🎙️ EP08: Beyond the Billion — How We Mobilized Over $1 Billion for Female… | InvestHer Podcast

Welcome to Market Roundup, our monthly series. With Inma Martinez, who is a deep tech fantastic investor with a lot of insights into the financial markets, where we're going to share with you what's been happening in the markets. What do you need to know? What are the key insights? And how can they help you in your startup moving forward when it comes to looking for funding? We can't wait to hear what you think. So enjoy this next episode, and check the show notes to the link to the free download where you can get the takeaways. Happy New Year, happy new decade, happy new era for funding for women entrepreneurs and for innovation. and for what's happening in Market Roundup with Global InvestHER. I'm your host, Anne Ravanona, and delighted to welcome you back for the beginning of our new series of Market Roundups to kick off this new decade. How, how exciting! And of course, I am joined by the wonderful, very, very, very talented and experienced Inma Martinez, who's gonna share her wisdom with us about all what she sees are the key trends already kicking off in January 2020. So in today's episode, which is our episode 2 of Market Roundup, episode 8 of Global Investor Podcast, you're going to learn more about the rise of the female management teams and the rise of women entrepreneurs. Where are the next crop of women entrepreneurs going to come from? So we're going to share with you, of course, a couple of shoutouts And you're going to learn more about what are some of the great VC funds who are supporting female founders, who are spotting this trend. Where is the next generation of women entrepreneurs coming from? Where is the next generation of incredible women managers in startups? So you'll want to listen to this because Inma and I are absolutely sure this is a trend for the future. It's a trend for now, and it's going to make a difference. So enjoy this next episode. Can't wait to hear what you think. And remember, if you like this episode, don't forget to rate us and also to review. We would love to hear from you. And send in any questions you want on Twitter, on the Flick app, or on Investor Podcast website. Can't wait to see what you think.

Enjoy!

So hello from Paris. Welcome to Market Roundup, a new podcast by Global Investor that covers the money markets and the economic news affecting innovation, funding, and startups' capital requirements. My name is Anne Ravanona, and I'm CEO of Global Investor.

And I am Inma Martínez, Venture Partner at Deep Science Ventures, which is an innovation institute for applied sciences, and we fund and we back young scientists that are disrupting industries. And I'm sitting here in London. Yay!

So before we get started, Inma, do you have any shoutouts to make?

Well, I think the first shout-out is to President Macron, interestingly enough, because France has now become the leading country in Europe, in addition to Estonia, to create the perfect stock options taxation regulatory plan.

Mm-hmm.

Stock options is what you use to actually attract the best capital, the best humans into a startup. And obviously you can't pay them super salaries. So you need to give them, you know, a portion of the future success of the equity of the company.

Mm-hmm.

And last year in Davos, when, you know, investors and presidents met, you know, investors, VCs basically said, you know, we cannot fund businesses if you put laws that make having stock options a complete nightmare. And when I say nightmare, certain countries in Europe, we're not gonna name who, actually tax you on your stock options even before you have cashed the stock options. And even if your startup goes bust, you paid for your stock options in the present. I mean—

Right.

That makes no sense whatsoever.

And would you get the money back?

Basically, I create a startup and I give you— yeah, and I give you 5% in 2020. And in that tax year, the government is going to tax you on your options. We don't know if the startup is going to be successful. We don't know at what price. They tax you based on what the investors paid. But you pay taxes on things that you don't even have cashed in. And obviously, you know, nobody— that's one of the reasons why nobody wants to be in startups. They actually see it as a penalty. Like, I'm sorry, you know, I'm paying taxes on something that I don't even know what you're gonna do with the company. So France, thanks to the Macron government, has finally changed the regulation. And you will actually pay it when you execute your options, which in that case, you'll have money to pay whichever taxes are there.

Yep.

And the world needs to take example because only countries like Israel, Canada, Estonia, you know, really got this thing nailed. And the rest of the nations, you know, I know in Spain it's still a nightmare to create a company. You have to put €3,000 worth of capital and, you know, there's no flexibility. I'm just hopeful that all of these will take examples based on what France will be doing now. But also it's a nice initiative that was led by a British fund, Index Ventures, because they felt that, you know, we just cannot continue to have this inefficiency. And I hope that countries, you know, like active countries, Germany, Scandinavia, you know, Ireland, you know, will take example on this.

