Piloting your Life

Who is Lynn-Ann Gries?

Lynn-Ann Gries has spent her career in the financial arena. From investment banking to venture capital she has experience working with a wide range of companies, from start-ups to those in the Fortune 1000.

She began her career in the mid-80s working for two investment banking firms in New York, Smith Barney and Morgan Stanley. When marriage brought her to the Midwest she began working for the regional firm McDonald and Company, now part of KeyBank. At McDonald she was primarily responsible for helping companies access capital through the public equity markets, but also assisted

companies in the processes of raising growth capital or transitioning ownership through sales or mergers.

In 2001 she began working in venture capital, managing a small venture development fund with a mission to invest in tech-based start-ups. Over the course of 12 years she and her team invested $30M in 80 companies, all located in Northeast Ohio, including CoverMyMeds (sold to McKesson for $1.1 billion), CardioInsight (sold to Medtronic for $90 million), Wireless Environment (recently sold to Ring for an undisclosed amount) and OnShift, one of the Northeast Ohio region's premier software companies.

As of July 2018, she is the newly hired Managing Partner of the First Check Fund, the newest in a family of 15+ funds managed by Alumni Ventures Group. She also runs her own consulting firm providing a variety of business services including management of a women's angel network, financial analysis, market research, and advisory services to entrepreneurs seeking capital. She currently serves on the boards of the Smith College Club of Cleveland, Summer on the Cuyahoga

and In Counsel with Women.

Lynn-Ann received her MBA from New York University (Stern School of Business) and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College where she majored in Economics. She is mom to two grown children and resides in Shaker Heights with her husband, a sixth generation Clevelander, high school lacrosse coach and devoted Cleveland sports fan who has successfully managed to turn a Jersey into a Cleveland Indians superfan.

Show Highlights

• Lynn-Ann shared her background starting in New Jersey and ultimately in Cleveland, OH including her time investment banking and early stage investing in the Midwest. Lynn-Ann goes into detail on economic redevelopment in Ohio and her work with Jumpstart and the Ohio Third Frontier Program.
• Lynn-Ann talks about how she used to think that women didn't need any preferential treatment to get funding until she saw the data. This prompted her to share a female founder deal with her successful female friends that led to syndicating her first deal. Her goal was to get the women she knew in her community with big jobs, at big corporations, where there is no intersection with an entrepreneur, to bring them together with the female led startups looking for capital.
• Terri and Lynn-Ann talk about the importance of getting more women to invest and the difference in risk tolerance between men and women and how this affects investing by women.
• Terri and Lynn-Ann discuss doing the work for free to support the female founder and female investor ecosystem and investigating options to monetize the time spent building it.
• Lynn-Ann talks about the women starting very small funds to build track record to be able to raise bigger funds at a later date.

• If Lynn-Ann could wave a magic wand, she would make universal healthcare coverage a reality.

Terri's Key Takeaway

We need to continue to build the connections between investors interested in female-led startups to make it easier for them to get access to capital.

References in the Podcast

• Komae: https://www.mykomae.com/
• Jumpstart: https://www.jumpstartinc.org/#1
• Ohio Third Frontier Program: https://development.ohio.gov/bs_thirdfrontier/
• Sallie Krawcheck: https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/team/sallie-krawcheck

• Feminist Fight Club: https://www.feministfightclub.com/
• Jane VC: https://www.janevc.com/
• AngelList: https://angel.co/
• SendaRide: https://sendaride.com/
• FemPire: https://www.fempiregroup.com/

• OseaAngels: https://oseaangelinvestors.com/Page/Home
• First Check Fund: https://www.avgfunds.com/first-check/
• Alumni Ventures Group (AVG): https://www.avgfunds.com/

Contact

Lynn-Ann can be reached through LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynn-ann-gries-44440/

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Who is Cécile Villette?

