Leadership Talks – Women in Venture Capital Webinar

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foreign [Music]

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welcome to today’s leadership talks Series where we’ll be discussing an important topic woman in venture capital

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I’m honored to be your host for this session I’m Martin rovinsky co-founder and CEO of board’s eye and at board’s

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eye we specialize in modern recruitment for companies of all sizes from startups to publicly traded firms by connecting

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them with the best board of directors and advisors with over six years of experience in this field we’ve gathered

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valuable data that we’re constantly using to enhance our platform while we are indeed one of the industry

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leaders our Marketplace is at The Cutting Edge of human Capital Management today marks an important Initiative for

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our firm to embrace the conversation of woman leadership and balance and governance and augment our capabilities

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for the Venture Capital Community today I’m thrilled to introduce our

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esteemed panel of top woman leaders in the VC world please join me in welcoming our special

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panelists we’ll start with Melinda Moore who’s an investor advisor financier and

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award-winning entrepreneur with a successful track record of over 15 years in evaluation and investment and a keen

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understanding of product Market fit consumer Insight operations and

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Performance Marketing Melinda hi it’s such a pleasure to be here thank

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you so much I think I’ve got a little cheerleader in the background which is my dog Sophia there she goes so I have

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to apologize in advance for that um yeah I I’ve been a Serial

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entrepreneur primarily in the entertainment space delivering 20x multiples to um our original investors

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and I’ve always been kind of pushing the edge for women minorities and also the

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environment so I became an expert in equity crowdfunding which is another possible way to raise capital and wrote

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the book how to raise money The Ultimate Guide to crowdfunding which is available on Amazon I actually took a company

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public doing a mini IPO leveraging Equity crowdfunding have deployed about

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100 million dollars of working capital and invest with coyote ventures in the

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Bay Area in women’s health and digital health and then invest in Tech enabled

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structure through Aventura adventures and then obviously advise and sit on a

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couple boards so it’s such a pleasure to be here thank you welcome Melinda

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next we have Melinda chalaya a CFO CEO growth executive and a board member an

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accomplished entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in finance accounting operations governance

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customer support and public accounting at renowned companies such as Target

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Universal Music Group Disney Deloitte and ey Melinda

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thank you so much Martin for bringing us together to talk about such an important topic of really supporting female

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Founders and women in VCS I’m fortunate myself to have been supported by a community of people along my journey I’m

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a founder of two companies one of which was incubated at Deloitte and we ultimately took public and another

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Professional Services firm I’m an angel investor in startup technology companies

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and currently run tailored for growth which is a consulting firm focused on providing CFO and strategic work for

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emerging businesses I have a passion for working with companies in the cpg and

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Technology space Beauty and um and the pet space is also a

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particular passion of mine and we support companies with their

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strategy and financial planning to ensure that they deliver on raising capital and they deliver on their growth

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objectives I currently have the pleasure of sitting on the board of a wag it’s

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the premier pet wellness company as their audit chair and on their comp

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committee we recently ipo’d and were able to join the team in ringing the NASDAQ Bell

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um it’s a pleasure to be here thank you Martin thank you Melinda uh Sandra Campos CEO

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board member entrepreneur is a highly accomplished board member uh an advisor to the retail and

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Technology industry throughout her impressive career she has built Global lifestyle Brands spearheaded digital

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Transformations turnarounds and international expansion Sandra

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hi thank you for having me I mean the two Melendez hello there’s a lot I don’t know that I can catch up with all of

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that but I am someone who’s been in the retail industry throughout my entire career I’ve had several pivots from

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being in a corporate executive function president CEO roles to being an entrepreneur multiple times and also

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have had the opportunity to invest as an angel investor invest within VC funds

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and take in a couple of companies public via spax which we’ve done which may not

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be the best word at the moment but we’ve we’ve done that a couple of times had a business combination and took another

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company public in the energy space and with that I continue to focus on one

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entrepreneurial venture right now that I have that is about upscaling rescaling individuals within retail Beauty cpg and

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I sit on several boards two of which are public boards and a couple of private boards thank you for having me awesome

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welcome Sandra and last but not least Brenda McCabe she’s an advisor board director and an

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angel investor and experienced an independent advisor who has spent over 25 years in Corporate America and Europe

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in various leadership roles before leaving to work with a renewable energy

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technology firm she currently owns and operates next ACT advisors welcome

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Brenda thank you Martin and to my esteemed panelist I am probably the

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oldest so after 25 years and Europe and America with McKinsey and

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Company and AstraZeneca I um found my mission I discovered

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disruptive technology working in the startup space um at a clean tech company I

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subsequently began to sit on corporate boards public park pharmaceutical

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company private Equity portfolio portfolio companies my career has been

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in Europe and in Los Angeles and the United States I’m particularly passionate around women by businesses

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and four verticals clean tech companies where I have a long history of experience

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digital Health med tech and Enterprise SAS where I have served

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as CEO interim CEO of one of my clients and I am an angel investor and recently

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have created jointly with the Indus entrepreneurs a women’s fund for

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pre-seed and Seed so we are actively writing checks to women-led companies sector agnostics page so thank you for

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this opportunity to share our experiences I’m really looking forward and I’m so happy to have you guys here

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um so let’s head into our first topic uh pioneering woman MVC success stories and

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Lessons Learned um can we talk about or can you guys talk about the historical perspective of

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woman in the VC industry and the critical role they play in The Venture Capital ecosystem

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maybe I’ll jump in and then Brenda I’ll say it quickly I think um just a few years ago so in about 2020

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women uh the amount of venture capital that flowed directly to female Founders

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was measured between 2.4 and 2.6 percent which obviously is very low less than

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one percent to minorities and then last year at the end of 2022 we dipped to 1.8

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percent which is underneath two percent so I think um in terms of looking at the history I

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think it highlights that the system is broken and needs great transformation

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and disruption so that there are um more female founded venture-backed

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companies um and so that’s why I’m glad that we’re having this conversation so we can talk

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about ways and tools and and so that we can help change the equation but I’d say

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historically we have I don’t know how you dip it two percent

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um but we’re dipping at two percent so that’s where we are right now

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um there are definitely women um and companies doing fund of funds that are starting to invest in more

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emerging managers even including the state of California through ibank so I do think that we are seeing some efforts

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always but I’ll let um Brenda take it from here in terms of her perspective but my perspective is the system is

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broken and we definitely need it’s right for change yes thanks um Melinda I just briefly

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this morning institutional investors published an article in which they have

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been polling the private equities I’m sorry the the LPS of VCS and private

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equities and and the this year is a record break a 46 of LPS are asking for

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d e and i measurements within the funds that they’re invested in and you know

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it’s I I it’s gone up from like 36 in the last three years and recently I had

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the opportunity to speak directly with John Chamberlain the Emeritus CEO of

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Cisco and when asked the question you know how do you get beyond the two percent he said you know in what what gets measured

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gets done because if the VCS the fastest way to get to Greater investment in

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women like companies and actually is actually getting more lpgps onto the BC funds if we were to increase the number

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of women sitting on the other side of the screen evaluating Investments

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10 per year we could be at parity in less than 10 years right so that two

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percent could go up the other thing that he shared which I is just creating more more GPS right

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um and and alternative funds and um to focus on there’s only 20 percent of the

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VCS in the United States represent 90 of the largest companies that are actually

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going on to IPO or or some large exit strategy so focusing in on where to make

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impact I think will provide a roadmap for us I agree with you Brenda I mean if we

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look at just the historical pattern we have got 20 years ago you wouldn’t necessarily see women running any VCS or

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LPS um that just wasn’t such a welcoming space for women um 10 years ago it was getting better

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and now we’re starting to see that shift and that change happening where there is a support in there are initiatives to

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ensure that women are on the LPS and they’re helping to make those decisions of where to invest funds and really

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looking to diversify the strategy women have to be sitting in those roles where

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decisions are being made and so there’s a key Focus I think that all of us need

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to ensure that we’re mentoring and we’re really bringing women up through the

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ranks and ensuring that they’re sitting in those positions of decision making yeah and I will add on as a Latina

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myself and it’s even that much harder uh the numbers are that much lower for women of color uh whether it’s board

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seats whether it’s Investments whether it’s that people think that there’s not a pipeline it’s even that much harder at

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60 harder for Latinas to actually get a bank loan than it is for non-hispanics to get a loan so there’s a lot that we

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have to overcome I agree with everything that everyone has said so far I do also think the pipeline is really important

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because a lot of investors that I’ve seen whether it’s VC or private Equity they’re looking for the pipeline they

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need a pipeline so I find it to be something that is my responsibility as well to make sure that I’m helping to

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bring others through that journey and helping to highlight and feature women like I’m doing with Latina disruptors to

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make sure that these sources of capital that they have access to but also that

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they see that there are a substantial amount of women out there generating substantial amount of business you know there’s there’s people that are

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generating 10 to 50 million dollars worth of business that you wouldn’t necessarily know unless you happen to do the research and open up the doors

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outside of your own network so that’s a big part of it is really being open to

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learning and listening and meeting people from outside your own network as well

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So within that topic what are some of the best Pathways to becoming a

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successful VC

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anyone you’re asking one person in particular sorry anyone can jump in

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well I um um have became uh become an angel investor and getting into the VC and

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creating a fund by starting to write my own texts right and um I know we’ll be talking about this

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later in the discussion but um you know it’s good money investing in

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women and the return search you know every single company I’ve invested in three of them are women that continue to

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operate have not had an exit but they continue into the fifth and seventh year to operate and and deliver returns so I

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think it’s a good business decision and just you know really being bold and perhaps to Sandra’s Point

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providing opportunities is write that check for a woman

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okay and uh malint here I’ll be specific so Melinda C who do you admire in the BC

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industry and what valuable lessons have you learned from them you know there’s one um Christina Nunes

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over at true beauty Ventures is um a particular um insightful and very attuned investor

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the companies that she invests in with her partner Rich

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um really they’re not passive investors and their goal set is to really mentor

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and help and share knowledge and share wealth and I think so much of what it is that we need to shift and we need to

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really support is that sharing of knowledge each one of us has in the VC

