ESG's in venture investing, finding your own superpower and women and "voice" in business
A weekly newsletter that profiles women in venture and technology
Welcome to issue 21 of Heroa, a weekly newsletter that aims to raise women's profile in ventures. If you enjoy what you read, please do share this newsletter with friends and like it above - Alexandra
I originally wrote something different this week for the introduction, but I’ve changed it as instead I’d highly encourage you to check out my interview with Aislin O’Connor this week. Aislin is a Vice President at MUFG Union Bank, where she works with high-growth companies, providing them with debt and other domestic and international services. She talks about how we need more authenticity when women speak about their roles in business.
Round-up of the news this week
Sharmadean Reid launches a new multimedia company, The Stack World. Li Jin of Atelier Ventures explains what you are paying for when you buy a GIF (or NFT) online.
Under the radar, London fintech Lendable becomes Europe’s latest unicorn. Cazoo is listing in the US with an $8bn valuation and the controversial message that “the IPO process in the UK is challenging for companies that are investing in high growth. Those companies are better understood by US investors.” Meanwhile, the Deliveroo IPO has dampened its expectations alongside concerns over its lack of profitability and worker rights.
Despite the hype around SPACs, European VCs are still wary of joining the SPAC goldrush. 75% of VCs will use AI to make investment decisions by 2025. Finally, there’s a poignant piece of analysis on the disconnect between Y Combinator Demo Day and due diligence and why due diligence remains critical in an increasingly hot and arguably divergent UK and US market.
From the investors
“One of my venture capital mentors said to me at one point in time, ‘You have three daughters. You are going to learn more from raising your daughters around how to be a good board member than you are going to learn from any board.’ And I think about that a lot. It's role modelling, right? Treating people the way you want to be treated.” Kara Nortman of Upfront Ventures.
Being a good leader and a great board member by Kara Nortman (Managing Partner, Upfront Ventures), Listen to the episode here.
Developers are the new rockstars of SaaS. You either sell through or to them. There is a market of 19m developers globally as of 2019. That sounds like a lot, but Shamillah Bankiya and Virginia Pozzato of Dawn Capital estimate that there will be 45m in the next 10 years — so almost 2.5x the number of developers in our ecosystem today. Read more here.
ESG’s in venture investing. Camilla Dolan, Founding Partner of Eka Ventures, explains how ESG is all about running your business, while impact is about what your business actually does. She also explains how Eka Ventures is keeping ESG’s at the centre of their business. Read more here.
From the operators
“You can always make the very best of something.” Jo Malone, founder of Jo Malone and Jo Loves
Finding your own superpower by Jo Malone on the High-Performance Podcast. Her advice includes not letting other people’s opinions of you define you. Listen to the podcast here.
Growing Y combinator from the very early days and how Kirsty Nathoo (CFO and Partner, Y Combinator) thinks about the advice she would give to others and Y-combinators founders when she encounters a challenge. Read more here.
What is imposter syndrome, and how can we beat it. At the heart of the issue is a fear of failure. We have become such a perfectionist society that failure isn’t an option but Poppy Jamie, the founder of Pop and Suki and Happy Not Perfect, argues that by reminding ourselves that we are a work in progress, we can overcome imposter syndrome. Read more here.
Interview with Aislin O’Connor, Vice President at MUFG Union Bank
Can you tell us about your career to date:
My first job out of university was in commercial real estate finance to a small business in the San Francisco Bay Area. I studied Politics in university and graduated in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. I was fortunate enough in that job to have one of my greatest mentors to-date, my former boss Ole, who was the top producer in the bank and to this day remains one of the all-time great advocates for me. He supported my push with the company for a pay raise and helped create a new role for me to continue advancing. In the three years I was there, tech once again started to boom in the Bay Area in a way we hadn't seen since in the first dot-com era, and I learned a great deal on the go.
