Podcast appearances and mentions of Jesse Draper

Originally aired 2021 For Money Rehab's 200th episode, Nicole discusses all things Venture Capital with Jesse Draper. If you want to figure out how to invest in companies that have a promising future, Jesse's your gal! Or, if just hearing “Venture Capital” typically makes your eyes glaze over, Jesse will put the “fun” in Venture Capital Funds.

Sophia Amoruso is the founder and managing partner of Trust Fund, an early-stage venture fund focused exclusively (yet broadly) on investing in tech-enabled products that help people start and build businesses. Trust fund's investors include Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, David Sacks, Jason Calacanis, Ev Williams, Naomi Gleit, Andrew Chen, Jeff Jordan, Jesse Draper, Rob Hayes, and Phil Hellmuth. Some of their portfolios include Public, Liquid Death, and MoonPay, among others. She is also the founder of Nasty Gal, Girlboss and a New York Times Bestselling author.    You can learn more about:  How to Brand Your Business How to Invest in Top Startups Lessons from Being an Entrepreneur to Venture Capitalist ===================== YouTube: @GraceGongCEO Newsletter: @SmartVenture LinkedIn: @GraceGong TikTok: @GraceGongCEO IG: @GraceGongCEO Twitter: @GraceGongGG ===================== Join the SVP fam with your host Grace Gong. In each episode, we are going to have conversations with some of the top investors, superstar founders, as well as well-known tech executives in silicon valley. We will have a coffee chat with them to learn their ways of thinking and actionable tips on how to build or invest in a successful company.

00:00 Introduction and Background02:46 Family History and Career Path04:13 Challenges in the Venture Capital Industry08:29 Investment Criteria10:03 Characteristics of Successful Founders11:28 Assessing Character in Founders12:55 Deal Breakers in Investing15:37 Adapting and Pivoting in Business17:00 Challenges for Women in Entrepreneurship18:22 The Need for Diversity in Venture Capital21:25 The Role of Recruiters in Diversity and Inclusion22:24 Mission and Focus of Halogen Ventures24:23 Work-Life Harmony and Family Tech26:03 The Challenges of Work-Life Integration27:33 The Future of Family Tech29:26 Opportunities for Disruption in Industries31:57 Addressing Social Issues through Entrepreneurship33:40 The Importance of Allies and Support34:53 How Men Can Be Allies to Women35:39 The Greatest Advice from Jesse's Grandfather37:25 Overcoming Challenges and Finding Gratitude38:53 Jesse Draper's North Star39:18 Closing Remarks

Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investing in consumer tech companies led by female and co-ed teams.With women making up to 80 percent of household purchasing decisions, Jesse and her team are betting big on early-stage, female-founded companies with billion-dollar potential. Jesse is a fourth generation venture capitalist as well as the creator and host of the Emmy-nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show.She is a fierce advocate for investing in women and the opportunity for using technology and innovation to solve some of the biggest issues facing women and families today. After creating Halogen Ventures in 2015, she now has more than 70 companies in her portfolio, including theSkimm, Babylist, ThirdLove, and The Flex Company.Jesse was listed by Marie Claire Magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America' and she is also a regular investor and tech personality on Cheddar, CNBC, and CNN.In this episode, we have a candid conversation about why Jesse didn't think she could be a venture capitalist and how she overcame her own fears and beliefs about imposter syndrome, and she shares her advice for anyone looking to manage burnout: delegate and make time for rest. We also get a behind-the-scenes look at what investors are looking for, from founder traits to the biggest mistakes that founders make, and so much more.In this episode, we'll talk to Jesse about:* Starting on the topic of rejection; why a ‘no' isn't necessarily a bad thing. [3:40]* How Jesse's upbringing shaped her as a fourth generation venture capitalist. [7:52]* Her perception of success in her 20s and how it evolved with entrepreneurship. [12:33]* Find out why Jesse believes more women should prioritize networking. [20:04]* Overcoming her fears and beliefs about imposter syndrome; just try it! [24:27]* Jesse's advice for managing burnout: delegate and make time to rest and plan. [28:30]* Learn more about her experience of fundraising while pregnant and during COVID. [35:50]* Three mistakes women are making when raising money: not showing confidence, overcomplicating the pitch, and underselling themselves. [38:30]* What investors look for, from a willingness to pivot to an ability to problem solve. [41:33]* Some of the red flags Jesse cautions founders against, including the tendency to overpromise and underdeliver. [45:50]* Jesse's suggestions for women to feel more empowered when it comes to money. [50:10]* Two simple ways to take control: do it yourself and put your money to work. [53:47]This episode is brought to you by beeya: * Learn more about beeya's seed cycling bundle at https://beeyawellness.com/free to find out how to tackle hormonal imbalances. * Get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIRE10Follow Yasmin: * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/* Stay updated & subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.behindherempire.com/Follow Jesse: * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessecdraper/ * Halogen Ventures Website: https://halogenvc.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Ep. 97 of Earned, Conor sits down with Jesse Draper: actor, fourth-generation venture capitalist, and founding partner of early-stage, female-focused VC firm Halogen Ventures. To start the show, we learn why Jesse pursued Hollywood stardom, with notable acting credits including Nickelodeon's hit TV show “The Naked Brothers Band,” before jumping into the investing business. Jesse shares the inspiration behind her Emmy-nominated tech talk show “The Valley Girl Show,” and how her success empowered her to effect change in the male-dominated tech industry by finding—and funding—successful female-founded businesses. We dive into Jesse's now-viral (and bad-ass) 2020 Medium article, “Investing In Women Isn't A Fucking Charity,” and she unpacks the data around why female investors and entrepreneurs tend to outperform their male counterparts. Next, we hear Jesse's investment philosophies, and the characteristics she looks for in her founders, before getting her take on the creator economy—how she and her portfolio participate in it, and where she sees it going next. To wrap the episode, Jesse reveals the investments she's most excited about, and the businesses we should look out for.In this episode, you will learn:Why investing in women-led businesses is a profitable opportunity with superior returns and efficiency—not charityThe qualities Jesse looks for in the founders she invests inJesse's take on the future of the creator economy Resources:Halogen VenturesConnect with the Guest(s):Jesse Draper's LinkedInConnect with Conor Begley & CreatorIQ:Conor's LinkedIn - @conormbegleyCreatorIQ LinkedIn - @creatoriqFollow us on social:CreatorIQ YouTube - @TribeDynamicsCreatorIQ Instagram - @creatoriqCreatorIQ TikTok - @creator.iqCreatorIQ Twitter - @CreatorIQ

This week on The Hamilton Review Podcast, we are very happy to welcome Jesse Draper to the show! Jesse Draper is a mother of 3 boys and founding partner of Halogen Ventures focused on early stage investing in consumer technology companies led by female and co-ed teams.  In this episode, Dr. Bob and Jesse discuss how she got into the venture capital industry and founded her company. They also discuss the types of women led companies that she focuses on, and much more. You won't want to miss this dynamic conversation!  Jesse Draper is a mother of 3 boys and founding partner of Halogen Ventures focused on early stage investing in consumer technology companies led by female and co-ed teams. Draper, the first solo female GP in Los Angeles is also a 4th generation venture capitalist, the creator and host of Emmy nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show, and host of the MOMumental Podcast. She is a fierce advocate for investing in women and the opportunity for using technology and innovation to solve some of the biggest issues facing women and families today. Among her 70+ portfolio companies, are the Skimm, Babylist, ThirdLove, HopSkipDrive, The Flex Company, Squad (acquired by Twitter), Eloquii (sold to Walmart) and This is L (sold to P&G). Selected as one of the top 10 early stage female investors by Business Insider, Draper was also listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America', nominated by the NRF as a DealMakeHers, Variety's Holly's New Leaders, and Refinery29 30 Rising Stars.” Draper has been a contributor to Marie Claire, Forbes, and is a regular investor and tech personality showcased on Cheddar, CNBC, CNN. Following Jesse's viral Medium piece, Investing in Women Isn't a Fucking Charity, she's become a leading voice of women in technology. She proudly sits on the board of directors of Trust & Will, Carbon38, Preemadonna (creator of the Nailbot) and the non-profit board Bizworld and Project Glimmer. Draper supports the Parkinson's Institute and is very involved with growing UCLA's female entrepreneurship community. She and her team also created the ‘Halogen Fellowship in Venture Capital' to increase diversity and inclusion in the industry. How to contact Jesse Draper: Jesse Draper Instagram Halogen Ventures Instagram How to contact Dr. Bob: Dr. Bob on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChztMVtPCLJkiXvv7H5tpDQ Dr. Bob on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drroberthamilton/ Dr. Bob on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bob.hamilton

Ashley Balla is a Partner at Halogen Ventures where she co-leads across operations and investments. Since 2017, Balla has played a key role on the Halogen team, working alongside Founding Partner, Jesse Draper to invest in the next generation of billion dollar consumer technology startups founded by women. She met Jesse Draper, Halogen Ventures founder and the rest is history. With a special focus on fintech, future of shopping and Gen Z, she has a passion for sourcing and working with extraordinary entrepreneurs and teams who are innovating and building technology companies that will fundamentally transform the way we live, learn, work, connect, and communicate for generations to come. Follow Alexa here!

Jesse Draper, Founding Partner of Halogen VC, discusses investing in women-led and focused businesses. Hosts: Carol Massar and Matt Miller. Producer: Paul Brennan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jesse Draper, Founding Partner of Halogen VC, discusses investing in women-led and focused businesses. Hosts: Carol Massar and Matt Miller. Producer: Paul Brennan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jesse Draper is one of the 50 most connected women in America, and a true trailblazer.    Jesse is not only a highly successful venture capitalist, but is also a dedicated mother of three. As the founder of Halogen Ventures, a female focused venture fund, she has built an impressive portfolio of over 70 companies, focusing on accelerating access to capital and deal flow while championing the empowerment of female investors and female entrepreneurs.   In this week's episode, Jesse shares her inspiring journey, exploring the challenges she faced while entering the venture capital space and running a successful operation. She also addresses the need for more women managing capital and offers advice on fostering a more equitable and diverse landscape.   You'll also hear Jesse's take on the unique struggles faced by working mothers, the constant juggle between professional demands and family life, and her passion towards transforming the realm of child care.   Join Jesse and Amy Jo as they unpack the state of the union with women in investing and funding, and discover actionable steps you can take to shift the dynamic.    Learn more about Jesse and Halogen Ventures here: https://halogenvc.com/team   For more info and to join Renegade, head to renegade.global.   Follow Renegade Global on Instagram Get Amy Jo's newsletter.   Follow Amy Jo:  Instagram Twitter Facebook Why Not Now? Instagram Buy Amy Jo's Book  

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In this episode, Liz talks to venture capitalist and mom of three boys, Jesse Draper, who is on a mission to invest in female-founded consumer technology companies. Jesse started her fund Halogen Venture in 2016 and has since become a leading voice for women in business. Jesse also hosts the podcast Monumental where she explores the world of childcare, foster care, and parenting. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investing in consumer tech companies led by female and co-ed teams.With women making up to 80 percent of household purchasing decisions, Jesse and her team are betting big on early-stage, female-founded companies with billion-dollar potential. Jesse is a fourth generation venture capitalist as well as the creator and host of the Emmy-nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show.She is a fierce advocate for investing in women and the opportunity for using technology and innovation to solve some of the biggest issues facing women and families today. After creating Halogen Ventures in 2015, she now has more than 70 companies in her portfolio, including theSkimm, Babylist, ThirdLove, and The Flex Company.Jesse was listed by Marie Claire Magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America' and she is also a regular investor and tech personality on Cheddar, CNBC, and CNN.In this episode, we have a candid conversation about why Jesse didn't think she could be a venture capitalist and how she overcame her own fears and beliefs about imposter syndrome, and she shares her advice for anyone looking to manage burnout: delegate and make time for rest. We also get a behind-the-scenes look at what investors are looking for, from founder traits to the biggest mistakes that founders make, and so much more.In this episode, we talk to Jesse about:* Starting on the topic of rejection; why a ‘no' isn't necessarily a bad thing. [3:37]* How Jesse's upbringing shaped her as a fourth generation venture capitalist. [8:02]* Her perception of success in her 20s and how it evolved with entrepreneurship. [14:45]* Find out why Jesse believes more women should prioritize networking. [22:15]* Overcoming her fears and beliefs about imposter syndrome; just try it! [26:48]* Jesse's advice for managing burnout: delegate and make time to rest and plan. [30:37]* Learn more about her experience of fundraising while pregnant and during COVID. [37:34]* Three mistakes women are making when raising money: not showing confidence, overcomplicating the pitch, and underselling themselves. [40:43]* What investors look for, from a willingness to pivot to an ability to problem solve. [43:47]* Some of the red flags Jesse cautions founders against, including the tendency to overpromise and underdeliver. [48:04]* Jesse's suggestions for women to feel more empowered when it comes to money. [52:23]* Two simple ways to take control: do it yourself and put your money to work. [55:34]This episode is brought to you by beeya: * Learn more about beeya's seed cycling bundle at https://beeyawellness.com/free to find out how to tackle hormonal imbalances. * Get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIRE10Follow Jesse:* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessecdraper/ * Website: https://halogenvc.com/ Follow Yasmin:* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/* Stay updated & subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.behindherempire.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jesse Draper is the founder of Halogen, a female founder focused venture capital firm investing in consumer-tech products. Their team is based in Los Angeles.

Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on women-founded consumer technologies. A 4th generation venture capitalist, Jesse is an advocate for investing in innovation that solves some of the biggest issues facing women and families today. A leading voice of women in technology, Jesse was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the 50 Most Connected Women in America and was nominated by the NRF as a DealMakeHer. In addition to their work at Halogen Ventures, Jesse and her team created the Halogen Fellowship in Venture Capital to increase diversity and inclusion in the industry. Jesse joins us today to discuss her experiences with simultaneously navigating an acting career and a budding interest in the tech industry. She describes the thought process and lessons she learned from building The Valley Girl Show. She reveals the best way to get the attention of a VC. Jesse also highlights the flaws of traditional funding and capital access and underscores the role of women- and minority-led funds in changing the system. “Access to capital is an old, broken part of the system that started in slave-holding days and it's a real problem. Women and minority-led funds are going to change it.” - Jesse Draper If you're looking to take your business to the next level, join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can't wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey! This week's takeaways from Entreprenista: Growing up in a family of entrepreneursJesse's experience working in the entertainment industry and her journey to starting a venture capital fundCreating The Valley Girl Show and the challenges Jesse faced in the mediaEfficiently qualifying an investor for your fundHow much capital Jesse was able to raise for her first fundHow she decides which companies to invest inHow her thought process as an angel investor changed over timeWhy women need to start funds and help other women entrepreneursThe best ways to reach out to angel investors and venture capitalistsInfluencer marketing and finding creative ways to help women get fundingJesse's tips for time management and balancing business and family Resources Mentioned: IFundWomenAffinity CRM Our Favorite Quotes: “You want to ensure that any fund manager you're talking to thinks 20 years into the future.” - Jesse Draper“As an investor, I love it when entrepreneurs are ruthless and won't give up when trying to find me.” - Jesse Draper“Don't take an investment check from anyone until you have a plan on how to make it back.” - Jesse Draper Connect with Jesse Draper: HalogenHalogen on LinkedInHalogen on InstagramHalogen on FacebookHalogen on TwitterJesse Draper on LinkedInJesse Draper on InstagramJesse Draper on TwitterJesse Draper on YouTube If you're looking to take your business to the next level: Join our Entreprenista League community of women founders! You'll have access to a private community of like-minded Entreprenistas who are making an impact in business every day, special discounts on business products and solutions, exclusive content, private events, and the opportunity to have your story featured on our website and social channels, and MORE! Whether you're looking to scale your existing business and want to make the right connections, or you're thinking about finally taking the leap to launch your business, we're here to give you access to a community of women who will celebrate your every step, and with whom you can share the candid reality of building a business from scratch.

Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on women-founded consumer technologies. A 4th generation venture capitalist, Jesse is an advocate for investing in innovation that solves some of the biggest issues facing women and families today. A leading voice of women in technology, Jesse was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the 50 Most Connected Women in America and was nominated by the NRF as a DealMakeHer. In addition to their work at Halogen Ventures, Jesse and her team created the Halogen Fellowship in Venture Capital to increase diversity and inclusion in the industry. Jesse joins us today to discuss her experiences with simultaneously navigating an acting career and a budding interest in the tech industry. She describes the thought process and lessons she learned from building The Valley Girl Show. She reveals the best way to get the attention of a VC. Jesse also highlights the flaws of traditional funding and capital access and underscores the role of women- and minority-led funds in changing the system. “Access to capital is an old, broken part of the system that started in slave-holding days and it's a real problem. Women and minority-led funds are going to change it.” - Jesse Draper If you're looking to take your business to the next level, join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can't wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey! This week's takeaways from Entreprenista: Growing up in a family of entrepreneursJesse's experience working in the entertainment industry and her journey to starting a venture capital fundCreating The Valley Girl Show and the challenges Jesse faced in the mediaEfficiently qualifying an investor for your fundHow much capital Jesse was able to raise for her first fundHow she decides which companies to invest inHow her thought process as an angel investor changed over timeWhy women need to start funds and help other women entrepreneursThe best ways to reach out to angel investors and venture capitalistsInfluencer marketing and finding creative ways to help women get fundingJesse's tips for time management and balancing business and family Resources Mentioned: IFundWomenAffinity CRM Our Favorite Quotes: “You want to ensure that any fund manager you're talking to thinks 20 years into the future.” - Jesse Draper“As an investor, I love it when entrepreneurs are ruthless and won't give up when trying to find me.” - Jesse Draper“Don't take an investment check from anyone until you have a plan on how to make it back.” - Jesse Draper Connect with Jesse Draper: HalogenHalogen on LinkedInHalogen on InstagramHalogen on FacebookHalogen on TwitterJesse Draper on LinkedInJesse Draper on InstagramJesse Draper on TwitterJesse Draper on YouTube If you're looking to take your business to the next level: Join our Entreprenista League community of women founders! You'll have access to a private community of like-minded Entreprenistas who are making an impact in business every day, special discounts on business products and solutions, exclusive content, private events, and the opportunity to have your story featured on our website and social channels, and MORE! Whether you're looking to scale your existing business and want to make the right connections, or you're thinking about finally taking the leap to launch your business, we're here to give you access to a community of women who will celebrate your every step, and with whom you can share the candid reality of building a business from scratch. Join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can't wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey! Improve Your Customer Support with TextExpander Every minute counts when running a business. That's why we are so excited to introduce you to an amazing, time-saving customer support solution - TextExpander!

On this week's episode of M&A Masters, we speak with Jennifer Mandelbaum, Senior Investment Director at Halogen Ventures. Halogen Ventures is a California-based Venture Capital fund focused on investing in early stage consumer technology startups with a female on the founding team.Female led businesses represent a massive opportunity. They deliver higher ROI and deliver higher payouts on exits, but they are still having issues raising money. Halogen Ventures, led by Jesse Draper, is ready to change that by investing in companies creating technologies that are changing lives in the consumer space. Jennifer walks us through:  The key things that separate Halogen from all the other businesses out there, plus their hands-on strategy that supports the whole of every business they work with The 3 word marketing strategy Halogen uses to help women portray the unique gifts they bring to the table How they are jumping into women founded companies that support the changing way families live, work, and shop today The trends she sees coming for the rest of 2022 and beyond And more

Aly Madhavji of Loyal VC, Andy Tang of Draper Dragon, Matthew Friedel of Milwaukee Venture Partners, Jesse Draper of Halogen Ventures, Neha Mehta of FemTech Partners and Kendra Ragatz of Acrew Capital discussed Investing in Sustainability, Inclusivity, and Diversity. 

