Podcast appearances and mentions of monique woodard

Episode SummaryMonique Woodard is the Founder and Solo GP of Cake Ventures, a venture fund focused on the enormous opportunities created by demographic shifts such as aging populations, rising female spending power, and America's transition to a majority-minority population. She explains how these macro-level changes expand markets across digital health, fintech, consumer brands, and AI-enabled solutions. Monique also candidly shares her experiences as a solo GP—covering the realities of fundraising, building a unique investment thesis, navigating partnership dynamics, and scaling from Fund I ($17M) to Fund II. Her insights offer a clear blueprint for investors, operators, and founders eager to capitalise on overlooked, high-growth opportunities driven by demographic change.Time Stamps03:07 – Monique's first investment: picking stocks at age 2006:12 – Her journey from rural entrepreneurship to 500 Startups and VC12:43 – The "Three Layers of Cake": investing in demographic shifts (aging, female economy, new majority)22:56 – Why geographic focus matters (and why Cake invests only in North America24:32 – Real talk on Solo GP life: choosing partners, hiring venture partners, and building a legacy firm30:07 – Raising Fund II: bigger checks, deeper domain expertise, and firm evolution39:12 – How founders should position their companies in the AI hype cycle45:24 – Advice for operators: Understanding the difference between investing and running a venture firmResources

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… Squarespace. Turn your idea into a new website! Go to Squarespace.com/TWIST for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. Gusto. Gusto is easy online payroll, benefits, and HR built for modern small businesses. Get three months free when you run your first payroll at Gusto.com/twist. Runway. Looking to up-level your financial planning? Runway is the modern and intuitive way to model, plan, and align your business for everyone on your team. Sign up at ⁠runway.com/twist⁠ to get your first 3 months free. * Timestamps: (1:18) Alex kicks off the show! (2:27) Our Fund of Funds panel from Liquidity Summit 2024 take the stage. (2:54) Insights from Ben Choi on Fund of Funds (6:25) Emerging Manager Funds with Michael Downing (9:47) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (13:38) Challenges for Emerging Managers in Venture Capital (20:25) Gusto - Get three months free when you run your first payroll at http://gusto.com/twist (21:30) Venture Capital Performance with Seyonne Kang (32:12) Runway - Sign up at https://runway.com/twist to get your first 3 months free. (33:30) Monique Woodard on Raising a First Fund (38:35) Debunking Myths of Raising a First Fund (40:46) Importance of Individual vs. Institutional Investors (42:18) Building Relationships for Subsequent Funds (43:45) Identifying Your Ideal LP Persona (45:19) Leveraging Your Fund's Unique Strengths (49:24) Strategies for Fund 2 and Beyond * Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Check out Cake Ventures: https://www.cake.vc/ Check out Stepstone Group: https://www.stepstonegroup.com/ Check out Next Legacy Ventures: https://www.nextlegacy.com/ Check out MDSV Capital: https://www.mdsv.vc/ * Follow Monique: X: https://x.com/moniquewoodard LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/moniquewoodard/ * Follow Seyonne: X: https://x.com/stepstonegroup LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seyonne-kang-b283021/ * Follow Ben: X: https://x.com/benjichoi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bchoi/ * Follow Michael: X: https://x.com/michaeldowning LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeldowning/ * Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm * Thank you to our partners: (9:47) Squarespace - Use offer code TWIST to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain at https://www.Squarespace.com/TWIST (20:25) Gusto - Get three months free when you run your first payroll at http://gusto.com/twist (32:12) Runway - Sign up at https://runway.com/twist to get your first 3 months free. * Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

On this special replay episode, Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures joins Nick to discuss The “Three Layer Cake” Fund, How Personal Experience Drives Your Investment Lens, The Future of Tech for the Aging Population, & How a Solo GP Can Do it All. In this episode, we cover: The thesis at Cake Investing in Demographic Change Pros and Cons of Being a Solo GP How to Scale Yourself And More! Missed a recent episode? Go to The Full Ratchet blog and catch up! 

In the opening news segment, Molly and Jason break down the news around Peloton's new CEO, Barry McCarthy, including the open letter he sent to the company, his background and principles for success (2:05). Then, Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures joins for Episode 5 of Season 6 of Angel (32:50). Monique was a founder, startup community leader, VC scout, and VC partner before raising her first fund. In this episode you will learn: Her thesis on investing in demographic change What fundraising is like as a founder vs. fundraising as an aspiring fund manager Why she chose to have multiple closes for her fund Why Monique focused her efforts on institutional LPs, even though they take longer to close than individual LPs What it takes to operate as a solo GP (0:00) Jason and Molly tee up today's topics: Breaking down Peloton's new CEO background and leadership style and an amazing interview with Monique Woodard (Cake Ventures) (2:05 ) Understanding Peloton's new CEO and the value of its user base (12:47) LinkedIn - Post your first job for free at https://linkedIn.com/angel (14:15) Some more fun with numbers, plus breaking down Barry McCarthy's introduction email to all Peloton employees (21:43) Ourcrowd - Check out the deal of the week at https://ourcrowd.com/twist (22:54) Finalizing McCarthy's “principles of success” list and reflecting on the difficulty of a turnaround (31:32) Embroker - Get an extra 10% off insurance for your business at https://Embroker.com/twist (32:50) Introducing Cake Ventures' Founder & Partner Monique Woodard: Understanding Cake's thesis on investing in demographic change (42:20) Fundraising as a founder vs. fundraising as an aspiring fund manager, understanding how different types of LPs invest (50:58) Check sizes differences from institutional LPs and individual LPs, understanding multiple fund closes (1:07:18) Managing deal flow as a first-time fund manager, is the industry becoming more welcoming to underrepresented fund managers? Check out Cake Ventures: https://cake.vc/ FOLLOW Monique: https://twitter.com/MoniqueWoodard FOLLOW Jason: https://linktr.ee/calacanis FOLLOW Molly: https://twitter.com/mollywood

