Why Golden Seeds is stepping in to ShoulderUp

Posted on November 6, 2018January 22, 2020 by Brian Jones

Peggy Wallace, managing partner of Golden Seeds

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking about financial empowerment to women leaders from around the world with economic and personal influence. This took place during the Journey to Legacy simulcast which launched ShoulderUp, co-founded by EY Entrepreneur of the Year, Phyllis Newhouse and Academy Award winner, Viola Davis. This dynamic movement is dedicated to connecting and supporting women on their journey to bring about change where and when it is needed the most.

It was inspirational to see so many powerful leaders come together in an effort to raise the influence and economic position of women. As I listened to Phyllis and Viola discuss their personal journeys and all the factors that made them who they are today, I was completely in awe. They told their stories in an honest and raw way to help all of us see that everyone has struggles. The live event provided numerous other examples of women recounting their experiences. Still, this was about more than inspirational stories; we all left with a greater understanding and determination to make a difference.

The following recaps some of what I covered, which hopefully gives you an idea of why Golden Seeds is stepping in to ShoulderUp — and why you should, too.

Women entrepreneurship is growing but there’s an investment gap

When we started Golden Seeds in 2005, our goal was to change the limiting corporate cultures we, as women, experienced on Wall Street. In short, we felt women needed to own businesses in order to help increase female leadership and parity.

At that time, women held 1.8 percent of CEO positions in public companies and 14.7 percent of board seats. Since then, these figures have climbed to 4.1 percent and 22 percent respectively. Women are now starting businesses at record levels — nearly 1,000 a day — driven by fresh perspectives, skills and talent proven to build great companies. These leaders are shaping businesses, producing beak-through innovations and creating jobs.

Our economy deserves to reap the benefits of what female-led companies can accomplish.

Today, 20 percent of angel investors are women — four times higher than when Golden Seeds started. About 24 percent of angel-funded companies are women-led, eight times greater than in 2004. This demonstrates that women investors will drive capital to other women.

Yet, while there’s success in the angel market, there’s a grim set of data on the venture capital (VC) side. That’s the logical place for acquiring the larger backing to take an idea to the next level and like all early-stage entrepreneurs, women need VC to fuel growth — but a major gap exists. Last year, women-founded companies received only two percent of this financing, resulting in much lower company valuations.

Yes, there are now conditions under which angel funding of women is expanding; Golden Seeds is proud to have had a role in this. But that vital venture funding is not yet moving to them. This is jeopardizing businesses that could have a tremendous impact on our economy and society, ones that might also offer the greatest investment opportunities of our lifetime.

It’s time to step in and ShoulderUp

Women are building amazing companies. As a global industry expert and leader of the largest private cybersecurity firm in the United States, ShoulderUp’s Phyllis Newhouse is a prime example of what can be achieved. She is a force.

Phyllis credits the women in her life, her family, the military, the EY program and the Women Presidents’ Organization for her personal development. It’s clear she understands the power of support and inspiration and has injected it into ShoulderUp. As a result, the initiative is rallying and connecting our community in ways that will help us all advance.

At Golden Seeds, we appreciate and back entrepreneurs that are making a difference. Susan Catalano of Cognition Therapeutics is developing a drug for Alzheimer’s. Christina Lampe-Onnerud of Cadenza Innovation introduced a revolutionary new paradigm for lithium ion batteries and renewable energy. Uzma and Rosina Samadani have created an important concussion diagnostic.

Golden Seeds has chosen to support the ShoulderUp movement because of its focus on the importance of creating economic parity for women — and we’ve witnessed the benefits firsthand. We invite you to step up and do the same for the sake of equality, advancement and real economic opportunity.

Learn more about Golden Seeds companies and how women entrepreneurs are achieving success with Golden Seeds.

It’s happening in Houston and so is Golden Seeds

Posted on October 23, 2018January 22, 2020 by Brian Jones

Houston is the nation’s fourth most populous city with bragging rights in many areas. It hosts the largest medical complex on the planet, The Texas Medical Center, is the energy capital of the world, and home to NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Recently, WalletHub named Houston the most favorable city in the U.S. for STEM workers. In life science and biotech, it boasts nearly 1,800 companies, hospitals and health facilities. It also has a major ecosystem of nearly 150 rapidly developing tech companies, accounting for $1.3 billion in venture funding.

That’s just the start of why Golden Seeds is thrilled to have added a new Houston chapter.

