Podcasts about gotham gal

Joanne Wilson is an early-stage angel investor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist with over 150 companies in her investment portfolio such as Food52 and Eater. Her latest venture, Gotham, is a female-founded cannabis concept space that curates and shares one-of-a-kind products, art, and experiences that reflect New York's rich history and influence. She currently sits on the board of The Highline and The Public Housing Community Fund in NYC.

Joanne Wilson is an early-stage angel investor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist with over 150 companies in her investment portfolio such as Food52 and Eater. Her latest venture, Gotham, is a female-founded cannabis concept space that's curates and shares one-of-a-kind products, art, and experiences that reflect New York's rich history and influence. She is also the chairperson of Hot Bread Kitchen and currently sits on the board of The Highline and The Public Housing Community Fund in NYC. Sponsor: Subscriptions to Harvard Business Review's unlimited content start at only $10 a month. Go to and enter PROMO CODE: SUCCESS right now to take advantage of this great offer.

Get on the BAD BITCH EMPIRE NFT AllowList now: https://badbitchempire.com/nftJoanne Wilson is one of the earliest angel investors to have a female-entrepreneur-driven investment thesis. She has a decade-long career as a successful angel investor and has amassed an investment portfolio that includes over 130 startups in everything including food, consumer goods, software, cannabis, web3, and real estate. In this episode, Lisa interviews Joanne on:How women should think about building their wealth independentlySpecific action steps to start investing no matter where you are in your careerHow to build a resilient mindset as an entrepreneurHow to balance building your empire and your familyHow to speak up in the face of sexist BS in the workplaceInvesting in new verticals like cannabis, psilocybin, and cryptoJoin us:BadBitchEmpire.comInstagram:@TheBadBitchEmpire @LisaCarmenWangTwitter:@BadBitch_Empire @LisaCarmenWang

The Gotham Gal herself, Joanne Wilson, tells us that department stores are dead, but gives us a glimpse into the future and her own upcoming cannabis store that will pair your cannabis with your needs, mood and even the food you're serving that night.   We also cover the state of VC today and much more.

Joanne Wilson is a powerhouse. She’s a prolific investor, mom and wife and a champion of female entrepreneurs – not to mention a tough cookie who knows New York better than anyone I know. When she’s not crushing it in the investing world, you can find this self-described “insatiable foodie” cooking over on her Instagram. I met Joanne about 14 years ago when she and her husband/previous Panic guest Fred Wilson invested in my company at the time WallStrip. Joanne’s investing portfolio has grown since investing in me back in the day to include more than 130 companies. It was a blast to have someone as smart, quick and entertaining as her on the podcast. In this episode, Joanne and I chat about angel investing, New York, tech, real estate, the restaurant industry, entrepreneurship and more.  Guest - Joanne Wilson, Angel Investor at Gotham Gal  howardlindzon.com, gothamgal.com  soundcloud.com/positivelygothamgal  Twitter: @howardlindzon, @thegothamgal, @knutjensen  linkedin.com/in/joanne-wilson-b0886110  #fintech #invest #investment #venturecapital #stockmarket #finance 

Joanne Wilson, more frequently known as Gotham Gal, discusses female founders, and angel investing, and more.  Joanne is a hugely successful angel investor, blogger, podcaster and feminist advocate who champions female founders and entrepreneurs to achieve their business goals. Subscribe to our newsletter at www.ventureunplugged.com and follow me Mayra on twitter @mayraceja007

