Wharton Alumnae Founders & Funders

This podcast is a recording of a panel discussion of the business of building a brand and our first event in New York. Thanks to 3L Capital for hosting! On the panel is Erum Hasnain, partner at Idea Farm Ventures, Melissa Mash, founder & CEO of Dagne Dover, and Dorie Smith, co founder of Of Mercer. We discuss their customer, what their brands stand for, and how they listen to and implement customer feedback. It was interesting to hear the brands origin stories—from trunk shows at Wharton to getting connected to Warby Parker's Chinese sourcer.

This podcast is a recording of a fireside chat with Phin Barnes, partner at First Round Capital. In this podcast: -Phin explains why First Round focuses on seed investments, what they look for, and how they structure their deals. -He also explains the concept of “diversity debt” and why it’s important to focus on building a diverse team from the beginning, even if it takes longer. First round was founded by Wharton alum Josh Kopelman and has a female investing partner. Lots of great insights from Phin and stay till the end for the answer to the audience question about why we should invest in women.

Bjorn Oste the co-founder of Oatly, the popular brand of oat milk, discusses his 25 year "overnight success." The first patent related to oatmilk was filed in 1994. Bjorn and his brother cataloged the genome of 2800 varieties of oats in Sweden. They shared their creation with the head of the Swedish dairy association—who spit it out. The brothers had no choice but to commercialize it themselves. Bjorn discusses the unique health benefits of oats and their importance as a global food source. It's great to be reminded of all the work and years of science that goes into your favorite coffee condiment.

This podcast is a recording from a recent event with Sandra Shpilberg, the founder and CEO of Seeker Health. Hear how she turned losing a job into selling her company while maintaining control. Sandra tells the story of how she was working at a pharmaceutical company whose clinical trials failed. Out of a job, she decided to start Seeker Health, which productized what she’d been doing at her old job helping clinical trials find patients. Sandra started with a service and then built the software to help it scale—without taking VC money or giving up control. She got three acquisition offers and ended up selling her business to Eversana. There’s lots of great insights on building a b2b business in healthcare from Sandra.

Not every startup is a match for VC funding—and that’s a good thing! In this info-packed podcast, hear about different ways to raise the capital you need for your business. Our panel features Shruti Shah, entrepreneur in residence at Silicon Valley Bank, Melinda Moore, Director of Originations at Assembled Brands, and Shanon Grant, angel investor and founder of Deus Capital. These three amazing women detail different ways to raise money. Learn about: -A debt + equity financing vehicle called a STEP (sustainable, tech-enabled, products) fund which allows founders to hold on to more equity and reduces risk for investors -The experience of MoveLoot, the YC company which raised $22m in venture capital and ultimately shut down -How receivables financing can work for direct to consumer companies -Best practices for crowdfunding from the author of the The Ultimate Guide to Crowdfunding -The upside to being swift and frugal -The challenge between taking advantage of the market at the moment or being patient and incremental in growth -The pressure that comes with raising an enormous amount of money and the benefits of being focused on your goals instead of throwing money at a problem

In this podcast, Eurie Kim, WG’09, speaks about her road to venture as a partner at Forerunner Ventures. In this candid, hilarious, and wide-ranging discussion, hear Eurie explain: -How the development of social media as marketing platforms lead to DTC success -How the trust of technology accelerated customer expectations -What the initial pitch of unicorn company Away looked like -The traits she is looking for in a founder—and what it means to be “magnetic” -How to weigh the passion of an endeavor vs the numbers and metrics -A simple example of how to extend a brand -How she initially raised funds for Forerunner Ventures

Storm Ventures is a leading enterprise VC firm focused on B2B SaaS. Storm Founder Managing Partner Ryan Floyd and Senior Associate Frederik Groce spoke to Wharton Alumnae Founders & Funders. -How Storm thinks about investing and their sweet spot— post product market fit but pre go to market fit. -Federick is founder of BLCK VC, an organization working to double the number of black investors by 2024. Learn more: https://www.blckvc.com/ -The metrics that founders often stumble on: Know how many customers you have, and who is your biggest customer! -What they want to see in a pitch deck -Why you shouldn't pitch your top target investor first -How to manage the VC ego -How to communicate the big vision and explain how you can return the fund -How to run a process

Hear the amazing story of Smitten Ice Cream from Founder and CEO Robyn Sue Fisher. In this podcast from the Wharton Alumnae Founders and Funders Association, you'll hear: *How she built a better ice cream maker with a retired aerospace engineer *Why we should be eating fresh ice cream with real ingredients *How to build relationships with the right investors *Why it's not always the best time to have a Board of Directors, and why a Board of Advisors can work instead *Lessons learned from building a team

Gail Ball invests in women founders. She's the Managing Partner of Chestnut Street Ventures and the Senior Partner of the AVG Women's Fund. She sat down with the Wharton Alumnae Founders & Funders Association in San Francisco to share her experience. In this candid conversation, we discuss: -Gail's unlikely road to venture capital and what's made her successful -The movement to invest in women and the power of female LP's -The mistakes she sees female founders make when fundraising, and how to avoid them -What the VCs stay about you after you've left the pitch room -Where confidence comes from and how to get more of it Enjoy, and let us know your questions or feedback at whartonaffa@gmail.com