Gioia Messinger is a serial high-tech entrepreneur, founder, and CEO of Linked Object, a technology and business strategy firm specializing in the internet of things. Prior to that she was also the founder of Avaak/VueZone (acquired by NETGEAR) that defined the home video monitoring category and changed the way you watch your life from anywhere.
In this episode, Gioia shares why coachability and tenacity to entrepreneurs are important to help them thrive in their business.
What We Covered
02:39 – Gioia’s entrepreneurial journey
04:17 – Gioia’s investment thesis
05:41 – Importance of coachability and tenacity of a founder
07:11 – Why surrounding yourself with a great team is beneficial
09:22 – How to attract like-minded founders
11:42 – Importance of customer discovery and market fit research
13:31 – Transformative advantage of technology trends
16:36 – Challenges and opportunities for SEED funds
18:10 – Risk mitigation strategies when investing in early-stage startups
21:55 – Gioia as an advisor at entrepreneurial ecosystem at UCSD
24:42 – Xprize and Women Safety Prize
33:25 – What myStartupXX is all about?
37:49 – Giving back as a mentor for female founders, accelerators and incubators in the university
Carolyn Leonard is a seasoned investor who is a pioneer in the women options trading industry. She is the third female independent trader to ever own a seat at the CBOE. Her 21 years in the trading pits gave her a ringside view into the emotional ups, downs, fear, and greed that drives the volatile market. DyMynd , her latest venture helps and creates tools that correct misconceptions and connect financial advisers to high net-worth women.
In this episode, Carolyn shares her trading journey and her advocacy to tear down the next wall that stands between women and the world of finance.
What We Covered
03:02 – Reign of the Options Queen: Carolyn’s turning moment where she knew that she will be a trader
06:16 – Experiences she had as a women trader
08:06 – Mentoring other women traders
09:44 – advantages she had wearing her cotton candy pink trading jacket
13:26 – fashion and style as her powerful business tool
16:42 – Emerging market for women investors
18:31 – Social impact philanthropic investing
19:53 – Raising tide opportunities for female investors
21:06 – Carolyn’s investment thesis
25:48 – Impact of women’s emotional security to her financial decisions
32:09 – Dymynd’s advocacy to change misconceptions about women investors
Vicki Saunders is the founder of SheEO and #RadicalGenerosity, a global initiative to radically transform how we support finance and how we celebrate female entrepreneurs. SheEO provides a platform in which generous women Activators act as advisors, early customers, suppliers, connectors and follow-on investors to set up emerging female entrepreneurs for immediate and accelerated growth.
In this episode, Vicki shares the need of a new model to support female innovators to creating a better world. She also talked about the gender and culture challenges of female investors in the ecosystem. She also gave insights on how radical generosity changes the face of venture capital.
What We Covered
01:50 – Vicki walks us through how she created SheEO, and the breakthroughs along the way
04:03 – Impact Investing vs. Venture Philanthropy
05:17 – Due diligence process in venture capital
05:47 – How to be a member of SheEO?
09:16 – What is an ideal activators persona?
16:20 – SheEO in New Zealand Conference
22:53 – Vicki shares success stories of SheEO venture capitals
24:50 – Impact of #RadicalGenerosity in the venture ecosystem
Vidya Dianamani is the principal and co-founder of Product Rebels, a company founded to help product managers, business owners and entrepreneurs make product breakthroughs and help every company to stand up for their customer.
She has 18 years of experience in business, technology, strategy, product design, and development.
In this episode, Vidya shares the process of evaluating startup pitches and the importance of knowing how to bring value to customers, the advantages of being coachable of a startup entrepreneur to the business growth and funding and she shares the ways how an angel investor help seed startups to get their follow-on funding.
What We Covered
02:03 – Vidya walks us through the startup pitch evaluation process
06:05 – Vidya’s investment thesis
07:39 – Key traits of a successful startup founder
12:33 – Importance of iteration to know the hits and misses and adjust your business
16:00 – Top investment tips to give to other female investor
18:47 – How being in the Rising Tide Fund helped Vidya to be a better investor
23:17 – Her most exciting and valuable story of a start-up
25:10 – Soft skills that a seed startup must have
33:00 – Hera Venture Summit and Vidya’s vision about female investors impact in the ecosystem
33:33 – Top 3 Criteria on Vidya’s List for her funding ventures
Andrea Guendelman is the CEO and co-founder of BeVisible Latinx, a professional career community that connects US millennial Latinas searching for careers. Andrea is an advocate of promoting Latina education and entrepreneurship through her nonprofit works. She created a community where they enabled Millennial Latinas to embrace each other and support one another’s dreams building their social capital.
In this episode, Andrea shares ways on how she leveraged on her Latina network that eventually helped her get her VC funding. They also talked about the importance of tenacity and coachability of a startup founder.
What We Covered
02:11 – Andrea walks us through what is BeVisible is all about and its mission.
04:00 – Andrea discusses her business background and her ventures.
06:40 – She shares ways on how she expanded her network
09:10 – She shares steps that she did to leverage on her network that eventually helped her get funding
15:31 – Percentage demographics of Latino and Latinas in the VC ecosystem
17:20 – Importance of tenacity and coachability of a startup to get funding from your network
20:27 – How other people mentor you?
24:47 – What is the importance of having that connection Latina to Latina in the venture community?
This is an invaluable resource to me as an entrepeneur! Getting to peek into the heart and mind of investors is SO incredibly valuable to me. Thank you for bringing such a fantastic podcast to life!