If you're in entrepreneurship in New York City, you know Joanne Wilson, especially among the women entrepreneurs I talk to. She's prominent in the New York entrepreneurial world, as well as art, travel, foodA lot of investors live stressful lives. Joanne doesn't. As you'll hear in our conversation, she also leads a rewarding life, which you'll also read in any of her blog posts or hear in any of her podcast episodes -- the happiness, fun, and emotional reward she describes her life with. I think it results from her focus on people, relationships, and community.Like any great leader, she focuses on people. The first thing she does after vetting people she invests in is to support them.Our conversation covers more personal leadership, but her success points to what I think environmental leaders could learn from her. Environmental work overwhelmingly focuses on science, politics, compliance, and facts. Until they focus on people, it's hard to call many of them leaders. Seeking compliance or browbeating people with facts, no matter how science-backed, or laws, no matter how well-meaning, won't get results. Nor will people enjoy it and keep doing it after your extrinsic incentives go away.That's why I could only start trying environmental leadership when I found reducing my waste to about 10% of the average American improved my life. Yes it took time, just like Joanne doesn't blindly invest but has to vet people and research.I didn't press her on taking on a new challenge, partly because she told me when I arrived to her office about just having reduced plastic in her office. Partly because she just built her house and is building other new homes that way.Also, I see her around New York, so the next time I see her, I'll ask her if she's done anything new by then. I predict she will have and I'll invite her for a second episode. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On today's episode of All in the Industry®, host Shari Bayer is joined by Joanne Wilson, an angel investor and blogger with her company Gotham Gal Ventures, and podcaster at Positively Gotham Gal. Joanne has had many careers, from retail to the media side of the technology world, to becoming an angel investor, who currently has a portfolio of over 90 companies, including Food52, VinePair, Sweet Lorens, Num Pang, Threes Brewing, and Mah Ze Dahr. In addition, she created The Women’s Entrepreneurs Festival. Today's show also features Shari's PR tip, Speed Round, Industry News discussion; and Solo Dining experience at Vietnamese favorite, Di an Di in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Listen at Heritage Radio Network. Subscribe/rate/review our show at iTunes, Stitcher or Spotify. Follow us @allindustry #allintheindustry. Powered by Simplecast

Who is Joanne Wilson?   Joanne Wilson is a New York City based investor and has had many careers. She started out in retail, eventually moving to the wholesale arena. She then transitioned to the media side of the technology world, before once again reinventing herself as an investor. She is currently an active angel investor with a portfolio of over 90 companies such as Food52, Sweeten, Vengo, Nestio, Shippabo, Flip, Clutter, and Union Station. She has been involved in numerous real estate transactions from beginning to end and continues to make investments in that world. Joanne is an investor in a few restaurants in the New York area.   In addition to these endeavors, Joanne has been involved in various education projects and has served as chairperson at Hot Bread Kitchen, a non-profit committed to increasing access to the culinary industry for woman and minority entrepreneurs. She currently sits on the board of The Highline and is the co-chair of Path Forward.  Joanne has maintained her blog, www.gothamgal.com for 15 years and has recently taken her talents to the airwaves on her podcast, "Positively Gotham Gal". She loves to bake, cook, throw a good party, travel, read, collect art, do the crossword and stay on top of what's happening around the globe and in NYC.  Joanne believes her most successful venture is being married to her best friend, Fred, and raising their three kids Jessica, Emily and Josh    Show Highlights  Joanne shares her journey into angel investing and how she is able to see things coming down the pike  Joanne talks about what she invests in and how her investing has changed over the last 12 years  Joanne comments on some of her investments that are undercapitalized and the frustration she has around getting other investors excited about the startups and the founders.    She looks for tenacious, smart, scrappy people as founders who can articulate their vision from now until what it can be.    In, 70% of the companies she’s invested in, Joanne was the first money into the companies. Joanne talks about how she works with her founders to get access to capital and resources and help them build their businesses.    Joanne and Terri talk about various different funding mechanisms and getting access to capital.  If Joanne could wave a magic wand, she would change the animosity in society that people have towards each other.  She would make sure everyone has healthcare, a roof over their heads, food on the table, and access to education.  With these fundamental needs met, she believes that they may have better caring for their fellow man.    Terri’s Key Takeaway  It’s difficult to be a generalist as an angel investor; it’s better to choose a vertical that is most interesting to you and become familiar with the space.    References in the Podcast  Joanne’s website:  https://gothamgal.com/  Fred Wilson’s interview on A16Z on Tech Trends and Disruption: https://a16z.com/2018/09/23/tech-trends-disruption-innovation-internet-crypto/  Fred Wilson: http://www.usv.com/about/fred-wilson  Union Square Ventures:  https://www.usv.com/  Serendipity:  https://www.guildserendipity.com/  Jason Calacanis:  http://calacanis.com/  Laura Fleet: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-brookins-fleet-49aa9a54/  SendaRide:  https://sendaride.com/  Contact  Joanne can be reached through her website https://gothamgal.com/.    You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.   Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.  To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife. 