In the opening news segment, Molly and Jason break down the news around Peloton's new CEO, Barry McCarthy, including the open letter he sent to the company, his background and principles for success (2:05). Then, Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures joins for Episode 5 of Season 6 of Angel (32:50). Monique was a founder, startup community leader, VC scout, and VC partner before raising her first fund. In this episode you will learn: 1. Her thesis on investing in demographic change 2. How different types of LPs invest and the what fundraising is like as a founder vs. fundraising as an aspiring fund manager 3. Why she chose to have multiple closes for her fund 4. Why Monique focused her efforts on institutional LPs, even though they take longer to close than individual LPs 5. What is takes to operate as a solo GP

Monique Woodard is redefining venture capital by investing in companies that meet the needs of a changing population of internet users and backing the uniquely qualified entrepreneurs who understand them.Monique Woodard, Founder and Managing Partner at Cake Ventures, a seed-stage fund based in San Francisco, was inspired to start her own fund when she noticed a puzzling pattern in venture capital: the demographics of internet users were shifting, but investment trends weren't shifting along with them.Monique's own research revealed the populations that investors were failing to target—especially aging populations, people of color, and women—could actually turn out to be the most lucrative market for internet technologies in the near future. Perhaps most notably, her research busted the common VC myth that people over 55 are difficult to reach online.That, as Monique described it, is one layer of the cake at Cake Ventures: the other two layers—the demographic groups that Monique knew needed to be catered to more heavily in VC—are women and what Monique calls “the rise of a new majority.” In the near future, Asian, Latino, and Afro-American populations will become the majority of the US population—and the internet user base will change with them.Cake Ventures invests in startup founders who cater to this evolving user base. As an experienced Venture Partner and three-time startup founder, Monique has drawn upon her previous experiences in tech to create a fund that truly embodies Cake Ventures's tagline: “Investing in where we are going, not where we came from.”Learn more about Cake Ventures ›

Listen now (41 min) | Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape. We’re so pleased to bring you my discussion with Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures, a seed-stage firm investing in demographic change. To date, Monique has invested in startups such as Blavity, Court Buddy, Mented Cosmetics, and Silvernest. Get on the email list at ventureunlocked.substack.com

A bonus episode featuring friends and peers, Candice Matthews Brackeen, Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon, and Monique Woodard in conversation with Arlan. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yfm/message

Monique is the founder of venture capital firm Cake Ventures. Formerly led a $25M fund at accelerator 500 Startups, where she invested in black-owned businesses such as media startup Blavity and Court Buddy. Before then, she cofounded a network of black tech entrepreneurs, Black Founders. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/yfm/message

Entrepreneur, investor, and ecosystem builder Monique Woodard has been disrupting the tech ecosystem since 1999. Now she is on a mission to create more inclusive innovation economies.

Monique Woodard of Cake Ventures joins Nick to discuss The "Three Layer Cake" Fund, How Personal Experience Drives Your Investment Lens, The Future of Tech for the Aging Population, & How a Solo GP Can Do it All. In this episode, we cover: Walk us through your background and path to VC What's the thesis at Cake Ventures? You have a strong focus on looking for startups that are addressing the needs of a world undergoing massive demographic changes. Talk to us a bit about how you approach investing in demographic change? What sort of demographic changes do you believe will have opportunities? Were you surprised to see Baby Boomers dominating online shopping? What is it like being a solo GP? What are the pros and cons? How do you replicate and try to scale yourself? Context switching is often cited as the hardest thing about what we do.  Talk us through your schedule and how you manage context switching? This question is called three data points.  I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation w/ a startup and you can ask three questions for three specific data points. Let's say you are approached to invest in a consumer social business with 100k MAUs, and 20% MoM growth for the last 3 months. The catch is you can only ask for 3 data points to make your decision. What 3 questions do you ask?

We've talked to a lot of people on this podcast. But we've never talked to a fellow podcaster. Today we're changing that with Dan Kihanya, host of the Founders Unfound podcast, which explores exceptional founders of African descent. Dan's specialties include early-stage start-up strategies, fundraising, lean startup process, product-market fit, and customer growth. Among a long list of accomplishments, he's the co-founder and Managing Director of Impact Hub Bellevue, and is the co-founder of MyPoints.com. In our chat, we learn about his background, get the inside story on his podcast, and what we can all do to change venture capital to see the possibilities presented by black entrepreneurs. In addition, we discuss the drive for the corporations to move capital into Black-owned banks and other community-based financial institutions. Of course, we also look into the future. Links to a couple of things we discussed:The Humanity over Calamity t-shirt “Black founders are often over-mentored and under-invested,” says Monique Woodard, co-founder of Black Founders. 

