other venture funds, with a thesis focused on breakthrough technologies with global impact. Long-term backers include Meta, Impact Seat, and Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda French Gates Investment Company, and Kathryn has secured more than $20M in partnerships with Johnson and Johnson and Anthem for portfolio companies.

  2. 2012 to 2020

    digitalundivided

    Social Enterprise

    Founder and CEO of a groundbreaking, multi-award-winning social enterprise promoting innovation and entrepreneurship for women of color. Kathryn built and scaled a team of 40+ on a 7-figure annual budget, growing the organization from $0 to $5.6M in annual revenue across four revenue streams of foundations, corporate partnerships, and brand sponsorships. She built a corporate partnership arm of more than 40 Fortune 500 and category leaders including Pivotal Ventures, Prudential, Comcast, LinkedIn, AMEX, Nasdaq, AWS, Shopify, Gusto, Silicon Valley Bank, EY, and The Surdna Foundation. During her tenure, she was appointed by the Obama Administration to NACIE, led ProjectDiane, and was awarded the Heinz Award for the Economy with a $250K personal prize, along with the French American Fellow and Echoing Green fellowships.

  3. 2004 to 2013

    The Budget Fashionista

    Multi-Media Company, TBF Group LLC

    Founder and CEO of one of the first women-led online media companies, scaled from concept to a successful exit. Kathryn grew TBF Group to $1.3M in annual revenue and secured Fortune 500 and CPG partnerships with AMEX, TJMaxx, Procter and Gamble, and Federated Department Stores. She led the M&A process personally, completing one of the first acquisitions of a startup led by a Black woman to a private Midwest-based multi-media company in a 7-figure exit.

Want to work together on what comes next?

Get in touchRead my story