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community in the you know the finance community and the small business

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Community we all have lessons to learn and to share and I have a particular

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passion for doing that and I admire for instance Christina who has that continuously and will open those doors

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and make those introductions if a business needs if Founders need that yeah I think we all end up learning it’s

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it’s a learnable trait right there’s a lot of things that you learn after your first second third Investments and you

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see what things you can do but getting and helping as Board of advisors board

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of directors on companies small to large Enterprise level obviously they have

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their own boards and the board system but I also believe that even startup

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Founders need to make sure that they have a board a board of advisors or a board of directors that are there with

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them along the journey because someone that can help see around the corner is going to be really really valuable all

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along the way and and just going back to what Melinda said in terms of the knowledge knowledge is incredibly

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important because knowledge is powerful and knowledge is confidence as well and the more knowledge we can share the more

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we can provide the more we can make sure that regardless of what the education level is that somebody knows the

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difference between asset based financing debt financing what the options are they’re different phases of growth then

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we’re helping them to to scale and that’s kind of a goal we need to help women scale their businesses and again

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I’ll go back to speaking in terms of Latinos in general but out of all the Latino entrepreneurs which we are the

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most entrepreneurial cohort in the country there’s only three percent of those that actually scale above a

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million dollars and only 30 percent of those that are Latinas that scale above a million dollars we have a tremendous opportunity to help them understand how

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to scale their businesses whether or not a business is scalable and how to make sure that they get the right investor

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group with them it’s awesome um Melinda M

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um I I when it comes to diversity I’m a True Believer of it like at all levels I

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mean the more diverse support is the more diverse employees are the more

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ideas flow uh the creativities there um even if somebody doesn’t agree with

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that you know everybody has a different approach to say a problem right there’s always a different solution I think you

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have diversity you come up with a combination of the best so why is it important to have more women in the VC

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industry so um I love the topic of diversity I

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also love food so I can pair diversity to an incredible paella dish a paella

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dish is better when it had tons of different type of seafood and spices and

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rice so it was just you know just shrimp and rice it wouldn’t be paella so for me

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the diversity shows um the ability we we’ve looked at the research it shows that diverse teams can

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pivot faster that they have different perspectives they they actually perform

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better so in terms of diversity I think it’s important to have diversity at all

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levels so that’s at the sea level on the board on the advisory middle management

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just across the entire board because I think that that creates even greater

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perspective and great greater ability to perform um so that’s on the diversity subject

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but you were also asking me why is it important to have more women so research

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also shows that we invest in what we know and we invest in what we look like

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so if most people on Sand Hill Road went to Stanford or Harvard and our white

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males in their 20s and 30s that’s what they historically invest in so it’s

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absolutely critical that women have the ability to write checks because checks are what’s going

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to make a difference in terms of being able to support

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um early stage companies at you know which is higher risk at the pre-seed seed and then moving to series a and

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Beyond so um I basically think you know we write checks in what we know so I think

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everybody on this call writes checks so we need to multiply we need Moore’s Law

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um on on this panel which is why we’re doing this conversation which we’re projecting it live to LinkedIn so I just

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challenge everybody who’s watching this um to write checks for businesses that

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are backed by women in diverse teams and ones that they feel comfortable with and that they can add value

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I can just add to Melinda because from a consumer standpoint of which my career has been focused on we’re 75 percent of

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the consumer decision makers and in Latino households it’s 85 percent so

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when you talk about women and following up what Melinda was saying about why we

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need more women not only investing but being within VC and inserted BC funds is

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because we understand consumers because we are the predominant consumer so that’s another big part and that can go

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a long way across a lot of different sectors and there’s data to show that that is

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the right way we need to move right McKenzie published a report that said companies with a higher proportion of

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gender diversity were 21 more likely to outperform on ebit and a higher

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proportion were um of cultural and ethnic diversity were 33 more likely to outperform so the data

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supports these the call to action so I um I second that motion Melinda

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thank you that’s awesome uh moving to uh topic two building diverse investment

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teams let’s explore the importance of diverse teams in the VC industry

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uh Sandra uh well first thing is that in order to

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have diverse teams and that when I talk about diversity I talk about everything age diversity diversity of experience

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not only just background race sexual orientation Etc but we need to be able

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to also open it up to where we give people the opportunity to write the checks that don’t have to be a hundred

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thousand dollars and above or they don’t have to be a million dollars and such you know so to be able to truly have

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more diversity and bring more people to the table we also need to make sure that we have vehicles in which they can

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actually start to invest earlier and with less money and and earlier in their stages of of growth as in their careers

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so that they can have opportunity to write bigger checks as they get further along

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that would be one point that I would make Brenda you know um I I’m always the The

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Optimist and um I think we’re currently living the

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largest transfer of wealth in the United States of America and Boomers of which I am one

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um the interesting thing is there are a lot of women that are coming into wealth because of generational inheritance and

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they are going to be the movers and shakers they’re actually using different professional service

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companies there are as Sandra alluded to and Melinda Melinda M there are more and

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more opportunities and um funds that are educating women on what it means to

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become an angel investor and writing those checks so I’m the forever Optimist and think this is going to take another

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generation to move the needle but I’m watching it from the outside largest

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transfer of wealth women are making decisions and we’re handling our money well with that being said what would the

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strategies be for promoting diversity and inclusion

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pipeline increasing pipeline not only in your VC your funds

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your LPS but also casting your net wider in terms of universities startup

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programs where there is a large again not only women but other ethnic groups

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sexual orientation just casting the net access access is the number one blocker

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yep and I don’t remember which one of the Melendez said this before but it was

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Melinda M um when you grew up on the same street those are your friends when you work and you go to the same schools and you work

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with the same type of people that’s what you know that’s who you know and so I see a lot of BC investors and private

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Equity investors right now looking for additional pipeline because they understand and recognize that they are

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only investing in what they know so we can’t make change without that but uh

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yeah I think that Brenda’s right as it relates to women coming into more wealth

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also having opportunities staying single longer um you know going to college more and

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having higher paying jobs and so with that we need to just have access and provide that access

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so I guess one question I would have Brenda is if uh uh women are coming into

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more wealth are they moving into investment are they moving into VC or is there maybe an initiative that Gathering

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that to create that movement has that been approached is it happening is it need to

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happen well what I’m observing is all of the banks um uh are have a wealth management

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division in there aggressively hiring women to discuss

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with women wealth management um your JP Morgan’s your Wells Fargo I

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mean every single Bank on Wall Street Main Street America have built out entire teams of wealth

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advisors um so with that when we look like the women that are inheriting or handling

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the wealth um I wanted to add one other concept to that of Pipeline and that is

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one of rather than being a mentor of a woman is being a sponsor and that

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message is a call out to those that are here on the LinkedIn live particularly those men in the virtual

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room here becoming a sponsor is actually you’re sitting in those rooms where there’s largely men

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bring a woman along talk about a woman be a active sponsor

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not just mentoring on 101 it’s just being that that external sponsor for a

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Woman by company or an investment in a woman like company or actually bringing

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an LPS as woman there’s also that option of the social networks right we have a tendency so

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much of the relationships that we have are just when we’re together right and

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there’s relations there’s social networks that are occurring that are female Centric um and there’s others that are co-ed and

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the focus should be on really to your point Brenda is bringing people together

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whether it’s a continuous form of Education it’s sharing knowledge it’s sharing access it’s making introductions

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both at this stage here now where many are able to invest and or raise Capital

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but I also believe it needs to we need to be looking at that next Generation to

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your point of you know it may take a generation for it to shift I think everything’s going to move in increments

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but we also need to look at how do we bring women up through the

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um through the education process and have them interested in stem where

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there’s a predominant amount of Founders coming in from stem degrees how do we encourage that how do we ensure that we

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are both looking at it from our perspective today here where we sit but also from that next generation and

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ensuring that access continues and and ultimately grows and that actually is perfect lead way

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into the next topic which is nurturing the next generation of female Founders and board members

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what are some of the best ways to uplift the future generation of female Founders which uh Sandra you kind of hit on that

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you said you know diversity at all ages uh and I’ve been asked many questions

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what’s what’s too young to be on a board and I always say well you know kind of like age is irrelevant it’s

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really experience and education but you can correct me or or what are the best ways to help out uh cover all ages and

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how do we bring up the woman the young woman to lead into this and like Melinda

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said and I think Brenda said that next generation well there are a tremendous amount of

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options today that didn’t exist 20 years ago options in terms of communities organizations that are women-led that

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provide workshops training they do it along with corporations as well so when corporations are able to actually take

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on those whether it’s luminary Chief you’ve got a number of different organizations that are nationwide and if

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companies bring those on then they give access to their employees to go through those workshops to learn to train to network Etc and it’s not necessarily

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about the age as much as it is about what your skill set is so also being able to upskill reskill have those have

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the different cross-functional knowledge so that you can actually speak to and understand what’s necessary and what’s

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needed out there you know in a lot of boards today there’s a renewed focus on

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things that weren’t that way five years ago cyber security being one of them you know I.T and cyber security there’s so

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much more technology there’s so much more about privacy and security and we know what happen in terms of the hacking

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around the world so that’s an entire area that speaking to what Melinda C had

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said earlier in terms of you know getting women in stem and getting those involved earlier on they need to see

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what the options are in their career I actually didn’t even think about being on a board until I had my second CEO

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role I really haven’t thought about it and at that point in time that’s when I started to learn

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about boards about what the process is going through the interviewing process but not only that what the expectations

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are what the different Dynamics are and Boards what’s what’s different about being an independent director on a VC

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backboard versus a private Equity board versus a public board and so being able to really share that through these

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different instruments and these organizations I think is a really great way to help the Next Generation and

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obviously as others have said here to really lend that hand backwards because it wasn’t that long ago that we were

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there also asking the questions looking being curious and wanting to get there but without having somebody who could

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help us along the way a mentorship

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you know call out to an organization called 50 50 for women it’s hard to get

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to move the needle on the number of women sitting on public companies uh boards but there are over 36 000

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positions for private Equity private owned companies in the United States so your options of getting on a private

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company are far outweigh those are getting on a public company and I think

