Julia Collins is not only known for co-founding Planet FWD and Zume Pizza, but she’s also known for her kindness and what she calls ‘realistic optimism’.
In conversation with Pam Kostka, Julia shares her secrets on how she stays kind and positive throughout the founding journey in this special edition of my firstminute alongside Pam Kostka from July 14th 2020.
Pam was the CEO of All Raise whose mission is to amplify female voices, accelerate their success, and create a tech culture where women are leading, shaping, and funding the future. She is now Operator In Residence & Limited Partner at Operator Collective, which brings together 200+ of tech’s most exceptional executives from diverse backgrounds to invest in and supercharge the next generation of enterprise tech.
Joining Pam is Julia, the founder of Planet FWD, the regenerative food company focussed on reversing global warming through sustainable food production. Previously, Julia co-founded Zume Pizza, helping the SoftBank-backed robotics company raise $423 million before she stepped down in 2018.
During the session, they covered everything from their experiences of founding, funding and building VC-backed startups as well as discussing the importance of what needs to happen now to meaningfully increase diversity and inclusion in the founder-funder ecosystem.
Both of our guests are exceptional leaders with a passion for diversity and inclusion in the tech / VC space, making for an insightful and inspiring conversation!
Julia Collins is not only known for co-founding Planet FWD and Zume Pizza, but she’s also known for her kindness and what she calls ‘realistic optimism’.
In conversation with Pam Kostka, Julia shares her secrets on how she stays kind and positive throughout the founding journey in this special edition of my firstminute alongside Pam Kostka from July 14th 2020.
Pam was the CEO of All Raise whose mission is to amplify female voices, accelerate their success, and create a tech culture where women are leading, shaping, and funding the future. She is now Operator In Residence & Limited Partner at Operator Collective, which brings together 200+ of tech’s most exceptional executives from diverse backgrounds to invest in and supercharge the next generation of enterprise tech.
Joining Pam is Julia, the founder of Planet FWD, the regenerative food company focussed on reversing global warming through sustainable food production. Previously, Julia co-founded Zume Pizza, helping the SoftBank-backed robotics company raise $423 million before she stepped down in 2018.
During the session, they covered everything from their experiences of founding, funding and building VC-backed startups as well as discussing the importance of what needs to happen now to meaningfully increase diversity and inclusion in the founder-funder ecosystem.
Both of our guests are exceptional leaders with a passion for diversity and inclusion in the tech / VC space, making for an insightful and inspiring conversation!
| 00:00:00:07 | 00:00:03:15 | First minute capital is a $100
million seed fund
| 00:00:04:14 | 00:00:07:08 | proudly backed
by a number of tech founder opinions,
| 00:00:07:15 | 00:00:13:03 | including 30 unicorn founders,
part of ordinary tank wisdom
| 00:00:13:03 | 00:00:16:13 | and lessons learned from one generation
of successful entrepreneurs.
| 00:00:17:22 | 00:00:20:07 | And share
those lessons and pieces of advice
| 00:00:20:12 | 00:00:22:25 | for the next generation
of successful founders.
| 00:00:24:09 | 00:00:26:29 | And that's really
what this webinar series is all about.
| 00:00:28:14 | 00:00:32:04 | My first minute is a fun opportunity
to informally speak to
| 00:00:32:04 | 00:00:36:00 | some of the world's top founders
on the first minutes of their careers,
| 00:00:36:15 | 00:00:39:16 | how they see the world
and genuine leadership advice.
| 00:00:40:06 | 00:00:41:27 | My name is Nina Venter.
| 00:00:41:27 | 00:00:44:13 | I'm an associate partner
at first minute capital.
| 00:00:45:02 | 00:00:48:27 | And today I'm speaking to Pam Kostka,
CEO of Roaring.
| 00:00:49:28 | 00:00:53:19 | And Julia Collins, co-founder
and CEO of Planet Forward.
| 00:00:54:01 | 00:00:57:20 | And the co-founder of Zoom Pizza.
| 00:00:59:12 | 00:01:00:06 | I'm really excited to
| 00:01:00:06 | 00:01:03:25 | introduce as guests and Julia and Tom,
| 00:01:04:05 | 00:01:10:12 | who took the CEO post of All Rise in
2019, has been an operator for 25 years
| 00:01:10:12 | 00:01:16:02 | and most recently as the CEO of Loop,
which is a local community mobile app.
| 00:01:16:25 | 00:01:20:13 | She's worn
lots of different hats at startups
| 00:01:21:03 | 00:01:24:00 | such as Bluebox Security, virtual fabrics,
| 00:01:24:00 | 00:01:26:20 | extensive team and many, many more.
| 00:01:27:16 | 00:01:30:27 | So really incredible experience
being a CEO,
| 00:01:30:27 | 00:01:33:23 | founder, marketeer, product manager
| 00:01:35:09 | 00:01:37:18 | and we'll be talking
| 00:01:37:18 | 00:01:40:15 | to Julia, very prominent or Raisa,
| 00:01:41:11 | 00:01:43:25 | who you might know
as a co-founder of Zoom Inc,
| 00:01:43:25 | 00:01:48:24 | which was formerly the Pizza, which raised
more than $400 million in funding
| 00:01:49:13 | 00:01:53:23 | when she became the first black woman
to co-found a unicorn company in 2018.
| 00:01:53:23 | 00:01:58:03 | I think that was, um, and today
Julia is onto
| 00:01:58:17 | 00:02:02:25 | has founded another food tech companies
is staying in food with planet forward
| 00:02:03:06 | 00:02:06:05 | where she focuses on
climate friendly food products
| 00:02:06:17 | 00:02:10:28 | through regenerative agriculture,
which as I understand means
| 00:02:10:28 | 00:02:15:13 | you source from farmers whose practices
capture carbon from the atmosphere.
| 00:02:15:14 | 00:02:18:06 | I hope we hear much more from you,
Julia, on that later.
| 00:02:18:17 | 00:02:21:03 | Um. But, uh. Yeah.
| 00:02:21:18 | 00:02:22:28 | Concludes my introduction.
| 00:02:22:28 | 00:02:25:19 | I'm really, really excited
to listen to both Julia.
| 00:02:26:04 | 00:02:27:19 | Thank you. And over to you.
| 00:02:29:01 | 00:02:29:22 | Wonderful.
| 00:02:29:22 | 00:02:32:11 | Thank you so much for
| 00:02:32:11 | 00:02:34:16 | inviting us to this lovely forum today.
| 00:02:34:16 | 00:02:38:22 | And Julia, it's
so good to see you again virtually.
| 00:02:38:23 | 00:02:42:00 | I'm sure we'll be able to do this
in person at some point,
| 00:02:42:22 | 00:02:44:02 | but let's just jump right in.
| 00:02:44:02 | 00:02:46:04 | If you don't mind and get started that
| 00:02:46:29 | 00:02:49:11 | I know everybody here
wants to hear from you because you are
| 00:02:49:11 | 00:02:54:04 | not just a one time founder,
you are a serial entrepreneur.
| 00:02:54:04 | 00:02:57:29 | Now with Planet Four, it's the first year
it's in pizza now Planet Ford.
| 00:02:58:08 | 00:03:00:29 | Take us through kind of the 0 to 1.
| 00:03:00:29 | 00:03:02:21 | How did you get to Planet Ford?
| 00:03:02:21 | 00:03:05:20 | How is this idea
originally conceived for you?
| 00:03:06:09 | 00:03:10:21 | Yeah, well, you know, for me,
it goes all the way back
| 00:03:10:21 | 00:03:14:05 | to being a little girl
growing up in the Bay Area.
| 00:03:15:25 | 00:03:18:04 | It really began with my grandparents
| 00:03:18:04 | 00:03:21:00 | who moved to the north
| 00:03:22:07 | 00:03:24:19 | from the south
| 00:03:24:19 | 00:03:25:13 | during this time
| 00:03:25:13 | 00:03:29:02 | called the Great Migration,
which was when black people were migrating
| 00:03:29:02 | 00:03:32:01 | and to take advantage
of new economic opportunities.
| 00:03:32:14 | 00:03:37:12 | My grandparents were trained in dentistry
and they moved to the San Francisco Bay
| 00:03:37:12 | 00:03:42:02 | Area to create this dental practice
that served people of color.
| 00:03:42:20 | 00:03:47:06 | And actually, everyone during a time
when America was segregated,
| 00:03:47:07 | 00:03:48:24 | which meant that if you were black
| 00:03:48:24 | 00:03:52:23 | or Latin or Indian or Asian,
you couldn't go to a white dentist.
| 00:03:52:23 | 00:03:56:00 | And so my grandpa
really moved to the Bay Area
| 00:03:56:00 | 00:03:58:08 | to create this multicultural practice.
| 00:03:59:04 | 00:04:02:15 | And the reason why this is related to me
and what I'm doing now
| 00:04:02:15 | 00:04:07:12 | is that this notion that everyone is equal
and everyone is welcome,
| 00:04:08:08 | 00:04:12:13 | this notion really came to life
in my family at the table.
| 00:04:12:19 | 00:04:17:16 | And we had a practice of sharing food
at the table and not just with ourselves.
| 00:04:17:16 | 00:04:18:27 | We shared with everyone.
| 00:04:18:27 | 00:04:20:22 | We didn't lock her front door.
| 00:04:20:22 | 00:04:24:20 | We didn't set down for places
and sit down at 630 sharp.
| 00:04:24:20 | 00:04:28:29 | It was it was always a come on,
come on, you're always welcome atmosphere.
| 00:04:28:29 | 00:04:33:00 | And that just stuck with me
theme, that idea that food was this
| 00:04:33:00 | 00:04:37:17 | great equalizer, that food made us safe
and human and connected.