The data tell the story: Less than 1% of venture capital in the United States is invested in companies led by Black entrepreneurs. Add "female" as a data filter and it drops to 0.2%. Amid reckoning with legacies of racial injustice, we wanted to examine how a lack of representation in the startup ecosystem hinders access to capital for diverse founders. Brown Advisory’s Keith Stone sits down with three thought leaders in the venture industry—Charles Hudson, Richard Kerby and Monique Woodard—to explore paths to a growth economy where an expanded set of innovators and ideas can thrive.

Monique Woodard is a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley.  She is one of the very rare Black, female General partners in venture capital.  Previously on Something Ventured we explored Monique’s unique path to becoming a venture capitalist, and what she invests in. As events drove the Black Lives Matter (“BLM”) movement to accelerate worldwide, Monique was gracious enough to come back and share her thoughts. She discusses what she believes is the state of the BLM movement in general, and Silicon Valley’s dismal record on supporting Black investors and entrepreneurs in particular. She offers pure, unvarnished advice about what Silicon Valley can do – actually do – to begin fixing its problem. www.monique.vc www.somethingventured.us 

10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every single day, and 20% of the US population will be 65 or older by 2030. Yet society and young entrepreneurial companies tend to overlook this demographic when creating new technologies. But like anything else that's overlooked, that means there's also an opportunity. Our guest today is Monique Woodard, an angel investor based in San Francisco, focused on investing at the intersection of technology and newly powerful consumer groups as a result of demographic shifts - Women, people of color, and the elderly. She recently published a 65-page report called Gray New World detailing this demographic sea change and the types of opportunities she sees as an investor. Personally, she has started two companies and is currently raising her first fund, so she has experienced the difficulties in raising outside capital of all forms, especially as a minority woman. You will hear how she has learned to deal with this by having great long-standing friends to support her throughout her journey.

The post E1030: News Roundtable! Zapier CEO Wade Foster & Early-Stage Investor Monique Woodard on Tech Journalists vs. Founders/VCs, Twitter’s fake news detection, Kickstarter union, Blue Apron plummeting, Lambda School controversy & more! appeared first on This Week In Startups.

The post E1030: News Roundtable! Zapier CEO Wade Foster & Early-Stage Investor Monique Woodard on Tech Journalists vs. Founders/VCs, Twitter’s fake news detection, Kickstarter union, Blue Apron plummeting, Lambda School controversy & more! appeared first on This Week In Startups.

Monique Woodard fell into venture capital.  Or...wait.  Actually, no.  Monique grew up in rural Florida.  Starting with an Atari game system and moving to a Commodore computer, she learned to write computer code This, in a place where coding was far from the norm, and computer class required a drive into town.  She eventually became a venture capitalist, investing in such companies as: Blavity, Court Buddy, Silvernest, and Mented Cosmetics. In this podcast we discuss Monique’s journey from the farms of rural Northern Florida to Miami’s music scene, to Silicon Valley.  We discuss how she established herself as an entrepreneur, and founded the organization Black Founders, eventually becoming a venture capitalist.  We cover a wide range of topics, including her demographic investment thesis, and why it should not be conflated with ‘diversity initiatives’. www.somethingventured.us In the Something Ventured podcast Silicon Valley insider Kent Lindstrom explores the reality behind the Silicon Valley headlines as he sits down with the people who are shaping the way we view the world online...and beyond.

