The Rival Pod: Episode 7 with CiCi Bellis, Founder and General Partner at Cartan Capital

Listen Here

On The Rival Pod, CiCi Bellis, Founder and General Partner at Cartan Capital, broke down how a career as a top-ranked pro tennis player shaped the way she sources, diligences, and supports founders. Not as a former athlete looking for an entry point into business, but as an operator running a thesis-driven emerging fund in the human performance category.

From scrappy work ethic to the relational physics of venture, CiCi shared the frameworks and conviction behind a firm now operating out of its second fund.

Episode 7 of the Rival Pod

Below are the key takeaways, straight from CiCi.

From Pro Tennis to Cartan Capital

CiCi grew up in Silicon Valley, around venture from a young age, and on the international junior tennis circuit just as early. She committed to Stanford, then turned pro about a year before she would have stepped on campus, hitting a ranking goal that made fast-tracking to the tour the better path.

After a stretch of wrist and elbow injuries pulled her out of the game, she joined an early-stage sports tech focused venture firm just down the road from the USTA in Florida. Four years on the investment team, an MBA along the way, and a growing itch to build something on her own.

In late 2023, she launched Cartan Capital. The firm is now on its second fund, with an overall thesis built around what CiCi calls human performance: anything that meaningfully impacts sports, health, or wellness.

Scrappy Wins

Ask CiCi what really transferred from pro tennis to venture, and she comes back to the basics: day-in, day-out work ethic, mental fortitude, and a competitive mindset that runs from the morning into recovery at night.

But the trait she keeps returning to is grit. As a junior and a pro, she was never the biggest player on tour. She had to scrap for every point. That same posture, she says, is exactly what an emerging fund manager needs to break into the deals worth winning.

"As a tennis player, I was always a scrappy, wasn't the biggest girl on tour. A lot of those traits kind of transferred to venture as well, especially as an emerging fund and emerging manager."

A Marriage, Not a Transaction

Cartan went deep on a sports-adjacent deal last year. Strong space, on-thesis, ready to wire. Then a look at the data room turned up something off. The company had been licensing its name from a major brand and paying out an 80% revenue share on every dollar earned. The brand connection had never been disclosed, and getting clean financials out of the founders had been a fight.

The deal died. The lesson did not.

For CiCi, communication and transparency are not soft factors. They are the most reliable signal in diligence, and the foundation of the long relationship that follows.

"A startup's relationship with a VC is so much like a marriage. You have to be able to communicate well with each other from both ends. These are long relationships, and if you don't gel, it's probably not the right fit."

Venture Runs in Circles

CiCi's framing of how Cartan competes is unusually clear. Venture is a cyclical, relationship-driven business, more than almost any other.

You source a deal through your network. You invest. You over-support, because reputation is the only durable moat an emerging fund has. That support earns you better deals from the same network partners and from your own portfolio founders, who know everyone else building in the space. Then the cycle starts again.

The math backs it up. Roughly 50% of Cartan's dealflow comes inbound. Around 45% comes through the network. Just 5% comes from active hunting. And every company currently in the portfolio came through the network.

"It is such a cyclical industry, so closely tied to relationships, more than really any other industry I've seen. How do we differentiate? We support with the network we do have, and we put our money where our mouth is."

The Lightning Round

Favorite athlete growing up? Federer, Sharapova, and Kim Clijsters on the tennis side. Steph Curry and Tom Brady on the NorCal side.

Favorite athlete today? Christian McCaffrey. Big 49ers household, golden retriever named Kittle.

Favorite video game? Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Carried over from her now-husband's late-teen gaming era.

Best live sports moment? On TV: the first Warriors run to an NBA championship, watched at 3 a.m. Paris time during the junior French Open. In person: both the men's and women's US Open finals last year.

Favorite city for a game? The US Open. Indian Wells, Melbourne, and Dubai earn honorable mentions.

One rule you’d change? Shorten the pro tennis calendar. January through Thanksgiving is physically brutal on players, and the sport could take a page from how the PGA Tour restructured.

Hot take? “Live sports is one of the only categories that hasn't trended down in the streaming era. Compared to on-demand TV, it's only going to get more valuable.”