| 00:04:37:25 | 00:04:42:27 | It just stuck with me
since I was a little, little girl and I.
| 00:04:42:27 | 00:04:44:26 | I don't think it's a surprise to anyone,
| 00:04:44:26 | 00:04:48:03 | my family, that I've chosen
to, like, build this career in food.
| 00:04:48:18 | 00:04:52:05 | And it's also always been the case
that I've been a really big narrative,
| 00:04:52:05 | 00:04:55:23 | always been very interested
in math and science and technology.
| 00:04:55:23 | 00:04:59:16 | And so layering
in the technological component to the work
| 00:04:59:16 | 00:05:02:25 | is also not surprising for
me or anyone that knows me.
| 00:05:04:00 | 00:05:06:06 | But I'll tell you a quick little bit
about playing it forward.
| 00:05:06:06 | 00:05:10:04 | And, you know,
when I became a mom a couple of years ago,
| 00:05:10:21 | 00:05:13:13 | the conversation around climate change
| 00:05:13:25 | 00:05:16:00 | took a totally different tone.
| 00:05:16:16 | 00:05:19:28 | You know, I, like many humans,
was aware of climate change,
| 00:05:20:06 | 00:05:24:21 | but it felt like a very distant concept
and not like something that was happening
| 00:05:25:02 | 00:05:28:18 | that didn't necessarily
have much to do with me.
| 00:05:29:16 | 00:05:32:11 | That really changed
when my son Mercy was born
| 00:05:32:11 | 00:05:37:22 | and I became interested
and then obsessed with the idea that each
| 00:05:37:22 | 00:05:40:29 | and every human being
has a role to play in
| 00:05:40:29 | 00:05:44:03 | climate justice and climate mitigation.
| 00:05:44:03 | 00:05:45:19 | And so planet Forward is that.
| 00:05:45:19 | 00:05:49:08 | Planet Forward is my attempt
and my team's attempt
| 00:05:49:08 | 00:05:53:06 | to tackle climate change
through food and technology.
| 00:05:54:12 | 00:05:55:05 | I love this
| 00:05:55:05 | 00:05:59:19 | like multi-layered
who you have grown up to be
| 00:05:59:19 | 00:06:04:07 | and how that has kind of informed
your career choices.
| 00:06:04:07 | 00:06:08:12 | And most recently, like where you're
getting your center from in terms
| 00:06:08:12 | 00:06:11:24 | of founding these companies, I think it's
so important on the entrepreneur journey.
| 00:06:13:12 | 00:06:15:20 | Zoom is also a
| 00:06:15:20 | 00:06:18:24 | food based organization,
so I'm also curious, as you've gone
| 00:06:18:24 | 00:06:21:22 | through this journey
from one company to the next,
| 00:06:21:27 | 00:06:25:18 | what lessons
have you taken forward to Planet Board?
| 00:06:26:00 | 00:06:27:05 | No pun intended there.
| 00:06:27:05 | 00:06:29:01 | What lessons
did you learn and bring forward?
| 00:06:29:01 | 00:06:31:05 | And the founding of option two.
| 00:06:31:06 | 00:06:32:28 | Here is the second one.
| 00:06:32:28 | 00:06:34:25 | And what are you doing differently?
| 00:06:34:25 | 00:06:36:15 | And those are probably
two different questions,
| 00:06:36:15 | 00:06:39:08 | but tackle however you you want to.
| 00:06:39:22 | 00:06:40:14 | Yeah.
| 00:06:40:14 | 00:06:44:15 | I mean for me, this goes all the way back
to like my very early days
| 00:06:44:15 | 00:06:49:08 | after business school working on early
stage food businesses in New York City.
| 00:06:49:09 | 00:06:52:13 | You know,
I worked on a business called Max-Q,
| 00:06:52:13 | 00:06:55:05 | you know, from the ground up
that's now ten years old.
| 00:06:55:23 | 00:07:00:04 | And at Max-Q, we were really thinking
about how to bring fresh food to consumers
| 00:07:00:07 | 00:07:04:23 | at a price point that was affordable,
how to decentralize inventory
| 00:07:04:23 | 00:07:09:11 | using mobile trucks, how to shorten
supply chains with better inventory
| 00:07:09:11 | 00:07:13:12 | prediction, how to reduce food waste
with better inventory planning.
| 00:07:13:12 | 00:07:17:21 | So there's always been this thread
that connects everything that I do,
| 00:07:17:21 | 00:07:20:23 | which is
how can we use technology, create better
| 00:07:20:23 | 00:07:24:00 | outcomes for people
and also for the planet?
| 00:07:24:09 | 00:07:28:24 | And you know, when we think about
conversations around environmentalism,
| 00:07:29:12 | 00:07:33:15 | I think the last wave of environmentalism
was very planet focused.
| 00:07:33:15 | 00:07:36:22 | It was all about saving the planet,
which is fine.
| 00:07:37:02 | 00:07:42:19 | But from my perspective, the planet
will be here and the planet will be here.
| 00:07:42:19 | 00:07:44:25 | Dirt will be dirt
and carbon will be carbon.
| 00:07:44:26 | 00:07:50:14 | Think what we are really fighting for
is humans and being so it's
| 00:07:50:20 | 00:07:55:03 | we're fighting for for for life
to be able to exist on earth.
| 00:07:55:03 | 00:07:57:16 | And so it's a little bit
of a different twist.
| 00:07:57:16 | 00:08:00:27 | I think the work that I do in food
tech is very human
| 00:08:00:27 | 00:08:05:14 | centric
and is very much about unlocking the power
| 00:08:05:14 | 00:08:09:24 | of our food systems
to drive better outcomes for human beings.
| 00:08:09:24 | 00:08:13:16 | And that was very much
the thesis frozen pizza in the early days
| 00:08:13:16 | 00:08:17:14 | when I when I co-founded
that company, was always about
| 00:08:17:22 | 00:08:21:25 | how can we use robotics,
how can we reinvent packaging,
| 00:08:22:07 | 00:08:26:11 | how can we think about supply
chain optimizations
| 00:08:26:18 | 00:08:30:18 | that really drive better outcomes
for the humans consuming the food,
| 00:08:31:09 | 00:08:33:20 | but also the humans
that are making the food?
| 00:08:33:20 | 00:08:37:21 | I love this weaving together
that you have of kind
| 00:08:37:21 | 00:08:41:18 | of the social responsibility
and social impact of your business.
| 00:08:41:18 | 00:08:42:26 | And I was wondering if you could share
| 00:08:42:26 | 00:08:46:20 | with people like that
isn't or historically hasn't always been
| 00:08:46:27 | 00:08:50:08 | something that is easy to get funded
and funding is hard.
| 00:08:51:03 | 00:08:54:10 | So I'm curious
if you might just take a little bit
| 00:08:54:22 | 00:08:58:01 | at what it's like
on the funding trail for you.
| 00:08:58:01 | 00:09:01:28 | What were some of the differences
between first time and second time
| 00:09:01:28 | 00:09:04:29 | that they might share a part
with the audience today?
| 00:09:05:11 | 00:09:09:22 | Yeah, I mean, at this point, golly, Pam,
where do I start?
| 00:09:09:22 | 00:09:12:24 | You know, back in the Mexico days,
| 00:09:13:20 | 00:09:16:23 | the way that we funded
that company was with our credit cards.
| 00:09:17:15 | 00:09:20:26 | And I'm not talking about the kind of
credit cards that we can get these days.
| 00:09:20:26 | 00:09:25:13 | I'm talking about like $12,000 credit
limit visas
| 00:09:25:19 | 00:09:28:16 | and maybe you apply
for three of them simultaneously
| 00:09:28:22 | 00:09:30:18 | and that's the way
you capitalize your business.
| 00:09:30:18 | 00:09:34:07 | So I've had that experience
and then I've had the experience
| 00:09:34:07 | 00:09:37:13 | of raising more than $450 million.
| 00:09:37:13 | 00:09:40:26 | So I seen the full array of what it means
| 00:09:40:26 | 00:09:44:29 | to capitalize a business. And
| 00:09:46:16 | 00:09:47:18 | fundamentally, like,
| 00:09:47:18 | 00:09:51:06 | I don't think that ease of funding an idea
| 00:09:52:24 | 00:09:56:05 | should be the reason for choosing one idea
versus another.
| 00:09:56:05 | 00:09:56:11 | Right?
| 00:09:56:11 | 00:09:58:07 | There are lots of things
that we could work on now
| 00:09:58:07 | 00:10:03:02 | that would appear to be easy
to get funding for.
| 00:10:03:02 | 00:10:06:17 | But those aren't necessarily
the businesses that I'm the best suited
| 00:10:06:17 | 00:10:09:19 | to, to build or manage.
| 00:10:09:19 | 00:10:13:14 | So for me, it is the way that I capitalize
my business
| 00:10:14:17 | 00:10:16:25 | is is like an output
| 00:10:16:25 | 00:10:20:05 | of a different decision
matrix that I go in to.
| 00:10:20:19 | 00:10:25:08 | The question that I ask myself is like,
what is the problem that I want to solve?
| 00:10:25:17 | 00:10:28:02 | Am I uniquely positioned to solve
this problem?
| 00:10:28:08 | 00:10:30:01 | Is there some unfair advantage
| 00:10:30:01 | 00:10:32:28 | that I will have
in creating a team around this concept?
| 00:10:33:11 | 00:10:36:24 | And then once that's all been figured out,
then the question is, okay, how
| 00:10:36:24 | 00:10:38:02 | do I capitalize this?
