Podcasts about sogal

Episode SummaryPocket Sun is the Founding Partner at SoGal Ventures, the first female-led, millennial VC firm investing in the future of living, working, and staying healthy. In this episode, she shares how she made her first angel investment at just 24, and how her early bets like Everly Health and Lovevery reflected a conviction in underrepresented founders well before it was a trend. Cheryl and Maxine explore how Pocket launched SoGal's debut fund, built a deal pipeline through global pitch comps and community, and mastered the art of getting onto oversubscribed cap tables. They also unpack her consumer investing thesis, how she's navigating fund two with more geographic focus, and what it means to lead recaps and board restructures when the power law turns brutal. For anyone curious about building a fund from scratch, going global with limited resources, or backing change-makers the market misses, this episode is packed with both tactics and courage.Time Stamps00:00 – Pocket's first angel check: $1K into an AI startup05:30 – Angel investing isn't just for the ultra-wealthy09:45 – From building a global pitch comp to proving LP credibility14:20 – Early wins: Everly Health, Lovevery, and chasing allocation23:35 – “Land and expand”: getting on cap tables and earning super pro-rata27:10 – Leading recaps and fighting for underestimated founders35:00 – SoGal's thesis: The future of living, working, and staying healthy40:30 – Entering new verticals without prior expertise46:00 – Pocket's take on the Vancouver vs. Toronto startup ecosystems53:00 – Betting on design-led, intentional consumer businesses59:10 – Why consumer startups often graduate into enterprise giants01:03:00 – Pocket's Big Cojones moment: moving solo to the U.S. at 18Resources

What does it take to carve a space in the entrepreneurial world when you begin feeling like an outsider? Pocket Sun, co-founder of SoGal Ventures, shares her transformative journey from setting up a community for female entrepreneurs to becoming a major player in the venture capital space. In a world where women are often underrepresented and underfunded, Pocket's journey has been anything but conventional, pushing boundaries to ensure women-led companies get the support they deserve.Pocket Sun is a trailblazing entrepreneur and venture capitalist whose work focuses on investing in underrepresented groups to solve often ignored problems. Starting with her first investment via AngelList back in 2015, Pocket has expanded her reach to over 150 companies worldwide, many led by women, across multiple continents. Her ability to foresee potential in underserved market segments and her relentless pursuit of impactful investments has made SoGal Ventures a pivotal force in the startup ecosystem.In this episode of The Angel Next Door Podcast, Pocket Sun opens up about her unconventional beginnings, her commitment to diversity, and her mission to invest in category-defining companies. She shares insights on building a global community, navigating cross-border investments, and leading SoGal Ventures to become a brand that signifies innovation and social impact. Whether you're an investor or entrepreneur, or just interested in the dynamics of creating change, this episode is rich with valuable insights and stories that reflect on the power of diversity and the potential for change in the venture capital landscape. To get the latest from Pocket Sun, you can follow her below!https://www.linkedin.com/in/pocketsun/ https://www.sogalventures.com/ Sign up for Marcia's newsletter to receive tips and the latest on Angel Investing!Website: www.marciadawood.comLearn more about the documentary Show Her the Money: www.showherthemoneymovie.comAnd don't forget to follow us wherever you are!Apple Podcasts: https://pod.link/1586445642.appleSpotify: https://pod.link/1586445642.spotifyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/angel-next-door-podcast/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theangelnextdoorpodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@marciadawood