Today’s Extraordinary Women Radio guest is Gotham Gal and angel investor, Joanne Wilson. Joanne has a portfolio of over 90 companies, such as Lately (you might remember my episode a few months ago with founder Kate Bradley Chernis), Food52, Sweeten, Vengo, Nestio, Flip, Clutter, and Union Station. Joanne shared, “In general, I’m looking for really smart, scrappy founders that have tenacity, that are out of the box, and are survivors.” Joanne has had many careers before she found her way into angel investment, and she shares some of her reinvention stories in our interview today. She believes that necessity is not only the mother of invention but also of constant reinvention because as an individual, a company, or brand, you have to be able to think ahead to stay ahead of the curve. Sometimes, what you think of as a misfortune, like losing a job, is actually a blessing in disguise. Joanne co-founded the Women’s Entrepreneur Festival in 2011 which is a conference for a community of women entrepreneurs. While the Festival was put on hold for a few years, she's currently working with Brazen to bring it back in 2019.  At the end of the day, what she hopes for women is equality in consideration of your unique multi-layered dimensions. She has maintained her very popular blog, gothamgal.com for over 13 years and has recently taken her talents to the airwaves on her podcast, Positively Gotham Gal, as another medium for having profound conversations with women. And if there are three pearls of wisdom she wants to impart to women, it would be self-awareness, trusting your gut, and following your heart. I’m thrilled to introduce you to Gotham Gal – Joanne Wilson!

Joanne Wilson tells us why she has been investing in strong female founders since 2007, blogging since 2003 and how it’s all about pursuing happiness.

My guest today is Joanne Wilson, a New York City based angel investor, writer, podcaster, trend spotter, and self-described “woman around town.” Joanne has had a multifaceted and winding career, and began angel investing a decade ago when she put money into NYC-based media company Curbed media which we discuss in detail. Since then, she’s invested in more than 90 companies and been pitched by countless more. She is an instantly likeable person, you can literally tell in 10 seconds you are going to have a great conversation, so it’s no surprise that part of what makes her unique among angels is a very close relationship with many of the founders she backs. We cover a lot of ground. We talk about the personality traits of entrepreneurs, Joanne’s evolving investment style, her focus on female founders, fashion, business models, restaurants and a lot more. Please my conversation with the Gotham Gal, Joanne Wilson.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes 2:12 - (First Question) – How does Joanne orient herself towards what’s new, in the context of food in New York city 4:10 – Can that mindset of forward thinking be cultivated 5:18 – Latest thing that got Joanne excited before everyone else 6:57 – Why the new frontier is going niche and local 10:23 – Joanne’s first investment 11:48 – Why do VC’s typically stay away from media 12:55 – How Joanne got into her first investment as a customer 14:11 – What is the skillset of making money that Joanne as 14:45 – Can you sense if a founder has that innate ability to just make money 17:04 – Are there common traits in founders 18:07 – Joanne’s progression into angel investing after her first investment 19:58 – Red flags when looking at investments 20:40 – Impression on growth without goals 23:30 – Trends among Joanne’s investments 25:56 – How much knowledge is transferrable between different industries that Joanne invests in 27:06 – The dichotomy and unique challenges between raising capital with female founders vs male founders 29:07 – How does Joanne balance her time and stay engaged with all of her investments 30:50 – Time when Joanne has helped a founder side step a pothole 31:35 – Most memorable first impression Joanne experienced 35:05 – How often does someone not have the right idea but is still worth investing in 37:19 – Why Joanne won’t start a fund 38:22 – Data on female founders returns and time 40:38 – Criteria for identifying emerging trends, especially in the more creative/artistic fields  43:29 – The changing costs of launching a brand, in the contest of fashion 47:11 – What has Joanne most excited right now       48:11 – Interesting facts about the fashion business  52:01 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Joanne   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

