Podcasts about all raise

What happens when a Stanford University project catches the eye of a venture capitalist? Well, in one world, you carry on as before. In another, and if you're Jenny Lefcourt, you explore the idea, raise $1 million and go on to co-found WeddingChannel.com! Today, that would be some feat, but Jenny and her cofounder did this when internet shopping wasn't really a thing- Amazon had only just started selling books! And yet, with grit, determination and a lot of work, WeddingChannel.com thrived and was eventually sold.  Now, Jenny is a General Partner at early stage venture capital firm, Freestyle, which invests in early stage tech companies. She's also co-founder of All Raise, a non-profit to support diversity in tech, and has angel invested in a range of businesses including Minted, Discord, and Main Street Hub. Jenny is an incredible lady with so much knowledge to share. She does this here, on this special episode of the Small & Supercharged Podcast and, of course, in my latest book, You've Got This.

(0:00) Intro(1:15) About the podcast sponsor: The American College of Governance Counsel(2:02) Start of interview(2:45) Emily's origin story(8:27) Her start in venture capital through DFJ with Tim Draper in 2000.(11:56) About the history and evolution of VC(13:42) Investing thesis (founding principle) at her firm Threshold Ventures.(19:21) The venture mechanics of Threshold Ventures. "One of our SLAs is we'd like to be the founder's first call."(21:30) On navigating boardroom dynamics in venture-backed boards. "Building trust is critical" (26:20) On dealing with conflicts of interests at the board level in the VC context. "Decisions with an investors' hat vs board member hat"(31:35) Mention of the VC-Backed Board Academy in SF on May 14, 2025, and NYC on Oct 28, 2025.(32:31) The role of independent directors in VC-backed companies. "I love bringing in independent directors early."(38:09) On board observers. "I always try to think about [board roles] in a two-year cycle"(42:44) The state of diversity in VC. Discussion about All Raise (founded in 2018).(48:12) Navigating the AI Landscape "it's a different world"(55:10) Books that have greatly influenced her life:The Soul in the Game by Vitaliy Katsenelson (2022)(55:43) Her mentors: Heidi Roizen (E6, E108 and E116)(57:07) Quotes that she thinks of often or lives her life by. "Happiness = Reality - Expectation"(57:56) An unusual habit or an absurd thing that she loves. (58:31) The living person she most admires.Emily Melton is a co-founder of Threshold Ventures. She is looking for entrepreneurs who are genuinely excited about being agents of change and have an almost irrational drive to make things better. You can follow Evan on social media at:X: @evanepsteinLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/epsteinevan/ Substack: https://evanepstein.substack.com/__To support this podcast you can join as a subscriber of the Boardroom Governance Newsletter at https://evanepstein.substack.com/__Music/Soundtrack (found via Free Music Archive): Seeing The Future by Dexter Britain is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

Allison Byers is a trailblazer in the realm of equitable capital distribution. As the founder of Scroobious, her tech company is quickly driving innovation by removing barriers to partnership among diverse founders, investors, and service providers through scalable online education, community, and data-driven curation. Before founding Scroobious, she spearheaded a medical device startup, securing nearly $10M in funding before its acquisition, and encountered firsthand the gender bias prevalent in fundraising. With over 20 years of experience in startup and tech roles, Allison stands as a seasoned entrepreneur and a catalyst for change having co-authored California Senate Bill 54, signed into law, which requires venture funds to report diversity metrics. She is actively championing initiatives in other states including MA Senate Bill 978 and NY Senate Bill A09786. Beyond her entrepreneurial pursuits, she serves as an angel investor, Boston Co-Chair of the national non-profit All Raise, Executive in Residence at Merck Digital Sciences Studio, DEI task force member of the Angel Capital Association, and is a sought-after startup mentor and dynamic speaker. Key Takeaways: 01:17 The Vision of Equitable Access to Capital 07:08 The Stark Reality of Funding Disparities 10:47 Reframing Inequity as Opportunity 17:28 The Insanity of Expecting Change Without Action 22:43 Building Scalable Solutions Through Technology 32:13 Empowering Entrepreneurs to Forge Their Own Paths 33:00 Collaboration as the Key to Success Quote of the Show: 10:47 “Holy cow, what a business opportunity. Almost 100% of Black founders and 98% of women aren't being funded by venture capital.” Podcast Information Want PR that actually matters? Get 30 minutes of expert advice in a fast-paced, zero-nonsense session from Karla Jo Helms, a veteran Crisis PR and Anti-PR Strategist who knows how to tell your story in the best possible light and get the exposure you need to disrupt your industry. Click here to book your call: https://info.jotopr.com/free-anti-pr-eval Ways to connect with Allison Byers: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-byers/ Company Website: https://www.scroobious.com/ How to get more Disruption/Interruption: Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/eccda84d-4d5b-4c52-ba54-7fd8af3cbe87/disruption-interruption Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disruption-interruption/id1581985755 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6yGSwcSp8J354awJkCmJlDSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does it take to drive meaningful change in venture capital?Pam Kostka is an executive in residence at Magnify Ventures, a VC firm focused on transforming the care economy. She was also the founding CEO of All Raise, an organization dedicated to increasing representation of female and non-binary founders and investors.In this episode, Pam talks about why she thinks women are reaching a tipping point in the startup ecosystem. Plus, she discusses the impact of AI and demographic shifts on innovation, as well as what networking and your kitchen cabinet have in common.Over her 30-year career, Pam has led multiple companies and she currently holds an advisory role at several organizations.[01:41] The Importance of Health Tech and the Care Economy[02:36] Demographic Shifts and Their Impact on Work[05:51] Innovation from Lived Experiences[08:51] Tipping Point in Startups and Venture Capital[16:58] Networking and Your Kitchen Cabinet[20:57] The Power of Saying No[24:44] Pam's In Her Ellement Moment[26:42] ReflectionsLinks:Pam Kostka on LinkedInKamila Rakhimova on LinkedInRynaa Chagti on LinkedInAbout In Her Ellement: In Her Ellement highlights the women and allies leading the charge in digital, business, and technology innovation. Through engaging conversations, the podcast explores their journeys—celebrating successes and acknowledging the balance between work and family. Most importantly, it asks: when was the moment you realized you hadn't just arrived—you were truly in your element?About The Hosts:Kamila Rakhimova is a fintech leader whose journey took her from Tajikistan to the U.S., where she built a career on her own terms. Leveraging her English proficiency and international relations expertise, she discovered the power of microfinance and moved to the U.S., eventually leading Amazon's Alexa Fund to support underrepresented founders.Rynaa Chagti is a student and BCG X Co-op. She grew up in Dubai. She is currently studying business and design at Northeastern University, where she is the public relations coordinator for IDEA, the university's student-led venture capital accelerator. She is passionate about building a career that does not box her into one role or title and rather one that reflects who she is authentically. Subscribe to In Her Ellement on your podcast app of choice to hear meaningful conversations with women in digital, business, and technology.

In this episode of the She+ Geeks Out podcast, we speak with guest Allison Byers, founder and CEO of Scroobious, about her journey into entrepreneurship.  Allison shares how she reclaimed her career after facing gender-based professional roadblocks and what it looks like to face the challenges of fundraising in the male-dominated venture capital industry. Allison discusses the concept behind Scroobious, which aims to make fundraising more accessible for underrepresented entrepreneurs by providing education, personalized feedback, and connections to angel investors. We dig into her involvement as a co-author of California Senate Bill 54, which mandates the collection of venture capital data, and her advocacy work with organizations like All Raise. Links We Mention:Scroobious, SB54, All Raise, Olympics Blog Post(00:06) Olympics, Paralympics, Inclusion, Workplace, Inspiration(13:15) Building a Diverse and Sustainable Company(25:05) Navigating Venture Capital and Angel Funding(32:47) Intersection of Human Capital and AI(42:38) Venture Capital, Diversity, & Mentorship(51:11) Future Trends in Diversity & Entrepreneurship(56:45) Empowering Women in Business(01:03:40) Thanking Allison Visit us at https://shegeeksout.com to stay up to date on all the ways you can make the workplace work for everyone! Check out SGOLearning.com and SheGeeksOut.com/podcast for the code to get a free mini course.

Adela encourages us all to bet on what we want the future to look like! She reminds us that exponential change is sometimes as simple as inviting one more friend along the way, and she forces us to explore the reality that thinking differently is the most obvious key to unlocking great investment returns, not groupthink. In this really thought-provoking episode, Rob and Adela Jamal, Managing Partner at MileMark Capital, dig deep into the crucial role of diversity and inclusion in the entrepreneurial economy, in Los Angeles, and globally. Adela brings every bit of her own diverse life experience and cultural perspective, to the pursuit of sustained change in the Venture industry and Entrepreneurial Economy. Together they explore the pressing need for more women and women of color in investment capital and leadership roles, highlighting how diverse teams drive innovation and yield greater returns. Adela shares tactical steps to address investment inequities, such as increasing female fund managers and creating mentorship opportunities. With insights from MileMark Capital, a venture capital firm rooted in the MIT ecosystem, this conversation sheds light on the power of capital allocation to solve real-world problems and disrupt sectors like health tech, ag tech, and biomaterials. Tune in to hear Adela's inspiring journey and her work with All Raise, an organization supporting female and non-binary funders and founders, as she provides actionable advice for breaking into venture capital. Feel free to follow and engage with ADELA here: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelajamal/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adela.jamal X: https://twitter.com/adelajamal Website: https://www.milemark.capital We're so grateful to you, our growing audience of entrepreneurs, investors and community leaders interested in the human stories of the Entrepreneurial Thinkers behind entrepreneurial economies worldwide. As always we hope you enjoy each episode and Like, Follow, Subscribe or share with your friends. You can find our shows here, and our new Video Podcast, at “Entrepreneurial Thinkers” channel on YouTube. Plug in, relax and enjoy inspiring, educational and empowering conversations between Rob and our guests. ¡Cheers y gracias!, Entrepreneurial Thinkers Team.

Amir leads Fintech and Insurtech investing at AV8 and has been one of the earliest investors in the Insurtech space. Amir has been an entrepreneur, operator and investor with over 15 years of experience, working with early and mid-stage companies on financing, partnerships and strategic growth initiatives. Prior to AV8, Amir was an investment director and founding team member at Munich Re Ventures where he lead and managed investment efforts for two of the funds and made early bets in Insurtech, Mobility and Digital Health in companies like Next Insurance, Inshur, HDVI, Spruce, Ridecell, Babylon Health etc.. Earlier Amir worked for several venture funds, including Route 66 Ventures, focusing on Fintech and Insurtech, and investing in companies such as Simplesurance and DriveWealth. He began his career in Germany as a network engineer and subsequently at Legodo AG (acquired by Open Text, OTEX (NASDAQ)), an enterprise software startup, where he held several roles in sales, business development and product management until acquisition. In 2019, Amir was ranked 11 out of 100 on Global Corporate Venture's Rising Stars list and was named a “VC Champions Select” by All Raise. Amir lives in San Francisco and holds an MBA from Georgetown McDonough School of Business, a BS in Business Informatics from RFH Cologne in Germany and is currently finishing an MS in Law from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Highlights from the Show Amir started investing in InsurTech in the mid-2010s, and spent most of his investing career at Munich Re in their Ventures team, as the third member of the team They started investing in industrial IoT and similar topics since their funding was from Hartford Steam Boiler (HSB) In 2016, there was more of a pivot into InsurTech as it emerged At AV8, Amir focuses on early stage, focused on very early stage to some revenue traction but still pre-series-A generally Their majority LP is Allianz, and the fund is heavily FinTech-focused They like risk taking businesses like MGAs and full-stack carriers because of the long-term returns, plus the difficulty in selling to insurance companies and surviving the long sales cycles Amir has focused on niche markets or areas where incumbents lack digital solutions, and leading with building a new insurance approach and adding tech after it's established Investing in long-term ideas may take longer, but then there's strong moats that can stop competitors from eating your lunch, which is harder to do with short-term ideas or SaaS areas Investment has gotten tough, but there are investors out there still; they just may be looking more critically at profit potential than might have happened in the past InsurTechs that went public and haven't done well were not alone – the market more broadly was pushing a lot of startups to go public so investors could get returns, but for many it proved too soon to go public because fundamentals weren't there yet This episode is brought to you by The Future of Insurance book series (future-of-insurance.com) from Bryan Falchuk. Follow the podcast at future-of-insurance.com/podcast for more details and other episodes. Music courtesy of Hyperbeat Music, available to stream or download on Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music and more.

Consumer startups have taken a hit when it comes to venture funding. But according to Eurie Kim, partner at Forerunner Ventures and founding member of All Raise, consumer is where it's at.The investor joined Mary Ann Azevedo on Equity to talk through the intricacies of the space. She pointed out that last year, just 7% of seed capital went to consumer startups. Yet, research shows that consumer company performance has outpaced enterprise, Kim contends. Forerunner itself has backed the likes of Oura, Chime and Prose, among others. Kim also talked about the advantages of being dedicated investors in a space that has seen a number of tourist VCs drift in and out. In addition to discussing the state of consumer investing and what consumer investors are looking for, the venture capitalist shared her thoughts on the investment landscape as a whole, what's up with IPOs and why every startup should have AI in their pitch deck.Equity is TechCrunch's flagship podcast, produced by Theresa Loconsolo, and posts every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.You also can follow Equity on X and Threads, at @EquityPod. For the full episode transcript, for those who prefer reading over listening, check out our full archive of episodes over at Simplecast. Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

Ann Miura-Ko is the co-founding partner of Floodgate, one of the world's most successful venture capital firms, and was named one of the New York Times' Top 20 Venture Capitalists Worldwide. She is a pioneer investor in many technical companies, and was one of the first investors in top organizations such as Lyft and Refinery 29. She is also a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Stanford, a member of Yale's Board of Trustees, and founder of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in funders and founders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the latest episode of The Room Podcast! Today, we have the privilege of hosting Eva Ho, the co-founder of Fika Ventures, a driving force in the tech startup ecosystem. Eva Ho is no stranger to breaking barriers, and in this episode, she offers candid advice for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to carve their own paths. Join us as Eva takes us through her journey from her early days in the tech industry to her current role as a trailblazing venture capitalist. In this episode, we explore the role of personal history in professional pathways, knowing when to leave and take the leap of faith as a founder, and the evolution of the emerging manager landscape. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur, an aspiring fund manager, or simply intrigued by the inner workings of venture capital, this episode is packed with wisdom and inspiration from one of the industry's most respected voices. Tune in as Eva Ho shares her vision for the future of technology and entrepreneurship.For The Room Podcast in your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.Check out our guide to podcasting here! 5:33 - Where did Eva grow up and how did that shape her view of the world?7:31 - Did Eva always think she was meant to be a founder?9:17 - How has the culture around entrepreneurship changed over time at Harvard?14:48 - What brought Eva to the tech industry?17:50 - Why has Eva become an angel investor?20:51 - How did Eva get involved with Susa?22:18 - When did Eva realize it was time to leave Susa?25:41 - What is the mission behind Fika?27:26 - Who was the first team to say yes to investing in Fika?29:35 - How does Fika decide what industries it invests in?32:57 - When does Eva know it's time to say yes to investing in something?36:58 - What does Eva look for in a founder who encourages her to support them?41:48 - Why is Eva passionate about All Raise and how has it shaped her career?44:37 - What are some recent projects that Eva is excited about?46:17 - Who is a woman who has had a profound impact on Eva and her career?WX Productions

