See Jane Invest Podcast

I’ve met many entrepreneurs who are really drawn into the wellness beauty space. It’s an exciting, lucrative, and highly competitive niche. That’s why I’m so excited to introduce today’s guest, founder of H. Gillerman Organics, Hope Gillerman. H. Gillerman Organics is a line of aromatherapy essential oils. Hope curated this line after an ongoing battle with sciatica. After aromatherapy helped her tremendously, she developed her own line and launched in 2008. Hope has since been featured in the US, UK, and Japanese versions of Boat magazine, Dr. Oz The Good Life, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, Town & Country, Cosmopolitan, and Organic Spa. Notable Moments: How to stand fast in a cutthroat industry. What started H. Gillerman Organics. Hope’s background as a dancer in New York City. How the use of essential oils for therapeutics was her gateway into a revelation. Her journey from a private practice to creating organic essential oils. What it was like in 2008 when the economy crashed after her launch. The biggest challenge of working with a luxury product like essential oils. How Hope has scaled her company after 10 years. The unique challenges of the spa and luxury space.

One of the cool things about being an angel investor is that you're surrounded by some pretty incredible colleagues. Today’s guest, Sapna Shah, is certainly one of these people! Sapna is an Angel Investor who, like me, has made a point of investing in female founders and other founders who are underrepresented. On top of that, she has zeroed in on tech, fashion tech, and e-commerce startups. She's the founder of Retail X Series, a co-founder of independent equity research firm Retail Eye Partners and the menswear startup Mind the Chap. She's also held executive strategy roles at Linens 'n Things and Ann Taylor.

While See Jane Invest has lead me to some amazing, far off places, some of the most inspiring people I meet are in my own backyard. Today's guests, Jasmine Simms and Dr. Tammira Lucas, are fellow Baltimorians who founded MAE (Moms As Entrepreneurs). After being pushed to meet by family and friends, Jasmine and Tammira connected and realized they had a lot in common. While from different backgrounds, they both have a passion for helping moms create wealth that can be passed down from generation to generation. I also really admire them for the work they've done with low-income communities, making sure that families from parts of the inner city continue to build legacies.

A few years after I started See Jane Invest, I came across a fantastic female entrepreneur centered film idea on Indiegogo. That revolutionary documentary turned out to be my foray into producing. Today I’m joined by the filmmakers behind She Started It, Nora Poggi and Insiyah Saeed. It was such a pleasure to find their work because, as you'll hear in the interview, it really represented everything that I hoped See Jane Invest would stand for. She Started It is a documentary about female entrepreneurs, and it follows several of them through the ups and downs of the startup journey. What I loved about it is that it’s not just a “go out there, live your dream” kind of film. It really focuses on the reality of what it takes to be a female entrepreneur. Notable Moments: Learn Nora and Insiyah’s origin stories and how they met at the Women 2.0 conference Hear how they saw a need for more media about these amazing women and realized no one was filling it Nora shares how she realized we needed to change the conversation around female entrepreneurship Insiyah explains how the project went from a documentary series to a documentary and what it took to keep the project going Hear how they selected the women to be in She Started It We talk about a moment in the film that revealed how unconscious bias reveals itself in the family dynamics of one female founder. Learn about Nora and Insiyah’s initiative to bring the film to more classrooms and communities

How can Fortune 1000 companies look at people in tech, women, and diverse populations as something more than a box to check, and actually diversify the workplace in a real way? Today’s guest, Janice Omadeke, tackles that very question. I met Janice while judging the SXSW 2018 start-up night, and she was so impressive that I actually really wanted her to go on and win the whole thing. She ended up taking home third, which is still really notable. Janice is the founder of The Mentor Method, which is an enterprise SAS Platform that matches diverse talent to mentors in Fortune 1000 companies. Besides just matching talent, she helps these companies with their inclusion and retention. She works tirelessly to ensure that companies aren’t just giving lip service to the idea of diversity, rather they’re making sure that diverse talent pools have a real sense of inclusion. Notable Moments: Janice addresses what sets The Mentor Method apart. Hear about the algorithm that reduces implicit bias and makes a stronger mentorship match. Listen to Janice break down what companies lose by not being inclusive and how they are accidentally promoting turnover. We discuss the role that natural instinct and intuition plays. Janice fills me in on her journey and what she’s been doing since SXSW. Find out how Janice’s father helped shape her love of technology Links Mentioned In This Episode: The Mentor Method website

