“I have now delivered a baby wearing an N-95 mask, so I feel as though there’s nothing I can’t do,” says Sara Desphande, Partner at Maven Ventures. Sara was over 4 months pregnant with her second child when COVID hit the US in full force. Luckily her husband was allowed to sit in on the delivery; however, Sara did have to keep her mask on at all times when doctors and/or nurses were in the room. She describes the odd feeling of not being able to kiss her baby girl the first time she held her, but acknowledges the strength of mothers to take difficult moments like this in stride. Sara’s daughter Ruby is now 9 ½ months old and her son Tommy is almost three!

On the boardroom side of things, Sara is a Partner at Maven Ventures, a venture capital firm that specializes in backing software startups. Sara explains that the firm’s overarching goal is to invest in “visions worth fighting for” and this purpose drives her search for software that actively betters lives. Sara also teaches a course called Startup Garage at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, her alma mater, in which student teams design and test new business concepts that address real-world needs.

Tune into this week’s episode of Bathtime 2 Boardroom for a conversation with Sara about motherhood, business and how to balance between the two. Learn about what it was like to be pregnant during COVID, the joys and frustrations of being a female partner at a venture fund, and what consumer needs entrepreneurs should be addressing in a post-COVID world.

Quotes

• “My husband and I haven’t been going to restaurants or doing anything like that, so we went for one of our very first outdoor dinners just a month or so ago, and I came downstairs and was in a dress and heels. I had full makeup on, and I had fixed my hair. And Tommy saw me and, the little hype man he is, truly gasped, gasped at my beauty. He looks at me and he goes, ‘Mama, I love your costume!’” (4:58-5:29)

• “I will say I have now delivered a baby wearing an N-95 mask, so I feel as though there’s nothing I can’t do.” (13:49-13:55)

• “If you feel like you can be really focused and perform at work and at the same time spend the extra time in the mornings and the evenings that you have with your kids, to some extent I think you have to be willing to let other stuff fall through the cracks. This phase of life is short.” (19:35-19:49)

• “[Business school] is really where I discovered that for me the intersection between business and social change really was entrepreneurship. And I think that it’s the greatest tool that our generation has to have a massive positive impact on the world.” (22:34-22:46)

• “Women and moms control the majority of consumer spending, of health care decisions, of parenting decisions, of childcare decisions, and household spending overall. So, you start to look at just the power of the female consumer and the power of the mom consumer – it’s incredibly large. And so I think having empathy and being able to connect with that and bring those insights into our fund has been really helpful.” (26:53-27:20)

• “We look at our work lives and with Zoom and Slack and Asana and Trello...you look at all of the tools that have been created...to help make our work lives more productive, and it’s amazing. And then you look at the innovation to help with our home lives, and there’s nothing.” (34:49-35:09)

Links

https://www.linkedin.com/in/saradeshpande/ 

Podcast production and show notes provided by FIRESIDE Marketing