Yeah.

Italy, for example. I know many Italian entrepreneurs that are coming to London and I'm like, why don't you fund the company In Italy, oh my God! The amount of paperwork, the regulation kills innovation.

Yeah.

In terms of administration, one of the best things the UK did twenty years ago was allow you to open up a limited company for just one pound.

Yeah.

The cost was sixty quid. I mean, when I used to tell my colleagues, they were flippant. They were like, "What?" No lawyers, no lawyers, no. I just go online, I do it myself, I don't need to hire lawyers. So even less expenditure for you as an entrepreneur.

That's awesome. I'd say great hand, you know, high five to President Macron and to his team working to change the rules in France and to make it super competitive. And I think, you know, it's jumping on the bandwagon as well. The timing is interesting, isn't it, Inma? I think, you know, jumping on The fact that now Brexit is here, even though when he set about doing it, obviously it wasn't done yet. But I think that it's excellent. I know that, you know, France wants to attract much more talent and wants to become the global— well, certainly the European hub for startup innovation. And so, yeah, great step. Thank you very much, President Macron. Keep doing it. Keep it up.

And well, our French VC firms are not just stopping at that. They have created like a, you know, a little group of VCs that believe that sustainability is an important issue. So Early Bird is there, Project A, Holtzbrinck Ventures, Cherry Ventures. And they have created like an association or an alliance where they will force startups that they invest in to develop sustainability clauses. know, sustainability is not just for the large corporations that need to create, you know, a green fingerprint in the world and take climate change into account. They believe that this is an issue for every person. So again, hooray for this modern mindset that is beginning to flourish in the, in the world of money. Amazing.

It's about time. It's an about-time clause, I would say. And I think what's really important about what you're saying is that This clause, it's not just a pledge, it's actually legally binding. So whichever, you know, startups they invest in, they have to show that they are actually taking action. And I was looking deeper into what, you know, the article that you sent me, and they say, you know, it's about very simple actions that can be taken. Of course, take train instead of plane, we know that, but batch organizing meetings so that you're, you know, back to back over several days. That's an easy thing to do. Using local suppliers for for your, you know, for catering and that kind of thing. So yeah, some easy, very practical things to do, but I think it's fantastic to see. And well done again to Early Bird for championing that and to the other VCs to do it. Thank you for showing the way. Great shout out.

And it's interesting what you just said, live locally, work locally, use your local suppliers. Inditex, which is this massive, massive leader in retail, fashion retail. One of the key differentiators of their success versus other companies, and I remember I was at Goldman Sachs and Goldman Sachs did their IPO, so I remember reading that investment document, is that all of their manufacturing was done by seamstresses in their region. And Inditex is founded in northwestern Spain in an area that almost looks like Ireland. Actually, Galicia is authentic. It's like being in Ireland where there's green mountains and cows and shipping and fisheries and obviously a lot of seamstresses.

Yeah.

So the success of Inditex, why they're so rapid, every 15 days, boom, here's the new clothing line.

Yeah.

because the seamstresses were around Arteixo, the little town in Galicia where they were founded and where the management was. This is a company that was not outsourcing into China or India, you know, like in the early days, they're like, we need to be very flexible and connected to each other. And in the class I teach at Imperial College about how to create competitive advantage, One of the basic pillars of competitive advantage is create clusters of mutual benefit that are near you.

Yes.

If you look around where you are, there will be a couple of small companies that you can visit in person, and they will be as good as any other one that is sitting in a large city in your country.

Yeah.

Why not working with them? People make business when they meet up and they see each other face to face and they support each other. Both small companies can win. You need a delivery parcel, why not use those people? And, and, and this is how you can forge alliances that are gonna be solid and these people are not gonna backstab you. They know you.

Yeah.

If you want your parcels delivered by a super giant like DHL or UPS, by all means, but you're just the one monkey in the big train of monkeys. But if you go for a small company that delivers parcels near you, why don't you work with them? Just check it out. It's more solid, it's more convivial, and it's success for both of you.

So I would say even in a lot of the, you know, countries around the world where the relationships are super important, in a lot of collectivist societies, if you mess up that relationship, you're gonna get a bad reputation. So you want to— it's good to have if you have strong relationships with the locals, they will do the marketing for you in that they are going to be another type of ambassador for you as well. So, you know, depending on the sector you're in and the service that you need, I totally agree. When you were saying all that, I said, she's talking about clusters. And I said, yeah, I was going to say, yeah, you know, because— And it's amazing how, like in Ireland, that's one of the things that really made a difference when all the big tech multinationals set up there like 40, 30 years ago. the clusters that developed around it were absolutely, you know, incredible and super important. And, you know, thank you to all those multinationals and Big Pharma who've been there for the 34 years. I know Tim Cook was in Apple Cork recently celebrating, you know, their anniversary of being there and X number of jobs. So clusters is the way to go, and I just— I just— the local. And I think thankfully it's again linking back to the sustainability sustainability piece that we were saying earlier, you know, it's about creating a healthier environment for all of us. And when we invest in our local economy, we're creating jobs locally. And you never know when somebody you know is going to need that job and how it's impacted and how many families are dependent on that. So let's keep, keep doing local, local, local, thinking global and doing local.

And then my last shout out of the podcast Obviously goes to the EU.

Yay!

My favorite place in Europe. These are the only people I work for free for, so that everybody knows.

That says everything.

It's pro bono. I want Europe and the single market to be the most successful market in the world. So the EU didn't go away for Christmas. They came back in January and the first thing they did is something really important in my industry, the aerospace, because they have created a €200 million investment fund with the European Investment Bank. What this thing means is that all these tiny startups that are beginning to create system components, system electronics, nanosatellites, you know, the space industry is not just about rockets, big rockets like Elon Musk, but, you know, a lot of circuitry, a lot of software, hardware, telecommunications. Well, now we have you know, an arm for its funding like startups. And not everything is Airbus and the giants.

Yes.

So well done and thank you. And obviously, if everybody remembers GDPR, which was launched 25th of May, 2018, well, the EU has been very busy giving fines to corporations for breaching GDPR and data. And these fines are not a joke. I mean, the total to date is about $114 billion. million euros in fines for data breaches. So please be very mindful, the EU didn't just create a regulation, they are policing it. Yes, are policing it. And you have to be on top of that.

You have to be. And if you want to know more about GDPR, an amazing woman entrepreneur I would like to make a shout out about is Emrel Delieu, and she is based in Ireland in Cork. Her company is called Eurocomply, Inma, and she does a lot of amazing work with corporates and with startups, mainly with corporates, to help them be completely GDPR compliant. And she is an expert in the space, so check out Emerald Dullio, Eurocomply, if you need to make some changes. And we will have one of her masterclasses available on our Academy soon, so watch out for that. So Let's get into our topic of the month, Inma. Okay, so let's talk about this topic and introduce it because it's the topic of the month, and as you and I were kind of discussing beforehand, we need to make sure this is a hot topic going forward. So where are the women entrepreneurs? We're going to talk about the rise of women entrepreneurs and the female management teams that are supporting and making those startups successful. So You know, walk us in through this, Inma. I believe this is going to be a topic for the decade. I think we're opening up 2020 here, and I think women entrepreneurs and having top women people in— women in startups to fuel the growth, it's going to be the key to success and opening up new markets. So for me, it's a thing of the decades, and we're at a tipping point. Take it away, Inma. What's your point of view on this?

My point of view just came out when I was researching what had happened to the funding. I always search, okay, which female founders got funding this month? And then I started reading all the lists, all the lists, and there were a bunch of guys. And I'm like, okay, not a big surprise. But I started to look at the management teams of these companies. And I came across a picture in which I saw that there were more women than men.

Hmm.

And I thought, this is interesting. What a lovely, what a lovely team. It's shocking to see that there are more women than guys in this picture. Who are these people? And these people is a startup in Israel. And the name is Ubeeya, U-B-E-Y-A.

