As part of the Founder Institute’s new series of free online startup events for entrepreneurs practicing social distancing, we were pleased to welcome:
Annie Theriault: Chief Investment Officer at Grand Challenges Canada and Managing Partner of Cross-Border Impact Ventures
Monisha Varadan: Lead of Product Partnerships at Google & Investor of Zephyr Ventures (Singapore)
Kamal Hassan: Founding Partner at Loyal VC (Canada)
The majority of VC investments go to a small subset of the population and less than 3% of funding goes to women entrepreneurs. Leading the drive to change these demographics are 3 guest speakers from across the world, from Singapore to Canada. In this live event the speakers explained how they evaluate startups to build diverse portfolios. They also discussed how to know when a startup is ready for its first round of funding, how to get a meeting with the right investors, and more!
See below for the full webinar replay:
Webinar highlights
Men vs. Women When Speaking with VCs
VCs led by women vs. VCs that specifically focus on supporting women founders
Diversity at the top of the funnel
The drop-off in diversity typically happens in the deal sourcing stage
The importance of hiring women for VC partner positions
Webinar breakdown:
1:32 - Diversity in the speakers' startup ecosystems
3:26 - Harvard Business Review Article: "How the VC Pitch Process is Failing Female Entrepreneurs," written by Monisha and Kamal: https://hbr.org/2020/01/how-the-vc-pi...
5:31 - How has COVID19 changed how investors evaluate startups?
9:54 - Is VC is broken? Does it need to be fixed? Has it strayed from its roots?
13:15 - Processes you use to evaluate startups?
20:55 - How do you ensure that your investment firm is investing in a diverse portfolio?
20:16 - A woman CEO vs. having women on the team
28:27 - How do you measure diversity in a startup you're investing in?
34:35 - How should founders go about reaching out to a VC?Q+A
38:17 - Based on observation, where or what can female founders do to improve or increase the odds of creating success?
42:22 - Concept deck vs. results deck
43:10 - Explain in your email about why a VC should look at your pitch deck
44:03 - How do you measure or define success?
47:00 - Crowdfunding: What are your thoughts on startups doing a crowdfunding campaign prior to VC funding?
50:20 - Does supporting women founders only focus on dollars or intangible support, to help us grow from idea to execution?
51:54 - You don’t need a famous mentor to get great advice
53:26 - Know your ask before reaching out
54:14 - How do you continue to support startups after funding them?
57:44 - Parting advice for the founders?
Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $950M in funding, and building products people love across over 185 cities worldwide.
See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey.