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.This is our second episode of Venture Unlocked Shorts where we highlight a specific point of view of our guest. These points of view may come through a tweet, an article, or an offline conversation, and our goal is to unpack these interesting views in a short conversation. In this week's Venture Unlocked Shorts, we're joined by Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures. Aileen wrote a now famous article in 2013 where she coined the term Unicorn to describe technology companies that reach a billion-dollar valuation within 10 years of founding.Recently she and her team published a successor article looking at the last 10 years of these Unicorns, and what they believe will happen in the future.It was fun to unpack the articles through this discussion, and I think you'll enjoy hearing her findings and thoughts on what we may see in the future. About Aileen Lee:Aileen is the Founder and Managing Partner of Cowboy Ventures, a firm that invests in early-stage enterprise and consumer startups. With over two decades of experience in venture capital, she has a history of involvement from seed stage to beyond, including her time at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.Before her venture capital career, Aileen held roles at Gap Inc. and started at Morgan Stanley. She holds degrees from MIT and HBS. Additionally, she co-founded All Raise and sits on the board of Castilleja School.Aileen is known for introducing the term “unicorn” in the context of business. She has been recognized in Time 100's most influential people and has appeared on the Forbes Midas List.In this episode, we discuss:(02:30) Marking a decade of the term Unicorn and how many Unicorns have been created in the last ten years(05:46) The impact of macroeconomic factors like zero interest rate policies on the venture capital industry(06:37) Aileen describes the situation as a 'perfect storm' of factors leading to a surge of capital in the industry(08:18) The future of unicorns in the venture capital landscape(15:46) What happened in 2021?(17:13) The importance of founders understanding the business model of the funds they are engaging with (19:00): Aileen predicts a mix of outcomes for startups and whats aheadI'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Aileen. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on Twitter.Podcast Production support provided by Agent Bee  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Ketone-IQ is a clean energy boost without sugar or caffeine. Get 30% off your first subscription order of Ketone-IQ at http://www.hvmn.com/TWIST The Paintbrush Loan is the earliest startup financing on the internet. No pitch deck, no business plan, no minimum time in business, and no warm intros. Plus, you get to keep your equity. Visit http://www.getpaintbrush.com to see if you qualify for a $50K startup loan in less than 2 minutes. Coda is the all-in-one doc for teams. And they introduced an AI-powered assistant to take the BUSY out of the WORK! Get started for free at https://www.coda.io/twist * Today's show: Aileen Lee join Jason to talk about her origins and overcoming challenges as a woman in a male-dominated tech space (2:12), the Unicorn Club and the effects of the ZIRP era (11:51), predictions on which startups will maintain their unicorn status (33:09), and more! * Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * LINKS: Check out Cowboy Ventures: https://www.cowboy.vc/ Read Aileen's 2024 article here: https://www.cowboy.vc/news/welcome-back-to-the-unicorn-club-10-years-later Read Aileen's original Unicorn article here: https://techcrunch.com/2013/11/02/welcome-to-the-unicorn-club/ Check out All Raise: https://www.allraise.org/ * Thanks to our partners: (10:26) Ketone-IQ - Get 30% off your first subscription order of Ketone-IQ at http://www.hvmn.com/TWIST (20:39) Paintbrush - Visit http://www.getpaintbrush.com  to see if you qualify for a $50K startup loan in less than 2 minutes (31:38) Coda - Get started for free at https://www.coda.io/twist * Follow Eileen X: https://twitter.com/aileenlee LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aileenwlee * Follow Jason: X: ⁠https://twitter.com/jason⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jason⁠ LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Great 2023 interviews: Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.founder.university/podcast

Sarah Tavel is a General Partner at Benchmark and sits on the boards of Chainalysis, Hipcamp, Rekki, Cambly, and Medely. She is a founding member of All Raise, the nonprofit organization working to accelerate the success of women in the venture-capital and VC-backed startup ecosystem. Before Benchmark, Sarah was a partner at Greylock Partners. She joined Pinterest in 2012 as their first PM and launched their first search and recommendations features. She also led three acquisitions as she helped the company scale through a period of hypergrowth. In this episode, we discuss:Sarah's Hierarchy of Engagement framework for growing a consumer startup• The three levels of the Hierarchy of Engagement: core action, retention, and self-perpetuation• The importance of measuring cohorts and maintaining focus on the core action• Examples of core user actions from Pinterest and YouTubeSarah's Hierarchy of Marketplaces framework for building a marketplace startup• The three vectors of growth for dominating a marketplace• Advice on “tipping the marketplace” and ultimately dominating the market• The value of focusing on a constrained market• How to avoid disruption—This entire episode is brought to you by Gelt—Redefine your approach to taxes.—Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-hierarchy-of-engagement-sarah-tavel-benchmark-greylock-pinterest/—Where to find Sarah Tavel:• X: https://twitter.com/sarahtavel• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahtavel/• Substack: https://www.sarahtavel.com/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Sarah's background(03:33) Framework 1: The Hierarchy of Engagement(06:03) Level 1: Core action(10:33) Level 2: Retention(14:00) Level 3: Self-perpetuation(19:32) The importance of focus(23:54) The challenge of anonymity(26:04) Advice for founders who want to increase retention(29:34) What founders often get wrong(31:43) Examples of core actions(37:37) Finding your North Star Metric(38:12) Who should use the Hierarchy of Engagement framework(38:54) The Hierarchy of Marketplaces framework(46:09) Level 1: Focus on a constrained opportunity(50:19) Sarah's “happy GMV” and “minimum viable happiness” concepts(54:47) Thumbtack: a counterexample to this approach(56:36) Signs you're ready to move to level 2(58:06) Level 2: Tipping the marketplace(01:04:15) Tipping loops(01:10:53) Not all markets are susceptible to tipping(01:15:55) The challenge of homogeneity in B2B marketplaces(01:20:29) Signs you're tipping successfully(01:21:43) Level 3: Dominating the market(01:28:29) The opportunity in underestimated markets(01:30:11) The challenges of chasing GMV and losing focus(01:36:36) Recognizing currents and momentum in the market(01:39:20) You can never rest on your laurels(01:41:03) How to apply these frameworks outside of marketplaces(01:42:57) Three ways to find marketplace opportunity(01:45:10 ) Lightning round—Referenced:• Hierarchy of Engagement, Expanded: https://sarahtavel.medium.com/the-hierarchy-of-engagement-expanded-648329d60804• Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/• Evernote: https://evernote.com/• Notion: https://www.notion.so/• Houseparty app: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houseparty_(app)• Clubhouse: https://www.clubhouse.com/• How to price your product | Naomi Ionita (Menlo Ventures): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/how-to-price-your-product-naomi-ionita-menlo-ventures/• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/• Lessons on building a viral consumer app: The story of Saturn: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/lessons-on-building-a-viral-consumer• Saturn: https://www.joinsaturn.com/• What happened to Secret?: https://www.failory.com/cemetery/secret• How to determine your activation metric: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-determine-your-activation• Shishir Mehrotra on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shishirmehrotra/• The rituals of great teams | Shishir Mehrotra of Coda, YouTube, Microsoft: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-rituals-of-great-teams-shishir-mehrotra-coda-youtube-microsoft/• Engagement Hierarchy: Core Actions: https://sarahtavel.medium.com/engagement-hierarchy-core-actions-dd4f72042100• Choosing Your North Star Metric: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/choosing-your-north-star-metric• Hierarchy of Marketplaces: https://sarahtavel.medium.com/the-hierarchy-of-marketplaces-introduction-and-level-1-983995aa218e• Mike Williams on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoroomie/• Everything Marketplaces: https://www.everythingmarketplaces.com/• Fabrice Grinda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fabricegrinda/• OLX: https://www.olx.com/• DoorDash Loves the 'Burbs as Much as You Do: https://www.wsj.com/articles/doordash-loves-the-burbs-as-much-as-you-do-11605618001• Thumbtack: https://www.thumbtack.com/• NPS: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_promoter_score• Sean Ellis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanellis/• Rekki: https://rekki.com/• Ronen Givon on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronen-givon-535b2514• Hipcamp: https://www.hipcamp.com/• Demand driving supply: The little-understood growth loop behind a surprising number of iconic billion-dollar companies: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/demand-driving-supply-marketplaces• Inside the Revolution at Etsy: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/business/etsy-josh-silverman.html• Faire: https://www.faire.com/• Bill Gurley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/billgurley/• Mechanical Turk: https://www.mturk.com/• Parker Conrad on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/parkerconrad/• Rippling: https://www.rippling.com/• “White Space” for Building a Marketplace: How to Find Your Competition's Vulnerabilities—and Capitalize: https://sarahtavel.medium.com/white-space-for-building-a-marketplace-how-to-find-your-competitions-vulnerabilities-and-79674aa4d399• Pachinko: https://www.amazon.com/Pachinko-National-Book-Award-Finalist/dp/1455563935• The Five Temptations of a CEO: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Temptations-CEO-Anniversary-Leadership/dp/0470267585• The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable: https://www.amazon.com/Five-Dysfunctions-Team-Leadership-Fable/dp/0787960756• Tesla: https://www.tesla.com/• Reid Hoffman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman/—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Priya Saiprasad is a General Partner at Touring Capital, a fund investing in enterprise-focused AI powered global startups. She co-founded Touring after 13 years in venture capital, M&A and enterprise technology. She was most recently a Partner at SoftBank Vision Fund, where she led investments into category-defining software companies including Pixis, Vendr, Observe.ai, CommerceIQ, Sendoso and Skedulo. Previously, Priya was at Mayfield Fund focused on early-growth investments, and a founding member of M12 (Microsoft's Venture Fund), where she led investments in Go1, Workboard, PandaDoc, Element AI (acquired by ServiceNow), and Bonsai (acquired by Microsoft). Prior to that, she was a Deal Lead in Square's M&A team leading acquisitions at the intersection of software and machine learning. Priya was recognized by Forbes in 2018 as part of their 30 under 30 in Venture Capital list. She is actively involved with All Raise, Neythri, and several prominent Women in Tech associations. Priya holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. . . . Episode Notes: How did Priya end up in venture (2:36) What about venture surprised Priya the most (6:00) Insecurities as/of an investor (11:25) Learnings as an investor when investments haven't really worked out (17:02) How can one acquire the skills to assist founders, even if they haven't personally experienced those challenges? (25:05) Investing is personal: Do investors derive guidance from aspects of their life when making investment decisions? (29:35) How does competition drive investors (34:52) Prestige and perception in venture (41:30) Advice Priya would give her younger self (47:20) . . . Social Links: Follow ⁠Priya on Twitter⁠ Follow ⁠Priya on LinkedIn⁠ Follow ⁠The Desi VC on LinkedIn⁠ Follow ⁠Akash Bhat on Twitter⁠ Follow ⁠Akash Bhat on LinkedIn

You have a practice but also have a new business you want to start – an invention, an offshoot of your practice, or something else. You probably need funding. Leslee Cohen with AllRise Legal Counsel helps with equity investments, and she demystifies these investments in this episode. Leslee Cohen is the founder and managing partner of AllRise Legal Counsel. She concentrates her transactional practice in securities and startup law, corporate finance, technology law, mergers and acquisitions and general corporate law. She represents clients across many industries from consumer products to technology companies to healthcare businesses to real estate firms. Leslee started her practice at a Wall Street firm in 1992, spent 13 years honing her skills at a large firm based in Chicago and left to form AllRise 2010. AllRise was founded on Leslee's desire to work with earlier stage and smaller businesses. Each of its attorneys is big firm trained and experienced. AllRise counsels startups and growth stage companies in connection with their entity formation, founder and advisor equity grants and early fundraising rounds, whether “friends and family investments,” angel, seed or venture capital rounds. They also represent real estate funds in the syndication process. Leslee graduated from New York University School of Law in 1992 and from the University of Michigan in 1989. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Small Business Advocacy Council, a co-founder of the Coalition of Women's Initiatives in Law and a frequent speaker and mentor for accelerator and incubator programs including The Hatchery, Good Food Accelerator, the Wisconsin Technology Council, Worbox and the University of Michigan's Opportunity Hub, and is a member of the All Raise community, a speaker at the annual GirlCon Conference for high school girls in STEM, and a judge for the annual Founders First Chicago Job Creators Grant. In this episode Carl White and Leslee Cohen discuss:What the legal process looks like when pursuing an equity investmentSpecial considerations in pursuing equity investment when it's a side hustleReasons why equity investments end up not working out Want to be a guest on PracticeCare?Have an experience with a business issue you think others will benefit from? Come on PracticeCare and tell the world! Here's the link where you can get the process started. Affiliate PromotionWe're fans of Constant Contact for email campaigns, newsletters, and emails. We use it with our clients. What we like: Very easy to useVery flexibleEasy to find supportHIPAA compliant Get 30% off for the 1st 3 months if you sign up using our partner link. We do receive a commission when you use our link. Constant Contact offers additional prepayment discounts you can choose: 10% off per month for your first 6 months, or 15% off for the year. If you prepay, your discount stacks on top of the 30% discount for the 1st 3 months. Connect with Leslee CohenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslee-cohen Connect with Carl WhiteWebsite: http://www.marketvisorygroup.comEmail:  whitec@marketvisorygroup.comFacebook:  https://www.facebook.com/marketvisorygroupYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCD9BLCu_i2ezBj1ktUHVmigLinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/healthcaremktg

Mar Hershenson is Pear VC's Founding Managing Partner. Pear VC's portfolio includes DoorDash, Gusto, Affinity, among others. After earning a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, Mar co-founded three startups in mobile/e-commerce, enterprise software, and semiconductor industries and has registered 14 separate patents. She is currently a Lecturer at Stanford Univeristy, teaching Lean Launchpad, one of the premier entrepreneurship classes at Stanford. Mar serves on the board of trustees of Harvey Mudd College and the Advisory Board of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at Carnegie Mellon University. She is a founder of Equity Summit, the premier conference for connecting URM Venture Capital GPs to LPs, and was an initial founding member of All Raise. She has been recognized by MIT Technology Review as a Top Innovator Under 35, named a Champion of Innovation by Fast Company, awarded the Digital Automation Conference's Marie R. Pistil Achievement Award, and recognized on the Forbes Midas List in 2021, 2022, and 2023.    You can learn more about:  How to start and run a successful VC fund  How to pitch top investors/ invest in the next generation of unicorn startups  How to keep pursuing your startup idea even when people tell you "no"    ===================== YouTube: @GraceGongCEO Newsletter: @SmartVenture LinkedIn: @GraceGong TikTok: @GraceGongCEO IG: @GraceGongCEO Twitter: @GraceGongGG =====================

