I was honored to be the only male speaker (other than Worth personnel) presenting at last week’s Worth Groundbreaking Women Summit. It was great to meet Jim McCann, principal of the family office which owns Worth. I was on a panel on Diversifying the Cap Table with La Keisha Landrum-Pierre, General Partner at Emmeline Ventures,...
[Continue Reading]Video: Womensphere Capital Forum
Womensphere has now posted the video from the first Womensphere Capital Forum, which I was honored to co-chair. We discuss advancing women’s leadership in finance and investment, and expanding capital access for women in business. Given I have 3 daughters plus a wife working in finance, this topic is close to my heart. Our speakers...
[Continue Reading]The iconic VC-Backed founders are all White & Asian men. So why invest in diversity?
(co-written with Katherine Boe Heuck, a MBA candidate at MIT Sloan (class of 2022) and a past intern at Versatile VC, Metaprop NYC, and InQTel.) What can we learn from the best venture capital investments of all time? Well, we learn to invest exclusively in men, preferably white or Asian. A year ago, we reviewed...
[Continue Reading]Why are Alternative VCs investing in so many women & underrepresented founders?
A new wave of Alternative VCs are emerging who are using creative investing structures with some of the upside of traditional VC, but some of the downside protection of debt. Many are reporting that they’re seeing a more diverse pool of applicants than traditional equity VCs… even though virtually none have a particular focus on...
[Continue Reading]Diversity, why international startups love NY, and why NY VCs love international startups
New York is now the second-most-active tech ecosystem in the US on all key metrics, after the Bay Area. One of the drivers for that growth is that for European, Israeli, Latin American, and Eastern Canada-linked companies, the East Coast is much closer than California. New York venture capitalists like me recognize this trend, and...
[Continue Reading]Raise capital with the skin you’re in: blunt truth from Don Charlton, Founder, JazzHR
How do you raise capital for your company when you’re not in the traditional social circles of the money people? In particular, the VC industry is 76% white male and overwhelmingly straight; what if you do not fit into that bucket? I’m speaking on a panel this afternoon on fundraising for minority founders at the...
[Continue Reading]