Mm-hmm.

And if you look at what they do, it's a software company. It's designed for companies that they need to manage freelancers, the gig economy. So you need to manage the schedules. People just work X number of hours. You know, imagine the bikers in Deliveroo. You know, it's really complicated to digitalize that aspect of a business with so many entrants coming in and out. And you don't have full-time employees, but a bunch of searchers circular economy employees.

Yeah.

And very, you know, wonderful round, not too big, $3.5 million. Their current investors, which were, I think it was Magma, participated. But then I thought, who are the people in this picture? Why do I see so many women? I hope they are not all secretaries, you know, the typical operations manager, meaning, yeah, office administrator. No, no, no, no, no. So if you go and you look at them, you see that the women in this company are in charge of real fundamental vital areas of the business. Account sales, account management. Basically, these are your clients. You need to sell.

Yeah.

Client management, marketing, content marketing, graphic design, UX/UI, branding, you know, it's all the women. the women are there.

The growth engine part.

The growth engine. I mean, if you don't sell in this world, you could have the most fantastic software developers and your CEO could be like, you know, amazing, could be like, you know, Satya Nadella of the CEOs. But if you don't sell, if you don't look after your customers, you just go bust.

Yeah.

And I thought, okay, how many more companies have this picture, this diversity and inclusion picture. And to my super big surprise, there are many of them. So when the media and the industry question, and governments, why there are not more women funding businesses, that is the wrong question.

Hmm.

Because women are indeed inside the fabric of management at many of the rising startups that are coming through the ranks in 2020. And they are put in vital, crucial positions of delivering asset value into the business, which is really important. So right now you may have a bunch of women that are part of the management of a startup, and if that startup grows and they actually sell, everybody makes nice money, they will fund businesses. They have now been inside one They have delivered and they will come up with their own— this time I'm going to do my thing. This is exactly the DNA of how you launch yourself into being a founder.

And I think it's exactly also part, very often part of the DNA for women who want to make sure they can do something. It's true. It's just we like to prove to ourselves that we can do something really well. And also it may fit you know, part of our career trajectory to start off working for a successful startup, you know, maybe have a child during that time before launching out on your own, creating your own business. So there's several reasons why we may see more of the great talent, you know, starting in the startups before launching out on their own. And I just think it's also a question about building up the networks, and once you're working for a great startup, you're going to meet more and more people, and that's another network effect that, you know, women need to improve their networks and their mentors. And I think, you know, working inside a great startup and gaining that experience and expertise is also a key reason why you will find more fantastic women talent there. And as we were saying, Facebook would not be Facebook without Sheryl Sandberg.

Well, no. And also, women working in startups, they need to branch out and have other female friends that work in startups.

Yes.

You need to branch out. The majority of your girlfriends, probably they still work in the city or they have traditional jobs at, I don't know, Vodafone, whatever. You need to make girlfriends in other startups because when the next cool startup comes around, you want the phone call. It's like the film industry.

Yeah.

When I was— when I joined the film industry just to be in between tech, I was like, I love what's happening here, it's digitalizing, and I got consultancy with Ridley Scott and other studios. I noticed that how you work in the film industry is by being in someone's phone. And some DOPs, directors of photography, or the directors, they actually had little black notebooks scribbled names. Like, literally, this is as analog as you can get.

Mm-hmm.

And when we were crewing up for a pre-production, Basically, you call around, are you free? We're gonna go into pre-production for this film. Are you available in April for 6 weeks? Oh no, I'm doing the new Matt Damon. Oh shit, who can you recommend? It's all about the book with the names.

Yeah.

And when you put together a new idea, like I have done serial startups, I have always known who was gonna be my first call. For my CTO, for my CPO, for my marketing person. It was all people that I either worked with or I knew of and respected. And it was like, hey, what are you doing these days? Oh, I'm not doing much. It's like, oh really? Can I talk to you? And it's— that's the conversation. And that's how you put together teams and that's how you launch yourself into the next venture.

Yeah.

So what is interesting is that VCs are beginning to also understand this dynamic.

Yeah.

One of my favorite ones is Felix Capital. It's a relatively new VC in London. It's a European, pan-European, international VC. They invest in the US as well. And what I find extremely interesting about Felix, which by the way, congratulations, they just raised $300 million for their 3rd fund. I mean, hello, well done, guys. Fantastic.

That's what we're talking about. It's linking back to our previous episode, Inma, where we're saying we need more mega funds in Europe. No longer the 5, 20, even 50 million. We need the 6-figure funds, the big ones.

So it's all about people. We always say things happen because there are people igniting and behind them. So This is not different. The founder of Felix Capital is Frédéric Court, who was a previous VC at a super VC, Advent Ventures. But it's very interesting about his career. This is the man that was investing in fashion when no one understood what the heck was fashion retail.

Yeah.

I'm talking about luxury things like Farfetch, you know, the famous Net-a-Porter. Okay, so he was there. And he was like, this is a market, this is an industry I'm gonna market. This is a guy that is deviating from the norm, which is— this is what creates innovation in the world, people like this.

Absolutely.

So he then said, you know what, I have my vision for the next sectors to invest in. I'm going to create my own VC. And what Frederic has done extremely well is to put together a super diverse and inclusive team. Because when you look at the people working at this team, of course there are men, and women, but the women are investment managers, they're principals, and there are a lot of them, and their CVs are just mind-boggling. Sasha Astafavia, she is a woman that has worked in Brazil, in the UK, in technology startups. She was head of business intelligence and strategy at Lyst. She had VP positions in finance and business And this is a woman that has real experience within tech companies, bringing them up, creating them. So it's only natural that now sits on the other side of the table funding them because she knows the dynamics inside them.

Yeah.

And of course, you know, the titles of these people, Harvard Business School, it's just like everybody speaks multi-languages. I mean, this is not the profile of the principals that I used to sit down in 2000.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And who else is there? Susan Ling. Susan Ling has been for 10 years working in Asia advising private equity and investment firms on their, you know, what should they be investing in, in terms of software investments and portfolio. She has been in 2 startups in San Francisco and New York. She has been director of strategy. I mean, this is again another high-performance investor that comes with a huge entrepreneurial experience.

It's a super stellar team and stellar, stellar experience. And also shout out to Antoine, to Antoine Nussenbaum as well, who's the co-founder. And as we were saying, he's a great guy and who, you know, happens to be married to a very successful woman entrepreneur, Gabriella Hersham, the founder of Huckle Tree that's expanding and doing amazing things and supporting female founders as well. And tell us a bit more about their portfolio, Inma.

So when you look at their portfolio, the names are big and important and every single company looks like it's just gonna make it. It's so curated. It is. So I, you know, sometimes I look at— every time I talk to entrepreneurs and they tell me, oh, we're talking to such and such fund, I always say, what have they invested in? Oh, we have no idea. Okay, you need to go online and see where these people have put money. Who have they backed? And you see a bunch of names that you don't even know who they are. It's like, uh, okay, not here. This is as curated as the Tate Modern. Okay. So just to highlight where they have backed women-led businesses, of course you have fashion labels. Felix, you know, has a huge experience in this, and you have labels like &Bing, which of course founded by a woman, Annika Mellor. But then you start moving down the line and you see the new emerging sectors of the 2020 decade. Food. Okay. And you have companies like Frishti. And who do you find? Co-founders, Quentin Vacher and Julia Bijoui. There you go. A co-founder woman.

Yep.

Who is this woman? Well, this woman is a strategist. You know, she is co-founder and co-CEO. This is interesting. Co-CEO. So these 2 people want to work in a team. There's no hierarchy. This is the horizontal chief of.

Yes.

Okay? Which is very interesting because many VCs will not like this. And here again, you see Felix Capital saying, if that's how you guys wanna work, you wanna split the CEO role, by all means, go ahead. It's a super innovative approach about letting people work the way they feel is right for them.

Yep.