Cécile Villette is the CEO of Altaroad. A telecommunication engineer by degree, she spent 10 years as a Digital Strategy consultant deploying connected devices and new services globally for large Telco and Energy companies, before joining up forces with Bérengère Lebental in 2015 during her MBA in HEC to launch the connected road project that would become Altaroad.

Show Highlights

• Cécile talks briefly about her background, the evolution of IoT, why telecom and IoT were/are interesting to her, and why she chose industrial IoT for her startup AltaRoad to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
• Cécile shares how she found her co-founders and the characteristics and aspirations she was looking for
• Terri talks about the false narrative around women not being able to have children and be founders in a startup
• Cécile goes into greater detail on what Altaroad does, how their technology works and where they are as a company
• Terri asks Cécile what she has been most surprised about as a founder of a startup and how her co-founding team splits and shares responsibilities of the company

• They discuss the impact of autonomous vehicles on how cities and roads are designed and how Altaroad will be a part of it
• Cécile shares her experience in fundraising thus far in raising from extended friends and family
• Cécile's favorite founder resource is her network. She emphasized the importance of asking for help when you need it.
• If Cécile could wave a magic wand, she would fix global warming. This keeps her up at night.

Terri's Key Takeaway

If you don't ask, the answer will always be no.

References in the Podcast

• Altaroad: https://www.altaroad.com/

• Imène Maharzi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/im%C3%A8ne-maharzi-439294/
• Bérengère Lebental: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bereng%C3%A8re-lebental-7219b97/
• Eiffage: https://www.eiffage.com/en/home
• SendaRide: https://sendaride.com/
• Invest in Bavaria: http://bavaria.org/

• 4YFN: https://www.4yfn.com/
• Deep Tech (per TechWorks): We define Deep Tech as technology that is based on tangible engineering innovation or scientific advances and discoveries. Deep Tech is often set apart by its profound enabling power, the differentiation it can create, and its potential to catalyze change.

Contact

Cécile can be reached through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cécile-villette/

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Who is Gabrielle Katsnelson?

Gabrielle Katsnelson is co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of SMBX. She has a decade of financial accounting, strategy, and operations experience; including: managing the loan portfolio of the Artists Community Federal Credit Union; the restricted royalty funds of TuneCore, a digital distributor of music; and architecting financial infrastructure for countless startups and SMBs.

Dedicated to creating a surplus ecosystem, Gabrielle believes that giving SMBs access to capital while creating an engaging and empowering investing experience for people is the means.

Show Highlights

• Terri and Gaby talk about how they met at a Draper University blockchain pitch day and gravitated towards each other over common interests
• Gaby shared her journey from accounting into biotech in New York and ultimately into FinTech in San Francisco in early 2017
• Gaby met her co-founder of SMBX at one of the crypto, blockchain and ICO meetups she went to; he was always asking the interesting questions.

• Their company, SMBX is built on a private Etherium network and takes advantage of Title III of the JOBS Act to help small businesses issue bonds so that investors can invest in businesses they are interested in providing a secondary market for investors.
• Gaby and Terri talk about where blockchain is from a maturity perspective and the future of blockchain.
• Gaby explains equity crowdfunding and the differences between Title II, Title III and Title IV. Terri and Gaby talk about using crowdfunding to democratize funding and how we are still in early days.
• If Gaby could wave a magic wand to change something in this world, she would change mindset and personal responsibility for your own mindset.

Terri's Key Takeaway

It is important to maintain a sense of fun. It doesn't have to be so serious all of the time.