On this episode of The Founder's Sandbox, Brenda speaks with Shivani Honwad – founder of her own law firm, who specializes in immigration and business law for the creative industries.  Shivani is a business and immigration lawyer, and trailblazer in supporting the Freelance and Free Act, as well as a professor at NYU LA campus teaching Entrepreneurship for creatives.  “I could not keep hearing it and not do anything about it” Shivani says, speaking about immigration as a major issue for freelance fashion workers.  Shivani set out to get smarter. Ten 10 years later, The Law Firm of Shivani Honwad, LLC, focuses primarily on immigration and business law for companies in the fashion, tech, beauty and entertainment realms. You can find out more about Shivani at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivani-honwad- http://www.shivanilaw.com Find some of my guest's content here : Laws “the freelance and free act” https://www.nyc.gov/site/dca/about/freelance-isnt-free-act.page     Transcript: 00:04 Hi, I'm pleased to announce something very special to me, a new subscription-based service through Next Act Advisors that allows members exclusive access to personal industry insights and bespoke 00:32 corporate governance knowledge. This comes in the form of blogs, personal book recommendations, and early access to the founder's sandbox podcast episodes before they released to the public. If you want more white glove information on building your startup with information like what was in today's episode, sign up with the link in the show notes to enjoy being a special member of Next Act Advisors. 01:01 As a thank you to Founders Sandbox listeners, you can use code SANDBOX25 at checkout to enjoy 25% off your membership costs. Thank you. 01:18 Welcome back to the Founder's Sandbox. I am Brenda McCabe, your host. This is a monthly podcast in which I reach entrepreneurs, business owners, who are going to learn about building resilient, purpose-driven, and sustainable businesses with great corporate governance. 01:38 I like to assist the entrepreneurs in building these scalable, well-governed and resilient business. And what I do with my guests is they tell their origin story about how they've built their own practices. And we'll get to the origin story of my guest this month, Shivani Honwad. Shivani and I have known each other for many years. She was bi-coastal in New York and Los Angeles. We met actually in the Los Angeles. 02:06 Los Angeles Venture Association, LAVA. It has a women affinity group. And she was eagerly contributing to some of the material and programs that we put on for women business owners, actually startups in the LA ecosystem. So I wanna thank you Shivani for joining me this month and the founder Sandbox. Thank you, Brenda. Thank you. So. 02:35 You own your own law firm, the law firm of Shivani Honwad. And it was originally based in New York. I don't know whether you operate nationally, but I'd love you to kind of repeat your origin story when I met you the first time in one of the women in lava. It was a small gathering. And it struck me your story was fascinating, because you were 03:04 working for a law firm in New York, but it was in your social life. You were, you know, out for drinks in the evenings and you would often be approached by women who were in the fashion industry, so models, and inevitably over a drink or maybe not a drink, they would end up using some of your free services. What was that? What were they asking your advice on, Shivani? And with that, we're going to get started on your origin story. 03:32 Thank you. Yeah, sure. So, you know, I was in my twenties in New York City and as one does in New York City, I would often go out. So I, at the time, was working in criminal law with a firm and civil litigation. But so I would go out with my friends. You know, I went to NYU, so I had a lot of friends in the city. And, you know, these models kept approaching me and they were like, hey, I heard you're a lawyer. I need help. 04:00 And I was like, oh, did you get arrested or did something happen like that? And they were like, no. And I kept hearing stories of how they were working for these modeling agencies. Most of the people that approached me were international models and their passports or their visas or something like their paperwork was being withheld so that they didn't really have freedom to travel and then not only that, they wouldn't be paid out. So. 04:25 they would model for days, weeks, sometimes months at a time, and be paid $0. And the agencies were just, there was just a lot of abuse in the industry. And so they kept asking for help. And at the time, I didn't really understand enough about the industry to know how pervasive this was. But I started looking into it because it wasn't just one model approaching me. It was like dozens of models over the course of a few weeks, if not maybe a few months. 04:54 that kept asking me for help. And it got to a point. I imagine your name got around, right? Well, because I wasn't doing anything yet. It was just that I was the only lawyer at all of these events, right? And I mean, this is also pre-Me too. So the other part of it was, is the lawyers they were going to, some of the male lawyers unfortunately, were also taking advantage of them and being like, hey, I'll help you, but you have to be my date to this event like Saturday night. 05:20 So they would see me in my 20s and a woman and woman of color, and they would just be like, oh, OK, so she won't sexually harass me or she won't threaten me in any way. So I think I was seen as a safer space for that. So I think that's why people approach me at parties. And then it got to a point where I just I couldn't really keep hearing it and not do anything about it. 05:46 And so I did some research into it. And then I found lawyers. I knew some in my network that knew how to help them. And the biggest issue, it seemed, was the immigration part, where it was like, if models come into the US under what's called an O-1 visa, and typically it's tied to whoever their agent or employer is if they come in under that route. But if they do it, there's other ways they can do it to have a little more freedom, or they can get their green cards so they have freedom. And that's the EB1A route. 06:16 And so I figured out an attorney who did that and he had agreed to like train me in how to do that. So eventually like I started my own law firm focusing on that. And it was just to help these models get some freedom. And then, you know, I expanded from there to doing some IP and contracts because once I helped them and get got them more stable, they were like, okay, well now I'm doing these ventures and I want you to negotiate these contracts and I want you to be my lawyer for this. Like you were great. So that's how my law firm kind of came to be. 06:44 And it was just 10 years actually, since I've opened it this past August. Oh my goodness. Yeah. It was just, it started out at this crazy need of just people needing help and to be in a safe space. And the irony of it is that I originally went to law school to kind of work on human trafficking issues. Oh my goodness. And I never thought I would see it. Like I never thought I'd work in fashion, but I mean, the work I was doing was tied to that because a lot of the models were essentially held in debt bondage. 07:14 of being tied to these agencies not being paid out and saying like, you owe us this much money so we're not gonna pay you or what have you. So I think that's how it's still, I got to do what I went to law school for, but in a different way than I had initially thought. Like I thought I would work for the UN or something like, but it was so hard to get into the UN. I applied nonstop originally, but like I got to do this. And like we changed some laws around in this space. Like, 07:43 The Boston Globe did like the Spotlight team did a piece on this and like some of my clients that I was also interviewed for. And then, you know, we met with officials in city hall. And so the freelances and free act, which got passed in New York also applies to models. So if an agency, you know, gets payment from a client to the agency and they don't pay the model within 30 days, the state of New York will actually fine the agency. 08:10 So the models now have recourse to collect payment faster. Excellent. So I would ask you later to give me this law, and we'll put it in the show notes. Because this is amazing. You have been a trailblazer in a serendipitous way. You started out, or while you're studying law, you thought you would work in sexual traffic, and you did not, or human trafficking. And you were doing criminal law. 08:38 ended up actually representing fashion models, immigration issues, as well as eventually venturing into assisting them in their contract management and IP. So amazing story. And I loved one thing that you did say. You said, I couldn't not do anything, right? I researched it and I just could not just let this go. So. 09:08 Very, very resilient, Shivani. How did that experience or others inform you to actually move all the way out here to Los Angeles and set up practice? And tell us a little bit about that. So I don't think you and I have actually talked about this before. But originally, what brought me out to LA was some of the work that I did here for the models. I was recruited by some organizations in the e-sports area. 09:38 Um, you know, e-sports is actually pretty big out here in California. And, um, there was some e-sports organizations that wanted me to help implement essentially policies and basic human rights for the gamers, because, um, kind of what we had done for the models in New York, um, there was really no regulations a couple of years ago. It's still pretty bare minimum, but. 10:02 for the e-sports gamers. And you have all these essentially mostly teenage boys, there are female gamers as well, but in the e-sports tournaments, and they were just taking a ton of speed or drinking nonstop Monster Energy drinks, and they were just dying, quite frankly, they were under all this pressure to perform. And again, there was really no regulation around it. And their contracts were devoid of like... 10:28 just basic human rights of like, okay, you can get a bathroom break, you get time to eat, you get time to sleep. So originally I was recruited out here to kind of work on those issues. And I will say, if you've never been to an e-sports tournament and like in a stadium, I advise going, it's an experience. Wow. This is like a trillion dollar industry and it like traverses all socioeconomic, like really like it. 10:56 It just transcends all lines. It's just an incredible scene to experience, just the fandom of it all. So I was in that space for a little bit originally and it just, it was a very chaotic environment that I just didn't really want to be in anymore. Right. And then, yeah, I just- And you were doing this from 11:26 from your own practice? At that time, you'd set up your practice, so you just recently celebrated 10 years of your law firm, Shivani Hanwad. Yeah. You were actually serving the e-sports from your law firm. Yeah, so I was doing some contract stuff. I was doing visas for the gamers, things like that. So I was getting more familiar with it. But it was because the issues paralleled. 