Sisters (and Allies) Empowering Sisters in NYC!
Women Business Collaborative 2nd Annual Conference in NYC.
Energy. Education. Empowerment. Friendship.
I loved participating in the second annual Women Business Collaborative Conference in NYC that brought together female founders and investors for two days of excellent content and networking. Great organizing and moderating by Gwen Young, CEO of the Women Business Collaborative, and Judith Goldkrand of the Women Presidents Organization (WPO) & Wells Fargo Corporate & Investment Banking.
Super-Angel in the House.
Loretta McCarthy, Co-CEO & Managing Partner of Golden Seeds, a consortium of over 350 angels nationwide investing in early-stage women-led businesses, spoke about the frameworks and rubrics Golden Seeds teaches its members to best identify, value, and monitor target startup investments.
Left to Right: Vijay Mehta, Joy Fairbanks, Elisabeth Chasia, Ashley McLeod, Nicole Martello, and Julie Hyman.
Know your Investor.
I spoke on a panel moderated by Julie Hyman, Anchor of Yahoo Finance, with fellow panelists Vijay Mehta of Arkview Capital, Elisabeth Chasia and Ashley McLeod of Momentus Capital, and Nicole Martello of Bridge on navigating the landscape of capital. What made this panel unique is that both debt and equity investors guided founders on the development stage, data, supporting materials, and founder objectives that match our investment requirements. It was also an opportunity to highlight the benefits of strategic capital, key elements of advisory, and partnerships essential for traction of high potential ventures.
Left to right: Judith Goldkrand, Eda Henries, Dau Jensen, John Majeski, and Suzanne Morrison.
M&A is a Likely Exit.
I thought the two panels on M&A were very useful. Like financing, founders should establish their relationships early. I have assisted several early stage companies get acquisition offers from initial partners, some have been their first enterprise customers. This represents a great validation and a superb opportunity if your expectations are aligned and a post acquisition strategy is crafted in advance.
Kirsty McGuire moderated the panel on M&A as a growth strategy with panelists Marilyn Adler of Mizzen Capital, Dana Getschow of Wells Fargo, Anjali "Ann" Ramakumaran of Ampcus, and Mark Sirower of Deloitte & NYU faculty. (Mark demonstrates that a Ph.D. in finance from Columbia Business School proves quite handy for both academic and marketplace success.) Eda Henries of Henries & Co moderated a panel with my business partner John Majeski of Portola Valley Partners, Dao Jensen of Compass, and Suzanne Morrison, CFA of Wells Fargo. The topic was engineering your exit while building your company.
Plan an Exit from the Start.
Founders, your exit strategy becomes part of your company’s DNA from the beginning. John Majeski and I represent the strategic capital that guides high potential startups on how to prepare for exits from the get go. As a leader of an emerging company, you have the opportunity to set in place the culture, the structure, the partnerships, and the reporting mechanisms to maximize your value for an optimal exit. John gave personal examples of how a corporate acquiror thinks as well as how a target company prepares. Value is placed on information an acquirer can trust as well as the technology and organization structure that can be easily integrated to enhance the acquirer’s objectives and value to its stakeholders.
The Honorable Baily DeVries, Head of the US Small Business Administration and Gwen Young, WBC CEO.
You Might be the Acquirer.
The Honorable Bailey DeVries, Head of the US Small Business Administration, talked about the SBA’s initiatives and sources of grant funding for women. I was particularly interested in the support for women acquirers of women-led businesses. This is a topic worthy of more attention.
Highlights of other excellent panels:
Donna Levin of Babson’s Blank School of Entrepreneurial Leadership and Carolyn D'Angelo of Gordon Brothers shared their journeys as successful founders and managers of power brands.
Alicia Ishakova and Nadin Behan of Wells Fargo discussed how to utilize debt capital for growth. Marissa Beatty of Turnover Labs, Shreya Dave of Via Separations, Angela Dingle of Women Impacting Public Policy, Kalee Whitehouse of Noon Energy, and Iris W. (Wu) of Aramco Ventures discussed grant funding.
Chisom A'Marie of New Voices Fund and Kelly O’Connell of 360 Venture Collective went into more detail explaining early-stage capital. La Keisha Landrum Pierre of Emmeline Ventures, Rich Gan of Wells Fargo, and Alexandra Ginsburg of Altura Capital discussed how to grow your business with purpose.
Pocket Sun of SoGal Ventures (and the award winning documentary Show Her the Money) closed out the conference with a fireside chat with Babba (Canales) Rivera of Ceremonia. Babba talked about her incredible fortitude building and securing funding for her company while navigating motherhood. Parents are incredible multi-taskers. We need to be.
A big thank you to master organizer behind the scenes Clay Doherty of High Touch Engagement and the entire WBC team (inc. Alyssa Derrick & Teddy Wasserman) for producing a flawless run of show.
Be Heard: What’s your story?
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L to R: Joy Fairbanks, Judith Goldkrand, Gwen Young, Alyssa Derrick, and Teddy Wasserman.
L to R: Joy Fairbanks, Stella Lim, Geri Stengel, and Ruth Jacks