Through our partnership with the Coalition of Black Excellence founded by Angela J. we have the pleasure of sitting down with 500 Startups venture partner Clayton Bryan. He sits down with us to discuss his career journey up to this point and to share valuable advice for young leaders and founders, particularly in the VC space. We also promote CBE Week, an event designed to highlight excellence in the black community, connect black professionals across sectors, and provide opportunities for professional development and community engagement.Learn more about CBE Week here! https://www.cbeweek.com/Learn more about Transparent Collective: https://www.transparentcollective.com/Learn more about HBCUvc: http://www.hbcu.vc/Check out the Dorm Room Fund: https://www.dormroomfund.com/Check out 500 Startups' VC Unlocked: https://education.500.com/TRANSCRIPTZach: What's up, y'all? It's Zach, and listen, y'all. Living Corporate is partnering with the Coalition of Black Excellence, CBE, a non-profit organization based in California, in bringing a Special Speaker series to promote CBE Week, an annual week-long event designed to highlight excellence in the black community, connect black professionals across sectors, and provide opportunities for professional development and community engagement that will positively transform the black community. This is a special series where we will spotlight movers and shakers who will be speakers during CBE Week. Today we are blessed to have Clayton Bryan. Clayton has over 12 years of experience in the tech space, initially working as a marketer. He transitioned into business development and over the past 3 years has worked in venture capital. Currently, as a venture partner at 500 Startups in San Francisco, Clayton is focused on the media, e-commerce, and frontier tech. Clayton is also one of the co-founders of Transparent Collective, a non-profit launched to help founders of color connect with investors and mentors. Prior to returning to the Bay Area, as a member of the Dorm Room Fund team in New York, Clayton worked with and invested in some of the best and brightest student-funded startups on the East Coast. With that being said, welcome to the show, Clay. How you doin', man?Clayton: Zach, I'm doing great, and to all the listeners out there, good evening, good morning, good afternoon, whenever you might be listening to this. Happy to be here, and looking forward to, you know, having a good conversation.Zach: Absolutely. So look, man. Of course I read your profile in the introduction, but for those of us who might be wanting to know a little bit more--I know I'm one of those people--would you mind talking a little bit more about yourself and your journey?Clayton: Sure, happy to hit on some of the high notes and the milestones. So I'm originally from the Bay. Big shout-out to Oakland. And, you know, growing up I always felt this gravitational pull towards technology. I was fortunate to be able to have an Apple II back in the day and played, you know, some games on that, everything from, you know, Oregon Trail to Mavis Teaches Typing, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing. Yeah, those are some of the OG titles.Zach: Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me ask you this real fast about those games though. Did you ever played this game called Gizmos and Gadgets?Clayton: I don't recall that one. That one--Zach: 'Cause man, it was really dope. Okay, okay, but you said Oregon Trail. Did you ever play that Mario typing game? Where you type and then Mario moves?Clayton: Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was a classic too, you know? So for everyone from that era, you know, those were great, and I think that they did a good job of really kind of getting a lot of folks into technology and just, you know, bringing up that awareness. And so once I saw the application of that--and then I also was able to go to, you know, great places as a kid growing up in this area. Places like the Lawrence Hall of Science up in the Berkeley Hills, and, you know, really getting to see all of these cool things happen with science. And so when I got to high school I started to code a little bit, and I took CS in high school. When I got to college, I thought that was gonna be my track as well, but I happened to go to a school where there's a really tough computer science program, and I was like, "Actually," you know, "I think I'm a little more creative than this." So I wanted to touch technology, but not necessarily from the coding perspective, and so I became actually--I was a poli-sci and economics major, and then when I graduated I joined Yahoo as a content marketer, and I was there for a couple years. Then I decided I wanted to go do the startup thing, so I worked at a couple different startups, and that's when I first got--started to really hear the term "venture capital," and back in the 2000s it was a very different time and place within Silicon Valley and the way that we think of things. Investors weren't blogging, they weren't tweeting. It was very obscure as to what investors actually did. Now it's different. Now, you know, you see--it's kind of a who's who on Twitter. Twitter has a VC category you can follow. There's Medium. It's just very easy to kind of stay plugged into that scene if you really want to learn how different investors are thinking. There's a lot of information out there. Back in the 2000s that was not the case, but I was very fortunate at the time--one of the companies I was working with, we had done a Series A and a Series B--and also the check sizes were much different than a Series A and a Series B were today--but I was the seventh hire, and I got to really see, you know, what these meetings with investors look like, and I was exposed to that, and I was like, "This is kind of cool. This is interesting," and that's really, you know, kind of planted the seed for me to want to be on that side of the table. And so fast-forward a couple years. My first--my first kind of role where I was in an investor-like seat was running an accelerator program that focused on underrepresented founders, and so through that program I got to know a lot of folks who I'm gonna shout-out later on in, you know, our conversation. But I got to see--I was even closer, but the problem with that program was that we were not writing checks, and I wanted to actually deploy capital. In order for me to feel comfortable doing that I decided, "Okay. Well, I want to go back to school," which was kind of a controversial decision at the time, because I still think MBAs are not necessarily all that welcome within the space, but I think it's changing now. But for me it leads--the decision was to go back, learn more about finance, build up that skill set, and then finally venture out as a venture capitalist, and so that's what I've been doing since 2015, and I've been incredibly blessed to join a great team at 500 and incredibly blessed to be a part of something called the Dorm Room Fund. And yeah, that's my journey in 3 minutes or less.Zach: Man, that's incredible. And, you know, it's interesting--you know, to your point about some of your decisions being a little non-conventional, still--you talked about yes, there's definitely more information to learn about venture capitalism and being a venture partner. However, Clayton, I have to be honest, man, I'm still really kind of confused when I think about the role of a venture partner. So, like, would you mind sharing a little bit more and kind of breaking it down, what it is your role entails? On, like, what you actually do on a day-to-day basis?Clayton: Sure. And, you know, I think--before I answer that I'll answer a question that I think is a good kind of intro or good for just context in terms of, you know, "Well, how did I get here?" And "Is there a certain path?" Right? I think a lot of folks that want to get into venture are like, "Well, how can I also get into venture?" And I think, you know, a couple years ago there were maybe two different pathways in, where, you know, being a founder that had success. So exited a company, sold a company, right? That was a path. Another path would be, you know, becoming an executive at a top internet company, a big brand that, you know, everyone in the States would know, and then really develop a skill set in sales or marketing or even people ops, and then market yourself to one of these firms as being able to add value. But today, you know, there are so many different firms that are popping up, and I think that if you talk to the folks that are at these firms, they all have different pathways in. And so I think the primary thing is just to have that interest and really network, and be beneficial to founders. Be beneficial to folks that work at these firms. Do the job before you have the job, and I think that's a great way to do it. And there's great programs out there, like HBCUvc, Dorm Room Fund. There's a lot of different programs out there, depending on where you are in your stage of life. We have one at 500 that's called Venture Capital Unlocked. First Round Capital has one called the Angel Track. So there's a lot of programs out there that will help you, you know, kind of get the right skills, because things change so frequently within this space. So I would say that was a little bit of a prelude to the next thing, which is "What do I do on a day-to-day basis?" Well, you know, no two days look alike. I would say the core of my duties, really I'm out here trying to help founders, and so I'm meeting with founders all of the time. If you look at my calendar at any given point in time, there's a lot of meetings with some of the current investments that I have, some of the investments that are a little bit more mature, meaning that, you know, I'm not working with them on a day-to-day, because we have an accelerator program, and so we're--it's essentially like a boot camp for entrepreneurs. So we're helping them with their marketing, their sales. We're helping them really craft the way they're thinking about their investor strategy, and then also with the execution, because a lot of the folks that come through our program, you know, they might be really good at their core competency, whether that's, you know, data science or agriculture tech or spinning up something--you know, some kind of hardware play, but when it comes to the nuances around going out and fundraising and selling your business to the investor audience, it's a little bit of a different type of game. So just understanding and acquainting yourself with the language and the types of models and terms that are being used at this stage. I'm talking about things, you know, as far down as, like, customer acquisition costs, but just understanding things like, you know, your revenue, your different growth rates, right, and how to present that in a way that's meaningful, impactful, but translates well into the minds of investors. So a lot of what I do is coaching. I'm always looking for the next best--the next greatest thing, right, that I can invest in, but even if I can't invest in it right now, I still need to be able to talk to with those founders, help them as much as I can, because I'm always looking for potential, and that means a couple--that means a lot of different things to a lot of different people, but I'm out there always looking for potential. So a lot of what I do I categorize kind of as just, like, helping founders. That would be one big category, and then other things that I do is meeting with other investors and really trying to assess how they're looking at the market or markets right now, what's interesting to them, because as someone that's at the seed stage, I--at the end of the day, I need to have confidence that I can help my companies raise money, and if the later-stage players are not as actively looking for deals in that category, it might be--it might not be the right time. Timing is so big in what we do, right? It's a huge--I would say timing and [seeds?] are so important. So you really have to get an understanding, if you're a founder, "Is this the right time for me to go and fundraise for this business? Should I try to hunker down, just focus on product right now, and come out in 6 months when things might be a little bit different?" Right? So again, going back to that fundraising strategy piece, but a big part of what I do also is just networking with investors, networking with other stakeholders in the States, folks that might be doing products at Slack or Pinterest or wherever and just asking them, "What are you seeing that's interesting within your category," right? Because that's helping me make more informed decisions when I'm looking--when I'm crafting my theses, my investment theses, and when I'm starting to go out and I'm meeting with different founders trying to see "Can I find founders that think similarly about the way the future's going to be, and then can I back those founders?" And that's--at the core of my job, as someone that's thinking actively about my fiduciary to my [inaudible] partners, I'm constantly thinking about that, right? Constantly trying to think about the trends that not everyone else is seeing just yet, right? Especially at the early stage. That's what we have to do. We have to be able to look across--look around not the next corner but two corners, because we're investing at such an early stage.Zach: Man, that's just--that's incredible, and there's--you know, I have--I have a couple questions about that role and how you show up. Before I ask that question, you know, all of the things you're talking about and the brands that you're mentioning and the conversations that you're having, I'm curious, how many--how rare is it to see black men moving in this space? And I'll say--I'll just say people of color. I'll just say non-white folks to start, but then how--but how rare is it? It seems like it would be rare.Clayton: Yeah. I mean, like, it's rare to see women. It's rare to see Latinx. It's rare to see black men. It's rare to see anyone that doesn't fit a certain profile of what you're already named, right? And so it is rare, but I think it's starting to get better, and, you know, I can't quantify that growth rate, but I think that more and more investors are starting to realize that there's a need to have multiple perspectives, right? We can't all think the same when we're doing an investment. We can't all, you know, have been trained at the same academic institution and travel in the same social groups, because we're gonna miss out on big movements. And even on a geographical note as well. There's big things that are happening across the continent of Africa, right? And there's big things that are happening all across the world, and we can't just think in that tunnel vision of "What's the next greatest thing that's gonna come out of Northern California?" We have to think--we have to think beyond that, right? And so there are things that are helping. There are things that are getting us where we need to be, but I think that the pace can pick up. And I mentioned, you know, groups like HBCU VC, which I think are great, but we need more of that. We need more of that, and we need more funds like what, you know, Chris Lyons is doing with the Cultural Leadership Fund. We need a lot of that. We need to amplify that times 10 at least, because I'm not seeing enough folks that look like me and have similar backgrounds when I go to these different conferences, different networking events, and I think that's problematic when we start to really see, you know, what's getting invested in, who's getting invested in, right? There's steps out there that talk a lot about that, you know? Talk about the amount of fundraising going to folks of color compared to, you know, folks that are coming from, you know, I'd say more common backgrounds within tech, and it's staggering in terms of the disparity.Zach: You're absolutely right, and we actually had an--we actually had an episode about that last season where we talked about--where we talked about being in venture capital while black, being in venture capital while other, and we discussed the disparity and fund allocation to the point where--they were talking about certain demographics, it was, like--to represent it in dollars would've been, like, basically zero, right? So it's nuts, and that--to your point though about the role, you know, it seems as if your role requires, like, a cocktail of being able to kind of influence without direct authority, a lot of emotional and social intelligence, and then also all of that still being backed up by significant business competence. Can you talk a little bit about how you show up being, you know, one of the few, and what is it that you're doing in these spaces that are--that are majority white? And what challenges, if you have any, have come with that?Clayton: Yeah. I mean, I think it's just, like, being able to paint pictures. Like, for one, I mean, you definitely need to have your facts, right? You need to have your facts and your stats down, and you need to be able to help those around you, and I'm talking about other investors, see what these trends are telling me. I need to translate that over to them, right? And I need to translate it over to them in language that they will be able to understand, because at the end of the day, like, we're all here to try to, at minimum, 3X our money, if not greater, right? 5X, 10X, and sometimes, you know, if these other investors lack that background, they might not be able to understand things in the same manner, right? And this is why I think every board room--and you're starting to see this within big tech companies, like the Twitters and the Salesforces and the Googles of the world, where they're realizing that they're building products for the entire world, so they need to have a team that reflects that, right? And so--but in the venture scene, we're not seeing that as--you know, we're not seeing it develop as quickly. So for me, in order to go in, you know, I need to be able to pound the table, have the facts, but really build these theses in a way in which can align with what my firm wants to do, right? And so I think a lot of it is just, like, you have to go the extra mile, right? You have to really put in that extra work, and it's making me a much better investor, but part of me is like, "It shouldn't have to be this hard," at the same time, right? Like, if I want to do a deal that's founded by a person of color and I think that--and I'm able to show the data, the trends, all of this is really supporting going in this direction, right? And it's funny, sometimes even money that's coming from outside of the United States sees it better than money that resides within the United States, because it's--like, they understand how emerging markets work, and sometimes, you know, if you put it in that lens, like--I mean, we're not emerging, but we have the same capability of an emerging market in terms of the growth potential. Then a lot of the dollars from overseas are like, "Oh, I want in on that," right? And so sometimes it's just you have to be creative, but, like, you just have to--you have to persevere. I think that's the biggest thing, is really, like, you just have to keep willing to push through, and that's the same note that I want to give out to the founders listening, which is, you know, you have to knock on--especially the seed level. You're gonna have to knock on a lot of different doors. I have founders that come in and tell me, like, "Look, I heard "no" 91 times, and I heard "yes" 9 times, but that's all I needed to close my seed." So don't get--you know, don't get, you know, depressed. Don't have anyone try to knock you off your hustle. You're gonna just have to find the folks that your message resonates with the most, and so that's the message I want to give to the founders that's out there.Zach: No, that's incredible, and you're absolutely right. You know, my father--you know, he's a bit of entrepreneur, financial background, sales background, and what he would--he always tells me is he's like, "Son, you know, you don't need but one yes." Like, often times you just need that one. Like, people keep on--like you just said, you know, the majority said no, but you really just needed, like, a scant few to say "yes" for you to continue forward. And I think it's hard though when--you know, when you continue to present and you present and you present, and, you know, who knows what those no's look like, right? 'Cause a no is a no, but, like, you know, the way that they--sometimes the way people tell you, you know, can hurt. Like, maybe you were told no like, 10 times, even though you were just told no once. You know, so those types of experiences. It's tough, so that's great advice. Before we--before we let you go, do you have any other parting words, shout-outs, or special projects that you're working on?Clayton: Yeah. So I just want to, you know, give a shout-out to Transparent Collective. You know, it's a great initiative that we're trying to, you know, continue, and we're actually looking for sponsors for that. So that's a--it's a great initiative. It's a labor of love, and I want to see that continue in the future. So folks out there that might be interested in sponsoring, hit me up. Big shout-out to--you know, this is gonna be a little bit of a long list, and there's people that definitely if I--it could be a lot longer, but, you know, I want to keep time in mind. So big shout-out to Monique Woodard. She's done a lot to help me out professionally. Big fan of hers. Chris Lyons, Marlon Nichols, Connie LaPuebla, Richard Kirby, Eric Moore, Austin Clements, just to name a few. And then also I love what initiatives like Black VC are doing and also HBCUvc, which I mentioned a few times in this podcast. So that's it. And also one last shout-out to all the founders out there, all the hustlers, all the innovators that are grinding right now. You know, keep building. Keep moving forward. Keep persevering. I know it might be tough. I know that, you know, it might be disheartening when you hear "no" here and there, but you really gotta keep grinding, and you will find your path. And, you know, to the best extent that I can, I'm always willing to make myself available for folks that have questions on the businesses that they're building or the careers they're trying to build, because I believe that you really have to pay it forward in this world. So on that note, that's all I have, and signing off. Thank you, everybody. It's been a great pleasure to have this conversation.Zach: Clayton, man, first of all, the pleasure has definitely been ours. Wonderful feedback, thoughts, and points of advice here. We're gonna make sure that we list all of the organizations that you listed, that you named off, that you shouted out, in the show notes, and then we'll also make sure to have your LinkedIn information in the show notes as well so that people can reach out to you as they're able. Now, I think that's gonna do it for us, folks. Thank you for joining the Living Corporate podcast, a Special Series sponsored by the Coalition of Black Excellence. To learn more about the Coalition of Black Excellence check out their website CBEWeek.com, and make sure that you actually sign up for CBE Week, which is gonna be happening February 18th to the 24th of 2019--that's this year, come on, y'all--in the San Francisco Bay Area. If you go to their website, you'll be able to learn more, get your tickets, and all that kind of stuff right there. Now, make sure you follow us on Instagram though, okay? @LivingCorporate, and make sure you follow CBE at @ExperienceCBE. If you have a question you'd like for us to answer and read on the show, make sure you email us at livingcorporatepodcast@gmail.com. Check out our website, living-corporate.com. This has been Zach, and you've been speaking with Clayton Bryan. Peace.