Texas welcomes women-led businesses

Golden Seeds has been watching Houston’s business climate for a while and strongly felt it was time to take things to the next level. We are confident it offers attractive conditions for women entrepreneurs and angel investors, and statistics and initiatives back that up.

According to the Center for Urban Future, women-owned businesses in Houston grew as much as 62 percent between 2007 and 2016 — eclipsing a 27 percent national average. That earned it the fourth spot among the top 25 U.S. cities, a ranking it equaled for growth in female entrepreneurs. An American Express study also places Texas second in women-owned firms, and tied for first in their economic clout.

Further, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner are working together to increase the number of women entrepreneurs in Texas.

Houston is enhancing its innovation community, too, creating districts to support startups with space, resources and access to capital. These include: The Texas Medical Center’s Innovation Institute, with more than 150 startups; JLABS, located within the TMCx Accelerator, hosting more than 50 startups; Station Houston, with more than 184 startups; and The Cannon with 70+ startups.

Dr. Tom Luby, Head of JLABS Texas, said, “At JLABS, our commitment to fostering women and minority entrepreneurs is a part of our DNA. Across our global network, 26 percent of our residents are led by women, compared to just 1 percent industrywide. Houston continues to grow as a place where healthcare startups can access differentiated resources that contribute to their success, no matter their background.”

With the recent announcement of Houston Exponential (HX), which is focused on driving the region to become a top 10 startup ecosystem, more companies and advancements will emerge.

Stronger together

Golden Seeds is proud to partner with the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce (GHWCC) in launching our new Houston chapter. The GHWCC provides valuable mentors, advisors and resources for women-led startups. With more than 1,100 member businesses, it’s the fastest growing women’s chamber in the U.S.

“Houston’s women entrepreneurs are increasingly driving growth across traditional and new industries,” said Suzan Deison, founder and CEO of the GHWCC. “We want to cultivate an environment and resources that will continue this success. As such, we’re always on the lookout for new opportunities and partnerships, and our research led us to Golden Seeds, which is a perfect fit.”

We, too, have been delighted to connect with the GHWCC, which now hosts Golden Seeds’ monthly meetings in Houston and helps us make valuable local connections. We’ve had an active group in Dallas for seven years, and considering all we heard about Houston — and the willingness of dynamic groups like the GHWCC to collaborate — a chapter in Houston was a natural next step.

As noted by Managing Director of Golden Seeds and member of the Houston chapter, Sonia Mathur, a longtime angel investor: “Women, given equal opportunity and by supporting each other, turn possibility into progress. We are stronger together — this is the right business climate.

“It’s happening in Houston and we’ve all got a very strong future to look forward to here.”

Interested in learning more about how women entrepreneurs are achieving success? Subscribe to our newsletter.

How did she do it? A Q&A with Francesca Loftus, CEO of hOM

Posted on October 18, 2018January 22, 2020 by Brian Jones

Francesca Loftus, CEO of hOM

How one CEO’s mission-driven meditation business is leveraging underutilized real estate and connecting neighbors:
The spark that ignited Francesca Loftus and her co-founders’ mission to create hOM began when two of their mothers were diagnosed with cancer. Both successful executives, the two women adopted a regular yoga and meditation practice as part of their treatment, increasing their level of happiness and quality of life. After witnessing that mindfulness can improve lives of cancer patients, Loftus and her co-founders Ryan Freed and Corey Loftus, were inspired to bring it to the masses.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Francesca on how hOM grew from its beginnings to what it is today.

DD: Tell us about the origins of your company.

FL: hOM, located in New York City and Toronto, started as a brick and mortar meditation space with a goal to make meditation more mainstream. Our co-founder Ryan Freed’s mother was diagnosed with cancer and was told she had two years to live. With the help of yoga, acupuncture and meditation, she lived eight years. Her name was Hope, which is why the company is named hOM.

We first tested our concept in Brooklyn at luxury condo community, The Edge, whose tagline is, “If you can find a building with more amenities, we will give you a free year of rent,” and the class sold out in 20 minutes. After this, we recognized an opportunity to bring our concept into multifamily rental buildings. We decided we would try to bring this to other properties that want to engage their population, but don’t have a full amenity floor.

DD: What market need are you solving, and how is your approach different from how others have addressed this need?

FL: In addition to bringing yoga and meditation to others, we are helping real estate companies solve their property retention and marketing needs by providing unique and varied events. Oftentimes, owners and property managers test events or recurring fitness programs at one property and then decide they want the events for all of the properties they own. