Q&A Part 2 | Lisa Wang

I think there was a question here.

Oh, I just want to mention, like, I actually went to the SheWorks breakfast in Atlanta.

Oh, great.

I know Liu Yang. So I really like the events because you guys have like once a month and you invite a few mentors. And sometimes you invite like male entrepreneurs and investors and they give very unique perspectives. Thank you.

Do you still practice any sports? I don't actively, but after I retired, I became a hip-hop dancer for about 5 years. And then there was a period in where I really missed doing competitive sports. And so I was thinking about what can I do to be a varsity athlete? And so there were only 2 sports that came up that I could kind of figure my way into, and that was sailing or fencing. And I was like, I could learn how to sail, but it was way too early. You had to get up at 5 AM or something every morning. And then so I was like, I'm gonna learn to be a fencer. I just went to the tryouts. I had no idea what— there was saber and epee and all these things. I didn't get it. But I was like, I'm generally pretty flexible and pretty strong. I can just— good hand-eye coordination. I'll figure it out. And then so I asked the coach. He was like, well, you don't have any experience. I was like, well, I will come every morning, and I'll just do extra practices with you. We'll just do one-on-one. And my only goal for that was that I wanted to win once. And so the entire season, I basically was obviously not winning because there are these people who are training for 7 years. And finally, I had— again, it was my last, or I decided that it would be my last one. And I was up against this girl. And she had been doing it for 7 years. And I was just— I think we were 2 to 2. And then the last one, I just— It was like something came over me and I was like, I just have to win. And then I just barreled her down the strip and then I ended up winning. And then I was like, okay, now I'm done. So yeah, I like to run, I like to work out, but nothing competitively right now. Yeah.

What's the biggest takeaway that you had in your life in sports that you use as a CEO? What do you think you bring to the table today?

I would say that what I did really well as a gymnast and as an athlete was I had a lot of structure. And this is actually quite natural for athletes because if you want to go to the Olympics, there is a very clear step-by-step, you know, progression to get there. And in entrepreneurship, that doesn't exist. There's a lot, and even the moment you leave that, and the moment you're in college, it's like, what do I study? There's 500 different majors. And that sort of ambiguity never goes away, especially now as there's even more and more opportunities for you to create your own path. So I think after gymnastics, I had this rebellion period where I was like, I don't care about structure. I can just do what I want and I will figure it out. And now I've come back to the realization that in order to be a very strong leader, you need to be able to paint that 10-year vision of the Olympic-type thing and say, this is where we're going to be. In the same way when I was 9 years old and I said, that's where I'm going to be. Right to say that. And having that and then being able to figure out what are the steps that you would take to get to that point, even if you have to arbitrarily make it up, because again, they're not defined. Only you can define that. So that's one. And number 2, and this especially comes as you're hiring a team and thinking about your company culture, So the number one reason why companies fail is because of co-founder conflict. When you have a business partner. So 66% of startups fail because of co-founder conflict. And that's above running out of money. And that comes to the point of understanding your values. So I was just talking to a founder yesterday who said their last interview, she has them literally take a values test. There's 20 values on this thing, and she asks them to choose 5. She has her 5, but if this person has 0 of the 5 that she has, no matter how skilled they are, she's like, it won't work. 'Cause if we don't have the same fundamental values, we cannot grow together. And that is true of relationships and business partners and any team. But it's defining that culture up front, like what it is you're going to value, because that is going to help you make decisions. So for me, I had a very clear value system that prioritized gymnastics, that prioritized working hard, that prioritized competition. And because I had those values, I was able to reject parties in high school and other social things because I was like, These are my values. And in the same way, if you realize you value family and you value freedom, let's say you get a job and then they give you a promotion and they say, okay, you can get this much more money, but you're gonna have to spend 3 more hours in the office.

I was like—

If you go back to your values and you're like, well, my values are family and freedom, you probably shouldn't be taking that promotion because it's going to end up conflicting with your values. So I think taking time to— there's even, if you just go online and do the values test, it's like you'll find some interesting things about yourself. Yeah?

Being on a team of women co-founders and looking for investment and working with other people, what do you think is the biggest thing we either need to avoid or need to do to make ourselves powerful?

This is to get investment?

Either working with investors or working with other people. investors or working with other companies, what do you think is something that we can do to strengthen ourselves and prove that we're more than just a company?

Are you currently fundraising?

Yes.

Okay. The first thing is around language. Are you the one pitching? We both are.

Me and Patrick.

Yeah, cool. So how many times have you shared your pitch with other people? Or done practice pitches? We were a while ago, but we're on the right track. Yeah. Cool. Well, the first thing that I would do is— I mean, fundraising is a game. And a lot of times it's just about figuring out the rules of the game. So last night I was having dinner with one of the partners at Google Ventures. And she was talking about— so she recently left. Is building her next company. And she said the first rule is that you have to have an in. And she's like, it's really unfortunate, but this is why, like, the fact that it's a boys' club is really difficult. And this is why something like SheWorks exists. It's like having an in. So finding a way to get that warm intro and that access. The number 2 thing is it's really all about momentum. It's about momentum and having a very clearly defined time period when you're gonna raise. You're like, I'm gonna raise for the next 3, 4 months, and that's it. And this is the close date. Because the biggest mistake founders make when they're fundraising is they're constantly fundraising. And then 6, 7 months later, I'm still fundraising. And you never create that sense of FOMO for the investors of like, if we're closing this round on this date, if you're not in, These— all these other investors are in. Either you're in or you're out. I think, and I don't want to necessarily generalize, but I think oftentimes as women, we have a harder time being like ultimatum where you're in or you're out, and then I'm bigger than this, even though you might feel like you're smaller than it. So it's really about kind of blowing it up a little bit, because you are going to be talking to 94% male investors, and you need to learn how to speak that language. In some ways, it is about painting a picture of more traction than you might actually have. So one of the things she said, it's really hard when you want to invest in someone, they're like, oh, we're just starting, or we're just starting the fundraising process. She's like, no, you gotta say, we've already talked to these people and these people and these people. We're gonna close soon. Let me know if you want this, and when you're ready, you have that term sheet. And the last thing I would say is learning how to get to no as fast as possible. Because inevitably there will be significantly more nos than there are yeses. And the worst response oftentimes that you can get is, let's keep in touch. Because these are the people who will string you along and waste your time, and they also don't want to say no just in case. You do become something big, and then they can come back in. And so the ideal, again, this goes back to that ultimatum, get to no as quickly as possible so you're not wasting your time, and move on to the next one. Because there's also a lot of investors. So that's this enoughness thing of come from a place of abundance. It's not, if this one says no, every day there's a new seed fund fund popping up. So there's, there's a lot of money to go around.