Todd Kimmel built his career as a founder before becoming an investor, co-founding companies like Innovance Networks, Coskata, Batch, and Parasail Health after starting out in investment banking and private equity, then carried that hands-on, board-level approach into venture capital at firms like Advanced Technology Ventures and Mayfield before starting Montage Ventures specifically to back companies in the gap between angel and Series A funding. He studied history at Amherst rather than engineering, and even describes himself as an aspiring novelist, giving him a more narrative, people-focused style than many of his Silicon Valley peers.