11:53 basically what was happening with models in New York with the sports gamers in California. So that's kind of how the whole thing started. And then, like I said, it wasn't really for me, but then I had made some inroads here. I got connected to Lava and some other organizations. And then I got offered the position to teach at NYU's LA campus. So that's kind of anchored me here in Los Angeles now. But yeah, so I still do kind of the same stuff and I work. 12:22 you know, same. The thing with immigration law is it's federal. So my clients are all over the world and a lot of my clients also in the fashion, creative industries, their contracts are mostly like for New York and California based things. And like I'm admitted to practice law in both New York and California. So they just email me, like we do Zooms or, you know, calls and stuff and go through stuff. So yeah, I serve clients all over the world basically. 12:51 position you have with New York Stern's LA campus? It's not Stern. So it's New York University. Okay. I went to Stern undergrad. Yes. And then, but New York University's Los Angeles campus is just a general campus. It's not a specific school. Okay. So we serve students from all schools. And actually we have multiple global campuses. So we have two other degree granting campuses. One is NYU Abu Dhabi. 13:21 and one is NYU Shanghai. So this is what come to our LA program. It's an undergrad study abroad only program. So it's one semester and they come mainly from our New York campus. Some are, we also do have a lot of students that come from our Abu Dhabi campus and our Shanghai campus. And then they might be as part of other programs too. And so they come out here, they spend a semester, they, we work on getting them internships. 13:48 And they just kind of see, like most of them want to go into the entertainment industries in, you know, whether it's media, like screenwriting, directing, producing, or music. So they're just trying to see if they like the LA environment, make some inroads for if they want to like pursue their career in LA or New York or what's better for them. So that's the program that we have out here right now. And like we're growing actively because the campus opened in fall of 2019. 14:15 closed promptly in spring of 2020. And then just reopened fully again last year. All right. And do you teach a specific subject? Well, yeah. So the course that I teach, it's basically structured around like entrepreneurship or creatives. So I bring in kind of my business and my legal backgrounds. My, the director of the NYU LA program is amazing. And she gave me carte blanche to kind of design a course. 14:44 She was like, think of them as your future clients. What do you wish they knew? So that's kind of what we designed. So we like include like how to pitch, how to develop a deck and then how to pitch that deck. I also do a negotiation simulation because oftentimes these students have never like negotiated a deal before. So I go over, you know, what are basic deal terms that you should at least understand and if nothing else have these in a contract. And then I design a whole simulation and like put them in groups. 15:13 and give them mock contracts and they have to negotiate it out. And it's really fun because every single time we do it, they all start with the same contract, the same roles, and everything. And then they all present at the end of class what their deal terms were. And no group has ever had the same deal terms. And the reason for that is because it's also to show them that you all come in with your own biases and preferences and experiences and values. 15:41 Yes. It doesn't really matter what the other people are doing. It's just like, what makes sense to you? What do you feel comfortable with? Because if you feel comfortable with the deal and you're okay performing for this rate or with these terms or whatever, then you're going to be fine. And so, because then I always ask them, did you want someone else's deal? And they might say that they wanted parts of it. They're like, oh, I didn't know I could add that. Sometimes if we're doing an artist contract negotiation, 16:10 my female students will always be like, they'll add in hair and makeup budget. And then the male students didn't know like, oh, that's a thing or like, how much is hair and mica? And like women know that it should be expensive. So they're like, oh, I could do that. So like, it's things like that that come up cause I'm like, you can add in, if it's not written there, you can add stuff in. Like I give you flexibility. And they're like, okay, I'll think about that next time. But because they negotiated out, they felt heard. 16:40 So they're comfortable with the deal that they agreed to because they felt like they were heard, they felt valued. And so they were fine with their deal overall. So again, although they may have picked up some things that they would like for next time, no one's really been outright like, my deal was terrible. Like everyone's kind of felt like kind of comfortable because they get time to talk it through. And I think that's like the biggest takeaway is like, as long as like the other side feels heard, 17:09 you can agree to a situation where all parties kind of essentially win and can work together well. And thank you, this is fascinating. So you have an entrepreneurship program at the New York University's Los Angeles campus. There's another campus in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. And so it's a year abroad. So is it cross-cultural mix and what students? Yes, but. 17:38 Sorry, I'm just gonna clarify. So it's not a year abroad for Abu Dhabi and Shanghai. They're actually degree granting campuses. Okay. So the Abu Dhabi campus is actually a really incredible program. It's a four year program. Okay. And it only has like a 2% admission rate cause tuition is free at that campus. So they're completely separate programs but they're all under the NYU umbrella. But I'm just saying that students come to our LA campus for a semester. It's a semester, right? Yeah, for a semester just to kind of do a semester abroad essentially. 18:09 And how many entrepreneurs have gone through your program? So, okay, so let me also clarify, sorry. I teach the Entrepreneurship for Creatives course, but like our entire curriculum here is centered around the entertainment industry. So there's a movie marketing class, there's a screenwriting class, there's pitching your project class, there's a history of film class. So it's all centered around entertainment. There's music courses, there's stuff like that. 18:38 The entrepreneur part is just kind of what I do because like, that's my background. And also like if you're a creative, you are an entrepreneur in the industry, like you are your brand. So mine's the only one, my course is the only one focused on that. So it's not that we have entrepreneurs here. They all want to be in the entertainment industry, but it's part of being in the entertainment industry, you are an entrepreneur. So just to clarify that a little bit, that it's not a separate program. Excellent. And thank you for that, you know, clarifying. 19:08 And I would like you to speak about your own new venture. So not only do you have your own law practice, you have recently started an initiative that is the South Asian Creator Collective. Tell us a little bit more about this. Yeah, so we launched that out of the NYU LA campus. Okay. Because I just found out like that my South Asian students 19:38 They, you know, we have only a few, usually every semester, but they just didn't have the community that some of the other creative communities had because typically South Asian families, your parents want you to be a doctor or an engineer and not really like, okay, you can have a music hobby or be a dancer as a hobby, but not have that as a career. So there was a lot of lack of support. And then I represent some South Asian artists. 20:06 whether they're writers or dancers or creators, producers, things like that in New York and LA. And so they also obviously would say the same thing. So I kind of wanted to bring everyone together to not only create a community for like my clients, my friends who are in the industry, but also to help build that bridge for my South Asian students to have like, you know, mentors in the industry. So we had our first meeting earlier this, a couple of months ago. 20:32 What came out of that was really cool that I brought together my friends and clients. They've already started collabing together on stuff. And then Brenda through you and Ty, I met people who are possibly interested in investing in South Asian creators projects. So we're looking at doing a possible pitch event in the spring to have our creators pitch projects and then to have investors possibly invest in them. So I like the idea of just bringing people together to kind of create this community 21:01 and to help each other kind of, you know, use everyone's skill sets just to create a better whole together. I love it. And I was absolutely thrilled that you were at the Thai So Cal's recent event with the preview and a screening of Show Her the Money, as well as we had our final. 21:22 competition for five women-owned businesses. So thank you for joining us there. We did that at the Noah House in Hollywood, of which I'm a member, and look forward to hearing more about the PitchFest that is probably gonna be in the spring of next year. Hopefully. Noah's crazy though about that, show her the money screening. I didn't realize how many people I knew in the film. Like I knew... 21:48 Liz, like from this organization that we were part of in New York, Dreamers and Doors, were like mainly female entrepreneurs. Like I knew her when she was starting Sogal. And so it was so crazy to see how far they've come. And then like I knew so many other people in the film. And I was like, wait, I knew them back then. I didn't know they were in this film. And like Naseem was in there. Like there was just so many people that I was saw in the film that I was like, wait, I know these people personally. So it was just a really cool screening to see. And to see so many. 22:18 people that I've known over the years, just in how far they've come over the years too. Was really cool. Yeah, initially it's a movement now. So initially Show Her the Money was gonna be shown in 50 US cities. It's gone viral. I think we're up in to the 200s and yeah, it's a movement. So thank you for being, and it's a small world, right? Oh, completely. We all end up, yes, there are no borders. So yeah, thank you. 22:45 And I look forward to that launch and I would be happy to promote it here in the founder sandbox as well as on my YouTube channel. You know, this switch gears. I want to I initially I've known you for years, but I really wanted you to come on to the founder sandbox because not only your story of not resiliency, but to the move across from the from LA to from New York to LA. But 23:14 you're passionate clearly about resilience. And I am also passionate. And it's the type of work I do with with founders as they're scaling their businesses just working on this resiliency, I say muscles. You recently hosted during LA's tech week, about two weeks back, a session on resiliency. Tell us a little bit about it and why you wanted to spearhead that. 23:42 Um, so I did my first LA tech week event last year, and that was a great learning experience. We did it all about pivoting and we had like 400 RSVPs for like 75 spots because I did at NYU's LA campus and we're small. So we had a fire martial capacity of 75. So it was just like overwhelming. But the original reason I launched that event was because 24:09 Um, when I looked at the original LA tech week calendar, all I saw were men on that calendar. And I only, if I saw a panel with a woman, it was like one woman and like five men. And I was like, I have so many incredible friends and clients that are women doing incredible things in the tech space and they never get the platform to talk about this. So I wanted a female forward event. Um, so I did that one and then that one went really well. So then everyone was like, 24:37 Okay, what are you doing for tech week this year? So that's how I was like, okay, so everyone really liked the pivoting one because they said they learned something from it and it was something everyone could relate to. So then, you know, as we're coming out of COVID, a lot of people have felt burnout and have felt the need to kind of just like reinvent themselves or just kind of rise from the ashes to a degree. So then this year's theme, I was like, I feel like I wanna do something around resilience. 