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Terri continues with her series on angel investing with a recap of her activities over the last two weeks including events with Springboard, office hours at Bolt and InTeaHouse, her weekly advising of three startups, and plans for her trip to Europe in June/July with InTeaHouse.   Show Highlights Terri recaps why she is doing this series of podcasts: create a mesh network of like-minded investors to invest in the startups and founders who aren’t necessarily getting the attention from mainstream angel and venture investors despite having very promising and investable startups Terri attended Springboard’s Digital Health cohort final presentations and the pitches for the new cohort of biotech companies. Terri talks about the deal she is working on syndicating on AngelList called Sendaride. She is performing due diligence not for her own investing but for others who will be considering investing alongside her. She looked at the deal, the company, the management team, financials, projections, technology, the product, market opportunity, and sales. Terri talks about the office hours she held at Bolt on Brannan St. in SF. Terri did some office hours for some founders at InTeaHouse with about 20 founders with startups that crossed all industries. She provided some advice and guidance to the founders while she was there. Terri had registered for a MedTech Women event but had to skip it due to her busy schedule. Terri handles emails, calls, research on a daily basis. Terri is advising three companies including The Guild, Quinn Style, and Lisa Health and picked up half a dozen new clients through Tech Futures Group. Terri loves learning things in one place and applies it to other companies and people. Terri learns by doing and is learning as she goes along. It’s painful to see how ignorant she was two years ago and how much more needs to be learned. Terri talks about the European fireside chat tour she is going to do with InTeaHouse where she will be visiting Geneva, Zurich, Munich, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Vienna, Slovakia, and of course, Paris.   Call to Action Subscribe to one podcast and one newsletter and get into the groove of listening and reading. Feel free to reach out to Terri if you have any questions or comments or other suggestions for resources for new angel investors. PilotingYourLife@gmail.com   References in the Podcast Angels with Wings: https://www.wingpact.com/ Springboard: https://sb.co/ Blumio: http://blumio.com/ Tech Futures Group: http://www.techfuturesgroup.org/ Pheronym: https://www.pheronym.com/ AngelList: https://angel.co/ Sendaride: https://sendaride.com/ Women’s Startup Lab: https://womenstartuplab.com/ Bolt: https://bolt.io/ Kate McAndrew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateprestonmcandrew/ Monique Woodard: http://www.moniquewoodard.com/ InTeaHouse: https://inteahouse.com/ The Guild: https://theguilded.org/guild/home/index.html#/ Quinn Style: https://www.quinnstyle.com/ Lisa Health: https://www.lisahealth.com/ Startup Sesame: https://www.startupsesame.com/     Contact You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.  Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com. To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

 Terri talks to Micah Brown about his experience as a founder of color in New York City and how we can change the funding dynamics for founders of color and female founders and ultimately the definition of success.  This is the second part of the interview that we abruptly cut off last week leaving you, hopefully, hanging on the edge of your seat for Micah’s experience with the diversity investor. Wait no more.        Who is Micah Brown?  Micah is a self-proclaimed visionary technologist with an intersection of skills consisting of data and algorithm understanding, HCI-centric digital technologies, financial services, financial engineering and media services. He has over 10 years of experience (up to the SVP level) across companies like Aon, Barclays, NBC and Viacom. Micah has a deep technological understanding and a strong commitment to social causes; at the center of Centiment and FilmFundr is the need to level the playing field in media for minorities.    Show Highlights  Micah talks about an experience with an investor with a diversity lens who led him to take a hard, corrective action.  The investor said that Micah was example of a POC founder that should be invested in although he doesn’t actually invest in diversity.    Micah points out some logic to the investor about his portfolio, the data around the startups in his portfolio, and then the data about the POC company in his portfolio which was beating out all the other companies in the portfolio.   Micah points out the importance of deploying raw intellect with these investors to point out the flaws in the investors’ hypotheses to ultimately shift.    Terri talks about how difficult for people to shift off their value sets to   Terri poses the question as to whether we are going to be able to get these primarily white male investors to shift in their investing or do we need to create a new ecosystem of funding.   Micah talks about how difficult it is starting up a company and raising money and the difficulty for the investors to empathize with struggling founders of color.    Micah talks about the difficulty in getting funding if you are a person of color because of the makeup of the current VCs.    Micah talks about the importance of getting LPs to invest in funds that can create a new ecosystem of funding to invest in startups because right now saying that you invest with a diversity lens is PR and there is no substance behind it.   Micah talked about the H&M and Pepsi advertisement debacle where they had badly sourced focus groups.  This was a perfect example of why having people who could potentially be offended in the decision-making process  Last year in NYC, there were 780 non-POC companies that got funding in 2017 and only 15.    He talked about the importance of naming and shaming to raise awareness and begin to affect change.    Terri talked about how Trump’s election triggered many people, including her, to no longer be complacent, and emphasized the need to speak up and take action.  She was cautiously optimistic after the Justin Caldbeck scandal but then more optimistic after Harvey Weinstein and then the politicians in terms of we might be able to move the needle and move more quickly in leveling the playing field.     Terri talks about the importance of getting LPs to invest not because it’s a diversity play, but because it’s a good business play.  Terri is concerned about the funding gap in later stages for these startups.    Centiment is brain-powered advertising.  Micah said that big companies are able to get away with what they are doing because their processes and perspectives are narrow.  Centiment.io is scalable neurocomputing delivered by SaaS that can be used to provide responses as one would get in focus groups.  They have an emotional search that takes the ideas and provides feedback as to what the emotional response will be.    If Micah could wave a magic wand, he would change the definition of success.  Once you change the definition of success, you can affect so much including how women perceive themselves and promoting opportunities for the American Dream for a larger group of people.   Micah and Terri talk about what they have sacrificed, and the cost associated with pursuing ‘success’ as it is currently defined.      Terri’s Key Takeaway  We need to redefine the definition of success that is more inclusive and is more aligned with a broader value set.      References in the Podcast  Centiment: https://centiment.io/beta/  Film Fundr:  https://filmfundr.com/  Harlem Capital Partners:  http://harlem.capital/  Kapor Capital: http://www.kaporcapital.com/  Backstage Capital: http://backstagecapital.com/  Charles Hudson: @chudson  Monique Woodard:  http://www.moniquewoodard.com/  Jillian Manus:  http://structure.vc/  New Age Capital:  http://www.newage.vc/  Comcast Ventures:  http://comcastventures.com/  StitchFix: https://www.stitchfix.com/  Neuromarketing: Neuromarketing is a field that applies the principles of neuroscience to marketing research, studying consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli (Wikipedia).  How Centiment could have helped H&M avoid the PR issue:  https://brandthropologie.com/hm  Founders Privilege:  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/founders-privilege-doing-everything-nothing-ainsley-patrick-brown/?trackingId=CuoGabO7WC4wrR8OXAEyMg%3D%3D  Girl Boss Radio:  https://www.girlboss.com/podcast/    Contact  Micah can be reached via Twitter @MicahAPBrown  You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.   Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.  To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.   