References in the Podcast

• SMBX: https://www.thesmbx.com/

• Jane VC: https://www.janevc.com/
• OwnYourCash: http://site-1317096-1533-8422.strikingly.com/
• Skydeck: https://skydeck.berkeley.edu/
• Wilson Sonsini (WSGR): https://www.wsgr.com/WSGR/Default.aspx
• Draper University: https://www.draperuniversity.com/

• Fred Wilson's blog post on blockchain infrastructure: https://avc.com/2018/10/the-appsinfrastructureappsinfrastructure-cycle/
• JOBS Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpstart_Our_Business_Startups_Act
• JOBS Act Title III: http://www.finra.org/investors/alerts/crowdfunding-and-jobs-act-what-investors-should-know
• Terri's Medium post on blockchain, crypto and ICO resources: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead/cryptocurrency-and-ico-resources-55766cae29e
• Crowdfund Main Street: https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/

• Republic: https://republic.co/
• WeFundr: https://wefunder.com/discuss
• SeedInvest: https://www.seedinvest.com/
• Investibule: https://investibule.co/
• FinTech Collective: http://www.fintech.io/

Contact

Gabrielle can be reached via email [email protected]; Twitter: @gabykatsnelson and through LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielle-katsnelson-6a73958/.

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Who is Joanne Wilson?

Joanne Wilson is a New York City based investor and has had many careers. She started out in retail, eventually moving to the wholesale arena. She then transitioned to the media side of the technology world, before once again reinventing herself as an investor. She is currently an active angel investor with a portfolio of over 90 companies such as Food52, Sweeten, Vengo, Nestio, Shippabo, Flip, Clutter, and Union Station. She has been involved in numerous real estate transactions from beginning to end and continues to make investments in that world. Joanne is an investor in a few restaurants in the New York area.

In addition to these endeavors, Joanne has been involved in various education projects and has served as chairperson at Hot Bread Kitchen, a non-profit committed to increasing access to the culinary industry for woman and minority entrepreneurs. She currently sits on the board of The Highline and is the co-chair of Path Forward.

Joanne has maintained her blog, www.gothamgal.com for 15 years and has recently taken her talents to the airwaves on her podcast, "Positively Gotham Gal". She loves to bake, cook, throw a good party, travel, read, collect art, do the crossword and stay on top of what's happening around the globe and in NYC.

Joanne believes her most successful venture is being married to her best friend, Fred, and raising their three kids Jessica, Emily and Josh

Show Highlights

• Joanne shares her journey into angel investing and how she is able to see things coming down the pike

• Joanne talks about what she invests in and how her investing has changed over the last 12 years

• Joanne comments on some of her investments that are undercapitalized and the frustration she has around getting other investors excited about the startups and the founders.

• She looks for tenacious, smart, scrappy people as founders who can articulate their vision from now until what it can be.

• In, 70% of the companies she's invested in, Joanne was the first money into the companies. Joanne talks about how she works with her founders to get access to capital and resources and help them build their businesses.

• Joanne and Terri talk about various different funding mechanisms and getting access to capital.

• If Joanne could wave a magic wand, she would change the animosity in society that people have towards each other. She would make sure everyone has healthcare, a roof over their heads, food on the table, and access to education. With these fundamental needs met, she believes that they may have better caring for their fellow man.

Terri's Key Takeaway

It's difficult to be a generalist as an angel investor; it's better to choose a vertical that is most interesting to you and become familiar with the space.

References in the Podcast

• Joanne's website: https://gothamgal.com/

• Fred Wilson's interview on A16Z on Tech Trends and Disruption: https://a16z.com/2018/09/23/tech-trends-disruption-innovation-internet-crypto/

• Fred Wilson: http://www.usv.com/about/fred-wilson

• Union Square Ventures: https://www.usv.com/

• Serendipity: https://www.guildserendipity.com/

• Jason Calacanis: http://calacanis.com/

• Laura Fleet: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-brookins-fleet-49aa9a54/

• SendaRide: https://sendaride.com/

Contact

Joanne can be reached through her website https://gothamgal.com/.

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Terri talks to Laura Fleet about how a personal experience gave her the idea and inspiration to start SendaRide and that she is both loving the roller coaster ride of entrepreneurship and challenged every day.

Who is Laura Fleet?

Laura Fleet is a leading expert in health care and regulatory law, having represented health insurers, providers and hospital systems for more than twenty years. Her professional career as legal counsel, lobbyist and Executive Director for numerous non-profit Associations in the health care sector has given her a unique perspective into our health care delivery system. Having successfully identified an opportunity to bridge one of the many gaps, she launched and Co-Founded SendaRide. During her career she has continually been at the frontline of our ever-evolving healthcare delivery system, shaping and interpreting the laws that providers, insurers and hospitals operate within. She is identified as an industry expert and thrives on solving the many problems the healthcare industry faces – whether regulatory, legal, legislative or implementation.

Show Highlights

• Laura talks about her company, SendaRide, and why she started the company.

• Laura continues to talk about being a smaller player in a bigger market, her go to market strategy and differentiating factors.
• Laura has become very comfortable with the word 'pivot' and being uncomfortable. SendaRide started as a B2C LLC and is now a B2B Delaware Corp.
• Laura has become comfortable with being the face and brand of SendaRide.
• Laura's favorite founder resource is her network of female founders who have gone before her, and investor resources who are willing to make introductions and be available to answer questions and bounce around ideas.
• Laura was accepted into Springboard and shared what she is looking to get out of the time with her advisory group.

• Laura has been surprised by how much she is enjoying being a founder of a startup and the variety of skillsets she has developed over her time as CEO.
• If Laura had a magic wand, she would make chocolate and champagne have no calories and carbs. She would also have people stop in their tracks and not make judgments and not look at stereotypes when they make decisions.

Terri's Key Takeaway

Don't become a founder because it's cool; you have to be 100% committed.

References in the Podcast

• SendaRide: https://sendaride.com/
• Women's Startup Lab: https://womenstartuplab.com/
• Springboard: https://sb.co/

Contact

Laura can be reached through LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-brookins-fleet-49aa9a54/ and via email at [email protected].

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Who is Nancy Hayes? Nancy Hayes is an active angel investor focused on women-led companies. She has invested in 22 companies and serves as advisor to entrepreneurs and as a management consultant and coach to executives in for-profit and nonprofit corporations. Nancy left the IBM Corporation, where she was a senior executive, to become CEO of the STARBRIGHT Foundation, an innovative nonprofit organization that used technology and media to help seriously ill children and subsequently was President and CEO of WISE Senior Services, a social services agency which served frail elderly and disabled adults. Nancy was named Dean of the College of Business at San Francisco State University in 2005 and after six years in that role, was CFO and Chief Administrative Officer of the university for 2 years. In 2013, Nancy cofounded MoolaHoop, a rewards-based crowdfunding site for women with small businesses. She was Managing Director of the Silicon Valley chapter of Golden Seeds, a national angel group that invests in women-led companies, for over 3 years. Nancy has an MBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Chicago and resides in San Francisco. Show Highlights

• Nancy shares her journey into angel investing after helping women with small businesses and seeing the funding challenges.
• Nancy talks about various financing options available including revenue-based financing and the statistics around the number of companies started each day.
• Angels join groups to minimize risk.
• Terri and Nancy talk about the ways in which women can (and should) become active angel investors. Spoiler: just jump in and do it.
• Nancy talks about her value in advising startups and her favorite investments.
• Nancy would wave a magic wand to get advice and mentorship to more female founders earlier.

Terri's Key Takeaway As women, we think we need to take one more class or get one more degree but with angel investing, we just need to get started. References in the Podcast

• WABA: Women Angels of the Bay Area
• Golden Seeds: https://goldenseeds.com/
• RESI: http://www.resiconference.com/
• JP Morgan: https://www.jpmorgan.com/global/healthcareconference
• Jenny Kassan: http://www.jennykassan.com/
• CrowdFund Main Street: https://crowdfundmainstreet.com/
• JOBS Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpstart_Our_Business_Startups_Act
• Lighter Capital: https://www.lightercapital.com/
• Kim Folsom: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimtfolsom/
• Carol Sands class on angel investing: https://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/courses/professional-and-personal-development/angel-investing-for-the-serious-investor-an-introduction/20181_BUS-204
• Venture Deals: https://www.venturedeals.com/
• Angel the Book: https://www.angelthebook.com/
• Wingpact: https://www.wingpact.com/
• Wingee Sin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wingee/
• Suzanne Andrews: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannemandrews/
• Porfolia: https://www.portfolia.co/
• Pipeline Angels: http://pipelineangels.com/
• NextWave Ventures: https://nextwaveimpact.com/
• Venture Deals online course: https://kfatechstars.novoed.com/#!/courses/kfa-venture-deals-fall18/flyer
• My90: https://www.textmy90.com/
• Kona Shen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/konashen/
• Tempo Automation: https://www.tempoautomation.com/
• Cirrus Identity: https://www.cirrusidentity.com/
• Dedra Chamberlin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dedrachamberlin/
• Tyler Lynch PYL episode 2: http://www.terrihansonmead.com/podcast/pyl002/tyler-lynch

Contact Nancy can be reached by email at [email protected], via Twitter at @nancyhayes and through LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/nancyhayes2. You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead. Feel free to email Terri at [email protected]. To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Terri talks to Alicia Castillo about her circuitous path into angel investing that started in a rural town in Venezuela that has landed her in Silicon Valley and how her global experience has made her realize how important it is for us to acknowledge that we, as people, are more similar than we are different.

Who is Alicia Castillo?

Alicia Castillo Holley is an international expert in creating wealth and is passionate about prosperity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. She is an active angel investor and the creator of the 10-week online program called Women Get Funded. Alicia's career started as a young scientist and professor on Agronomy before becoming involved in product development for a Bayer-Shell joint venture and eventually turning into an entrepreneur and angel investor. As an entrepreneur, she has started nine companies -successfully exiting from five of them- and two non-for-profit. She played a pivotal role in the development of the entrepreneurial curriculum and the Venture Capital industry in Chile, where she lived between 1996 and 2002. She has also consulted, mentored, or coached hundreds of entrepreneurs worldwide, is a prolific author and speaker, and pushes academic institutions to reinvent business education. Philanthropically, she supports organizations that foster education, social entrepreneurship and prevent and turn domestic violence into harmony. A global trotter, she has visited over 100 countries, and has lived in Venezuela, Chile, Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, and the US and currently resides in Menlo Park. Show Highlights Alicia shares her journey into angel investing. Her journey started in a socialist household in a rural town in Venezuela and took her to all parts of the world. Terri and Alicia talk about bias and chemistry in decision making. Alicia talks about how she operates as an angel investor, what areas she focuses on and the characteristics of the founders she looks to back. Alicia talks about her 10-week, online program called Women Get Funded to educate women on how to get their companies funded. If Alicia could wave a magic wand to change something in the world, she would change war. She would get people to realize that we are more similar than different. Alicia's favorite founder resources include two of her books How to Fund Your Million Dollar Idea and The Ten Unwealthy Habits and Rich Dad Poor Dad.

Terri's Key Takeaway It's important to build channels of trust regardless of gender.

References in the Podcast Alicia Castillo Holley: http://www.aliciacastilloholley.com/ Sand Hill Angels: http://www.sandhillangels.com/ Women Get Funded: https://womengetfunded.com/ How to Fund Your Million Dollar Idea: http://www.aliciacastilloholley.com/books/ The Ten Unwealthy Habits: http://www.aliciacastilloholley.com/books/ Rich Dad Poor Dad: https://www.amazon.com/Rich-Dad-Poor-Teach-Middle/dp/1612680003/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Contact Alicia can be reached on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciacastilloholley/ or through her website http://www.aliciacastilloholley.com/. You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead. Feel free to email Terri at [email protected]. To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Who is Imène Maharzi? Imène Maharzi is a French based professional, who started working in the French Private Equity space 18 years ago. She started out her career as an auditor with Arthur Andersen, and then became an investment professional with Butler Capital Partners where she had the opportunity to explore several sectors, geographies, investment sizes and targets. In 2013, she created Butterfly Partners, a company which invests time and money in start-ups and subject matter experts which demonstrate a social or environmental positive impact. In 2014-2015, she took over a majority stake in a school transportation company dedicated to exceptional children with autism, Down syndrome, etc.. As the CEO, she transformed a 15-year family business into a social business, with a resolution to trigger a positive social impact on both employees and beneficiaries, through a strong user-centric, quality-driven approach. As she moved through her professional career, she noticed that there was a problem in getting access to capital for female founders that she saw resulted in a massive waste of both economic and social value. This led her to create OwnYourCash this year. OwnYourCash is an educational platform, both online and IRL, to train women (and men) to become Business Angels. By opening a conversation on biases, gender-lens investing and impact investing, OwnYourCash will contribute to smoother access to capital for projects co-founded by women. With OwnYourCash, she is committed to training 2000 new female business angels by the year 2020. The mission of OwnYourCash is to foster economic independence for women leading to true male/female equality Show Highlights Imène shared her professional journey into private equity and ultimately starting her new company OwnYourCash to educate and train 2000 new female business angels by 2020. Imène talks about social entrepreneurship in France…creating a social return and a financial return. Imène shares the details on OwnYourCash and how the time is right to educate new business angels and create a new business angle network and how the change in the tax laws in France this year will be a positive thing for new business angels. If Imène had a magic wand, she would make the 'plain vanilla' investing be impact investing with everyone going after economic return along with a social or environmental return. Terri's Key Takeaway Investing is an information business. References in the Podcast Techstars Paris: https://www.techstars.com/programs/paris-program/ OwnYourCash: http://site-1317096-1533-8422.strikingly.com/ Arlan Hamilton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arlanhamilton/ Backstage Capital: https://backstagecapital.com/ Shannon Grant: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-grant-6164139/ Serendipity: https://www.guildserendipity.com/ Sephora Stands Accelerate: https://www.sephorastands.com/accelerate/ Nancy Hayes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyhayes2/ Maxie Koven: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maxine-kozler-koven-7573633/ Shira Ronen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shira-ronen-590297/ Odile Roujol: https://www.linkedin.com/in/odileroujol/ Suzanne Andrews: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzannemandrews/ Linnea Roberts: https://www.linkedin.com/in/linnea-roberts-10078570/ Kezia Wright: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kezia-wright-bb3755127/ Amaranthine Partners: https://amaranthine.vc/ Contact Imène can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/im%C3%A8ne-maharzi-439294/. You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead. Feel free to email Terri at [email protected]. To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Terri talks to Fran Dunaway of TomboyX about how she and her partner and wife Naomi Gonzalez started TomboyX in 2014 to create a better shirt and ended up launching an underwear company. Fran and Naomi recently raised a Series A and Fran shares their journey to this point and where she sees TomboyX going in the next few years.

Who is Fran Dunaway?

Fran likes to call herself the accidental entrepreneur. In 2013, she had a great life as partner in a media strategies firm with big budgets, lots of vacation time, regular exercise, and excellent sleep habits. She and her wife, Naomi Gonzalez, started a little side business because they wanted some cool button-down shirts like a Robert Graham for women. They picked the name TomboyX because they thought it was cute.

When the name started resonating with women and girls around the world, they knew they had an instant brand. It turns out that the word 'tomboy' opens the door to a conversation about being whoever it is you want to be. Women were SO elated to have a brand that saw them for who they are at their core. So, when customers started begging for TomboyX to design the first boxer briefs for women, Fran and Naomi obliged. In September 2014, they pre-sold two styles of boxer briefs designed for women and sold out in two weeks. They have never looked back. TomboyX has since refocused solely into the underwear/loungewear market and is thriving on the fact that people of all shapes and sizes want to be part of a brand that stands for values they share. Their customers continually prove that there is a toughness required to express your individuality – the defining characteristics of a tomboy. Show Highlights

