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?
Mindy Tucker Fletcher is a partner in Crux Partners,a San Diego based venture capital firm. She has been a communication strategist to a president, governor, numerous companies and non-profits.
She advises,works and promotes San Diego’s Young Scrappy start-up companies. She is a believer of the potential of San Diego’s startup ecosystem.It is her mission to tell a story of ideas , technologies and businesses growing up in San Diego.
In this episode, Mindy shares ways on how a startup can grow its network and make it robust.
What We Covered
01:48 – Mindy walks us through how she partnered with Crux Partners.
03:37 – How she finds and selects the startup niche that you want to work with?
07:25 – How does she help connect startups to the right network?
10:15 – 3 Things an investor can do to grow his network and be more robust?
11:46 – Startup Buzz: Inclusion, Equality, and Sexism in the San Diego Startup Ecosystem
17:00 – How do you support thriving women-founded startups?
21:00 – Ways to increase female investors exposure to the ecosystem whether it be women-owned companies or women directed startups.
24:00 – Ways to support ventures that are serving a larger women’s audience
25:32 – What can Mindy say about the emerging market of businesses shifting to the female space?
Have you ever heard, “build your network before you need it?” Have you also heard, “your network is your networth?” Well, building bridges and strengthening relationships across the venture table is what the Hera Venture Summit, an annual venture conference now in its 4th year is all about. On Saturday, September 16, 2017, over 200 female founders and female funders will be convening to connect, become more equipped, start funding opportunities, network, and pitch.
I decided to dedicate a special She Invests! podcast episode to the women who are pitching for funding and those women who are taking a seat at the venture table and funding startups!
This special Hera Venture Summit “She Invests!” podcast episode is all about how to build relationships and grow your network of investors and entrepreneurs that support one another. This results in better venture deals, a stronger ecosystem both locally and globally, and more diversity around the venture table.
Get your Tickets to Hera Venture Summit, today! The agenda is packed with high-level entrepreneurs and global investors wanting to build relationships and grow our global economy.
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Terri Mead is an angel investor, IT consultant, expert witness, speaker, angel investor and a startup advisor.
She is President of Solutions2Projects LLC a consulting company for IT project management and IT compliance for life sciences and high-tech companies.
She is the former VP of Sand Hill Angels in Silicon Valley. She is an advocate of supporting start-ups that offer products and services that improve people’s lives and supports the female founders.
In this episode, Terri shares how having a diversity of thought can be an advantage in having new business perspectives. Also, she shares how she advocates female investors and help them penetrate the male dominated investment industry.
What We Covered
01:55 – Terri walks us through how she accidentally stumbled upon angel investing coming from IT and entrepreneurial background?
03:14 – What is Terri’s investment thesis about?
04:38 – How did she transitioned from being an individual angel investor into VP of Sand Hill Angels?
10:36 – Terri shares how diverse thought can bring new startup perspective.
11:36 – What are the challenges faced by the Silicon Valley angel invertors and what value have you’ve seen you brought to the ecosystem?
22:15 – Why Terri chose to advocate in supporting startups with female founders or co-founders?
25:00 – What is Terri’s investment portfolio looks like? What kind of startups does she advocate?
Kim Folsom is a serial entrepreneur and BC fund manager. She founded two accelerators, The LIFT Development Enterprises, Inc. and co- founder Founders First Capital Partners, a small business growth accelerator and revenue based venture fund focused on helping underserved employer-based small businesses with funding to meet exponential growth.
She is a high-tech executive and serial entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience growing pioneering tech companies. She has experience founding, leading and building startups for where she has raised over $30 million an institutional venture financing.
In this episode, Kim shares tips to up level your start-up and how to build up the next generation of diverse start-up leaders.
What We Covered
02:21 – Kim walks us through how she gets involved in the diversity space of investment.
03:52 – Kim talks about gender investing gap and its impact on woman entrepreneurs
05:22 – How the sibling rivalry of being a middle child helped Kim thrive on the industries that she chose.
06:57 – How having that big hairy audacious goal can help as a motivator and driver for you to reach your goal.
08:40 – How gender gap inspired Kim to put up her accelerator companies?
12:40 – How mentoring underserved diverse business owners with a coach same as their ethnicity can help them succeed.
17:29 – What is results driven financing is all about?
24:44 – How revenue based accelerator differ from a traditional business model?
26:16 – What type of investors do you see in the asset class revenue based private equity funds?
28:14 – What are the new solution that is entering the market for gaining access to risk capital for diverse founders?
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!
