Kristen brings a wealth of experience in the venture capital industry and a fervent passion for the emerging manager ecosystem to your table:

• Operational expertise across all stages of venture capital, from first and second-generation funds to the largest and most established firms, with in-depth exposure to the full life cycle of multiple funds.

• Extensive experience working with the most sophisticated LPs and financial institutions in the industry, from top tier fund of funds and institutional investors to sovereign wealth funds, established family offices, and more.

• Helped build two leading emerging manager funds from the ground up on both coasts, and spent five years at Silicon Valley's original and largest venture firm, NEA.

• Read Kristen’s full bio here.

Kelly’s career presents like an undercover boss episode, with insight into nearly every aspect of what makes a firm tick:

• Robust experience inside of top VC funds, into the depths of high growth startups, and with a critical third-party service provider for today’s emerging managers.

• Vast knowledge of Human Resource strategy, specializing in systematically building HR processes and procedures to set the stage for operational success. Her expertise is backed by an SPHR Certification and a Certificate of Human Resource Management.

• Helped build and optimize the operational infrastructure of multiple firms in a wide range of organizational stages and moves at lightning-fast speeds, finding opportunities to make processes more efficient every step of the way.

• Read Kelly’s full bio here.

Jessica Pascolini brings over a decade of venture capital experience to the Strut team. Before joining Strut, she scaled events for Coatue’s VC arm from zero to over 100 highly curated experiences annually. Most notably, she drove Coatue’s marquee event, East Meets West, taking it from 40 attendees to over 350+ global attendees of C-Suite executives from all stages and sizes, public company CEOs, A-list celebrities, and more.

For Jessica, events are about enriching people’s lives by fostering genuine connections for, and between, participants through shared lived experiences. They are a collision of the professional and personal—creating new memories, changing perspectives, and engendering unprecedented partnerships based on business and human interests.

In her work with Strut, Jessica partners with today’s established and emerging fund managers to help them reach operational excellence and find the most impactful ways to engage their founders, LPs, and advisors.

Jessica holds a B.S. in Psychobiology from UCLA and an MBA from Pepperdine's Graziadio Business School. In her free time, you can find her catalyzing some of life’s most meaningful experiences for her two daughters in and around the San Francisco Bay Area.

Nicole Fuller brings a wealth of experience in the alternative asset industry and client service space to Strut. Throughout her career, she’s supported hundreds of asset managers to set up the operational foundation of their firms and successfully launch their funds. She has a deep-rooted passion for being a problem solver, supporter, advisor, and cheerleader to those investing in the founders and companies building things that will shape our tomorrow.

Prior to joining Strut, Nicole spent nearly four years helping grow and scale Aduro Advisors, a strategic financial services firm for venture capital and private equity. While at Aduro, she led client relations and business development during the firm’s largest and most rapid periods of growth, setting it on the path to becoming one of the largest VC Fund Administrators in the U.S. today.

Prior to Aduro, Nicole supported a close family friend as he scaled multiple businesses on the Hedge Fund side: Coronado Investments (a boutique marketing firm), HedgeAssist (a due diligence firm), and Alpha Alternatives (a Fund Administration firm). She wore many hats across all three firms, assisting with operations, administration, accounting, finance, compliance, and due diligence. It was there that she discovered her passion for finding creative solutions to client pain points.

Above all, Nicole understands how critical relationships are in the VC industry and she enjoys fostering connections with people on all sides of the aisle—clients, leaders, colleagues, peers, and service providers. In turn, she helps Strut’s clients navigate the vast landscape of fund set-up options and pairs them with best-in-class providers who can support their growth and ensure their success.

Nicole earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from San Diego State University. In her free time, she can be found walking her two golden retrievers around the lakes within the greater Denver, Colorado area or enjoying a backyard BBQ with her husband.

Shannon Knous is a seasoned accounting professional, with experience both as an Auditor and as a VC Admin. Her background allows her to help VC firms work effectively and efficiently with third-party providers, as well as build a solid foundation for finance matters both internal and external. Shannon strives to help both emerging and established managers implement top-tier financial processes and provide thoughtful planning considerations that will benefit firms over the short and long term.

At Strut, Shannon supports clients in the more nuanced aspects of accounting and fund management best practices in compliment to their current fund administrator. Prior to Strut, Shannon spent the last three years as a Controller and Accounting Manager at Aduro Advisors. Before that, she spent time as a Senior Auditor for Anton Collins Mitchell and for BDO. She has a degree in Economics from UCLA and is a licensed CPA (Credential ID CPA.0034297).

Hillary Tyree is a vice president on SVB’s Emerging Manager Practice team in San Francisco. Her passion is building a supportive and inclusive venture ecosystem for investors and founders through creative programming and world-class experiences. Most notably, she helped launch and curate SVB’s first ever, client-only space in 2014, when she joined the bank as a community manager. In her role today, she designs programs and engagements for early stage investors – with a focus on women and the next generation of venture, all while leveraging the SVB platform to help their funds and portfolio companies scale.

Prior to joining SVB Hillary worked in tech-PR helping startups and founders create differentiated brands and tell a unique story. She started her career in non-profit development and community education and earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from California State University, Chico.

Dedicated to building bridges between the tech community and San Francisco’s underserved populations, Hillary is a founding board member of the Mid-Market Business Association, sits on the S.F. Krok Center Advisory Council and is an ardent volunteer for Meals on Wheels, St. Anthony’s, and Code Tenderloin. Hillary is a native Californian, who spends her free time cooking, entertaining, gardening and traveling with her husband and toddler.