• Fran shares the story behind TomboyX and the evolution of the TomboyX brand

• Fran continues to talk about how difficult it has been to raise funds to fund the business and what it's like to run out of inventory as an apparel brand.
• Terri and Fran about the shifting landscape for female founders and the economic opportunity in investing in these founders.
• Fran explains how she went from a job in corporate to being a founder and focusing on TomboyX 100%
• Fran talks about how she and Naomi have evolved as founders and leaders and the evolution of their team as the company as grown and matured
• Terri asks Fran about how she sees the company evolve over the next few years

• If Fran could wave a magic wand, she would change the lens with which we see each other; to be less judgmental of each other and to have greater clarity as to who we are as individuals.
• Fran's favorite founder resources are Loose Threads (podcast), Leap Frog (the book) and founders stories in general.

Terri's Key Takeaway

Money is power and to shift the power dynamic, we need to shift the economic dynamic.

References in the Podcast

• TomboyX: https://tomboyx.com/
• CPB Group: http://www.cpbgroup.com/
• MergeLane: https://www.mergelane.com/

• Katica Roy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katicaroy/
• Rain Dove: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_Dove
• DapperQ Fashion Show: https://www.dapperq.com/
• TomboyX ad with Rain Dove: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKnbum7v1aw
• Loose Threads (podcast): https://loosethreads.com/podcast/

• Leap Frog: The New Revolution of Women Entrepreneurs: http://leapfroghacks.com/

Contact

Fran can be reached through the TomboyX website https://tomboyx.com/, on Twitter @fdunaway and via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/frandunaway/

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

Who is Shannon Grant?

Shannon Grant is an investor, community builder and startup advisor. She leads knowledge programs for the best and brightest minds in tech to facilitate high-level knowledge transfer and create powerful experiences for time-strapped leaders. In 2014 she developed the Salon Series events at MKThink focusing on the future of education, and she helped build a membership organization of over 80 mission-driven CEOs with The Tugboat Group. She has coached founders to create original talks for CEO summits, hosted Jeffersonian dinners for awesome engineers and connected tech founders with the people or information they need to grow. To support this vision, she started Deus Capital to invest in companies with billion-dollar market opportunities that have at least one female founder. Her social impact work includes converting a liquor store into a children's writing center in the heart of San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood with 826 Valencia and building a new model for charity with Mama Hope.

Show Highlights

• Shannon shares her journey through venture capital into angel investing.
• We talk about our shared interest in getting more women to invest and invest in female founders including the statistics around this.
• We discuss the importance of getting girls to see what is possible by exposing them to investing, startups, entrepreneurship, and technology.
• We talk about this being an economic opportunity and the importance of encouraging men to join us in investing in women and encouraging more exemplar men in this awakening.

• If Shannon could wave a magic wand and change something in this world, she would encourage people to speak; your voice is needed.

Terri's Key Takeaway

Investing in women will create trillions of dollars in economic opportunity. It is not a zero sum game.

References in the Podcast

• MKThink: http://www.mkthink.com/
• Tugboat: http://www.thetugboatgroup.com/
• Robyn Fisher: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robynsuegoldman/
• Smitten Ice Cream: https://www.smittenicecream.com/

• StitchFix: https://www.stitchfix.com/
• Katrina Lake: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmlake/
• Learn Capital: http://learncapital.com/
• Accenture Ventures: https://www.accenture.com/us-en/innovation-architecture-accenture-ventures
• First Round Capital Study: http://10years.firstround.com/

• Darya Shaked: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darya-henig-shaked-361539a9/
• Wonder Ventures: https://www.wonderventures.com/
• Dear Madam President: https://www.dearmadampresidentbook.com/
• Brazen Global: https: https://brazenglobal.com/
• Jennifer Ehlen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferehlen/

Contact

Shannon can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-grant-6164139/.

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.

Feel free to email Terri at [email protected].

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.