Who is Maren Bannon?

Maren is Co-Founder and Partner at Jane VC, a venture fund to invest in female-led technology startups. Maren is an entrepreneur at heart who has been building tech businesses for the past 15 years. Previously, she was CEO and Cofounder of LittleLane. Her operating experience also includes leadership roles at health tech startups as well as leading consumer marketing for a $1B product at Genentech. She is the mother to three young daughters and feels energized each day by her vision of creating a different world for them. She has an MBA from Stanford and an Engineering degree from Dartmouth.

Show Highlights

• Maren talks about joining forces with one of her fellow Stanford grads, Jennifer Neundorfer, to create a new fund, Jane VC, to not only get more capital into the hands of female founders, but to activate more female investors.
• Maren shares the journey from reconnecting with her partner Jenn in January 2018 and leveraging AngelList to quickly create and raise the fund by bringing on supportive people in their network.
• Terri asked Maren about Jane VCs plan to get access to deal flow, being open to anyone, and their plan to provide transparency to the VC process to work towards leveling the playing field.
• Maren shares their plans for Jane VC in providing transparency, investing in women, and actively looking for investing opportunities outside of the Silicon Valley.
• With Jane VC, they are focused on investing in pre-seed and seed stage rounds, but they will also invest in Series A. With Maren based in London, they will have the opportunity to focus on startups not only in the US, but also in Europe including London, Berlin, Paris, and the Nordics.

• If Maren could wave a magic wand, she would shift the power dynamic to make it more equitable for women.

Terri's Key Takeaway

To shift the power dynamic and improve the world, we need to activate more female investors and invest in more female founders.

References in the Podcast

• Jane VC: https://www.janevc.com/
• Jenn Neundorfer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkneundorfer/
• Lynn-Ann Gries: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynn-ann-gries-44440/

• Komae: https://www.mykomae.com/
• Women's Startup Lab: https://womenstartuplab.com/
• Joanne Wilson (GothamGal): https://gothamgal.com/
• Sallie Krawcheck: https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/team/sallie-krawcheck
• AngelList: https://angel.co/

• Guy Fawkes Day: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night
• White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism: http://www.beacon.org/White-Fragility-P1346.aspx
• Becoming by Michelle Obama: https://becomingmichelleobama.com/
• Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smitth: https://www.facebook.com/redtabletalk/videos/343064719835818/

Contact

Maren can be reached by email at [email protected].

Founders interested in pitching to Jane VC can do so here: https://www.janevc.com/contact-us

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.