Jenny Lefcourt of Freestyle VC joins Jason for an insightful conversation. They delve into the mission of All Raise and the importance of diversity in venture capital (2:04). Jenny shares her thoughts on embracing non-consensus bets and her experiences investing in Narvar and Discord (20:04). Additionally, they discuss the value of strategy meetings in comparison to traditional board meetings (59:10). (0:00) Jason kicks off the show (2:04) Co-Founding All Raise: Promoting Diversity in Venture Capital (9:53) Prenuvo - Save $300 on Full Body Scans at http://prenuvo.com/twist (11:23) Biases Towards Certain Business Models (15:05) Identifying and Avoiding Unsuccessful Business Models (18:54) LinkedIn Jobs - Post Your First Job for Free at https://linkedIn.com/angel (20:04) Embracing Non-Consensus Bets (22:53) Jenny's Investment in Narvar (28:16) Understanding the Economics of a Seed Fund (35:14) Comparing Hype: Generative AI versus Web 3.0 (40:47) Miro - Collaborate with Unlimited Team Members for Free at https://miro.com/startups/ (42:28) Insights from Jenny's Investment in Discord (47:05) Attaining Product-Market Fit and Making a Significant Impact (56:56) Exiting Deals: When to Move On (59:10) Strategy Meetings Compared to Board Meetings (1:04:04) Jenny's Ideal Timeline for Committing to Investments FOLLOW Jenny: https://twitter.com/jennylefcourt FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis Subscribe to our YouTube to watch all full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkkhmBWfS7pILYIk0izkc3A?sub_confirmation=1 FOUNDERS! Subscribe to the Founder University podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/founder-university/id1648407190

Kristen opens up and shares her story from clipping in to her first bike ride six years ago to leaving a venture capital job to pursue her calling and winning podium finishes on the UCI World Tour.Where do YOU feel like you are your BEST self?  Are you brave enough to follow that?You'll leave with the courage that YOU can do it too. and reach your peak performance. Why not you?About Kristen FaulknerKristen is from Homer, Alaska, a quaint fishing village that is also the halibut fishing capital of the world. In Alaska, she cultivated her passion for the outdoors and for adventure. She spent her summers hiking, fishing, making homemade rasberry jam, and competing at local swim meets.She learned the value of hard work as a kid working in my parents' hotel and restaurant. She explains when asked why she worked so hard it was because she didn't want to spend the rest of her life cleaning toilets and checking in guests :)Kristen graduated from Harvard with a B.A. in computer science.  She was a varsity rower for 2.5 years in college and placed 2nd at the Junior World rowing Championship in 2010. After graduation, Kristen worked as an investment associate at Threshold Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm in Silicon Valley. In addition to investing, she's passionate about gender equality and supporting more women in technology, entrepreneurship, and investing.  As an investor, she hosted free office hours for female entrepreneurs and was a cohort captain for All Raise, a community of female Venture Capitalists.In 2016 Kristen I attended a free, introductory women's clinic for cycling in New York City and immediately fell in love with the sport. In mid-2018, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and in 2020, began racing for the Professional UCI Team TIBCO-Silicon Valley Bank (which has since become the WWT team EF-Education-Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank). She's primarily a road racer, though she has explored other disciplines including gravel, track, and Zwift. She represented the United States at 3 World Championships: 2020 (Zwift E-worlds), 2021 (Road Race) and 2022 (Road Race and Time Trial).Kristen currently rides for Team Jayco Alula. EPISODE LINKSKristen Faulknerhttps://www.kristenfaulkner.com CONNECT WITH US Claim Your Weekly EDGE Newsletter. It's FREE!Weekly email written by Brandon with insights that give you an edge to win.Over 17,200 listeners and counting!-> https://edge.ck.page/bea5b3fda6 Contact Brandon : B at Brandon C White dot com EDGE Website-> https://MyEDGEPodcast.com EDGE on YouTube-> https://www.youtube.com/@brandoncwhite OTHER GREAT PODCASTS FROM THE BEST PODCASTS NETWORK On Business Podcast An unscripted, brutally honest, conversation about running a successful company. For business owners looking to elevate their game and increase revenues.-> https://OnBusinessPodcast.com MARKETING PodcastMarketing science, case studies that reveal successful marketing techniques and teach strategic marketing analysis where we model the data and turn it into financial forecasts so you have predictable revenue.-> https://PodcastOnMarketing.com Top podcast for entrepreneurs...

Maha Ibrahim of Canaan joins Molly to discuss her early days in VC (1:38), managing distributions and exiting at the right time (20:36), the clean tech bubble, being a generalist/specialist, diversity, and more (37:42). (0:00) Molly kicks off the show (1:38) Maha's first years in venture (11:18) LinkedIn Jobs - Go to https://linkedIn.com/angel and post your first job for free. (12:43) Investing in the early 2000s and Canaan's strategy (19:12) Cast.ai - Get a free cloud cost audit with a personal consultation at https://cast.ai/twist (20:36) Exiting at the right time and distributing earnings (30:00) Learning from a downturn (34:58) The mismatch between VCs to outlier startups (36:11) Prenuvo - Get $300 off at http://prenuvo.com/twist (37:42) The climate tech bubble (40:14) Generalists vs. specialists (42:16) Responding to cycles and signs of good timing (48:53) Structuring a generational off-ramp (51:39) All Raise (55:30) What does the future hold? FOLLOW Maha: https://twitter.com/mahaibrahim FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

In 2006, venture capitalists poured billions into clean energy technologies during Cleantech 1.0, only to lose half of the investments over the next five years.  The climate tech investing space has since rebounded and become one of the most popular investment sectors, and new incentives show an exciting opportunity for extended growth over the next few years.Meera Clark is a principal at Redpoint Ventures, where she is passionate about the climate tech, consumer, and infrastructure sectors. She has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Venture Capital, Business Insider's 55 Rising-Star VCs of 2021, and Venture Forward Women. Meera previously worked at Morgan Stanley's Multicultural Innovation Lab, Morgan Stanley's tech investment banking group, and as a principal at Obvious Ventures. In this episode, Catherine and Meera talk about the trajectory of Meera's career, her thoughts on upcoming market shifts in 2023 and 2024, how consumer shifts are affecting businesses, the climate tech investing space, and much more.Topics include:- Her untraditional upbringing and its effect on her career- The importance of a strong support system- Thoughts on the economy and market for the next 12-24 months- Upcoming IPO market shifts- How consumer shifts are offering new opportunities for businesses- The climate tech investing space- Building an all-star cap table- And more…Meera Clark is a principal at Redpoint Ventures. She has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30 List for Venture Capital, Business Insider's 55 Rising-Star VCs of 2021, and Venture Forward Women. After graduating from Stanford, Meera accelerated her career at Morgan Stanley's Multicultural Innovation Lab and within its tech investment banking group. She later became a principal at Obvious Ventures, where she worked on 12 of the company's 30 investments from its $272 million third fund, sourcing four investments and serving as a board observer for three others. She also serves as a member of the Steering Committee for the Annual Summit of All Raise.Resources Mentioned:The Grid, by Gretchen Bakke: https://www.amazon.com/Grid-Fraying-Between-Americans-Energy-ebook/dp/B01DM9Q6CQ Taming the Sun, by Varun Sivaram: https://www.amazon.com/Taming-Sun-Innovations-Harness-Energy-ebook/dp/B08BT1SM11 The World for Sale, by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy: https://www.amazon.com/World-Sale-Traders-Barter-Resources-ebook/dp/B08TMTG4CT The New Map, by Daniel Yergin: https://www.amazon.com/New-Map-Energy-Climate-Nations-ebook/dp/B084GDG8DG MCJ Collective: https://www.mcjcollective.com/ 

Amanda Robson is a partner at Cowboy Ventures. She works with enterprise companies focusing on software infrastructure companies. She has a passion for open source companies and co-hosts the Open Source Startup Podcast. Before joining Cowboy, she was an early-stage investor at Norwest where she worked with a number of enterprise software companies including 6 River Systems, Fossa, and Dremio. She is the proud founder of Modern Angels - a community and database of 200+ female and non-binary angel investors. She also co-leads the VC Champions program for All Raise, and co-chairs NextGen Partners, an organization that helps up-and-coming investors get the support and access they need to be successful. In this episode, we cover a range of topics including: - How she got into VC - Open source projects - How she invests in open source companies- Software infrastructure market landscape - Investment framework - Trends in AI/ML - The role of AI in software infrastructure --------Where to find Prateek Joshi: Newsletter: https://prateekjoshi.substack.com Website: http://prateekj.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prateek-joshi-91047b19 Twitter: https://twitter.com/prateekvjoshi 

This week, Natasha, Mary and Becca got into:For our deals of the week, we talked about why tracking app Strava's purchase of Fatboy, a high-resolution 3D global map platform for the great outdoors, seems like a smart move, how Wasted wants to make port-a-potties less gross and more useful and All Raise CEO's decision to step down after less than one year in the role.Then we got into how the feds are scrutinizing Google's alleged ad tech monopoly and the implications for startups, before moving into different ways the downturn is impacting the way companies are hiring.And lastly, we discussed femtech's very good 2022 (even though we all agreed we don't love the term 'femtech').Equity drops at 10:00 a.m. PT every Monday and at 7:00 a.m. PT on Wednesdays and Fridays, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts. TechCrunch also has a great show on crypto, a show that interviews founders, one that details how our stories come together, and more!

Today on That Tech Pod, Laura and Gabi talk with Erin Quick. Erin Quick is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PairTree. With  more than 20 years of global brand marketing experience, and more  importantly, as a two-time adoptive mother, Erin is a leader in the  movement to modernize adoption in the U.S. With an expert first-hand  understanding of the challenges of the domestic private adoption industry and a drive to increase access and opportunities for all involved in the  adoption process, Erin brings a wealth of knowledge and business  experience to helping families navigate their unique adoption journeys. As Chief Executive Officer at PairTree, Erin leads on areas of the business  including strategy, product development and marketing. Erin is responsible  for the businesses day-to-day decision making and implementing the  company's short- and long-term plans.  Previously, Erin co-founded Stoke Strategy, a Seattle-based brand  strategy firm, which she led for 12 years. While there, Erin led brand  initiatives for Bluetooth, Weyerhaeuser, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation  and the University of Washington, to name a few. Erin began her marketing career at Addison in San Francisco and New York, where she  worked on global branding for Domino's Pizza, Merrill Lynch and The  Make-a-Wish Foundation. Erin is a recipient of Puget Sound Business Journal's 40-Under-40 award and most recently, PairTree, under Erin's leadership, was selected to  participate in the 2021 TechStars Seattle Accelerator – a highly selective  and successful global startup accelerator program. Erin is currently a  Visionary Voices Member and Speaker with All Raise, a nonprofit on a  mission to accelerate the success of female founders and funders. She is  a guest lecturer on Technology Entrepreneurship at Brown University and  the University of Washington. Erin lives on Bainbridge Island with her husband and two children.

The climate crisis has seen major changes in the past few decades. We've seen companies starting to step up to make positive climate changes and there are ways you can help with that. This week's episode 47 of How Women Inspire Podcast is about how you can positively impact the climate crisis!  In this episode of the How Women Inspire Podcast, Julie Castro Abrams and Virginia Klausmeier share the importance of massively curbing carbon emissions. We also chat about actionable steps you can take right now to make changes in your own business and life to support our climate. Virginia has dedicated the last 10 years to solving climate change, and on this life path, she founded a venture-backed climate tech company, Sylvatex (SVX) Inc. Sylvatex has won numerous awards/funding at industry conferences and venture competitions and is an affiliate with National Laboratories (LNBL) and USDA. Virginia is currently active in advising climate tech and minority-led organizations as well as a fellow/member of All Raise, Unreasonable Group, Alliance of CEO's, Astia, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and is actively working on the growth and commercialization of Sylvatex Inc. Virginia attended Singularity University and the University of Oregon earning her B.S. in Chemistry/Economics and a M.S. in Engineering. Virginia currently has a number of patents pending and has been a speaker at a number of domestic and international events. Prior to this venture, she managed the new development ideas for a fortune 500 medical device companies and led the US clinical and biomechanical research. Virginia was featured as one of the "Top 10 women in biofuels" and was selected by Forbes for "30 under 30 in Energy". Last but not least, she is the proud partner to Ryan Irwin Klausmeier and the mother to two little boys River and Dakota.Some of the talking points Julie and Virginia go over in this episode include:How her life journey has been a series of epiphanies that have led her to this moment. The power of being a coachable person and how that helps her bring her education and interests into her work and business.How to create substantial amounts of carbon change in our world. Ways that collaboration has had such a huge impact on being able to create positive climate change. Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me!  And don't forget to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH VIRGINIA KLAUSMEIER:LinkedInSylvatexCONNECT WITH JULIE CASTRO ABRAMS:LinkedIn - JulieHow Women LeadHow Women InvestHow Women GiveInstagram - HWLLinkedIn - HWLFacebook - HWLOnly 2.1% of venture capital went to women-founded companies in 2022. We are done waiting or fighting for a seat at the table—today, we are committing to build The New Table; women-funded, women-run. I invite you to invest in your power, don't wait—join The New Table today.

Randi celebrates American Business Women's Day with  Moira Forbes,Executive Vice President at Forbes and President and Publisher of ForbesWomen; Jill Zarin, a veteran of the TV show Real Housewives of New York, and Founder of Jill & Ally and Jill Zarin Home; Bestselling Author and Financial Guru Suze Orman; Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon, CEO of All Raise;  and Dr. Maisha Gray-Diggs, Vice President of Global Talent Acquisition at Eventbrite.