| 00:10:39:09 | 00:10:41:22 | Fundraising is hard,
| 00:10:41:22 | 00:10:43:27 | but I think it's
| 00:10:43:27 | 00:10:47:23 | definitely more joyful
when you're trying to attract resources
| 00:10:47:23 | 00:10:50:01 | for something
that you're really passionate about.
| 00:10:50:24 | 00:10:53:03 | If you're going out to market
just looking for something
| 00:10:53:03 | 00:10:55:29 | that you can get funded
but you don't care about it.
| 00:10:55:29 | 00:10:57:01 | It's not meaningful.
| 00:10:57:01 | 00:10:59:17 | It's not aligned with who you are.
| 00:10:59:17 | 00:11:02:05 | Then the whole process is a bit
more dreary.
| 00:11:02:05 | 00:11:06:07 | I think that's such important advice
and really flows from
| 00:11:07:01 | 00:11:10:00 | how you start it
all, how we started our conversation,
| 00:11:10:00 | 00:11:14:06 | which is it was all very deeply personal
for you and the process
| 00:11:14:06 | 00:11:18:06 | and the entrepreneurial journey
is not for the faint of heart.
| 00:11:18:07 | 00:11:21:25 | And you really, you know,
you got to find the joy in it
| 00:11:21:25 | 00:11:24:02 | and you got to
you've got to find the motivation in it.
| 00:11:24:02 | 00:11:26:09 | So I think those are all amazing lessons.
| 00:11:26:28 | 00:11:30:09 | Well, we're on the topic of fundraising
at all raise.
| 00:11:30:09 | 00:11:33:18 | You know, we spend a lot of time
busting the myth of meritocracy
| 00:11:34:28 | 00:11:37:28 | in tech where, you know, hard work
and big bets went out.
| 00:11:37:28 | 00:11:41:14 | But we know that the reality is
that women in particular,
| 00:11:41:14 | 00:11:44:19 | and particularly underrepresented
people of color, black and Latinx,
| 00:11:44:26 | 00:11:47:21 | simply don't have access
to the same opportunities
| 00:11:48:12 | 00:11:50:24 | that maybe their white male
counterparts do.
| 00:11:50:24 | 00:11:56:03 | And the statistics in particular
for women of color are are crazy.
| 00:11:56:03 | 00:11:59:11 | So 12% of funding last year
went to somebody
| 00:11:59:11 | 00:12:04:07 | with a female founder, Mateen,
that was down 3% from 2017.
| 00:12:04:07 | 00:12:07:22 | And last year was one of the
it was the second largest
| 00:12:07:22 | 00:12:10:21 | deployment of venture capital
in the tech scene.
| 00:12:10:21 | 00:12:15:29 | So kind of a shocking statistic
to share in one of the most robust
| 00:12:16:09 | 00:12:20:00 | venture capital deployment years,
to see only 12% going to women
| 00:12:20:09 | 00:12:23:00 | and then for underrepresented women,
you know,
| 00:12:23:01 | 00:12:25:08 | those numbers are even more depressing
project.
| 00:12:25:08 | 00:12:28:09 | Diane has done some great work here 0.32%.
| 00:12:28:16 | 00:12:32:03 | That's 0.32% for Latin X female founders,
| 00:12:32:14 | 00:12:36:12 | six 10,000 of a percent for black women.
| 00:12:37:02 | 00:12:41:03 | And yet there's
$4.4 trillion worth of value.
| 00:12:42:03 | 00:12:42:13 | Morgan
| 00:12:42:13 | 00:12:46:06 | Stanley, put that number out there, $4.4
trillion worth of value that we can unlock
| 00:12:46:06 | 00:12:50:21 | if we just invested in more diverse
organizations and companies.
| 00:12:51:03 | 00:12:54:29 | And I've called this a guaranteed
moonshot investment in the past.
| 00:12:54:29 | 00:12:57:11 | The industry loves moonshots
| 00:12:57:11 | 00:13:00:02 | that I'd really love
to get your perspective
| 00:13:00:04 | 00:13:05:01 | on what you think needs to happen
to ensure that we are widening
| 00:13:05:01 | 00:13:10:03 | the aperture of how companies are funded,
founded and scaled
| 00:13:10:03 | 00:13:14:21 | with a diversity, equity
and inclusion lens front and center.
| 00:13:15:11 | 00:13:18:21 | Yeah, I mean, I would first
just thank you for
| 00:13:20:03 | 00:13:22:27 | just sharing those statistics.
| 00:13:22:27 | 00:13:24:04 | They are
| 00:13:24:28 | 00:13:28:14 | startling, depressing, alarming.
| 00:13:28:14 | 00:13:32:29 | But that they are the truth. And,
| 00:13:35:02 | 00:13:38:25 | you know,
I will say, as somebody who is like
| 00:13:38:28 | 00:13:44:09 | part of that crazy statistic statistic
is it six, 10,000 sorry.
| 00:13:44:19 | 00:13:47:23 | Six, 10,000 of a like it 1 million
| 00:13:47:24 | 00:13:51:12 | if you tried to graph it,
you couldn't even graph it like it's a.
| 00:13:51:14 | 00:13:56:20 | Chart very much closer to zero than to any
other number that we would round up to.
| 00:13:57:06 | 00:13:57:28 | Exactly.
| 00:13:57:28 | 00:14:03:21 | So when you're
when you are that statistic,
| 00:14:03:21 | 00:14:06:05 | you experience this information
differently
| 00:14:06:28 | 00:14:10:19 | because what the statistic tells you is
| 00:14:11:00 | 00:14:13:24 | you cannot do what you want to do.
| 00:14:13:24 | 00:14:15:23 | You will not be successful.
| 00:14:15:23 | 00:14:17:26 | You will not get funding.
| 00:14:17:26 | 00:14:20:21 | You are not important,
you are not powerful.
| 00:14:21:23 | 00:14:22:20 | And that is
| 00:14:22:20 | 00:14:25:17 | what it can often feel
like when you are that statistic.
| 00:14:26:14 | 00:14:29:21 | And so the question is like,
how does one receive that information
| 00:14:29:21 | 00:14:30:19 | and then like
| 00:14:30:19 | 00:14:34:01 | muscle through and have the will
and the night to keep moving forward.
| 00:14:34:21 | 00:14:37:04 | When I talk to founders,
when I coach founders
| 00:14:37:04 | 00:14:41:02 | and I do coach and talk to
and have great friendships with many,
| 00:14:41:02 | 00:14:43:20 | many founders,
particularly underrepresented founders,
| 00:14:44:02 | 00:14:47:16 | I actually almost never start
with these statistics
| 00:14:48:00 | 00:14:50:29 | because they can trigger
a level of imposter syndrome
| 00:14:50:29 | 00:14:53:20 | that makes it almost impossible to move.
| 00:14:54:02 | 00:14:57:02 | It can be paralyzing
to receive these statistics.
| 00:14:57:11 | 00:14:59:21 | But nonetheless,
I think for a broader audience, it's
| 00:14:59:21 | 00:15:02:08 | very important
to always ground ourselves in this truth.
| 00:15:02:24 | 00:15:04:23 | So I'll begin there.
| 00:15:04:28 | 00:15:07:01 | What needs to happen in order for us
| 00:15:07:01 | 00:15:10:10 | stand to be on a call in 20 years?
| 00:15:10:10 | 00:15:13:23 | Maybe it'll be at VR call or whatever
it will be in 20 years.
| 00:15:13:23 | 00:15:17:05 | And to be so proud
of how far we've moved the needle,
| 00:15:17:10 | 00:15:21:17 | what would need to happen for,
you know, mostly my son to
| 00:15:22:10 | 00:15:25:29 | to look at this conversation as just
something that happened in the past.
| 00:15:26:02 | 00:15:30:01 | What would it take for it
no longer to be the reality
| 00:15:30:01 | 00:15:34:15 | that six, 10,007%
of black women get funding?
| 00:15:36:12 | 00:15:37:11 | It would take
| 00:15:37:11 | 00:15:42:18 | our entire society
fundamentally addressing structural racism
| 00:15:42:18 | 00:15:44:22 | and white supremacy
| 00:15:44:22 | 00:15:49:06 | in the conversations
that have taken place over the last decade
| 00:15:50:01 | 00:15:53:04 | have been mostly
about diversity and inclusion.
| 00:15:54:04 | 00:15:57:04 | And I'm not saying that those aren't
important conversations,
| 00:15:57:19 | 00:16:02:03 | but if you don't first systematically
address that underlying racism
| 00:16:02:23 | 00:16:08:07 | at your organization within yourself,
then any amount of recruiting more diverse
| 00:16:08:07 | 00:16:11:25 | people isn't going to actually
have an effect.
| 00:16:11:25 | 00:16:14:27 | It is important to hire a diverse
group of people.
| 00:16:14:27 | 00:16:17:14 | It's important
to invest in hiring black people.
| 00:16:17:25 | 00:16:21:03 | It's important
to invest your money in black founders.
| 00:16:21:03 | 00:16:25:09 | But you have to also do work
that's far more nuanced and complex
| 00:16:25:17 | 00:16:30:04 | and really begins with taking a personal
inventory of the beliefs, the patterns
| 00:16:30:04 | 00:16:33:27 | and the behaviors in your own life
that map to greater inequality.
| 00:16:34:17 | 00:16:36:26 | Those are your racist behaviors.
| 00:16:37:08 | 00:16:38:05 | And what I would say is
| 00:16:38:05 | 00:16:42:19 | there's no use pretending that each of us
doesn't have those racist behaviors.
| 00:16:43:03 | 00:16:47:00 | That is not then is a waste of time
to pretend that one doesn't.
| 00:16:47:11 | 00:16:48:13 | What's more important,
| 00:16:48:13 | 00:16:51:28 | again, is to address the beliefs
patterns and behaviors in your own life
| 00:16:52:09 | 00:16:55:22 | that create greater inequality,
to take an inventory
| 00:16:55:22 | 00:16:58:08 | and then to make a plan
for addressing them.
| 00:16:58:29 | 00:17:03:27 | And I think part of that means
establishing circles of accountability,
| 00:17:04:14 | 00:17:08:13 | where you have people that are doing
similar work that can actually hold
| 00:17:08:13 | 00:17:11:19 | yourselves accountable
to certain outcomes and milestones
| 00:17:11:27 | 00:17:14:19 | that are indicators
that you're actually making progress.
| 00:17:15:15 | 00:17:16:08 | I love that.
| 00:17:16:08 | 00:17:19:15 | It also speaks
to being your authentic self
| 00:17:19:15 | 00:17:24:07 | when you're trying to where
somebody else's skin or fit the mold.
| 00:17:24:15 | 00:17:26:15 | I think we've talked about this
like all of a sudden
| 00:17:27:01 | 00:17:29:17 | you work really hard to fit the mold
and that mold got broken
| 00:17:29:17 | 00:17:32:09 | anyways
and now it's something different today.
| 00:17:33:02 | 00:17:35:05 | And so you work really hard
to change yourself
| 00:17:35:05 | 00:17:38:08 | into something you should have never been
and is no longer relevant.
| 00:17:38:16 | 00:17:40:01 | And is no longer relevant.
| 00:17:40:01 | 00:17:40:17 | Yeah.
| 00:17:40:17 | 00:17:43:10 | You know, one of the feedback
that I've gotten most consistently
| 00:17:43:29 | 00:17:47:01 | over my career is that I'm too nice.
| 00:17:47:18 | 00:17:48:26 | You are too nice, Julia.
| 00:17:48:26 | 00:17:50:00 | No one will listen to you.
| 00:17:50:00 | 00:17:52:00 | You are too nice.
People will walk over you.
| 00:17:52:07 | 00:17:53:18 | You are too nice.
| 00:17:53:18 | 00:17:56:07 | Some catastrophic outcome will result
| 00:17:56:10 | 00:18:02:04 | from you being so nice
and you know, the truth is actually
| 00:18:02:04 | 00:18:05:11 | that the era of the archetypal
| 00:18:05:25 | 00:18:09:20 | A-hole CEO is now gone.
| 00:18:09:20 | 00:18:12:08 | We saw that
go away about three or four years ago.
| 00:18:12:11 | 00:18:15:23 | It's no longer cool
to be this person who isn't nice
| 00:18:16:02 | 00:18:18:25 | and actually
what people are looking for in leadership,
| 00:18:18:25 | 00:18:22:23 | I hope, is the kind of empathetic,
graceful leadership that I try to portray.
| 00:18:23:03 | 00:18:25:29 | So it's absolutely the case
that I am trying to completely re
| 00:18:26:12 | 00:18:29:03 | reorient myself
to be somebody that I wasn't.
| 00:18:29:03 | 00:18:30:16 | I would have found the fact
| 00:18:30:16 | 00:18:33:23 | that that thing I was trying to
be was no longer even relevant. I
| 00:18:34:25 | 00:18:37:18 | couldn't agree 100% more and
| 00:18:38:20 | 00:18:42:14 | you do have this perspective to
I wouldn't say it's
| 00:18:42:14 | 00:18:47:08 | and you are a nice person, but you are
what I call like a eternal optimist,
| 00:18:47:08 | 00:18:52:15 | like you, you look at the world
and you find the joy in it.
| 00:18:52:26 | 00:18:58:07 | And yet no is an inevitable
part of the founder's journey.
| 00:18:58:07 | 00:19:00:11 | When you're fundraising
and you're on your 10th.
| 00:19:00:11 | 00:19:02:25 | No, and you got to like get yourself up
| 00:19:04:07 | 00:19:05:26 | and energized to do the next
| 00:19:05:26 | 00:19:08:26 | one or the next sales call
| 00:19:09:01 | 00:19:11:10 | or the next pitch to a customer
| 00:19:12:03 | 00:19:14:25 | or the next negotiation with a supplier.
| 00:19:15:22 | 00:19:18:10 | You know, there's a lot of setbacks
that are just part of the journey.
| 00:19:18:10 | 00:19:23:03 | And I know that you have
some really unique and special tricks up
| 00:19:23:03 | 00:19:28:17 | your sleeve that allows you to like,
come refresh out and energized
| 00:19:28:17 | 00:19:32:25 | every day to that kind of task
and tell us about them.
| 00:19:33:10 | 00:19:36:04 | MM Yeah. This has been work by the way.
| 00:19:36:04 | 00:19:39:15 | Pam, this is like work
that I've had to do over
| 00:19:39:22 | 00:19:41:27 | over the last couple of decades.
| 00:19:42:23 | 00:19:47:04 | I'm sure this did not come overnight
and I.
| 00:19:47:04 | 00:19:49:14 | By my nature, I run really hot.
| 00:19:49:25 | 00:19:53:05 | You know, Collins
is, we are famous for tempers
| 00:19:53:06 | 00:19:56:17 | and I just am a super passionate person.
| 00:19:56:17 | 00:20:00:28 | It is, you know, easy for me to get to
a place where I'm out of balance.
| 00:20:01:15 | 00:20:03:12 | I have had to cultivate
| 00:20:04:12 | 00:20:06:27 | the practice of being
| 00:20:06:27 | 00:20:09:00 | realistically optimistic.
| 00:20:09:22 | 00:20:11:27 | And I approach this work
| 00:20:12:20 | 00:20:16:15 | like any other work I show up for it.
| 00:20:17:02 | 00:20:19:27 | I dedicate time to it,
I dedicate energy to it.
| 00:20:20:10 | 00:20:24:24 | And I know this sounds a little bit silly,
but for me, like the ability to be
| 00:20:24:24 | 00:20:29:00 | a realistic
optimist is very similar to my ability
| 00:20:29:00 | 00:20:31:21 | to run ten miles or, you know,
| 00:20:33:00 | 00:20:34:27 | deadlift £200.
| 00:20:34:27 | 00:20:37:11 | It is work that I show up for.
| 00:20:37:23 | 00:20:39:27 | And for me that means tactically,
| 00:20:40:11 | 00:20:44:16 | every day I engage in a sitting practice,
I do it twice a day.
| 00:20:44:29 | 00:20:48:12 | I do it every single day without fail,
even on the weekends.
| 00:20:48:24 | 00:20:50:11 | This means I sit quietly.
| 00:20:50:11 | 00:20:53:06 | Some people call it meditation,
some people call it prayer.
| 00:20:53:23 | 00:20:56:05 | For me, it is sitting and being quiet.
| 00:20:56:05 | 00:21:00:01 | I do it in the morning before I talk
to anyone, before I look at my phone
| 00:21:01:24 | 00:21:02:12 | and I do it
| 00:21:02:12 | 00:21:05:14 | in the
afternoon in the middle of my work day.
| 00:21:05:14 | 00:21:07:28 | I take ten or 15 minutes inside
and it just
| 00:21:09:17 | 00:21:13:05 | and these are non-negotiable
periods of time for me and my family
| 00:21:13:05 | 00:21:17:04 | and my team and everyone in my life
knows don't mess with me when I'm sitting.
| 00:21:18:29 | 00:21:21:02 | And the other thing I do is I move.
| 00:21:21:21 | 00:21:25:08 | You know, in this year, it's
more challenging to do the kind of things
| 00:21:25:08 | 00:21:29:04 | I love to do, like go to the gym,
but I move my body,
| 00:21:29:09 | 00:21:31:27 | I dance, I do yoga,
| 00:21:32:10 | 00:21:37:22 | I have a little weightlifting area,
I have a peloton and a physical practice.
| 00:21:37:23 | 00:21:40:05 | For those of us
who do run a little bit hot,
| 00:21:40:05 | 00:21:44:08 | who are sort of hot tempered
people, is really important to balance.
| 00:21:45:18 | 00:21:46:07 | And then I would
| 00:21:46:07 | 00:21:50:29 | say, you know, I try to make things fun
for myself when I pitch.
| 00:21:50:29 | 00:21:56:01 | I start with a personal anecdote
and it's an anecdote that I really like.
| 00:21:56:10 | 00:22:00:21 | I have maybe a few of them,
one that I use more often than others.
| 00:22:01:04 | 00:22:04:19 | And the purpose of this anecdote,
of course, it is to help the other person
| 00:22:04:19 | 00:22:08:26 | get to know me, but it is also a way
for me to just trigger
| 00:22:08:26 | 00:22:13:26 | a little joy and delight at the beginning
of what can be a stressful conversation.
| 00:22:13:26 | 00:22:15:23 | It's stressful to go and pitch,
particularly
| 00:22:15:23 | 00:22:19:19 | when you're at the end of your raise
and you just need to get those last ones
| 00:22:19:19 | 00:22:23:15 | over the line or maybe even the beginning
where you don't have traction.
| 00:22:23:15 | 00:22:26:14 | There's got to be a way
to make it delightful for yourself.
| 00:22:26:26 | 00:22:30:08 | Well, I would say the more delight
that you can find in the work,
| 00:22:30:08 | 00:22:32:05 | the better the outcomes will be.
| 00:22:32:05 | 00:22:37:18 | There's also this notion of just
what attracting the right things.
