Richelle is the founder and Managing Director of the Winnow Fund, an early-stage venture capital fund investing in Wisconsin-based startups. Richelle is originally from Milwaukee but has been in Madison for over a decade. She moved here to attend the University of Wisconsin Law School, which is where she first started working with entrepreneurs, through the Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic.

She briefly practiced in other areas of law, but missed the excitement and ambition of her startup clients. Richelle found her way back to UW-Madison where she led a team responsible for negotiating research and development contracts, and administered grant programs aimed at commercializing innovations created by entrepreneurial-minded researchers. She started the Winnow Fund after recognizing she could help remove, or at least lower, some of the hurdles that may prevent entrepreneurs from pursuing their goals, like navigating the legal world, finding a capable team, and obtaining funding.