The climate crisis has seen major changes in the past few decades. We've seen companies starting to step up to make positive climate changes and there are ways you can help with that. This week's episode 29 of How Women Inspire Podcast is about how you can positively impact the climate crisis!  In this episode of How Women Inspire Podcast, Julie Castro Abrams and Virginia Klausmeier share the importance of massively curbing carbon emissions. We also chat about actionable steps you can take right now to make changes in your own business and life to support our climate. Virginia has dedicated the last 10 years to solving climate change, and on this life path, she founded a venture-backed climate tech company, Sylvatex (SVX) Inc. Sylvatex has won numerous awards/funding at industry conferences and venture competitions, and is an affiliate with National Laboratories (LNBL) and USDA. Virginia is currently active in advising climate tech and minority-led organizations as well as a fellow/member of All Raise, Unreasonable Group, Alliance of CEO's, Astia, Silicon Valley Leadership Group and is actively working on the growth and commercialization of Sylvatex Inc. Virginia attended Singularity University and the University of Oregon earning her B.S. in Chemistry/Economics and a M.S. in Engineering. Virginia currently has a number of patents pending and has been a speaker at a number of domestic and international events. Prior to this venture, she managed the new development ideas for a fortune 500 medical device companies and led the US clinical and biomechanical research. Virginia was featured as one of the "Top 10 women in biofuels" and was selected by Forbes for "30 under 30 in Energy". Last but not least, she is the proud partner to Ryan Irwin Klausmeier and the mother to two little boys River and Dakota.Some of the talking points Julie and Virginia go over in this episode include:How her life journey has been a series of epiphanies that have led her to this moment. The power of being a coachable person and how that helps her bring her education and interests into her work and business.How to create substantial amounts of carbon change in our world. Ways that collaboration have had such a huge impact on being able to create positive climate change. Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, take a screenshot of the episode to post in your stories and tag me!  And don't forget to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH VIRGINIA KLAUSMEIER:LinkedInSylvatexCONNECT WITH JULIE CASTRO ABRAMS:LinkedIn - JulieHow Women LeadHow Women InvestHow Women GiveInstagram - HWLLinkedIn - HWLFacebook - HWL

Get ready to be inspired by this week's episode as I am joined by the amazing Co-Founder and CEO of Well Traveled, Sam Patil. Well Traveled, is a membership community for modern travellers that launched at the start of 2020. Don't miss this week's episode as Sam shares with us her Marketing 'do's and don'ts' and gives an insight into what it was like starting and growing a travel business at the beginning of a pandemic. Prior to starting Well Traveled, Sam built her career in consumer tech and marketing where she led Go-to-market Strategies, International Marketing and Member Monetisation programs at some of the world's biggest consumer brands. Her previous roles include leadership positions at Pandora Media, Snap and most recently Dollar Shave Club. Sam's also been featured in multiple podcasts and shared her expertise across numerous top-tier publications including the Wall Street Journal, AdWeek, Travel + Leisure, The Washington Post, Business Insider and New York Magazine. She was featured in Travel Massive's Top 100 Inspiring Women Travel Founders for 2020 and is a proud member of the Female Founder Collective, Dreamers and Doers, and All Raise's Visionary Voices. If you love this episode then please leave a review as I absolutely LOVE reading your beautiful reviews. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sam Patil's Links: Instagram - @welltraveledclub Website - https://www.welltraveledclub.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/welltraveledclub/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@welltraveledclub Her Soulful Success Links: 30 Days FREE Journal Prompts for Success- https://view.flodesk.com/pages/5f64345b384d146c31a39847 Instagram - @hersoulfulsuccess Coaching Application- https://forms.clickup.com/36651774/f/12ygqy-1042/QYXEOMPZ7NM8T6STGJ

Samantha talks about what led her from working at major consumer brands to starting her own thing in the travel space, how to create more personal experiences and humanity in travel as the world opens up and Sam and Jason talk about the interesting mix of heritages in their family that creates who they are as people."If you are ever feeling like overwhelmed or stuck, just do something to take some action."Sam is the Founder and CEO of Well Traveled, a membership community for modern travelers. Prior to starting Well Traveled, Sam built her career in consumer tech and marketing, where she led go-to-market strategies, international marketing, and member monetization programs at some of the world's biggest consumer brands. Her previous roles include leadership positions at Pandora Media, Snap, and most recently Dollar Shave Club. Sam's been featured in multiple podcasts and shared her expertise across numerous top-tier publications including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, AdWeek, Travel + Leisure, The Washington Post, Business Insider and New York Magazine. She was featured in Travel Massive's Top 100 Inspiring Women Travel Founders for 2020 and is a proud member of the Female Founder Collective, Dreamers and Doers and All Raise's Visionary Voices.https://www.welltraveledclub.com/https://www.instagram.com/welltraveledclub/https://www.linkedin.com/in/samframpatil/Enjoying the podcast? Please tell your friends, give us a shoutout and a follow on social media, and take a moment to leave us a review at https://lovethepodcast.com/talkingtocoolpeople.Find the show at all of the cool spots below.WebsiteFacebookInstagramIf something from this or any episode has sparked your interest and you'd like to connect about it, please email us at podcast@jasonfrazell.com. We love hearing from our listeners!If you are interested in being a guest on the show, please visit jasonfrazell.com/podcasts.

My guest today is Jess Lee. Jess is a partner at Sequoia Capital as well as their Chief Product Officer. Before becoming an investor, Jess co-founded fashion app, Polyvore, and was an early product manager for Google Maps. Most recently, she founded All Raise, a non-profit that is changing the gender balance in tech. Our discussion ranges from Burning Man to Marvel to Sequoia's mobile app and I hope that Jess's passion for delighting users rubs off on you. Please enjoy my conversation with Jess Lee.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Canalyst. Canalyst is the leading destination for public company data and analysis. If you're a professional equity investor and haven't talked to Canalyst recently, you should give them a shout. Learn more and try Canalyst for yourself at canalyst.com/Patrick.    -----   Today's episode is brought to you by Brex. Brex is the integrated financial platform trusted by the world's most innovative entrepreneurs and fastest-growing companies. With Brex, you can move money fast for instant impact with high-limit corporate cards, payments, venture debt, and spend management software all in one place. Ready to accelerate your business? Learn more at brex.com/best.   -----   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:02:35] - [First question] - Why more investment firms don't have a product mindset [00:05:22] - How to approach building a productized version of capital  [00:08:00] - Ways Ampersand measures success and judging their own performance  [00:08:49] - Driving reasons that Sequoia wins deals beyond their brand name [00:10:28] - How her work as CPO at Sequoia has changed her investing approach [00:12:28] - Everything she's learned about community and its relevance to business  [00:17:48] - What the gold standards are for studying strongly built communities  [00:19:42] - What it is about Comic-Con that works so well from a community standard   [00:21:18] - The role that scarcity plays in communities writ large [00:23:10] - Product mindset and customer obsession  [00:24:33] - Knowing when it's okay to begin expanding  [00:25:14] - The formative experiences or lenses that inform her investing decisions [00:28:12] - Rates of change in her investment progress and dollars going to female founders [00:29:36] - Systemic bias and what's driving a lack of funds towards female founders  [00:32:26] - How she applies community building lessons to All Raise [00:33:20] - The internal learning culture in Sequoia that others could adopt and benefit from [00:37:01] - Which Marvel superheroes her Sequoia partners would be   [00:39:05] - Seeds of motivation for Arc and what it is [00:43:06] - When you should innovate and when you shouldn't reinvent the wheel  [00:44:31] - The best ways she's seen companies manage and support human capital [00:45:36] - Biggest mistakes made when managing human capital  [00:46:42] - What working on Google Maps taught her about product development  [00:48:42] - Someone she admires and has learned the most from in All Raise   [00:50:02] - Measuring success at Sequoia over the next ten years   [00:52:20] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her [00:53:42] - What it was that made the people who believed in her take a chance on her  [00:55:03] - Things in pop culture today that most has her attention

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single topic, think about a question and unpack the rest. This week, we're trying something new. Natasha spent a good chunk of last week at the All Raise VC summit, an annual off-the-record event that brings together some of the best and brightest in the investment community. After the summit, she sat down with Mandela SH Dixon -- All Raise's new CEO -- to unpack what happened, and discuss how today's changing venture capital market will impact diverse founders.The first half of this episode is a conversation between Natasha and Mandela, and then we'll bring on Alex and turn to some on-the-ground clips from the summit. Sound bytes from Freestyle's Jenny Lefcourt, January Ventures' Jennifer Neundorfer, Rethink Impact's Heidi Patel and Union Square Ventures' Rebecca Kaden will get the classic Equity treatment. Or, put differently, Alex and Natasha will react to top investors talking about their game plans for the next market cycle. It's fun!

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.Happily we were once again at full strength this week, with Alex Wilhelm, Natasha Mascarenhas and Mary Ann Azevedo chatting, and Grace handling production.You can tell from the topic list today that we are in an odd time. There are myriad signals that the startup market is slowing down. And there are some counter-narrative data points that paint a more complex picture. Where do you stand in your own viewpoint? Well, read on for some data to consider:Natasha gave us a brief update on All Raise's annual VC summit, but she'll get into more on an upcoming Wednesday show (stay tuned!)Monte Carlo just raised a unicorn round, worth $135 million at a $1.6 billion valuation. On the other hand, Bolt is laying off staff amidst a correction in the larger startup market, and perhaps its own space.If startup news is pointing in two directions, so too are data from the venture capital world. While Sequoia is warning founders about a downturn, a16z just raised a king's ransom to pour into the web3 market. Parse that as you will.There were other bits of news to consider as we work to understand where the startup world truly is today, including news from Zip and Nowports -- two newly-minted unicorns that Mary Ann recently profiled.And we closed on, what else, drama in fintech. As Stripe and Plaid gear up to battle, Finix is either in the fray, or about to jump in, depending on your perspective. What's clear is that increasingly overlapping fintech giants are going to rub up against one another. You can read more about that in The Interchange, out on Sunday.Hugs from us to you, and we will talk to you next week!Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

Erin Quick is the Co-founder and CEO of PairTree. With more than 20 years of global brand marketing experience, and more importantly, as a two-time adoptive mother, Erin is a leader in the movement to modernize adoption in the U.S. Previously, Erin co-founded Stoke Strategy, a Seattle-based brand strategy firm, which she led for 12 years. She began her marketing career at Addison in San Francisco and New York, where she worked on global branding for Domino's Pizza, Merrill Lynch and The Make-a-Wish Foundation. Erin is a recipient of Puget Sound Business Journal's 40-Under-40 award and most recently, PairTree, under Erin's leadership, was selected to participate in the 2021 TechStars Seattle Accelerator. She is currently a Visionary Voices Member, Speaker with All Raise, guest lecturer at Brown University and the University of Washington. Erin lives on Bainbridge Island with her husband and two children. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On June 17, 2020 Freestyle Capital General Partner Jenny Lefcourt joined High Alpha Partner Kristian Andersen for our monthly Speaker Series. Together, they discussed Jenny's career, her path into venture capital, and her involvement with All Raise. Jenny's career spans corporate America, consumer startups, founding companies, and investing. After graduating from the Wharton School and spending a year backpacking around the world, she worked for a Palo Alto-based consumer software company through its IPO. Later, she founded WeddingChannel.com and Bella Pictures, both of which went on to be acquired. Today, she spends her days meeting with entrepreneurs and working alongside Freestyle Capital portfolio companies, including BetterUp, Narvar and Daily.co. Jenny is also a founding, active member of All Raise, a non-profit dedicated to increasing diversity in tech. In this episode, we revisit Jenny's Speaker Series where you'll learn: Jenny's investment and decision-making frameworks Her mission to take risks in both her personal and professional life Her role in identifying opportunities for inclusion in the venture capital space

Jenny Lefcourt is a partner at Freestyle Capital, a seed stage venture firm overseeing $450 million in seed investments. Jenny dropped out of her Stanford MBA program – before that was cool -- to co-found online wedding registry startup WeddingChannel.com (with classmate, Jessica Herrin) After The Knot acquired WeddingChannel.com, Jenny started another company – Bella Pictures – also subsequently acquired.  Today she is a partner at Freestyle Capital, and was recently named one of Barron's “100 Women Shaping the World of U.S. Finance”. In this conversation we discuss her path through these entrepreneurial experiences to becoming a prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and co-founder of All Raise. She shares what it's like to join and then become partner of a venture firm that already has a couple high-profile partners; why she thinks entrepreneurs make great VCs, and the role of All Raise in Silicon Valley. Freestyle Capital https://five.libsyn.com/episodes/add Something Ventured Podcast https://somethingventured.us/

I had the pleasure of welcoming Nairi Hourdajian (VP of Communications, Content and Community Marketing at Figma) to the show. Nairi is also the founding member of All Raise (programs to accelerate the success of female founders and funders to build a more prosperous, equitable future). She has held marketing leadership roles at Canaan (early stage VC firm) and Uber. Figma was founded in 2012, has 550 people, and is based out of San Francisco, CA. They've raised Series E funding ($332.9M total). Figma is a design platform for teams who build products together. Customers include Slack, Twitter, DropBox, Square, AirBnB, Netflix, Zoom, Uber, and more. Here's what we hit on: Figma's Marketing team, what are the different groups, who and how many people on your team; How does your team integrate campaigns together across other teams within Marketing? Internal communications - how do you make sure the whole company knows and is excited about what you're working on? What processes are in place (HINT: preview those BIG initiatives internally first, this gets people excited and talking which is more leverage for your company); Your 2022 Marketing Plan. How are you thinking about and splitting your budget for content and community; To build your content/community, what marketing channels are you leaning into; What specific content are you leaning into; What have you learned from your expert designers so far; You're an expert in PR. Tell me about your experience with PR, what has changed, what has stayed the same? What are startups doing wrong with their PR efforts (HINT: if you're the PR head at your startup, tell it straight to your founder "here's what's possible, here's what's not"); What are your thoughts on building a brand successfully for early stage vs. for later stage startups? What tends to happen and what should be done instead (HINT: your website is a channel and it's worth taking a beat to really think about your positioning, where you fit in the competitive landscape, what kind of response from customers are you looking for, that foundational brand work, what is the core narrative, what is the brand promise); What are your top marketing challenges? (HINT: make sure there's philosophical alignment at your company around ROI from brand marketing efforts); What are the last 1-2 really good, creative marketing ideas you/your team has come up with. You can reach Nairi on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nairi-tashjian-hourdajian-37601411/ Find out more about Figma: https://www.figma.com/ Check out the Figma store: https://store.figma.com/ This episode is exclusively sponsored by Manifest Commerce, helping merchants with earth friendly e-commerce fulfillment. You can check them out here: www.manifestcommerce.io For more content, subscribe to Modern Startup Marketing on Apple or Spotify (or wherever you like to listen). You can find Anna on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/annafurmanov or visit this website: www.furmanovmarketing.com Thanks for listening! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/anna-furmanov/message

This week our comrade Mary Ann was off, so Natasha and Alex teamed up with Grace on the dials to chat through the week's biggest news. Here's what our dynamic got into:Webflow's new round: Nine-figures of capital at a revenue multiple north of 40x? What is this, 2021? Nope, just the latest capital infusion for the no-code website company.All Raise's new CEO: The work of diversifying the venture capital market is far from over, and one group working to move the needle not only has plans to change the industry -- but also her own team.Funds: Natasha's coverage of fund-of-funds fit into news that SoftBank is turning one if its funds into an evergreen-vehicle, and Alex chatted through the numbers about Series A, B, and C rounds in the United States. Funds are maturing, experimenting and evolving into interesting vehicles. Maybe it's time we start covering them more on the show again (and check out our latest Wednesday episode for a Tiger Global-themed chat)What to know about China: From crashing stock prices to rocketing stock prices, it's been a week for Chinese equities. And startups appear increasingly caught in the crossfire.And then, crypto: From news about a hot new crypto deal to NFTs coming to Instagram, it feels impossible to avoid the blockchain world these days.We are back next week with our full team, and a live show. So, chat you Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday live!

