CEO Coach

Gillian and Anne describe a new venture capital fund they are forming to fund startups with at least one woman in a critical and strategic leadership role. Hard numbers show that diverse teams return more shareholder value, so it’s time to change the sorry state of funding women founders.They are looking for unicorns in quiet spaces. Hear what that means and why gender-lensed investing benefits everyone.

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Anne and Gillian host Drexel University’s Katherine Jordan who directs the program there funded by the Coulter Foundation, a nationwide resource for developing and commercializing biomedical engineering advances from the very early stages to venture funding. In the course of her career as a fund manager, she has reviewed around 150 startups and funded about 30. Hear how the program and fund she manages work at Drexel, and how she reviews and evaluates applicants. Many attributes she seeks for her founders are similar to those of startups everywhere, such as a great team. That said, some are unique to working in an academic environment and require targeted approaches to join together academia and entrepreneurship.

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Gillian and Anne take a full look at an entrepreneur’s CEO journey and lay out strategic and tactical insights to help them plan their company’s futures. Where do you start and how do you get going, and maintain momentum. Who is likely to buy your products, or even your company? When will your investors expect an exit and how will you get there? Hear how to find likely investment partners, whether strategic and essential to their business, or tactical, i.e. ‘nice to have’ and what the single most important number you must have at all times.

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Anne and Gillian kick off the new year with a fresh look at whether women founders are receiving any more VC backing, and they are sorry to report the situation has slipped downward instead of improving, despite hard numbers that show women-led enterprises return more shareholder value, and outperform their brothers by nearly two-thirds. Yet women founders received less in both dollars and deal flow in 2017, and Latina and black women a tiny fraction of that. The driving forces behind this dispiriting trend and lack of improvement are closely linked to bias, comfort zones and desperately out-of-whack power balances that are similarly behind the sexual harassment now coming to light. Your hosts explore how the numbers rolled and who is leading the commentary and why time’s up in funding as much as elsewhere.

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Anne quizzes Gillian on funding options for startups. They discuss traditional equity. Debt. Convertible notes. Convertible securities, also known as SAFE’s. Even self-funding. Which is best for you? Gillian explains the differences among all of them, and pros and cons for each illustrate. This is Part 1 of 2, because there was so much to say! Gillian Muessig and Anne Kennedy discuss how cities like Seattle are dominated by the Amazons and Microsofts at the top of big business, overshadowing mid-sized companies. They discuss the effect of employees that could be laid off in a city like Seattle and how the economy could suffer. They discuss how funding mid-sized companies could help avoid this potential problem.

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Every startup needs a cap table, even if the only shareholders are the founder and perhaps a partner or two. As you grow, you will most likely be making awards of stock or options to advisors, employees and investors. You cap table is a summary of all transactions in your stock register, and therefore a complete record of who owns all the assets in your company. Gillian and Anne go over all the basics you need to know, as well as some online tools that make setting up and managing your cap table easy, so you can get back to the important business of growing your startup.
Gillian and Anne revisit metrics to take a deeper dive into finding the right measurements in your business for clarity and intelligence-based decisions. Rigor is critical such as what to measure, as is a comprehensive look at event streams. There is place for the broad metrics that make everyone feel good, such as numbers of downloads or clicks on an ad. But other measurements will inform how you run your business. Hear how to find such deep metrics and who in your company needs to collect them, and who needs to know the results. Everybody in your company needs to collect metrics regularly. Some metrics require daily – or more frequent tracking. Others, often those for Boards of Directors, require aggregation and monthly, quarterly, and annual tracking. Who needs what, when and where deserves your attention to be sure that your teams have the power they require to optimize your success.

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Anne and Gillian return with more questions to and answers from James Newell, partners at early venture firm Voyager Capital in Seattle. What do you need to bring and be prepared to defend when you get your audience with the VC partners? What can you expect to happen in the meeting. What might absolutely ‘scotch’ your deal? James Newell generously shares his take on all these and more. Hear his undeniably hot tips for founders who aspire to land venture capital.

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Ever want to ask a venture capitalist everything about how VC’s work? Gillian and Anne chat with James Newells, partner at Seattle’s Voyager Capital, early venture investors.a James willingly responds in enlightening detail to question about process, approach, multiples, due diligence and much more. What makes a VC listen? How do you know for sure a VC in interested in funding your startup? Find out here. 

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Gillian and Anne talk with Luni Libes, founder and Managing Director of Fledge, a global impact accelerator which launches businesses that do good by doing business, here in the US and in dozens of countries around the world (Fledge.co). Luni has moreover connected impact investors worldwide on investorflow.org, and authored the six book series “The Next Step for Entrepreneurs”. “Fledge is Techstars for companies with purpose,” says Luni. Fledglings apply to attend programs in Lima, Barcelona, Vancouver BC, and Seattle, with Lisbon and Padua slated additions next year. Listen to how applicants are selected, funded and mentored, as well as Fledge’s unique way of bringing solid returns to investors.

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Gillian Muessig and Anne Kennedy discuss how cities like Seattle are dominated by the Amazons and Microsofts at the top of big business, overshadowing mid-sized companies. They discuss the effect of employees that could be laid off in a city like Seattle and how the economy could suffer. They discuss how funding mid-sized companies could help avoid this potential problem.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy