Daniel Kimerling is a former fintech founder-operator who co-founded and led Standard Treasury through its acquisition by Silicon Valley Bank, where he then ran API banking and global R&D initiatives. At Deciens Capital, he focuses on building the next generation of financial institutions rather than just software, believing that using technology to create new banks, insurers, and asset managers offers better long-term compounding with less dilution than traditional software investments.

• Active investment focus on the future of financial services, writing checks between one and five million dollars for companies ranging from the incubation phase to post-seed. The strategy involves a highly concentrated portfolio with a long-term view, evidenced by the recent closing of a ninety-three million dollar fund dedicated to this specific sector.
• Strong preference for tangible business fundamentals over social validation, advising founders to prioritize creating value for stakeholders rather than worrying about public approval. This pragmatism extends to financial models, where the investor identifies recurring revenue collected with upfront payments as the optimal setup for a business.
• Emphasis on portfolio concentration and the specific mathematics required for venture returns. The investor argues that without a concentrated strategy, funds rely on heroic assumptions to make the math work, noting that their firm aims to avoid competitive bidding processes to focus on making specific investments great rather than playing a volume game.
• High regard for specific founder traits, particularly the ability to persuade through written communication, which is viewed as a high form of intelligence. Additionally, the investor encourages operating from first principles and defines excellence as the capacity to endure pain, advising founders to grow quickly to reduce reliance on external capital.