If you’re ready to take your vision or idea to the next level and surround yourself with an A-Team, this is the episode for you. Today’s guest, Whitney Johnson, was instrumental in the early stages of See Jane Invest. Her advice and perspective really gave me a wonderful place to start. On top of being a personal mentor, Whitney has been named one of 50 Leading Business Thinkers, according to Thinkers 50, in the whole world. She’s also is part of the original cohort of Marshall Goldsmith's 100 Coaches, and has been a Harvard Business Review contributor and a LinkedIn Influencer. During our conversation, we’ll dig into Whitney’s new book, Build an A-Team: Play to Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve. As an expert on disruptive innovation and personal disruption, Whitney developed her proprietary framework and diagnostics after co-founding The Disruptive Innovation Fund, with Harvard Business School's Clayton Christensen.

One of the gold standards for having “made it” in the entrepreneurial world is if you get invited by a giant corporation to be their Entrepreneur-In-Residence. It's quite a coveted gig, because it means you've done things so well that a corporation wants to know how you think and what you do. Well, today’s guest just happens to be Microsoft's Entrepreneur-In-Residence! Tereza Nemessanyi has helped high growth startups go further and faster by leveraging frontier technologies and scale distribution channels. She helps entrepreneurs understand how Microsoft's products might help them, and helps Microsoft understand the way startups are thinking. It’s a win-win for everyone involved. She has worked with a ton of incredible companies at senior levels, including PWC, IBM, The Walt Disney Company, Unilever, Symphony, IRI, Interpublic Group and the Inter-American developmental bank. In addition, Tereza was named a Forbes 10 female entrepreneurs to watch in 2011 and its top 40 over 40.  Notable Moments: Hear about Tereza’s journey to Entrepreneur-In-Residence Learn how in-kind investments can be quite substantial and helpful Tereza shares the end goals of her relationship with Microsoft Listen to how she set up a process for great people to refer startups Learn about Tereza’s involvement with synthetic biology and bio-fabrication Tereza shares how important a growth mindset is Links Mentioned In This Episode: *this post may contain affiliate links...for more info, please see my full disclosure*  Microsoft for Startups Microsoft for Startups Twitter: @MSFDstartups Azure.com for a free credit to get started Be on the lookout for competitions that Tereza is judging!  

Have you ever sent a text message and immediately wished you could recall it? Today’s guest, Maci Peterson invented the technology to do just that! She’s also the CEO and Co-Founder of On Second Thought, a which is the definitive delay recall mechanism for mobile communications platforms. I met Maci years ago at a pitch competition (that she won, by the way) where she debuted her company On Second Thought. I remember being impressed with the way she rocked it, and she hasn’t slowed down since. Maci name has been on several notable lists including BBC's 100 Women, Ink Magazine's 30 Under 30, and Washington's Business Journal's 40 Under 40. She has also been profiled by Forbes, NPR, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Black Enterprise, Fox and others. Plus, she’s a frequent lecturer, subject matter expert, and adviser on entrepreneurship, innovation, and diversity initiatives. Notable Moments: Learn about the rollercoaster of securing patents Hear how Maci’s background in film now helps her in a way she never imagined Maci shares the initial ideas that sparked On Second Thought Listen to the affirmations Maci says she received while developing this technology Understand that even if it looks like someone has it all together -- they don’t! Learn to repurpose skills and backgrounds you have for your new ventures Links Mentioned In This Episode: *this post may contain affiliate links...for more info, please see my full disclosure* On Second Thought on Social Media: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn Maci Peterson on Social Media: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Have you noticed that there are just some things no one tells you about having a baby? How do you balance your hormonal changes, new schedule, and new responsibility with your existing career duties? After I had my son in 2017, I got to thinking about what working women deal with after they have a baby. That’s why I’m so excited to welcome pediatrician Alison Mitzner to the show today. She is a board-certified pediatrician, and received her medical degree from the State University of New York Health Science Center at Syracuse. After completing her pediatric residency, and practicing general pediatrics for five years, she moved into the pharmaceutical industry. Now she enjoys sharing her knowledge and experiences as a pediatrician and mom with other moms and dads, in addition to supporting moms-to-be. She's contributed to various online websites and blogs, including the Huffington Post, Fit Pregnancy, Reader's Digest, Parents, Self, and more. Notable Moments: Hear how Alison moved from practicing pediatrics to educating on children’s health and fitness. Listen as she shares how she handled maternity leave and working with a newborn. Learn the importance of caring for yourself as the parent during the first few postpartum months. Alison shares how changes (like hair loss, baby fat retention, energy shifts, etc.) are normal postpartum -- but rarely talked about. Hear all about our mommy-brain moments. Learn Alison’s dos and don’ts when it comes to fitness postpartum. The importance of “unplugged” time. Links Mentioned In This Episode: *this post may contain affiliate links...for more info, please see my full disclosure* Visit Alison's Website Alison Mitzner on Social Media:  Facebook | Instagram | Twitter  