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Sandra you mentioned it earlier um becoming an advisor so now on The

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Advisory Board of an early stage company is oftentimes not not you don’t

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necessarily have to write a check but getting becoming an advisor on Advisory Board often leads to becoming a full

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fiduciary board member um so don’t don’t think that you have to be narrow and be on a Russell 2000

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companies board it’s starting in those thirty six thousand open private company

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board positions across the United States yeah I always looked at that as getting

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your foot in the door and if you are an advisor you build a relationship and if

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that company ends up going public why would they not look at their current advisors as potential board members

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before even looking for anybody else especially if the diversity is there which that’s what we get a lot companies

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that come to us they’re like go getting ready to go public and they’re missing that diversity and you know that’s when

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we get excited because they’re specifically asking for that um but like to your point Brenda if they

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already had advisors they’ve had two three years of working relationship that’s just a great lead way into

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being becoming on the board officials so um what are some helpful resources and

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tools that drive the real impact and I know you already mentioned some but um anything else besides

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what you already mentioned workshops you know I’d recommend you mentioned 50

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51 on board there’s also him for her which is a great organization with that Jocelyn Mangan runs

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um I sit on a board with her there’s nacd which runs programs as well as

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organizations institutions like Stanford um and Princeton who who have

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um who have training um as well as just connecting with

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individuals that are in that space and having dialogue and having conversations

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um you know Sandra mentioned this earlier this idea of you know I don’t know that we all grew up thinking that

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we might sit on boards but as we worked our way through management and there

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were opportunities that were presented to ourselves it’s really coming um it’s really that that education and

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being aware of of how boards run and how to ensure that you’re staying at sort of

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that higher level and making decisions and providing advice and I I’d also recommend sitting on non-profit boards

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as well because there’s a lot to be learned there there’s a lot to give back obviously as well as connections to be

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made right it’s it’s just those those individuals that are typically sitting on a public board or a private board are

34:03

also sitting on a non-profit as well I like to add it into sorry I love that

34:10

you added into him for her as well because it just shows that we need male allies all along the way I’m also just

34:15

again giving the the diverse angle of it in terms of the support groups the Latino corporate Directors Association

34:21

the lcda not only is it an organization for Latinos to join to be able to learn

34:26

and get go through exercises making sure they have their branding and all the materials and all the things right but

34:32

also for companies whether they’re private companies or public companies to be able to utilize the lcda as a as a as

34:40

a group and a resource to finding that pipeline and I would add um I give him my my

34:47

first board opportunity was the public company in Spain and

34:52

um in the Pharmaceuticals and at that time women corporate directors which is an organization largely in the United

34:57

States and did not have a presence in in Spain we opened that chapter there so

35:02

women corporate directors is a non-profit um you do need to be sitting on either a large non-profit or a large public

35:09

companies for a private company to be a member there’s a lot of training programs it is organized in large cities

35:16

um chapters um I would also add and continue to network your alma mater

35:24

um has um I’m a generous of Chicago there’s a lot of governance training you can go back and get and I’m certain

35:30

Harvard has a program Stanford that’s Melinda said so either

35:35

pockets of um courses that you can take over the summer to really understand you

35:42

know what is the operations of a fiduciary board and what are your responsibilities and

35:48

um and those that are more specific to the women’s world is women corporate directors 50 50 women on boards and a

35:54

recent one that I’ve joined is exceptional women on boards um and a lot of there’s active training

36:02

um and we work a lot with or get training from a lot of the companies like Deloitte ey do you like how the

36:09

governance Center um ey KPMG all of them have within their

36:16

alma mater programs for governance training

36:22

anybody else well I think it just gets a step up then

36:27

when you get onto board we lost you the committee entirely

36:35

different if you’re not a CFO but it’s all great learning opportunities but it’s also taking advantage sorry my

36:42

my screen froze um but it’s also taking advantage of the

36:47

learnings that you you have along the way and the other peers that you have in the

36:54

group when you actually do get on a public

37:01

company it’s good to really get ahead and end the language and understand what some of those expectations are because you’ll

37:08

inevitably inevitably be on a committee awesome

37:13

um we do have some time for some specific questions and I have one for each of you are you guys ready

37:20

yes Melinda Moore um so you’ve had a lot of success in

37:26

your career including notable exits from companies you invested in what do you

37:31

think sets successful entrepreneurs apart from those who aren’t as successful

37:39

um that’s a great question um so I’d say successful entrepreneurs I

37:44

mean it’s definitely a very rare individual so I’d say a few things

37:49

um as a successful entrepreneur you have to have a very strong vision and Noble

37:55

purpose so definitely understanding your why you’re doing this and that why

38:01

uniquely you should be doing this and that you’re able to do this I also let people know um very early stage that

38:08

successful entrepreneurs are successful fundraisers because you need to be able

38:14

to fundraise to be able to hire the right talent to be able to scale to be

38:19

able to Market to be able to do product development

38:26

you you’re now freezer education

38:33

um not being afraid to ask for money ask for more than you need

38:39

um and so those are things also you know it does it does take a bunch of grit

38:45

being an entrepreneur been an entrepreneur four times at least

38:51

um it is a roller coaster ride so you have to be able to be like okay one day you’re like okay I’m gonna sell for a

38:56

billion dollars and what am I going to do with this money and how do I handle the taxes and you’re like calling a tax

39:02

attorney and then it’s like a week later you’re like wait owe me out of escrow on that house because the market fell and

39:09

that literally did happen to me what I just said in the early 20s and I was like wait what is the happening and I

39:16

didn’t know how to short thing you know short the stock and all of these things so it truly is a roller coaster ride so

39:24

if you’re the type of person that likes stability then and you want to be on a Merry-Go-Round you probably don’t

39:32

yourself be an entrepreneur but if you have the grit and the tenacity and you

39:37

you know the why and you’re good at fundraising and you’re charismatic and can hire a good team I think that makes

39:45

a good entrepreneur and as an investor I always look I listen to what

39:52

entrepreneurs do not what they say Perfect Since you brought up funding I

39:59

wasn’t going to ask the second question but it leads right into it what are some of the common mistakes that Founders

40:05

make when they are seeking investment

40:10

Melinda I’ll tap on that really quickly so one is a lot of the investors and

40:16

Founders don’t do their research so if you’re um you know a consumer-based company

40:22

then why would you talk to a clean tech or to offend Tech investor

40:28

um so I often and myself I get pitched all the time and through Linkedin but

40:34

they’re not even taking the time to read what my investment thesis is that

40:41

literally is the number one mistake because it it just wastes I I value

40:46

people’s time and I think everybody should value people’s time and when you’re pitching people investors that

40:52

don’t even invest it’s just you’re just wasting a lot of time and clogging the

40:58

system so I’d say number one is really to do your homework on the investors make sure that there’s not competitive

41:04

make sure that they invest in the vertical at the stage make sure that you think that they’re going to add

41:09

strategic value and then be prepared to say why you want them as investor

41:15

those are my two cents awesome uh Melinda c

41:20

um you’ve worked at top tier companies including Disney Universal Music Group how did those experiences shape your

41:27

approach to not only finance and operations but

41:32

to where you’re at today how did that shape you I mean those are big companies those are those are very big companies

41:39

and I was fortunate to work in some of their um that they were investing in new

41:45

business opportunities so at Disney they were investing in a new record label um and so I was working in with their

41:51

music subsidiary so I had the opportunity to work with their team that

41:57

basically um decided where to invest funds and new

42:02

growth opportunities and so there was definitely it was almost like a mini um

42:08

mini VC if you will and really being able to to look at what is the Strategic

42:14

purpose of this where does it fit within the larger environment um and then how do we ensure that we’ve

42:20

got Synergy and we’re making use of the definite ability to cross refer business

42:26

or cross-create and so there was there’s a diligence that happens with from

42:33

larger corporations right it’s not it’s not moving um super quickly but there’s um it’s

42:41

kind of it for me it was definitely grounding in the sense of what are those action steps that we need to take how do

42:48

we go to market who do we hire right to be able to ensure that the team will be

42:54

successful and then how do we deploy capital and in both of these companies both at Universal and at Disney so much

43:02

of it was about really ensuring that there was this openness of communication between the leadership team and our

43:09

parent company really and our funder so it was really this almost investment

43:15

thesis that I operated Within I have to tell you I loved it

43:21

um very very smart individuals um and definitely was able to see both

43:27

the much more the larger company environment and faces along with the

43:33

founders that we brought in to kind of create these new business ventures and really bridging that gap which I find

43:39

considerably useful in doing exactly that in what I’m doing today with my

43:45

advisory firm that I manage working with emerging growth companies and talking to

43:52

and working with VCS and private Equity firms in that funding environment right it’s almost that similar sort of

43:58

perspective that’s awesome um Sandra as a board member for several

44:05

companies including Fabric and Big Lots what do you think are the most important

44:10

responsibilities of a board member and how do you approach that role

44:15

hmm um different phases of a company require different Dynamics within the courtroom

44:22

within the courtroom oh my God within the boardroom as well why am I thinking courtroom

44:30

anyway so you know I think that first of all Big Lots was my first public board

44:35

so for me I was really it was an it is an impressive group of board directors

44:42

who have been on many boards very very many very established boards who were CEO peers of very large companies and so

44:49

I really looked up to them and one of the first things that one of them had called me ahead of time we had just some

44:55

like you know Mentor um some buddies I guess in the buddy system that we have for the boards one

45:03

of them had called me ahead of time he was an operating CEO and a company and a retailer similar and he said you know I

45:08

just want you to know before you walk in the room you are no longer an operator so you need to put a different hat on

45:14

you need to put a different spin on how you’re looking at things because you will see problems and you’ll think

45:20

immediately oh I know let’s do this this is a solution you know because you’ve been used to doing that as an operator and coming up with initiatives and all

45:27

these other things because that’s not your role it’s the management role so it was actually something that I repeat because it was so important to me that I

45:35

heard that before I ever walked into the boardroom because I was already expecting it I was anticipating that I

45:40

needed to have a different set of eyes when I was hearing from the management team and learning how to ask the

45:47

questions so I did actually listen to the rest of the very experienced group of directors and and try to understand

45:53

like what were they trying to get to how were they getting to it how can I actually be more helpful how can I add

45:58

value what do I bring into the room that no one else has what’s the experience that I have that no one else can talk to

46:04

and so that’s really how you know for the first year I would say I definitely played it in that regard on the fabric

46:11

board it’s a VC backboard I’m the only independent director and I’m the only operator within retail so it’s a very

46:17

different position because I had the experience for the customer that they ultimately want to get from a SAS

46:22

software platform perspective and so I come in with the learnings and the understandings of the decision maker and

46:29

what’s good what’s not good from a go to market standpoint what’s going to resonate what’s not so it’s very different on that front but I think you

46:36

know you have to listen and learn and not walk in thinking you know everything’s certainly not the first time and being able to understand the

46:43

difference between being an operator and being on a board is really critical so in regards to that and I’m very hands

46:50

on myself how how did you handle that transition of not being able to like jump in and just fix the problem

46:57

put my hands under my seat as I speak with my hands as I start to

47:03

get no I had to control myself and make notes um but then figure out ultimately how do

47:10

I turn those into questions right because it may not be the right thing that the the company wants to take on

47:15

but how do I turn those into questions just to kind of make and bring it to light or make them aware of something

47:21

that perhaps is something that I’ve seen that may be concerning or something they should consider or think about but more

47:27

about how does it turn into a question and awesome and um thank you

47:34

uh Brenda now with you with over 25 years of experience and uh not only

47:40

Corporate America but also obviously in Europe what inspired you to leave the corporate world and start next ACT

47:47

advisors and can you talk about some of the challenges and opportunities you

47:52

faced in starting your own consulting firm wow that’s a loaded question but the

47:58

answer and and thank you for asking it because um uh my

48:03

you know transition from living in Europe for over 25 years back to the United States where I’m originally from

48:09

was um you know I left at 22k back of 50. uh why did I leave Corporate America

48:15

um I [Music] um was going to grad school when Enron uh

48:20

collapsed and I had a few Enron classmates I was at McKinsey at that time and I later on

48:28

um worked in the pharmaceutical industry and AstraZeneca and both

48:33

corporate experiences um the I saw very lack of corporate

48:39

governance matter of fact socks came out of that and I saw very egregious collusion unethical behavior that was

48:47

really around incentives we had patients that were not getting their medication because we were our sales reps were

48:53

sending it to countries that had a higher margin and I left the

48:59

pharmaceutical world when I was actually fixing that problem and I said I I was

49:05

head hunted into disruptive technology so I kind of fell into next ACT advisors and really

49:11

um believing that through disruptive technology not that you’re going to take down the big corporates but you’re going

49:17

to do it better and so my mission at next ACT advisors is really building the

49:22

knowledge from get go at a base with Founders on what is good corporate governance you don’t have to have a

49:29

fiduciary board of directors immediately you can have an Advisory board but do the basic employment agreements your

49:36

bylaws so really build up um and always have that arm’s length and that questioning attitude is is this

49:43

right for the Enterprise because ultimately you are owned by your shareholders

49:48

you’re not owned by the management so that’s what I’m all about next ACT advisors and the support for verticals

49:55

some of the challenges of course coming back to the US was I really had to develop my personal brand

50:00

um who is Brenda McCabe and what is my experience and it really um was working with my hired Consultants

50:06

to work with me on developing my my brand next ACT advisors which is my next

50:12

ACT not my last act it’s a bridge to bring great ideas out of the lab I work

50:19

in deep tech companies into commercialization with good corporate governance and

50:26

um that’s my challenge is opportunities sky’s the limit there’s a lot there are

50:31

a lot of opportunities to disrupt um those those four areas that I’m in um with with um new technology

50:39

thank you that’s awesome thank you for sharing um I have a group question as investors advisors and board members

50:47

within this group you guys have a unique insight into the into what makes a

50:52

successful startup what are some of the key factors you look for when evaluating startups and

50:59

how can you can Founders ensure that they are meeting those or that criteria

51:06

anybody can start I’ll start so that’s the last one um also an exact advisors I work with

51:13

startups um typically the first page uh they need to be a lot of the founders

51:19

are very um technical the science Engineers

51:25

they’re very product oriented and it’s important for me to know that they also

51:32

recognize the importance of the business side right and how I I get that learn

51:40

from whether I want to work with them or invest in them is how they spend their time where do you spend your time is

51:46

that on product development or are you recruiting your team so it’s all about the south side of the business but it’s

51:51

as equally important as is the product I’ll agree with you Brenda I also think

51:57

the commercial aspect of the business is really key like there has to be a passion for what it is that they’re

52:02

developing um or creating and then a clear understanding of what that go to market

52:08

strategy is and what how to monetize that because that becomes key we all

52:14

have many ideas I can’t think of the number of ideas I had even as I was raising kids and such that this would be

52:19

the best product but at the end of the day if my Tam was like the three people around me then that’s not a great

52:26

business idea right it’s it’s combining and that interrelation between passion and the project and the product and um