25:04 because it's about like weathering the storm and coming out and like, you know, thriving again. And so again, I did it female forward. But what was really incredible is a lot of my male clients and friends also came and like others that I didn't know. And like all of them just like loved the event. And they're like, this has been the most informative event I've ever been to. And I said that at the beginning of my event, I was like, you know, this is like, yes, I, you know, my panel is all women, but 25:33 we can't change the ratio of where only 2% of women receive VC funding if we don't have men in the room, because you need everyone at the table to help change that statistic. And so by sharing the stories of like, again, they were my clients and friends, but they all run like incredible organizations. Like Steph Rizal was one of our speakers. She's an incredible singer songwriter. She just wrote a book for creatives and self-care. 26:00 I had Jazzy Collins, who's the first black person to win an Emmy for casting. And she has a production house called Force Perspective. I had Mickey Reynolds, who used to be the CEO, co-founder of Grid 110, and is now head of programs at Slosnikov, a VC fund. And then I had May Muna, who is amazing. She's a refugee. And she started two organizations, one called the Tia Foundation to help refugees in the US. And then she started this... 26:28 restaurant called Flavors From Afar where refugee chefs essentially have their menus every month featured at the restaurant. So like I got to feature these incredible stories and founders and you know, just how they like, May Muna, her Flavors From Afar restaurant is now Michelin like rated, but she was fired from a Carl's Jr. That's like her story. She's like, yeah, I was fired from Carl's Jr. and now I have a Michelin restaurant. 26:54 So where you start and kind of what happens, it's like you just have to keep going. And all of them kind of had stories like that of being like, you know, dismissed somewhere early in their career and just like, keep like, just keep going. And like, Jazzy too, like, you know, she was just like dismissed for being usually the only black female in any room. And now she's the first black person to win an Emmy earlier this year. And it's just like how, you know, yes, in casting, sorry. But yeah, and how that like just 27:23 those stories of how that rises. And I think a lot of people learn from that because a lot of them were just like, you just have to keep trying, or you just have to try something. And if it doesn't work, you know, go a different direction, but fail faster was kind of the message that they were putting out there that like you'll still figure it out and you just have to like have a really supportive community around you. And as long as you have that, like you can just like find the strength to keep going. 27:50 Tudos to you. This is a podcast that is absolutely filled with lots of nuggets, your own story in New York, coming out to LA, you're teaching your own entrepreneurship journey and your passion with respect to the underrepresented, right? And actually putting on events. 28:16 and Female Forward as well as last year in pivoting is thank you for being part of the ecosystem here in Los Angeles and next year I wonder what you're going to do in LA Tech Week. I know this week was pretty burned out still so we'll see. We have time. So you know I'd like to give you the opportunity to provide how my listeners can contact you or how's it best to contact you. 28:46 Um, yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram. My Instagram is just my name, Shivani Hanwad. Um, my email is just shivani at shivanilaw.com. So I guess any of those are kind of the best ways to find me or connect with me. 29:01 Okay, and we're going to shift gears back to this sandbox. You are a guest here to the founder sandbox. And again, my mission is to build resilient, scalable, and purpose-driven companies. So I always like to ask each of my guests what the word means, resilience, purpose-driven, and scalable, sustainable businesses. Each of my guests has a different meaning. And it's 29:30 actually one of the highlights of my podcast for me. Okay, so am I doing all three? Yes, you will. Okay. You already talked a little bit about resilience, but what does it mean to you? What does resilience mean to you? Shivani Ha. I think resilience just means to me, it's just like to persevere, to keep going. And I think all of us have our own challenges, obstacles and hardships. And I think finding the strength to just kind of get through those. 29:59 Because you don't always get over everything that you kind of maybe get through in your life, but getting through it is, I guess, the way to look at it in my mind. And then just kind of still making stuff happen, even if it's hard, is the way I look at resilience. To persevere, still making it happen. Thank you. Purpose-driven. You're very purpose-driven. How many back? If we were to scale you. 30:28 Well, purpose-driven, I just find it like, you know, just quick tangent, but like what originally drew me into law school and like wanting to work in the human trafficking space was like, you know, I was caught in these monsoon floods in India when I was working in Bollywood. And I learned about human trafficking and that's kind of what I wanted to work on. And I have worked on it in different ways, like, you know, changing that law in Delaware and then my work on the TVPGA as part of the New York State Trafficking Coalition. 30:58 So I have worked on that. And I just think that's always been kind of my, I guess, anchor point in a way of like a lot of the work or the pro bono work even that I do through my law firm. And part of why I've kept my law firm is because now no one tells me how I get to spend my time or money. I wanna work on representing children that have been trafficked and do those cases pro bono. I can do that. No one's like, no, you need more billable hours. Like it's up to me. 31:26 So I have a couple of nonprofits that I work with that I represent kids that have been trafficked to get them either status here or just like to a safer spot. And I really love that work. So the work I do with the creatives and everything, it kind of funds and provides me the ability to do this other work. So I think purpose-driven is just like figuring out what it is that you're passionate about and what your anchor point is. Like, why are you doing this? Like, what is it that's getting you through and what gets you out of bed? 31:55 Like I get really excited to like work on my clients' cases because I think they're doing really incredible things. Yes. So I think purpose-driven is just like that, like finding what you're passionate about and like how you can have a positive impact in the community. I have goosebumps. I had, you went off on a little tangent. That was a very important tangent and as it is your anchor point. So thank you for sharing, Shivani. Sustainable growth. 32:23 Okay, what's sustainable? So this is something I'm working on now. Yes. I think, you know, for me, I was an accidental law firm founder, you know, that like I kept meeting these people and like that needed help and like I, I never really thought I would start my own law firm. And so I think it's been a journey of figuring out how to like run a law firm and grow it and all of this and like. 32:48 I'm getting to that point where it's like, okay, what am I doing? Am I still doing this? Am I merging it with something else or someone else? And I'm very fortunate to have really great partners. I'm really fortunate to have the opportunity to these couple of law firms have offered for me to merge my law firm with theirs, join them, all of that. So it's figuring that part of it out. But I think, you know, to be sustainable or scalable, I think one thing, especially people who are type A like me, 33:17 that we struggle with is delegating. And that like finding, you know, you're not good at everything. You're not like, the first thing I did was hire a tax guy. Cause I was like, I don't do this. Like I don't know how to do anything tax wise, but it's just like figuring out like, you know, what you're good at and what you're not good at instead of trying to learn everything, figuring out how to delegate or finding team members to help you with the stuff you're not good at. Because I think a lot of people, especially founders try and hold on to everything. 33:46 And that's kind of what leads to burnout because if you're trying to do stuff that you're just not great at, you just always are gonna feel defeated. But if you have other people that are good at that stuff, supporting you in that, and you get to focus on the stuff you're really good at, then that's gonna energize you because then you're being more successful because you're doing the things you're great at. And then you're being supported still by other people. So you have that mental bandwidth to keep doing and keep running in the right direction. 34:14 what the stuff that you're passionate about, you're good at, what you're trying to grow. So I think to be sustainable or scalable, learning how to delegate is a really important skillset that it takes some time and emotional bandwidth to be able to be okay with letting go of something. Cause like most founders, like their companies are their babies. Like they're growing it. And you know, it's just so hard. It's like saying like, 34:44 It's like you're finding a nanny for your child. Like, okay, I'm okay with letting this person do this part of my business. So. Excellent analogy. And it also probably has to do with your own awareness, right? And the maturity of recognizing there are certain things that I just don't wanna do, but I don't like it or I'm not good at it. And the maturity and awareness that it's better done by someone else, right? 35:13 Yes. And I'm also self-employed and, you know, pushing through. And I have also delegated many things. I'm having a fantastic team, the producer of my podcast, and I let them do and tell, I follow their orders to tell you the truth. But you need that sometimes. Sometimes it's easier if someone just tells you what you need to do and then they're just handling the rest. 35:42 Um, and thank you for joining me in the, the, um, founder sandbox podcast this month, you know, um, to my listeners, if you liked this episode with Shivani Han what sign up for the monthly release, um, where founders, business owners, corporate directors and professional service providers provide their own origin stories. And they tell their stories about resilience purpose driven and scalable. 36:11 Thank you again. You can listen to these episodes on any major podcast streaming service. Signing off for this month. Thank you. Thanks, Brenda.  

