Renegade Partners: A Power Duo with a Shared Mission

Renata Quintini and Roseanne Wincek teamed up to become Renegade Partners and, in their very first deal, pulled off a coup, beating big name Sand Hill Road firms to land a software-based aerospace and defense company. That win launched a very successful partnership. Now, four years strong with 23 companies in their portfolio and $228 million assets under management (AUM), they’re known for nurturing startups into thriving businesses.

Renata Quintini and Roseanne Wincek consider themselves people who renounce convention, and as such, the name for their venture capital firm was born — Renegade Partners.

“When we were designing each aspect of our firm, we questioned the conventional wisdom and optimized for what would align incentives between us, our founders, and our LPs,” ~Roseanne

The duo also had unconventional paths to VC — from law and science — and they’ve used their smarts and focus to create a firm that looked like a company that they themselves would love to invest in.

Renata: A Lawyer’s Journey into Venture Capital

Renata started her career as a lawyer in Brazil doing corporate law for venture capital firms, which eventually led her to Stanford University to get her LL.M (Master of Laws).

While at Stanford she was inspired by the ambitious entrepreneurs she was helping as a lawyer and realized she wanted to switch paths. So she took a step back to look at her career choice and thought, “If I can be anything, I want to be my client.” With newfound clarity, Renata re-enrolled at Stanford to get her MBA and cement her path to becoming a venture capitalist.

Renata’s VC journey began as a limited partner (LP) investing in venture firms for Stanford’s endowment where she was responsible for building the emerging manager portfolio. She then transitioned to the exciting world of early-stage investing at Felicis Ventures, joining the firm near its inception.

As a General Partner at Felicis, she played a key role in the success stories of companies like Dollar Shave Club, Warby Parker, Planet, and Cruise Automation. Her impressive track record led her to a Partner position at Lux Capital.

But it was while Renata was at Felicis that she met Roseanne.

Roseanne: From Lab Coat to Tech, then to Investing

Roseanne also organically found her way into VC. Three years into a Biophysics PhD program at UC Berkeley she realized that while she liked thinking about science and talking about science, she didn’t like doing science.

But she doesn’t regret her training. “What I love about the science background is that it really taught me how to think,” she said. “Chemistry gave me the mental model that I use to think about the world.”

When she dropped out of her PhD program in 2007, she was drawn to the new tech arriving in San Francisco. Roseanne said, “I did what everybody who has half a PhD in biophysics does: start a company that makes Facebook apps during the crazy Facebook app days, which was very fun, until it wasn’t.”

After Facebook shut down its app marketplace in 2009, she went to an enterprise software company that sold bioinformatics software. “One of the company’s venture capitalists asked what I was thinking about doing with my life, and he asked me if I had ever thought about venture, and I hadn’t,” she said.

“I remember going home and reading everything I could and thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is my dream job.’ There was everything I loved about academia, like building mental models and trying to do experiments,” she said. “But instead of pipetting, I get to talk to people, so it was just a better fit for my personality.”

Roseanne then went to Stanford for an MBA. In her first job out of business school she served as a Principal at Canaan Partners. Then she joined IVP as a Partner where she invested in Glossier, Compass, Wise, Looker, Motive, and MasterClass. “But in my heart of hearts, I’m an early stage investor and I was always wanting to do the weird early stage exception deals — like we invested in Masterclass when they had 11 classes, no subscription,” she said.

More Than Colleagues: The Partnership that Forged a VC Firm

Renata met Roseanne while Roseanne was in business school at Stanford around 2011. “I was trying to get a job in venture and meeting everyone I could,” Roseanne said. She got to know Renata over the years through many groups and networking events that ultimately became All Raise.

When Roseanne was considering a deal with Glossier, a skincare and beauty brand, she called Renata to ask for advice — who was working for Felicis at the time. “I was trying to understand what had been special about Dollar Shave and what made it worth a billion dollars and why she invested in the company,” Roseanne said.

“I couldn’t call [just] anybody and talk to them about [Glossier] because they might go and steal my deal,” Roseanne said “ Renata was at Felicis, and [Glossier] was definitely in their purview, but I knew that I could trust her… and talk through this company.”. “That phone call eight years ago really laid a foundation that we continue to build on,” she added.

From the Ground Up: The Rise of Renegade Partners

At a dinner in the spring of 2018, they started to think about forming Renegade. But it wasn’t a simple decision. They both had good jobs that they weren’t looking to leave. “We spent the back half of [2018] trying to answer two questions. One: Why does the world need another venture firm? And two: Why would we be good partners?” Roseanne said.

They took a pragmatic approach and hired a coach, Roseanne explained, “We did what we lovingly call ‘marriage counseling.’ And we spent nights and weekends understanding ourselves and each other to make sure that we had what it takes to go through the pretty arduous journey of starting a fund.”

And the journey hasn’t been easy. “If you told us the things that we would face going into this, we would have never believed you. I mean, global pandemic, massive market sell-off, a war, two bank failures, she added.

Making a Splash: Newly-formed Renegade Lands Coveted Client

Renegade Partner’s first term sheet was for Airspace Intelligence — a company that leverages artificial intelligence to better optimize routes and operational efficiency and safety of airlines, government, and defense. But when they first met the co-founders it was right in the middle of COVID, when no planes were flying.

“So it took a lot of conviction and vision from our team to believe what was not there,” ~Renata Quintini

Renegade led the round. “We gave this company a term sheet and it was also a very competitive deal. I know they had at least two other term sheets from male partners at big name brands,” she added. “They believed in what we were building, too, because they chose us.”

Investing with Insight: Closing Fund Two with Sharp Strategies

Now, four years in, they’re still selective and strategic about who they give term sheets to. “We’re making six to seven investments a year,” Roseanne explains. “So it really creates this intentionality. And when we partner, we partner for real. We’re not in this spray-and-pray mentality. It’s really a deep commitment and partnership that we bring to the table.”

On May 1, they announced Renegade II, their sophomore fund of $128 million. They will invest the $128 million, mostly in Series A rounds, in 20 companies. The fund size will enable them to catalyze, write checks up to $10 million, and lead rounds.

“When we were ready to raise fund two, we already had a pretty strong base of support, and we actually had people that increased their commitments,” Renata said. They also had LPs refer them to other LPs, and GP friends who made introductions to new LPs.

Building on Trust and Respect: A Recipe for a Thriving Business

Renata and Roseanne’s mutual respect and strong bond are evident, which has undoubtedly been a key factor in building their successful company together.

“Roseanne shows just how sharp and bright she is by how much she gets into both the detail and the high strategic level,” Renata said. “She opens the eyes of the entrepreneurs and people love to engage with her -she gains a lot of respect and impact that way. And the other thing is her energy. The vibrancy, optimism, and can-do mentality feels very empowering to entrepreneurs. And when you’re bursting through walls and trying to do the impossible, having that energy that supports you and challenges you in the right way…It’s unbelievable and a great asset.”

And according to Roseanne, Renata does what she says she’s going to do. “She’s sharp and she’s a straight shooter. She tells you what she thinks…. And that’s not always what people want to hear. But at the end of the day, you know that you’re getting the whole story from her. You’re getting the truth,” Roseanne said “I’ve also heard great things about having Renata as a positive figure in the boardroom — modeling what great governance looks like, modeling what true collaboration and partnership looks like.”

Together, they’re proud of what they’ve built. Renata told us, “When we started we had this idea to focus on helping startups evolve into companies. And that is the firm we built; with the right infrastructure and scaffold to partner with exceptional founders.”