High staff turnover at Folklore has venture capital sector talking

afr.com:

A hollowing out of staff at Alister Coleman’s Folklore Ventures has tongues wagging in Australia’s tight-knit venture capital scene.

Full-time staff numbers at the mid-tier firm have dropped from 17 to around 10 over the past year, notching up its highest profile exit of partner Hannah Field in October.

Folklore partners Andrew Larsen, Hannah Field and Alister Coleman. SGR

Two investment associates have departed since February, both of whom have moved to competing VCs. Folklore’s chief operating officer has also walked (to Flying Fox Ventures), as has its head of communications and growth operations manager.

Investment advisers Tanisha Banaszczyk and Dan Fleming are still listed on Folklore’s website, though Street Talk understands Banaszczyk is working full-time at Folklore portfolio company Strong Compute under a different discipline, while Fleming’s LinkedIn says he left the company in June and is working at brand monitoring platform Tracksuit.

This leaves Coleman and partner Andrew Larsen and one investment associate internally managing the venture capital firm’s 20-or-so investments alongside a team of support staff. Larsen operates out of Perth and also runs his own early-stage, tech-focused venture investment firm.

Sources said Folklore had added two new people in the past two months, including former Emmi COO Rebecca Bannan to its investment team, though these appointments have not been announced on its website. Folklore currently has two job openings in the market for an investment manager and a marketing/communications manager.

While individual staff members may have left for a variety of reasons, the totality of exits over a short period has caught the industry’s attention.

In a statement, Folklore said its