If you’ve ever wondered what advisory board members are, how to tell when you need them, or where to find them, you’re in the right spot. You should also stick around if you’re looking for tips and tricks on how to get your startup noticed -- straight from an angel investor focused on women entrepreneurs. Today’s guest is Alicia Syrett, founder of Point 25 Initiative, a mentorship program for women entrepreneurs seeking advisory board members. She is also the founder and CEO of Pantegrion Capital, an angel investment vehicle focused on seed and early stage investments. Alicia and I have worked together on CNBC’s Power Pitch, and have bonded over our mutual passion for helping women entrepreneurs. She's also been on MSNBC's Your Business, is a contributor for Inc. magazine, and an instructor for Steve Blank's Lean LaunchPad course at Columbia University. Notable Moments: Learn what to do if you’re not sure if you’ll need investor dollars or not. Find out how to look at advising as a career path.   Hear Alicia’s story and how she returned to the “dynamic” energy of a startup. Listen as Alicia identifies the trap a lot of startups fall into when looking for investors. Find out what the vast majority of companies spend too much time on (and what they should be focusing on). Links Mentioned In This Episode: *this post may contain affiliate links...for more info, please see my full disclosure* Angel Financing for Entrepreneurs: Early-Stage Funding for Long-Term Success by Susan Preston  Point 25 Initiative Alicia Syrett on Social Media:  Twitter | LinkedIn  

For anyone pursuing a professional speaking career, and for entrepreneurs trying to get their big idea seen by the world, TEDx talks are the gold standard. But how do you do it? How do you actually get into TEDx, and what's the whole experience like? Today’s guest, Tricia Brouk, is the executive producer of TEDx Lincoln Square. She works with speakers to get their talks curated, formed just right and ready for the big event.  In addition to her high caliber position with TEDx, Tricia is an award-winning director, writer, and choreographer for theater, film, and television. Tricia choreographed for Black Box on ABC, The Affair on Showtime, Rescue Me on Fox, and John Turturro's Romance & Cigarettes where she was awarded a Golden Thumb Award from Roger Ebert. She also hosts The Big Talk, a podcast on iTunes where she interviews people who talk for a living. Notable Moments: Hear how Tricia used her tremendous entertainment career to dive into public speaking. Learn the origins of TEDx and what it takes to actually get selected. Tricia shares what she looks for in an “idea worth sharing”. Understand how to skip the application process by starting the conversation with the right people -- before the event. Learn why taking the TEDx stage is important. Links Mentioned In This Episode: *this post may contain affiliate links...for more info, please see my full disclosure* TEDx Lincoln Square Website   Grab Tricia's Free eBook - The 7 Step Formula for Fearless Public Speaking

Have you wondered what the deal with cryptocurrency is? Are you looking for a way to get involved with the blockchain revolution, but don’t quite understand it? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, of the $85 billion invested in Bitcoin last year, women only accounted for $5 billion. Today’s guests, Caitlin Copple Masingill and Jamie Iguchi are co-founders (along with other women) of Token Women Project -- A platform dedicated to helping women participate fully in the blockchain revolution. Caitlin aims to make the world a better place through social entrepreneurship and inspiring more women and people of color to run for political office, especially from flyover states. She is also the Public Relations Director at Oliver Russell, a marketing agency and certified B Corp. Jamie is an attorney admitted to practice in the Montana State and federal courts, as well as in California and New York. Her practice includes commercial and civil defense litigation and she serves on the board of ACLU of Montana and on the Technology Committee of the State Bar of Montana. Notable Moments: Learn the basics of the blockchain revolution. Hear how the Token Women Project got its name (and what the reception has been) Understand why you need to care and learn about blockchain. Jamie shares the first steps to getting started in Bitcoin. Learn how blockchain could prevent significant breaches and improve data security. Caitlin shares why you shouldn’t write off investing in Bitcoin (or anything else).  