Terri had the pleasure of moderating a panel at Slush in Helsinki on November 30th and the video was released which allowed Jacqueline to strip the audio for your listening pleasure. The topic was shifting demographics and the need to shift investment along with it. Terri was joined by Monique Woodard of 500 Startups and Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures.   Who is Terri Mead? Terri Hanson Mead is President of Solutions2Projects, LLC, a consulting company that provides IT strategy and IT compliance services in the life sciences space in addition to expert witness consulting services.  She is also an active angel investor and former Vice President of Sand Hill Angels, regularly advises startups and in her spare time, flies helicopters.  She is passionate about supporting, and advocating for, female founders and investors and has created Class Bravo Ventures to more formally do so.  Show Highlights Setting the stage for the panel discussion with Monique Woodard of 500 Startups and Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures (USV): this is not a diversity panel; it is a panel on investing Why don’t we see more venture capital going to startups focused on building and providing products and services for these underserved markets? What is the market shift that you see so clearly and how can VCs capitalize on the opportunities for significant and real returns? Should we see the recent IPO of Stitch Fix as something that will ignite the interest of investors in startups targeting the female consumer? Should we see the shift of digital health, specifically in FemTech, from B2C to B2B as being potentially more attractive to the primarily male VCs or will the startups still be overlooked due to lack relatability or the ‘Ick’ factor so commonly associated with female-focused companies? Where are you seeing progress in getting more money into the hands of the startups focused on the black and LatinX markets? Or are you? Do you think we are going to be able to get VCs to shift along with the demographics and demand or do you think we are better off creating new investors to focus on investing in startups that more closely align with their values? Do you think that the political climate in the US will have any impact on startups targeting these under-represented markets? How do we convince our primarily male, white VCs that if they don’t shift their investing lens and strategies that they will be missing out on huge opportunities?   References:   Slush Helsinki: http://www.slush.org/home-2/ Clue app: https://www.helloclue.com/ Ida Tin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Tin Rent the Runway: https://www.renttherunway.com Jennifer Hyman: @Jenn_RTR Stitch Fix: https://www.stitchfix.com/ The Wing: https://www.the-wing.com/roots/   Contacts You can follow Monique on Twitter @moniquewoodard or on her website at http://www.moniquewoodard.com/   You can follow Albert on Twitter @albertwenger or on their website at https://www.usv.com/about/albert-wenger     You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead Feel free to email her at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com. To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