| 00:22:37:28 | 00:22:38:26 | And I think that
| 00:22:40:06 | 00:22:41:29 | blind optimism and not like
| 00:22:41:29 | 00:22:45:09 | silly optimist and realistic optimism,
| 00:22:45:25 | 00:22:49:14 | the ability to be energetic
and charismatic, even over Zoom,
| 00:22:50:18 | 00:22:52:24 | these are things that allow me to attract
| 00:22:52:24 | 00:22:57:23 | really good people, attract resources,
maybe even attract money,
| 00:22:58:07 | 00:23:02:28 | because this is the kind of energy
that people want to be in contact
| 00:23:02:28 | 00:23:07:29 | with, particularly this year,
when everything feels so gosh darn happy.
| 00:23:08:12 | 00:23:11:02 | We want some levity,
we want some brilliance,
| 00:23:11:02 | 00:23:14:11 | we want some light
and that's what I try to convey
| 00:23:15:14 | 00:23:16:28 | in my work.
| 00:23:17:16 | 00:23:19:27 | I love this idea of bringing joy
| 00:23:19:29 | 00:23:22:24 | to your work, to even the hardest, most
| 00:23:24:09 | 00:23:26:04 | grittiest moments,
| 00:23:26:04 | 00:23:28:18 | this concept of bringing joy to your work.
| 00:23:28:18 | 00:23:30:24 | We would be remiss if we did not.
| 00:23:30:24 | 00:23:34:16 | Speaking of the current environment,
give you a chance to share
| 00:23:34:17 | 00:23:37:24 | some of your opinions on climate change.
| 00:23:38:02 | 00:23:42:09 | Clearly, COVID 19 is making us
think everything the way we work,
| 00:23:43:02 | 00:23:45:25 | the way
we socialize our health care systems,
| 00:23:45:25 | 00:23:49:12 | our educational systems
and climate change.
| 00:23:49:12 | 00:23:52:14 | So I'd love to hear your thoughts
and perspectives as somebody who's
| 00:23:52:14 | 00:23:56:10 | been at the table
for a long time working on climate change,
| 00:23:57:12 | 00:23:59:14 | what you think of the current environment.
| 00:23:59:14 | 00:24:03:07 | Yes, and I need so appreciate
that compliment.
| 00:24:03:22 | 00:24:06:09 | And then I just have to recognize
that there are folks
| 00:24:06:09 | 00:24:09:12 | who have been doing this work
far longer than I have.
| 00:24:09:12 | 00:24:13:15 | And what I hope that I can do
is to build on their very good work
| 00:24:13:15 | 00:24:16:24 | and move it forward
| 00:24:16:25 | 00:24:18:28 | in order to show up for a problem.
| 00:24:18:28 | 00:24:22:18 | As I huge as climate change,
| 00:24:24:00 | 00:24:28:01 | it is important to find ways to
| 00:24:28:29 | 00:24:31:08 | to see hope and optimism.
| 00:24:33:02 | 00:24:37:04 | What is giving me hope and optimism
right now as it pertains to the climate
| 00:24:37:04 | 00:24:40:08 | crisis is the fact
| 00:24:40:08 | 00:24:42:26 | that in many places all over the world,
| 00:24:44:04 | 00:24:47:03 | human beings are making huge sacrifices
| 00:24:47:13 | 00:24:50:29 | to their comfort,
their ease, their daily lives.
| 00:24:51:09 | 00:24:53:22 | They're making huge sacrifices
| 00:24:54:10 | 00:24:56:14 | for the sake of other humans.
| 00:24:57:05 | 00:24:59:06 | We are sheltering in place.
| 00:24:59:06 | 00:25:00:25 | We are wearing masks.
| 00:25:00:25 | 00:25:02:23 | We are social distancing.
| 00:25:02:23 | 00:25:06:19 | We are not engaging in all of
the same freedoms that we normally have.
| 00:25:07:15 | 00:25:11:01 | And we're doing it
not just because we want to make sure that
| 00:25:11:19 | 00:25:13:07 | we don't get sick.
| 00:25:13:07 | 00:25:16:23 | We're also doing it in many cases
to protect our frontline health
| 00:25:16:23 | 00:25:21:28 | care workers or to not be over burdensome
on our public health care systems.
| 00:25:22:22 | 00:25:27:17 | The reason why this is so important
from a climate justice perspective
| 00:25:27:22 | 00:25:30:29 | is that's exactly the same playbook
that we need to run
| 00:25:31:11 | 00:25:33:11 | in order to tackle the climate crisis.
| 00:25:34:10 | 00:25:34:22 | Each of
| 00:25:34:22 | 00:25:38:16 | us needs to figure out the ways
that we can make small sacrifices,
| 00:25:38:16 | 00:25:43:20 | maybe even big sacrifices to our daily
routines, our comfort, our rituals,
| 00:25:44:01 | 00:25:46:28 | so that we can all live
in the kind of world that we want to live.
| 00:25:46:28 | 00:25:51:00 | And we're seeing that it's possible
in the wake of COVID 19.
| 00:25:51:11 | 00:25:54:08 | So I know that it's possible
in the wake of climate.
| 00:25:55:12 | 00:25:58:10 | Well, there's that optimism again,
which I do love
| 00:25:58:10 | 00:26:02:03 | because I share it, which is I think
that COVID 19, as stressful as this
| 00:26:02:03 | 00:26:06:16 | current environment is, is creating brand
new opportunities across the board.
| 00:26:06:29 | 00:26:12:19 | And so I am excited
as a mother of a ten year old daughter
| 00:26:12:19 | 00:26:19:06 | to also see that we can use this
as a platform to move forward on climate
| 00:26:19:06 | 00:26:22:06 | change and create a better environment
going forward as well.
| 00:26:23:23 | 00:26:24:20 | One other
| 00:26:24:20 | 00:26:27:26 | conversation as relates to COVID,
which is if
| 00:26:27:28 | 00:26:31:20 | this is a stressful time,
these are unusual circumstances.
| 00:26:31:20 | 00:26:33:27 | Yes, we've gone
through financial corrections before,
| 00:26:33:27 | 00:26:38:01 | but this is the worst one
since the Great Depression.
| 00:26:38:01 | 00:26:40:03 | We mixed in social justice.
| 00:26:40:03 | 00:26:43:11 | We just have a lot of personal tension,
| 00:26:43:11 | 00:26:46:04 | personal stress, trying to balance things
| 00:26:46:18 | 00:26:48:27 | a lot of people
have been talking about self-care,
| 00:26:49:07 | 00:26:52:18 | but you like to talk about grace,
and I'd love for you to share
| 00:26:53:03 | 00:26:56:28 | what Grace means
and why it's so important right now. Yes.
| 00:26:56:28 | 00:27:01:21 | I mean, let me caveat this by saying,
if anyone chooses to spend the year
| 00:27:01:21 | 00:27:06:29 | in a state of anxiety, panic, depression
and rage very well within their right,
| 00:27:07:15 | 00:27:12:02 | this is that this year is really,
really challenging on
| 00:27:12:02 | 00:27:16:21 | almost every level
that you can imagine as a human being.
| 00:27:16:21 | 00:27:19:02 | But for those of us
that want to experience
| 00:27:19:02 | 00:27:22:12 | a different sort of a vibe
to be here, one that's not
| 00:27:23:16 | 00:27:24:29 | characterized so
| 00:27:24:29 | 00:27:30:04 | much by fear, anxiety, panic and rage,
there's something else that's available
| 00:27:30:04 | 00:27:33:29 | and it is called if many of us call it
grace,
| 00:27:34:19 | 00:27:40:04 | it's a little bit different
than self self-care because Grace is about
| 00:27:40:08 | 00:27:45:06 | obviously finding self-acceptance,
forgiveness within yourself.
| 00:27:45:20 | 00:27:48:26 | But it's also a way
that you can extend that
| 00:27:49:08 | 00:27:53:26 | that self
love that self approval to others.
| 00:27:54:03 | 00:27:58:15 | You can find grace for people
who have differing political opinions.
| 00:27:58:26 | 00:28:03:17 | You can find grace for people
who maybe are not as far along
| 00:28:03:18 | 00:28:06:22 | in their journey around
social justice and activism.
| 00:28:07:09 | 00:28:11:17 | You can find grace for people
who are still in a place
| 00:28:11:17 | 00:28:15:29 | of not being sure
how to take action on climate.
| 00:28:15:29 | 00:28:18:05 | You can find grace for those in your life
| 00:28:18:05 | 00:28:21:03 | who are having trouble
finding their own grace.
| 00:28:22:00 | 00:28:26:23 | It's a practice the way that I am able
to implement this practice in my daily
| 00:28:26:23 | 00:28:30:11 | life again is through my sitting
and through my physical movement.
| 00:28:30:27 | 00:28:34:16 | That creates a balance
and an equanimity inside of myself
| 00:28:34:16 | 00:28:37:13 | that puts me at a really even
emotional keel,
| 00:28:38:07 | 00:28:41:29 | which, by the way, for me is table stakes
for being able to show up
| 00:28:41:29 | 00:28:45:21 | for really hard work
like climate justice, racial justice,
| 00:28:45:29 | 00:28:49:07 | COVID 19 and fundraising,
all of these heavy things.
| 00:28:49:21 | 00:28:53:04 | And I use the word grace
| 00:28:53:04 | 00:28:56:22 | when I meditate,
I bring that word into my practice
| 00:28:56:28 | 00:29:00:03 | and then I look for examples of grace
in my world.
| 00:29:00:10 | 00:29:03:26 | Pam you for me, are an example of grace.
| 00:29:03:26 | 00:29:06:09 | You have a really hard. Job.
| 00:29:07:11 | 00:29:09:11 | And you show up for that job
| 00:29:09:16 | 00:29:13:18 | and you show up in a way that lets
the world know that you love your job
| 00:29:14:01 | 00:29:16:13 | and your team
therefore loves working for you.
