Gaultier Brun doesnʼt have the typical VC trajectory of someone who sorts through early-stage founders every week. He didnʼt climb from analyst to associate inside a structured, multi-LP machine.

What he does have is a chain of intense experiences (hypergrowth, global venture, day-zero investing, personal bets) that have given him a sharp instinct to grasp founders. And enough legitimacy, as he likes to put it, to “sit at the table as an equal.ˮ

Since 2025, he has been running 199 Ventures, the fund launched by Andréa Bensaid, Eskimoz founder. It is a single-LP fund but with a clear thesis : marketing-first. Itʼs an unusual setup in French VC, and Gaultier stands right at the center of it.

Nothing came naturally or easily to him in his professional career, as he did not grow up in the world of venture capital, but rather in that of entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, he decided to follow a different path, enrolling at CPGE Intégrale in Paris, then at EDHEC Business School.

He discovered VC only six months before looking for his first internship, and yet once he saw it, he knew. But he also understood that if you want to be taken seriously in an industry where most people are older than you, you need ammunition (real experience and real exposure) and absolutely no signs of being “just the intern.ˮ

His first stop was Convelio, a logistics startup scaling fast after a €10M Series A. It was a perfect training ground for him, because it meant lots of cash and lots of pressure, with everything moving at x2 speed. After gaining some experience, he told the founders that he wanted to break into VC, and they opened the doors of Global Founders Capital.

At GFC in Berlin, he found himself in one of Europeʼs most prolific funds. A horizontal structure, dozens of partners, analysts everywhere, and dealflow across continents. Eight months of Covid-era venture work during which he developed skills such as sourcing, reading markets and learning to understand founders across geographies.

Then, with a view to gaining even more professional experience, he negotiated a one-year consultancy assignment inside a company instead of a traditional masterʼs thesis at EDHEC. Thatʼs how he joined Sunday, a company coming off a €100M mega Series A; the kind of round that puts a startup on a rocket rail. There, he saw the reality of « post-money abundance », where teams scale brutally fast and everything must be structured : yesterday.

After Sunday, he joined Antler for three years as an Investment Associate, first as a final-year internship, then full-time. Antler is one of the worldʼs most active early-stage investors, famous for partnering with founders at “Day Zero.ˮ During those three years, he learned to spot founder-market fit before the product exists, to judge ambition not by words but by energy, and hardened his belief that VC, at its core, is a human relationship.

He also discovered the quiet presence of impostor syndrome, the kind that appears when youʼre 25 and sitting beside investors with decades of experience. In those rooms, every silence feels like a test, and every comment like a measure of whether you belong.

Thatʼs why he prepared meticulously, brought his point of view to the table, and quickly made himself useful. Not by pretending to know everything, but by bringing clarity where others saw only noise. Over time, the doubt didnʼt disappear, but it did transform.

“At some point, you stop wondering if you belong; you start wondering if youʼre doing your job right. Thatʼs progress.ˮ

At GFC, he had spotted a quirky hardware startup called Nothing. The partner hesitated to invest and the fund passed, but Gaultier decided to put his own money in through a crowdfunding platform. Today, he still calls it « the best deal of his life », as the company later became a unicorn.

When he left Antler at the end of 2024, the cycle began slowly. But Gaultier was driven by determination and felt the urge to move: either across Latin America with a backpack or into a new adventure.

While scrolling on LinkedIn, he found a post by Andréa Bensaid announcing he was looking for someone to help build his VC fund. For Andréa, the real challenge was finding someone he could trust with his own money. Gaultier messaged him directly. The opportunity was too good to let pass. After that, Gaultier met Andréa with a single goal : to prove he was the right answer.

Andréa Bensaid built 199 Ventures as a family office-style fund with no multi-LP politics, no committees, and no artificial timelines. There was just Andréaʼs capital, his marketing DNA, and Gaultierʼs role: finding founders worth betting on.

In a VC world obsessed with technology, deeptech and patents, 199 Ventures claims something different: the idea that marketing is a strategic asset, not a post-Series A afterthought. They invest in startups that understand distribution, brand strategy and data, helping founders think like marketers from day one.

Post-investment, 199 Ventures adds operational marketing support, something rare in French VC. Andréa leads brand and growth strategy which enables startups to receive guidance on distribution, content, acquisition, data and channel strategy. This is why 199 Ventures often attracts founders who already value marketing—or who want to develop that muscle fast.

But marketing is not the only filter, as Gaultier says: « A great product that is mis-distributed loses. A decent product that is well-distributed wins. The market rewards distribution power more than anything else. »

To diversify their deals, they are building a media arm including newsletters, a strong LinkedIn presence and other projects that will see the light soon. Thanks to this, the fund aims to be visible not for hype, but to attract founders who truly understand the thesis.

Every week, Gaultier speaks with around fifteen early-stage startups, and eight deals have been made so far. He sources, screens, analyzes, compares, and brings his final recommendation to Andréa, who holds veto power.

To do this job, he looks for founders whose clarity of mind is so sharp that after thirty minutes you feel their conviction pulling you in : people capable of explaining their market, product and path with enough precision that you could almost pitch it for them.

He looks for real domain understanding, the kind that goes beyond enthusiasm and rests on years of observation, frustration or lived experience. Ambition matters too, but only when it is directional and aligned with what the market can actually offer.

Finally, he searches for a track record of fast execution, an expertise that creates an edge, or a grit that makes you believe theyʼll keep moving even when everything gets messy. When these ingredients align, he knows heʼs not just meeting a founder : heʼs meeting a potential outlier.

Gaultier refuses to romanticize his role. He doesnʼt call himself a scout of genius; he simply tries to bet on those who can win, without judging people, but by putting them in perspective.

That, in essence, is the philosophy of 199 Ventures : a fund built by a marketer and a young investor who both believe that winning the market matters as much as building the product. And maybe, if this bet works, 199 Ventures wonʼt just be another early-stage VC fund. But, could become a reference point for French founders who see marketing not as decoration, but as destiny.

To conclude, Gaultier shares a few pieces of advice for anyone trying to enter VC young: donʼt pretend to know what you donʼt, but donʼt downplay the expertise youʼve already earned. Arrive prepared, with real opinions and a perspective shaped by curiosity rather than ego. And above all, build your legitimacy one brick at a time. Credibility comes from the work youʼve done, the rooms youʼve earned the right to enter, and the clarity you bring once youʼre there.