Female VC Lab

Female VC Lab

By Barbara BickhamBusinessTechnologyInvesting
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Female VC Lab episodes

  • E012: Tanya Rolfe & Gail Wong: Her Capital
    Her Capital is a venture fund supporting female entrepreneurs across Southeast Asia. We are on a mission to tap into overlooked female founders in the region, addressing the 3% of global venture funding that currently goes to female-led companies, and capture the potential for superior returns. We are driven to harness finance to create a more inclusive world, funding sector-diverse businesses with women at their core.
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    22 min
  • E011: Abby Lyall: Big Idea Ventures
    Abby Lyall is Vice President at Big Idea Ventures, focusing on Series A+ stage investments in sustainable food and agriculture. Prior to this role, Abby was Program Director for BIV’s seed stage alt-protein accelerator and the second employee at Quake Capital Partners.
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    17 min
  • E010: Tracy Gray: The 22 Fund
    Tracy Gray is the Founder and Managing Partner of The 22 Fund & We Are Enough, as well as Executive-in-Residence at the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI). She is also a Board Director of APPLIFE Digital Solutions (OTC:ADLS) and CSUDH Philanthropic Foundation.
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    19 min
  • E009: Leesa Soulodre: R3I Capital
    As a Xennial, born with an analog childhood, and digital adulthood, Leesa Soulodre is a serial entrepreneur who has invested her lifetime on the frontiers of DeepTech pioneering, digital transformation, and innovation. She has served more than 400+ multinationals and a plethora of start-ups in 19 sectors across Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and the Americas.
    In Founder and CxO leadership roles, Leesa has led companies from seed to $14B USD into new markets, pioneered deep technology, accelerated top lines prior to exits, and supported in the raising of over USD40M in Seed to Series C investments. She has had one IPO, a number of successful exits, and knows the hard knocks of lessons learned. As General Partner of R3i Ventures, Soulodre supports many of the world's most promising early-stage deep tech companies in accelerating their growth and is an active EIR and coach across the DeepTech ecosystem accelerators.
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    19 min
  • E008: Carman Chan: Click Ventures
    Carman Chan is in the cover story of Nikkei Asia Review as Top 5 Women-to-Watch in Asian Tech. Carman has 17 years of experience as a Serial Entrepreneur, Tech Columnist, 5 years as Venture Investor, and 3 years as International Speaker across ten countries. Carman is also the author of best-selling accelerated learning books. Her first startup, EnglishStreet (ES) became a business case at the Harvard’s Business Review Database. ES was acquired by the Hong Kong Economic Times (0423.HK). Her second startup, Click Limited, has the first CFO of Tencent, Patrick Tsang and the founder of Cherubic Ventures, Matt Cheng, as investors. Click Limited merged with Hiiir Inc. and was acquired by FastEastone (4904.TW).
    Carman founded Click Ventures in 2015 and its first fund became the only seed fund from Asia to make the Top 5 Seed fund (Vintage 2013-2015) by performance, while its second fund became the Top 1 in the Fund to Watch category by performance in Preqin’s Top Performing Ventures Capital Funds Report in March 2018. In 2019, Click Ventures has been named Consistent Top Performing Fund Manager by Preqin!
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    51 min
  • E007: Eve Muradyan: Funded One
    Eve is an international marketing professional and entrepreneur, experienced Business Development, Strategic Partnerships and Investor Relations professional with expertise in Tech, Entertainment (Video Games) and Blockchain. She has M.A. degree in Marketing and Ph.D. in Economics, and is a regular judge/panelist and mentor at Venture Capital classes at Los Angeles Film School and Stanford University.
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    24 min
  • E006: Delilah Panio: TSX and TSXV
    Delilah Panio is Vice President of U.S. Capital Formation for Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) based in Southern California. In this role, Delilah advises U.S. companies on the opportunity to list and raise capital on Canada’s premier equity markets. She is a frequent speaker and pitch competition judge and coach, and was named in the “2019 Top 100 People in Finance” Magazine.
    Previously, Delilah spent 10 years at TSX and TSXV in business development and strategy. She has advised many companies on the going public process and provides an understanding of private and public financing options in Canada and the U.S.
    Delilah is an Advisory Board Member for MAPLE Business Council, a trade organization between Canada and Southern California, and is Co-Chair of the Capital Council for WE Global, an innovation studio for women entrepreneurs.
    Delilah is also the Executive Director and Co-Founder of We Are Enough, a non-profit that educates women on why and how to invest in women-owned businesses and/or with a gender lens.
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    16 min
  • E005: Claire Chang: Ignite XL Ventures

    Barbara Bickham [00:00:00]:

    Welcome to the Female VC Lab Podcast. My name is Barbara Bickham, and I would love for you to introduce yourself in one line. Give me your name, your title, and the name of your fund.

    Claire Chang [00:00:13]:

    Sure. Thanks for having me. My name is Claire Chang, founding partner at IgniteXL Ventures.

    Barbara Bickham [00:00:19]:

    Wonderful. Thank you, Claire. So what inspired you to become a venture capitalist or, an investor?

    Claire Chang [00:00:29]:

    I think there are 2 things that I can talk about. 1, is the fact that I am passionate in helping others. And I believe that comes from the fact that I myself have been a beneficiary of being helped by many others. I'm an immigrant, child. I came here with my family when I was 12 years old. None of my family members spoke a word of English. And so you can imagine from settling in to going to school, learning our ways through, we had to rely on helps from many, others. So that's one.

    Claire Chang [00:01:05]:

    Having been a single mom with 2 children working full time Oh. It all had That's another one. And I absolutely relying on family and friends to fill in, taking care of the kids, Right. Being filling in that father's role, and just being mentored. It takes a village to raise a child and might think working full time as a single mom, there's no way you could do this by yourself.

    Barbara Bickham [00:01:28]:

    Absolutely.

    Claire Chang [00:01:30]:

    Having experienced that, the beauty of getting help, has made me wanna help others just as in return. So that's one. And, of course, if you've and all of us have have experience helping others, and the feeling that you get, the rewarding feeling that you get when you know that you have made an impact or difference, in others, I think that is what keeps you wanting to, be that helping hand when there's a call for it. Second thing I would say is the fact that I love working with passionate startup founders. The energy and the passion that they exude is really contagious and addictive.

    Barbara Bickham [00:02:16]:

    You know what? I'm glad you said that because it is very addictive. It can be addictive. That's a good word for it.

    Claire Chang [00:02:22]:

    It is. Right? Many in the media, we see all these shining lights on these unicorn startup founders, but many of the founders, we struggle. The founders struggle. The the failure rate is very high, north of 95%. 90 90 some percent? 90. Right? It's not a it's a very tough and sometimes lonely journey. Yes. And I think I read most recently that start up founders are 2 times more likely to, suffer from depression.

    Claire Chang [00:02:56]:

    Wow. Twice more likely to suffer from suicidal thoughts. Three times more having substance abuse. And get this, 10 times more, likely to, be suffering from bipolar disorder. I was like, damn.

    Barbara Bickham [00:03:14]:

    Wow. That's so interesting.

    Claire Chang [00:03:16]:

    That's extreme. But at the same time, I think you can also see that because I when you're a founder, you have to constantly put on the space of being confident and and and at the same time, you're going through internal battle of self doubts and all these struggles that you're going through, but you can't show that upfront. I can see that, yeah, that bipolar

    Barbara Bickham [00:03:38]:

    The pressure. Now there's a constant pressure there as a founder, you know. Right. Right. There's a constant pressure and that can lead to many of those issues you discussed. So thank you for bringing that out, Claire.

    Claire Chang [00:03:52]:

    And and yet, you have these founders that are just, you know, absolutely passionate in working on the the solutions products because they believe that they're solving a problem And then we'll be better placed with this solution. I know myself having gone through a personal experience of being in a start up where I was one of the the 6 team members, 5 engineers, 1 female. We were literally sleeping, eating, working in, you know, one office. Really just excited at what we were working on. We we really truly believed that this was going to change the world. You know, that whole the HBO Silicon Valley. Right. It's very true.

    Claire Chang [00:04:33]:

    You you operate with this notion that you are doing something so important. You're so zeroed in what you're working on. It's that passion. And then, also, I think I started a global accelerator back in 2014. I was helping entrepreneurs in Korea to expand to the US markets. I worked with over 200 founders where I got to experience these amazing resilient founders. They had language barrier, cultural barrier. They weren't sleeping just because they needed to get ahead, to compete with the local founders here.

    Claire Chang [00:05:06]:

    And none of that none of those challenges stopped them from what they wanted to do. And having worked with them over and over again, understanding the the kind of challenges that they face, but they were relentless, in their pursuit of getting the products, and solutions to the market. And it was through that experience, the understanding the need for capital. As an accelerator, we were connecting them to their customers, partners, mentors, investors. But at the core, you needed the capital. The capital. Key resources that these founders needed. So, back in 2019, I decided, okay, I love working with founders, but I can't in order to be relevant, in order to be sustainable, I need to create a fund.