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Catherine Gray, the host of Invest In Her, interviews Pocket Sun, the Co-founder and Managing Partner at SoGal Ventures which is a top-performing early stage venture capital firm backing world-class women and diverse entrepreneurs outside of Silicon Valley. She founded SoGal at age 23 to solve the deeply rooted inequity in VC and to deliver superior, consistent financial returns by investing in underestimated founders, undercapitalized geographies, and underserved problems. Since 2015, Pocket and co-founder Elizabeth have invested in 150+ startups worldwide, managed $40M LP capital, and built a track record of picking five $1B+ unicorns from the earliest stage.    Pocket Sun will be featured in the upcoming documentary, Show Her the Money https://showherthemoneymovie.com/ www.sheangelinvestors.com  https://www.sogalventures.com/   Follow Us On Social Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn  

To kick off Season 2 of the Give Her Dollars podcast, Thamina is excited to be joined by Elizabeth Galbut, Co-Founder of Venture Capital Firm SoGal Ventures, a global community that spans over 50 cities across 6 continents, dedicated to uplifting female and minority entrepreneurs.In a candid reflection on the VC landscape, Elizabeth points out the industry's shortcomings in supporting women, urging the importance of intra-community support. Through avenues like angel investing, Elizabeth emphasizes the power of women's wealth in effecting meaningful change, citing this as one of the most invigorating eras to be a woman entrepreneur with fresh opportunities and innovative funds at our fingertips.Elizabeth shares her excitement about the AI tools emerging in the market, tools that promise to revolutionize businesses, making them more economical, efficient, and providing a more equitable start for female entrepreneurs, even with limited capital.Beyond tools and finances, Elizabeth strongly believes in the power of authentic networking, urging women to embrace a networking style that aligns with their unique personality.Delving into the nitty-gritty of startup dynamics, Elizabeth delineates the qualities she values in founders and offers invaluable advice for budding female entrepreneurs. Her insights on generational wealth are especially profound: She challenges the notion that a conventional 9-5 job, combined with traditional investment avenues, might not necessarily be the path to big financial success. Instead, she champions the notion of 'learning money', urging young women to take calculated risks early in life, to view money as an enabler of their financial future, and to invest wholeheartedly in themselves.Check out the Fempire x SoGal course: https://fempire.iamsogal.com

Invest In Her host Catherine Gray talks with Pocket Sun who is the Co-founder and Managing Partner at SoGal Ventures, a top-performing early stage venture capital firm backing world-class women and diverse entrepreneurs outside of Silicon Valley. She founded SoGal at age 23 to solve the deeply rooted inequity in VC and to deliver superior, consistent financial returns by investing in underestimated founders, undercapitalized geographies, and underserved problems. Since 2015, Pocket and co-founder Elizabeth have invested in 150+ startups worldwide, managed $40M LP capital, and built a track record of picking five $1B+ unicorns from the earliest stage.  www.sheangelinvestors.com  https://www.sogalventures.com/   Follow Us On Social Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

In this episode, we talk to Pocket Sun, Co-Founder and Partner at SoGal, about:The founding of VC firm, SoGal at USC (which she considers her first startup) and the initial challenges of raising Fund ISoGal's huge community-driven momentum, the portfolio journey so far and the raise of Fund IIHow SoGal is closing the diversity gap (gender and racial) through its investment thesis and many targeted programs and,Advice for aspiring female founders and investors looking to break into the industry or raise funding and who inspires herEaster egg for our listeners with a quick "Just Do It" failure story from a highly successful investor

Co-founder and managing partner of the first female-led millennial venture capital firm, SoGal Ventures, Elizabeth Galbut sits down with Women on the Move host Sam Saperstein to discuss how she's going beyond investing in women to creating a global ecosystem of both women and men who are investing in women. The Accidental Venture Capitalist As the only child of two doctors, Elizabeth “grew up in the healthcare system.” “And very early on, I was seeing that there were a lot of problems in healthcare from a business perspective, as well as, how do you improve patient care for all of us in the U.S.?” Initially, Elizabeth's goal was to enter the healthcare industry to solve some of these broad issues. In the end, she says, she's doing something very similar as a venture capitalist, by investing directly into innovative companies that are currently changing the landscape of healthcare. “So I call myself a bit of an accidental venture capitalist,” she tells Sam. “It definitely wasn't what I went into graduate school thinking I was going to do, but looking back, it really makes sense.” During graduate school at Johns Hopkins she recognized the need for venture capitalists to invest in healthcare ideas. At Hopkins, she saw so many entrepreneurs with amazing backgrounds who weren't able to find capital to finance their businesses. “I thought,there's really this arbitrage investment opportunity of backing these founders.” Through early, small investments she learned the value of even very small investments in talented people with great ideas. “It's not always about the dollar amount, but it's really about being that supporter and,helping somebody understand that what you're doing is actually valuable and you should keep going.” Building an ecosystem Elizabeth was just 23 when she and her 25-year-old partner decided to launch a venture capital firm. Going to career fairs and conferences as an MBA student had opened her eyes to the gender issues in the VC field. “Sometimes the men venture capitalists would say we don't hire women,” she recalls. Rather than join a male-dominated firm she and her partner founded SoGal, with an investment focus on exceptional, diverse founding teams that have plans for global expansion focused on tackling major consumer or healthcare problems in the U.S. and Asia. Elizabeth and her partner identified early on that they were interested in supporting not just women entrepreneurs, but also other women investors. She describes those efforts as creating an ecosystem for investors, empowering founders and investors, and creating a support system and community. “There are trillions of dollars to be unlocked by empowering women. So of course I want to empower women from a social perspective, but it's also a deep business opportunity that we should all be paying attention to.”

Here's your episode you NOTHINGS with an awesome historian guest from YouTube! Guest: SoGal Host: Whitey & Gem ✅ Website: https://www.podpage.com/nothingspodcast/ -Live on Twitch, YouTube and Stereo app Every Monday at 6:30pm EST!-

This week Kelly interviews Pocket Sun, co-founder of SoGal. SoGal works to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship by providing grants for minority women, and giving them the startup funds to start growing their businesses. Kelly opens the show by talking about the UE’s one to one giving model in collaboration with the Human Family Foundation. She then gives Pocket the opportunity to elaborate on SoGal’s mission, work, and goals. Kelly asks Pocket about the driving force behind Pocket starting her journey with the organization. Pocket and Kelly then discuss what it takes to change industry norms. Kelly asks Pocket about what she's doing to change how people think of investment opportunities. Pocket talks about societal pressures that discourage women from investing and building wealth. Finally, Kelly asks Pocket what people can do to learn more about the type of work they are doing.   Want to learn more? Keep up with Pocket here:   Website: http://www.sogalventures.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iamsogal Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pocketysun/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/pocketysun?lang=en Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pocketsun/?originalSubdomain=sg   For more mindset tips and strategies, follow along with Kelly: Join the Tribe of Unstoppables: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2080754075505322/ Website: https://unstoppableentrepreneur.com Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/kellyroachofficial Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellyroachlive   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyroachint/

SoGal Taiwan Chapter Lead, Caren C., participated in The Joint Education Project while in college and joined a non-profit organization after completing her double bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism and Asian American studies.With her journey of completing an MBA degree and pursuing climbing the corporate ladder, she experienced an incredibly toxic relationship in the corporate world, which made her decide to take a break to recover and reflect on what truly matters to her in life.While she was recovering and reflecting, she came along with the idea of reactivating the SoGal Taiwan Chapter and her entrepreneurial journey of building an English learning platform utilizing voice assistant technology called Sensay to help Taiwanese students build confidence to speak more English

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/

“The only way to end systemic inequality is to invest in minorities, the underrepresented, and women.” Access to education, healthcare, clean water, and economic development opportunities remain key priorities for many countries. Entire populations and children are being left behind and marginalized through climate change, disruptions, and globalization. Addressing generational poverty and transformation can take decades. How might we learn from current success stories, work that can scale to other parts of the world in sustainable development? Great ideas and innovation are everywhere, but often access to funding, relationships, and networks present hurdles particularly for young, underrepresented (often female, black, and non-binary) people. How can we access to funding so great ideas can thrive?  In this episode, Taylor Hebble joins the Supply Chain Revolution to discuss two cool organizations addressing these unmet needs in sustainability, sustainable development, and innovation that transforms the world. Taylor Hebble and Sheri Hinish met at Harvard this summer in a learning cohort that trains leaders in the change leadership needed for sustainable development. Through meaningful interactions, Sheri learned about Taylor’s work at Hope for Haiti and SoGal Foundation. Taylor describes some of the initiatives at Hope for Haiti around clean water, education, and healthcare, including an inspiring story of triumph after a small school was destroyed by Hurricane Matthew. How can we truly transform the donor relationship and sustainable development? Listening to what communities need most! We discuss simple solutions and Taylor describes a few including a clean water project at scale. We also explore SoGal Foundation, founded in 2014 by Pocket Sun and Elizabeth Galbut, and its current Black and non-binary peoples cash grants program that provides immediate access to fund incredible ideas. SoGal Foundation is the largest global platform for women and diverse entrepreneurs and investors with over 40 chapters across 5 continents. Its mission is to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship and venture capital. By bringing access, capital, and education to underprivileged entrepreneurs, SoGal Foundation has grown from a classroom side project to a global movement for women and underrepresented people to live on their own terms. It represents: a fearless, inspirational spirit + a constant, relentless execution mode + a collaborative and supportive community + young women with entrepreneurial ambitions. SoGal provides multiple series of events, including the SoGal Summit, which was the largest female entrepreneurship conference in Southern California. Super excited to bring awareness to this inspiring organization.