| 00:29:16:24 | 00:29:20:26 | I'd say the Obamas were an example
of incredible grace.
| 00:29:21:03 | 00:29:24:14 | What's a more challenging job
than being president of the United States
| 00:29:24:21 | 00:29:28:16 | and the first black president of the
United States and the first First Lady.
| 00:29:28:18 | 00:29:30:14 | Black First Lady.
| 00:29:30:23 | 00:29:34:21 | But the characteristic of that administer
nation was that
| 00:29:34:21 | 00:29:38:01 | it was really, really governed
by a tremendous amount of grace.
| 00:29:39:13 | 00:29:44:06 | Well, thank you for the compliment
and the practice of grace
| 00:29:44:06 | 00:29:47:16 | is something
that I work on on a daily basis as well.
| 00:29:48:13 | 00:29:51:28 | But I think I'm earlier
in my journey than you are.
| 00:29:52:08 | 00:29:53:11 | But it is a muscle.
| 00:29:53:11 | 00:29:56:17 | It's a muscle
that has to be flexed and built up.
| 00:29:56:17 | 00:29:59:04 | And I'm working
I'm working on that muscle.
| 00:29:59:27 | 00:30:02:25 | And so I think that our last question
before we turn over, see there's some chat
| 00:30:03:17 | 00:30:06:18 | questions coming up,
but is there a really important
| 00:30:06:18 | 00:30:09:12 | piece of advice
you've learned from being a founder
| 00:30:09:20 | 00:30:12:00 | that we haven't talked about yet,
that you want to share
| 00:30:12:19 | 00:30:15:09 | with this kind
of next generation of founders
| 00:30:16:11 | 00:30:18:10 | or funders that are on the phone?
| 00:30:18:10 | 00:30:22:18 | Yeah, some of the best advice
they got from anyone I got from Dick
| 00:30:22:18 | 00:30:27:05 | Parsons, who I worked for during my
my restaurant career in New York.
| 00:30:27:05 | 00:30:29:21 | We worked on a couple of projects
in Harlem.
| 00:30:30:15 | 00:30:33:05 | And I remember Dick saying to me
very early on in you,
| 00:30:33:05 | 00:30:36:08 | you're clearly very bright
and you're clearly very driven.
| 00:30:36:24 | 00:30:40:25 | But Julia, the thing that's going
to make the difference in your career
| 00:30:41:13 | 00:30:44:22 | be the kind of person that people
want to win,
| 00:30:45:25 | 00:30:49:12 | be the kind of person
that people want to cheer for.
| 00:30:49:19 | 00:30:54:02 | And that has been the absolute best advice
that I've gotten in my career
| 00:30:54:02 | 00:30:57:29 | is to really always consider What about me
| 00:30:59:18 | 00:31:01:06 | can make someone else
| 00:31:01:06 | 00:31:05:20 | a champion of my ideas
or my or my platform.
| 00:31:06:00 | 00:31:06:29 | It's that.
| 00:31:06:29 | 00:31:09:10 | Well, clearly you've been successful
| 00:31:09:10 | 00:31:12:29 | in embracing that and executing
to that as a two time founder.
| 00:31:12:29 | 00:31:14:25 | So thank you for sharing.
| 00:31:14:25 | 00:31:17:27 | Thank you for that really,
really fascinating
| 00:31:17:27 | 00:31:20:17 | and candid conversation.
| 00:31:21:03 | 00:31:25:08 | I think we all really enjoyed it.
| 00:31:25:08 | 00:31:31:01 | And now time for Q&A.
| 00:31:31:01 | 00:31:35:22 | The first question that I've got is Usher
and his co-founder
| 00:31:35:22 | 00:31:40:04 | and co-founder Academy, which is a company
that was born out of Founders
| 00:31:40:04 | 00:31:41:04 | Forum, actually.
| 00:31:41:04 | 00:31:44:20 | So as sort of adjacent investment it
| 00:31:45:01 | 00:31:49:12 | and where she does a
an alternative to the traditional MBA.
| 00:31:49:24 | 00:31:52:11 | Julia also is a black female founder.
| 00:31:52:22 | 00:31:55:20 | One thing I'm particularly curious
about in your journey
| 00:31:55:26 | 00:31:59:29 | is how you've tried
to avoid the issue of tokenism
| 00:32:00:16 | 00:32:05:10 | as it relates to working with investors,
working with other communities
| 00:32:05:17 | 00:32:09:00 | where they're just like,
Oh, Julie is the the really great one
| 00:32:09:00 | 00:32:12:24 | that we should invest our time or money
or resources or panel spots
| 00:32:12:24 | 00:32:18:03 | to whatever it is, conference
speaking, etc., but then Julie
| 00:32:18:03 | 00:32:21:25 | is the only one who shows up
and looks like her in any of these spaces.
| 00:32:21:25 | 00:32:24:28 | So, so I'm really curious
about your tactics for
| 00:32:25:29 | 00:32:27:14 | bringing others
| 00:32:27:14 | 00:32:30:15 | along to the party
and changing that narrative
| 00:32:30:20 | 00:32:33:04 | because the amount of investment,
as you said,
| 00:32:33:18 | 00:32:37:01 | six, 10,000%, that's outrageous.
| 00:32:37:01 | 00:32:41:18 | And you have had such huge amounts
of money, insurmountable amounts.
| 00:32:41:18 | 00:32:44:28 | This is so, so many people that I think
a lot of people be really curious about
| 00:32:45:15 | 00:32:48:28 | how you are thinking about
increasing the size of the pie.
| 00:32:49:15 | 00:32:51:17 | Yeah, actually,
thank you for this question.
| 00:32:52:18 | 00:32:56:28 | And there are a couple of things that are
that are so important for me.
| 00:32:56:28 | 00:32:59:02 | The first is
| 00:32:59:02 | 00:33:03:00 | I myself
do a little bit of angel investing.
| 00:33:03:00 | 00:33:06:26 | I've made 16 investments
so far in the last two years.
| 00:33:07:06 | 00:33:11:25 | I micro-targeting my investments
to people of color and women.
| 00:33:12:05 | 00:33:13:21 | That is my investment thesis.
| 00:33:13:21 | 00:33:15:10 | That is what I do.
| 00:33:15:10 | 00:33:20:00 | The second thing is
I do a tremendous amount of coaching
| 00:33:20:13 | 00:33:23:13 | and with other founders
who are fundraising
| 00:33:23:19 | 00:33:27:26 | and also working with investors
who I have now become
| 00:33:29:17 | 00:33:30:09 | close to
| 00:33:30:09 | 00:33:33:08 | through my own journey
and helping them to identify
| 00:33:33:16 | 00:33:37:14 | talented founders and the work that we do
and always the work
| 00:33:37:14 | 00:33:41:24 | that Pam leads and all raise and then I
sometimes have a chance to collaborate on
| 00:33:42:04 | 00:33:47:10 | is very much about
how we can make sure that black and Latinx
| 00:33:47:11 | 00:33:51:16 | women are getting the kind of access
to get it to dollars
| 00:33:51:24 | 00:33:54:16 | and the kind of support
with fundraising that they need.
| 00:33:55:01 | 00:33:57:26 | And then more broadly,
you know, I'm just very vocal
| 00:33:57:26 | 00:34:01:12 | about the idea
that it may be the case that I am,
| 00:34:02:07 | 00:34:06:16 | and people will say that I'm the first
black female unicorn or whatever that is.
| 00:34:06:26 | 00:34:10:04 | That's fine,
but it's totally uninteresting to me.
| 00:34:10:14 | 00:34:14:08 | What is interesting to me
is the degree to which I can use
| 00:34:14:09 | 00:34:18:10 | whatever platform I'm ever given
to make sure that I'm not the last.
| 00:34:18:10 | 00:34:22:10 | I'm always clear about that
and I'm always working on that.
| 00:34:22:19 | 00:34:23:04 | Thank you.
| 00:34:24:20 | 00:34:25:25 | Next up, I've
| 00:34:25:25 | 00:34:30:15 | got actually a friend of mine, Pippa,
who is also a partner at Sweet Capital,
| 00:34:30:16 | 00:34:33:18 | also investing in early stage
tech companies.
| 00:34:33:19 | 00:34:35:23 | I thank you so much for this
great session.
| 00:34:35:23 | 00:34:37:15 | It's been amazing.
| 00:34:37:27 | 00:34:40:13 | Question for me is what small change
| 00:34:40:13 | 00:34:43:18 | has made a big difference
in your life and why?
| 00:34:44:05 | 00:34:48:04 | And that can obviously go and whatever
direction that you feel that's relevant.
| 00:34:48:08 | 00:34:48:23 | Thanks.
| 00:34:48:23 | 00:34:52:16 | The biggest change for me
is when I first wake up in the morning
| 00:34:52:25 | 00:34:56:16 | rather than grabbing my phone
and checking my email
| 00:34:56:16 | 00:35:02:15 | or taking action on my phone,
I grab a crystal, I grab a spot in a room
| 00:35:02:15 | 00:35:06:15 | and I just sit and I meditate
for 15 minutes before doing anything else.
| 00:35:06:29 | 00:35:12:17 | This is a small change to my daily life
that has had huge benefits
| 00:35:12:17 | 00:35:15:20 | to my happiness, my wellbeing, my success,
| 00:35:15:29 | 00:35:18:22 | I think my family's well-being,
my team's wellbeing.
| 00:35:19:06 | 00:35:22:25 | And it's just a small thing that I do
that's different at this time.
| 00:35:22:27 | 00:35:26:04 | Is that something that I'm
you want to answer as well?
| 00:35:26:10 | 00:35:31:01 | The small change that I made was actually
a couple of years ago, I just jumped off
| 00:35:31:01 | 00:35:36:13 | of social media, which is probably
I intended to just go on a diet.