And obviously interesting is a French business. You know, if you go on LinkedIn and just like, who is Fructi? When it's like, les services food qui va vous changer la vie. Okay, these people are gonna change your life with food, which is very passionate. You know, 10 years ago someone would have said, well, what a fluff sentence. But it resonates with me. It's cute and charming. And this is what gets to people. There is not a ruling over your head as to, oh, you need to do things like the men. No. Or like the industry, the traditional one expects you. You can be as fluffy as you want.

Yeah.

You can do— so I really, I felt really happy about, you know, they're backing this company. Food is a massively important sector for investment because society is changing from just consumption because you're hungry and you want junk food, or you need to put food on the table, as the sentence says, but because food is the future of nutrition, your health will be based on how you eat.

Yes.

It's something as scientifically proven as you want to get it. And therefore—

For nutrition, for prevention of illness, and for aging, anti-aging. And health.

You know, you want to be healthy, it's about what you eat. It's not about just taking supplements and going to the gym. It's about what you put in your gut.

Yes.

Who have they backed as well? Of course, Goop. I'm a big Gooper. I say it with pride. Pay attention to what these people tell you. Just read it, let it sink. If it resonates with you and you want to learn more, just go for it. It's actually the best Bible for how to look after yourself in so many areas, emotionally, with nutrition, with beauty. I love Goop. So not a big surprise that Felix backed WeWork.

And check out their new Netflix series. Hey, we were saying how great their podcast is, but also check out their new— The Goop Lab. It's fabulous, watch it.

So which are the other sectors? Job Today, it's a co-founder, Polina Montano, and she's COO. So it's about employment, another employment company, yeah, you see? Goop for men is a company called Manuel.co. So there are 2 male co-founders, but the head of growth is a woman.

Okay?

Ira Krashakowskaya, the head of growth. Another startup that puts in the grow the business, sell stuff, a woman is there.

Take the A, no surprise.

It's super interesting. And you know what? And I'm going to say something that is just going to bring me maybe some trolls on Twitter. Technology today is so standardized. Technology works, the software is there. What language you want? PHP is there, is there. It's not like before where you needed like the mega hacker whatever.

No, no, no, no.

It's like you want to study how to code? Bingo, there you go. So the barrier of risk or danger or the need for, I need a super talent, is lower, much lower than 10 years ago. So where is the new ground for competitiveness, like where you need to put there someone really talented? Growth, sales, brand, marketing. And guess who's been there traditionally? Women. I joined cable and wireless in the Strategy team. And what did these people put on my lap that nobody in the team wanted in 1997 because they thought it was unimportant or too small a revenue for the large telco? Internet Protocol Services. That's how I became Miss Internet. I got what nobody wanted. And now—

And not only did you get it—

No, I know, I know.

You ran with it extremely well. Exploded it and just—

In the past, 10 years ago, people thought that marketing was a fluffy thing.

Yeah.

And that's why, oh yeah, let's give it to the women.

Yes.

Well, welcome to the brand having asset value. Welcome to the brand being embedded in the product features so that your consumers know that you're behind that feature, that yes, exactly. Otherwise, there is a disconnect. Good branding, good marketing help you sell and create customer loyalty.

Yeah.

Well, there you go. The females are all there. It's so interesting to see how this has fluctuated to really put women in the positions of relevance that they always had. But oh, now those things are super relevant. Well, thank you. Thank you. And thanks for realizing now in 2020. I'm so glad you realize now and not in 2030. Well done, you.

Absolutely. And I love that, you know, you've spotted this trend and we're calling it out and we're saying, hey, take heed. Because as you said in the opening phrase of this, where are the women? Where are the women entrepreneurs? And where are the women leaders? The women have always been there. And so there's no— there's all this bullshit about I can't find great women leaders, I can't find great women founders. How do How does Felix find these great women? Because, you know, I remember saying to Antoine and saying, hey Antoine, you know, congrats on everything you're doing and an incredible female founder portfolio. And he says, you know what, we didn't even set out to do it. It just happened because they were just so brilliant. We spotted the talent, we spotted women making change in important sectors, and we wanted to back it. So, and now, you know, it started off as not being part of their philosophy and way in doing things, but now it, it's embedded like you're saying. It's part of their brand.

And the other interesting section in their portfolio is the rise of mental health businesses. And again, the women are there. So you have Mejirui Inc. in the US founded by Noura Shakijira. You have Shine Text Founded by 2 women, Naomi Hirabashi and Marlene Liddy.

And I love Shine. Shout out to the Shine ladies. It's an incredible mindfulness app and meditation app, and they've short— I use it, I use it every day and in the evening. Please check it out because it's all women voices and it's just fantastic if that's what you're into. But it's just that they're really, they really do short, sharp meditations that make sense and a lot of self-affirmation, and I find it especially extremely helpful to manage my mental health and stress.

And Peanut, which is connecting into what Shine Text does— Peanut is connecting women that have been mothers or are thinking about becoming mothers. It's again, you go into the micro level of society and how people engage with each other and they feel that they belong, the tribes.

Yeah.

And so it's very well connected to, you know, mental health, being supported by others. And then my last but not least, Unmade, which, you know, lovely, lovely Christy Emery Loss, who previously funded something very similar, got on board 2 guys, Hal Watts and Ben Alun-Jones. And Unmade is very connected to something very important in the fashion industry that is a huge gap to resolve, which is You know, how do you create more and more clothes and then if you don't sell them, how do you become sustainable? How do you create an ethical economy against this super, you know, industry driven by I want to buy stuff?

Yeah.

What do you do with that stuff? And, you know, it's just here is a woman that had an idea, launched it, and then she said no, no, no, I need to pivoted. And, you know, what does she do in the company? She's a co-founder, yes. Chief Customer Success. Yeah, I love that title.

I do too.

I love it.

So amazing.

The future of women-led businesses is now emerging as what are the businesses that women love working at, delivering asset value, And then feeling brave enough to then go and say, uh-uh, I'm gonna do my own next time and I'm gonna pitch it to an investor because now I have pedigree. I have entrepreneurial pedigree. When I see entrepreneurs, I always say, where were you before? Yeah. This is the sentence, the magical sentence. Oh, I was here, I was there. And I'm like, ah, okay, okay. I get it, I get it. It gives me a sense of what are the skills you really have and that you have honed and nurtured. So if in the next 2 to 3 years the majority of our women join startups— don't worry about being able to found a startup, doesn't matter— just join a startup with your skills, work there, delivery— deliver, you know, what you need to offer to the world. Then I'm sure, I'm sure you'll go into the next one And the next one and the next one, because working in the entrepreneurial economy is exciting and it really motivates you and you see the impact of your work in the world. This is what the large corporations cannot offer you.

Exactly, and, and it gives you a chance to work, as you absolutely said, in sectors you're passionate about, in things that mean something to you, where you can have a direct impact and change the world. It's exactly that. So what would we say— we've covered a lot of ground today on this episode, Inma. What would you say are the key lessons that we need to learn? What are our key takeaways today?

I think the key takeaways for everyone to take notice of is that women seem to be growing the ranks in senior management positions in small companies, emerging companies, which is a very healthy sign of inclusivity. And hopefully it will inspire other women to start their own businesses in the future. This is the chain of events. Nobody leaps into the pool out of nowhere.

Yeah.

There has to be breadcrumbs along the way. Secondly, I think the roles that these women have and they take on are incredibly vital for these companies. The majority of them are tricky B2C consumer-oriented companies where the brand has to be perfect, the marketing execution has to be absolutely seamless, you need to hyperfocus on the satisfaction of your customers, of growing your business geographically, strategically via partnerships and alliances. And guess who's there? The women. It's interesting, very interesting, is when I have been in industry myself, many, many salespeople were women. They were brilliant. We have a different way to deal with sales targets, with empathy. We know how we want to manage a client. And it's just so interesting to see these women now working in startups. And I want more to come because then investors will see the value of their work taking asset form in the P&L of the company.

Absolutely, and let's remind that the women who work in the startups, because you are, you know, the whole startup is solving a problem and creating something new, you get given a lot more responsibilities and you can touch on loads of different areas that you wouldn't necessarily have if you were going into a major corporate from the get-go. So I think, you know, also from the breadth, so the depth and the breadth of experience, it's an incredible way to start off your career and to get Entrepreneurial expertise.

And then third, everything comes in trios in life. Well, it's interesting to see the new sectors of the 2020 decade emerge and take shape. Yeah, and this is very interesting. Women are bringing forth the sectors and industries that are important to females. Mental health, caring economy, conscious economy, you know, you want to produce less stuff that goes into a landfill. Exactly. Okay. And these sectors are beginning to show that not only they will grow exponentially, but they will actually impact industries because they will become important things to discuss at economic level, you know, in the big grown-up world. So it's so exciting to see VCs realizing of this potentiality and therefore being willing to listen to the women that are gonna pitch to them emerging evangelical things. I know it's one of the things that some people feel a bit funny about. It's like, how soon do you get into a sector?

Yeah.

Because all investors want to jump into a sector that really you have facts and figures that this is gonna go up rather than that this is just a fade. So my advice, if any of you is involved in a new emerging sector, get your facts super nailed to the wall because it's not just about painting pictures in the sky of futures. You have to back whatever you explain the future is going to be. And I've been doing that my entire life, you know.

Right.

when I have created businesses or when I have told my CEO, listen, Dick, you need— we need to do this.

Yeah.

You know, I had to put facts and figures behind my assumptions. But you can do it. You have to dig. You have to do your research. When you go to your investor, you acknowledge that this is an emerging sector that you're pitching, which is where the opportunity lies. But at the same time, you've done your homework. To prove that this is real, that it's not a dream that you had one fine morning when you were drinking caffè latte. It's a real, well-researched opportunity.

Amazing. I mean, so many nuggets of wisdom, Inma, in what you've just said and beautifully summed up. Thank you so much, and thank you for sharing all your wisdom so generously and, and your experience. I mean, you are incredible, and I just love the way you, you get straight into the key trends. You spot the trends, you want to highlight that and show the way so that everybody can benefit from it. And I mean, thank you so much for being so amazing, amazing. And thank you for a cool episode. And I just, I just say one to watch because we know this is gonna continue. And so we're gonna pick this up again in future episodes, aren't we?

Thank you, Anne. And what I would say to our listeners, thank you so much, you guys. We know that you loved our previous podcast. We know that you would be listening. What I would ask is, put on the table what are the things that concern you.

Yeah.

Ask us questions. I know the podcast is just once a month, but we're here 24/7. This is a conversation. I always said, This is a conversation and you guys need to participate. Feel free to suggest topics, feel free to offer comments to what we said. This is your voice, what we want to hear as well.

Absolutely. And, and the different ways you can do it is on Twitter when we share the episodes, when they go out, you know, chat with Inma and myself on Twitter. Let's get the conversation going, make suggestions. You can also do it on our website on investorpodcast.com. There's a special market roundup section and you just go in there and comment on the posts and we will— we watch them, don't we, Emma? We keep it like a hawk. So please do send your comments. And if you love— and we know you love what you hear— rate us. Rate us on your favorite player. If you're on Apple, on Google, wherever you are, give us a rate, give us a review. We want to hear what you think and feel.

Completely.

It's important to us. We want to make sure that— oh, we know we're adding value, but we just love to hear it, don't we? Everybody likes a bit of feedback.

Yes.

So in a way, to wrap up this episode, I want also to invite you to link back to episode 3 with Ania Nowicki from Voulez Capital. If you want to learn more about another VC based in London and investing in European female founders, check check out that podcast session, um, number— episode number 3. And also look out for a future episode that's going to be coming out after this one with Shelley Porges, where I dig deep into Beyond the Billion. And you'll hear more about the Billion Dollar Fund for Women, where she basically has over 80 VC funds from around the world who've made pledges to invest in female founders. You don't need to go looking, where are they? Check out Beyond the Billion website. They have a link to a list of all their partners. So check out that upcoming episode. Thank you so much, Inma. As always, you're absolutely wonderful. It's a pleasure to do this, and I can't wait. I'm looking forward to our next one.

Thank you.

To all our listeners, take care and watch out for the women. We're here. We're, we're about to change the world.