This week Marjorie King from SoGal foundation sits down to talk to me about her transitioning from the corporate world to not for profit along with her experiences with ageism and her advice for young females out there! Marjorie is an amazing role model and this is a really great episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Marjorie King from SoGal foundation sits down to talk to me about her transitioning from the corporate world to not for profit along with her experiences with ageism and her advice for young females out there! Marjorie is an amazing role model and this is a really great episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don't miss out on the next WeAreLATech podcast episode, get notified by signing up here http://wearelatech.com/podcastWelcome to WeAreLATech's LA Tech Startup Spotlight!“Empowering Women To Say Yes To Oral Sex”Get your very own WeAreLATech tee at http://wearelatech.com/shopWeAreLATech Podcast is a WeAreTech.fm production.To support our podcast go to http://wearelatech.com/believeTo be featured on the podcast go to http://wearelatech.com/feature-your-la-startup/Want to be featured in the WeAreLATech Community? Create your profile here http://wearelatech.com/communityHost, Espree Devorahttps://twitter.com/espreedevoraespree@wearelatech.comGuest,Melanie Cristol of Loralsmelanie@mylorals.comhttps://twitter.com/MelCristolFor a calendar of all LA Startup events go to, http://WeAreLATech.comTo further immerse yourself into the LA Tech community go to http://wearelatech.com/vipLinks Mentioned:Lorals, https://mylorals.com/Victoria's Secret, https://www.victoriassecret.com/SoGal, https://www.iamsogal.com/Bixel Exchange, http://bixelexchange.com/Foodies.ai, http://foodies.ai/People Mentioned:Alexa-Rae Navarro, https://twitter.com/lexaraenKat Yalung, https://twitter.com/kattaqueMiki Reynolds, https://twitter.com/miksterZach Sekar, https://www.linkedin.com/in/zachsekar/Credits:Produced and Hosted by Espree Devora, http://espreedevora.comStory produced, Edited and Mastered by Adam Carroll, http://www.ariacreative.ca/Show Notes by Karl Marty, http://karlmarty.comMusic by Jay Huffman, https://soundcloud.com/jayhuffmanShort Title: Empowering Women

Elaine Truong is the first product technical product manager at Facebook Singapore. Facebook  connects 241 million Southeast Asians and one interesting difference is that 94% use Facebook through mobile. She's worked on connecting people in developing countries to the internet, 5G and virtual reality as well as the latest products by Facebook and Instagram. Elaine mentors startups around the world on product management and development for the Facebook Accelerator program. She is also on the Products A to Z committee at Grace Hopper Conference and is an advisor at #BuiltByGirls. She had previously launched Facebook's telecom infrastructure project and the associated Community Labs globally in partnership with Nokia, Intel, and telcos to promote open source hardware for telecom infrastructure solutions. Elaine is also an active tech community builder and an investor in startups and venture capital funds. She is on the board of SoGal Foundation, the largest community for over 100,000 female founders and investors across 50 chapters around the world. SoGal focuses on supporting diverse founders and funders to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship and venture capital. She shared her product learnings with entrepreneurs in Cuba, Indonesia, Mexico, UK, and Singapore. She has cofounded Sprouts, consultancy to coach Singaporean startups on regional expansion to Southeast Asia. Recently, she coached Vouch.sg, a local Singaporean startup that builds localized chatbots for Southeast Asia. Prior to Facebook, she advised an IIT Bombay team that invented a device that costs less than 1 USD to eliminate smoke emissions from firewood cookstoves. It offers increased energy efficiency, reduced cooking time, and lowers harmful emissions. The pilot projects in Mumbai distributed over 2000 units. The team was a semifinalist at the DBS-NUS Social Venture Challenge, featured as a Next Generation Startup by Inc. Magazine and was a Kairos Society Top 50 company in 2014. Elaine is a member of the selective Sandbox community, a mobile society of trailblazers. They unlock human potential by bridging geographies and disciplines to create opportunities for meaningful conversation, collaboration, and discovery. She is also a global fellow at Kairos, a community that builds and funds companies to make life more affordable. They focus on critical life stages where old industries have failed to meet the needs of everyday individuals around the world. Elaine was born and bred in Los Angeles. She has a Bachelor of Science in Materials Engineering at UCLA, the University of California: Los Angeles. She enjoys traveling, reading, and learning Mandarin. Read the show notes and transcript here at www.jeremyau.com/blog/elaine-truong

Interview starts: 6:10Debrief starts: 43:34Elizabeth Galbut is the Founding and Managing Partner of SoGal Ventures.SoGal Ventures is the first female-led millennial venture firm, and they are leading the way in investing in diverse founding teams and products across the USA and Asia. Their focus includes companies working on female sexual health and wellness, aging, and death-related decisions.A Forbes 30 Under 30, Elizabeth is incredibly knowledgeable and experienced in the fields in which she invests. In today's episode, she walks us through some of the issues she and SoGal Ventures are tackling through their diverse outlook.We discuss: AD: Finding experienced employees for your new business with Integrity Power Search (4:45) Sextech and underrepresented groups in venture capital (7:08) Raising a fund as two millennial women (10:36) Gaps in venture capital due to bias (12:24) Finding the underrepresented in VC (17:29) Death-tech and anti-aging technology (20:40) Sustainability and healthtech intersections (30:04) Who is solving and who should solve these problems? (34:31) Mental health and healthtech (36:36) Investing in health with potential future health policy changes (39:17) Optimistic perspective (41:16) Learn more about SoGal Ventures: http://www.sogalventures.com/Follow Elizabeth on Twitter: https://twitter.com/design4innov8Follow upside on Twitter: https://twitter.com/upsidefmAdvertise with an upside classified: https://upside.fm/classifieds--This episode is sponsored by Integrity Power Search, the #1 full stack high growth startup recruiting firm between the coasts. They partner with venture capitalists, private equity groups and CEOs to build amazing teams for the world's most disrupting companies.Learn more about or get in touch with Integrity Power Search: https://upside.fm/integrity

Introducing our Angel Host, Ariel Xue. She is currently the CEO of Sydney School of Protocol (SSOP) and China Innovation Capital. Originally from China and now based in Sydney, Australia for nearly 10 years. Ariel served as the Director of SoGal Sydney and proudly brought the SoGal powerful global network of millennial diverse entrepreneurs and investors to Australia. Inspired by SoGal Ventures (the first female-led millennial venture capital firm), Ariel started her own innovation fund China Innovation Capital to invest in startups in wellness and preventive health.

There is SO much hype around venture capital funding for early-stage startups, yet only 2% of VC money goes to women, and even less to women of color. WHAT THE FUND?! presented by the SoGal Foundation covers alternative forms of financing available to early stage entrepreneurs to help bridge the educational gap in these “untraditional” sources of financing and underrepresented founders. Each month, you’ll hear from entrepreneurs who have been in your shoes, and experts who will tell their honest, nitty-gritty stories of launching their businesses.SoGal Foundation is the largest global platform for the education & empowerment of diverse entrepreneurs and investors reaching over 100K+ #SoGalBosses in 37 chapters around the globe. Our mission is to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship and venture capital.Support the show (https://www.paypal.me/sogal)

Elizabeth Galbut of SoGal Ventures joins Nick to discuss Better Diversity, Better Outcomes. In this episode, we cover: Her involvement in creating the first VC investment group at Johns Hopkins What the focus is at SoGal and why that creates their edge How she and her partner divide responsibilities How the establishment has reacted to her and her firm We talk about her experience as a design professor and how that impacts her approach she gives an example of a design-centric investment she discusses her thinking when evaluating an early stage business we review their dealflow and sourcing strategy and we wrap up w/ Elizabeth's advice for a younger version of herself if she had the opportunity to give it   To listen more, please visit http://fullratchet.net/podcast-episodes/ for all of our other episodes. Also, follow us on twitter @TheFullRatchet for updates and more information.

