​Power Laws In Practice

​What David Kestenbaum's Venture Portfolio Actually Looks Like

​Angel investing is often discussed in terms of individual deals, standout exits, and success stories. What rarely gets discussed is the full portfolio: the complete, unfiltered view of what an investor's positions actually look like after several years of deploying capital. This session offers exactly that.

​David Kestenbaum will walk through his personal angel portfolio of 17 investments built over the past three years. He will share where each position stands today, including the companies that have been marked up, the positions that remain at cost, and the investment that has been written to zero.

​Rather than presenting a curated highlight reel, this session is designed to give the audience an honest, data-driven look at how an early-stage portfolio evolves over time and why the early years often look far less exciting than most investors expect.

​What you will learn

• ​How David constructed his angel portfolio: check sizes, pacing, sector allocation, and the thinking behind each decision

• ​Where the portfolio stands today

• ​Lessons from the institutional side: what years as a VC taught him that angel investing alone cannot

• ​How to think about follow-on decisions, write-offs, and the role of patience in early-stage returns

• ​What he would do differently if he were starting over today

• ​Practical advice for building your own portfolio with intention

​Meet Our Speaker: David Kestenbaum

​David Kestenbaum is currently the co-founder and CFO of Cauldron, a biotechnology company providing scale up services through its unique hyper-fermentation platform.  Prior to Cauldron, David was a founding member of ZX Ventures, the global innovation and corporate venture arm of AB InBev.  David led ZX’s venture capital fund as the General Partner, managing a ~$350 million portfolio that delivered top quartile returns and deploying capital towards new thesis areas like biotech and alternative protein.  David has sat on the board of several companies, and is passionate about sustainability and the future of food. David also led ZX’s innovation practice, developing their venture studio model and was part of the team within the group that built a +$1 billion e-commerce business for AB InBev.  Prior to ZX Ventures, David held various roles in AB InBev’s sales and marketing organizations, both in the U.S. and at their global headquarters.  David’s formal education is in business and finance, and he spent several years before joining AB InBev in more traditional finance roles.