Colleen Poynton is the Vice President of Core Innovation Capital where she sources and invests in companies that make financial services more efficient, affordable, accessible, and secure for individuals and businesses.
Prior to her involvement in Core, Colleen worked on the sourcing and selection team at Endeavor Global and helped launch and scale the commercial real-estate startup, IIC, as the first employee. She has a MBA from Columbia Business School and graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University.
In this episode, Colleen speaks about her experience with investing and her role in Core Innovation Capital as well as emphasizing the importance of networking in order to become a strong investor.
What We Covered
03:38 – How Colleen got involved with 37 Angels in the beginning
05:50 – Getting an investor’s perspective at an early age
06:37 – What Core Innovation Capital invests in and does
07:36 – How Core Innovation Capital founder, Arjan Schütte’s investment thesis brought Colleen into the world on investing
09:28 – Core’s investment thesis and mission
12:25 – How the members of Core assembled together
14:54 – Challenges in raising an institutional fund
17:28 – What would Colleen tell her younger self
21:00 – Walkthrough of soft due diligence at Core
24:09 – How teams are mentored at Core
27:21 – The importance of being self-aware and receiving feedback
29:46 – What are the typical advice startups receive
32:02 – Follow on investing and helping startups fundraise at the next level
34:12 – Relationships with early stage accelerators
Managing partner and one of the founders of Golden Seeds, Loretta McCarthy, speaks about her passion for supporting female entrepreneurs and women’s role in business. She emphasizes the importance of gender-diversity in the workplace and the benefits it will yield, especially for women-led companies.
Golden Seeds strives to provide support and encouragement for female-led startups and angel investing groups. According to McCarthy, optimism and realism are the two main factors that help startup companies have the confidence and judgement to succeed in the business world.
What We Covered
01:50 – Loretta’s business experience prior to Golden Seeds
03:22 – History and foundation of Golden Seeds
04:41 – Creating an environment for the female entrepreneur
07:52 – Best success of Golden Seeds in supporting the female entrepreneur
08:57 – Investment in gender-diverse companies
10:33 – Research on the advantages of gender-diversity
11:28 – First Round Capital research on women-led companies and return for investors
15:56 – Getting more and more women involved as investors
18:02 – Golden Seeds on figuring out where to open doors for female-led companies
19:48 – What does it take to be an angel investor and debunking myths
22:30 – Golden Seeds training to motivate women
24:03 – Technology’s impact on growing angel network and helping people participate from afar
26:40 – The importance of leadership in angel organizations
28:19 – Synergy between the entrepreneur and the angel investor
30:47 – Criteria for first pitch to Golden Seeds
33:10 – Every startup team needs a ratio of optimism and realism
37:20 – New member orientation at Golden Seeds to learn more about angel investing
40:37 – Global push to recognize the importance of women entrepreneurs
41:25 – Loretta’s favorite angel investing resource is her colleagues
42:30 – Major influence in Loretta’s life is her mother
Sue Baggott is the President of Power Within Consulting LLC, an insights-based strategy and innovation firm, which she founded in 2014. Early in her career, Sue spent 18 years in Global R&D at Procter & Gamble, leading the delivery of game-changing consumer products innovations across hair care, beauty/cosmetics, and baby care categories.
In 2015, Sue began working with Queen City Angels (QCA) on a strategy refresh project, which ignited her interest in angel investing and fostered her passion for participating in the growing entrepreneurial ecosystem in Cincinnati. In late 2015, she joined the inaugural Rising Tide cohort and in 2016 became a member of QCA.
Sue is active in screening and due diligence work, as well as co-leading QCA’s diversity/inclusion strategy pillar. She thrives on mentoring and coaching entrepreneurs helping to guide consumer/customer insights, design thinking, lean startup, and business planning and innovation strategies.
In this episode, Sue shares her passion for innovation, social impact ventures, and her goals to lower the barriers for women entrepreneurs and investors.
What We Covered
02:07 – Next Wave Impact’s business model, being part of the investment committee
07:05 – ‘learn by doing’ method applicability in growing start-ups
08:22 – advantage of collaboration from different industry backgrounds within the VC ecosystem
09:55 – what qualities of a startup she considered for Next Wave Impact from an innovation standpoint
14:22 – her learning journey with Queen City Angels and Rising Tide
19:22 – efforts to lower the barrier for women entrepreneurs and investors
25:11 – her transition venture philanthropy to impact investing with Impact 100
Julie Kantor is an all-in roll up yourselves social impact entrepreneur committed to building mentoring cultures to drive engagement and elevating women potential in the STEM workforce. Whether working in a boardroom with executives or with collaborative startups, Julie instills excitement, inspiration, commitment, and unwavering drive to help other succeed to invest in others.
Julie is the CEO of Two mentor LLC, her 5th startup. As a sought-after global speaker & connector, Julie is well networked to the national community of top business, academic, non-profit, & government leaders. She has worked and consulted with clients such as Cisco, Samsung, Tata (TCS), Intel, MasterCard, Sony, Carnival, BP and more.
In this episode, Julie shares her love for mentorship and youth empowerment.
What We Covered
02:39 – Julie’s entrepreneurial journey and Two Mentor LLC
05:39 – Mentor and Mentee relationship, Power of Mentorship, Mentor road trip
11:09 – Julie’s advice to people on how to be an effective mentor
15:00 – importance of communication and clarity in a mentor-mentee relationship
16:05 – how soon is a company culture starts in a startup
18:00 – mentorship as an integral part of a millennial’s career development
20:36 – importance of multi-generational mentoring and knowledge transfer
21:42 – sponsoring and mentoring young women in the STEM industry
Mimi Hui is a Senior Director of Product Management with a Fortune 50 company. She offers product strategies that combine the empathy of designers with the functionality of engineers. In 2011, she joined Pipeline Angels boot camp which opened opportunities for her in the angel investing industry.
In this episode, Mimi shares her investing story, how she joined Pipeline Angels and her considerations when choosing her investment ventures.
What We Covered
01:35 – Mimi and the Pipeline Angels
02:48 – Mimi’s career background
04:02 – what is pipeline angels all about
11:33 – her rising tide experience
12:33 – Top game changer qualities in selecting ventures
14:22 – Qualities of a coachable founder
16:42 – Soft pitching and mentoring
18:30 – importance of mentoring
21:27 – acknowledging challenges and opportunities as a women
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!