It's one heck of a balancing act to try to make sure that your love life and your professional life work smoothly. How often have you wondered how your relationship and your work life fit together? What happens when the person you're in love with, dating, or married to is also someone you work with? I know so many of you are excited to hear from today’s guest, relationship and intimacy expert Marla Mattenson. Over her 23 year long career, she's helped more than 12,000 couples, including Academy Award winning actors, producers and directors, NBA players and coaches, Grammy Award winning artists, and millionaire entrepreneurs. She and I dig into what makes an entrepreneur couple different from your average couple, and draw on her unique gift of working with couples to transform their negative habitual patterns. Marla uses her neuroscience and a mathematics background to work with couples, and she practices what she preaches by running a business with her husband! “We have to make sure that we're valuing our partner purely for who they are -- not because of who they are in the business, not because of who they are in the world, just for who they are in partnership.” Notable Moments: Hear how Marla fell into this fantastic (and so needed) niche. Learn how to tell if someone is a good match for you right from the beginning. Marla shares why angel investors get squeamish when working with married business partners. Understand why you don't need to have exactly the same ambition level as your partner. Learn about “exquisite attention” and how Marla uses it when couples hit a rough patch. Links Mentioned In This Episode: *this post may contain affiliate links...for more info, please see my full disclosure* Relationship Redo Marla’s Website  

Single mothers don't get the credit they deserve for how much they're shaping our culture, our economy, and the next generation. The reality is that more and more families are the product of single mothers, and it’s time we recognize that and add diversity into the business space. Today’s guest, Emma Johnson, is a champion for newly divorced women who need to find their way to financial independence and wealth. She has some strong opinions about how women need to hold each other accountable, and while I cheer her on for some of them, you’ll hear me challenge her on others. But for the most part, I think she's doing some pretty fantastic work. Host of Like A Mother on iTunes, and founder of WealthySingleMommy.com, Emma runs the world's biggest platform for single mothers. She’s an expert on topics related to family, gender, divorce, and equality, and has appeared on The Doctors, FOX and Friends, Headline News, Jenny McCarthy Radio, as well as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Money, Time, Oprah.com.  

Does being “too nice” work against you in business? Is being nice a detriment if you're a woman with ambition? Do you become someone you hate in order to succeed in your career? Today’s guest, Fran Hauser, doesn’t think so. Author of The Myth of the Nice Girl, she believes women in business can present their whole self, be grounded in what they do, and not have to compromise their sense of what it means to be a compassionate person with empathy. Best known for her role of building people.com (one of the biggest media brands online), Hauser has a big interest in helping female founders. She made the leap to early-stage investing in 2014, funding advising consumer-focused companies such as HelloGiggles, Mogul, The Wing and Gem & Bolt. Fran brings a fresh perspective to the business world, and I’m so excited to welcome her to the show. Notable Moments: Fran shares what your own body can teach you about whether an interaction was productive or not.   Learn what one thing investors always look for in a pitch (hint, it may not be what you think...) How to differentiate being a pushover and being nice. The best way to develop emotional boundaries. Ways to address an issue without seeming confrontational or aggressive. How to stay civil -- even when others don’t. Links Mentioned In This Episode: *this post may contain affiliate links...for more info, please see my full disclosure* Purchase Fran's Book- The Myth of the Nice Girl Visit Fran's Website Fran Hauser on Social Media: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn    

“Anyone can build wealth” This is the principle that Acorns, a micro-investment app that lets people automatically invest spare change from debit and credit card purchases, was founded on.  Today, I’m speaking with Jennifer Barrett who is the Chief Education Officer at Acorns and Editor-in-Chief of its editorial site, Grow. Prior to joining Acorns, she was the Personal Finance Editor at CNBC Digital.  She is also the co-author of two personal finance books and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Forbes, Worth, Money, and Newsweek. Jennifer is passionate about empowering women specifically when it comes to money and finance.  In our discussion, we talk about her newest book she’s working on which focuses on women as breadwinners and the need for better financial education. Notable Moments: How Jennifer’s background in journalism uniquely positioned her for the role she has now How Acorns lives out the founding principle that anyone can build wealth The risks involved in joining a startup Acorns initiative to bring more diversity to the company The culture shift experienced in moving from CNBC to Acorn Jennifer’s passion for educating women about money and how it’s lead to her latest book currently in the works. The difference between how boys and girls are educated about money and the effects it has on wealth and earnings. Links Mentioned: Learn More About Acorns Read Grow OnlineJennifer Barrett on Social Media:  Twitter | LinkedIn

