Kalee Gardella came up through marketing and communications roles at VMware and Trinity Ventures before becoming Partner and Chief Community Officer at Founders Circle Capital, where she focuses on helping growth-stage executives grow rather than on traditional deal sourcing, drawing on experience running her own consultancy, KMG Collective, and living in the Colorado Rockies instead of Silicon Valley. She leads CRO roundtables and executive sessions for the fund's community, builds on an entrepreneurial streak that started in childhood with early ventures and competitions, and centers her work on the idea that community itself functions as a company's most important marketing tool.