General Partners Kobie Fuller and Monique Idlett have revealed what’s backable in today’s age.
Fuller is a general partner at Upfront Ventures, a venture capital firm investing in technology businesses across digital media, SaaS, consumer internet, and more. As a freshman at Harvard University, Fuller knew nothing about venture capital or investing, but that changed when a friend had an idea to connect soccer players with recruiters and wanted to fundraise for the venture. He said he didn’t realize people could reach out to individuals to raise money to pursue an idea and a dream. Although the idea eventually fell apart, he said the venture capital process made him realize he wanted to stay “on that side of the table.”
“Because for me, I’m so much more motivated to help other people and be a part of their ventures versus building my own,” Fuller said on the Product & Innovation Stage at the 2026 AFROTECH™ Conference.
Upfront Ventures is one of the largest funds in Los Angeles, according to Fuller. He also noted that the investment firm is in its eighth fund cycle with each one totaling around $300 million.
“In any given fund cycle, we are investing in about 30 companies. The math usually plays out where only about three to maybe five at best will be the companies that drive the returns. The other ones, either we lose money or we pay back this capital, or maybe we make like 2x to 3x on our money,” he explained.
Idlett has experience running a record label and publishing company with a “high level” of expertise in marketing and strategy. She has a vision for both herself and the talent she represents. She saw an opportunity to “change one of the oldest systems” and believed she could help build a more “conscious capital system.”
Now, Idlett is the co-founder and general partner of Reign Ventures, an early-stage investment firm targeting consumer tech and software.
She notes that key factors for portfolio companies include product-market fit, founder-team fit, an addressable market of at least $1 billion, and the importance of going beyond a title. She also noted the importance of spending time evaluating pre-seed companies to assess how they navigate challenges.
“It’s not just enough to have a great idea with customers,” she explained. “Can you lead? I think that the era that we come from, from a corporate perspective, to have a C-suite title, that was an earned position. This is decades of experience as early stage companies, you’re able to give yourself a CEO role, a COO role, but are you earning it every day through training? Are you earning it every day outside of you came up with a great idea.”
They both gave insights into what is and isn’t backable today. Fuller began by explaining how it has become easier to build companies. To stand out, companies need a “level of technical depth.” If it’s a product he feels he could build himself, he sees it as a red flag.
“The application layer or lack thereof is starting to be a very tough category to deploy capital against. So other areas like consumer and consumer retail, e-commerce, that’s become, I think, tougher unfortunately if you’re a founder where you have phenomenal metrics and a lot of VCs generally will not care, partially based off of just multiples we’re seeing in public markets. It’s just also opportunity cost. It’s not worth their time relative to chasing after the next AI darling.”
Idlett added:
“The only thing I would add is that we’ve never chased trends,” she said.
“We love category creators. We love innovation. We love human creativity because we think that is the biggest asset.”