52:34

and how is it going to make money and ultimately bring a return to the investors

52:40

right Sandra Melinda m anything to add

52:46

I went ahead and I do look for Capital efficiency because that’s very important

52:52

in terms of that the um Founders are able to scale but that

52:58

the economics look good because I always say to Founders make sure that your margins and the numbers are right from

53:06

the beginning as you scale up because it takes the same amount of energy to launch a company that has 65 80 margins

53:14

as it does 20 so why do the 20 right oftentimes

53:20

um Founders will push back on me but that’s because they’re so passionate about what they’re doing but I’m trying to explain to them that the numbers

53:27

don’t actually make sense so please come back to me with something where there’s

53:33

Capital efficiency but you’re you’re working with numbers that are highly

53:39

attractive to be able to scale so to go from pre-seed to exit or to IPO and so

53:46

truly understanding um you know the the finance the finances

53:52

that are actually necessary to have that type of um scale and that type of

53:58

success you’d be you’d be amazed at the pushback that I get on what I just said

54:05

not much amazes me these days Sandra yes yes and yes to what every one of these

54:11

incredible women have said and because I look at a lot of consumer businesses a

54:17

lot of them being internet DDC specific there’s great ideas

54:25

and then there’s entrepreneurs who may or may not know anything about how to Market it online and not know anything

54:30

about SEO and all the different aspects of it and so I think a lot of what I look for is

54:36

to what Melinda C said which is what’s the addressable market like is there white space for it or are you doing

54:42

something that much better more impactful more compelling for the consumer um you know two is like how saturated is

54:49

that space online and and what’s your team what is a team that you have or what’s the knowledge that you have to be

54:54

able to actually really be able to be searchable online and then from a marketing standpoint because we’re just

55:00

we have so much product everywhere that we look and you know it needs to be something that’s compelling whether it’s

55:06

the packaging whether it’s the uniqueness of the product whether it’s in material whether it’s in

55:11

functionality you know various things like that so there’s when I look at the consumer piece of business because I’m

55:17

speaking to that specifically um that’s those are some of the layers that I kind of look at and try to

55:23

understand if they specifically as the entrepreneur don’t understand the back end of Technology do they have someone

55:28

on the team that does do they have you know not only the passion I have to be passionate about it as well which pets

55:34

and wag thank you that’s just like the top of my list because I have eight horses two dogs and

55:40

a cat oh my gosh at world so but because I know certain things I like to be passionate also in terms of what I

55:46

invest in awesome thank you for sharing that

55:52

um so with that board experience what do you think are the most important

55:58

responsibilities of a board and what are some effective strategies for fulfill I

56:05

can’t talk for fulfilling those responsibilities open to anybody

56:14

Sandra I think we’ve said I think we’ve said a lot of things as it relates the most important responsibilities that you

56:21

have and um you know Brenda had said earlier it’s the shareholder and ultimately either you’re there for them and not

56:29

necessarily yes you’re there as a partner to the management team on the public side but I think the most important responsibility is in my view

56:37

to be able to utilize your voice with that point of differentiation that might really help them think about something

56:42

or challenge them in a way that can help them grow and scale the business further or improve profitability or whatever the

56:48

different metric is that you’re trying to impact um you’re there for a reason so walking in with your own your own brand and your

56:56

own point of view and your own experience to be able to use that to the benefit of the organization is the

57:02

responsibility and so how you do that whether it’s the questions you ask or

57:08

the introductions that you make however you do that really has to always just be focused on the benefit of sharehold of

57:14

the company and how they’re going to get to the next phase and there’s such a key focus on not

57:20

running the business right as a board you’re not making the day-to-day decisions you’re really and and Sandra

57:26

you mentioned this earlier the you are helping to ensure that the strategy and

57:31

the go forward focus is present at all times and then helping to ensure that

57:38

there aren’t areas that any blind spots or any areas that haven’t been addressed

57:44

it’s really ensuring that your that additional voices

57:50

um to ensure success and and and it is shareholder value ultimately at the end of the day

57:55

and we do have that fighting Sherry Duty yeah on the fiduciary board

58:02

responsibilities are three largely it’s CEO hiring and firing

58:07

um actually you are responsible for the legal and Regulatory and financial filings as a board of directors and

58:15

thirdly oversight of the Strategic plan so it’s a Melinda C’s Point

58:21

um and that’s what your how you do that your voice is Sandra mentioned is

58:27

important and asking very good questions is this a wrap thanks so much

58:34

thank you I look forward to working with you guys more so be on the lookout

58:40

pleasure from uh for an email from me oh absolutely wonderful thank you guys

58:46

for all um joining I feel like I’ve met some incredible women here um and Martin thank you

58:52

yeah thank you very much and to everybody in the audience that’s a woman just be bold that’s my last people

59:02

that was awesome bye thank you thank you guys really

59:07

appreciate the time from that you guys took away to be on this panel

59:12

um thank you Melinda Moore Melinda chalaya Brenda Maccabee and Sandra Campos I’m Mark rovinsky co-founder and

59:19

CEO of board’s eye and I thank everyone for joining us today at leadership talk Sirius see you all at next event have a

59:27

great day thank you take care

59:33

thank you thank you [Music]