Investor, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, and one hell of an advocate for diversity in the startup space, for the equal treatment of women, and for the cessation of sexual harassment in the workforce. ...and that’s just the START of her resume! My guest on today's show is Sarah Kunst and I can't tell you what a pleasure it's been to know her.  In addition to being everything listed above, Sarah is also a contributing editor at Marie Claire Magazine. Her philanthropic interests include the boards of Michigan State University Foundation Endowment. She has been recognized all over the place for her work, for starts Forbes Magazine 30 under 30, The Wall St. Journal, and Fortune. The list of this woman's accolades just goes on and on. Sarah was also featured in a New York Times article that really got the Me Too movement moving along. It wasn't the first one, but it was right there at the beginning and she and several other founders with their stories took down some pretty big heads of VC firms because they didn't want this stuff going unwritten about, unspoken about, and she's done so much to diversify the startup space. It's a pleasure to welcome Sarah Kunst to the program.  

What does a role in the National Tour of The Wedding Singer have to do with fitness and mindset? For Jen Gottlieb, everything! Jen is a body and mindset transformation expert who specializes in working with people who are driven. In this episode, Jen and I discuss how her love for fitness and nutrition led her to become a personal trainer and how the sense of disconnect Jen experienced around her true self and the image she was known for ignited a new calling. (hint: it’s often the missing link to success in most people’s wellness journeys.) Not only is Jen’s commitment to fitness inspiring but, her career transformation from a personal trainer a scalable online business owner proves that there are so many paths to creating a sustainable business model that affords a life you love.  

Inspire, Educate, and Activate These are the 3 core pillars of REPRESENT:, the foundation that Shayne Veramally is spearheading with Kweku Mandela: grandson of Nelson Mandela.  Instead of immortalizing Mandela with a statue or school named after him, Shayne and REPRESENT: aim to live out Mandela’s legacy by empowering the next generation with the goal of creating a more just and equitable future. Understanding that change starts with an army of youth, Veramally is reaching teenagers by making pressing humanitarian issues relevant through impactful projects (like 100 dance parties to kick off Mandela’s 100 year anniversary)  and media campaigns that are geared towards a digital and experienced, driven generation.

When people think of startups, they often imagine ideas written on napkins and late nights brainstorming in the basement.  I assure you, Aja Atwood’s startup, Trella, is not your average startup. She’s light years ahead of the curve creating solutions to indoor farming needs and specifically the space concerns in urban farming.  How amazing is that?! Aja’s business ethos is driven by the belief that success is rooted in innovative technologies that can be shared with the communities that need them the most.  And that belief is the catalyst behind Trella and the crowdfunding campaign she’s currently spearheading in to fund the latest prototype of her revolutionary plant training system.  

What happens to promising dates, a blossoming romance or even an entire marriage when she makes more? On today’s episode, Farnoosh Torabi joins us to talk about her book When She Makes More. We talk about how she and I both created a career and a family that honors our drive and our desire to share it with people we love and support us while navigating the pitfalls of a society that hasn’t caught up with high earning women.

In this episode, Polly and I unpack all the reasons why this is so a social impact company. Like how the origin story of Unbound is deeply personal to Polly and one that, unfortunately, many women (including me) can relate to in one respect or another. Or how Unbound seeks to empower women with information needed in order to truly be informed and explorative of their sexual health. And why offering this information has (at best) made some investors shy away and (at worst) led to death threats.

How Do You Solve Your Own Problem? What's The Problem That You See Out There That You Are Uniquely Positioned To Provide The Answer To? Our guest today, Kelly Hoey, answers these and more questions in the way only she can. Not only is she a dear friend and fellow featured guest on CNBC's Power Pitch together, she's also a former attorney with an amazing shoe collection! While her background is in angel investing (New York Angels and others), Kelly is moving into the author/speaking world with her first book, Build Your Dream Network. In this episode, we'll dive right into how to network without the ick factor and learn to truly embrace the spirit of community building and generosity that’s essential to the practice.  Kelly provides great examples of true generosity and also keys us in on what to definitely NOT do.

Welcome to the See Jane Invest Podcast. I am so excited to present the inaugural episode of this podcast.  I'm an angel investor & venture capitalist who backs businesses founded by women because I believe in creating diversity and inclusion in places of power. So if you're craving a conversation that goes beyond fighting for a seat at the table and instead talks about how to take over the whole lunchroom, get ready to See Jane Invest in her idea, See Jane Invest in her community, See Jane Invest in her!