Lindsay Karas Stencel

Lindsay is a Partner of The W Fund. She is a seasoned dealmaker and true venture fund operator, having managed six venture funds during the course of her career. In negotiating and structuring over 1000+ deals in her VC tenure, she now works to ensure that all W Fund deals are tracking to market standards to put the W Fund in the best possible position to have influence over the portfolio companies’ progress and to permit strong participation in future investment rounds.

As a licensed attorney in multiple states, Lindsay began her venture career on the pure deal side working in big law in in New York. After she obtained her MBA from THE Ohio State University, she shifted to a true venture role in 2008 when she joined NCT Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm based out of Columbus, OH. There she worked her way up the ranks from associate and in-house counsel, to become one of the managing partners and chief legal counsel, making her one of the first female venture capital partners in the State of Ohio. There she has worked with the firm to structure 100s of transactions and proudly assisted the firm in being the top performing venture firm in the Midwest for its vintage years (2008 and 2013, respectively), according to PitchBook.

Then, in 2016, Lindsay, who is born and raised in Buffalo NY, became engaged with Launch New York, Inc., a Buffalo-based 501(c)(3) venture development organization that works to provide mentorship and funding to seed stage businesses, industry agnostic, in the 27 westernmost counties of the State of New York. During Lindsay’s tenure with Launch NY, the firm has become the most active seed fund in the State of New York (and one of the most active in the nation), with over 60 transactions in less than two and a half years, resulting in Lindsay being awarded the Early Stage Dealmaker of the Year by the Upstate Capital Association of New York for 2018.

Lastly, Lindsay is an Adjunct Professor at THE Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, teaching 2L and 3L students about venture capital and venture deal structuring. Lindsay also is an active speaker nationally, advocating for diversity and inclusion of women and minorities in finance, as well as instructing licensed attorneys and business people across the country on the establishment of venture firms and venture deal structuring.