    Claire Chang [00:05:52]:

    I need to go raise money so that I can continue to do what I love, which is to support founders. And so rather than, oh, I wanna become a VC, it was more of I need to create a fund to be to infuse capital into

    Barbara Bickham [00:06:05]:

    these enterprises. To move those passions of those startups and those founders forward. That's great. That's great. Thanks so much for that, Claire. So tell me a little bit about your investment thesis and the motivation behind your investment thesis.

    Claire Chang [00:06:19]:

    Sure. So our investment, we're very excited about this future of beauty and wellness. Our investment business, we're a global seed fund investing in the, igniting the kick ass entrepreneurs. We we we say that unapologetically. Kick ass entrepreneurs at the intersection point of technology, beauty, and wellness. And we are targeting pre seed and seed seed companies. We are global. We are US we are we are based in the US, but our belief is that beauty and wellness is global.

    Claire Chang [00:06:54]:

    And that the innovation can come from really anywhere. And so we have made investments in Brazil, UK, of course, US, as well as Asia. And we also have strong ties, in Asia, especially Korea, Japan, China, where we have connections to manufacturers, to distribution partners, to customer insights where we add value to the founders that we back.

    Barbara Bickham [00:07:21]:

    That's great.

    Claire Chang [00:07:21]:

    That's our investment, thesis. Why are we so excited about this industry? Yeah. We really start with the premise that the beauty, is not just skin deep, but that it is it's much more holistic, that it's inside out, that it includes mind, body, soul. Mhmm. We're really looking at this through the lens of health and beauty. And when you look at and and when you look at these 3, things, 1, on the consumer base, we have Gen z's that are really redefining the definition of beauty. Again, it's it's not just, again, covering up, but it's really being authentic, self confident. And that's really inside out.

    Claire Chang [00:08:11]:

    Your health, well-being is really at the core. They're also beauty means conscious. Right? They demand the the the the clean ingredients, cruelty free. ...

    27 min
  • E004: Liz Kukka, Ethereum Classic Labs

    Liz splits her time between Ethereum Classic Labs, and parent company Digital Finance Group. On a daily basis she can be found: sourcing startups, working with portfolio companies, providing updates to crypto-exchange partners, collaborating with universities, giving talks, and helping get Matrix Exchange ready to launch. Previously, she was at Plug and Play Tech Center where she led the Insurtech startup program globally. She holds an MBA and Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science.

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    29 min
  • E003: Vera Schroeder, Safar Partners

    Title: ShowNotes for Female VC Lab Podcast with Vera Schroeder from Safar Partners

    Welcome to another insightful episode of the Female VC Lab podcast! In this session, we had the pleasure of speaking with Vera Schroeder, an associate at Safar Partners, who shared her unique journey from chemistry academia to venture capital and her role in bringing groundbreaking technologies to market.

    Key Points Discussed:

    • Vera’s Background: Discover how a Ph.D. in Chemistry led Vera to venture capitalism, driven by a desire to see academic projects come alive in the business world.
    • Investment Thesis: Learn about Safar Partners' focus on investing in university spinouts from MIT, Harvard, and the University of Rochester across clean tech/advanced materials, life sciences/medical devices, and AI/IT robotics.
    • Long-term Partnership Philosophy: Understand why building deep relationships is central to their strategy and how they support portfolio companies through all growth stages with investments up to $20 million.
    • Innovation Beyond Technology: Hear Vera's insights on innovating business models and revenue strategies once technology breakthroughs are achieved.
    • Case Study - Radical Plastics: A fascinating discussion on recent investment into bio-plastics highlighting innovation not just in product but also leveraging industry expertise for rapid scalability.

    Bonus Question Insights:

    • The Future of Venture Capital: Anticipate more small specialized funds emerging as fund managers navigate raising capital amidst cautious LP spending.

    Connect with Vera: To reach out or follow her work within venture capital space:

    • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vera-schroeder/

    We thank Vera for sharing her time and thoughts on today's show. Don't forget to tune into future episodes for more behind-the-scenes perspectives from female VCs shaping tomorrow’s innovations!

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    12 min

About Female VC Lab

From the publisher's feed

The Female VC Lab Podcast showcases the journeys of female investors. We’re sitting down with Female VCs, Investors, GPs and LPs to talk about their funds, how they invest, how they make an impact,…