| 00:35:36:13 | 00:35:38:01 | Everybody said go on a social media diet.
| 00:35:39:01 | 00:35:41:26 | And so I, I did for a week.
| 00:35:42:01 | 00:35:45:29 | And then I realized
how much more time I had, how much more
| 00:35:46:17 | 00:35:49:01 | how much less anxiety I had,
| 00:35:50:07 | 00:35:53:07 | how much more clarity of thought I had.
| 00:35:53:07 | 00:35:55:15 | And there was a lot less FOMO in my life.
| 00:35:56:00 | 00:35:58:22 | And then I could just now focus more.
| 00:35:58:22 | 00:36:03:16 | And so of course some social media
has crept back in for my job.
| 00:36:04:05 | 00:36:07:05 | I feel like I need to be on Twitter,
but I compartmentalize it
| 00:36:07:27 | 00:36:10:07 | into two sections.
| 00:36:10:07 | 00:36:14:27 | And on any given day, for about 10
to 15 minutes, I will be on social media
| 00:36:15:03 | 00:36:16:11 | and then I'm out.
| 00:36:16:11 | 00:36:20:27 | And it has boosted my productivity
and boosted my morale
| 00:36:20:27 | 00:36:25:08 | because I get to choose what I'm going
to focus on and I get to choose the issues
| 00:36:25:08 | 00:36:28:25 | that are important to me
to focus on as a result of that.
| 00:36:29:06 | 00:36:32:21 | Yeah, I think time boxing, social media,
some things I've tried many times
| 00:36:32:28 | 00:36:34:07 | failed miserably.
| 00:36:34:07 | 00:36:38:26 | Next up, my colleague Alex Eric Strub,
who's actually helping us out
| 00:36:38:26 | 00:36:43:21 | just for the summer but was previously
chief stuff of Kevin Hart
| 00:36:44:20 | 00:36:45:27 | family office.
| 00:36:45:27 | 00:36:47:27 | Kevin Hart being the founder
of Eventbrite.
| 00:36:48:13 | 00:36:52:18 | Question for you that coming from
an investor you've raised money
| 00:36:52:18 | 00:36:55:26 | from some very impressive
early stage funds.
| 00:36:56:07 | 00:37:00:01 | How did you how did you assess
their level of commitment
| 00:37:00:04 | 00:37:03:10 | to being a climate, Harry,
and climate change?
| 00:37:03:25 | 00:37:08:29 | Well, in the first place, I really did
take my time before I went out to raise.
| 00:37:08:29 | 00:37:12:22 | I spent nearly a year socializing
| 00:37:12:22 | 00:37:16:06 | the idea for Planet Forward
before I went to marketing
| 00:37:16:24 | 00:37:19:11 | and I, I logged I think
| 00:37:19:11 | 00:37:23:29 | 130 conversations
in about a 12 month period.
| 00:37:24:29 | 00:37:29:24 | And so before I went to market,
I had really curated this list
| 00:37:30:13 | 00:37:34:24 | of people who I knew
were not only interested
| 00:37:34:24 | 00:37:38:00 | in the degree
to which they could put capital to work
| 00:37:39:04 | 00:37:39:16 | to help
| 00:37:40:22 | 00:37:41:03 | tackle
| 00:37:41:03 | 00:37:45:22 | climate change, but also who had the kind
of functional expertize
| 00:37:46:01 | 00:37:49:00 | that I needed for my particular business.
| 00:37:49:13 | 00:37:55:02 | So it was just a process of taking time
and really spending a little bit of time
| 00:37:55:02 | 00:37:59:20 | in conversation with people
before getting into that mode of pitching.
| 00:37:59:23 | 00:38:05:08 | What I'll say is, as you are very well
aware, the energy and the dynamic of
| 00:38:05:08 | 00:38:10:26 | being in a pitch is different than
the one of just being in a conversation.
| 00:38:10:26 | 00:38:13:13 | And I am a competitor.
I really like to win.
| 00:38:13:25 | 00:38:17:07 | So once I'm at the stage
that I'm competing and pitching,
| 00:38:17:12 | 00:38:21:10 | sometimes it's more difficult
for me to have the other deep listening
| 00:38:21:10 | 00:38:24:00 | that I need
to have to screen for alignment.
| 00:38:24:25 | 00:38:27:19 | So I just frontloaded
the work around alignment
| 00:38:28:01 | 00:38:30:18 | and a lot of conversations
curated that list.
| 00:38:30:27 | 00:38:34:11 | And then when I was in front of people
pitching, I knew that I was already in
| 00:38:34:11 | 00:38:37:23 | front of people who had the alignment
that I needed going in.
| 00:38:38:12 | 00:38:39:19 | I think, I think.
| 00:38:39:19 | 00:38:42:13 | Spence, out of the questions,
it looks like you have the question.
| 00:38:43:01 | 00:38:43:29 | Thank you so much.
| 00:38:43:29 | 00:38:46:24 | That was a fascinating conversation.
| 00:38:46:24 | 00:38:49:13 | And I was particularly
| 00:38:49:13 | 00:38:53:05 | when you were speaking about grace
and how to think about grace
| 00:38:53:05 | 00:38:58:01 | and what and what that means
and how you can demonstrate grace, my
| 00:38:59:05 | 00:39:01:06 | I feel it's something I have.
| 00:39:01:06 | 00:39:02:20 | I've never put it as eloquently as that,
| 00:39:02:20 | 00:39:04:24 | but it is something
I've always aspired to.
| 00:39:05:01 | 00:39:07:10 | And my question and often mostly failed.
| 00:39:07:10 | 00:39:10:02 | And my question to you is
when you've had periods of your life
| 00:39:10:02 | 00:39:13:01 | where you were less graceful or
| 00:39:13:20 | 00:39:15:22 | or grace alluded you,
| 00:39:16:06 | 00:39:19:15 | how did you and I would love to hear
your thoughts on this time as well.
| 00:39:19:15 | 00:39:20:14 | Of course.
| 00:39:20:16 | 00:39:24:00 | How did you fix it?
| 00:39:24:00 | 00:39:25:13 | How did you think about it?
| 00:39:25:13 | 00:39:27:19 | How did you diagnose?
| 00:39:27:19 | 00:39:30:00 | Why Grace had left you momentarily?
| 00:39:30:00 | 00:39:33:02 | Sort of what I would love
to hear your learnings on that.
| 00:39:33:14 | 00:39:36:20 | That's that is such a good
and important question.
| 00:39:36:20 | 00:39:40:15 | And I'm laughing because I have had
many periods where Grace.
| 00:39:40:15 | 00:39:42:04 | Alluded me.
| 00:39:43:00 | 00:39:45:20 | And I still do because I'm human.
| 00:39:46:25 | 00:39:48:01 | So the antidote
| 00:39:48:01 | 00:39:52:13 | for those moments where you fall
out of grace is radical self forgiveness.
| 00:39:53:05 | 00:39:56:17 | And I see radical self-forgiveness
because at
| 00:39:57:13 | 00:40:00:28 | because it needs to happen even when
you don't feel like forgiving yourself,
| 00:40:00:28 | 00:40:03:26 | even when you'd rather just go ahead
and be a little mad at yourself.
| 00:40:04:14 | 00:40:08:07 | It's not productive to stay in that
in that space that the most productive
| 00:40:08:18 | 00:40:10:04 | use of your energy in a moment
| 00:40:10:04 | 00:40:13:20 | when you fallen out of grace
is to recognize that it's happened
| 00:40:13:28 | 00:40:17:28 | and almost immediately forgive yourself
and get back into a different place.
| 00:40:19:10 | 00:40:22:08 | A sense of humor,
I think, is another really good antidote.
| 00:40:22:16 | 00:40:25:29 | I fundamentally, you know,
I talk about being about grace
| 00:40:25:29 | 00:40:30:03 | and all of these high minded concepts, but
I also don't take myself that seriously.
| 00:40:30:14 | 00:40:35:11 | I recognize that I am silly and fallible
and learning and human,
| 00:40:35:18 | 00:40:40:10 | and that makes the whole thing
just quite a bit easier.
| 00:40:40:10 | 00:40:42:20 | I've probably gotten way more practice
| 00:40:43:16 | 00:40:46:17 | like you,
Spencer, on the I've Fallen Out of Grace
| 00:40:48:26 | 00:40:51:27 | than I'm in grace moment.
| 00:40:51:27 | 00:40:54:08 | But I think that Julia
hit the nail on the head.
| 00:40:54:08 | 00:40:59:19 | And I think whether it's Grace
or whether I messed up in a big way
| 00:41:00:27 | 00:41:02:25 | is that moment of ownership.
| 00:41:02:25 | 00:41:06:00 | But then I also put a finite.
| 00:41:06:00 | 00:41:08:28 | I probably don't forgive myself
as rapidly as Julia,
| 00:41:09:14 | 00:41:12:08 | but I do put a limit
on my self-flagellation.
| 00:41:12:08 | 00:41:15:03 | Right? I'm like, I could have done better.
What could I done better?
| 00:41:15:03 | 00:41:18:22 | And I put a time limit on it
a day, two days,
| 00:41:19:05 | 00:41:23:06 | and then I don't want to get stuck in it,
so I don't want to be rear view facing.
| 00:41:23:06 | 00:41:25:18 | I want to be looking forward
and moving forward.
| 00:41:25:27 | 00:41:29:01 | And so it was a moment I was human,
I was fallible.
| 00:41:29:01 | 00:41:30:02 | It's what I take from it.
| 00:41:30:02 | 00:41:35:03 | And so I try not to get stuck
and just I literally get myself.
| 00:41:35:03 | 00:41:38:12 | It's, you know, it's the end of the day
and now I got to move on
| 00:41:38:12 | 00:41:42:07 | and there's so much other stuff to do
and I'm wasting time
| 00:41:42:07 | 00:41:45:23 | now being in that moment
not to say that I'm not learning from it,
| 00:41:45:23 | 00:41:52:26 | but that I put a finite structure to how
much analysis paralysis I will let myself.
| 00:41:52:26 | 00:41:54:06 | Go through to to steal.
| 00:41:54:06 | 00:41:57:21 | Julia's was the I find
sometimes the hardest bit is the clashing
| 00:41:57:21 | 00:42:00:20 | of competitiveness with
and not taking oneself too seriously.
| 00:42:01:02 | 00:42:03:26 | That can sometimes be a friction point.
| 00:42:03:26 | 00:42:05:21 | Yeah, definitely.
| 00:42:05:21 | 00:42:10:07 | I've got one more question from Melanie,
who I met actually at Blooming Founders,
| 00:42:10:07 | 00:42:14:29 | which is on a similar mission to a similar
mission to All Rise, I would say.
| 00:42:14:29 | 00:42:17:07 | But then I think
you can probably explain it a lot better.
| 00:42:17:18 | 00:42:22:01 | I thank you so much for the sessions
and incredibly insightful.
| 00:42:23:03 | 00:42:25:04 | I actually wanted to add
| 00:42:25:04 | 00:42:30:09 | somewhat to the question
that Alex just asked us, which was how
| 00:42:30:13 | 00:42:35:14 | you went about choosing your investors
and being so successful fundraising
| 00:42:36:17 | 00:42:40:11 | part of your cap table
or your board of directors
| 00:42:40:19 | 00:42:45:21 | that stands out to me is how diverse it is
and how many women and people of color
| 00:42:45:23 | 00:42:50:20 | will eventually participate in the wealth
that you will create
| 00:42:50:27 | 00:42:53:28 | as well as obviously the social good
with that it forward.
| 00:42:54:11 | 00:43:00:15 | And so perhaps to both you, Julia and Pam,
what do you think is the responsibility
| 00:43:00:15 | 00:43:05:08 | of especially serial founders
of picking their investors?
| 00:43:05:08 | 00:43:06:07 | So that
| 00:43:07:03 | 00:43:09:22 | the the wealth gets distributed
more evenly?
| 00:43:09:27 | 00:43:11:13 | I'll go first.
| 00:43:11:13 | 00:43:15:20 | I think intentionality,
as Julius cited time
| 00:43:15:20 | 00:43:19:28 | and time and time again, is a
is the new norm
| 00:43:20:12 | 00:43:24:02 | and that we have to be intentional
in the choices that we make
| 00:43:24:08 | 00:43:28:26 | and the way that our management style
is in the investors that we choose.
| 00:43:29:04 | 00:43:33:20 | And part of all race
has always focused on initiative.
| 00:43:33:20 | 00:43:36:29 | We call Founders for change,
which is that founders
| 00:43:36:29 | 00:43:39:21 | can own the responsibility
| 00:43:40:03 | 00:43:42:08 | for helping to solve this problem
| 00:43:42:23 | 00:43:45:23 | in their companies and at the board level.
| 00:43:46:04 | 00:43:49:05 | And here's what our caveat always is.
| 00:43:49:05 | 00:43:50:12 | When you have a choice
| 00:43:51:14 | 00:43:51:29 | to choose
| 00:43:51:29 | 00:43:54:21 | wisely with your investors
because you won't always have a choice
| 00:43:54:29 | 00:43:55:25 | that's the unfortunate.
| 00:43:55:25 | 00:43:58:05 | If you have a choice between
| 00:43:58:05 | 00:44:01:08 | not taking that funding
from an all white male team
| 00:44:01:28 | 00:44:04:19 | and not starting your business,
take the money.
| 00:44:04:19 | 00:44:07:08 | I'm going to take the money.
| 00:44:07:08 | 00:44:10:01 | But when you do have a choice,
when you can be intentional,
| 00:44:10:01 | 00:44:13:18 | when you can be thoughtful
about approaching the market
| 00:44:13:18 | 00:44:18:04 | and starting these conversations
like Julia indicated that
| 00:44:18:04 | 00:44:21:27 | that is actually how change will happen.
| 00:44:21:27 | 00:44:24:28 | It's one of the most important ways
we talk about founders kind of
| 00:44:24:28 | 00:44:29:13 | being the lifeblood of the venture
capital industry, and founders who say,
| 00:44:29:13 | 00:44:33:26 | and I'm not in for that,
I want this are going to help shape
| 00:44:33:26 | 00:44:37:22 | the future in a very material
and meaningful way and help us grow,
| 00:44:38:02 | 00:44:42:02 | move the needle much faster than we would
without those voices at the table.
| 00:44:42:23 | 00:44:44:26 | Yeah, I think Pam,
you said it so perfectly.
| 00:44:44:26 | 00:44:47:08 | And I love that caveat
of when you have a choice.
| 00:44:48:20 | 00:44:48:26 | What?
| 00:44:48:26 | 00:44:53:20 | I mean, the only thing I might add is
it has been, in my experience
| 00:44:53:20 | 00:44:56:25 | that when you have diversity
while represented
| 00:44:56:25 | 00:45:01:15 | on your cap table at you
not only have better outcomes,
| 00:45:01:15 | 00:45:04:12 | but you have better support,
| 00:45:05:18 | 00:45:09:21 | particularly if you are a founder
who is underrepresented or female.
| 00:45:09:21 | 00:45:11:15 | Identifying
| 00:45:11:25 | 00:45:15:14 | it is probably the case
that having a more diverse
| 00:45:15:14 | 00:45:19:01 | group of investors
will give you more alignment and support
| 00:45:19:01 | 00:45:21:28 | than if you had an all white male
cap table.
| 00:45:22:09 | 00:45:25:16 | And again, it is, you know,
when you have a choice, your your first
| 00:45:25:25 | 00:45:28:28 | when we talk about responsibility,
the responsibility that you have
| 00:45:29:06 | 00:45:30:26 | is to build a successful business.
| 00:45:30:26 | 00:45:32:19 | And sometimes you need to do that.
| 00:45:32:19 | 00:45:34:05 | However you need to do it.
| 00:45:34:05 | 00:45:38:00 | But there will arrive a moment
when you find that you have more power
| 00:45:38:00 | 00:45:39:10 | and you have more influence
| 00:45:39:10 | 00:45:42:17 | than you might have earlier in your
in your founder career.
| 00:45:42:17 | 00:45:44:12 | And that's the moment
| 00:45:44:12 | 00:45:46:25 | to make the kind of change
that you want to make in the world.
| 00:45:47:20 | 00:45:48:14 | Yeah, I love that.
| 00:45:48:14 | 00:45:50:13 | When you have a choice,
I think that's really important.
| 00:45:51:12 | 00:45:52:15 | Love I've
| 00:45:52:15 | 00:45:57:27 | got one last question from Deepali,
who's a really prominent angel investor,
| 00:45:57:27 | 00:46:03:02 | London based as well and know
big champion for diversity and inclusion.
| 00:46:03:09 | 00:46:04:26 | This has been so amazing.
| 00:46:04:26 | 00:46:07:27 | I have actually loved it
because it's not just,
| 00:46:08:08 | 00:46:12:04 | you know, your found the story,
but really about how holistic you are.
| 00:46:12:05 | 00:46:14:21 | So I really enjoyed this conversation
| 00:46:14:21 | 00:46:17:05 | as an angel investor
and I know you said you angel investor.
| 00:46:17:05 | 00:46:20:12 | I often struggle between,
you know, a woman that I love
| 00:46:20:12 | 00:46:24:09 | who's so relentless, who's worked so hard,
but at the same time, you know,
| 00:46:24:09 | 00:46:25:10 | might not make it
| 00:46:25:10 | 00:46:28:20 | because the fine I feel like financially
the business might not make it.
| 00:46:29:03 | 00:46:33:09 | So I always struggle between shall
I invest in this founder for who she is
| 00:46:33:09 | 00:46:37:15 | versus, you know, and the social impact
that I create by doing that versus
| 00:46:37:15 | 00:46:40:28 | or is she going to give me
the financial return that I really want?
| 00:46:41:18 | 00:46:44:13 | Wondered if you ever have that struggle
and how you balance it?
| 00:46:44:22 | 00:46:47:23 | Yeah, when I'm investing,
I am always investing
| 00:46:47:23 | 00:46:51:08 | with the expectation
that I will have a good financial return.
| 00:46:51:08 | 00:46:53:08 | And it is also the case that there are
| 00:46:54:23 | 00:46:56:17 | an abundance
| 00:46:56:17 | 00:47:00:21 | of underrepresented founders
that also meet that criteria.
| 00:47:00:21 | 00:47:05:01 | And I have never found it to be the case
that I was hard pressed to find good deals
| 00:47:05:09 | 00:47:07:19 | from diverse founders.
| 00:47:08:05 | 00:47:11:01 | I think that's a
that's a really nice note to end on.
| 00:47:11:22 | 00:47:15:25 | And yeah, a big
thank you to everyone for being so engaged
| 00:47:15:25 | 00:47:19:02 | and also obviously Pam and Julia
for letting us listen
| 00:47:19:03 | 00:47:22:03 | in on this really,
really interesting conversation.
| 00:47:22:09 | 00:47:23:29 | And I really, really enjoyed it.
| 00:47:23:29 | 00:47:26:16 | And I think everyone else had to.
| 00:47:26:16 | 00:47:35:11 | Beat everyone for having it. You.