There’s been a lot of debate and controversy around the lack of women and minorities being represented in tech companies from entry-level to the C-suite and board room. However, what isn’t showcased is how there is sisterhood within tech, where women are helping each other out, and enacting change at every level from schools to the board room. To talk about how women are investing and encouraging each other, I’ve invited Samantha Walravens who is the co-author of the new book Geek Girl Rising: Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech. If you’re a woman, minority, or male ally you’ll learn from Samantha how: Women like Maria Klawe at Harvey Mudd have tripled the number of women graduating with Computer Science degrees Women are connecting female founders to female angel investors and influencers to grow their startups Corporations are changing and disrupting the dynamics of the boardroom   This is the last episode of FemgineerTV but don’t worry it’s not the end... After hosting FemgineerTV and listening to audience members like you for the past 2 ½ years, myself and my sponsor Pivotal Tracker decided it was time for a fun format! Starting next month, I’m going to be launching a new show called Build. I think you’ll enjoy the new format for Build. Each week you’ll receive a short video on a topic to help you build a product, company, and career in tech. So stay tuned for the launch of Build :) Want to help us get the word out about Build? Please take a moment to leave a review on iTunes here. If you’ve never left a review, here is a quick tutorial on how to do. -- Poornima: Welcome to another episode of *Femgineer TV*, brought to you by Pivotal Tracker, I'm your host, Poornima Vijayashanker, the founder of Femgineer.                                 In this show, I invite innovators in tech, and together we debunk myths and misconceptions related to building tech products and companies.                                 One of the most heated topics today is the lack of women and minorities represented in tech; from entry level, to the C suite, to the board room. While we all know this is already a problem, in today's episode, we're going to be talking about some of the solutions, and showing how there are companies and organizations enacting these solutions.                                 And to help us out, I've invited Samantha Walravens, who is the coauthor of the latest book, *Geek Girl Rising: Inside The Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech*. Thanks so much for joining us today, Samantha.   Samantha: Thanks for having me!   Poornima: Yeah, it's wonderful.                                 Let's start by talking about why you and your coauthor, Heather Cabot, decided to write this book.   Sharing The Unspoken Narrative of Women In Technology   Samantha: The inspiration for this book was a conversation I had about three years ago with a friend of mine, who's been in Silicon Valley for 20 years. She's a woman, she's the VP of sales in business development, and she's worked in a number of tech startups, and we were having coffee, and she said, "Sam, I cannot tell you what just happened in my performance group review, it was last week, and my manager commented on what I was wearing, the color of my dresses, the jewelry I wore, and he told me that I was too aggressive, and too bossy, and I needed to tone it down a bit." Meanwhile, she is the head of sales, and she was rocking her number out of the park. So she said, "Sam, you've got to write something." She knew I was a journalist. She said, "You've got to write something and you have to talk about this kind of discrimination and this kind of sexism in Silicon Valley."                                 Mind you this is before the *Newsweek* article came out, "What does Silicon Valley really think of women," people were discussing women in technology, but it really was not a top of mind—and so I started to do a little digging, and researching and interviewing women. And what I found was, yes, there's sexism, there is harassment, there's discrimination, there's unconscious bias, it's there, it's a problem we need to talk about it and deal with it.                                 But there was another narrative, another discussion that wasn't being told, which was: these women want to talk about the companies they were building, the technologies they were creating, the women who are supporting them and helping them along the way in their careers. There was this whole other narrative that was missing from the conversation that was happening in the national news media about sexism in Silicon Valley.                                 And I thought, "we have to discuss this." So, Heather Cabot, who's my coauthor, was in New York, I'm in San Francisco, we talked, and she said, "Sam, I've been researching this topic," it was kind of a coincidence, it was like one of those weird moments of weird fate. And she said, "I've been researching this topic, let's work together." So we put our heads together and we just started digging into the topic, and it's been three years now, and finally the book is coming out!   The Sisterhood That Is Supporting Women In Tech in Silicon Valley And Beyond   Poornima: So one thing I experienced early on in my career, and it keeps me motivated, is the women who inspired me. So, early on, when I was a college student in engineering school, I had a professor, and she had twins, and she was doing her research, and she was teaching, and she was leading the department, and I thought, "If she could do it, I could do it." And as I was reading the book, I noticed the theme of the sisterhood kind of coming up again and again.                                 Tell us how you discovered this theme as you started writing or as you were doing your research.   Samantha: Of course. Well, I too had a mentor back in my Silicon Valley days when I worked for a software startup during the dotcom boom in 1998 to about 2003, so I saw the dotcom boom and the bust happen, I was living through it, our company went public, stock went to 130, then went down to two, so I lived and breathed the dotcom boom and bust.                                 My manager/boss at that point was Carol Carpenter, who has since gone on to become—she was the CEO, actually CMO of ClearSlide and then CEO of ElasticBox, so she's a prominent woman in Silicon Valley, and she really pulled me up. She really, when I was lacking confidence, and I thought, "I can't do this," I'd just had my baby, my first baby, we were going public, and I thought, "I can't do this, this is crazy." We're working 24/7 and I have a newborn at home. She was the one who said, "Sam, you can do it, you can do it." And having that kind of mentorship and that kind of woman who was going through it herself pulling me up, really encouraged me.                                 So as we were researching the book, we started noticing these pockets around the startup universe, women who were supporting each other, investing in each other, encouraging each other in their careers and inspiring the next generation of girls and young women to pursue technology and continue their careers in technology.   Encouraging The Next Generation of Women To Consider Careers In Tech   Poornima: Yeah, that's great. I think you're absolutely right, that is a narrative that's missing from the media and more women need to know that that's out there as well, so that they don't feel like all there is is just what the media portrays.                                 Now, the first place that you write about change happening is at the primary school up to the high school level, so walk us through what that looks like.   Samantha: Well, fortunately, before Obama left office, he did create an initiative, a $4 billion initiative called "Computer Science for All" that is encouraging and putting funds towards creating computer science curriculum in schools throughout the country. I was so excited to read about Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, in the Chicago public schools now, computer science is a requirement for all high schools in Chicago. So I think we're going to see more of that.                                 When you look at the numbers, though, we still have a long way to go, cause 25% of high schools in the U.S. offer computer science, I think it's like 22% of girls, of students taking the computer science AP exam are girls, so we still have a long way to go.                                 What we noticed, though, it's sort of this grassroots movement of women who are encouraging the younger generations to start building, to start creating, to start coding. For example, we start our book talking about Debbie Sterling, who's the founder and the CEO of Goldie Blocks, and she's got this great—I have two little girls, we have it at home, it's a great toy that encourages girls to build, and there's a really fun, positive role model, Goldie, who builds a spinning machine and she has all these sorts of engineering—you wouldn't even know it's engineering, it's really just building Ferris wheels and building merry-go-rounds and all these fun things, along with the story, talking about Goldie and her friends, and how she's building these different fun games and amusement park rides. We have that in our household.                                 These are the kinds of things that women are doing to try to inspire the next generation. There is a woman in our book who started a company called Bitcode, she's actually working with the public schools to get them to use video to teach girls how to code. So if you have kids you know that they're on video, they're on YouTube, and they're really tech savvy. I have four kids, they can get around YouTube, and iMovie, and they're all over it. So, this tool is used in the public schools, to teach coding, using videos, to make it fun.   How Colleges Are Changing The Ratio Of Women Graduating With Computer Science Degrees Poornima: It's great, yeah, it's good to see these grassroots efforts, so that even if there is kind of a gap in terms of change for public schools or the school system in general, there's ways in which parents and teachers can supplement that.                                 So, the next place in which a lot of women and minorities drop off is at the college level, tell us who's working on changing that.   Samantha: Well, we had the most amazing experience at Grace Hopper in 2015. I believe you were there, and Heather and I, my coauthor and I went, and just to see, I think it was 12,000 women there in computing, and it is a true celebration. And to see the enthusiasm and the excitement and the bonding between these young women, it was so encouraging.                                 When you look at specific colleges, there's a lot being done to encourage more women in to pursue technology and computer science. I met with Maria Klawe, who's the president of Harvey Mudd, and wow! What a firecracker she is, she skateboards around campus, she's just a really fun, wonderful woman, and she implemented a program along with her colleagues a few years ago, where there are two tracks for computer science, so as a freshman you can take the gold track or the black track.                                 The gold track is for students who have not had any computer science experience in high school; the black track is for students who've had some experience. So, by doing this, the students who have not had experience don't feel so impostered, they don't have the confidence cause no one's had this experience, so they get through this year and I spoke to a couple of students who have taken these classes, and they say that by the end of the year, everyone's pretty much at the same level.                                 So, she, Maria Klawe, and her team has tripled the number of women graduating with computer science degrees at Harvey Mudd in the past ten years, and the number is, I hate to throw in all these numbers, cause they get little mind boggling at times, but 55% of the computer science graduates at Harvey Mudd are now women.   Poornima: That's great, it's a nice change to—the numbers go up.   Samantha: There's also Stanford. Another example of what's going on to encourage women to pursue computer science is Stanford University, of course a top institution, but they have a Women in Tech group called She++, which was started by Ayna Agarwal, and who was not even a computer science major by the way, but she started this group to encourage women and they had a Gala, every year, which gathers all the women in technology, not just Stanford. What they do is they go out into the communities and they take on high school students in different communities around the country and they support these young high school girls to start programs in their communities. For example, I live out in Marin County, and there is a girl who started a robotics happy schooler box program in Marin City, which is an underserved community in Marin County, and she runs this afterschool program in Marin City.                                 So all of these girls around the country who are starting these programs through She++ gather together for this gala, and I am telling you, if you could be there to see these college women, these high school girls who came, they were dressed to the nines, they were glamorous, I mean, talk about debunking the myths and breaking stereotypes about what a woman in tech looks like, I mean, we could have been in an LA nightclub, not to sound like—but they were so beautiful and wonderful and smart and excited to talk about their programs, and they were so excited to be in technology. And again, this is why Heather and I said, "This is a story that no one sees," you don't see this kind of enthusiasm around technology, you see, "Oh, it's so hard, numbers are dropping, it's all doom and gloom." And so we really wanted to tell that other story.   The Angel Investors And Others Who Are Supporting Female Founders   Poornima: OK. That brings us back to industry, and I know there's a lot going on at the corporate level, as well as startups. I'm of course partial to startups, so let's start there and talk about how the ecosystem is changing for women and minorities.   Samantha: There's a lot of momentum behind supporting female founders. For example, there are accelerator programs like the Women Startup Lab, which is down here at Menlo Park; there's MergeLane, which is in Colorado; there's The Refinery in Connecticut. These programs focus on female founders, and really giving them the tools, the skills they need to grow their company into a venture, fundable company. And they give the tools to learn how to pitch venture capitalists, and we all know the venture capital world is very male dominated.   Poornima: Yeah, it is a challenge. I know I've had my fair share of doing the fundraising.                                 So, there's a very common problem around women and minorities getting up and pitching their business to VCs, either male VCs not getting their idea, or they don't think it's a big enough market, or there's a lot of unconscious bias around it, so how are women getting their training to get over all of that?   Samantha: Well, you've started a company, so you know what it's like. The founders that we've met, that I've met in my journey with this book, are so passionate about their idea. But you can have an idea, and it's not going to go anywhere—you have to have the product market fit, you have to test the idea, you have to build your team out—and so these programs are really teaching women what they need to do to get to that level, to actually pitch to investors. But when you look at the numbers, I think it's 10% of the venture funding, globally, goes to female founders—it's still a really small percentage.                                 We've also noticed that there's women who are angels. So angel investors who fund companies at the early stages—for example, Joanne Wilson, aka Gotham Gal, who has a tremendous momentum in New York City, who has invested in a number of really great companies; Caren Maio, Nestio, Shanna Tellerman, Modsy—she finds these women, who have ideas that are big, that are scalable, and she nurtures them, and she's like the fairy godmother to these women. And there are other women that we talk about, we'd had to read the book to learn about all of them, but there are women who really take these female founders under their wing and support them on their journey.   Poornima: I think it's great that there are women like Joanne Wilson out there. Do you have a sense of how many companies she's invested in?   Samantha: Joanne Wilson has invested in around a hundred companies, and they're doing fantastic. One of them, Shanna Tellerman, started the company Modsy, which is an immersive, 3D environment for home décor, home design, and she told us that she created this project called “The Pinnacle Project,” at Park City, Utah, and it was Wednesday through Sunday, I think. And she invited Joanne, and Susan Lyne, and a bunch of angel investors, as well as a number of female founders, to come gather, network, ski, and have fun, and she said it was funny, because all the women were thinking, "We should be home, we should be working, we should be with the kids, we have so much to do," and she said she had to tell and remind people that, "This is what the guys do. They have a boys call and they pick off and it's all about business, whereas women don't have that sense of, “Let's go out to ski, or golf,” and that kind of networking, so it was an example of this pinnacle project, which is going to happen recurring every year, of, "OK, women, we can get together, have fun together, network, introduce each other to investors and influencers, and have fun while we're doing it. It's OK."   Poornima: Yeah. That's fantastic. And I think another thing you had mentioned pipeline ventures, or pipeline angels?   Samantha: Pipeline angels, yes, yes. Natalia Oberti Noguera is a force of nature and she started this angel investing group for women and I went through it and Heather went through it. I did it in San Francisco, Heather did it in New York, and basically it's a training, it's a bootcamp or a training program for women who are credited investors, to learn how to invest in female and minority-led companies. So it walked us through the process of how do you set evaluation on a company, what do you look for in a startup that you're investing in, what kind of traits you want to look for in the team, what's going to make this a good investment. So it trains women to invest as angels, and then you actually make an investment at the end.                                 We made an investment in a great startup—which I believe is still hush hush, underground at this point—but I believe we made a great investment and we're following the course of these early stage female founders, and it's really her goal to change the face of angel investing, to increase the amount of money going towards these early stage female founders.   Poornima: As we were doing research for your book and when I was reading it, I noticed that there was some astonishing findings, like only 11 companies that were founded by African-American women have received funding over a million dollars. So walk us through who is working to change this.   Samantha: Well, that number has actually increased, it's now 13 companies that have received more than a million dollars, but the numbers are still really low. One woman who is really on top of this problem is Kathryn Finney, who is the founder of DigitalUndivided, which is an organization whose main purpose is to increase the number of women, minorities in the tech world, latino women, and black women founders, and she just recently launched an accelerator, in Atlanta, Georgia, called the Big Innovation Center, and I think their first cohort is gathering this year to help skill up and prepare these minority founders to raise money.   How Tech Companies Are Growing Up And Changing How The Nature of Work   Poornima: So let's switch gears, and talk about corporations. We previously had Lisen Stromberg on the show, talking about the changes that were happening for parents—what have you seen?   Samantha: Well, what we've noticed is that Silicon Valley is growing up. They are trading in their ping-pong tables and foosball tables for nursing rooms, which is inspiring to see. When I started out, I had my Medela Pump in Style in a cold bathroom out of the courtyard of our startup, so it wasn't pretty, but we spent a day at Eventbrite not too long ago, and Julia Hartz, who's now the CEO of Eventbrite, it's very focused on woman, developing women in leadership positions and allowing for work-life balance. And I say that word, “work-life balance,” a term that is loaded, what she's trying to do with that company is focus on the whole person, not just the employee self.                                 For example, they have a program called “Take the time you need.” So if you need time to care for a child or to care for an adult, you can work from home, you can take time off, so she's really interested in her employees, and telling her employees, "You can do what you need to do, so you can live a life and you can be an employee."                                 And she also tells the women who are having babies at her company, she says, "You know what? You can get through the first six to nine months," it gets a lot easier, because a lot of women when they have their babies early on, they think, “I can't leave this poor creature alone with a daycare with a babysitter,” and she says, “If you can just get through that”—she's got two little girls herself—”If you can just get through that time, stick with it, come back, and we will support you while you're doing it,” which is fantastic.   Poornima: You also showcase companies like Power to Fly. Walk us through what Power to Fly is.   Samantha: Yeah, Power to Fly was started by Milena Berry and Katharine Zaleski. Katharine actually wrote an article apologizing to all the mothers out there. Before she had children, she was a little bit judgemental of mothers taking time off and having to leave work early, and then she had her first baby and she thought, "Oh, my gosh, this is really hard," so she and Milena got together and started this company, Power to Fly, which connects women with remote and flexible job positions, so they can actually care for their family and pursue careers in technology. The great thing about technology is that it can be done remotely. Especially if you're in coding, you don't have to be in an office 24/7, so Power to Fly works on that.                                 Another great program is Tina Lee started a program called MotherCoders, and she's based in San Francisco, a fabulous woman, her program retrains mothers in tech skills, so they can go off and they can—either they've taken time off or they have background in some other field, they can skill up in technology, and go out and get the tremendous amount of jobs that are available in technology as they get back to work.   Disrupting The Boardroom   Poornima: Well, that brings us to the boardroom, so walk us through what changes are happening there.   Samantha: The number of women holding board seats in our country is still very, very low, I think the number is 18% of board seats at Fortune 500 companies are held by women. So we still have a long way to go.                                 One real pioneer in this area is a woman, her name is Sukhinder Singh Cassidy, she's fabulous, she is the CEO and founder of a company called Joyus, a tech company, and she, a few years ago penned an article called "Tech Women Choose Possibility." And she really wanted to profile the women in Silicon Valley, in the startup world, who are doing great things, just founding great companies. There was a lot of positive response to that article, and so she created an organization called #choosepossibility.                                 Part of that organization is a group called, or an initiative called "The Boardlist." And basically it's a matchmaking tool that matches qualified, board-ready women with startup, tech companies, looking to fill board seats with women, so she made that happen, and they placed three women on the board, which it seems like it's very low, but what they're doing is they're connecting the VCs and the startup companies with these women, and a lot more placements have been made not directly through the platform, but just through the connections that have been made on this platform.   Poornima: OK, great, so it's good to know that there is some change happening at the board level as well.                                 Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Samantha, I know our viewers out there are going to enjoy reading your book, *Geek Girl Rising*. And for our viewers who are women, minority, and allies, is there anything else you would like to share with them in terms of resources?   Samantha: Yeah. I would love to see everybody come to our website. We have a gazillion resources on how you can join the digital revolution, just take a peek.   Poornima: Thanks for tuning in today and special thanks to our sponsor, Pivotal Tracker, for their help in producing this episode of *Femgineer TV*. If you've enjoyed this episode, then please be sure to share it with your friends, your teammates, your boss, and everyone so that they get to benefit from all the great resources, and subscribe to our channel to receive the next episode.                                Ciao for now! -- FemgineerTV is produced as a partnership between Femgineer and Pivotal Tracker. San Francisco video production by StartMotionMEDIA.

Joanne Wilson aka Gotham Gal is an angel investor, blogger, and podcaster. After starting her career in women's fashion retail, Joanne transitioned into the web and tech industry to eventually become an angel investor. Joanne has invested in over 100 companies and more than 70% of companies in her portfolio are founded or led by women. Joanne and I talk about her journey and career, lessons learned along the way, and how it's been like to start her own podcast. https://gothamgal.com https://soundcloud.com/positivelygothamgal https://twitter.com/thegothamgal For more, visit http://rolemodels.co/podcast Sign up for news & updates about Role Models: http://eepurl.com/cLX_PD Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rolemodels

This week we're turning the tables and putting our very own Gotham Gal in the hot seat. Prolific angel investor, blogger, and founder of the Women's Entrepreneur Festival, Joanne Wilson, talks about the path that led her to becoming the investor she is today, what informs her passion for investing in women entrepreneurs -- and gives us some insights into her 'take bs from no one' attitude. Music edited from 'Something Elated' by Broke For Free. freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_Fo…mething_Elated From the Free Music Archive. CC Attribution 3.0 Produced by Rachel James. Positively Gotham Gal is proud to be made in NYC.

Joanne Wilson a prominent angel investor in New York City. Joanne has had several careers on her way as an investor. She started as a buyer at Macy’s, went on to run a company in the rag trade, and eventually ended up spearheading sales for a start-up magazine/events company called Silicon Alley Reporter. She has sat on a number of profit and non-profit boards and has been involved with a variety of big real estate transactions from beginning to end. Joanne has been blogging since 1994 under the name Gotham Gal and has been involved with the start-up community as an angel investor and adviser ever since.   Many of the companies she works with are owned or started by women. Companies like Food52, Dailyworth, The Sweeten, Windowfarms, Scoot, Blue Bottle Coffee, Lover.ly, littleBits, Nest.io, Le Tote, Curbed (Eater/Racked) as well as Ricks Picks, several restaurants and The Moon Group. She is the Chairperson of Hot Bread Kitchen and sits on the board of the Highline.   Lets listen into Joanne Wilson interviewed in NYC by director Peter Crysdale

As one of the more active angel investors you will ever meet, Joanne Wilson – aka “The Gotham Gal” – has invested in more than 90 early-stage companies – and you can see what most of them are right on her website. We discuss her investing thesis, current and future trends (including cannabis as an investing opportunity), and the future of agriculture. And we were just getting started. Enjoy!

When angel investor Joanne Wilson was recently asked "how do female entrepreneurs find you", she replied "i don’t know, they find me; i guess i’m kinda out there." Joanne’s larger-than-life reputation precedes her... for going to bat for her female founders, and for speaking the truth even if it comes at the expense of her own pocketbook. Joanne took up angel investing with a vengeance as a second career and as a way of giving back and empowering the next generation of female founders. Joanne has made over 60 angel investments in women-led startups and regularly writes about her experience on Gotham Gal, a blog that she’s been writing for over a decade. Today, we have a chance to get inside the mind of an experienced angel investor and hear some inside baseball from Joanne, including what she and Warren Buffett have in common. Entrepreneurs listen up: she will share cautionary tales about the importance of knowing your deal terms and why she *hates* seeing an exit slide in a pitch deck! You will learn all about “the good, the bad, and the ugly” from Joanne Wilson, the ‘no BS’ angel investor. Notes Gotham Gal Joanne Wilson is an angel investor — and 'chick magnet' by Mary Johnson, The Business Journals The Retrade by FeldThoughts A Fighting Chance by Elizabeth Warren Why I Stopped Angel Investing (And You Should Never Start) by Tucker Max, Observer How to become an angel investor by Sophia Epstein, Wired UK How To Become An Angel Investor by Dorie Clark, Forbes Husband, father….but not wife, mother. by Joanne Wilson, Gotham Gal Sticking to your plan by Joanne Wilson, Gotham Gal Guest bios & transcripts are available on www.broadmic.com.