Founding Partner & Managing Director

Betsy Fore is the Founding Partner of institutionally backed Velveteen Ventures investing in children and planet centered companies for the next seven generations. She is the bestselling author of Built on Purpose (HarperCollins Business 2025), a Financial Times Best Business Book. She is the first Native American to raise a Series A (over $20M total) and among the few to launch a venture capital firm. Her nonprofit Natives Rising is one of the largest communities of Indigenous technologists and founders. She has been an active Investment Partner with XFactor Ventures/Flybridge (funding over 2.5% of all female-led seed rounds in the nation) and LongJump (funding Midwest-based underrepresented founders with an LP base of ~200).

Betsy has been honored with Blueprint Capital Advisors’ Power100 in Venture Capital, Chief’s Top 50 Execs in the New Era of Leadership, Cosmopolitan’s New C-Suite, Crain's 40 under 40, Entrepreneur's 100 Women of Impact and Forbes 30 under 30. Betsy’s greatest accomplishments are her three children, she builds from her love for family and her ancestors of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

Principal, Planet

Karla Brollier grew up in a Tribal Village in Alaska’s Arctic, where entire ecosystems shifted within her lifetime. She is Yedatene'na, Ahtna Athabsacan. That reality shaped her commitment to climate action and led her into a career designing economic systems built for a rapidly changing planet. As an operator-turned-investor, Karla takes a systems-level approach to solving complex global challenges. She has built, led, and scaled funds, platforms, and companies across venture, philanthropy, and climate finance—mobilizing capital toward solutions that can operate at the speed the planet requires.

As Principal at Velveteen Ventures, the first Indigenous woman–led and owned venture fund in the nation, Karla invests in high-impact, high-growth businesses shaping the future of climate, sustainability, and community resilience.

Most recently, Karla directed Patagonia’s Home Planet Fund, stewarded and designed a blended investment and philanthropic platform for long-term environmental integrity. She previously served as an executive for former Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, and contributed to international climate finance initiatives with the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Across these roles, she has worked to align capital markets with climate urgency and advance financial models that don’t merely adapt but lead.

Chief Operating Officer

Katherine Stabler has over 15 years of legal, financial and operational experience in the private fund space. During this time, she has lead and managed strategic legal matters, grounding her expertise in fundraising, fund formation, due diligence, operations and investment transactions across private equity, private credit and hedge fund verticals.

Katherine's experience includes senior and executive roles at Monroe Capital, Kuvare Asset Management and Nuveen. She began her legal career in private practice at Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Ropes & Gray LLP. Prior to law school, she worked for Grosvenor Capital Management, L.P. and Jones Lang LaSalle. She earned her J.D. from Washington University in St. Louis and her B.S.C. from DePaul University.

Former Senior MBA Intern

Kyler McGillis is an emerging deal-maker with a strong background in negotiation and startup ecosystems. He recently graduated with an MBA from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Kyler founded the All Indigenous Recruiting Organization (AIRO), a nonprofit dedicated to educational outreach for Native American students, showcasing his commitment to social impact and business success.

Before joining Velveteen Ventures, Kyler worked in impactful financial and startup roles. As a Derivatives Clearing Analyst at Morgan Stanley, he enhanced his financial expertise. His experience at startups like RHR Swag and Carrot Health (now Unite Us) provided valuable insights into entrepreneurial challenges and successes, especially under the mentorship of experienced entrepreneurs and during a successful acquisition.

Virtual Executive & Personal Assistant

Tara Ulrich is a Virtual Executive & Personal Assistant with over a decade of administrative and business experience. She is passionate about helping executives and entrepreneurs get back what they value most: their time. Tara has worked with CEO's, authors, serial entrepreneurs, investors and advisors in various industries including tech start-ups. non-profits, and retail. Tara is a graduate of Arizona State University with a Bachelor's Degree in Tourism Development & Management. She lives in Arizona with her beautiful son, Julian, and sweet rescue dog, Poppy. Tara and Betsy have worked together for the past eleven years.