SoGal Ventures is the first female-led millennial venture capital firm. Founded by Elizabeth Galbut and Pocket Sun, SoGal aims to invest in diverse, inclusive, and female-led businesses. This disruptive VC firm is making an impact for female led companies (including SWAAY!), and the company values human-centered design and globally oriented business. Listen in to this episode to hear Elizabeth discuss what makes SoGal especially revolutionary and why now more than ever entrepreneurs have more control and power over who invests in their company. In SoGal's own words: Live, Work and Stay Healthy!

So, unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s hard not to miss all the events, news, and general PR buzz about International Women’s Day that was recognised this month. Countries celebrate it in different ways. This year you would have heard about the Day Without Women in the US and many other western countries around the world such as Australia. It is an official holiday in a number of places including: Afghanistan, Armenia, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cuba, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Laos, Mongolia, Montenegro, Russia, Uganda, Vietnam. Zambia and in China & Nepal for women only. Many brands such as Nike and P&G  launch powerful ad campaigns, while companies around the world ranging from huge multinationals host an array of events, women’s breakfasts and conferences in recognition of the day.   If we move past all the marketing spin, is International Women’s Day still even important? Why do we still celebrate it? Is there an international men’s day? And, looking in to the future, what are the 6 things that we should be focussing on when it comes to gender equality. Let’s go back to the start for a minute or two. What is International Women's Day? And, is there an International Men's Day? Let’s start with Men’s Day - Is there an International Men's Day? Yes, it takes place on November 19 each year and is celebrated in 60 countries around the world. The objectives of the day include a focus on men's and boy's health, improving gender relations, promoting gender equality, and highlighting positive male role models. Now back to International Women’s Day - What is it? The Telegraph did a great short piece about this which I’ll link to in the show notes (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/international-womens-day-2017-did-start-important/) Basically, International Women’s Day (or IWD as it’s commonly referred to) is “a worldwide event that celebrates women’s achievements – from the political to the social – while calling for gender equality. It has been observed since the early 1900s and is now recognised each year on March 8. Is is not affiliated with any one group, but brings together governments, women's organisations, corporations and charities.” So, why is it still important? I think the best way to answer this question is to give you a few facts about the current situation of women in the world. Women make up more than two-thirds of the world's 796 million illiterate people. (UN Women) Only 22.8 per cent of all national parliamentarians were women as of June 2016, a slow increase from 11.3 per cent in 1995 (UN Women) As of January 2017, 10 women are serving as Head of State and 9 are serving as Head of Government (UN Women) It is estimated that 35 per cent of women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or sexual violence by a non-partner at some point in their lives. However, some national studies show that up to 70 per cent of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner in their lifetime (UN Women) Worldwide, more than 700 million women alive today were married as children (below 18 years of age). Of those women, more than 1 in 3—or some 250 million—were married before 15. Child brides are often unable to effectively negotiate safe sex, leaving them vulnerable to early pregnancy as well as sexually transmitted infections, including HIV (UN Women) Around 120 million girls worldwide (slightly more than 1 in 10) have experienced forced intercourse or other forced sexual acts at some point in their lives. By far the most common perpetrators of sexual violence against girls are current or former husbands, partners or boyfriends (UN Women) At least 200 million women and girls alive today have undergone female genital mutilation/cutting in 30 countries, according to new estimates published on the United Nations’ International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation in 2016. In most of these countries, the majority of girls were cut before age 5. (UN Women) Adult women account for almost half of all human trafficking victims detected globally. Women and girls together account for about 70 per cent, with girls representing two out of every three child trafficking victims (UN Women) One in 10 women in the European Union report having experienced cyber-harassment since the age of 15 (including having received unwanted, offensive sexually explicit emails or SMS messages, or offensive, inappropriate advances on social networking sites). The risk is highest among young women between 18 and 29 years of age (UN Women) Evidence suggests that certain characteristics of women, such as sexual orientation, disability status or ethnicity, and some contextual factors, such as humanitarian crises, including conflict and post-conflict situations, may increase women’s vulnerability to violence (UN Women) Also, 34 per cent of women with a health problem or disability reported having experienced any physical or sexual violence by a partner in their lifetime, compared to 19 per cent of women without a health problem or disability, also based on data from the European Union (UN Women) Now we know what it is and why it's still important, what are the SIX things that we should focus on to accelerate gender equality? 1)     Accelerating Gender Equality for Women and The Environment The situation: Women, especially those in poverty, appear more vulnerable in the face of natural disasters. A recent study of 141 countries found that more women than men die from natural hazards. Where the socioeconomic status of women is high, men and women die in roughly equal numbers during and after natural disasters, whereas more women than men die (or die at a younger age) where the socioeconomic status of women is low. Women and children are more likely to die than men during disasters. (UN Women) "Similarly, in industrialized countries, more women than men died during the 2003 European heat wave. During Hurricane Katrina in the USA, African-American women who were the poorest population in that part of the country faced the greatest obstacles to survival" (IUCN Global Gender Office) Women and children bear the main negative impacts of fuel and water collection and transport, with women in many developing countries spending from 1 to 4 hours a day collecting biomass for fuel. A study of time and water poverty in 25 sub-Saharan African countries estimated that women spend at least 16 million hours a day collecting drinking water; men spend 6 million hours; and children, 4 million hours. Gender gaps in domestic and household work, including time spent obtaining water and fuel and processing food, are intensified in contexts of economic crisis, environmental degradation, natural disasters, and inadequate infrastructure and services (UN Women) So, gender equality goes hand in hand with climate solutions and that makes movements like 1 Million Women are super important and extremely relevant right now. They are a movement of 600,000+ women and girls (and growing everyday) who are pioneers in the gender and climate change arena in Australia and around the world. Climate solutions have to move past world leaders arguing about the proven science and for everyone to take control. Yes, the reality is that we need strong leadership and big decisions to be made now. And this can only happen when we all make it a priority so organisations like 1 Million Women aim for all of us all to be living a low-carbon lifestyle by inspiring 1 million women to take practical action on climate change in their everyday lives to cut carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse pollutant leading to climate change. According to them, if 1 million women all cut 1 tonne each of carbon pollution, it would equal to 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. This is the equivalent of growing a new forest of 5 million trees. They provide resources to guide you through ways to live a low-carbon life and cut C02 in the process, and ask you to kick-start your low-carbon life by making a personal goal to cut a minimum of 1 tonne of CO2 pollution from your daily life within a year. It's an easy way to educated start taking action so I suggest you check them out at http://www.1millionwomen.com.au as a first step. “Climate change responses cannot be effective unless they are gender aware, taking into consideration the different needs of women and men, the inequalities that compound the impacts of climate change for women and the specific knowledge women and men can contribute to solutions” (1 Million Women) If you want some further reading about climate solutions, Project Drawdown will be available from the 18th April which maps, models, and describes the 100 most substantive solutions to global warming. For each solution, they describe its history, the carbon impact it provides, the relative cost and savings, the path to adoption, and how it works. The goal of the research that informs Drawdown is to determine if we can reverse the buildup of atmospheric carbon within thirty years. All solutions modeled are already in place, well understood, analyzed based on peer-reviewed science, and are expanding around the world. So if you had any doubt about the solutions to climate change being available, this is proof that we already have everything that we need to make a difference. 2) Accelerating Gender Equality by Creating Access to Finance for Women The situation: The IFC has estimated that worldwide, a $300 billion gap in financing exists for formal, women-owned small businesses, and more than 70 percent of women-owned small and medium enterprises have inadequate or no access to financial services. Without access to finance, women face difficulties in collecting and saving income, growing their businesses, and pulling their families out of poverty. As a result, women remain largely excluded from the formal economy.  So to recognise International Women’s Day, I decided to make 2 loans to women micro-entrepreneurs in the Philippines through Kiva. And wow – what an impact Kiva made that day! They had a goal to lend $3 million USD to women on Kiva in one week, and not only exceeded it, but DOUBLED it! It was the biggest day for lending in Kiva’s 11 year history and as a result 16,473 women around the world are one step closer to following their dreams of starting or growing a business, going to school and investing in a better future for themselves, their children and their communities. The situation: Lack of access to finance affects women in other parts of the world too. According to Fortune, a 2015 study found that 92% of senior investment teams at top venture capital firms are male. Additionally, fewer female founders – 8% in 2015 compared to 16% in 2014 – received Series A funding in the Bay Area last year. And that’s why when I met Pocket Sun, co-founder of SOGAL Ventures, I knew she was on to something big. As the first female-led millennial venture capital firm, according to them, they are redefining the next generation of diverse founders and funders. Although female-led, they don’t just invest in women entrepreneurs, but changing the status quo and adding diversity to the mix is powerful. As Pocket puts it: “SoGal is all about changing the power dynamics in business and entrepreneurship. This power dynamic is not going to change unless women are sitting on the other side of the table and signing cheques.” 3)     Accelerating Gender Equality for Women in the Workforce The situation: Women’s economic equality is good for business. Companies greatly benefit from increasing leadership opportunities for women, which is shown to increase organizational effectiveness. It is estimated that companies with three or more women in senior management functions score higher in all dimensions of organizational effectiveness (UN Women) 71% of employers who said they had adopted diversity practices said these were having a positive impact on their recruitment efforts (PwC 2017 Report on Winning Female Talent) 86% of millennial women and 76% of millennial men think that an employer's policy on diversity, equality and workforce inclusion is important when they decide whether or not they should work for them (PwC 2015 Report on The Female Millennial)  In the United States, companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. And, companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. (McKinsey 2016 Diversity Matters Report) That’s why when companies take this seriously, they can create huge impact. In April 2015, Salesforce Founder and CEO, Marc Benioff announced that the company would be taking a look at equal pay within their business. On International Women’s Day 2016 they announced their results. Their assessment showed that they needed to adjust some salaries—for both men and women. Approximately six percent of employees required a salary adjustment, and roughly the same number of women and men were impacted. Salesforce spent nearly $3 million dollars to eliminate statistically significant differences in pay. Wow. Salesforce also increased access to advancement opportunities through their High-Potential Leadership Program, which is designed to provide leadership skills to advance women in the workplace. The program has led to a 33 percent increase in the number of women who were promoted last year. In the last year, Salesforce increased parental leave to 12 weeks off at 80% of total pay. The company also introduced a new gradual return program which offers new parents the flexibility to work reduced hours for the first four consecutive weeks of returning to work, at full pay. The gender pay gap is widely discussed amongst businesses. But how many actually stop, acknowledge there might be an issue and then go on to audit their entire workforce? In the case of Salesforce, this was 17,000 strong. And, in the case of Salesforce, it’s men that benefitted from this exercise too.   4)     Accelerating Gender Equality by Educating Women  The situation according to UN Women: Women make up more than two-thirds of the world's 796 million illiterate people.  According to global statistics, just 39 percent of rural girls attend secondary school. This is far fewer than rural boys (45 percent), urban girls (59 percent) and urban boys (60 percent).  But, this doesn’t have to be the case. Every additional year of primary school increases girls' eventual wages by 10-20 percent. It also encourages them to marry later and have fewer children, and leaves them less vulnerable to violence. (UN Women) Increasing women and girls’ education contributes to higher economic growth.  5)     Accelerating Gender Equality by Ending Violence Against Women The situation according to UN Women: 35 per cent of women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. Globally, 47 per cent of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner or family member, compared to less than 6 per cent of murders of men.  Women represent 55 per cent of victims of forced labour and 98 per cent of the victims of sexual exploitation.  Globally, an estimated 200 million women and girls have undergone FGM in 30 countries and 700 million were married as children (250 million before the age of 15).  What does this all mean? Apart from the fact that violence of any kind is horrific, it results in a HUGE economic cost to society. According to the OECD estimates suggest that “discriminatory social institutions – including violence against women – cost the global economy approximately 12 trillion US dollars a year. So while it is critical to put in place laws, budgets and plans to transform discriminatory social norms, we also need to empower women and girls, men and boys, to challenge – and change – these norms”. Examples of this by UN Women include: In India women can lose an average of at least five paid work days for each incident of intimate partner violence. This fact would mean the affected woman would get 25 per cent less of her salary each time an incident of violence happens. In Uganda, about nine per cent of violent incidents forced women to lose time from paid work, amounting to approximately 11 days a year, equivalent to half a month’s salary, affecting not only the incumbent person but her family and dependents. Also, research shows for example that women who are exposed to intimate partner violence are employed in higher numbers in casual and part-time work, and their earnings are 60 per cent lower, compared to women who do not experience such violence. Annual costs of intimate partner violence were calculated at $5.8 billion in the United States of America and $1.16 billion in Canada. In Australia, violence against women and children costs an estimated $11.38 billion per year. Domestic violence alone costs approximately $32.9 billion in England and Wales.   The Secretary General of the OECD adds that “across the 160 countries included in SIGI ( Social Institutions and Gender Index), one in three women agrees that domestic violence is justified; in some countries, these acceptance rates climb close to 90%. How can we even begin to tackle violence if women believe it can be justified” First responders are vitally important in dealing with the consequences of violence against women, but ultimately empowering women through education, increased leadership and economic opportunities, as well as access to finance are key in changing societal norms. One of the guests in an upcoming episode on the podcast said to me that we can end violence in one generation - we only need one generation to grow up without any violence to change this. That will forever stay with me. 6)     Accelerating Gender Equality by Advancing Women in Leadership Gender differences in laws affect both developing and developed economies, and women in all regions. According to UN Women (http://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/leadership-and-political-participation/facts-and-figures) “90 per cent of 143 economies studied have at least one legal difference restricting women’s economic opportunities. Of those, 79 economies have laws that restrict the types of jobs that women can do. And husbands can object to their wives working and prevent them from accepting jobs in 15 economies”. The fact is, the more women that are represented in leadership positions around the world, the fast gender equality will become a reality. The World Economic Forum predicts that at the current rate of progress, the gender gap won't close entirely until 2186  If you’re happy waiting for almost another 170 years, then don’t bother doing anything more than you’re already doing. But if you see the economic, social, environmental and political reasons why closing this gap is important, then you need to start doing something about it now. You can start with education. Educate yourself more about this issue and talk to others about it too. In your circle of influence you can choose any one of the above areas that I’ve chosen to highlight and do something about it. Whether it’s joining the 1 million women pledge, funding micro-entrepreneurs around the world, working in your business to promote diversity or, speaking up when the societal norms that permeate a culture of violence against women rears it’s ugly head. You don’t have to wait - you can do something now. If you like what you’re hearing with this podcast, I'd love it if you could let me know what you think by subscribing, rating & reviewing the episodes. We all know that awareness is the first step to creating change so, don’t forget to share your favourite episode with your friends too! One more thing, if you'd like to stay in touch, check out the Doing Good Podcast on social media - I'd love to interact with you and hear your thoughts and ideas. Happy International Women’s Day!

　与孙伊晴访谈是约在一个阴雨绵绵的上午，雨天的上海小路总是别有一番风情。见她之前，我一直在想她会是个怎样的人。　　对于她拥有的那些title早有耳闻，SoGal创始人，福布斯封面女王等。想象中，她应该是个举手投足雷厉风行的霸道女总裁。而见到她时，更打动于她自信展露的甜美笑容。

Pocket is the Founding Partner of SoGal Ventures. Her mission is to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship within our generation. With that in mind, she founded SoGal, a global community influencing 50,000 diverse entrepreneurs and investors in 20+ countries. We empower, inspire and connect entrepreneurial minds with high-impact communities, digital media, funding resources, networking, and startup advisory. Pocket was Forbes 2016 30 Under 30 Asia in Venture Capital & Finance and LinkedIn 2015 Top Voices in VC & Entrepreneurship. She has been featured in Forbes, Harper's BAZAAR, BBC World News, The Huffington Post, Inc., The Straits Times, Channel News Asia, The Business Times, Next Shark, e27, DBS Treasures campaign, East West Bank, CLEO Magazine etc and is a Tedx and keynote speaker.