Bloomberg's Emily Chang covers Mark Zuckerberg's appearance at South by Southwest and how the global stock markets were affected by the war in Ukraine. She also had an exclusive interview with the brand new CEO of All Raise in today's edition of Bloomberg Technology. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode of Beauty + Impact, we found ourselves just nodding, agreeing and loving EVERYTHING our guest was putting out there!  We're so excited to spill the green tea with Julia Collins, Founder and CEO of Planet FWD and Moonshot Snacks.  Planet FWD is the leading carbon management platform which helps brands understand and reduce their carbon footprint and have created their own 100% carbon neutral food product, Moonshot Snacks, which uses ingredients from farmers that use regenerative agriculture practices.  There were so many nuggets of gold in this episode with Julia! Fun fact – 94% of Americans snack every single day! No doubt about it - snacking is big business - actually a US $605 billion big business. With 70% of consumers in North America believing it's important that a brand is sustainable or eco-friendly, it's never been more important for organizations to be truly sustainable and contribute to the global net-zero targets.  In this jam-packed episode, you'll hear: About regenerative agriculture and what it means and the way forward as we tackle net-zero  Differences between mainstream sustainability and regenerative sustainability How and why Julia started Planet FWD and Moonshot Snacks  The history of regenerative agriculture from Indigenous ways of protecting the land to farming practices in India and how it is making a comeback Why you DON'T need big budgets to be a sustainable brand – first step is just deciding to be climate friendly! How the beauty industry can step up, take note and implement regenerative agriculture practices  The power communities of color have to champion sustainability and be voices in the climate change conversation If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we'd love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Take a screenshot of yourself listening to the episode on your device, post it to your Instagram Stories, and tag Ashley and Jasmine @Beautyandimpact and our guest, Julia Collins @juliaecollins. About Planet FWD: Planet FWD is the leading carbon management platform for consumer brands. Leveraging the largest LCA database for agricultural products and advanced value chain modeling, we make it easier to take climate action. About Julia Collins: Julia Collins is a serial entrepreneur who realized food was her calling as a young girl in San Francisco where it was the epicenter of her community. She's spent her career building food companies, helping to launch and grow brands such as Mexicue, Murray's Cheese Bar and Harlem Jazz Enterprises, the company responsible for the award-winning restaurant, The Cecil. She later went on to co-found Zume Pizza where she became the first Black woman to co-found a unicorn company. When she became a mother, she knew she needed to find a way to bring delicious food to people in a way that helped heal the planet for everyone including her son. Julia founded and leads Planet FWD, a company on a mission to tackle climate change by making it easier to bring climate-friendly products to market and support other brands to be carbon neutral through their software platform for regenerative agriculture. Along with Planet FWD, she is the instigator of the first climate-friendly snack brand, Moonshot. In addition, Julia sits on the advisory council for Launch with GS and the Food for Climate League board, serves on the All Raise operating committee, and is an EIR for Cleo Capital. She is an active angel investor focused on funding female entrepreneurs and BIPOC founders. She also co-founded When Founder Met Funder (WFMF) in 2019 to address the fact that Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the US, yet they receive a negligible percentage of overall venture funding. This annual event by All Raise offers a unique opportunity for Black female founders to connect with investors and fellow founders in Silicon Valley and beyond. Links of things mentioned...

Kap, sits down with Rana el Kaliouby, an Egyptian-American scientist, entrepreneur, investor, author, and an AI thought leader on a mission to humanize technology before it dehumanizes us. She is the Deputy CEO at Smart Eye and formerly, Co-Founder and CEO of Affectiva, an MIT spin-off and category defining AI company. She is an executive fellow at the Harvard Business School where she teaches about AI and startups. Her bestselling memoir, Girl Decoded: A Scientist's Quest to Reclaim Our Humanity by Bringing Emotional Intelligence to Technology follows her journey, growing up in the Middle East and moving to the United States to become an entrepreneur and Emotion AI pioneer. Rana has a track record of translating technology innovations into products that address massive market needs including in market research, automotive, health, robotics and education. Rana serves on the Boston Steering Committee for All Raise, supporting female founders and funders. She is a member of the Young Presidents' Organization (YPO) where she serves on YPO's New England board and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Rana is a venture partner of the MIT Media Lab E14 Fund, a Trustee at the Mass Technology Leadership Council and at the American University in Cairo. A TED speaker, and co-host of a PBS NOVA series on AI, Rana has been recognized on Fortune's 40 Under 40 list and as one of Forbes' Top 50 Women in Tech. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate from MIT.

Despite what many may think, the field of public relations isn't always straightforward.. Rather it's an art that demands strategic thinking, a deep sense of empathy, and good relationships built over time. And when it comes to PR in the tech industry, things get even more complicated–and some professionals today, anxious to secure coverage in an increasingly crowded and competitive market, are making blunders that are hurting their companies' reputations. In this episode, our guest Nairi Hourdajian, VP Communications, Content and Community Marketing at Figma shares insights on what it takes for a company to build an effective strategy in the PR world, delving into the best and the worst practices she's seeing and the current state of media covering tech startups. Don't miss this episode if you're curious about public (and human) relationships in this new era of information! Join technology comms pros Becky Buckman and Keyana Corliss as they cut to the heart of today's tech-news cycle and the general craziness that is high-tech corporate communications right now. With a short, not-too-serious take on the industry - with plenty of humor and irony thrown in - they'll bring you the best in the biz, across comms and media together, for one-of-a-kind insights and perspectives you won't hear anywhere else! Jump straight into: (01:42) - Introducing Nairi Hourdajian - “We have a great interview today with Nairi Hourdajian, who is a longtime friend of mine. She's now running comms at Figma, which is a super hot design startup.”  (04:02) - Elizabeth Holmes news - “One other thing we have to talk about before we jump into it is Elizabeth Holmes fake it till you make it culture.”  (06:27) - Becky's tech comms branding predictions for 2022 - “ I do think storytelling is going to become more important.”  (10:42) - PR malpractices: Why should communications professionals care about them? - “People don't realize there's actually expertise, real nuance, and detail to doing this work well.” (13:03) - Understanding PR as human relations: Best and worst practices when building trust with executives and reporters. - “If you think about almost any other practice or field, you would never go in cold to make strategic asks like ‘Hey Amazon, I'm ready to sell my company, are you interested?' Would you ever do that cold?”. (19:06) - Discussing the value of earned media and backlash against big tech companies - “There is a credibility that earned media brings that owned content never will. But owned content also is important. Yes. It's important to tell your own story.” (24:28) - What does it mean to do a good job and have a smart strategy in the PR world? - “Forming these relationships, and educating executives and investors is key, because I think they especially understand that this market is pretty special and probably won't last forever.” (25:55) - Nairi's collaboration with All Raise to improve the number of female founders and leaders - “A group of women got together and started formulating an operational plan to launch initiatives that could help move the ball forward for female founders and funders and through a stroke of luck that included the GP at my firm.” Episode resources: Find Nairi Houdajian's on https://twitter.com/nairihourdaj (Twitter) and https://www.linkedin.com/in/nairi-tashjian-hourdajian-37601411/ (Linkedin) https://www.figma.com/ (Figma) https://www.allraise.org/ (All Raise) Thank you for listening to Just Checking In by Battery Ventures. Go follow https://twitter.com/rebeccabuckman (Becky) and https://twitter.com/keyanacorliss (Keyana) on social media to know more about them. If you enjoyed this show leave a review and help us find new audiences!  This show is produced by https://www.studiopodsf.com/ (StudioPod Media) in SanFrancisco. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicole-genova-3357a0155/ (Nicole Genova) is the Show Coordinator. Editing and music provided by...

Justin Gordon (@justingordon212) talks with Eva Ho (@eva_ho), General Partner at Fika Ventures, an LA-based boutique seed fund that invests in founders solving meaningful, systemic problems through the use of data, related AI-enabled technologies, and automation.Prior to Fika, Eva was a founding GP at Susa Ventures. She is a serial entrepreneur and founder, most recently a founding executive at Factual, a leading location data provider in Los Angeles. Previously, she was a Senior Product Marketing Manager at Google and Youtube for 5 years. Prior to Google, she was the head of marketing for Applied Semantics, a company that sold to Google in 2003. She also co-founded Navigating Cancer, a health startup, in 2008 which is now based in Seattle. She is active in the non-profit sector, serving on the boards of California Community Foundation and First Descents. She is also a founding member of All Raise. She recently served as the Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the city of Los Angeles working with Mayor Eric Garcetti and his team.In her spare time, you can find her wandering remote geo coordinates, with a special affinity for cold, inhospitable places. Almost always, she is accompanied by her trusty camera and a backpack too large for her frame. Eva holds an MBA from Cornell and a BA from Harvard.Website: Fika VenturesLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/evaho1Twitter: @eva_hoEva's Email: eva@fika.vc   Show Notes: Eva's original vision for launching Fika Ventures with her partner TX Zhuo Eva's time with Susa Ventures Eva's personal background and the journey that has brought her to where she is today How she began angel investing in 2013 and her path to VC The importance of representation and diversity in VC Eva's advice for improving and growing as an investor The mindset shift from operator to investor Finka Ventures' portfolio construction and the progression through their three funds Balancing discipline around a clearly focused thesis with knowing when to make exceptions and take risks Adapting to the quickly changing world of modern investing Eva's thoughts on the Future of Work and embracing discomfort Eva's experience with Screendoor More about the show:The Vitalize Podcast, a show by Vitalize Venture Capital (a seed-stage venture capital firm and pre-seed 300+ member angel community open to everyone), dives deep into the world of startup investing and the future of work.Hosted by Justin Gordon, the Director of Marketing at Vitalize Venture Capital, The Vitalize Podcast includes two main series. The Angel Investing series features interviews with a variety of angel investors and VCs around the world. The goal? To help develop the next generation of amazing investors. The Future of Work series takes a look at the founders and investors shaping the new world of work, including insights from our team here at Vitalize Venture Capital. More about us:Vitalize Venture Capital was formed in 2017 as a $16M seed-stage venture fund and now includes both a fund as well as an angel investing community investing in the future of work. Vitalize has offices in Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.The Vitalize Team:Gale - https://twitter.com/galeforceVCCaroline - https://twitter.com/carolinecasson_Justin - https://twitter.com/justingordon212Vitalize Angels, our angel investing community open to everyone:https://vitalize.vc/vitalizeangels/

Amir leads Fintech and Insurtech investing at AV8 Ventures and has been one of the earliest investors in the Insurtech space. Amir has been an entrepreneur, operator and investor with over 15 years of experience, working with early and mid-stage companies on financing, partnerships and strategic growth initiatives. Prior to AV8, Amir was an investment director and founding team member at Munich Re Ventures where he lead and managed investment efforts for two of the funds and made early bets in Insurtech, Mobility and Digital Health in companies like Next Insurance, Inshur, HDVI, Spruce, Ridecell, Babylon Health etc.. Earlier Amir worked for several venture funds, including Route 66 Ventures, focusing on Fintech and Insurtech, and investing in companies such as Simplesurance and DriveWealth. He began his career in Germany as a network engineer and subsequently at Legodo AG (acquired by Open Text, OTEX (NASDAQ)), an enterprise software startup, where he held several roles in sales, business development and product management until acquisition. In 2019, Amir was ranked 11 out of 100 on Global Corporate Venture's Rising Stars list and was named a “VC Champions Select” by All Raise. Amir lives in San Francisco and holds an MBA from Georgetown McDonough School of Business, a BS in Business Informatics from RFH Cologne in Germany and is currently finishing an MS in Law from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law.

As of last year, two hundred Fortune 500 companies had greater than 40% board diversity – a four-fold increase compared to a decade ago. However, these numbers also indicate there's still more work to do. All Raise, a startup nonprofit on a mission to amplify the voices of female founders and funders, is helping to lead the transformation. The organization has launched Board Xcelerate, a 90-day program that taps into All Raise's diverse network of founders, investors and operators to add talented underrepresented executives to the boards of high-growth, private tech companies. In this episode, All Raise CEO Pam Kostka talks about the value of board-ready vs. board-proven, how greater board diversity can drive better business performance, inclusivity and belonging within tech companies, and how adding underrepresented groups can lead to wealth creation.

My guest today is Jenny Lefcourt, an equal General Partner at seed-stage venture firm Freestyle Capital, where she manages $450 million in seed investments. Jenny has been engrained in the tech world since the early days of the internet. She dropped out of her Stanford MBA program to co-found online wedding registry startup WeddingChannel.com with classmate, Jessica Herrin, which was subsequently acquired by The Knot. During our conversation, we cover Jenny's investment frameworks, why she believes a deep understanding of the customer is key for founder success, and what makes great go-to-market strategies. We also touch on some of Jenny's favorite market themes around technology for the aging population, the future of work, and the growing low-code/no-code market. Please enjoy my conversation with Jenny Lefcourt.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.   ------   This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus has built the most extensive primary information platform available for investors.   With Tegus, you can learn everything you'd want to know about a company in an on-demand digital platform. Investors share their expert calls, allowing others to instantly access more than 20,000 calls on Affirm, Teladoc, Roblox, or almost any company of interest. All you have to do is log in. Visit tegus.co/patrick to learn more.   ------   This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep. Eight Sleep's new Pod Pro Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at your perfect temperature. Simply add the Pod Pro Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. To embrace the future of sleep and get $150 off your new mattress go to eightsleep.com/patrick or use code "Patrick".   ------   Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, Inc. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.    Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes [00:03:24] - [First question] - Her background and some formative experiences that lead her to where she is today [00:08:38] - Common patterns of desirable founders when it comes to customer focus [00:09:50] - Her investing framework for evaluating and deciding which companies to invest in [00:12:32] - Innovation and adoption in the technology sector for the older generation [00:15:11] - The biggest jobs to be done in this space currently today [00:17:33] - Cultural differences in how the West views and treats their elderly [00:21:02] - Business model options for turn-key apartments offered by UpsideHoM [00:22:48] - Other categories and potential opportunities in tech geared towards the elderly [00:24:59] - What you need to do differently when building products for the elderly [00:27:32] - How she learns about a new prospect's go-to-market approach and reverse engineering an action plan to execute it [00:32:03] - Founders, You Want to Sell Viagra [00:33:33] - Selling transformation and an overview of this idea with BetterUp [00:36:30] - Her thoughts on how the world and the future of work might change  [00:41:14] - Interesting approaches to improving the onboarding and recruiting process [00:43:24] - The emerging movement of low code/no code tools [00:46:58] - How she as an investor adjusts as the world becomes more digitally connected [00:49:02] - Ways her life has most dramatically changed over the past few years [00:51:33] - Lessons learned from her time at All Raise [00:53:40] - Outstanding and remaining barriers to inclusive and diverse teams [00:58:47] - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for her

Today we chat keeping your vision alive during a pandemic, rising above fear to take action, manifestation practices and supporting other women chasing down their big dreams. Sam is the founder of Well Traveled a members-only social platform built for modern travelers and she launched it in the middle of the pandemic. We hope today's conversation gives you the courage to keep going even when uncertainty and fear are part of your reality. Apply to be a member of Well Traveled Club here and use code DREAMLIFE to skip the line! WIN a membership to Well Traveled Club by taking a screenshot of today's episode and sharing it on Instagram tagging us @dreamlifepodcast and @welltraveledclub 9/20-9/26 and Sam will gift a free membership to one lucky winner. About Well TraveledDesigned for a new generation of travelers, foodies and adventure seekers, Well Traveled helps you find and book places you actually want to go, vetted by a community you can trust. Well Traveled's like-minded community allows members to connect and share recommendations on accommodations, restaurants and activities; and the platform's customer-centric booking service provides unmatched benefits and exclusive perks. Learn more at www.welltraveledclub.com About SamSam is the Co-Founder and CEO of Well Traveled. Prior to starting Well Traveled, Sam built her career in consumer tech and marketing. Her previous roles include leadership positions at Pandora Media, Snapchat and most recently Dollar Shave Club. Sam's been featured in multiple podcasts and covered in publications like Washington Post, Travel + Leisure, Nasdaq, AdWeek, Forbes, Business Insider and Crunchbase. She was featured in Travel Massive's Top 100 Inspiring Women Travel Founders of 2020 and is a proud member of the Dreamers & Doers and All Raise's Visionary Voices.

