Dear Friends,
It’s been a busy few months for us, engaged in meaningful, productive conversations and gatherings across the VC ecosystem about where we’re heading—and how to realize the more equitable future we want to see.
As we plan our strategy for 2025, we’re focused on three major calls to action:
—Building a community of like-minded investors. Who said this was a zero-sum game? Numerous reports are showing a growing number of family offices and high net worth women making strides as investors in alternative assets like private equity and venture capital. In a down market where raising a fund has been more challenging, family offices have more patient capital at the ready to invest for the longer-term, potentially exponential gains that venture investing offers. The great wealth transfer, in which women will control an estimated $30 trillion by 2030, is also expanding the pool of ultra wealthy women who are passionate about supporting other women. We’re focused on harnessing these trends to steer more capital to female founders and funds. (For more on this topic, read recent coverage in Forbes and CNBC).
—Telling our stories more loudly. Who wants to talk to a reporter and risk being part of another hit piece on the front page? Yeah, no thanks. It’s true, mainstream reporters aren’t always kind or fair to women founders and funders. But in avoiding the press, we also risk being less seen. Earlier this month, a panel of leading tech journalists at the All Raise VC Summit [see highlights below] addressed this conundrum. Bottom line: They want to hear from women founders! They want to do more stories about women’s entrepreneurial successes. And they want to include women as expert sources they consult and quote in their reporting. So let them hear from you. (Want more tips about talking to the press? Drop us an email.)
—Cultivating relationships with male allies. Who was it that said, “no woman is an island”? Women have been scaling new heights as creators, leaders, athletes, and innovators. We also recognize that women, alone, won’t move the needle fast enough, or far enough, to make the big changes this world needs to thrive. That takes a collective of people of all genders with shared values, working together. Including partnerships with men. Men who understand that diversity and inclusivity benefit them, too. And that bringing more women into decision-making roles in their organizations, and more women onto the cap tables of their investments, creates a bigger, tastier pie for everyone.
As just one positive example of male allyship in action: Our latest investment in female-founded Kalder, to which we were introduced by the (all male) managing partners at Javelin Venture Partners—the same lead for the Series A round we participated in for Pair Eyewear.