I received a scholarship as a Forté Fellow, a women's business leadership fellowship, for my MBA at Saïd Business School, at the University of Oxford. Having a global mindset and experience has always been one of the most important principles in my life, and Oxford's MBA programme strongly reflected this. Surrounded by my peers worldwide enriched my perspective on how business and the overall world's challenges must be solved by taking into account the voices and interests of those from diverse backgrounds globally.
After my MBA, I joined Wells Fargo as a Commercial/Corporate Relationship Manager, initially in its Fintech group in Palo Alto and then in its core Middle Market group at its San Francisco headquarters. At the same time, I came on-board as an early-stage advisor to help one of my good friends from the MBA get his London-based recruitment start-up, inploi (inploi.com), off the ground. inploi has since continued to grow and expand internationally in the last year.
I accepted a brief role at a UK Regtech company to help expand them into the US before landing my current role as Vice President at MUFG Union Bank. I work with high-growth companies, providing them with debt and other domestic and international services. I've immensely enjoyed working with technology companies in the process of expanding into new markets and collaborating with them as they build out and implement their strategy.
Outside of work, I lead the Oxford Business Alumni Network in the San Francisco Bay Area and serve as Alumni Liaison for the San Francisco British American Business Council's Young Professional group.
You've looked into the topic of women as spokespeople. Can you tell us more about that?
A theme that has occurred repeatedly throughout my career is the concept of women and "voice" in business. I noticed over the last decade, particularly in tech and finance, that more women's voices have been featured very prominently in the press, which in general is a very positive development. However, I also noticed in my finance experience working with tech companies that the women's voices most strongly featured and heard weren't representative of women's authentic experiences. At the time, the two 'loudest' voices arguably were Sheryl Sandberg and her 'Lean In' initiative, and at the far side of the other spectrum was Elizabeth Holmes and the story of fraud at Theranos.
Other women readily commented that while likely very well-intentioned, Sandberg's 'Lean In' initiative failed to consider the lived experiences of women of different backgrounds, such as women with varying levels of income, educational, cultural, and racial backgrounds. In Holmes's case, other women noted that she could drive her very successful press and investor narrative that was ultimately fraudulent by her level of relative educational and socioeconomic privilege.
Throughout the global pandemic and political and economic upheaval, we have witnessed a considerable shift in how the public recognizes the intersectionality of how gender, race, class, and education all contribute to whose voices are heard and who ultimately can hold power in business and society at whole.
We can no longer ignore the voices of most women and other historically marginalized groups. I've witnessed more women in technology and finance speaking out publicly about the challenges they've encountered over the last year of remote work, where asserting one's voice in a virtual Zoom meeting can often be more complicated than in a full conference room.
I'm encouraged by these shifts and optimistic for the immediate future that the voices that have emerged over the last year can translate into tangible changes as business starts to settle into more stability this year.
What's your favourite book?
Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain.
What's your favourite app?
WhatsApp to stay connected with all my friends.
What's next for you?
Continuing to support companies' growth as we recover from the last year and further advocating for women's voices in business. On another note, I'm preparing for a dance performance next month, which I'm excited about and looking forward to travelling again later in the year!
Events
Speedinvest and CapitalT VC are holding inclusive Office Hours for founders on the 7th of April. The application deadline is Tuesday the 30th of March.
A conversation with Laura Thompson (Partner, Sapphire Ventures) on the LP/VC ecosystem at 5 pm GMT on Tuesday the 30th of March.
Listen to the Creator Economy boom at 9 am GMT on Clubhouse on Wednesday the 31st of March.
Opportunities
Mosaic Ventures - Research Associate - London
Founders Pledge - Programmes Manager - London
Founders Forum - Chief Commercial Officer - London
SEE YOU NEXT MONDAY!
If you have any comments, questions, or want to chat about start-ups and venturing, then do drop me a comment.
Written by Alexandra Wyatt, based in London but a global traveller. You can also reach me on Twitter and Instagram.