Join us in The BreakLine Arena for an inspiring conversation with Kara Nortman, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures. In this episode, Kara shares invaluable insight into her trailblazing career as a venture capitalist as well as how an incredible experience at the Women's World Cup Finals eventually let to her becoming a co-founder of Angel City Football Club.As Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, Kara leverages her own founder experience to help entrepreneurs build high-performing teams across software, consumer, and the future of work categories. She is also a founding member of All Raise, dedicated to diversity in founders and funders.Before joining Upfront in 2014, Kara co-founded Moonfrye, a children's e-commerce company. Prior to Moonfrye, Kara spent close to seven years at IAC where she was the SVP and General Manager of Urbanspoon and Citysearch. Earlier Kara co-headed IAC's M&A group where she led some of their most successful acquisitions, notably Urbanspoon, Dictionary.com and Aston Hotels. She also served as a board member to Hatch Labs, IAC's mobile technology incubator, where she was the seed investor in Tinder. In earlier years, Kara spent time at Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and Battery Ventures. She received her AB in Politics from Princeton University and her MBA from Stanford University.If you like what you've heard please like, subscribe, or rate our show. To learn more about BreakLine Education, check us out at breakline.org.

Allison Baum Gates is a General Partner at SemperVirens - a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm investing in workforce technology, health tech, and fintech. Allison is particularly obsessed with the Future of Work. She shares relatable insights on how companies can evolve with workforce changes post-pandemic. She also debunks one of the myths of raising VC funding: that you can raise funding in the first meeting.Highlights[1:07] Can you protect your career from technology disruption?[8:47] VC myth deconstruction: The number one myth is that you can raise money on a first meeting.[11:34] How to leverage the investor's network as a founder.[18:52] Remote/hybrid work has given talent significant power to manage the progression of their careers.  How can employers continue investing in their people?Non-profit: All Raise, Hidden Genius Project

Marianna Tessel (CTO @ Intuit) & Aileen Lee (Founder/Managing Partner @ Cowboy Ventures) cover how to navigate the build vs. buy decision! They share the frameworks they use to make a “buy” decision, how they assess engineering talent during acquisitions, how they decide between vendor software vs. open-source vs. building yourself. Plus the leadership skills that help Marianna lead a 5,000+ person team! MARIANNA TESSEL, CTO @ INTUIT Marianna oversees Intuit's technology strategy and leads all of Intuit's product engineering, data science, information technology and information security teams worldwide. Marianna's been at the forefront of significant tech transformations, including virtualization, cloud, and dev ops. Marianna previously served as Executive VP of Strategic Development at Docker, held leadership roles at VMware, Ariba, and General Magic working on the forefront of significant tech transformations, including virtualization, cloud, and dev ops. the forefront of significant tech transformations, including virtualization, cloud, and dev ops. AILEEN LEE, FOUNDER & MANAGING PARTNER @ COWBOY VENTURES Aileen is founding Partner at Cowboy Ventures, a team that backs seed-stage technology companies re-imagining work and life through technology, what they call “life 2.0”. Cowboy Ventures works with startups like Guild Education, Lightstep, Dollar Shave Club, and Tally. Aileen periodically writes about technology insights and is known for coining the business term “unicorn” for public and private companies valued over $1bn. She has been named to the Forbes Midas List of best investors and Forbes Most Powerful Women, as well as to Time Magazine's 100 most influential people. Prior to Cowboy, Aileen was a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, was founding CEO of RMG Networks, and worked at Gap Inc in operating roles. She has degrees from MIT and HBS, is mom of 3, wife to a startup founder, an Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellow and co-founder of the non-profit All Raise - aiming to accelerate success for women in the technology ecosystem. SHOW NOTES About Marianna's role at Intuit (2:33) How many acquisitions / build vs. buy decisions have you had to make? (4:35) Marianna's evaluation framework for buying companies (6:26) Assessing engineering talent in acqui-hires (9:37) How do you decide to buy vendor software or build yourself? (15:41) How do you define what's core to the business vs. context? (19:11) Where are you looking to buy instead of build right now? (21:40) Hard & soft skills that helped Marianna advance her career and run a 5000+ person team (23:48) Were you always good at the "developing talent" and "managing" part of being a CTO? (26:50) BROUGHT TO YOU BY... Jellyfish - Jellyfish helps you align engineering work with business priorities and enables you to make better strategic decisions. Learn more at Jellyfish.co/elc Listen to our Bonus Episode w/ Guillermo Fisher, Director of Engineering, Infrastructure @ Handshake on internal mobility, mission-driven decisions, & self-service infrastructure! Listen HERE: https://spoti.fi/3zdNnXn Special thanks to our exclusive accessibility partner Mesmer! Mesmer's AI-bots automate mobile app accessibility testing to ensure your app is always accessible to everybody. To jump-start, your accessibility and inclusion initiative, visit mesmerhq.com/ELC --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/engineeringleadership/message

Woo Hoo! It's the 100th Episode of the Startup Life LIVE Show!To help us celebrate this meaningful milestone is Jenny Lefcourt, the extraordinary entrepreneur, operator, board member, advisor, and investor.Jenny has been in tech for over 25 years, and she's currently a General Partner at Freestyle, a San Francisco-based early-stage VC firm whose investments include Airtable, Intercom, Patreon, BetterUp, Snapdocs, Digit, and many others. Jenny is also a founding member and Board Member of All Raise, a non-profit dedicated to increasing diversity in tech.Prior to Freestyle, Jenny co-founded WeddingChannel.com (acquired by The Knot) and Bella Pictures (acquired by CPI). She also has angel invested and/or advised companies such as Discord, MainStreetHub, and Minted.Jenny received a B.S.E from The Wharton School and attended Stanford Graduate School of Business, before dropping out after her first year to co-found WeddingChannel.comYou will love this delicious conversation filled with Jenny's sensational startup stories and investor insights!00:00 - 100th Episode - woot woot!05:00 - meet Jenny10:00 - Jenny's entrepreneurship origin story27:00 - why a growth mindset is important for founders (and to investors!)32:00 - triage for the startup: balls will drop - which ones are made of rubber, and which ones are made of glass.41:00 - don't let your ego get in the way of winning - Stitch That On A Pillow!!48:00 - how All Raise came to be + its mission and vision for amplifying female founders in the tech industry52:50 - meet Freestyle VC: check size; investment process; industry segment; support for founders they back; etc.56:30 - best practices for reaching out to investors, pitching to investors, following up/staying in touch post presentation/pitch1:00:15 - outstanding valuation advice 1:02:40 - we're all insecure, all the time! The more you know this, it's easier to get over it. Feeling inadequate as a founder is part of the journey!To learn more about Freestyle VC visit: https://freestyle.vcConnect online with Jenny and Freestyle via: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/freestyle-capital and https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennylefcourt/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/freestylevc and https://twitter.com/jennylefcourtCheck out All Raise here: https://www.allraise.org/Grab a copy of Positive Intelligence here: https://amzn.to/3j6xI6VThank you for carving out time to improve your Founder Game - when you do better, your business will do better - cheers!Ande ♥Ande Lyonshttp://andelyons.comANDELICIOUS RESOURCES:JOIN STARTUP LIFE LIVE MEETUP GROUPGet an alert whenever I post a new show!https://bit.ly/StartupLifeLIVEAGORAPULSEMy favorite digital marketing dashboard is AGORAPULSE – it's the best platform to manage your social media posts and presence! Learn more here: http://www.agorapulse.com?via=ande17STARTUP DOX Do you need attorney reviewed legal documents for your startup? I'm a proud community partner of Startup Dox, a new service provided by Selvarajah Law PC which helps you draw out all the essential paperwork needed to kickstart your business in a super cost-effective way. All the legal you're looking for… only without confusion or frustration. EVERY filing and document comes with an attorney review. You will never do it alone. Visit https://www.thestartupdox.com/ and use my discount code ANDE10 to receive 10% off your order.If you resonate with the show's mission of amplifying diverse founder voices while serving first-time founders around the world, please reach out to me to learn more about making an impact through sponsoring the Startup Life LIVE Show! ande@andelyons.com.STREAMYARD OVERLAYS AND GRAPHIC DESIGNNicky Pasquierhttps://www.virtuosoassistant.co.uk/Visit Nicky's CANVA Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhUDgDHkkma3YhOf7uy8TAbt7HdkXhSjONicky's Canva Presentation Playlist: http://bit.ly/Canva_Present_PlaylistGET VIDEO/AUDIO TRANSCRIBED WITH OTTER.AIhttps://bit.ly/StartupLifeOtter CONNECT WITH ME ONLINE: https://andelyons.com https://twitter.com/AndeLyonshttps://www.facebook.com/StartupLifew... https://www.linkedin.com/in/andelyons/ https://www.instagram.com/ande_lyons/ https://www.pinterest.com/andelyons/ https://angel.co/andelyons TikTok: @andelyons

Ann Miura-Ko is the co-founding partner of Floodgate, one of the world's most successful venture capital firms, and was named one of the New York Times' Top 20 Venture Capitalists Worldwide. She is a pioneer investor in many technical companies, and was one of the first investors in top organizations such as Lyft and Refinery 29. She is also a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Stanford, a member of Yale's Board of Trustees, and founder of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in funders and founders. Ann joined host Robert Glazer on the Elevate Podcast to share how she grew from a shy student into a world class performer, keys to success in venture capital, investing and much more.

Lainy Painter is a partner at Craft Ventures on the investment team, where she invests primarily in SaaS and Marketplaces and has a particular interest in complex vertical markets, such as real estate, healthcare, education, construction, and financial services. Prior to Craft, Lainy worked at Battery Ventures in San Francisco. Previously, Lainy worked at Gainsight, a B2B customer success startup where she helped lead business operations and strategy across the organization, including initiatives to grow services revenue and drive product adoption. Lainy started her career at Goldman Sachs on the technology, media and telecom investment banking team, advising companies including PayPal, LinkedIn, Zendesk and 2U. She graduated summa cum laude from the College of William and Mary. Lainy is an active member of All Raise, the non-profit dedicated to increasing representation in venture capital. She served as Co-Chair for the 2018, 2019, and 2020 Women Who Venture Summits.

Jenny Lefcourt, partner at Freestyle VC and cofounder of All Raise, says that even as a serial entrepreneur herself, she long underestimated how little venture capital funding goes to female startup founders compared to the money men get. She believes unconscious biases, an industry built on intuition, and historical dynamics all contribute to this inequity. They also affect the low numbers of women in decision-making roles at VC firms. Lefcourt explains the ways the industry can actively reduce this gap.

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.First and foremost, Equity was nominated for a Webby for “Best Technology Podcast”! Drop everything and go Vote for Equity! We’d appreciate it. A lot. And even if we lose, well, we’ll keep doing our thing and making each other laugh. (Note: we are in last place, which is, well, something.)Regardless, the Equity team got together once again this week to not only go over the news of the week, but also to do a little soul searching. You see, some news broke yesterday, so we figured that we had to talk about it in our usual style. So, here's the rundown: Do you want to buy TechCrunch? Apparently you can? Albeit probably along with a few billion dollars worth of other assets -- whatever is left of Yahoo and AOL -- you can now own an NFT. A non-fungible TechCrunch. What is ahead for us? We don't know. So if you do know, tell us. Until then we'll just yo-yo gently between panic and optimism, as per usual. We also dug into the latest All Raise venture capital data, and the results were abysmal.  Next up was the news that fintech startups are setting records in 2021, raising more capital than ever before. That brought us to the latest from Brex. And then there was a suspicious trend when three fintech companies focused on teen banking raised in one exhale. We talk Step, Greenlight, and Current. Natasha talked about her last Startups Weekly post, in which she unpacked The MasterClass effect's impact on edtech. And to close, we discussed the latest cool-kid venture capital funds. Sure memes are cool, but did you know that they can help you raise a $10 million fund? They can!We are back Monday morning with our weekly kick-off show. Have a great weekend!

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.First and foremost, Equity was nominated for a Webby for “Best Technology Podcast”! Drop everything and go Vote for Equity! We’d appreciate it. A lot. And even if we lose, well, we’ll keep doing our thing and making each other laugh. (Note: we are in last place, which is, well, something.)Regardless, the Equity team got together once again this week to not only go over the news of the week, but also to do a little soul searching. You see, some news broke yesterday, so we figured that we had to talk about it in our usual style. So, here's the rundown: Do you want to buy TechCrunch? Apparently you can? Albeit probably along with a few billion dollars worth of other assets -- whatever is left of Yahoo and AOL -- you can now own an NFT. A non-fungible TechCrunch. What is ahead for us? We don't know. So if you do know, tell us. Until then we'll just yo-yo gently between panic and optimism, as per usual. We also dug into the latest All Raise venture capital data, and the results were abysmal.  Next up was the news that fintech startups are setting records in 2021, raising more capital than ever before. That brought us to the latest from Brex. And then there was a suspicious trend when three fintech companies focused on teen banking raised in one exhale. We talk Step, Greenlight, and Current. Natasha talked about her last Startups Weekly post, in which she unpacked The MasterClass effect's impact on edtech. And to close, we discussed the latest cool-kid venture capital funds. Sure memes are cool, but did you know that they can help you raise a $10 million fund? They can!We are back Monday morning with our weekly kick-off show. Have a great weekend!

Kara Nortman is a Managing Partner of venture firm Upfront. Upfront famously hosts the “Upfront Summit” – a hard-to-describe, but massive confab of celebrities, entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders held in Los Angeles. Kara is a founding member of All Raise – you’ve heard about All Raise a number of times on Something Ventured. She’s also an owner – along with Natalie Portman and Serena Williams – of LA’s women’s soccer team Angel City Football Club (“Angel City FC”). As co-Managing partner of Upfront, she is one of the first women promoted to a leadership role at a major venture capital firm. EPISODE QUOTES: On Being Asked to Join Natalie Portman and Serena Williams as Co-owner of Angel City FC Soccer Team “It is probably the craziest story of my life and one that I have a great amount of gratitude for. I think it's made me realize that butterfly effects do happen. But you can't force them. When you get the pocket of energy in from a butterfly flapping, you have to follow it. And that’s what happened with the soccer team.” On Choosing People You Want to Work with for the Long Term “You should pick people you want to look at in your cap table and you want to see show up on your cell phone late at night and you enjoy spending time with and whose bar mitzvahs and weddings you might want to go to.” On Being a Great Board Member “One of my venture capital mentors said to me at one point in time, ‘You have three daughters. You are going to learn more from raising your daughters around how to be a good board member than you are going to learn from any board.’ And I think about that a lot. It's role modeling, right? Treating people the way you want to be treated.” Twitter: https://twitter.com/karanortman  Upfront: https://upfront.com/  Something Ventured:  https://somethingventured.us/ 

On this episode we chat with Domonique Fines, Dir. of Engagement at All Raise; which is an organization that seeks to increase the amount of women receiving venture funding. We discuss challenges that women face with raising capital, Domonique's role at All Raise, and how All Raise benefits women VCs also. Visit our website and submit a question/topic here. Hosted by @de_havia and @imessien Recorded: October 2020

Julia Collins is the Founder and CEO of Planet FWD, a company on a mission to tackle climate change by expanding regenerative agriculture adoption. The company is building a software platform for regenerative agriculture alongside Moonshot Snacks, its climate-friendly snack brand that carbon neutral, organic, kosher, plant-based, non-GMO and has no sugar added. Planet FWD has raised over $5M in venture capital from funds including Emerson Collective, BBG Ventures, MCJ Collective, January Ventures, Concrete Rose, Kapor Capital, Arlan Hamilton and more. Julia is a serial entrepreneur who has started companies like Mexicue, Murray's Cheese Bar, Harlem Jazz Enterprises, and Zume Pizza, where she raised over $250M in venture capital and became the first black woman to co-found a unicorn company. Julia serves on the board of Black Girls Code, sits on the advisory council for Launch with GS, and serves on the All Raise operating committee. She is an active angel investor focused on funding female entrepreneurs and BIPOC founders. In this episode, we will cover: Julia's first exposure to entrepreneurship and what motivated her to become a founder How Julia prepared herself to start her first company and what it felt like to actually make the leap and jump in Julia's experience starting a company with a co-founder vs. on her own, plus her advice on building the initial team What Julia learned from founding Zume Pizza and how that informed her approach for Planet FWD Julia's experience raising venture capital and her perspective on what matters most in generating momentum for that first round of capital Julia's advice for founders just starting out, particularly the mindset they must have in the early days Julia's inspiring vision for how Planet FWD will change our lives and positively impact the planet

In this episode, Chloe talks to us about her career—from investment banking at Goldman Sachs to venture capital at Renegade Partners, and key incentives in making the jump between industries. She describes her interest in TMT and dives into the differences between early and late stage investing. She also gives shares about her experience as an angel investor and the diversity-driven motives that led her to pursue this career. Chloe ends on a positive note, recounting her experience with All Raise and her hopes on what it will accomplish in the future.

