On the day of our interview, Andrea Kalmans was beaming with excitement. It is something of a natural state for her — high energy, quick wit and a library of startup stories that span the globe.
But on this day, which was her 47th birthday, she had an especially big smile. She was in her car next to her dad, with her mom in the backseat. Kalmans had just gotten back from watching her son, a senior in high school, give a moving homily at St. Andrew's. And, a few hours later, she would be having dinner at one of her favorite Austin restaurants: Fonda San Miguel.
Life can't maintain that type of rhythm for long. But Kalmans, a long-time startup investor and founder of Lontra Ventures, keeps a fast pace. She counts herself as neither a morning person nor a night person.
"I'm an introvert at home, and I'm exhausted in the morning and at night," she said. "But I'm high energy all day."
She's more likely to be listening to a podcast on crypto than jamming to a playlist of top hits. Or to be reading Bloomberg, The New York Times or an article like this in the Austin Business Journal rather than watching a movie or curling up with a novel.
"I love, love, love news," she said.
That media diet allows her to be conversant on just about anything in the headlines. And she has good reason, with contacts around the globe.
"One of the other things that I think is really amazing as a Jewish entrepreneur is I have friends in portfolio companies from Iran, Pakistan, Peru, Chile, Korea, Mexico, Canada, Israel, Jordan. ... And I love that. I haven't traveled to all of the places where my CEOs come from. But I think that that's absolutely incredible that I have those relationships."
Kalmans is especially versed in software-related news. Her list of investing and advising roles in startups in Austin and beyond is too long to list here but includes BalkanID, GenXComm and Unchained Capital.
Do you have any particular morning routines? I have coffee, and then I love to exercise. I love to exercise on the east side at a place called Squatch Frontier Fitness. I love it because it's a super young, crypto-forward, crazy gym that is so inclusive. I just love it.
It saved me during Covid. It's at a garage on Tillery Street, 25 minutes from my house. My mother always says, "Why do you drive so far?" And I drive so far because: A, bluetooth is my office and, B, it's the most unbelievable community.
What's on your playlist? I'm not a music person. I've started to become a bit of a podcast person. People are always naming different podcasts, and so I like to try to learn about those.
As much as I talk, I love, love quiet. No one would believe it.
So when you're when you're driving by yourself, there's no radio? No, I'm calling my portfolio, and I'm the only person who still uses the phone. I'm the person who when someone texts, I call back. I like to hear voice, and I like to know what's really happening. And I think that texts can so often be misconstrued.
And I also really love to know the details of the companies, probably more than I necessarily need to know as an investor. But my role as an angel who doesn't have institutional money is to help recruit, is to help advise, is to help, you know, think through decisions. And so my kids laugh because whenever I pick them up from school or whatever, they always ask "Who's on the phone?"
I'm curious, when you initially got into investing, which I gather is after Dell, where were you investing? My very first investments were when Techstars came to Austin. And the first company that I invested in was Atlas Wearables, which sold to Peloton.
Where did you grow up? I grew up in Wayzata, Minnesota. Walter, my husband and business partner, and I got engaged very young. I was 24 when I got married. It was 1999, and I read an article about Austin in Fortune magazine. Walter's family was from Houston and we were getting married. And I said, "This is the city for us. I'm going to get my MBA at the University of Texas McCombs [School of Business]" — which I did — "and we're going to live there forever and it's going to be great." He was like, "Okay!"
I just had such a good feeling about Austin 22 years ago, which is the same feeling that people have about Austin today. There's something so authentic about it, and so many opportunities.
What's your outlook for startups and venture capital investing in 2023? I'm not smart enough to know what's going to happen. But I want everyone reading this to know that our portfolio companies have jobs. And we are looking for customer service people. We're looking for core devs. We're looking for full-stack engineers. We're looking for CMOs. I know I've seen lots of layoffs. But the interesting thing here is that there's always a need for high quality talent, and I hope that people send me resumes because I can think of dozens of jobs off the top of my head.
I'm gonna try one more time. What do you see for yourself looking at 2023? What are your thoughts on investing in startups? Are you changing your tact at all? No, I'm very happy actually, because valuations in Austin got very, very high. And it became difficult, as a smaller check, the amount of ownership that I could get in a company was so small and with these valuations, it was kind of crazy. And so I have been saying for the last eight years that I knew I was investing in an up market. I'm actually very excited to start building a portfolio in all economic cycles. I think that this is actually very healthy. I thought last year, when we couldn't hire the great engineers because everyone was getting sucked up for a half a million dollars so quickly, it wasn't actually great for the innovation ecosystem.
I don't want to hear that anyone got laid off, and I don't want to hear that anyone overpaid for a house. But, the truth is, I think that some of this is actually very, very healthy. I'm actively working with a number of portfolio companies on cash management and fundraising right now. And that's what my job is, to make sure that we are funded and we are ready for the next 18 months, whatever life brings us. But quite honestly, that's what investing is. I think we got a little bit too excited in the last couple of years, and we should always be following those fundamentals.
What are your favorite Austin restaurants or restaurants? I love things that were here when we got here 22 years ago. I think that it makes you feel very comforted. So, of course, there's all the new fancy places. But we love Vespaio. We love Salt Lick. I basically office out of Littlefield's, with Veracruz All Natural and the coffee shop.
— Interview by Brent Wistrom
Title: Founder, Lontra Ventures
Age: 47
Family: Husband, Walter; children, Sabrina and Hudson
Education: MBA, University of Texas; finance degree, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Email: akalmans@lontraventures.com