Jesse Draper is a mother of 3 boys and founding partner of Halogen Ventures focused on early stage investing in consumer technology companies led by female and co-ed teams. Draper, the first solo female GP in Los Angeles is also a 4th generation venture capitalist. She is a fierce advocate for investing in women and the opportunity for using technology and innovation to solve some of the biggest issues facing women and families today. Jesse's original career was actress—first on a Nickelodeon show before adding several other projects to her resume. After a bad casting experience, she decided not to continue in the industry. Then, from her parents' garage, Jesse launched the Emmy nominated series, The Valley Girl Show where she interviewed industry powerhouses like Sheryl Sandberg and Elon Musk.She launched Halogen Ventures to help founders build their networks, get brand exposure, hire great talent, raise follow-on rounds and find their path to acquisition or IPO. In this episode, you will hear:The defining moment that changed Jesse's career trajectoryHow one simple business idea helped Jesse build an amazing and powerful networkJesse's best tips for pitching potential investorsConnect with your host on Instagram at @shauna.armitage and listen to more Startup Renegade stories at www.startuprenegades.com

The Lesson: Investing in people is investing in the future. Putting money behind women-led companies can lead to great financial returns, and even better social ones. Better still, investing in early-stage companies led by minorities or women builds a power base where before there wasn't one. Notable Excerpt: "I'm really proud also, [that] we picked our bucket and we said women. And because we said women, instead of this traditional Silicon Valley road where these kids come from Harvard or Stanford, we started getting companies from all across the country, all different backgrounds. We have 50% minority-led companies, and we look at age, race, and gender in terms of every founding team, and when you invest in those early stages, that's when you can make the change." The Guest: Jesse Draper is a mother of three and General Partner of Halogen Ventures, a financial management company that allows investors to grow their financial, cultural, and spiritual capital by backing funds which diversify along lines of gender, race, and age. Their portfolio consists of 70 companies with an emphasis on female leadership and consumer technologies, and have seen strong returns over short periods. Episode Resources: Halogen Ventures | Instagram Jesse Draper | Instagram Jesse Draper | Twitter Jesse Draper | LinkedIn

For Money Rehab's 200th episode, Nicole discusses all things Venture Capital with Jesse Draper. If you want to figure out how to invest in companies that have a promising future, Jesse's your gal! Or, if just hearing “Venture Capital” typically makes your eyes glaze over, Jesse will put the “fun” in Venture Capital Funds. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on early-stage investing in consumer tech companies led by female and co-ed teams.With women making up to 80 percent of household purchasing decisions, Jesse and her team are betting big on early-stage, female-founded companies with billion-dollar potential. Jesse is a fourth generation venture capitalist as well as the creator and host of the Emmy-nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show.She is a fierce advocate for investing in women and the opportunity for using technology and innovation to solve some of the biggest issues facing women and families today. After creating Halogen Ventures in 2015, she now has more than 70 companies in her portfolio, including theSkimm, Babylist, ThirdLove, and The Flex Company.Jesse was listed by Marie Claire Magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America' and she is also a regular investor and tech personality on Cheddar, CNBC, and CNN.In this episode, we have a candid conversation about why Jesse didn't think she could be a venture capitalist and how she overcame her own fears and beliefs about imposter syndrome, and she shares her advice for anyone looking to manage burnout: delegate and make time for rest. We also get a behind-the-scenes look at what investors are looking for, from founder traits to the biggest mistakes that founders make, and so much more.In this episode, we talk to Jesse about:* Starting on the topic of rejection; why a ‘no' isn't necessarily a bad thing. [3:10]* How Jesse's upbringing shaped her as a fourth generation venture capitalist. [7:35]* Her perception of success in her 20s and how it evolved with entrepreneurship. [14:18]* Find out why Jesse believes more women should prioritize networking. [21:48]* Overcoming her fears and beliefs about imposter syndrome; just try it! [26:21]* Jesse's advice for managing burnout: delegate and make time to rest and plan. [30:10]* Learn more about her experience of fundraising while pregnant and during COVID. [37:07]* Three mistakes women are making when raising money: not showing confidence, overcomplicating the pitch, and underselling themselves. [40:16]* What investors look for, from a willingness to pivot to an ability to problem solve. [43:20]* Some of the red flags Jesse cautions founders against, including the tendency to overpromise and underdeliver. [47:37]* Jesse's suggestions for women to feel more empowered when it comes to money. [51:56]* Two simple ways to take control: do it yourself and put your money to work. [55:17]This episode is brought to you by beeya: * Learn more about beeya's seed cycling bundle at https://beeyawellness.com/free to find out how to tackle hormonal imbalances. * Get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIREFollow Jesse:* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessecdraper/ * Website: https://halogenvc.com/ Follow Yasmin:* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/* Stay updated & subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.behindherempire.com/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this exciting episode, our very special guest is the amazing Jesse Draper. Jesse Draper is a founding partner of Halogen Ventures and focused on early stage investing in consumer technology companies led by female and co-ed teams. In this episode we discussed investing in women and the $3 Trillion business opportunity, that investing in women represents. Jesse Draper is a 4th generation venture capitalist as well as the creator and host of Emmy nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show. She is a fierce advocate for investing in women and the opportunity for using technology and innovation to solve some of the biggest issues facing women and families today. Among her 70+ portfolio companies, are the Skimm, Babylist, ThirdLove, HopSkipDrive, The Flex Company, Squad (acquired by Twitter), Eloquii (sold to Walmart) and This is L (sold to P&G). Selected as one of the top 10 early-stage female investors by Business Insider, Draper was also listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America', nominated by the NRF as a DealMakeHers, Variety's Holly's New Leaders, and Refinery29 30 Rising Stars.” Draper has been a contributor to Marie Claire, Forbes, and is a regular investor and tech personality showcased on Cheddar, CNBC, CNN. Following Jesse's viral Medium piece, Investing in Women Isn't a Charity, she's become a leading voice of women in technology. Jesse proudly sits on the board of directors of Trust & Will, Carbon38, Preemadonna (creator of the Nailbot) and the non-profit board Bizworld and Project Glimmer. Draper supports the Parkinson's Institute and is very involved with growing UCLA's female entrepreneurship community. We discussed the importance of entrepreneurs knowing their personal financial identities, based on the Personal Financial Identities Quiz. Listen in to this exciting episode of the Holistic Wealth Podcast with special guest, Jesse Draper. Resources Used In This Episode: Holistic Wealth Expanded and Updated: 36 Life Lessons To Help You Recover From Disruption, Find Your Life Purpose and Achieve Financial Freedom. The Personal Financial Identities Framework & Quiz by Keisha Blair. What You'll Learn in This Episode: Jesse's amazing journey from actress & Star of the Emmy nominated TV Series, The Valley Girl TV Show to venture capitalist and how she amassed a portfolio of 70+ companies and growing. Jesse's viral article and how investing in women represents a $3 trillion dollar business opportunity. Jesse's thoughts on female entrepreneurs, especially women of colour, the barriers they face and how they can overcome these barriers to secure funding. Learn how entrepreneurs can secure more venture capital, balance growth and profitability, and scale their businesses. Learn how female entrepreneurs can gain the trust of venture capitalists, especially women of colour who are routinely overlooked for venture capital funding. Learn some tips and strategies to deal with your personal finances, and why it's important for entrepreneurs to know their personal financial identities. Jesse's personal financial identity (based on Keisha Blair's Personal Financial Identities Framework). --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/keisha-blair/support

Jesse Draper Investing In Women Isn't a Charity. It's a $3 Trillion Business Opportunity with Jesse Draper, Founding Partner, Halogen Ventures. In this exciting episode, our very special guest is the amazing Jesse Draper. Jesse Draper is a founding partner of Halogen... The post Investing In Women Isn't a Charity. It's a $3 Trillion Business Opportunity with Jesse Draper, Founding Partner, Halogen Ventures. appeared first on .

Vivoo Kurucu Ortağı ve CEO'su Miray Tayfun'la çok eğlendiğimiz ve öğrendiğimiz bir bölüm çektik.

Produced by Foundersuite (www.foundersuite.com), "How I Raised It" goes behind the scenes with startup founders and investors who have raised capital. This episode is with Jesse Draper of Halogen Ventures, a VC fund that invests in startups led by women. In this episode, Jesse talks about how she leveraged her Valley Girl Show and blog to build her network, how she pitched 500 investors to close 50, tips for first time VC fund managers, advice for courting fund-of-funds and RIAs, what types of startups she is looking to invest in, and much more. Halogen Ventures has raised over $50 million across multiple funds. Jesse Draper is a 4th generation venture capitalist and one of Marie Claire's ‘Most networked women in America'. Draper has invested in over 60 early stage deals including The Skimm (with GV), Glamsquad (with SoftBank), Hopskipdrive (with Greycroft), ThisisL. (acquired by P&G), and Eloquii (acquired by Walmart). How I Raised It is produced by Foundersuite, makers of software to raise capital and manage investor relations. Foundersuite's customers have raised over $3 Billion since 2016. Create a free account at www.foundersuite.com.

Natalie and Siobahn had a lovely chat with the iconic Jesse Draper- founder of Halogen Ventures, host of The Valley Girl Show, and well-known for her role as Jesse Cook in The Naked Brothers Band! Follow us on Instagram! @nbb_recaps --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/nbbrecaps/support

Want to invest your money but don't know where to start? Meet Jesse Draper. Jesse is a 4th generation Venture Capitalist who founded Halogen Ventures, a company that invests in female-founded companies. In this week's episode, she's sharing the ins and out's of the stock market, why investing in real estate is always stable & everything you need to know about cryptocurrency. We discuss why women are so scared to talk about money and everything a woman needs in a prenup.   You can find Jesse @jessecdraper and at halogenvc.com   For products mentioned in this episode, head to https://www.mollysims.com/blog/category/lipstick-on-the-rim/     Right now, Sakara is offering our listeners 20% off their first order when they go to Sakara.com/LIPSTICK or enter code LIPSTICK at checkout.   Experience your new favorite clean skincare line with a special discount just for our listeners. Get 10% off your first order with promo code LIPSTICK at OSEAmalibu.com.   Get your own Infrared Sauna Blanket or Infrared PEMF Mat today at HigherDOSE.com. You can use promo code: LIPSTICK75 at checkout to save $75. Or just go to HigherDose.com/lipstick to get your $75 off today.     Produced by Dear Media. 

Jesse Draper is a mother of 2 boys, founding partner of Halogen Ventures as well as creator and host of Emmy nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show. Jesse is a 4th generation venture capitalist focused on early stage investing in consumer technology companies led by female and co-ed teams. Among her 55 portfolio companies are the Skimm, Glamsquad, Carbon38, HopSkipDrive, The Flex Company, Eloquii (recently sold to Walmart) and This is L (sold to P&G). She stars on SET's television series Meet the Draper's, currently in it's second season. Jesse was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America’. She has been a contributor to Marie Claire, Mashable, Forbes, and is a regular investor and tech personality on shows including TLC’s Girl Starter, The Katie Couric Show, Fox’s Good Day LA, CNBC’s Who Wants to Be the Next Millionaire Inventor? & Freeform’s Startup U. She proudly sits on the board of directors of Blue Fever, Carbon38, Preemadonna (creator of the Nailbot) and the non-profit board Bizworld and Project Glimmer. Jesse supports the Parkinson’s Institute and is very involved with growing UCLA’s female entrepreneurship community. Some of the Topics Covered by Jesse Draper in this Episode What Halogen Ventures is doing today Jesse's unique journey from Nickelodeon actor to venture capital Jesse's tech talk show (The Valley Girl Show) and her initiative to interview 50% women in tech The imposter syndrome that comes with being a female in VC and how to overcome it How Jesse approached identifying the right LPs and raising her first fund How raising her first fund differed from her second Jesse's advice for first time fundraisers How Halogen is supporting their founders How to leverage media for consumer companies Jesse's outlook on relationship building and prioritization How Jesse and Halogen evaluate early stage founders Jesse's investment in Toucan and how she views the future of work and learning What industries Jesse recommends investing in now Sign up for The Grind, for actionable insights and stories from successful entrepreneurs delivered to your inbox once per week: https://www.justgogrind.com/newsletter/ Listen to all episodes of the Just Go Grind Podcast: https://www.justgogrind.com/podcast/ Follow Justin Gordon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/justingordon212 Follow Justin Gordon on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justingordon8/

In this episode, Jesse discusses the importance and different ways of empowering women in the business ecosystem.Guest - Jesse DraperWebsite - www.halogenvc.comInstagram - @JesseCDraperTwitter - @JesseDraper LinkedIn - Jesse DraperFollow Us!LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/coefficient-labsInstagram: www.instagram.com/demodaypodcast/Facebook: www.facebook.com/coefficientlabs/Twitter: https://twitter.com/coefficientlabsContact Information:social@coefficientlabs.com

In this week’s episode, we welcome Jesse Draper, Emmy-nominated television star turned venture capitalist who founded Halogen Ventures, an early-stage venture firm focused on investing in female entrepreneurs. You’ve seen her on TV in The Naked Brothers Band and as the host of The Valley Girl Show, interviewing tech and business entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban. As a fourth-generation venture capitalist, Jesse moved away from entertainment to build her own venture firm, Halogen Ventures, which invests entirely in female founding teams. Having recently closed her second fund, Jesse is just getting started on changing the technology ecosystem for the better. Jesse shared with Madison and Claudia the value of building a brand for yourself, her experiences on being an angel and an institutional investor, and her thoughts on the future for female founders. Let’s open the door.

Jesse Draper is back for an encore! She was on the podcast back in 2018, and she's just raised $21M to invest in the next generation of female-founded businesses. On this episode, she takes a deep dive with us! "For women, we are taught to give away money before we are taught to take risk with our money, and that’s a problem." - Jesse Draper. Learn more about this episode of She's Got Moxie at joychudacoff.com/138

Links to Use to help advocate for in a medical situation if needed and self-care treatment suggestions:https://www.healthline.com/health/musical-ear-syndrome#treatmenthttps://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1059&context=rhrcuhtHere is an outline for Episode 53 for Sound Advice: A Hearing Friendly Business Podcast featuring Teresa Barnes, RN, and Neil Bauman, Ph. D.  Both participants are hard of hearing and have been since birth.  Yet, they have successfully excelled in their chosen careers.   Here is the outline in case you want to jump ahead: Section 75.  80% of communication is based on emotions according to Dr. Neil BaumamSection 76. It's best to use the International Phonetic Alphabet for customer service as it's easier for a hard-of-hearing person with hearing loss to understand as only two of the words have similar sounds to choose between word options is easier for someone with hearing loss.  Here are some resources.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabethttps://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/full-ipa-chartber sound is from November. Even if a hard-of-hearing person hears nothing else the brain can process other words that might end with the sound ber. Section 78.  Neil Bauman has the 2nd Largest Hearing Aid collection and the first of many hearing aid technology. Like the 1st Digital Hearing AidGo to Hearing Aid Museum or Hearing Help Center and click on the museum. https://hearingaidmuseum.com/ Section 129.  Discussion about  tinnitus and solutionsSection 136.  Musical Ear Syndrome or AdopheniaSection 194.  The brain is pattern matches explains further tinnitus and musical ear syndrome. Avoid ototoxic psychiatric medications unless really needed.  It might just be the being of dementia or hearing loss. 

Here is an outline for Episode 53 for Sound Advice: A Hearing Friendly Business Podcast featuring Teresa Barnes, RN, and Neil Bauman, Ph. D.  Both participants are hard of hearing and have been since birth.  Yet, they have successfully excelled in their chosen careers.   Here is the outline in case you want to jump ahead: Section 56.   Dr. Neil explains his unusual type of hearing loss and why he loves the term hard of hearing Section 79.   How  his hearing  loss progressed with  age-related hearing loss - presbycusis Section 85.   Silent  dog whistle was an ear up for the dog, but beyond painful for young Neil - painful headacheSection 156.  Why he does not wear hearing aids all the time Section  185.  Other  hearing loss devices to implement in restaurants,  driving with a partner, and the shotgun microphone to help in group gatherings Section 229.   What helps hearing loss in elderly Section  245.   How to detect hearing loss in babies, co-workers, students, family, and friends without an audiogram. Here is how to find Dr. Neil for future questions and articles on hearing loss on the web.https://hearinglosshelp.com/info@hearinglosshelp.com neil@hearinglosshelp.com 1-360-778-1266Here is a list of books on hearing loss by Dr. Neil Bauman:Grieving for Your Hearing LossHear! HearHelp! I am Losing My Hearing.  What Do I  Do Now? Keys to Successfully Living with Your Hearing LossPhantom Voices, Ethereal Music & Other Spooky SoundsSupersensitive to Sound? You May Have Hyperacusis. The  agony of Meniere's DiseaseWhen Hearing Loss Ambushes Your EarsOtotoxic Drugs ExposedTalking with Hard of Hearing People - Hear's How to Do It RightWanting to Reach out to Teresa Barnes, RN:  TBarnes@HearCommunication.com and 800-491-9483www.hearcommunication.comhttps://www.facebook.com/teresabarnesrnhttps://www.facebook.com/hearcommunication/https://www.linkedin.com/in/hearteresabarnesrn/https://www.instagram.com/teresabarnesrn/https://twitter.com/TeresaBarnesRNTeresa is the founder of HearCommunication, a Business Educational  Company focusing on helping businesses understand what's needed to improve customer service, productivity, revenue, retention, inclusion, ADA 2008 hearing disorder disability compliance pro-actively, and communication for greater connections.  She is the author of Sound Advice: Tune Into Listening, the online course creator  of the Hearing Awareness Academy.   To get your free  Pocket Guide for Hearing Loss Awareness click here.Pocket Guide:https://hearingawarenessacademy.mykajabi.com/a-pocket-guide-for-hearing-loss-awareness    

Here is the Free Resource  Pocket Guide for Hearing Loss Awareness: https://bit.ly/3oU0UO4Also, found on Facebook HearCommunication and HearCommunication.comhttps://www.facebook.com/hearcommunicationhttp://hearcommunication.com/https://hearingawarenessacademy.mykajabi.com/a-pocket-guide-for-hearing-loss-awarenesshttps://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/john-lennoncommonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletter-article/health-problems-cost-260-billion-lost-productivity-study-finds#:~:text=AUGUST%2031%2C%202005%20--%20Sickness,Wednesday%20by%20The%20Commonwealth%20Fund. https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2018/05/17/businesses-lose-75-billion-due-to-poor-customer-service/?sh=5606b43b16f9https://www.niceguysonbusiness.com/ 

On this episode of the Somewhat Frank Podcast, Frank Gruber (@FrankGruber) and John Guidos (@JohnGuidos) discuss their thoughts on Bitcoin, Super Bowl weekend, and the Clubhouse App (connect with them on the Clubhouse App - @FrankGruber and @JohnGuidos).  Frank and John also celebrate the following people from their networks: —Jessica Ewing on her $40M raise for Literati https://www.forbes.com/sites/maggiemcgrath/2021/01/27/an-exclusive-look-at-book-club-service-literatis-new-chapter-a-40-million-series-b/?sh=534b25416499 —Erica Minnihan and Reign Ventures and the group of funds here that were invested in by Bank of America https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210126005694/en/ —Mike Jones and Peter Pham on raising a $270M SPAC https://dot.la/science-inc-spac-2650147068.html?fbclid=IwAR1v0OvWHlwPTkknwzwGrONfv5nee6UL8aZuWQB19K306-z6d3TvlsKT0lE https://medium.com/scienceinc/introducing-science-strategic-acquisition-corp-alpha-5fc0e80c3a6a —Josh Williams is back Gowalla after 12 years and just raised funding from Spark Capital, GV, and others https://twitter.com/gowalla/status/1354836611347832836  —Sara Lawhead on the launch of the latest Jetboil stash - https://gearjunkie.com/jetboil-stash-backpacking-stove-review  —Jesse Draper on raising a $21M fund Jesse Draper of Halogen Ventures Closes $21 Million Fund to Invest in the Next Generation of Billion Dollar Businesses Run by Women | Business Wire —Arlan Hamilton and Christie Pitts at BackStage Capital hit their fundraising goal of over a $1M on Republic in 9 hours! https://twitter.com/frankgruber/status/1357437559991922692?s=21 —Sarah Cone’s venture capital firm, Social Impact Capital, exists to solve all the world's most difficult problems through the medium of venture capital and recently launched www.joincolumn.com. Frank and John also talk about the following upcoming events:  — SXSW!!! - we’re going to IT THIS YEAR FROM HOME AGAIN - haha --- to be doing some fun events during the week learn more by going to: est.us/sxsw21. The event will be March 16th - 20th (more info coming soon). Watch our fun promo video on our youtube channel: https://soty.link/ESTYouTube — NASA iTech Ignite the Night Tampa event Do you like SPACE and NASA?  We’re working with them on the NASA iTech Ignite the Night Tampa event on March 9th. Ten tech startups will fast-pitch their innovations to an audience and panel of judges - online. This high energy event connects brands and organizations to the movers and shakers of our space industry. RSVP to the NASA iTech Ignite the Night Tampa event at: https://est.us/NASAiTechTampa21. LEARN MORE HERE: https://www.established.us/nit We also want to take a moment to invite all of our listeners to get involved with our program by visiting: established.us/programs. This is the best way to get notified of the various startup opportunities that we come across while working with various partner organizations and in a number of ecosystems across the country.   The guys talk about these new books/articles:  When Two Realities Collide  —https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/business/robinhood-wall-street-gamestop.html#click=https://t.co/drsWCxpKMH Early to bed, early to seize the day —The Best Time To Go To Bed Is 8:45 Clubhouse is now valued at $1B, do you use it? —https://twitter.com/FrankGruber/status/1353821952515964929  NAVY has some wild UFO Patents —U.S. Navy Has Patents on Tech It Says Will ‘Engineer the Fabric of Reality’ https://www.vice.com/en/article/4adpv9/us-navy-has-patents-on-tech-it-says-will-engineer-the-fabric-of-reality Tesla Buys Tons of Bitcoin https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/08/tesla-buys-1-5b-in-bitcoin-may-accept-the-cryptocurrency-as-payment-in-the-future/ The guys are also watching the following shows/movies: —WandaVision on Disney+ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9140560/  As always, thank you for listening and feel free to reach out and let us know what you think at: somewhatfrank@est.us. Get updates like this in your inbox before they hit the web by subscribing to the newsletter here: https://frankgruber.me/newsletter/

Kevin Gould is the founder and CEO of Kombo Ventures. Many people say they're the bridge between Hollywood and Silicon Valley, but Kevin's the real deal. We discuss why he outsourced his script coverage as a young talent agent, when he liquidated his IRA to start angel investing, how "sliding into DMs" helped him launch 3 beauty brands with $75 million in sales, and how I misjudged Kevin when we first met.Subscribe to our newsletter. We explore the intersection of media, technology, and commerce: sign-up linkLearn more about our market research and executive advisory: RockWater websiteFollow The Come Up on Twitter: @TCUpodEmail us: tcupod@wearerockwater.com--EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:Chris Erwin:Hi. I'm Chris Erwin. Welcome to The Come Up. A podcast that interviews entrepreneurs and leaders. Kevin Gould:I did two things. One was I played credit card arbitrage. The second was I think I had forgot what I had in my Roth IRA at the time and I cleared the Roth IRA account and cleared it out, and then took that money and invested in startups. Chris Erwin:This week's episode features Kevin Gould, the founder of Kombo Ventures and three direct to consumer beauty brands. Many people say they're the bridge between Hollywood and Silicon Valley, but Kevin's the real deal. He's also acutely aware of the value of his time. As a young talent agent in LA, Kevin actually outsourced his script coverage to his friends so he could fly up to the valley and meet with tech investors and CEOs.Early success drove Kevin to launch his own digital agency, Kombo Ventures. A key player in the YouTube and influencer revolution. At the same time, Kevin also began angel investing through a $40,000 cash advance against his credit card, but in 2018, Kevin wanted to go even bigger in digital. He began sliding into the DMs of up-and-coming beauty execs and pitching new business ideas. With just six figures of startup capital, Kevin launched three beauty brands, and just 18 months later, those brands now generate 75 million in annual sales.At the end of our interview, we talk about why Head of Live will soon be the hottest role in town. Getting called out on a Facebook earnings call by Sheryl Sandberg, and how I misjudged Kevin when we first met. All right. Let's get into it. Chris Erwin:All right. Kevin, let's rewind a bit. Why don't you tell me about where you grew up? Kevin Gould:I was born in Champaign, Illinois. Both my parents went to University of Illinois. I didn't live there for very long. I don't remember any of it. I was probably a year and a half old, and then I ended up moving to Greensboro, North Carolina where I spent pretty much my whole childhood through high school there, and so really call North Carolina home. Chris Erwin:Are your parents still in North Carolina today? Kevin Gould:No. My background on my parents. My dad is a professor of sports psychology. He also had a pretty extensive private consulting practice where he worked with a lot of athletes, and then my mom's a grief counselor. My dad ran the Sports Psychology Department at UNC Greensboro, which was a public college down in North Carolina. Then, after I graduated high school, he ended up going up to Michigan to Michigan State where he leads that department there still to this day. They're up in the cold now. Chris Erwin:Okay. Got it. What was it like growing up with a sports psychologist in the household? Were you like a big sports family? Were you a big sports fan yourself? Kevin Gould:Growing up I was a huge sports family. I think North Carolina is really known for basketball, so outside of Greensboro, you had Chapel Hill, you had Raleigh, you had Wake Forest, you had in that sort of like 90 mile radius. You had Carolina, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest. I also grew up in the era of Michael Jordan and the Bulls. I was a huge Bulls fan. It was really… Looking back it was really interesting having my dad as a sports psychologist. Kevin Gould:It's one of those things when you're a kid you don't fully appreciate it, right? Chris Erwin:Yeah. Kevin Gould:It was a little bit less of like necessarily my dad directly teaching me these things, but it was me picking up just from being around him and being around all these elite athletes the importance of positive thinking and mental toughness, because the really interesting thing and why sports psychologists are in business is primarily for individual sport athletes. He worked with a lot of tennis players, downhill skiers, race car drivers. If you're a car driver and you get in a serious wreck, that's in your head man and it really is hard to get that out of your head. There's a lot of mental work and mental toughness that goes into play. Kevin Gould:I think what ended up happening was sort of learning by osmosis and just being around all that, it really, to this day, I try to have a really positive mindset. Life in business as a roller coaster, right? So, really just being able to fight through that wall and having mental toughness is one of the key takeaways for me out of that. Chris Erwin:Yeah. I played some individual sports growing up like tennis and I remember how often I would get in my own head, and then reading a book called Inner Tennis, which was the psychology of the sport and just how powerful that thinking was. It's interesting that you highlight that. Kevin Gould:100%, and so my dad wrote the textbook for pretty much it's national use for sports psychology. I don't even remember going to the university and sitting in on the college classes and have to stop, I didn't understand. I was 8, 9, 10, right? Chris Erwin:Yeah. Kevin Gould:But the other half I really I think just picked up, again, just by listening and being present and being there. It was a super interesting experience. Chris Erwin:Was your mother in a similar field? Kevin Gould:They're both in the field of helping people. My dad was in the field of education. My mom was a grief counselor and she runs a non-profit still to this day. Quick kind of back story how that came to be. I had an older sister who actually died from a really rare metabolic deficiency before I was born, so I never had a chance to meet her, but for my mom at the time she really became like a pioneer of finding out more information about these metabolic deficiencies and helping educate other parents who maybe either lost loved ones to these or had children with these deficiencies and what was interesting is… Kevin Gould:Never really talked about this before. So, I've had this deficiency my whole life. I have to take medicine every day. I'm completely fine. I honestly don't even really think about it that much, but it is something that if left untreated is super serious. My mom really dove into helping other parents, particularly parents who've lost loved ones through this certain set of metabolic disorders. I think both of them were really, really loved to help other people. Again, my dad through the education lens and my mom's through sort of the grief support and consulting lens. Chris Erwin:Look, we're going to talk a lot about the many different businesses that you founded, but I just have to ask knowing about this condition. You said that you don't think about it often, but if you do take medicine for it every day, does that also cause you to think about your mortality and each moment counts and it's why you've maybe built so fast so early in your career? Have you ever thought about that? Kevin Gould:That's an interesting perspective and take on it I think. Look, I take medicine like three to four times a day and it's so ingrained in me, because I haven't known anything different. So, if you've been doing something your entire life, I don't know anything different than that. We can get into my drive and I think what drives me. I think maybe there's subconsciously some element to that. I don't know how much it plays in, but I mean, look, I think as we get older too, you obviously think about like what's important in life, what are you doing? What's your purpose? Kevin Gould:I think that could for sure have some play in it, but it definitely I don't think was the driving force for what drives me, but I think that's a really interesting take and perspective. I think there's some element of that that probably subconsciously comes into play. Chris Erwin:Yeah. All right. Well, let's talk about some other seeds of entrepreneurship in your early life. Did you know from early on that you wanted to build companies for a living or any other examples of skill sets that you're working on to help make you the entrepreneur you are today? Kevin Gould:I knew I wanted to be entrepreneurial. I just didn't know, one, how to go about it, where to start, what to do. We grew up sort of right around when the internet was starting to come up, but there wasn't YouTube, there wasn't a lot of information and education out there and people to look up to. Again, my parents were educators so they weren't necessarily in business. Kevin Gould:Then, I just didn't really have a lot of mentors when I was younger that I could look up to in North Carolina from a business perspective, but I feel like I just naturally gravitated towards… I was that kid that was the hustler that was always trying to start a side business. I have this memory that comes to mind. I was a swimmer growing up and the South and North Carolina, the community swim club over the summer are big things, and every summer there was this organization, it's called Swim for Cancer. Kevin Gould:The whole premise of Swim for Cancer was you would go raise money in exchange for swimming laps for cancer. The contribution of the young swimmer was go around the neighborhood, raise money, and then you'd swim a certain number of laps in honor of this organization. What it did at the time was I really was thinking back, I developed a lot of my sales skills through this, because I had to, middle of the summer, it's like a 100 degrees, humid in North Carolina, and I'm going around the neighborhood and I really had to figure out what my pitch was, right? Even though it was a non-profit, I was like 8, 9, 10 years old, I'm like, "How am I going to convince these people to give me money for this non-profit?" Kevin Gould:I remember going up to the doors like, "Hey, Mrs. Johnson this is Kevin. I'm swimming for Swim for Cancer, would you like to sponsor me?" Just through that, through knocking on 200, 300 doors over the summer, I started to sort of refine my pitch based on what was working and not working. Again, I didn't think that much into it at the time when I was at 8, or 9, or 10, but it was a really great learning experience that just translated to people skills later on in life, because I had to constantly adapt to the moment and every person was different. Kevin Gould:Mrs. Johnson was different than Mr. Jones who was the hard-ass guy, I'll be like, "How am I going to convince this guy to give me money for the non-profit? He barely wants to open the door." Then, at the end of the summer, you raise all this money, you swim all the laps, they have these awards, and then this is where I kind of learned in life like, "Look, everything in life isn't fair." Because I was like, "Man, I busted my ass all summer. I raised…" I don't know, like 2000 bucks or something from everyone in the neighborhood. I was like, "Yeah. I'm going to be the number one raiser in the city." Kevin Gould:I remember they called up the awards and they're like, "Oh, in second place is Kevin Gould with 2000 bucks." I was like, "Wait. Who could beat me?" Then, this one girl got $5000 flat and it was the check from the rich grandfather. I remember thinking, I was like, "Damn." Look, good for her, but I was like life isn't fair. It was a good… That whole experience was a great learning lesson, and then just throughout life I ended up working at that community pool. Kevin Gould:First started when I was 14 at the snack bar. That was a sales role, and then I became a lifeguard. You had to have a lot of people skills as a lifeguard, so I was always sort of training and not even knowing I was training for what I was doing today through all those things when I was a kid. Chris Erwin:I loved the story about raising money for cancer through the swim marathon. I also did a similar thing where I grew up in the Jersey Shore. In addition, I was also a boy scout and we used to sell Christmas, restoring Christmas. I remember I would take my bike out and go down these different driveways, knock on a random person's door in my town and sell them on a wreath and try and get money from them. Chris Erwin:It was like in the moment you feel awkward, you don't feel any confidence, but you start to develop those reps over time and you get better at it. Then, as you get older like sales is everything. It's not about just getting money from a client, it's about raising investor capital, getting your team excited, recruiting incredible team members to help build the vision that you have, getting buy-in from your friends and family, all the above, so what cool training you had early on. Kevin Gould:Yeah. It was amazing. To your point, every situation in person is different, right? You sort of have to in life and in business, you have to be able to adapt very quickly to the person and to the situation and everyone responds differently. For me, looking back that was amazing. I think that gave me an amazing head start and I didn't even know it at what I was doing at the time. Chris Erwin:Yeah. All right. Now, let's start to fast forward a bit. You go to UNC Wilmington, while you were there, was that a meaningful point in your life? Did you learn a lot or was it just a rapid stepping stone? Kevin Gould:When I was in high school I'd say I was an average to above average student. There was a lot of things that I was disinterested in and I'd always sort of asked my parents, "What am I learning this…" I was like, "Why am I learning this? I can't apply this to my real life?" Kevin Gould:There was always a little bit of that like, "What's the point of school because I don't think this is going to help me in the future?" I think that perspective was half right half wrong. I think I was a 16, 17-year-old kid just like stuck in school and there were a lot of elements that were helpful, but also, for me, there weren't a lot of things that I felt like were helpful for what I wanted to do. Kevin Gould:Anyways, I got into a couple of schools in North Carolina. I don't think I got into Chapel. I can't even remember. I don't think I got into Chapel Hill. I didn't have… Our high school super competitive, didn't have good enough grades. Got into UNC Wilmington, which is a pretty good school. I mean for me, what was important was on the beach. I was like, "All right." Greensboro. I'm going to what I thought was the coolest place in North Carolina, which is Wilmington and Wrightsville Beach, and got down there. Kevin Gould:I spent three and a half years there. I graduated a semester early, because I got AP credits. I studied business. I think it was marketing with I think a minor in entrepreneurship and leadership studies. But, again, college I think can lay the foundation, but teaching entrepreneurship is a really hard thing to do and learning entrepreneurship through a book or a class or case studies can maybe you can learn a few things, but really entrepreneurship you just have to jump in and go. Kevin Gould:I think looking back elements of it were helpful, elements of it probably weren't necessarily helpful, but at the time there wasn't an option like there is today for an 18-year-old where if I was 18 today, for me, personally, I probably wouldn't have went to college, but there wasn't any other option back then. It was still like you better go to college and you need a college degree to get a job, and so I had to go. It wasn't really like an option not to go. Chris Erwin:Yeah. I totally agree that that is changing. It used to be, as you said, if you can afford to go to college and you get in, you go to school and that's just what you do right after you get out of high school, but nowadays there's a lot more options. I think people are more open-minded and they don't want to incur the ridiculous student debt. So, questions are, do you take a gap year? Do you travel? Do you go work somewhere full-time, and then go enroll in school with more focus or do you not go to school and maybe do a trade school or learn how to program? Chris Erwin:I think that is very empowering to our new workforce. I agree that for certain people even if you have access to college, it's just… Yeah. It doesn't make sense. Kevin Gould:What's amazing now is there's the power of choice and the power of information that wasn't necessarily there back then for everyone. I think young people have incredible opportunities now and there's still things… If you want to be a doctor, you have to go to school. Specialized things, there's no way around it, but I think for someone who wants to be into business, luckily, there's a lot more flexibility now and you've got a lot more options. Chris Erwin:Speaking of business, after UNC Wilmington you head to LA. Your first job is at talent agency WME, but you were in LA for about a year and a half or so before you started your full-time role there. What were you up to? Kevin Gould:Yeah. Actually, after I graduated, so I graduated in the winter. It was a semester early, so I didn't get out to LA for a few months after that. I had to kind of get my bearings, get everything together, and then I drove out, and then there was a little, maybe a little under a year and a half period where I honestly, man, I was right out of college, I was 21, didn't know what I wanted to do. Kevin Gould:I was in college, so I worked at… I had a bunch of odd jobs. I worked at the Student Rec Center, then I became a certified personal trainer. I thought I wanted to start my own personal training business for a while. I was like, "Okay. This is something like I could be an entrepreneur, do something at the time, which I thought I loved." Then, I moved to LA and I kind of had odd jobs for a while. Kevin Gould:I was personal training. I ended up personal training a lot of people in the entertainment business. I got a lot of referrals, some really high level working actors. Chris Erwin:How does that happen? You show up in LA, you have an East Coast network, and all of a sudden you're training people in entertainment. How does that start? Kevin Gould:I knew a couple people out in LA at the time, and I was always good at sort of connecting. I think it Myspace at the time. I was trying to just connect with people. I knew a couple people out here, and then it kind of like was anything, it was just… I think I was pretty good with people. I was great at getting referrals and kind of built like… It was a very short period of time, but a small book of business for myself. Kevin Gould:I mean, dude, I got a real estate license. I was all over the place. I was like, "I'm going to be a real estate agent to the stars. I'm going to…" I just didn't know what direction I wanted to go in, and then I sort of started reading up on the talent agencies, and then someone at the time, on the client side connected me, and so got into WME probably 15 months after I got out here. It was such an experience, man. There is nothing like going into one of the big talent agencies, and really at the time it was… It still is. It's WME and CAA, right? Kevin Gould:Going in to the mail room where you do anything that they say. It was like a crazy experience, man. I remember you get in the mail room, there's a class of 10 other people that start the same week as you, and so you kind of form this bond with those 10 people that are in the class and everyone's kind of trying to size each other up. It's super competitive, but you have to do anything that the agents say. Kevin Gould:You're not even an assistant, you're not an assistant yet, you're getting called up by an agent, and they're like, "Hey, I need you to go get me a coffee, make sure it's like seven scoops of this. Don't do six. Make sure you stir it. If it's not hot, I'm going to make you go back and get it." At the time, that's the worst job for me, because I don't even drink coffee. I'm literally trying to google like how different coffees are made. I wasn't that sophisticated. I wasn't drinking coffee at 21. Kevin Gould:You literally run errands for all these agents and you're delivering scripts to actors. You have to go deliver scripts. It was like a crazy, crazy experience, man. Chris Erwin:Yeah. When you started, you are signing up to be a yes man. People call you do whatever they need, the talent, the agents, what have you. Just within the first couple weeks, were you energized by that? Being like, "All right. I'm a yes man, but what a cool environment to work in," or was there a little bit of an itch saying, "I really want to have my own path here and this feels limiting?" What was going through your head? Kevin Gould:Yeah. There was definitely an element of, wow. The energy inside an agency is insane. Everyone's moving and shaking and there's information flow inside an agency that you don't get anywhere else, right? You sort of like get plopped into the agency and it's this hub of just information of everything that's going on in the entertainment world and you're like, "Whoa." You're seeing huge actors walk down the halls and you definitely… When you're a 22, 23-year-old, you jump in there, you're like, "Wow. This is really cool." Kevin Gould:At the same time I was already thinking, "Okay. How am I going to quickly get out of the mail room, become this and like the path to become an agent?" I was like, "I got to get out of doing this." How am I going to kind of make the jump to do something else? Chris Erwin:I think that you have mentioned that you started early work in the Digital Department and doing some of the verse like digital and influencer deals out there. What were you up to? Kevin Gould:Yeah. Slightly different though. At the time, there really wasn't that much of a Digital Department at WME. There was one person. I started on a traditional talent agent's desk. I was working with that at the time, all of the young Hollywood type… The CW actors of 10, 12 years ago, right? Those would be digital influencers now. At the time it was like the it people of young Hollywood, which is the stars of the CW or Twilight or whatever, or Glee or whatever it may be. Kevin Gould:Then, I jumped around to a couple different desks over the years, because you become an assistant, you work for an agent for a while, and then you sort of move up to different desks. I worked across the Talent Department, and then I worked across the Non-Scripted TV Department, which at the time was starting to do a lot more digital work. Then, there was literally a one-person Digital Department. I think maybe it added one more person when I was there. Kevin Gould:I wasn't in the Digital Department. I sort of started creating my own universe of what I thought was digital at the time just on my own. I think I was the worst assistant, because I was trying to figure out how do I do the least amount of work I can as an assistant and get by and do a great job for the agent, and then sort of run my side business on the side where I just started naturally gravitating towards what was going on in Silicon Valley. Kevin Gould:Every free minute I had I was reading TechCrunch. I was reading all the Silicon Valley blogs at the time about what was happening there and I started to see- Chris Erwin:This was around 2010, 2012? Kevin Gould:It's like 2011, 2012. The first year I was really just in it just learning the talent agency side of the business and I also learned the things I didn't like to do. When you're an assistant in the Talent Department, you're responsible for every couple of weeks you have to cover a script. The agencies get tons of submissions. The agents aren't going to read it, the assistants have to read it. You get assigned a script to read. I started reading these and I had to write a summary and I'm like, "This sucks, man. I don't want to read scripts and summarize a script." I actually started paying people on the side 50 bucks to do it for me because- Chris Erwin:You're arbitraging time. Kevin Gould:I was arbitraging time. I was like, "I hate doing this. It's not…" That made me really realize, I don't really want to be a traditional talent agent working with actors, because I don't like reading scripts. It's fun to watch movies, wasn't fun to watch scripts. Then, after the first year that's really when I started to get really intrigued by the digital space, and which then sort of led me to after just reading about it for a while, seeing some of these really cool companies popping up. When I'm reading TechCrunch, they raised a little bit of money, and I'm like, "Man, I feel like if they had some entertainment connections, I could be helpful to them." Kevin Gould:I just started emailing these like cold emailing from the WME email address. "Hey, this is Kevin, I work at WME. I'd love to meet with you guys. I think I could be helpful on the entertainment side." Then, on Fridays, I'd kind of fly up once or twice a month to Silicon Valley and just take meetings with these people. Chris Erwin:You're meeting with investors and CEOs, founders of companies? Kevin Gould:This was what I found interesting. I found a gap where people being young, people thought I had something of value that they didn't. I couldn't do shit for anyone in the talent agency. Like, "What am I going to do for an agent that's been there 20 years?" I didn't have a skill set that they didn't have. I would have to try to be them, right? Chris Erwin:Yeah. Kevin Gould:But I saw this gap where all of these founders and even these VC funds, they had no clue how the entertainment business worked. I was like, "Wow. I can be that bridge that sort of sits between both worlds." I really spent a year just getting to know the space, flying up, meeting with people, building the Rolodex, plugging them into relationships and not even asking for anything just to sort of build some relationships. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Do you remember some of these companies? Who are some of your first Silicon Valley clients? Kevin Gould:Well, maybe I'll cut to kind of how it officially kind of came to be, because before it was… I remember at the time I was sort of signing clients on the side. She's a really good friend of mine, Jesse Draper. Do you know Jesse? She runs a VC fund down in LA. Chris Erwin:I think I met her when I first moved to LA in 2012. I don't remember she was like on the cap table for big frame, but she was like around that whole world. Kevin Gould:Yeah. We put her with Big Frame. I signed her on the side as a client and I was like, "Okay. We're going to build out a huge digital show for her." She was plugged into Silicon Valley. She was one of my first clients while I was at WME that I like took on and worked with from a, not a company necessarily, but a person and her and I are still really great, great friends to this day, but then there were just a lot- Chris Erwin:Kevin, to be clear. The business was not through WME, this was through you individually? Kevin Gould:No. Not yet. Jesse was through WME and I signed her, I was at WME, and the agent that I was working for at the time was really supportive, and all the other businesses I was helping at the time, because I was at WME, it was really informal. I wasn't taking money from them. I was just doing it to learn the space. What it allowed me to do was refine my understanding of what made a good company, what made a good founder. Kevin Gould:I mean in the beginning my instinct wasn't as good. I was going after companies that couldn't get to scale, maybe didn't have the right founder, maybe there was a ton of competition in the space, and then at the time, I was working for an agent and the way the agency is laid out is you've got all the agent offices, and then there's a huge row of just like… You've been in the agency. There's a huge row of assistant desks and assistants all sit next to each other. Kevin Gould:I was sitting next to this guy, smart guy, worked at Goldman, gave up everything to come to the agency, and then he was working for Charles King at the time, who now runs Macro. We would sit next to each other and just talk about the tech space and we sort of share the same passion. We ended up leaving together and we started, what was at the time, a company called Startup Agency, which the whole idea was Startup Agency was going to bridge Silicon Valley and the entertainment side of the business. Kevin Gould:One of my first clients that we signed was, again, someone who's become a really great friend to this day. It was a company called Gift at the time, which the whole premise of Gift was a digital gift card app that could buy, send, sell, receive digital gift cards and I met CJ, the founder… I went to TechCrunch Disrupt, the big conference. I saw him present on stage. I went up and said, "Hey, man, I've got this company called Startup Agency…" Chris Erwin:You just approached him cold? Kevin Gould:Just approached him cold. He kind of looked at me like, "Who's this guy?" Kind of blew me off. I said, "Give me your card." I gave him my card. He gave me his card, and then the next week I called him, he was still apprehensive. I got on the phone. I was like, "Look, I can really help you out. If you could get to anyone in the entertainment business, who would it be?" Kevin Gould:He said, at the time, Giuliana Rancic was a new mom on E. Perfect for what they were trying to do as an ambassador for their business. I said, "Okay. Give me a couple days." I came back a couple days later. I said, "Hey, I got a call set up with Giuliana's manager and her team and Giuliana. Let's put a partnership together." Two weeks later, she came on as like a big face and an ambassador to the brand, and then we did a ton of other things for Gift along the way. Kevin Gould:That was one of the first clients, and then so Tim and I is still a good friend. He ultimately wanted to go more in depth with us, a single company, and that's when sort of Startup Agency kind of pivoted. I rebranded and kind of became an element of what Kombo Ventures is today. Chris Erwin:You go full into Startup Agency I think in 2012, right? Kevin Gould:Yeah. I think 2012. Yeah. It's the end of 2012. Right around there. Chris Erwin:Okay. Kevin Gould:It's funny because I think some people have very linear paths. They were like here for three years and here for two and here for a year. Mine was very like it all sort of blended together. I was at WME and I was trying to sign these people on the side and have my own business, and then I sort of moved into Startup Agency, and then that sort of morphed into Kombo. Kevin Gould:There was this constant just evolution of what I was doing as opposed to a hard rigid like, "Here for this year, two years, three years." It just sort of morphed and evolved over time. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Kind of like the image that's coming to mind is a plant or a tree that's growing, and then there are these branch offshoots that might be like, "Oh, I'm incubating this idea. See where that goes. Maybe it grows maybe it doesn't." Then, there's this other offshoot, and then it becomes like a through line where the core of your career and all these different things build upon that and reinforce it, but then can take you serendipitously in different directions. I feel like that's what you did. Kevin Gould:Life is all about serendipity and that's a good analogy you made about the plants and different paths. Then, it still ends up all working up to the same place, but it kind of diverges here and there, but it all ultimately, even if you don't think it makes sense and at the moment it ends up making sense. That's life. Chris Erwin:Yeah. 100%. Startup Agency, and then I think that you take on a 10-pole client in Videogram and Cinemacraft for a couple years, but Kombo, what is now known as Kombo Ventures, which is a hybrid talent management, IP, incubation studio, digital agency, consumer brand launcher, that also really kind of takes off at the same time. Kevin Gould:So at the time there's this company called Cinemacraft. They had a product called Videogram, really interesting sort of early video product that they had an algorithm that allowed basically videos to be spliced and diced algorithmically to pull out the most key points of the video. It was mostly like a B2B sales play where you sell into studios and networks and content providers. It was part of Turner at the time had this thing called Turner Media Camp where Turner was funding startups, and so that as a client at the time, I got super involved. Kevin Gould:I was really part of like the founding member of the team there. I wasn't the founder by any means, but was on the founding team and that was a great experience to get a little bit more operational in one company where I still had other clients at the time, and sort of I ultimately realized I wanted to at that time be involved across multiple clients, and really build out Kombo and the whole model of Kombo sort of shifted into a real agency where I was looking for… Kevin Gould:The thesis was go find late seeds, series A, sometimes series B companies that didn't have someone internally that had my relationships Rolodex, know-how of the entertainment business. Go to them and have a sort of hybrid model where I would take a retainer, because I needed to get paid, take sweat equity. I didn't have a formal finance background, so what that allowed me to do was learn all about cap tables, all about financing, learning by just osmosis of just being around it. Kevin Gould:Then, ultimately, what I realized, it's like, "Wait a second. These companies that I'm taking equity in…" Because I'm super particular and I wouldn't just work with any company, they all have zero trouble raising money from top tier funds. I was seeing I had a firsthand view of how well the company was doing, because I was very integrated with the companies. I started negotiating to let me invest in the last round of funding, because at the time, I was cutting small angel checks of what was 10k or 15k or 20k to them, at the time I was taking that consulting money, and then dumping it back in. Kevin Gould:It became this really interesting model where I had a couple wins that really worked. I had some that obviously went to zero, but the ones that worked, worked well and most importantly what it allowed me to do was I basically got to make money and get a really good generalist view of how lots of different companies are run, how lots of different founders work, because they all work different. It was just amazing at that time of my life to be able to do that. Chris Erwin:Well, and I have to say, so a few points. One, that rubric you talked about, flying up to Silicon Valley, starting to get a sense of what companies were meaningful that you felt are worth betting on versus not. You started to create that filter that you likely applied now at Kombo. So increasing your likelihood of success, better return on your time. Second what I'm hearing is that early stage companies, seed series A, getting them to pay you a monthly retainer as an advisor is not easy. Chris Erwin:I run an advisory business myself. I specifically target later stage companies that have cash wherewithal. So impressive that you're able to get them to spend money on you, but then also they want results often, and so you must have been delivering to have maintained those relationships. Kevin Gould:So very, very good point. It's really hard to get startups to pay you money when they're obviously very cash conscious, particularly if they're that series A stage where paying a $5000 retainer a month or whatever it is that I was charging back then was hard to come by. What I did was I always delivered before I asked for anything. I think that's a good thing to do in just life, whether you're someone that's trying to come in a company, whatever it may be. Kevin Gould:Always deliver a little bit, show that you can drive results, and then it makes it much easier to ask for something after you've already done that. At the time, I was like young coming out of WME, it's not like Kombo was kind of I guess what it is today where it's a little bit more established and I had a little bit more of a reputation. I didn't really have much of a reputation. The only way to do that was to deliver before I asked for anything, and some people would say, "Oh, well, that's a waste your time. Well, what happens if they don't compensate you or whatever?" Kevin Gould:I look at it a completely opposite way. It always… At least, for me, it always ended up working out. Even if I didn't end up working with them, I still know those people to this day. I can call on a favor. I've gained a relationship, whatever it may be. Maybe it took me 5 to 10 hours of work to put in to try to gain the client, but that's the only way I could get them was to deliver, and then ask later. Chris Erwin:Yeah. You were looking at it from a long-term point of view, lifetime value the customer. So, by doing the work up front, even if you don't get paid for that say like 5 to 10 hours, that could be a customer for the next 10 to 20 years of your life. They can be paying you cash retainer fees. They give you access to their cap table. They refer you to other advisory clients, because they like you. You're able to make other angel investments. Chris Erwin:It's incredibly valuable to put the work in, which also filters if a company appreciates that, that's someone that you want to work with. You feel them out over time. It's a two-way interview. Kevin Gould:100%, and life is a series of compounding relationships. You put in on that work, you help people out, you do good by people, and all of that over time starts to compound to I think kind of what it is today where I feel like I know a pretty good amount of people. I've put in a lot of favors for people, if I ever need to call in a favor, I probably can. It's just this like network effect that continues to expand over time. Kevin Gould:I try to encourage all these young people that are trying to get in it for the quick money. It's just take a step back and just think a little bit about the long-term and there's other things other than like the quick hit that are going to be ultimately a lot more meaningful and beneficial to you long-term. Chris Erwin:Something else I just have to quickly touch on here. I think you mentioned this when we last spoke, but credit card arbitrage with your angel investments. So, you are making these small cash retainers as far from life-changing money, building a small business, so probably not a lot of extra cash going around, but you're putting money back into your clients, so you're like not diversified. If a client goes away, you lose your angel investment and you lose that retainer, but you're even tripling down in a way because you were going into credit card debt so you can put more cash into these companies, is that right? Kevin Gould:I'll even go one step beyond that. I remembered another thing I did, which was crazy. One was I thought, "Okay. I've got all these access to these incredible deals." For whatever reason in my head, I've never had that risk alarm bell. For me, anything I do I don't think is a risk, because I feel like I've assessed the risk and I feel like if I'm doing it, it's not a risk. I ultimately know there is a risk, but I don't know, my brain has always operated a little bit differently in terms of risk profile. Kevin Gould:I said, "Man, I've got $40,000 of a line of credit on one of my cards and I'm looking at the interest rate, I'm like, "Okay. What happens if I basically go max out this card and basically play interest rate arbitrage where if I can get into a couple of companies there's the…" The downside of it might go under, but there's the upside of, "Look, maybe it's a 15% interest rate a year, but if this thing can 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, whatever it may be, that's a pretty good bet." Kevin Gould:I did two things. One was I played credit card arbitrage. The second was I think I had… I forgot what I had in my Roth IRA at the time and I cleared the Roth IRA account, and cleared it out, and then took that money and invested it in startups. Chris Erwin:Wow. Kevin Gould:For anyone listening, I would never recommend doing that. It's not a strategy I would recommend, but I don't know. It made sense to me. It's hard to explain, because it rationally doesn't make a lot of sense and I'm a pretty grounded rational person a lot of ways, but I'm also willing to take a lot of risk. I don't know, that made sense to me. Chris Erwin:Yeah. I think liquidating an IRA, I think there's like a 10% penalty on top of that too. Kevin Gould:Yeah. I had to pay the penalty to liquidate it too. I had to pull out the cash, you're not earning interest on the money you're gaining, you're also paying the pre-liquidation penalty, but I got enough capital between the credit card arbitrage, the IRA, and the incoming revenue that I had coming in on the agency side of the business, because I was just basically paying my rent. I'm pretty simple. I wear like basic hoodies, t-shirt. I didn't buy a lot of fancy stuff and that's how I did it. Chris Erwin:In these early days, was there ever a point though where there was like a cash crunch? Every founder, and like this is me like every week, "Oh, are we going to make payroll this month? Oh, here's all the things that could go wrong and put us out of business." But you need to think optimistically. Were you ever down on your business? Kevin Gould:Luckily, I kept it really lean at the time. It was more about like, "Am I going to eat or not going to eat?" I always had enough to… Again, I feel like one of my natural skill sets was sales, so there was always enough of a client base to cover. We'll talk about I guess in a little bit the brand side of things, because when you're running a brand, a larger brand there's a lot of moving pieces on cash flow. But because I kept it lean, I was generally okay, but I had to really not live beyond my means, and also always be on the hunt for new clients and new business development. Kevin Gould:I definitely wasn't swimming in cash, because, again, I was taking lower retainers in exchange for these equity stakes, and then when there were some cash crunches, serendipitously, a company exits and I get a payout or I close a bit deal. I don't know, man. It always ended up somehow writing itself and, yeah, it was crazy. Chris Erwin:Yeah. I think that's the success formula. It's hard work having some diversified bets, and then a bit of luck where things just work out, and resilience. In those tough times not hanging up the towel. Be like, "No. We can get through this." Because all startups they just need a little bit of time. With time, the worst that can happen is you go to zero. The best is like the sky is limitless. Kevin Gould:That's exactly the way I think about it. The worst that can happen is it goes to zero, and ultimately, you learn from it and you start over. I know that sounds very simplified, and so a lot of people I think going to zero is that's obviously terrible, but for me, I'm like, "All right. I'll just from scratch and rebuild." That's kind of how I always thought about is the worst that happens is I learned a lesson and I got to rebuild. Chris Erwin:I like how Jocko Willink describes it who's former special forces and he's now an incredible executive and leadership coach and has his own podcast and much more. He's done the scenario. He goes through his worst case scenario planning, which is like, "Okay. If I'm really making pennies, then I will have a blanket on a concrete floor and I will eat beans out of a can." He's like, "That's not that bad." He's like, "I've had worse in combat scenarios." Chris Erwin:It's like when it's uncertain of how bad it can get, you freak yourself out, but when you actually get there logically, you're like, "Oh, I can do that for a few months. I can do that for a year. Sure." Kevin Gould:100%, and obviously, you don't want to do it, but you'll ultimately be okay. Then, it's just a matter of being resilient and getting yourself out of it and coming up with the next thing. Ultimately, that's like all business. If businesses can't get creative and continually be ahead of what's next, they're ultimately going to find themselves in that position anyway, so you have to constantly be coming up with new things to reinvent yourself, get creative. I don't know. That's how I think about it. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Cool. All right, Kevin, let's talk about how Kombo Ventures has evolved over the past couple of years. You've had some very exciting developments in your company where in addition to all of your agency management, IP studio work, you've now launched three very fast growing direct to consumer brands. Let's start out, what was the catalyst to evolve Kombo Ventures, and then specifically get into beauty products? Kevin Gould:Yeah. A couple catalysts, and maybe I'll cut back slightly, and then loop back into how this all kind of came to be. After running the agency side of the business for a few years, I was seeing the rise of influencers and big digital influencers, content creators, YouTubers, and thought there was a gap in the market where a lot of these talent needed to think about their brand as a real scalable business. Kevin Gould:I ended up basically starting another part of the agency where more of a management company where we were just managing and signing digital YouTube creators, big talent, and so for a while it was a split of still working with companies and doing all of the advisory agency services we were talking about, which is one part of the business. Then, the other part was managing these talent. Kevin Gould:On the beauty side, one company probably five, six years ago I got really deep with as an investor. Sort of fell on hard times now with the events, business and COVID and everything was BeautyCon, and through BeautyCon, I really saw, one, the influence that influencers have on the beauty business. Two, the scale of beauty businesses and how much they can scale. I think they were always very forward thinking from an e-commerce perspective. Kevin Gould:Then, the other we're seeing through the influencers that we were managing was like just even at a very basic level when they had their own merch business, the amount of scale that one influencer could get from moving merch. Which then led me to, "Look, I really want to start building my own brands." I'd say in summer of 2018, I had known Sharon Pak and Jordynn Wynn for a while. They were basically like the first two employees over at ColourPop Cosmetics, big cosmetics company. Kevin Gould:I slid in their DMs on Instagram. I DM both of them together and I said, "Hey, what are you guys up to? I'd love to catch up." I schlep over to Calabasas because they were working out of Oxnard, we met in the middle. I sat down. I was like, "Look, if you guys could start a brand and what space would it be?" We sort of just started talking and they were like, "Look, we think the hair space is a really interesting space. We don't think it's been innovated." You're like, "Color cosmetics has. There's a lot of legacy players, but they're not great at social content creative like sort of influencers." Kevin Gould:I kind of went back that night and did a bunch of research. I came back a day later and I said, "Hey, here's all the research on the space. Let's do this." They're like, "Whoa. Are you serious?" I was like, "Yeah. Let's do it." Chris Erwin:You were like jazzed up immediately? Kevin Gould:I was jazzed up immediately. I was looking for co-founders that… It's important to have co-founders that can do things you can't and vice versa, right? Chris Erwin:Yeah. Kevin Gould:I think their core expertise was social, creative, community building online, and so we partnered up and the brand launched. It was a soft launch, but it launched in October of 2018. That was the first brand. Chris Erwin:This is called Insert Name Here. Kevin Gould:Insert Name Here, INH Hair for short. When we started, it was primarily actual hair. Like Ariana Grande style ponytails, like that ponytail she always wears, hair extensions, wigs, lots of hair products. It has since transitioned into overall hair business where we sell blow dryers, straighteners, hot tools. We have hair color now. It's expanded a lot. Then, cut to last year there were two other brands that I launched and co-founded. Kevin Gould:One was also in the beauty space called Glamnetic. It is in the women's eyelash space. I did that with my co-founder Anne McFerrin, who's incredible, and sort of similar in that she is incredible at social, creative content, community building. I think a real visionary from a product development perspective. We launched that. Then, the third brand was called Wakeheart, which I did… This was done a little bit differently. Kevin Gould:It was done with the Dolan twins who were two big YouTubers and digital influencers. It's a fragrance and scent brand, really aimed at like Gen Z and young Millennials. The through line is that with all these brands we're like, "Okay. Look, we need to get these things profitable within six months or less." That was like one goal we set. We're going to run these things lean. I wanted in the beginning a pretty large degree of autonomy. I didn't want to raise capital. So, self-funded the businesses- Chris Erwin:Jointly funded with your co-founders or were you just contributing capital? Kevin Gould:Different on each one. One of them I funded all of it. Two of them, I think we split some of it. Then, I was bringing… Mostly I was bringing the capital, and then I was bringing all the op side, everything on the operational side of the business. Then, I'd say I'm pretty strong on the marketing side as well, and so bringing a lot of that to the table and kind of cut to today. There's these three brands running, we still haven't taken on any capital for any of the brands. Man, there's like 90 something people across everything now. Kevin Gould:The brands grew really, really quickly. It obviously has been a very interesting year with COVID and how sort of everything accelerated from an e-commerce perspective. But it's been a lot of fun. Chris Erwin:Yeah. Going back to meeting the co-founders, how did you sell them on you? Because you show up… I think you kind of knew the ColourPop cosmetics team, but getting them to launch a business, change what they're doing, take on a bunch of risk, sign up for a lot of work. How did you get them excited about these ideas you had? Kevin Gould:You know what's funny is I feel like you'd have to ask Sharon and Jordynn, but they've kind of talked about it before. I think they like did… I don't know if they thought I was that serious at first, right? I was that serious. I literally sat down, and I said, "Hey, if you could launch anything, what should we launched?" Then, literally a week later we're meeting every weekend while they're still working like getting this thing strategized and planned and going. Kevin Gould:Yeah. I don't know. I think it was just an open honest conversation. I was like, "Look, we think there's a big opportunity here and let's take a shot at this and do it." I think to their credit too, I think they wanted to start… It was all serendipitous, right? They wanted to start their own business at the time and I think we all complimented each other in terms of the skill sets that we brought to the table, and so it just made sense. Chris Erwin:Then, you also said that you brought ops expertise to the table, but you don't have a background in launching CPG, e-commerce businesses, in fulfillment, developing relationships with manufacturers, designing packaging, so did you hire a team to help you figure that out or did you do it yourself? Kevin Gould:I've had my right hand guy, Lucas, who's been with me for a while. He's awesome. He also did not have a e-commerce op background. He had a banking background where he was at the Soros fund, and then kind of like do anything figure it out sort of mentality. I kind of just looked at the space and I was like, "We can figure this out." It's like anything, right? You put enough time into it and just dig in and be curious and ask a lot of questions. It's not rocket science. Kevin Gould:We're not building a biopharma company. It's not something completely out of my wheelhouse. I think by virtue of seeing a lot of companies being built over the years and sort of being close to the space, I knew enough as a generalist to be able to go in and figure it out, but you're right. Never cut a fulfillment center, put a fulfillment center deal together, never had to run the back end on the accounting side for an e-commerce business before, but you kind of just figure it out as you go. Chris Erwin:Just learn by doing. Kevin Gould:Learn by doing and the key is one thing with putting up your own money is you are very conscious of making sure you minimize mistakes, right? Chris Erwin:Yeah. Kevin Gould:For me, I'm like super high touch and heavily involved in each of the brands and still am to this day and just the key is, it's like, "How do you scale as quickly as possible to minimize the major mistakes you make?" It's okay to make mistakes and we want people to make mistakes because otherwise they're not moving quick enough and learning and growing things, but from a cash flow perspective going back to the cash flow piece, you need to make sure you don't make too many mission critical mistakes or you'll be out of business, particularly if you're self-funding your company. Chris Erwin:Speaking of the cash needed, how much capital did it take to actually just first launch these brands and get the first product out the door? Are we talking seven figures per brand, was it five to six figures of cash investment? Kevin Gould:I'd say minimum six figures on each brand, and then as they grow the biggest problem was trying to self-finance an e-commerce brand, if you're growing quickly is the inventory constraints. In the hair space, cost of inventory is really high. I had to put out for sure six figures initially to get the thing going. But, again, it seems crazy to do that, but to me at the time I felt like I calculated the risk. I felt like we're going to make this work and was willing to do it. It didn't seem like a… I don't know. I looked at it from all angles and I was like, "I feel like this makes sense and the worst that happens is I'm going to lose my money and I'm going to have to make it up again." Kevin Gould:But the real big challenge wasn't necessarily that I was fortunate to have had some successes with some of the previous exits where I made some money on some of the agency side of the business where I had that capital to deploy, but the most challenging piece comes, again, when you really scale it and you have to continue to deploy capital just to finance the inventory as you go, and you're too early to go to a bank. Kevin Gould:A bank's not going to finance a business that's been up and running for a year. You're almost even too early to go to a lot of the inventory financing solutions that are out in the market today. You kind of really need close to a year for them just to even get them interested, and so at points in time, I had to deploy a lot more than I wanted to. Chris Erwin:Personal capital. Kevin Gould:Personal capital. I had deployed overall a million dollars. I'm not going to break down exactly which one it went to, but across everything, a million dollars of capital, which was, one, way more than I expected. That's a lot of money. I'm not like loaded. That's a lot of money. Kevin Gould:I don't know. I believe in the brands. I believe in what we're doing. I believe in my co-founders. It wasn't like the businesses were losing money. That incremental dollar figure that has went up over time is getting plowed into inventory. It's not like we're a business like some of these other e-commerce businesses that got in trouble where they were just blowing money every month and they were losing money on the P&L. This was for financing growth. Chris Erwin:I like what you said about starting lean with the six-month timeline to prove it out and get profitable. I think what a lot of companies, particularly digital media companies did when I got into the whole game back in 2012 was here's a vision for a business model that we can enter, and then here's how we can make money, but a lot of it didn't come into fruition. Then, it required them to continually raise money from investors, and then a lot of money was lost. That wasn't the approach for you. Kevin Gould:Well, and I think there were, obviously, hindsight for all those guys or women. It's like 20/20 in terms of what went wrong. I think there was like guilty parties on both sides. I think you had entrepreneurs that were coming up with self-justified LTVs of customers, and then they're like, "Yeah. The LTV is a thousand dollars of our customer, therefore, we can spend 500 to acquire them." When there actually wasn't enough data to really understand, what was the LTV? Kevin Gould:Then, you've got investors pumping money into the space encouraging them and basically adding on to that narrative of, "Oh, yeah, yeah, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow." Then, when the growth wasn't there and the LTV didn't back out, the investors were like, "We're cutting our losses. We're not in." You had a bunch of these e-commerce businesses that just fundamentally should have been run a much different way. Kevin Gould:I think the space is now getting reset where there's a lot more e-commerce brands or Omni-channel brands that are being run a little bit more efficiently. I think just the investor base has gotten, has been pushing companies to do that a lot more, but I was like, "We should be able to run this lean." you know, then you got to put up the money for the inventory, you got to test, you got to be in the weeds. Kevin Gould:In the beginning, I always tell early founders of social driven e-com brands, we treated Instagram DM as a sales funnel, right? Anyone that followed us, we'd shoot them a personal DM like, "Hey, thanks for following us. Let us know if you have any questions. We're here for you." That was like warm… If you're in a B2B sales business, that was our version of prospecting new customers. We had warm leads of people that followed us and we were actually going in and DMing them, having conversations with our first few thousand people that followed us on social and actually drove real revenue from that. Kevin Gould:It was just a down and dirty kind of guerrilla marketing style way of getting new customers on not a lot of capital. Obviously, as you scale that doesn't work as you scale as much, right? But in the beginning when you're doing 10,000, 20,000 a month in sales, it was a really great outside the box marketing tool for us. Chris Erwin:Yeah. As they always say in the beginning do things that don't scale. You learn from those tests and experiments, and I also like hearing about the story that you didn't have a specific playbook to follow in the beginning. You kind of learned and made your own. It's crazy I think with the number of e-commerce companies that are out there and you have Shopify and WooCommerce that you would think, "Oh, here's the playbook, here's how you find the manufacturer, here's the margin that you need." Chris Erwin:There are best practices, but you still got to figure it out for yourself and each talent situation, each product situation, each team situation is uniquely different. You just got to start talking to people, trying things out, and taking your ego out of it. One thing I've learned from you because you've given me some advice for some of our clients is you can have clients with billion dollar top line licensing businesses, but you know what? Start out with a small experiment which is maybe just a thousand units and see what works, and then you could build upon that and that's the right way to do it. Kevin Gould:100%. It doesn't all have to come at once. Start small and prove it out, make sure it works, and build from there. I think your point too on ego and I think everyone as an entrepreneur always have to self…. They always have to self-check their ego. You, me, everyone to a degree has an ego and I think to be a founder or a CEO or someone that's leading a company, and I'm certainly guilty of this as well sometimes. Kevin Gould:It's like you have to check your ego, make sure you're an amazing listener, right? You have to listen to everything. You have to listen to your team members, your co-founders, your customers, right? Even though you might have a perspective that you think is right and it might ultimately be right, you still need to take in all the feedback and listen and make sure everyone has a voice. That's always something that you continually have to refine and work on as a founder. Chris Erwin:So fast forward, you launched these brands, three brands within the past couple of years and you had a big moment this year. I think on the recent Facebook earnings call, Sheryl Sandburg, I think the number two at Facebook. She calls out Glamnetic as a great example of a fast-growing small, medium-sized business that's using their advertising platform. This is like you hear Glamnetic and the founder's name on the earnings call. It's amazing. I think you guys posted a video of that. What did it feel like? Did you know in advance that was going to happen? Kevin Gould:We did. I wasn't sure it was a go until the night before. I heard it was going to happen, but I still thought, went listen in on their earnings call… On those earnings calls, things get cut out last minute. I was like, "Who knows if this is going to happen or not." It was a really cool moment, man. I mean I think like, "Look, you got to celebrate the wins." I think that was like… I had a drink that night with my co-founder, and the guys as well. That was really cool. Kevin Gould:The business was super young, it was really a little over a year old. We've been fortunate to scale very quickly and that was just a really cool moment. One of the biggest companies in the world and you're on their earnings call, but you know what? You take the night, you celebrate a little bit. You're like, "Wow. That was cool." Then, you get to work the next day and you just keep building. Kevin Gould:It was an amazing experience. It's something that I think always remember when you're like as an early moment of the end, but I don't know. It's also weird because the brands have scaled really quickly, but at the same time I still feel like they're in their infancy. I feel like we're just getting started and- Chris Erwin:Yeah. Let's put some numbers behind that. I think that you mentioned when these brands like I think last year, run rate across your three brand portfolio, call it around $1 to $2 million of top line revenue. Kevin Gould:A little bit more like four to five last year. This year collectively 75. Chris Erwin:75? Kevin Gould:Yeah. Chris Erwin:That's like 20x. Kevin Gould:Yeah. It's been insane, man. It's been… What's crazy is like, again, it's definitely growing a lot, but I still feel like we're that small startup that's just like hustling to make it happen and the key is we have, again, I've got amazing co-founders in each brand and amazing teams. We have a lot of really young people that love what they do. I think they're learning a lot in these brands. It's been an amazing experience for them. They also put in a lot of hard work though and everyone's really, really passionate about what they do. Kevin Gould:We've got awesome teams on each of the brands. I think we figured out the playbook and the playbook's always changing. It's constantly updating, but to run a really strong e-commerce brand today, you have to do a lot of things right. You have to obviously be with an amazing high quality product, that's number one. You don't get in the door and scale otherwise. Then, you have to be killer at… It's like the flywheel, social content, creative, influencer marketing, paid media, retention, email, SMS, a loyalty program. Kevin Gould:That whole flywheel has to be running in lockstep and in sync in order for the brands to scale, otherwise, what happens is if you only have two or three of those, the barrier to entry to start an e-com brand lower than ever, right? Chris Erwin:Yeah. Kevin Gould:Super easy to get a Shopify site up. Let's say you own a brand, then, it's fairly easy… I wouldn't say it's fairly easy, but it's easier to get a brand to seven figures in sales, right? It's become easier to do that, but still I don't want to discount that that's really still hard to do. Then, take a brand to eight figur

To see and hear about ancient artifacts and the entire podcast: Go to this YouTube Channel. http://bit.ly/3is7j1uTo Connect with Geoffrey A. Smith, MD ENT FACS:  https://www.geoffreyasmithmd.com/American Helping Asian Children Organization: http://ahac.org/To Connect with Teresa Barnes, RN: TBarnes@HearCommunication.comhttps://hearcommunication.com/https://www.linkedin.com/in/hearteresabarnesrn/https://www.facebook.com/hearcommunication/https://www.instagram.com/teresabarnesrn/https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Advice-Tune-into-Listening/dp/1982209577https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ9TLLKAu7ZxP8lt21f0Ksw

Jesse Draper is a mother of 2 boys, founding partner of Halogen Ventures as well as creator and host of Emmy nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show. Draper is a 4th generation venture capitalist focused on early stage investing in consumer technology companies led by female and co-ed teams. Among her 55 portfolio companies, are the Skimm, Glamsquad, Carbon38, HopSkipDrive, The Flex Company, Eloquii (recently sold to Walmart) and This is L (sold to P&G). She stars on SET's television series Meet the Draper's currently in it's second season. Draper was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America’. Draper has been a contributor to Marie Claire, Mashable, Forbes, and is a regular investor and tech personality on shows including TLC’s Girl Starter, The Katie Couric Show, Fox’s Good Day LA, CNBC’s Who Wants to Be the Next Millionaire Inventor? & Freeform’s Startup U. Learn more about Halogen Ventures: https://halogenvc.com/ Follow Jesse Draper on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessedraper Follow Jesse Draper on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jessecdraper/

There's a revolution coming in tech investing. Rolling funds are making early-stage investing more accessible to the masses. They're also making it easier for anyone to set up a fund. Cyrus and Iman cover everything you need to know, including what they are, the problem they solve, differences vs. traditional venture, pros, cons, and the future. This podcast will provide weekly content on technology investing and technology building. We break everything down to first principles, to simplify the complex technology world. Whether you're a newbie in the tech space and just want to know how the market works, or you're a seasoned tech investor / founder, we aim to bring you content that is insightful, simple and rational. We cover tech products and tech companies across the lifecycle, from pre-seed to seed, Series A to D+, to IPOs and beyond. We also cover all investing methods including Angel Investing, Venture Capital, Private Equity, Hedge Funds, Public Markets, SPACs etc. For more information on Cyrus, Iman and the channel, check out: https://www.rationalvc.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyrusyari/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/imanolya1/ https://twitter.com/CyrusYari https://twitter.com/iman_olya Consider our first 5 episodes as the MVP before we step up our production quality; apologies if the video or audio quality is not great! Our following episodes will be much better quality. Your feedback and comments are very welcome. We hope you enjoy listening as we embark on a journey to understand this space; clearly, and rationally, of course. --- Major credit to those with rolling funds facilitating this advancement OR those mentioned in our podcast, including: Naval Ravikant, Cindy Bi, Sahil Lavingia, Immad Akhund, AngelList, Jesse Draper

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/

Welcome back, Jesse Draper, Founder & General Partner of Halogen Ventures! Jesse joins the show to discuss her recent, viral Medium article, plus she shares the importance of investing in women and unpacks why this is an opportunity, not a charity.

Jesse Draper is a founding partner of Halogen Ventures as well as the creator and host of the Emmy nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show. Growing up Jesse didn't see any women in technology or many female CEOs. So she created halogen ventures to change that, Halogen Ventures is located in Los Angeles, California, and is a venture capital fund focused on investing in early-stage consumer technology startups with a female in the founding team. Jesse's a fourth-generation venture capitalist among her 55 portfolio companies are Skimm, glam squad, carbon 38, hop skip drive, the flex company, Eloquii, And this is L which sold to PNG, Jesse was listed by Marie Claire Magazine as one of the 50 most connected women in America. To learn more about the Badass CEO Podcast go to:  http://www.thebadassceo.com/ To get the Top 10 Tips every entrepreneur should know go to: https://thebadassceo.com/tips-for-every-entrepreneur/Please subscribe above to be notified of our new episodes.  I put together a Free Top 10 Checklist for Every Entrepreneur.  Click here to get your copy: https://thebadassceo.com/tips-for-every-entrepreneur/ ‎To learn more about our podcast guest, click here:https://thebadassceo.com/venture-capitalist-jesse-draper/If you enjoy this podcast, please help support the the podcast by using the link to our sponsors and companies I use for my business.  I receive a small percentage for each sale.  Thank you so much for your support!!http://thebadassceo.com/tools/Follow us on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/badass.ceo/

In Part 2, Jesse and I dive into wellness and self-care as a busy mom. After having a health scare when her second kid was 3 months old, Jesse realized she needed to focus on making sure she took care of herself. Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, an LA-based early stage venture capital fund focused on investing in female founded consumer technology. She's a 4th generation venture capitalist (just watch the show Meet the Drapers), a former Nickelodeon star and also the creator and host of the Emmy nominated TV series, The Valley Girl Show. But of all the hats she wears, her MAIN ROLE (and most important) is as the mother to 2 little boys. Juggling her role as investor, "mother to companies", mother to 2 boys, wife and more is no easy feat especially with two full-time working parents.  If you missed Part 1 - check out Episode 17. Disclaimer: This was recorded pre-COVID... don't we all wish we could still get our nails done! Interview Notes: [5:01] Jesse's emergency health scare [6:28] The 3 things she makes sure she does daily [7:21] Jesse's morning routine [13:30] Favorite apps / services  [16:43] Advice to pre-mom self [19:58] Family meetings Follow Jesse at Halogen Ventures: www.halogenvc.com Instagram: @jessecdraper --- For more information, visit www.PowerMomMinute.com Connect with me! Website Instagram: @StephanieUchima and @PowerMomMinute Facebook

On this episode of Access and Opportunity, we welcome investor Jesse Draper, founding partner of Halogen Ventures. With Halogen Ventures, Jesse has committed to investing in early stage consumer technology startups that have a woman as a member of the founding team. We also hear from one of those founders, Esther Crawford, the co-founder and CEO of Squad, an online platform that helps connect people all over the world through screen-sharing. Jesse and Esther take us on a journey from their very first encounter, to their individual commitments going into the deal, and to their respective shifts in priorities during COVID-19. Come on and join us for the ride.https://www.morganstanley.com/what-we-do/inclusive-innovation-and-opportunityThe guest speakers are neither employees nor affiliated with Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC. (“Morgan Stanley”). The views and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect those of Morgan Stanley. The information and figures contained herein has been obtained from sources outside of Morgan Stanley and Morgan Stanley makes no representations or guarantees as to the accuracy or completeness of information or data from sources outside of Morgan Stanley. Morgan Stanley is not responsible for the information or data contained in this podcast. This podcast does not provide individually tailored investment advice and is not a solicitation of any offer to buy or sell any security or other financial instrument or to participate in any trading strategy. It has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it.© 2020 Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, Members SIPC.

Today I am speaking with Jesse Draper. Jesse is a mother of 2 boys, founding partner of Halogen Ventures as well as creator and host of Emmy nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show. Draper is a 4th generation venture capitalist focused on early-stage investing in female-founded consumer technology. Among her 55 portfolio companies, are the Skimm, Carbon38, HopSkipDrive, The Flex Company, Eloquii (recently sold to Walmart) and This is L which recently sold to P&G. She stars on SET's television series Meet the Draper's currently in it's second season.   This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media. This series is a platform for women, female-identified, & non-binary individuals to share their professional stories and personal narrative as it relates to their story. This podcast is designed to hold a space for all individuals to learn from their counterparts regardless of age, status, or industry.    TRANSCRIPTION *Please note, this is an automated transcription please excuse any typos or errors   [00:00:00] In this episode, I had the fortunate opportunity to speak with Jesse Draper. Jesse is the founder of Holligan Ventures and the creator and host of Emmy nominated The Valley Girl Show. Key Points addressed where Jesse's founding of Holligan Ventures and its work as a Los Angeles based venture capital fund focused on investing in early stage consumer technology startups with a female in the founding team. We also unpacked Jesse's extensive knowledge of creating and hosting what was the first tech talk show, the Valley Girl Show, and what the industry was like a decade ago during the show's inception and growth. Stay tuned for my informative talk with Jesse Draper.   [00:00:43] Hi, my name is Patricia Kathleen, and this podcast series contains interviews I conduct with women. Female identified and non binary individuals regarding their professional stories and personal narrative. This podcast is designed to hold a space for all individuals to learn from their counterparts regardless of age status for industry. We aim to contribute to the evolving global dialog surrounding underrepresented figures in all industries across the USA and abroad. If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as Vegan life, fasting and roundtable topics. They can be found via our Web site. Patricia Kathleen .COM, where you can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod Bean and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation.   [00:01:40] Hi, everyone, and welcome back. I'm your host, Patricia. And today, I am so excited to be sitting down with Jesse Draper.   [00:01:46] She's the founder of Halogen Ventures and the host and creator of Emmy nominated The Valley Girl Show. You can find out more about all of the endeavors that we talk about today and her on Hellgren v.C dot com. Welcome, Jesse.   [00:02:01] Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. I love what you're doing.   [00:02:05] Absolutely. I love what you're doing. So the feeling is mutual for everyone listening. We're going to climb into a quick bio of Jesse. But before we get to that, in case you're new to our series, a quick roadmap for today's podcast, we'll follow the same trajectory as all of them in the series. First, we'll look at and packing Jesse's academic and professional background leading to the launch of Helen Ventures. Any pertinent information that we can garner from that? Then we'll go jump straight into unpacking HelpAge and Ventures. And for everyone listening, all of our nerdy little founders, not crew, is out there. We'll start out the logistics, the who, what, when, where, why funding all of that, the logistical stuff up front. We'll get into the ethos of what they're doing with halogen and how all of it's working. The impetus. Some of the markets that they've service and the populations that they kind of look at working with. And then we'll also unpack the Valley Girls show it is Emmy nominated. It's it's got a really cool impetus. Jesse spoke with a bunch of really fantastic people over the past decade. And I have a lot of production questions for those of you who are looking at it, the medium of kind of mixing in YouTube with everything that everyone's doing has been a very real part of the integration model and as as you could, particularly entrepreneurship and followership. But we'll kind of look at all of that and then we'll unpack other media like endeavors that she and her prolific family that she comes from have done. Then we'll turn our attention towards looking at goals and plans that Jesse has for the next one to three years. This has changed for everyone, entrepreneurs and successful titans alike. Given the recent Koban 19 pandemic and how some of that has changed and what her conversation with her company and herself has been like in reassessing those goals for future plans, we'll wrap everything up with advice that Jessie has. For those of you who are looking to get involved with her, what she does, or perhaps emulate some of her careers. Magical success, as promised. A quick bio on Jessie before I begin peppering her with questions. Jessie Draper is a mother of two boys, founding partner of Logan Ventures, as well as a creator and host of the Emmy nominated television series The Valley Girl Show. Draper is a fourth generation venture capitalist focused on early stage investing in female founded consumer technology. Among her fifty five portfolio companies are the skim carbon 38 Hop, Skip, Drive, the Flex Company and Eloqua recently sold to Wal-Mart. And this is Elle, which recently sold to PMG. She stars on Essie's television series Meet the Draper is currently in its second season. It says here it might be in its third or fourth. We were just talking. We'll get Jesse to clarify that later on.   [00:04:43] Draper was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the 50 most connected women in America. Draper has been a contributor to Marie-Claire Matchable Forbes and is a regular investor and tech personality on shows including TLC, Girls Starter, The Katie Couric Show. Fox is Good Day, L.A.. CNBC sees Who Wants to be the Next Millionaire. Invest in Ventor and Freedoms Startup U.   [00:05:10] She proudly sits on the Board of Directors of Enterprise Technology Company Work Blue Fever PREE Madonna, creator of Nale Bought and the nonprofit board biz world. Draper supports the Parkinson's Institute and is very involved with growing UCLA as female entrepreneurship community. Now, Jesse, I know if I am if I stumbled over any of that, you can absolutely clarify. But before we get into unpacking halogen and everything that you're doing there, I'm hoping you can draw us a roadmap for everyone listening or watching the vodcast today of your early academic and professional life that led you to launching Holligan.   [00:05:49] Yeah, I. Hello, everyone. I'm happy to be here. And, you know, I think like most career trajectories, it's it's not you know, it's not a straight line by any means. But it does make sense for you here. Sort of like you have moved me. But I grew up in Silicon Valley, as you mentioned. I'm a fourth generation investor and the first female in line. I didn't think I could go into that profession, although I had many venture capitalists in my blood. And that was sort of all I knew growing up in Silicon Valley. I grew up around incredible entrepreneurs. It was, you know, a very privileged human being. And I. But again, I didn't think I could go into this profession because my mom worked incredibly hard raising four children. And my dad was very he really opens the curtains to me in terms of educating me about startups. I worked with him a little ice or steels for him through my show, like Paperless Post and numerous others. And I I worked at an asset management company just after college, but I just didn't think that I could go directly into that career because I didn't see any women around me. And so I saw my Aunt Polly and they say, you can be what you can see. And my aunt was this very successful actress. And, you know, it's sort of funny, but I thought, oh, as an eight year old child, like, that's what a traditional job for a woman, you know, because she's something and I'm very close to and that's what she does. And she was on the show called 30 Something in the 80s that was really popular. It's coming back on Netflix, actually. Shameless plug. And she I just idolized her. So I went into entertainment and I, I went to UCLA. I studied theater, film and television. And I my dad was always kind of in the back of my head saying, Harvey can make this a business. How is this a career? You know, he was supportive, but he was sort of like, you need to figure out how to make a living doing this. And it's a very difficult lifestyle. If, you know, she's like, it's rare that Polly had such a successful career and still has. And so I went to UCLA after UCLA was on and a glowing show was acting, was going to cattle calls. And I very quickly was like, OK, I love and respect to this profession, but I go to these cattle calls and there's a thousand girls who look just like me and are probably much more talented. And my heart is really good with this world of technology. And so I kind of combined my two passions and I basically said, OK, I have a third season of this Nickelodeon show and then I have a six month hiatus. And instead of auditioning this year, I'm going to go start a technology talk show. I've never seen one. I always thought these people should be idolized. And I say it's the first technology talk show. You know, people can kind of come at me and prove to me that there was one before. But I had the former CEO, Eric Schmidt, in two thousand eight on my show and no one cared. So I bet it was like one of the first in these like early, early days after two seasons of the show online. And, you know, you were alluding to asking about distribution, et cetera. You know, this was my own entrepreneurial print, unreal journey. It was like early days of digital distribution. No one knew what they were doing. It was a complete disaster to get your content out there. And I was looking for eyeballs, but because I was on a no gloating show on Nickelodeon, was owned by Viacom. And I anytime and Viacom was in a lawsuit with YouTube. And so anytime I put something up on YouTube, it would be taken down because my identity was owned at that time by Nickelodeon, essentially like my IP. It was this weird thing that everyone was still figuring out. So I didn't really focus on YouTube, but I was like, where else can I find eyeballs? And so I ended up working with Forbes, Mashable, numerous others, and we created content. I was one of the first shows to do a deal with all those airports and hotels. Now it's much more normal, but we were getting millions and millions of users through those. And I was just it was this really discombobulated situation. After two seasons of the show, we then took it to television, were ultimately nominated for an Emmy, but also after two seasons of the show. So we did a total of. Seasons, sorry, I feel like I'm all over the place today. The world is in shambles. That's right. I'm sure it would be bad not to even address that. These are horrible. I mean, these wonderful protests are going on. But just like there's so much horror in the world right now in the last word of all these problems. So so basically, I sat through the show after two seasons of interviewing incredible men in technology. I was like, this is still the problem. There's a huge problem here. Like, I just didn't viewed men in technology for two seasons. I didn't think I could go into technology because I didn't see any women. And I need to change this. So I made an initiative to interview 50 percent women in technology on the show. And this was like. Long enough ago that it was impossible to get the Meg Whitman's of the world. It is so difficult because they did not want to put themselves out there. This was like a generation of women who were like, I'm not going to help you. I had to fight so hard to get to where I am. And I was dying for mentors. I was dying for advisers. And I just got shot down and shot down again. And I'm forever grateful to the women of fashion technology because once that started booming a little bit, it was Jen Hyman from Rent the Runway. She came on my show. That made it OK for Rebecca Minkoff to come on my show. That made it okay for the guilt girls to come on my show. And that made it OK for Sheryl Sandberg to come on my show before she'd written Lean In, before she had really gotten out there. She was a new CEO at Facebook and that changed my life. I got all of a sudden it was like celebrities and Jessica Alba and the CTO of the United States of America and like really put me on the map. And it was a fun, silly talk show. Very different than most technology talk shows. But I started doing this like Rock in Women series. And I look back to that first Rock and Women series. It was so cool. It was Sheryl Sandberg. It was this woman, Beth Cross, who started area. If anyone is a horseback rider, that's like the biggest horseback riding brand. It was really a heart. So I'm still pretty close with from Eventbrite, which has now gone public, like looking at these women, just like me chills. And that was the beginning of this journey that I was just striving for more for women. I grew up again in this family of investors, and I knew what a good deal looks like. And I was sending my dad all these deals because they pitched the show as a technology company. And I'd say you're too early for the show, but maybe you should go talk to some investors. I know. And then I was like, I can do this. I don't have any money, but I can do this. And so I, I started seeing some deals. I'd say you're a little early for the show. Love what you're doing. Can I write you a Penneys check? A thousand dollars, a thousand dollars, whatever I could afford at the time. Sometimes I would negotiate sweat equity and get some advisory shares and, you know, help them with PR and media exposure. And I created this nice little track record. I'm one of those companies I sold for a twenty five X return in less than 18 months on the secondary market. And that was like just a huge moment for me where I realized. The show was going OK. I was barely breaking even. Media is still pretty broken, although everyone's eyes are on online. So this is it's booming right now. But I was like, there's something wrong. I've never been on television. I've been online. No one knows how to make this a really profitable business unless you're selling tons of swag. And we were too, you know, early to, like, have that brand recognition. And so we. So I just sort of put the show on pause. I had to be I got married, had a baby simultaneously while raising my first fund. So I used the track record from those little angel investments I'd made to raise fund one. I pitched five hundred investors, closed, maybe 50 of them. And the first people I went to were these people I had created relationships with through my talk show. And so Alexis, moving from Gilt Group was one of my first investors, you know, and I got this nice group of people who had watched and gotten to know me through my sort of media channel. And that was how I began to build my network in terms of raising capital. We're now on our second fund and we've invested in 62 companies, all female founded. There has to be a female on the founding team of five. We've had about six exits to date. Two were one hundred for one hundred million dollars. And that's still pretty early in terms of our trajectory. And I just want to keep thinking about investing in women as an opportunity. A lot of women are going out and saying, oh, poor me, I'm a woman. Invest in me. This is an opportunity. This is not a charity case. Investing in women is not charity. You are going to make a lot of money. Women raise half as much capital. They double the return. And and so that's where proving that out day by day. I'm also really proud of the fact that because I went off of I live in L.A., we I went off of the traditional Silicon Valley Road, which I literally grew up on and totally love and respect. But again, there was no gender diversity whatsoever. And I'm I put out this. We are investing in women. And it was like this bat signal. This magnet for thousands of female deals because women are looking for women investors is they're starting companies that often men don't relate to. And you need we need men. There's not a man hating club we need, especially because they control the majority. But we really need people to invest in more women. And so I started thinking about, oh, wow, we're getting all these women from all over and we're investing in the best deals and completely just that was our beginning strategy. And we have over 60 percent minority led companies because we were looking for the best. And I'm so proud of that, especially today, because it is so important to we always say, you know, invest in diversity. We invest in diversity of gender, race and age. And I think that diversity breeds success. And it's really important to give everybody a shot. We are we're very easy to get a hold of. You can hit me up through the website. You can, you know, purchase through the website. You can find me on Instagram. I'm taking pitches through Instagram at Jessee. See Draper dot com. Jessica Draper from all over the place today. Goodness, Patricia. But I'm I at. But we take pitches everywhere because I never want people to feel like you have to have an introduction to me. I think it's really important that everyone has a shot and we might miss out on the next, you know, Uber or something even better if we don't look at every deal we possibly can. And so anyway, that is my that's how I got here.   [00:18:24] Now you're here.   [00:18:26] I well, I think it's interesting when you talk about the culture of, you know, you can see we can get into the statistics that everyone's heard a million times over about the consumer dollars and the power that women and women identified non binary.   [00:18:38] Those communities have in what they're spending and how they're not taking advantage over that power and things like that. But you and I were talking off the record before we started filming about this kind of I was kind of baptized into the concept a little bit too late for my comfort. But this concept of the lifecycle of the female entrepreneur and founder and how the matriculation should naturally turn into when I say female, I mean female identified non-binding as well. Pretty much anyone other than the white man. It's kind of been represented and spoken about as 50 years. Not that I don't care about them, I just don't. Not speaking to them right now. The responsibility that they have in the life cycle about eventually matriculating all the way through and becoming investors themselves and becoming, you know, part of this like giving back into that system where they invest in. Melinda Gates has talked recently on a very open platform. Is this being one of her major issues and concerns as of late? And I think that it's so important to kind of unpack that. And one of the most interesting things, we have all these correlations and nothing is causation and a member never claiming that. But there are these correlate of values. When you say, you know, we were just looking for the best and we wanted it to be female or some kind of woman involved in the original founding of it and to have it all of this and also be represented and, you know, minority representations in populations as well as just it's proof, as you're saying, diversification works and it drives. And, you know, there's a lot of different. I come from a huge psychology and sociology background. So a large part of me wants to pass out like who? It's because those people fought harder. It's because they were more used to hearing those because they had to do that. And then if that is neither here nor there and it's again, it's all correlation. But I do think that there is truth in that and people can talk about it all day long. But until you put your effort and your money down as you have, the change is not yet happening. And I think that there's been a lot of discourse in the communities that I have spoken with in women investors and ventures and things of that nature where there's still a lot of chat. There was a lot of hyper conversation about the Metoo movement, you know, and how people were terrified that it was just going to go away, it was going to get all this publication, were going to take down a whole bunch of horrible abusers. And then it was just going to kind of go back to business as usual.   [00:20:49] There wasn't gonna be any law, there wasn't gonna be any change and things like that. And I think the same thing is true with investment.   [00:20:55] And I'm looking at changing the seat at the table, as Gates said, you know, putting the change out there is your your fund has been and talking about it, I think is a crucial part of the process because we can all have these summits and discuss things as women and female identified individuals. But until we start putting those things into motion, it won't change for our children's generation. And that's my goal. You know, mine is is happening right now and playing out well. But my daughters need to come up in a different world where they see people looking like us and female identified individuals at the table, because when I was coming up, I didn't see nary one female in tech until Oriana with Huff Post, like I did not I did not know of one.   [00:21:37] And I hung out with nerds from Atari days up like I was kicking it with with the kids that were playing it, then programing the games, then in their parents garage. And it was always meant and, you know, it was usually always white men. And so even from the visual aspect of the archetype that I saw in person and on TV, you were saying your daughters are clearly going to be fine.   [00:21:59] I'm glad you're even thinking about that. I mean, one of my biggest frustrations, running a fund that focuses on women is that. Fund one. I went out and thought, oh, I'm going to go meet with the female billionaires and all the women investors I can find. And, you know, I'm not saying I sat down with every female billionaire, but quite a few. And what I found is women are more comfortable writing a multimillion dollar check to charity than investing in a fund. And I started asking why. Why are you bragging to me about how you wrote a three million dollar check to that charity you believe in? And why have I had six meetings with you and it's taking you so long to get across the table here. And, you know, they say, well, I don't know that much about venture capital. I prefer if you talk to my husband and it's like meeting six, I now have this rule that after three meetings, you know, you know, if they're in, you know. And I'm like, OK, well, let's meet with your husband, you know, and usually the husband's game. And it's it's fascinating to me. But we started a dinner series. Now you'll have to come to one. And now it's very easy because they're all in to where I was really frustrated that women are not taking enough risk with their capital. And so, anyway, fund, you know, my investors overall are the majority are male. It's probably 60 percent male to female. And that's what's frustrating for me. I, I would love to have, you know, much larger female investor base because of what we're doing. But again, I do love men. I was raised by incredible men. I just got and men control the majority of the capital that we needed changing at those levels. We need it. I walked into a workers comp fund somewhere in the middle of the country and I was like laughed at, like the coffee came out of this guy's mouth. And he's like, I can't believe that you're investing in women. And why would we invest in this fund? You only invest in women. And I was like, OK, well, I guess, OK, I just went back and. So here's why it's a great investment. They raise half as much capital. They double the return. Here's all the data. And I was so grateful because about halfway through that meeting, one of the associates came in and it was a younger guy. And he said, oh, my wife uses that company. And, oh, yeah, I've heard of that one, too. And so I do see it changing. But we need more women in those conversations because these are the pension funds and the did partner investors who invest in capital, in women and make those giant endowments. Those are all run by men. And now they're hiring, you know, a few more women. But we need more women investors. We need more women to understand investing and try. Like, the more you try, you know, big risk equals big reward. Buy some stock. Go on, Robinhood. You like Starbucks? Go buy some Starbucks. That's a public stock. You know, Bitcoin, too, is like one to 17 in terms of female to male. And that is a huge opportunity as well. Like what is Bitcoin? I'm sure everyone's thinking right now on this. Like, go figure it out. You don't have to buy a whole Bitcoin. You can buy a little piece of a Bitcoin. But I think women need to be playing in these circles and taking this risk with their capital. And it makes you feel more comfortable the more you're exposed to it. So I always say like to the men, you know. Bring your sisters, your daughters, your mothers into these conversations, your wives, champion women and wives and significant others should be in every single conversation with your financial manager. I don't care if you don't understand it. Sit there. You will understand it. After you go to a few of these meetings and we'll learn more and you can ask questions about why you're invested in that or what it means to be invested in a real estate fund or whatever it may be. So I just say, like, expose yourself, take more risk with your capital and talk about money. I mean, my friends clam up when I'm like, hey, you guys want to talk about, like, what you're investing in right now. And it's like it's like the air is sucked out of the room. You know, that some people work in finance and it just blows my mind that they don't own any stock. And so I really believe women need to build their pool of capital, build their own family offices, and also know as a woman that you have you own 50 percent of your you know, however, the wealth was created. If your husband worked and you stayed home, you own 50 percent of that. You can decide where that goes. And so I think women just clearly I'm on my soapbox now, but they need to take more risk.   [00:27:02] Yeah. And I think risk aversion is one of the things that, like you were saying, like we need to matriculate out of the next generation coming up.   [00:27:11] You know, it feels like it was baked in and finding out those levels. I think it's bred any kind of a version for me is always bred through ignorance. Right. Anytime you have an exposure, like you're saying, just go along, go to the meeting, become exposed. Make those terms start washing over you. They become very un mystified. Once you hear them enough and you put in the sign value to them those kinds of things, I think that integrating into the high school measurements, you know, young women leaving high school should understand the stock market. And I can promise you about zero point two percent of my entire graduating class from high school, including and the women will probably point zero zero one percent understood or even grasp that the tenants of the stock market, let alone how to how to garner them, you know, and then you say people clam up like even people who are in finance and things of that nature. I do. I think it's based out of fear. Because I think it's fascinating to talk about, especially the areas I don't know of airline ticket until I climb through, but I don't have this kind of like fear based reluctance towards it. And I believe that education is the great equalizer. And so I think that encouraging young women who I run into a lot of artistic circles and encouraging artists like that, that does not give you a get out of jail free card from understanding the ins and outs of the American banking system.   [00:28:29] What are you talking about? We all function in this society, you know, and understanding the tenants, the core tenants of an axiomatic values of some of those are imperative to breaking down the gender bias.   [00:28:41] Yeah, it is interesting, having come from the acting career where you make a large you know, I'm just thinking of artists because I've learned a lot about them, especially through being a venture capitalist. We have a lot of celebrity investors in my fund. And it's interesting, when I pitch a potential investor and they happen to be a celebrity and you fall in two buckets, like either one is like the celebrity who made a chunk of change and spent it. And every time they make a chunk of change, they spend it. And then there's the celebrity who is like, I, I know I need to save this. And I am going to learn a little about investing. I am going to find a financial manager. And those are the like, you know, all the biggest celebrities, you know, who've had these like careers of longevity, who are able to then invest in their own pieces of artwork and produce their own movies because they then have the capital to do that. And so I find it's this sort of like up and down thing in terms of how artists invest. And yeah, it's I do know a lot of artists as well who just kind of check out and it's like, no, you will have. You'll have more flexibility in your career, too. Like investing is for everyone. It's not. And you don't have to have millions of dollars to invest. You can go buy a stock for, you know, 20 to 50 to 100 dollars, whatever you feel like putting aside. And I always like to talk about that. There was this Fidelity study done where they studied Fidelity, did this big study and said who made the most money in the stock market? And it was the people who forgot that they were invested in the stock market. So I like to think I like to tell people that so that you can think about how to invest. Don't get hung up. If the market goes up and down, just hold on. You're in your 20s to thirties when you like, you know, most people don't have any cash. They're just starting to try and build their careers, et cetera. Just every once in a while to go put some put some cash in the stock market. Fifty dollars, hundred dollars, whatever you read about some stock, you know, that seemed interesting to you or you believe that, you know, whatever some sort of like you buy some PMG because everyone's scrambling for toilet paper or whatever it is like. Just think about a reason why you might buy that stock because you believe in that company. And then just leave it there, leave it there, watch it grow, and then you take it out as needed. But I think that that's how you should think about investing in the stock market.   [00:31:26] Absolutely. I want to pivot a little bit before we end up rapping because I have my own personal demands from this podcast. And one of them is to pick your brain on my head. The area that is is kind of near and dear to me. And I kind of want to unpack a little bit of what you did on the Valley Girl show because of when it was started. And we got this little preview of you were talking about like nobody was doing it. And it was this weird monopoly between being pulled down off YouTube and all of these different things. I'm curious, when you went to curate, were you the sole curator of your interview? Questions and research? And when you went to speak to these people, where did you draw your inquiry's from? Did you have this written script? Did you look at everything that you guys were garnering about them and think, I'm going to ask them this, this and this? Like, how did you kind of choose you interviewed Elon Musk. You interviewed a lot of like it wasn't just what you got into the flow was like early.   [00:32:21] And they were all such early stage startups. And Elon Musk, I think, and I both probably feel like that is an interview we wish didn't still exist.   [00:32:32] That's what it is.   [00:32:34] I don't know. He was very cool. It was probably one of his first press interviews. No one had even heard.   [00:32:39] Yeah. He looks like a babe in the woods on. Yeah, that I did. Watch that one. Yeah. Jessica Alba too. I was telling you, I was like. She looks good. Then I was like, well, she always looks good. But then I realized it was a little bit older. But I'm curious, how did you kind of curate your interview question process and who did the editing? Did you have any handle in how the editing and production was done or were you simply the host?   [00:33:03] Such good questions. So season one, I, I went to my Nickelodeon show and then filmed it on a hiatus out of my parents garage. It was a disaster. I hired my brothers were much younger than me and duct taped lamps to the wall. It was such a mess. I knew these sort of editor guys from high school who helped me out and put together those first episodes, which I just cringe thinking about. And then after that, I went back to the Nickelodeon show and I I am so grateful because like Alby Hecht, who's now runs HLN, the Ajoy Network. But I basically said to him, I said, hey, can I sit in on production meetings? Like, I don't know how to run a show, it turns out. And he was so nice. He just kind of was like, yeah, sure. So I went in and I learned about, you know, the production design and lighting and just how they thought about that. And then I started studying like The Ellen DeGeneres Show. I mean, she's still one of my idols forever. Like I would just say to me. And just what she did. And I liked that it was so positive. And then it sort of became this like we called it the Valley Girl because of Silicon Valley. But then it became this like a Valley Girl thing where everything turned pink and we just ran with it. It was a very pink talk show. But every season got a little better. So then I came back and I hired a small production team and they helped me film. And that's when I learned about, you know, like a multi camera shoot and how that worked, because on the Nickelodeon show, it's just a different style of filming. This is like, you know, I'd be like, how many cameras do I need? How. What's the least amount of cameras that I need? Yeah. I don't want to pay any more rent movies than I have to. And so we started a three camera shoot. And then every you know, once you create a really solid format and you know what you're doing in terms of format, then you can kind of branch out from there. And just thing came to fruition. Games that people liked to play, we continued to play. We just continue trying to get people to eat. Edible cockroaches like that did not go well, you know, like your true story. Like there were things that people freaked out. People are really scared of reptiles. It turns out I just was like this any fun anymore? We're not going to do nothing, but. So you you build upon that, so every season I'd come back with new sponsors or whatever and be like, OK, we can use a lot of the props and things from last season and just like put a nice shine over it, you know, and there are certain seasons that definitely stand out to me, especially once we got to television was just like a different level of production. But then we would you know, I remember we we got a jib, we borrowed someone jib, which is like sort of hanging camera so you can get that cool hanging shot has a tiny, tiny room. And it just made it. It like brought it to a whole nother level. We from the Nickelodeon show, there was a lot of music and I had one of the music guys helped me put together like a music thing is like a valley girl. Little funny sound. Intro song that we cut together some fun clips of the show on. And in terms of the questions, I mean. I'm sure you're asking also because as a talk show host, there is no books on this. Right. I read everything. There was like the art of the interview was like that wasn't helpful. Hi. You know, there's really no books on it. And what I would say, having done thousands of interviews and and also been interviewed thousands of times. I really appreciate that you do your research. I think that says everything.   [00:37:03] I'll never forget this one interview I had on Fox Business and. We were on camera when I realized she had not done an ounce of research. And sometimes those shows move fast. So we give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But it's like, you know my name. Know what I'm doing.   [00:37:19] Like, know why I'm here? And it's fine in those situations. If you ever are being interviewed, you should just know that as soon people have no idea and just kind of interrupt and like, give them your whole spiel. But I really appreciate people doing the research. I did just we would book and we would film like, you know, a whole season in a week or two and I would do up to five interviews a day. I don't know how I did that in my early 20s. Like, I now think about that. There was I did some international interviews, too, at conferences and stuff. And I remember there was one day I did eight interviews and I was like, I can't do that again, because you're right, you're on camera. People expect a lot of you. You need to be on point. But yeah. So the first probably Four Seasons, I wrote all the questions myself. Of course, I would get input. I would ask PR. I work with the PR teams. I would always try to get different things so like that no one had talked about. So like with Sheryl Sandberg, I found this weird tidbit online somewhere that she had formerly been an eighties workout instructor. And I saw it and I apparently had I broke that piece of news. And if you watched that episode, she is shocked. She's like, I don't know how you bounce. And I was then quoted like three times in The Wall Street Journal or the show was that was the moment I sort of like, wow, this is crazy. It's like according to the Valley Girl show, you know, Sheryl Sandberg used to be a workout instructor. And I think you want to find those tidbits. And for me, I didn't want the PR fight a version. We would interview these CEOs who had been trained and trained and trained. And I would go in with a bunch of questions and know what I wanted out of the interview. And in the beginning, if you watched those first episodes, you know, I mean, they really haunt me because I didn't know how to do an interview. I just write a whole bunch of questions. Then I started being like, OK, these are topics. And here's the questions I'd like to ask under every topic. And then also, can I make it funny? And so, you know, it evolved like anything. No one's good at it the first time or the second or the third time. But I worked really hard on those interviews, especially at the end and then when we were on.   [00:39:37] We were on Fox in local Fox and appearance's go in and we were poached by. CBS CapEx in San Francisco. And when that happened, I was working 24/7 around the clock. The stories I could tell you from that season. I had moved the show to L.A. and then we would have to turn it around and get it to San Francisco. We would have to close caption it. I was not sleeping. I was newly married, had a baby and was contemplating raising this fund. And I my husband finally sat me down and was like, so this is not humanly sustainable. Yeah, you can't actually do this. But that was when I brought on a writer just to help me with, like monologues because the format had changed a little bit and I couldn't turn around these episodes in time. And the writer who I brought on her name is Liz Hanah, and she is currently b hottest like writer in Hollywood. After she wrote the Valley Girl show, she'd probably like, please never talk about this again. She's after her. She wrote the Valley Girl show. She wrote the Post with Meryl Streep. And so now she's written The Long Shot. She's on every cool show coming out as a writer. She's just she's awesome. And I am so excited to continue to watch her career. But she was funny and she did a really good job coming up with some jokes. And you need other people in there, too.   [00:41:00] At a certain point to just get all of the work done. But I really did. Ultimately, if you're an interview host, you're the one saying it at the end of the day. So if someone else is writing your questions for you and you should think about this in terms of moderating panels or giving presentations, like if someone tells you to say something that you don't feel comfortable with, you're representing yourself. So never say that.   [00:41:23] So we had not with necessarily with Liz, but there were situations where someone would say, oh, you have to ask them about that or you just need to go with what you feel comfortable with. And those were the lessons I learned. Mainly like those are more of like public interviews. When you do it in front of a large audience or what have you.   [00:41:42] Yeah. So I did all the writing for the most part until it came on and I did an extreme amount of research. And then also just how do I come up with an idea like I mean, some things worked and some things didn't because I was trying to make technology approachable. And at that time, it wasn't. It was. People just didn't get it. They didn't understand hardware. They didn't understand software. And so I tried to make crazy analogies. I remember we had these, like, equal guys on one time.   [00:42:13] They were running this company called Equal Field. I filled like a wagon with sugar, like equal like the steps, the sugar steps to sarco.   [00:42:23] It's not even funny when I'm telling you about it, but there are things like that were it was just it was fun to come up with and we would come up with just crazy games. And some people still bring up the Fab Cup to me, which was basically just like a rapid fire questions game. And I think we ultimately at the end call it rapid fire questions. But in the beginning we called it the fluff cut because it was this fluffy bucket. And then I learned that that was like a porn term. And so you just I mean, yeah, like I could tell you all day, but yes, I, I had my hands on everything. I thought I had to be the last person to really work with the interviews, even when Liz came on. Yeah. I just needed to know these people through and through and really figure out what made them tick. And if I didn't feel like I had enough information, I'd like reach out to their assistant or I would just be like, give me something. Give me some, like, fun fact. Like, I don't know, you know, I don't know anything about this. Yeah.   [00:43:24] And it does. And it differentiates. I mean. Well, back when you were doing it, as well as social media, I feel like I can find any little skeleton. I need to know if I'm looking for something.   [00:43:34] But back in that point, it is I think there was a lot of like old school reach out to even just five years ago. It was just a different game.   [00:43:42] And I think it's it's awesome because it's still the Wild West. But I also think I did a podcast recently where I was interviewed about I've started, you know, five podcasts over the past two years. And people are asking me about, like, you know, you seem to have this down. And and I'm a very organized individual. I get very creative in my organized space, you know?   [00:44:02] And so I have these these ledgers, which is why I tend to redo systems that I have. But I it's actually a pet peeve of mine. And I used to think it was because I'm a nerd. I love academia. You know, I always did. I have a master's degree in art history, which just means I like to go to lectures. That's pretty much it. You know, I like to just go and sit around those people and talk and and and essentially my issue with podcasting is not that it's the Wild West, that there's all this like anyone is doing anything. It's that the lack of structure. Like I just a lot of times if someone had pulled up a podcast that it was two hours and ten minutes and I was like, girl, you are asking it from me, but I will give it to you. I will give that to you. But I for the first 10 minutes, the host didn't tell me anything about what I was expected to hear. Whether or not there was gonna be more than one or two guests, like I couldn't figure out the format. Was she going to start reading her diary? What was going to happen there? You know, and I'm down with a lot, so I just. But there was no forecasting. And then when she did get her first guest on, I had realized very, very quickly that she didn't even know she hadn't even spoken prior to hitting record, like she didn't know how to pronounce one's name, let alone anything more than a bio that she had scrubbed off line. And I saw in the interview, I keep telling people, you know, I think that there is a slight onus for anybody who's going to get online and interview someone else that you you should do research. And how much that is, is however much time you have or how much you want to invest in it. But as someone put forth some kind of a structure and research, otherwise, let's not call it a podcast. Let's call it your daily musings. My twelve year old has a podcast. It's got more structure than 90 percent of what I find, you know, and maybe that's because she doesn't want to upset me in here. What you're hearing right now. But I think that there is a responsibility to start passing things out and it will probably come, like you said, with your show, eventually you start to find a beautiful narrative. But I do think that podcasts lack research and structure, and it is kind of daunting, especially to be interviewed when you go on someone's show and they're like, so what is it you do?   [00:46:07] Why am I? Did you find my name in the White Pages? How is this happening?   [00:46:12] You know, I completely agree. And people like being able to depend on something. You know, you get like that carpool karaoke show and it's a very simple format thing. Carpool karaoke in the car. And people love it, you know, hook off with a happy show. Very simple to follow. And I think people. Yeah, I think you're you're completely spot on that people need that structure. And I was actually thinking when you in the beginning, when you're like, this is what we're going to talk about. There's that like sort of like just a good general format to go by is tell what you're gonna tell him, tell him and tell him what you told him. And it's like a very simple format for any show and any research paper.   [00:47:02] It's the perfect paragraph.   [00:47:04] I'm bummed we have to wrap up, but I want to turn now towards goals that you have for the next one to three years. And it's important. I will not ever omit or dodge the current contemporary times. And you were alluding to earlier. So not only are we in the midst of the Cauvin 19 pandemic, how we are also in the midst of the tragedy, the pre cursing and post khaja and that tragedy with George Floyds murder and some of the riots that have happened.   [00:47:31] I'm in San Diego. You're in L.A. There has been a great deal of unsettling and disease with American society. And I'm an optimist. I believe that we're going to come out of this better. I hope for the sake of honoring George and as well as the entire community that he is representing, you know that we can do that. But I'm wondering with your company and your your goals reaching forward with both of those two things kind of compounding and coming into our reality, has it shifted or transformed your goals for the next one to three years or have they stayed the course? Have you doubled down? How does anything look for you? I mean, for all of your endeavors, you know, but for halogen in particular.   [00:48:15] I mean, yeah, like our goals changed at the beginning of Cauvin. And I am I'm devastated about what's going on and I'm uncertain about what's going to happen. Now, we may have to completely transform our goals again. You know, we invest in early stage companies and sometimes there's three people with an idea in a room. It's the riskiest asset class, which is why we do 30 deals per portfolio. And, you know, but it hedges in terms of like if you're an angel investor and you invest in a one off deal right now, it's probably not a good time to invest in a one off deal because, you know, at that stage, it's very likely that I'll go under. They say you need to do 10 deals in order to really see some payoff. And so I feel like our strategy has worked thus far where we invest in these early stage companies. We do 30 deals per portfolio, but week one of co bid. When you deal with early stage companies, you're getting the calls first because we move faster, our companies move faster because they're smaller. So we're hearing 60 percent hits to revenue, 90 percent hits to revenue depending on the business. And so we had two in one week talk to all 62 of our founders. We just called them, got a hold of them and ah, one hundred and fifty item checklist for diligence. Quickly transformed into three things. Yeah. And. Does this company have run or cash through January because we don't know how long this is going to last, too? Based on our experience, you know, pretty quickly, like in a year or two, if a founder can perform, and that's something to keep in mind for founders out there thinking about taking on investment, like prove yourself follow through, especially in the first year or two, because your investors won't give you more money if they feel like you didn't follow through in those first couple of years. So we say based on our experience with these founders, can they execute and take this thing all the way regardless? And then the third thing was, is this business covered, sustainable and beyond? And so while we were about to invest in three new very risky deals that we didn't have experience with the founders, I basically said I put those on hold, which was devastating for the founders.   [00:50:40] And I said, hey, I'm not saying we're not going to we just need to go check out our current portfolio. And then we chose our top performing performing deals. We doubled down on those. And then we were we're early stage fund. We don't have billions of dollars to invest. You know, call me in 10 years. And that's definitely one of my goals. But we're still growing. So we have to be really, really thoughtful, as you always should with your capital. But we we tried to support every founder in every in some way. So we invested in some we hosted a pitch day for some and our our investors invested in some of those. We put together a whole list of resources from debt opportunities to credit lines to banks they could talk to. We had someone tracking the SBA loan, which changes still sort of daily. And we also, like, offered everyone a free hour of PR and other business services just to support whatever they needed.   [00:51:45] My team, Alexis and Ashley from my team, actually one of our companies was growing so fast. So some companies are doing really well. We have this company called Pride. That's like it's like a teenage zoom zoom call. So they're obviously taking off. And they were taking off a little before, but they were growing so quickly that Alexa and Ashley kind of took over their marketing arm for a minute. And now we've helped them put some people in place there. So we were actually helping operate some companies, doing whatever we possibly could. So in terms of goals, we're still hashing those out. But what I'm really proud of is that we put together those goals in one week and we've already executed the plan.   [00:52:27] And that's in two months. We've, you know, invested capital into our best performers and we've supported everybody else to the extent we can. And we continue to do that. And it was not our normal plan at all.   [00:52:42] I do hope, you know, down the road we're on our second fund. I do hope, you know, we raised fund three. We raised fund for and they continue to grow and we continue to grow our team because we're still a startup as well.   [00:52:56] I hope that investing in women is seen more as an opportunity. And I hope we hope that we can help prove that we already are a little with our data that we're collecting on our founders and female founders in general. And and then also just, you know, goals for the world. I hope everyone sees diversity as just an asset to every single business. That's something we're constantly thinking about. So, yes. So that's that's what I would say in terms of our goals. But setting goals is pretty important.   [00:53:28] Yeah. And way to pivot Scullin's 60 companies in one week into transitioning all of that over.   [00:53:33] I mean, do we have a team that all of it. Yes, it was a lot.   [00:53:36] It was I would not want to stare that down on that Monday, and that would be a little bit less. It's a several it's like a whole new cappuccino machine. That's not coffee. I measure everything in coffee cups or especial shots. That's like a machine has a whole nother purchase. That's your own personal barista.   [00:53:53] I'm wondering. So this is my final question. It's my favorite part. And everyone knows who's been listening to me for the past couple of years. But I'm wondering if you walked up to someone in office, a safe social distance or they approached you sometime this week and it was a young woman or a female identified or non binary individual. And they said, listen, Jesse, I'm so glad I caught you. I just finished up learning the entire ins and outs of the film industry. I went to UCLA. I got everything done by buttoned up. I know all bit about it. I've gone to a ton of auditions and I have film industry experience and I've decided I'm going to keep all of that. And I'm also going to pivot now and going to starting my own investment fund and come from a family that's got some background there. But yeah, I'm just going to like, you know, bootstrap it and get going. One of the top three pieces of advice you would give that individual knowing what you know today.   [00:54:49] I would say go for it. I really think especially women, we need more female investors across the board. I would say baby steps just go one step at a time. There are mountains and mountains to climb. And then this goes for fundraising across the board, whether you're fund raising for a fund or for a business, because most people don't have a million dollars to do starting a business in their back pocket. In fact, the majority does. So they typically go raise money. I, I am sort of frustrated when women in particular come to me and say, well, everyone said, no, no one will invest in my company. And I say, OK, well, how many people have you talked to this l. Like, eight. OK, so that's not enough people. I talked to five hundred for my first fund. No joke. And you should plan on going out and talking to at least one hundred. If in 20 meetings you are hearing no's still go back to some of those people and say, hey, like what was the issue here? And it may be such a simple. Fix that, you could, like, throw a slide into your deck that addresses it. And it's no longer an issue. It could be something you haven't thought of before. But definitely listen in those situations. If you plan on going out and having 100 meetings, you'll raise it. You'll raise your your capital, whatever the number is. Just don't get weighed down by the nose. There's going to be a lot of that. And that's in any profession. But somehow it feels very personal when you're raising money and don't look at it that way. Look at it like I kind of talk to these incredible people. And then when they don't invest, say, can you tell me why? And usually shoots, like, has nothing to do with you. It's like, well, actually, like, most of my money is tied up right now, so I don't have any cash to invest. It's like, OK, well that's simple and it has nothing to do with my business or like we already invested too in too many consumer focused funds. And I'm like, oh, OK, I get that. They're trying to diversify their portfolio. I'll go back to their next fund. So I'd just say get through the nose and plan on having a hundred meetings.   [00:57:05] Nice. That's good. And I think you're being realistic, too. That's the scary part. And it's good. It's good to say those things.   [00:57:12] I think people can do at least 40 or you're like 100, 100.   [00:57:17] It'll probably be less so like that.   [00:57:20] Yeah. There's something probably vitally wrong with what you're doing if it's if it's 100 and all knows. But I think that's right.   [00:57:26] That's kind of the attitude of just go until, you know, there's the Hollywood formula. It's not about like, you know, quick breaks and stuff like that. It's like seven years where there's a mathematician that broke down. How long if you audition? Three to four times a week in Hollywood, it takes to make a big role, a main leading role.   [00:57:43] It's like an over. It takes 10 years to have an overnight success.   [00:57:47] Yeah. Exactly. And then it's like everyone's like, oh, they just got here and you're like, no, I've been holding it down a thousand percent. Okay, so I've got go for it baby steps and plan on talking to one hundred people and don't get weighed down by the nose. Just adjust as you go. Those are perfect. I love that Jesse. It went by too quickly. I'm going to have to have you back on. This was fascinating.   [00:58:12] This was so fun. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And I'm glad you're, you know, showcasing all of these incredible women because we need more people doing that.   [00:58:20] Awesome. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate that. And for everyone listening, I appreciate you. We've been speaking with Dressy--- Jesse Draper. She's the founder of Halogen Ventures and the host and creator of the Emmy nominated The Valley Girl Show.   [00:58:35] You can find out more about Jesse and her team and her fund on Halogen vc dot com.   [00:58:42] I appreciate all of you listening. I appreciate your time. And until we speak again next time, remember to stay in love with the world and always bet on yourself. Slaínte.  

Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, an LA-based early stage venture capital fund focused on investing in female founded consumer technology. She's a 4th generation venture capitalist (just watch the show Meet the Drapers), a former Nickelodeon star and also the creator and host of the Emmy nominated TV series, The Valley Girl Show. But of all the hats she wears, her MAIN ROLE (and most important) is as the mother to 2 little boys. Juggling her role as investor, "mother to companies", mother to 2 boys, wife and more is no easy feat especially with two full-time working parents.  In Part 1, Jesse and I dive into the behind-the-scenes of her home and work life, her path from daughter of a famous venture capitalist to TV star to founder of her own venture capital firm, and her journey through motherhood. Interview Notes: [5:37] Jesse's "past life" (aka pre-kid life) [12:30] Discussion on mom founded companies [15:42] How her priorities shifted after becoming a mom and her responsibilities as a "mother" to companies [20:15] How she's implementing the concepts from the book Fair Play into her marriage and household [24:27] Areas of her life she leaves messy [27:10] How she's trying to invest in childcare solutions [29:03] Finding your identity as a mom Follow Jesse at Halogen Ventures: www.halogenvc.com Instagram: @jessecdraper --- For more information, visit www.PowerMomMinute.com Connect with me! Website Instagram: @StephanieUchima and @PowerMomMinute Facebook

Learn what makes the perfect pitch when raising capital, how to create your best team, and what Jesse has learned from her work in venture capital. "Sometimes you're betting on a founder with a two or three person team, and sometimes you're betting on a sole founder. It's really about the people, so I try to get to know them however I possibly can." - Jesse Draper. Learn more about this episode of The Mentor Files with Monica Royer at www.monicaandandy.blog/62

Jesse Draper is the founding partner of Halogen Ventures and the creator and host of Emmy nominated TV series, The Valley Girl Show. Jesse joins me this week to talk about growing up as a 4th generation venture capitalist, and how she has shifted in her career from talk show host to venture capitalist, using both platforms to support and highlight women in tech. Jesse talks about the differences that she sees between men and women when pitching, the importance of networking, and how we can all be more badass in and out of the board room.    What You Will Hear in This Episode:    Jesse’s strong drive and ability to consistently network led her to an extremely successful acting career. She would offer to do the work for the writers and directors and made her name known as someone that would show up, be good to work with, and get the job done well.  Jesse wanted to spotlight more women in technology and female CEO’s and created Halogen Ventures to change the game in that arena.  Jesse’s parents encouraged her to look at things as a business, and that hustle stayed with her throughout her whole career.  Her TV show ‘The Valley Girls’ and Rocking Women Series created a space for Jesse to interview women in technology and hold prestigious roles in startups.  Diversity is extremely important at Halogen Ventures in every way. They have a diverse make up of age, ethnicity, viewpoints, etc. and always have several females on the executive team.  Badass females also recognize the contribution of males, and find ways that both genders can work well and compliment each other in business.  Jesse’s advice to females out there looking to pitch or even just sell themselves and their product even better:  Don’t apologize and feel like everything has to be perfect.  Know your market size.  Be confident about the possibility of being even bigger than your vision. Consider that you can create a billion dollar business.    Quotes:  “I think networking is really the key to success.”  “You need to at least act like a badass.”  “No successful person feels like a success, but you have to just fake it in some way.”  “Any investment you make in a female will pay off way more so.”  “Diversity breeds success in every way.”    Mentioned:  Halogen  Liz Hannah  Jesse Draper LinkedIn

Halogen Ventures invests ($250k - $1M) in consumer tech companies led by women (The Skimm, Carbon38). Jesse Draper shares her perspective of growing up 4th gen VC, how she learned to be fearless, and much more.

Halogen Ventures is an early stage venture capital fund focused on female founded consumer technologies. We believe in hands on attention and plug each of our portfolio companies into a strategic network of advisors, investors and accelerators in the greater venture community. With a focus on consumer, we also add value in the entertainment, marketing and PR space to further the footprint of our brands. https://halogenvc.com https://twitter.com/halogenvc https://www.instagram.com/halogenvc

We're back with another #movethedial minisode! Jesse Draper of Halogen Ventures, a firm that invests in co-ed led, early stage consumer technology companies. Jesse discusses the importance of diversity on a team, in a product, and what Halogen looks for in a company they want to invest in!Support the show (https://www.floatorfounder.com/our-sponsors.html)

Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, an early stage VC fund focused on female-founded consumer technology companies. Jesse started her career in entertainment, landing a part as a series regular on a Nickelodeon show before launching her own program: “The Valley Girl Show.” The Emmy nominated talk show, which started on YouTube and later transitioned to television, featured interviews with legendary entrepreneurs like Mark Cuban, Sheryl Sandberg, Jessica Alba, and Eric Schmidt. Jesse also interviewed many aspiring female entrepreneurs and began angel investing before raising her first venture fund. In this episode, Jesse shares her early experience in media as well as her frustration with the industry’s outdated business models. She calls for alternatives to sponsorship-based monetization, highlighting the success of her portfolio company The Skimm’s hybrid model of ads and paid subscriptions. Finally, Jesse explains how Halogen’s mission to invest in women-led startups is good for business, as female leaders typically raise half as much money, exit one year earlier, and double the average returns of their male counterparts. Host: James Creech LISTENER SUPPORT If you’d like to make a small monthly donation to help support future episodes, please visit https://anchor.fm/all-things-video/support ABOUT THE SHOW All Things Video is a podcast dedicated to uncovering the past and charting the future of the online video ecosystem. Listen to interviews with founders, executives, and thought leaders from the world’s leading media companies and engage in thought-provoking debates about the issues shaping the next generation of entertainment. From the short-form content revolution to the fragmentation of video viewership in an always-on world, All Things Video reveals the key trends and insights from the world of digital media. Follow All Things Video on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for new episodes and updates! ABOUT THE HOST James Creech is an entrepreneur focused on technology, online video, and digital media. He is the Co-Founder & CEO of Paladin, the essential influencer marketing platform for media companies, agencies, and brands. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Capital invested in female-founded startups reached the $1 billion mark this year—the highest quarterly total ever. But women-owned businesses still face a funding gap when it comes to venture capital. Fourth-generation VC investor Jesse Draper, one of the 50 Most Connected Women in America according to Marie Claire, is on a mission to change that. She shares the lessons she's learned from helping create the female billionaires of tomorrow. | References to specific securities are presented to illustrate the application of our investment philosophy only and are not to be considered recommendations by AllianceBernstein L.P. Note to all listeners: The information contained here reflects, as of the date hereof, the views of AllianceBernstein L.P. (or its applicable affiliate providing this publication) (“AB”) and sources believed by AB to be reliable as of the date of this podcast. No representation or warranty is made concerning the accuracy of any data compiled herein. In addition, there can be no guarantee that any projection, forecast or opinion in these materials will be realized. Past performance is neither indicative of, nor a guarantee of, future results. The views expressed herein may change at any time subsequent to the date of issue hereof. These materials are provided for informational purposes only and under no circumstances may any information contained herein be construed as investment advice. AB does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. The information contained herein does not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and you should, in considering this material, discuss your individual circumstances with professionals in those areas before making any decisions. Any information contained herein may not be construed as any sales or marketing materials in respect of, or an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of, any financial instrument, product or service sponsored or provided by AllianceBernstein L.P. or any affiliate or agent thereof.

Capital invested in female-founded startups reached the $1 billion mark this year—the highest quarterly total ever. But women-owned businesses still face a funding gap when it comes to venture capital. Fourth-generation VC investor Jesse Draper, one of the 50 Most Connected Women in America according to Marie Claire, is on a mission to change that. She shares the lessons she's learned from helping create the female billionaires of tomorrow. | References to specific securities are presented to illustrate the application of our investment philosophy only and are not to be considered recommendations by AllianceBernstein L.P.Note to all listeners: The information contained here reflects, as of the date hereof, the views of AllianceBernstein L.P. (or its applicable affiliateproviding this publication) (“AB”) and sources believed by AB to be reliable as of the date of this podcast. No representation or warranty is made concerning the accuracy ofany data compiled herein. In addition, there can be no guarantee that any projection, forecast or opinion in these materials will be realized. Pastperformance is neither indicative of, nor a guarantee of, future results. The views expressed herein may change at any time subsequent to thedate of issue hereof. These materials are provided for informational purposes only and under no circumstances may any information containedherein be construed as investment advice. AB does not provide tax, legal or accounting advice. The information contained herein does not takeinto account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and you should, in considering this material, discuss your individualcircumstances with professionals in those areas before making any decisions. Any information contained herein may not be construed as anysales or marketing materials in respect of, or an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of, any financial instrument, product or servicesponsored or provided by AllianceBernstein L.P. or any affiliate or agent thereof.

Jesse Draper has venture capital in her blood. Her father is famed VC Tim Draper. Her great grandfather started the first venture firm in the Western US. So you might assume she's always planned on being in venture capital. But Jesse originally set out to be an actress. She hadn't even considered a life in VC, because growing up, she'd never seen other women in the space. Today she leads Halogen Ventures aimed directly at investing in female-founded startups. She's learned there's no shortage of incredible talent in the field. And despite incredible deal-flow and work to be done, it's essential for her and the founders she works with to decompress and take care of themselves along the way. “That was an interesting moment for me where I realized that, oh yeah, I have to make sure I feed myself and hydrate, like very basic things for a human. And I think that's something for everyone to remember. We get caught up in work and life and you forget to look up and take care of yourself.” Learn more about The Journey at mission.org/thejourney. The Journey is sponsored by our friends at Salesforce Essentials. We use Salesforce Essentials every day and it's part of our own business journey. Essentials combines sales and service tools in a single app to help small businesses win customers and keep them happy. See how Salesforce Essentials can help you be your best business at salesforce.com/thejourney

On today's episode of Gritty Founder, Kreig Kent talks with Jesse Draper about starting The Valley Girl Show and Halogen Ventures. Jesse shares her passion for supporting female founders and why women often don’t get enough funding for their companies. Jesse Draper is the founding partner of Halogen Ventures as well as the creator and host of 2015 Emmy nominated television series,“The Valley Girl Show”. She is a 4th generation venture capitalist focused on early stage investing in female founded consumer technology businesses. Her portfolio includes Glamsquad, Laurel & Wolf, Carbon38, Naya Health, HopSkipDrive, The Flex Company & Sugarfina. Through her show -- she’s helped pioneer the way in digital media and she has an initiative to interview 50% women in technology. Previously a Nickelodeon star, she has used her comedic talents to bring an approachable feel to the technology world, and she has produced and distributed over 300 interviews with some of the greatest minds in technology and beyond (including; Ted Turner, Mark Cuban, Sheryl Sandberg, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Jessica Alba, MC Hammer and Eric Schmidt) and was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America’. Some Questions Kreig Asks Jesse: - What do you look for when you fund a company that is run by a woman? (12:03) - What is the most important characteristic for a founder to be successful? (12:14) - What is one failure that you can shed some light on in your career? (17:16) - Why aren’t female founders getting enough funding? (26:18) - What is one piece of advice you would give someone who is on the verge of starting a company? (36:39) - What advice would you give yourself if you could go back in time? (40:06) In This Episode, You Will Learn: - How Jesse started The Valley Girl Show and why she started Halogen Ventures (5:14) - As a founder you need to be malleable, open-minded, and willing to pivot the company (13:17) - Always be striving to improve yourself (15:59) - You need to be able to listen to different ideas and opinions, but filter and figure out what is most important (16:22) - Don’t hear the word “no” (18:59) - There are no bad ideas, it’s all about execution (20:44) - Female founders are held to a much higher standard (33:00) - Don’t try to be perfect. Get your idea out there and tell everyone who will listen. (36:54) - You don’t have to please everybody (41:44) Connect with Jesse Draper: Twitter Halogen Ventures Also Mentioned on This Show... Jesse's favorite quote: “Eighty percent of success is just showing up.” ―Tim Draper Jesse’s book recommendations: Essentialism by Greg McKeown Financially Fearless by Alexa von Tobel

Learn what makes the perfect pitch when raising capital, how to create your best team, and what Jesse has learned from her work in venture capital. "Sometimes you're betting on a founder with a two or three person team, and sometimes you're betting on a sole founder. It's really about the people, so I try to get to know them however I possibly can." - Jesse Draper. Learn more about this episode of The Mentor Files with Monica Royer at www.monicaandandy.blog/62

Ben Higgins is best known from season 20 of ABC's hit series, "The Bachelor," where he opened himself up to millions of viewers, giving them the chance to truly get to know him. The opportunity ultimately led to an enhanced platform that he now uses to share what he is most passionate about with others - his faith, his hope for humanity and his love of sports. Born and raised in Winona Lake, IN, Ben currently resides in Denver, CO, where he moved after graduating from Indiana University in 2012. Since "The Bachelor," Ben has been keeping up with a number of projects with the help of some of his closest friends. Most recently, Ben founded Generous International, a for purpose company dedicated to contributing profits to social issues around the world, starting with a cup of coffee. With a vision to change the way society thinks of consumer products, all Generous merchandise is designed specifically to create and multiply good in the world. Whether creating jobs, feeding children or improving education, it begins with giving back in order to build a world that we all want to live in. In 2017 Ben created a lifestyle blog, The Mahogany Workplace, where people?are free to openly and honestly discuss all things life, love and everything in between. From style to travel to world views, Ben and his team of refreshing contributors cover it all, with the one common thread being complete transparency about how life can truly be - a series of ups and downs, joys and sorrows, triumph and pain.? Ben stays connected with his loyal Bachelor following with his iHeartMedia podcast, "Almost Famous," which he co-hosts with his friend and former Bachelor contestant, Ashley Iaconetti. It's the perfect destination for fans to get an inside perspective on the popular franchise as they break down the current Bachelor season in addition to discussing pop culture, offering relationship advice and allowing listeners to keep up with their personal lives. Along with "Almost Famous" a new project started in 2018 for Ben and IheartMedia; a new podcast venture called Lady Bosses (and Ben). Ben along with his co-host Jesse Draper believe that we are at our best when we can communicate openly, honestly, and respectfully. Lady Bosses (and Ben) interviews and highlights women leaders in whatever arena they are operating. From celebrities, CEO's, to athletes Lady Boss (and Ben) desires to show off their stories and empower all leaders listening that they matter and that they can make a difference. Of all Ben's ventures, his longest-running connection has been with Humanity and Hope United, where he holds a seat on the board. Established by one of his best friends and Mahogany Workplace contributor, Riley Fuller, Humanity & Hope United is a non-profit organization working to assist underserved villages in remote parts of Honduras. They partner with the people of each community to achieve sustainable change, focusing on the needs of individuals rather than a single issue or approach. Are you ready to start dreaming big? CLICK HERE to receive your free Dream Big Workbook. ————————— On the episode: Producer :

Ben Higgins is best known from season 20 of ABC's hit series, "The Bachelor," where he opened himself up to millions of viewers, giving them the chance to truly get to know him. The opportunity ultimately led to an enhanced platform that he now uses to share what he is most passionate about with others - his faith, his hope for humanity and his love of sports. Born and raised in Winona Lake, IN, Ben currently resides in Denver, CO, where he moved after graduating from Indiana University in 2012. Since "The Bachelor," Ben has been keeping up with a number of projects with the help of some of his closest friends. Most recently, Ben founded Generous International, a for purpose company dedicated to contributing profits to social issues around the world, starting with a cup of coffee. With a vision to change the way society thinks of consumer products, all Generous merchandise is designed specifically to create and multiply good in the world. Whether creating jobs, feeding children or improving education, it begins with giving back in order to build a world that we all want to live in. In 2017 Ben created a lifestyle blog, The Mahogany Workplace, where people?are free to openly and honestly discuss all things life, love and everything in between. From style to travel to world views, Ben and his team of refreshing contributors cover it all, with the one common thread being complete transparency about how life can truly be - a series of ups and downs, joys and sorrows, triumph and pain.? Ben stays connected with his loyal Bachelor following with his iHeartMedia podcast, "Almost Famous," which he co-hosts with his friend and former Bachelor contestant, Ashley Iaconetti. It's the perfect destination for fans to get an inside perspective on the popular franchise as they break down the current Bachelor season in addition to discussing pop culture, offering relationship advice and allowing listeners to keep up with their personal lives. Along with "Almost Famous" a new project started in 2018 for Ben and IheartMedia; a new podcast venture called Lady Bosses (and Ben). Ben along with his co-host Jesse Draper believe that we are at our best when we can communicate openly, honestly, and respectfully. Lady Bosses (and Ben) interviews and highlights women leaders in whatever arena they are operating. From celebrities, CEO's, to athletes Lady Boss (and Ben) desires to show off their stories and empower all leaders listening that they matter and that they can make a difference. Of all Ben's ventures, his longest-running connection has been with Humanity and Hope United, where he holds a seat on the board. Established by one of his best friends and Mahogany Workplace contributor, Riley Fuller, Humanity & Hope United is a non-profit organization working to assist underserved villages in remote parts of Honduras. They partner with the people of each community to achieve sustainable change, focusing on the needs of individuals rather than a single issue or approach. This month we have a free resource giveaway you can easily download to help you dig deeper on the inner work to develop capacity in yourself to reach for bigger dreams.. ————————— On the episode: Producer : Haley King Engineer : Jackson Carpenter Co-host : Scott Schimmel

Ben Higgins is best known from season 20 of ABC’s hit series, “The Bachelor,” where he opened himself up to millions of viewers, giving them the chance to truly get to know him. The opportunity ultimately led to an enhanced platform that he now uses to share what he is most passionate about with others – his faith, his hope for humanity and his love of sports. Born and raised in Winona Lake, IN, Ben currently resides in Denver, CO, where he moved after graduating from Indiana University in 2012. Since “The Bachelor,” Ben has been keeping up with a number of projects with the help of some of his closest friends. Most recently, Ben founded Generous International, a for purpose company dedicated to contributing profits to social issues around the world, starting with a cup of coffee. With a vision to change the way society thinks of consumer products, all Generous merchandise is designed specifically to create and multiply good in the world. Whether creating jobs, feeding children or improving education, it begins with giving back in order to build a world that we all want to live in. In 2017 Ben created a lifestyle blog, The Mahogany Workplace, where people are free to openly and honestly discuss all things life, love and everything in between. From style to travel to world views, Ben and his team of refreshing contributors cover it all, with the one common thread being complete transparency about how life can truly be – a series of ups and downs, joys and sorrows, triumph and pain.  Ben stays connected with his loyal Bachelor following with his iHeartMedia podcast, “Almost Famous,” which he co-hosts with his friend and former Bachelor contestant, Ashley Iaconetti. It’s the perfect destination for fans to get an inside perspective on the popular franchise as they break down the current Bachelor season in addition to discussing pop culture, offering relationship advice and allowing listeners to keep up with their personal lives. Along with “Almost Famous” a new project started in 2018 for Ben and IheartMedia; a new podcast venture called Lady Bosses (and Ben). Ben along with his co-host Jesse Draper believe that we are at our best when we can communicate openly, honestly, and respectfully. Lady Bosses (and Ben) interviews and highlights women leaders in whatever arena they are operating. From celebrities, CEO’s, to athletes Lady Boss (and Ben) desires to show off their stories and empower all leaders listening that they matter and that they can make a difference. Of all Ben’s ventures, his longest-running connection has been with Humanity and Hope United, where he holds a seat on the board. Established by one of his best friends and Mahogany Workplace contributor, Riley Fuller, Humanity & Hope United is a non-profit organization working to assist underserved villages in remote parts of Honduras. They partner with the people of each community to achieve sustainable change, focusing on the needs of individuals rather than a single issue or approach. This month we have a free resource giveaway you can easily download to help you dig deeper on the inner work to develop capacity in yourself to reach for bigger dreams.. ————————— On the episode: Producer : Haley King Engineer : Jackson Carpenter Co-host : Scott Schimmel

In celebration of March Madness & MSU's Men's Basketball Team making it to the NCAA Men's College Basketball Tournament Final Four, "More or Less Human" is releasing a special episode. In this Special Episode of "More or Less Human" we sit down with Prof. Morgan Shipley and Prof. Jesse Draper for a discussion on Sports & Religion, and how each can be similarly used to construct identity. Go Green!!!

Ben Higgins and Jesse Draper sit down with Tanya Sam from The Real Housewives of Atlanta to talk about her expertise with investing in tech, and what it’s like working with her husband on business ventures. Tanya and Ben bond over their similar experiences in business and being on reality TV. And our “Lady Boss of the Week” is Kelly Ryan from Anchor Meditation. She was able to build a successful business from her life’s passion, and she’s got some insight on how the best ventures are the ones you are personally connect with.  Plus, Jesse lets you in on some investing trends for 2019 that you NEED to be watching. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

When Jesse Draper created and began hosting the 2015 Emmy nominated television series, The Valley Girl Show, she discovered something interesting; it wasn’t easy to find women in business to interview! Learn more about this episode at joychudacoff.com/59

In Workparty the book, Jaclyn talks about how women helped her build her businesses through introduction emails, recommendations and allowing her to get a foot in the door for important meetings. This is something every single one of us can do, rich, poor, successful, unsuccessful, high up or entry level. We can all help each other out and pay it forward because one woman’s success is all of our success.   In this episode of WorkParty the podcast, Jaclyn interviews the actress and philanthropist Kristen Bell on how she pays it forward in her everyday life and through her business This Bar Saves Lives. Our expert for this episode, Jesse Draper, founder of Halogen Ventures, shares how she got started in the business of creating the next female billionaire through venture capital funding.   Be sure to follow the party on social @workparty and get the latest updates at www.workparty.com   Guest Information:   Kristen Bell: @kristenanniebell This Bar Saves Lives: https://amzn.to/2QHBvY7   Expert:   Jesse Draper: @Jessecdraper Halogen Ventures: @Halogenvc   Host:   Jaclyn Johnson: http://jaclynrjohnson.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaclynrjohnson/   C&C Headquarters:   Tyeal: https://www.instagram.com/tyeal/   Episode Resources:   WorkParty.com createcultivate.com

You may think you know Ben Higgins from The Bachelor, but he’s here to explore a different side of him that you didn’t see on TV. His co-host, Jesse Draper, kicks off this episode with some background into her personal and professional life, and she reveals how she picks a company to invest in.   Then, Alison Sweeney from The Biggest Loser stops by, and talks about her new project with The Hallmark Channel, and the experience of pursuing career goals and parenting at the same time.   And in a segment called “Stuff We Didn’t Know We Needed”, we talk to the creator of Windy Farms Ice Cream, which combines ice cream… with ham.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Here's a taste of Lady Bosses (and Ben)! Get to know entrepreneur Jesse Draper, and see a different side of Ben Higgins than what we've seen on The Bachelor. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Simply put, ‘Hall of Breakfast,’ is an immersive pop-up experience, they celebrate the most important meal of the day… Breakfast. In this week’s episode, Dylan sits down with project co-founder, graphic designer Courtney Mahon, and artist Jesse Draper. We talk about their process and execution of creating an excellent breakfast experience Get out and check […] The post CRE8TIVITY 044: “Hall of Breakfast” appeared first on Utah Podcast Network.

Simply put, ‘Hall of Breakfast,’ is an immersive pop-up experience, they celebrate the most important meal of the day… Breakfast. In this week’s episode, Dylan sits down with project co-founder, graphic designer Courtney Mahon, and artist Jesse Draper. We talk about their process and execution of creating an excellent breakfast experience Get out and check […] The post CRE8TIVITY 044: “Hall of Breakfast” appeared first on Utah Podcast Network.

‘I wanted to play with Barbies, but I also loved smashing up a computer and learning about silicon chips.' Despite growing up in a tech savvy, entrepreneurial family, Jesse Draper didn't see herself as a venture capitalist for a long time because ‘that's not what women do.' So, how do we level the playing field and get girls to see themselves in roles as startup founders, investors and board members? Jesse is the founding partner of Halogen Ventures, a VC firm focused on early-stage investing in female-founded consumer technology startups. Her portfolio includes Laurel & Wolf, Carbon38, the Skimm, HopSkipDrive and Sugarfina, among many others. Jesse is also the creator and host of 2015 Emmy-nominated series The Valley Girl Show, producing and distributing 500 interviews with some of the greatest minds in technology and entrepreneurship. She has been a contributor to Marie Claire, Mashable and Forbes, and Jesse serves on the board of Werk, SurfAir and nonprofit Bizworld. Today, Jesse joins us at Boost to share her path to becoming a venture capitalist and offer insight around women in VC. She explains the impetus behind The Valley Girl Show, discussing the hustle required to launch and sustain a long-running tech talk show in the broken media industry. Listen in to understand how Jesse eventually came to see herself as a capable VC and learn how to raise girls who aren't afraid to build jetpacks or take apart computers. Connect with Jesse Halogen Ventures http://halogenvc.com/ Halogen on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/halogenvc/ Halogen on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/halogenvc/ Jesse on Twitter https://twitter.com/JesseDraper Resources Steam https://store.steampowered.com/ Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/ Shoe Dog by Phil Knight https://www.amazon.com/Shoe-Dog-Phil-Knight/dp/1508211809 Connect with Boost VC Boost VC Website https://www.boost.vc/ Boost VC on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/boostvc/ Boost VC on Twitter https://twitter.com/BoostVC

”Maybe it doesn’t need to take a grandiose gesture. What if it is just one tiny action that really could make a world of a difference?”   SPONSORED BY GO LIVE HQ Save 25% off their customizable, easy-to-use website templates and download their brand bio formula for free: http://bit.ly/golivetrfe   WHAT'S IN THIS EPISODE? What would you do if you were 1% more courageous? That’s the question Jude Martinez started asking herself when she was faced with some really big fears after playing it safe for years. That question would also later be her catalyst for launching In Her Shoes, a global organization committed to catalyzing courage for young girls and women around the world. You know those pivotal moments in your life that you can look back on and say “That. That was moment things changed.” Here’s one of Jude’s: after being accepted to her dream law school, she realized that the thing she had always wanted wasn’t at all what she really wanted. Scared of what everyone would think, she secretly declined her acceptance and told everyone else she was deferring for one year. She gave herself that one year to “figure it out”. And that’s where our story begins... We talk about: How playing small for years protected her from fear How fear is now her best compass How Jude intuitively made the decision to turn down a giant opportunity she’d spent years working towards How she turned her passion for social entrepreneurship into starting her own organization   WHO IS JUDE MARTINEZ? Judith Martinez is the Founder and CEO of InHerShoes and Chief of Strategy at Orenda Collective. InHerShoes is a millennial led, social impact driven, global organization committed to catalyzing courage for young girls and women around the world. Their mission is simple: activate the genius of a generation to make a difference in their communities now. A by-product being re-defying traditional standards of what it looks like to be a successful woman today. When she’s not catalyzing courage for women at InHerShoes, she’s equipping startup entrepreneurs and small businesses with strategies that grow profit and social impact at boutique consulting agency, Orenda Collective. Judith has worked with organizations such as Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, world-class leaders such as Leon Panetta, and has shared her voice on behalf of youth at the Youth Assembly, United Nations. Selected as a StartingBloc fellow in Washington, D.C., Judith has worked with organizations such as ReWork, Mind Hatch, and the Transformative Action Institute. She has co-authored Students Lead Now, the first book written by students, for students, on student leadership in the higher education space, and was most recently selected to work side by side with Echoing Green Fellows in building a Social Innovation and Leadership program to equip college students with 21st century skill sets for success at Claremont McKenna College. Recognized by The Next Big Thing Movement as one of 2017's Millennial Influencers, she was nominated to join the ranks of Forbes 30 Under 30 for her commitment to first generation women and transforming what it means to be a non-profit in this day and age. She most recently was honored as one of CSQ Magazine’s #NextGen10 awardees for her impact in Arts, Culture, and Philanthropy in the Los Angeles entrepreneurial eco-system, alongside folks like Kobe Bryant, Jeff Stibel, and Jesse Draper in Innovation & Tech.   LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE: TEDx Youth Assembly at the United Nations Ashoka Episode 176 with Emily Ann Peterson ”Bare Naked Bravery” by Emily Ann Peterson In her Shoes on Instagram www.inhershoesmvmt.org

Jared and Vanessa learn about “Camp No Counselors”, where you can play like a kid, and party like an adult.   Then on the other side of the spectrum, venture capitalist Jesse Draper with the ultimate advice on how to avoid financial arguments when starting a new relationship.   And if you’ve ever wanted to be on The Bachelor, you won’t want to miss when Allison Kaz calls in. She’s casting a new show for Fox that’s kind of like a “grown up” version of The Bachelor. She’s looking for ladies that are sick of dating and are ready to start a family with a serious partner. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Eric Winter from ABC’s “The Good Doctor”, scrubs in with Becca and Tanya for some clinical observation. They help answer some patient questions, including one who is considering a transfer from her home physician to Los Angeles, they diagnose Tanya’s opening line to Matthew Perry, and Tanya gives the team her peer reviewed procedure for a perfect first date. Later on, financial analyst Jesse Draper calls in to offer some remedies for money issues, and how to set yourself on a financial clean bill of health.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Segment 1: William Hung is best known for his audition on American Idol. It all started when he saw a poster for a school's talent show at the Clark Kerr dormitories. He decided to sing the song, "She Bangs" by Ricky Martin for fun but to his great surprise, he won! That gave him the confidence to audition for American Idol. He never made it to Hollywood but somehow, he was able to achieve accidental fame and success anyway. Why? Segment 2:Jesse Draper is founding partner of Halogen Ventures as well as creator and host of 2015 Emmy nominated television series, “The Valley Girl Show”. She is a 4th generation venture capitalist focused on early stage investing in female founded consumer technology.Segment 3:Ami Kassar is the founder and chief executive officer of Multifunding LLC, a Philadelphia-based consulting firm that specializes in helping business owners across the United States develop creative, cost-saving alternatives for their business debt needs and structure. Ami is the author of the new book “The Growth Dilemma”. Segment 4:Chris Woodyard is a Product Manager at Square, overseeing work on Square for Retail and Point of Sale apps for small business owners.Segment 5:Barry Moltz shares how to get your business unstuck.Sponsored by Nextiva.

Jesse Draper is a 4th generation venture capitalist, founding partner of Halogen Ventures, and host of Emmy nominated,“The Valley Girl Show.” Guest Biography Jesse Draper is founding partner of Halogen Ventures as well as creator and host of 2015 Emmy nominated television series, “The Valley Girl Show”. Draper is a 4th generation venture capitalist focused on early stage investing in female founded consumer technology. Her portfolio includes Laurel & Wolf, Carbon38, Naya Health, HopSkipDrive, The Flex Company & Sugarfina. Through her show she’s helped pioneer the way in digital media and has an initiative to interview 50% women in technology. Previously a Nickelodeon star, Draper has used her comedic talents to bring an approachable feel to the technology world, has produced and distributed over 300 interviews with some of the greatest minds in technology and beyond (including; Ted Turner, Mark Cuban, Sheryl Sandberg, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Jessica Alba, MC Hammer and Eric Schmidt) and was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the ‘50 Most Connected Women in America’. USA Today called the show “Must see startup TV”. Draper is a contributor to Marie Claire, SV Magazine, Mashable, Forbes.com, and is a regular investor and tech personality on shows including ‘The Katie Couric Show’, Fox’s ‘Good Day LA’, CNBC’s ‘Who Wants to Be the Next Millionaire Inventor?’ & Freeform’s Startup U. She proudly sits on the board of directors of Werk, the advisory board of Bizworld and is on the Chairman’s board of SurfAir. Draper supports the Parkinson’s Institute and is very involved with growing UCLA’s female entrepreneurship community. She is a new mom, a graduate of UCLA and a Kappa Kappa Gamma. Show notes: http://www.inspiredmoney.fm/016 In this episode, you will learn: What Jesse looks for when evaluating companies to invest in. The importance of diversity, expanding up your networks, being open to new opportunities and industries. The importance of keeping your money moving and to always be learning. Links Halogen Ventures The Valley Girl Show Twitter LinkedIn Instagram Meet The Drapers - Crowdfunding Reality TV Series Gazillionaire Deluxe - Business Simulation Game Kiva.org - lend alongside thousands of others joining forces to make a powerful and sustainable way to create economic and social good Companies Mentioned Laurel & Wolf Naya Health Sugarfina Dog Parker Carbon38 Paperless Post Thanks for Listening! To share your thoughts: Leave a note in the comment section below. Share this show on Twitter or Facebook. To help out the show: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help, and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes. Special thanks to Jim Kimo West for the music.

Female entrepreneur/venture capitalist/actress Jesse Draper is living proof that women can do anything! Listen to this podcast if you want to leave your 9-5 job and pursue your passion! Rachael soaks up knowledge from Jesse on how to start your own business, manage family life, and take that leap of faith into entrepreneurship. Jesse breaks down the steps to teach young entrepreneurs how to pursue their side passion/blog/innovative idea and make it truly come to life. Jesse also tells Rachael about her new Shark Tank-esque show called "The Drapers" where she, her father and her grandfather (did we mention she comes from a long line of venture capitalists?) invest in real ideas and real entrepreneurs -- as they've been doing independently for years! Jesse shares insights from her many interviews with famed female CEOs (she's interviewed Jessica Alba, among many others) and she tells Rachael about her own leaps of faith, investing in companies from their infancy -- including Sugarfina and Paperless Post. Marie Claire named Jesse one of the "50 Most Connected People in America". Get inspired and follow Jesse @jessedraper! Are you in need of great talent for your business but short on time? With ZipRecruiter, you can post your job to over 100 of the web's leading job boards and receive qualified candidates back within one day -- for FREE! Just go to www.ziprecruiter.com/behere Get $20 off Rachael's favorite Away carry-on suitcase! Just use promo code: BEHERE at www.awaytravel.com/behere Bombas socks are the most comfortable, cozy socks and YOU can get 20% off your first purchase at www.bombas.com/behere -- so go get yourself a bunch of new socks! ZOLA is reinventing the wedding planning and registry experience to make the happiest moment in our couples' lives even happier!! Sign up and get a $50 credit towards your registry at: zola.com/behere!!

In today’s episode, Eva and Olga welcome Jesse Draper, a Venture Capitalist who does early stage seed investing in female founded startups. For our show notes, visit DreamBigPodcast.com/57

Venture capitalist Jesse Draper drops in to talk all things business! From her vision for a female billionaire future to giving advice on how YOU too can start your own business - this episode is hot fire!

Sarika Batra is the Producer and Director of ‘Meet the Drapers’, the first-ever startup crowdfunding show that features startups pitching 3 generations of Drapers. The twist is that the millions of viewers are the investors! Sarika will reveal how the show was created and how you can have the opportunity to pitch to the Drapers. She will also discuss the structure of the deals and investments that may be made. Listen to the end to learn what it takes to produce a show of this caliber.   Links: LinkedIn > If you’re an entrepreneur or startup and would like to apply to be on the show, you can do so in 2 minutes [Apply here]   Where are we: Sam Marks – Thailand Johnny FD – Ukraine   Discussed: ILAB 40 – Republic.co: Simplifying Startup Investing for Un-Accredited Investors ILAB 32 – Indiegogo Co-Founder, Slava Rubin on Equity Crowdfunding Thank you to the recent donors in our campaign to build playgrounds for orphans in Cambodia. If you’d like to support the cause please join us: Playgrounds 4 orphans   Books: Start Here – Recommended readings   Time Stamps: 03:24 - Who are the Drapers? 08:30 - Finance and venture capital background 10:30 - First VC in India 11:19 - How the show was created 13:55 - The application process 18:59 - The investment opportunity 20:01 - What to expect from the judges 22:25 - Shark Tank vs. Meet the drapers 25:49 - Pitching the Drapers 29:58 - Form and structure of the investments 31:58 - Producer's production responsibilities 37:13 - How can you watch the show? 43:45 - Beatstars equity crowdfunding   If you enjoyed this episode, do us a favor and share it! Also if you haven’t’ already, please take a minute to leave us a 5-star review on iTunes and claim your bonus here!   Copyright 2017. All rights reserved. Read our disclaimer here.

Jesse Draper, Founder of Halogen Ventures and Creator/Host of Emmy-nominated series, “The Valley Girl Series” sits down with W2O CMO, Aaron Strout, to discuss her journey in investing in women entrepreneurs and how her curiosity and exposure to technology from an early age shaped her career. She’s a 4th generation investor who is passionate about investing in female-founded consumer technology companies and is a big fan of one of the greatest bands of all time. Take a listen to find out more! Contact us for more information: info@w2ogroup.com See more at w2ogroup.com/what2know 

Today’s guest is a digital media pioneer and an incredible inspiration to me and millions of other entrepreneurs. She is the creator and host of “The Valley Girl Show” and CEO of Valley Girl, Inc. She has produced and distributed over 200 interviews with some of the greatest minds in business and technology such as Ted Turner, Mark Cuban, Sheryl Sandberg and Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google. And after 6 successful years hosting her talk show online, she is expanding it to television, with a new series on Fox TV in Northern California. Her name is Jesse Draper. During our time together we learn: -- Why her dad tried to borrow money from 10-year old Jesse and what that experience taught her. -- Why Jesse ended up spending more than she should have when she started her business… why she doesn’t do that anymore. -- How Jesse does the big ask when negotiating – her simple tips and strategies that you can use too! -- A fun game you can play if you want to learn about investing but haven't started investing yet.

I'm Kathy Klotz-Guest, podcast host and CEO of marketing firm, Keeping it Human. We turn marketing-speak into fun human speak and stories that get results! We focus on great tips and fun guests without the marketing BS.  If you're looking for jargon-monoxide poisoning, we happily recommend our competition.   Building a loyal following takes work in a world of so much noise.  How do you find your voice so you connect with your tribe? How do you grow that fan base? Join me for a lively discussion with Jesse Draper about building your audience, and having fun doing it. Now that's a woman after my own heart. About Jesse Draper A former Nickelodeon star, Draper is host of “The Valley Girl Show” and CEO of Valley Girl, Inc., she has produced over 150 interviews with some of the greatest minds in business, entertainment, and tech such as: Mark Cuban, Sheryl Sandberg, MC Hammer and Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO. She is also an angel investor through her fund, Valley Girl Ventures, where she invests in startups with a female in the founding team.  She is a regularly featured speaker on digital media, women in business at conferences such as SXSW and TEDx. She is a regular contributor to Mashable, Forbes.com and The Huffington Post. Visit her show at www.valleygirl.tv.

Our guest today is Jesse Draper ( https://halogenvc.com/team ) , Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures ( https://halogenvc.com/ ). Halogen Ventures is a Los Angeles, California based Venture Capital fund focused on investing in early stage consumer technology startups with a female in the founding team. Some of their investments include Hop Skip Drive, Clover Letter, and Binti. Previously, Jesse was an actress and founded/hosted The Valley Girl Show, where she interviewed some of the biggest names in business, entertainment, government, and technology. One book that impacted Jesse personally is To the End of June: The Intimate Life of American Foster Care ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0544103440?camp=1789&creativeASIN=0544103440&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) by Cris Beam. One book the inspired Jesse professionally is High Growth Handbook ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1732265100?camp=1789&creativeASIN=1732265100&ie=UTF8&linkCode=xm2&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) by Elad Gil. You can follow Jesse @jessedraper ( https://twitter.com/JesseDraper ) on Twitter. You can also follow your host, Mike, on Twitter @mikegelb ( https://twitter.com/MikeGelb ). You can also follow for episode announcements @consumervc ( https://twitter.com/ConsumerVc ). Here are some of the questions I ask Jesse - * Talk to me about your attraction to acting and why the shift to VC? * What was the opportunity that you discovered that led you to starting Halogen? * What types of businesses or areas do you focus on at Halogen? * What makes you excited about Los Angeles as a venture hub? * I know that every company that you invest in must have at least one woman in a leadership role. What are some ways that the VC community could be doing to be more inclusive? * Talk to me a little bit about your due diligence process? * What stage do you invest in and how are you thinking about the early stage landscape? * COVID is very top of mind right now, has this shifted your strategy on what areas you should focus on? * Has it been harder finding conviction since you have to meet founders remote? * What's one thing that you would change when it came to venture capital? * What's your most recent investment and what makes you excited about it? * What's one company that you had the opportunity to invest in, didn't and in retrospect wish you did? * What's one book that inspired you personally and one book that inspired you professionally? * What's one piece of advice to founders?