Are diversity and inclusion efforts making a difference in the male-dominated VC and tech industry? Pam Kostka, CEO of the equality-focused nonprofit All Raise, discusses the current landscape with Greylock marketing partner Elisa Schreiber. All Raise, which was launched in 2018, connects women with resources, mentorship, and a network to help them excel in the VC and tech world. Today, All Raise is a community of more than 20,000 people across four major U.S. tech hubs, and has launched a new program to support women seeking board positions at fast-growing tech companies.

Stacey Bishop is a partner at Scale Venture Partners where she invests in “business applications driving the Intelligent Connected World”. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of companies like Abstract, Airspace, Demandbase, Extole, Lever, and Textio. Stacey is a founding member of All Raise – an organization frequently mentioned on Something Ventured. She is also an advisor to The University Growth Fund Stacey got her MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from The University of Michigan. In this episode we discuss her path to becoming a partner at a prominent Silicon Valley firm, and the role All Raise played in accelerating her career. Notable quotes from this episode:   On the Early Days of “All Raise” “Before All Raise, women in venture, we just put our heads down, did our job -- just focused on trying to get ahead and do the right thing. And I think the most eye-opening thing – when All Raise started, it changed the dynamic. It suddenly brought all the women together. And even though we had all been kind of working side by side, we weren't really -- there were so few of us but there was little getting together. Now there's this whole network. And so I think it's changed the industry.”   On Hedge Funds Moving Into Venture Capital “Hedge funds have certainly been there later stage. Mostly because private companies are going public much later. So in order for them to get the returns they need, they started coming into the private markets. So they had been showing up at the late stage. But now we're seeing them much earlier. That’s probably been the biggest change and that's been over the last several years.”   On Valuation Trends of Tech Companies “We just had (another) billion dollar exit: Most people haven't even heard of the company. But, if you had a five or six billion-dollar exit, everybody would have known about it. Snowflake went public last week…it was under the radar, but Snowflake was the biggest venture exit of all time.”   On The Future of Meetings “In meetings ‘before’, somebody had to get in the car and drive to go see you and take all that time. So out of respect, you don't want to not spend the time with them. So you spend a full hour or more. Even if it’s just an introductory meeting you feel this obligation. I don’t know how much in-person meetings will drop, but there will be a whole subset of meetings that can be done remotely.”   Stacey on Twitter https://twitter.com/StaceyCurry   Scale Venture Partners on Twitter https://twitter.com/ScaleVP   Scale Venture Partners https://www.scalevp.com   Something Ventured Podcast       https://somethingventured.us

Ann Miura-Ko is the co-founding partner of Floodgate, one of the world’s most successful venture capital firms, and was named one of the New York Times’ Top 20 Venture Capitalists Worldwide. She is a pioneer investor in many technical companies, and was one of the first investors in top organizations such as Lyft and Refinery 29. She is also a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Stanford, a member of Yale’s Board of Trustees, and founder of All Raise, a non-profit committed to improving diversity in funders and founders. Ann joined Robert Glazer on the Elevate Podcast to discuss building a world-class career, breaking into venture capital, evaluating ventures, and much more. Three Key Things You'll Learn The possibilities you can unlock by giving world-class effort. How Ann went from having severe stage-fright to becoming a champion debater. How to understand why some entrepreneurial ventures succeed, and others do not.

Despite being raised in the tech startup world, Jesse Draper didn't believe she could BE that. Because she didn't see women entrepreneurs, it didn't seem like an option. So, Jesse started seeking out female founders—first to interview and later to invest in. And now, she runs a venture fund that is like the Batwoman-Signal for companies with female founders, attracting 4,972 deals last year alone. Jesse is the Founder and Managing Director at Halogen Ventures, a VC fund focused on investing in early-stage consumer technology startups with a female in the founding team. She has dedicated her career to empowering women entrepreneurs, starting with the talk show and tech news site, The Valley Girl Show with Jesse Draper. Today, she manages a fund of 62 companies and serves on the board of Werk, Blue Fever and Preemadonna. Jesse is also making waves with her recent post, ‘Investing in Women Isn't a Fucking Charity.' On this episode of Boost VC, Jesse joins us to discuss what inspired her piece on investing in female founders and express her desire to make a shit-ton of money on the very best deals—as opposed to ‘giving money away.' She explains the need for more capital run by women as well, challenging women to talk about money and invest in for-profit opportunities. Listen in for Jesse's insight on how she spends her time as a fund manager, what the best founders have in common and where venture funds can go to find women entrepreneurs. Topics Covered Jesse's commitment to empowering female entrepreneursTalk show/tech news site The Valley Girl with Jesse DraperFund invests in early-stage female founded consumer tech What has changed for female founders in the last 15 yearsGetting better but men still control majority of capitalNeed for more capital run by women The education problem Jesse sees around women and moneyAfraid to talk about money, let alone investCreated education track to help women investors learn Jesse's take on the momentum behind female foundersPeople look to diversity portfolios (e.g.: Yale endowment)Women still underfunded, VCs stick with existing network Where funds should be looking for female foundersReach out to networks/accelerators like All RaiseLook at pitch competitions for women (i.e.: SoGal, P&G) How Jesse spends her time as a fund managerFocus on supporting top 10 companies in portfolioGive founders two years to prove themselves Jesse's advice to founders on communicating with investorsMonthly until raise series A, quarterly moving forwardBest founders have heads-down mentality Jesse's definition of successFreedom to do something you loveMay change daily in pursuit of missionConnect with Jesse Halogen Ventures https://halogenvc.com/Halogen on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/halogenvc/Halogen on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/halogenvc/Halogen on Twitter https://twitter.com/halogenvcJesse on Twitter https://twitter.com/JesseDraper Resources Jesse on Boost VC EP065 https://theboostvcpodcast.simplecast.com/episodes/57d367fa-bebb2890Jesse's Article on Investing in Women https://medium.com/@jessecdraper/investing-in-women-isnt-a-fucking-charity-ceabe8918b9cThe Skimm https://www.theskimm.com/Carbon38 https://www.carbon38.com/HopSkipDrive https://www.hopskipdrive.com/drive/FLEX https://flexfits.com/?view=hello-flexL. https://thisisl.com/The Valley Girl Show with Jesse Draper https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3893996/Bleacher Report https://bleacherreport.com/‘Mattel Sales Soar as Pandemic Spurs Demand for Toys' in the Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/ac59759a-d6c0-4ab4-9741-80b4ed5e3317Billions https://www.sho.com/billionsYellowstone https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4236770/‘Yale's David Swensen Puts Money Managers on Notice About Diversity' in APK Metro Newshttps://apkmetro.com/yales-david-swensen-puts-money-managers-on-notice-about-diversity/Maddie Callander https://www.maddiecallander.com/All Raise https://www.allraise.org/SoGal https://www.iamsogal.com/P&G Ventures Pitch Competition https://pgventuresstudio.com/challenge/Create & Cultivate https://www.createcultivate.com/Jesse on Molly Sims' Instagram Live https://www.instagram.com/tv/CG2-C8Jppry/Las Vegas https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0364828/BlockCypher https://www.blockcypher.com/Ancestry https://www.ancestry.com/ Connect with Boost VCBoost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/

Hear Priscilla's story of pure hustle and passion, breaking into the VC industry and continuing to follow her heart to create impact. Priscilla is currently a Senior Associate at True Ventures, SF. She was the first Priya Haji Fellow with the fund, where she worked with a True portfolio company Ginger.io, a wellness platform for on-demand coaching and therapy. Priscilla is actively involved as a member of the data science team with All Raise - an organization that seeks to create gender parity across venture capital and venture-backed businesses. In her personal capacity, she is a mentor with the Access Project - which is a group of investment professionals helping founders build companies. Priscilla has a bachelor’s degree in economics and French from Amherst College, where she was a member of the varsity women’s lacrosse team.

170: MJ Elmore: Angel Investor at Broadway Angels, Advisor, Limited Partner, and Former General Partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and Fellow at Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute talks about rising up to excellence as a woman in the overwhelming male investment industry.    MJ Elmore    MJ Elmore discusses how growing up, her older sister, who also attended Purdue University, was an early mentor figure for her. “In my family, we were five kids. My dad was a school teacher, and the likelihood was that we were going to go to the school at Indiana State University, not to Purdue. My sister sort of blaze the trail of no, I’m going to go away to school. She saved her money and worked during high school and did that, and I sort of thought, I can do that too. So she was the one who motivated me to go to Purdue and earn my way through college.”  On this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, we talk with MJ Elmore, Angel Investor at Broadway Angels, Advisor, Limited Partner, and Former General Partner at Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and Fellow at Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute who shares insight into her journey into the prestigious Stanford University. “When I first got out of Purdue, I worked for Hallmark cards in Kansas City, Missouri, which was a cool experience, and then I moved to California in 1977 and began working for Intel. I was going to business school at night at Santa Clara and not finding that a great experience and got the opportunity to go full-time to Stanford to get my MBA, and that was in 1980.”   What You Will Learn: At what point in time did MJ Elmore start working for IVP? “I had been in marketing at Intel, and I really expected after I got my MBA, I would go back into marketing in Silicon Valley. But along the way, there was sort of a booming time for venture capital firms. They were really growing, really looking for more personnel. I was one of the few people in my class at Stanford who had Silicon Valley tech experience. So, since most venture companies pursue those kinds of investments, I got some interviews.” MJ Elmore explains what makes a company typically do better business from an investment standpoint than others in their space. “We were really looking for ten times our money, and that would have been considered a hit. That was our goal, ten times our money in any one deal. So, then if you make ten investments, what you hope is that 3 of them make ten times your money, another 3 or 4 make five times your money or 2-5 times, or the rest of them return the money or lose. We have a saying, ‘you can only lose all your money,’ which sounds like a crazy thing to say. But if you think about it, if you have ten deals and one of them, you lost all of your money, but the other ones return somewhere between 2-10 times your money you didn’t really care you didn’t really care that you lost all of your money.”  How did she work her way up into being a partner one year after she joined and not just a worker? “We didn’t really have a lot of associates in those days. We were really just a group of partners. But in terms of how I made my way, he and I hired everybody else in the firm. Some of those people who we hired, well, they were all men, and a lot of them were more older than me and more senior than me and maybe even had a bigger equity stake than I did. It was an interesting position, but I was still trying to find my way. I was still a newbie in the venture business. I was in my mid-20s.” What was it like for MJ Elmore being the only woman partner? “The way you become successful in a venture partnership is to make your partners a lot of money. If you make good investments, they like you a lot. My mode was to kind of try to find great investments, and so it was going to be that the success would be the great equalizer for them to accept me, and truly I think they actually didn’t think of me that much as a woman. I had some of my partners say after they read the Alpha Girl book, they were like, and I think one of them even says this in the book, ‘MJ, I just thought you were one of the guys.’ And he meant that in a good way.” What does MJ Elmore look for in companies with her over 38 years of experience? “What problem are you trying to solve? How big is the problem? How are you going to reach these people? I tended to focus on those kinds of marketing things. Is there a real market here? Will the dogs eat the dog food? What proof do you have that there is a market? How big is the market? How are you going to reach the customer?”   Mentors for Women In today’s environment, is MJ Elmore seeing more women coming to the table feeling more empowered? “There has been a big push over the last few years. There is an organization that was formed called All Raise, and it was a group of women, some of the younger women in the venture business. It started kind of trying to really sort of in a systematic way to increase the women in venture, increase the women that got funding. Right at the same time, we were in the Me Too area.”   The Unpaid Work of Women  During this episode of Finding Your Summit Podcast, MJ Elmore also talks about the inequality of domestic work that women do compared to men. “Melinda Gates wrote a book last year, and she talks about women, the unpaid work with the home and the family when women are working. There is a huge disparity if you take a dual working couple, up to twice as many hours a week that the woman tends to put into home and family than a man does, and understand in today’s times in COVID, it is really exacerbating because the kids are home. They are not in school. There is a lot more unpaid work at home.”   Links to Additional Resources: Mark Pattison: markpattisonnfl.com Emilia’s Everest - The Lhotse Challenge: https://www.markpattisonnfl.com/philanthropy/ MJ Elmore  website: MJElmore.com

Ann Miura-Ko is a lecturer in Stanford's Department of Management Science and Engineering and a co-founding partner at Floodgate, a VC firm focused on seed-stage investments. A repeat member of the Forbes Midas List and the New York Times Top 20 Venture Capitalists Worldwide, she was one of the first investors in Lyft and Refinery29, and has been an early backer of many others, including Xamarin and Thinkful. Here, she shares her takes on foundational entrepreneurial concepts like “product-market fit” and shares a vision for how bold, even disruptive innovation and shared abundance can co-exist.

Ann Miura-Ko is a lecturer in Stanford’s Department of Management Science and Engineering and a co-founding partner at Floodgate, a VC firm focused on seed-stage investments. A repeat member of the Forbes Midas List and the New York Times Top 20 Venture Capitalists Worldwide, she was one of the first investors in Lyft and Refinery29, and has been an early backer of many others, including Xamarin and Thinkful. Here, she shares her takes on foundational entrepreneurial concepts like “product-market fit” and shares a vision for how bold, even disruptive innovation and shared abundance can co-exist.