This week's guest is Monique Woodard, a venture partner at 500 Startups and one of the few black female VCs. During this chat, we talk about her early days, her career in the music business, her path to starting her first company, her dating experiences as a powerful woman, and much more. Monique also serves up excellent advice for current and aspiring founders. Hit Monique up and say hi! @moniquewoodard Show Notes: http://bit.ly/BTB104

Thank you Samara Hernandez ( https://twitter.com/samaramhernandz ) for the intro to our guest today, Monique Woodard ( https://twitter.com/MoniqueWoodard ). Monique is the founding Partner of Cake Ventures. Cake invests in companies that address the needs of a world undergoing massive demographic changes. We break down the three layers of Cake or themes that Monique focuses on, how she thinks about geography and future of work and her learnings as an operator and from 500 Startups. I highly recommend following Monique on Twitter @MoniqueWoodard ( https://twitter.com/MoniqueWoodard ). A book that inspired Monique: The Tycoons ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805081348/ref=as_li_qf_asin_il_tl?creative=9325&creativeASIN=0805081348&ie=UTF8&linkCode=as2&linkId=479c1b0e9bb51a7b14962823c66640fb&tag=theconsumervc-20 ) by Charles R. Morris Questions I asked Monique: * What was your attraction to technology and entrepreneurship? * What led you to San Francisco? * Why did you decide to become an investor? * What were some of your learnings from your experience at 500 Startups? * What led to founding Cake Ventures? * What particular themes are you focused on investing in? * What's your decision making process or diligence process within each theme. * What has been some of the effects of COVID on sourcing and your due diligence process? * What's one thing that you would change about venture capital? * What's the best piece of advice that you've received? * What's one piece of advice for founders who are currently building?