Crystal McKellar is the Founder and Managing Partner of Anathem Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in companies that have developed breakthrough technology that they are pragmatically leveraging to win and own uncrowded, high-margin markets. Crystal currently serves on the board of Cooler Heads, and previously served as a board member at Siren, Neurable, and DoubleDutch (acquired by Cvent) and as a board observer at Fractyl.   Crystal is a Kauffman Fellows Mentor, and has served as a mentor to the TechStars MetLife Digital Accelerator and the Ad Astra tech incubator program. Crystal is a proud member of All Raise and is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and innovation at technology conferences and finance events. In this episode, you'll learn: When raising a fund, what recommendations are there for first-time fundraisers? What are the relationship dynamics between a Venture Capitalist and the Limited Partners (LPs)? The life of a VC, how is it really? What are some of the positives and negatives of the role? What are the advantages of keeping the fund size small?   We would like to thank Maya Tussing for making the introduction which allowed for today's episode. Thank you for the support! HELP US OUT!   Please take a few seconds and leave us a positive review as it helps the show grow and motivates us to create content. Thank you for helping and giving back to the show!   CONNECT WITH CRYSTAL LinkedIn| Website | Email  CONNECT WITH SHAWN: https://linktr.ee/ShawnflynnSV   Shawn Flynn's Twitter Account Shawn Flynn's LinkedIn Account Silicon Valley LinkedIn Group Account Shawn Flynn's Facebook Account Change to Shawn@thesiliconvalleypodcast.com      

Crystal McKellar is the Founder and Managing Partner of Anathem Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm investing in companies that have developed breakthrough technology that they are pragmatically leveraging to win and own uncrowded, high-margin markets. Crystal currently serves on the board of Cooler Heads, and previously served as a board member at Siren, Neurable, and DoubleDutch (acquired by Cvent) and as a board observer at Fractyl. Crystal is a Kauffman Fellows Mentor, and has served as a mentor to the TechStars MetLife Digital Accelerator and the Ad Astra tech incubator program. Crystal is a proud member of All Raise and is a frequent speaker on entrepreneurship and innovation at technology conferences and finance events.In this episode, you’ll learn:When raising a fund, what recommendations are there for first-time fundraisers?What are the relationship dynamics between a Venture Capitalist and the Limited Partners (LPs)?The life of a VC, how is it really? What are some of the positives and negatives of the role?What are the advantages of keeping the fund size small?We would like to thank Maya Tussing for making the introduction which allowed for today’s episode. Thank you for the support!HELP US OUT!Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review! It takes less than 30 seconds and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it!Tweet your comments about this episode directly to Shawn Flynn and the rest of The Investor’s Podcast Community using #TIPSiliconValley.BOOKS AND RESOURCESDownload your free audiobook at Audible.Capital One. This is Banking Reimagined.Experience a real estate investing platform that is powered by an investor-first model with Fundrise.Make your money work harder with Wealthsimple.Affordable, private online counseling. Anytime, anywhere with Betterhelp. CONNECT WITH CRYSTALLinkedIn| Website | Email GET IN TOUCH WITH SHAWNShawn Flynn’s Twitter AccountShawn Flynn’s LinkedIn AccountSilicon Valley LinkedIn Group AccountShawn Flynn’s Facebook AccountEmail: Shawn@TheInvestorsPodcast.com

In this special episode, three trailblazers take the stage at the annual WoVen gathering during the J.P.Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco: Pam Kostka, Roxanne Christophe and Diana Kapp.Moderator Pam Kostka is the founding CEO of All Raise, a nonprofit on a mission to accelerate the success of women in the tech ecosystem. Roxanne Christophe is the founder and executive director of Girls Crushing It, an organization that is empowering girls between the ages of 8 to 18 to flex their leadership muscles. And Diana Kapp is the author of a recent book called Girls Who Run the World: 31 CEOs Who Mean Business, which chronicles the stories of 31 CEOs and their achievements. They take the stage to discuss the progress women have made in business, the chasms that are left to cross, and how to support young girls entrepreneurial instincts. Increasing diversity in our industry - whether that's investing, innovating or executing - takes all sorts of efforts, and these three women who venture are committed to expanding the pipeline and to celebrating women's achievements.

In this episode, Allison Pickens (COO, Gainsight) sits down with Pam Kostka (CEO, All Raise) to discuss how All Raise is amplifying female voices, accelerate their success, and create a tech culture where women are leading, shaping, and funding the future

With Virgin Startup recently announcing their pledge to a 50/50 female/male funding split, we tackle the topic of fundraising as a female founder. Stats indicate that there is a clear gap when it comes to the % of female founded businesses raising money vs male, with just 20% of founders in the UK funded being female. However there are promising changes to this that indicate there is change on the horizon and the future is looking promising for female founders. Having raised £2.5m to date and being two female founders, we share our tips on how to raise money as a woman in the venture capital world. We also discuss our thoughts on Black Friday as both consumers and business owners, and what we're doing over at BYBI this Cyber Weekend! CBI15 - 15% off BYBI products at www.bybi.com BYBI Green Friday - https://bybi.com Gapcap - £50 off your joining fee with BYBIGAP50 - www.gapcap.co.uk Virgin Startup 50/40 Pledge - https://www.virginstartup.org/news/virgin-startup-commits-5050-pledge PitchBook and All Raise -https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/2019-pitchbook-all-raise-all-in-women-in-the-vc-ecosystem

In 2013, Aileen Lee coined the term "unicorn" to refer to the growing field of startups with $1 billion valuations. At the time, she was a year into her role as a founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures, and her team was preparing a now-influential internal report examining how (and how often) companies with these massive valuations tend to emerge. Her summary of the report, published by TechCrunch, uncovered many insightful datapoints, but also revealed that only 2 of the 39 unicorns they studied had female co-founders, a finding that catalyzed her advocacy for increased diversity in technology startups. She more recently became a founding member of All Raise, a nonprofit organization devoted to increasing the representation of women in the venture-backed tech ecosystem. She describes her circuitous path to a job in venture capital, surfaces some of the central strategies of seed-stage investing, and encourages people from diverse backgrounds to help transform the venture capital business.

In 2013, Aileen Lee coined the term “unicorn” to refer to the growing field of startups with $1 billion valuations. At the time, she was a year into her role as a founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures, and her team was preparing a now-influential internal report examining how (and how often) companies with these massive valuations tend to emerge. Her summary of the report, published by TechCrunch, uncovered many insightful datapoints, but also revealed that only 2 of the 39 unicorns they studied had female co-founders, a finding that catalyzed her advocacy for increased diversity in technology startups. She more recently became a founding member of All Raise, a nonprofit organization devoted to increasing the representation of women in the venture-backed tech ecosystem. She describes her circuitous path to a job in venture capital, surfaces some of the central strategies of seed-stage investing, and encourages people from diverse backgrounds to help transform the venture capital business.

In 2013, Aileen Lee coined the term “unicorn” to refer to the growing field of startups with $1 billion valuations. At the time, she was a year into her role as a founder and managing partner of Cowboy Ventures, and her team was preparing a now-influential internal report examining how (and how often) companies with these massive valuations tend to emerge. Her summary of the report, published by TechCrunch, uncovered many insightful datapoints, but also revealed that only 2 of the 39 unicorns they studied had female co-founders, a finding that catalyzed her advocacy for increased diversity in technology startups. She more recently became a founding member of All Raise, a nonprofit organization devoted to increasing the representation of women in the venture-backed tech ecosystem. She describes her circuitous path to a job in venture capital, surfaces some of the central strategies of seed-stage investing, and encourages people from diverse backgrounds to help transform the venture capital business.

A new season of the Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders starts on October 9th! Guests this season include Arlan Hamilton, founder and managing partner of Backstage Capital; Barbara Liskov, Institute Professor at MIT’s Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Lab; Srin Madipalli, accessibility and product manager at Airbnb; Sarah Nahm, co-founder and CEO of Lever; and Aileen Lee, founder of Cowboy Ventures and All Raise. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get new episodes delivered straight to you every Wednesday!

Maha is a partner at Canaan Partners, one of Silicon Valley's largest and most successful venture firms.  She spots technology trends early and partners closely with her companies to drive growth and exits. Maha focuses on e-commerce and enterprise / cloud, and was one of the first investors to recognize the potential of social gaming. She represented Canaan as the first institutional investor in The RealReal – which recently went public. Maha is a founding member of All Raise, an organization with the mission to “accelerate the success of female funders and founders”. She is also a trustee for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.  Before becoming a venture capitalist, Maha was an executive at Qwest Communications and studied Economics and Sociology at Stanford, and Economics at MIT. In this podcast Maha shares her journey to becoming a venture capitalist.  She discusses the changes she’s seen in the venture industry and what does – and doesn’t – excite her today.  We also talk about the evolving path for women in Silicon Valley, and what an ally of women can do to be helpful. Canaan Partners www.canaan.com All Raise www.allraise.org The RealReal www.threrealreal.com

The future is female and all you fierce female founders have one last shot at receiving 30 minutes of face time with some of the industry's leading female funders. Say what now? We're talking the All Raise “ask me anything” (AMA) sessions at Disrupt SF 2019 — and applications close tomorrow, August 30. All Raise, a startup nonprofit focused on accelerating female founder success, will host a day-long AMA event on October 3 at Disrupt SF 2019.

Jenny Lefcourt brings 20+ years of technology start-up experience to her role as General Partner at Freestyle, a $90M seed-stage fund in San Francisco whose partners are all serial entrepreneurs. Freestyle has led investments in companies such as Airtable, Intercom, Patreon, Narvar, BetterUp, and Wag.  Jenny is also a founding member of All Raise, a non-profit dedicated to diversity in funders & founders. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/therealcapitalist/message

Shouting out to all the fierce female founders. Have you applied to participate in theAll Raise“ask me anything” (AMA) sessions atDisrupt SF 2019? No? Women, it's time to act. Apply for an AMA session by the August 30 deadline and you could win a free Expo Only Pass. You heard that right. We have 30 free Expo Only passes, and we'll give them away at random to women founders who get accepted to the All Raise program at Disrupt SF 2019.

We've got great news for all the time-strapped female founders out there. Yeah, we're looking at you, sister. We're extending the application deadline to apply for the All Raise “ask me anything” (AMA) sessions at Disrupt SF 2019. Don't miss this rare opportunity to meet with a leading female VC and, well, ask her anything. Apply for an AMA sessionby August 15.

Newsflash for all female founders of the early-stage startup variety. Your chance to meet with leading women VCs atDisrupt SF 2019on October 2-4 ends on July 19 at 5 p.m. (PT).Apply for an AMA sessionbefore the deadline expires. We're serious when it comes to supporting women in tech, which is why we partnered with All Raise — a startup nonprofit dedicated to accelerating female founder success.

Hi Everyone! In this episode of the Female Founders and Funders podcast I speak with Felicia Curcuru, the founder and CEO of Binti, a company that is reinventing the foster care and adoption process. She started the company in 2014 after seeing firsthand how hard it was for her sister to adopt and has experienced the ups and downs of building a company, finding product marketing fit, dealing with co-founders and employees, and so much more. In the episode we explore topics such as: Felicia's background and how she came to start Binti In an early blog post that Felicia wrote she mentioned some crazy statistics on foster care and adpoption: each year 6 million children are orphaned worldwide, 3 million families express an interest in adoption, 1 million families take steps to adopt but only 250,000 parents end up adopting. We discuss what she uncovered about why this process is so broken? The hardest part of getting Binti off the ground Being a first time founder Who the end customers of Binti’s technology are and how that has evolved over time and with learnings How to go about finding a co-founder and what to do if things don't work out Working with the government and in a somewhat regulated space Getting the first customers and happy users How adoptions and foster programs have evolved (or not) since she began in this space in 2014 Felicia's experience with All Raise, a non profit supporting women venture investors and entrepreneurs and how she came to help start Female Founder Office Hours Practices to help stay sane as you manage starting a company, fundraising, juggling life etc The best piece of advice she's been given in her career or life To learn more about Binti or get in touch you can go to the website at https://binti.com/ and to learn more about All Raise go to https://www.allraise.org/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/femalefoundersandfunders/support

Megan Morrone speaks with journalist and author Julian Guthrie about her latest book, Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took On Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime. They discuss why Julian decided to tell the stories of these four pioneering women in the male-dominated world of Silicon Valley (Theresia Guow, Magdalena Yeşil, MJ Elmore, and Sonja Perkins), some key lessons and regrets from these entrepreneurs, how sexist attitudes have evolved in tech and other industries where women are underrepresented, how the book is being adapted into a television series, and more. Buy "Alpha Girls": https://amzn.to/2WXeuqE​ Host: Megan Morrone Guest: Julian Guthrie Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation. Sponsor: capterra.com/triangulation

Megan Morrone speaks with journalist and author Julian Guthrie about her latest book, Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took On Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime. They discuss why Julian decided to tell the stories of these four pioneering women in the male-dominated world of Silicon Valley (Theresia Guow, Magdalena Yeşil, MJ Elmore, and Sonja Perkins), some key lessons and regrets from these entrepreneurs, how sexist attitudes have evolved in tech and other industries where women are underrepresented, how the book is being adapted into a television series, and more. Buy "Alpha Girls": https://amzn.to/2WXeuqE​ Host: Megan Morrone Guest: Julian Guthrie Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation. Sponsor: capterra.com/triangulation

Megan Morrone speaks with journalist and author Julian Guthrie about her latest book, Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took On Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime. They discuss why Julian decided to tell the stories of these four pioneering women in the male-dominated world of Silicon Valley (Theresia Guow, Magdalena Yeşil, MJ Elmore, and Sonja Perkins), some key lessons and regrets from these entrepreneurs, how sexist attitudes have evolved in tech and other industries where women are underrepresented, how the book is being adapted into a television series, and more. Buy "Alpha Girls": https://amzn.to/2WXeuqE​ Host: Megan Morrone Guest: Julian Guthrie Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation. Sponsor: capterra.com/triangulation

Megan Morrone speaks with journalist and author Julian Guthrie about her latest book, Alpha Girls: The Women Upstarts Who Took On Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a Lifetime. They discuss why Julian decided to tell the stories of these four pioneering women in the male-dominated world of Silicon Valley (Theresia Guow, Magdalena Yeşil, MJ Elmore, and Sonja Perkins), some key lessons and regrets from these entrepreneurs, how sexist attitudes have evolved in tech and other industries where women are underrepresented, how the book is being adapted into a television series, and more. Buy "Alpha Girls": https://amzn.to/2WXeuqE​ Host: Megan Morrone Guest: Julian Guthrie Download or subscribe to this show at https://twit.tv/shows/triangulation. Sponsor: capterra.com/triangulation

Terri Burns is a Principal at GV (Google Ventures), working on the investing team with sourcing and deal flow. Terri’s also on the fundraising team of the nonprofit All Raise, which aims to increase the diversity of funders and founders in the technology industry. She’s a board member of the nonprofit Brave Initiatives, which teaches coding skills to girls from underserved geographic and economic communities. Prior to joining GV, Terri was a product manager at Twitter where she helped improve the home timeline, and prior to that, a developer evangelist at Venmo. Terri is also an international speaker, covering topics related to how technology impacts various communities. In addition, Terri is a freelance writer, and regularly writes about technology, diversity, and inclusion, having been featured in publications like Forbes, Fast Company, Scientific American, and Teen Vogue. Terri graduated from the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (computer science).

Venture capitalist and prominent activist Freada Kapor Klein, the founder of Kapor Capital, talks with Recode's Teddy Schleifer about diversity in tech and impact investing. In this episode: In this episode: Kapor Klein’s background; her first forays into activism; why the term “sexual coercion” is more meaningful in the workplace than “sexual harassment”; holding managers accountable when they don’t live a company’s values; why did Kapor Klein and her husband Mitch Kapor become impact investors?; how to have values as a VC; being an Uber investor during the company’s discrimination scandal; how is Dara Khosrowshahi doing?; why the venture capital industry is “flunking” the diversity test; startups that widen inequality; the problem with how All Raise measures diversity; Kapor Klein’s publicly quiet supporters; what does impact investing really mean?; Bill McGlashan and the college admissions scandal; making college admissions more equitable; why Kapor Klein is optimistic about the world; and the 2020 presidential campaign. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices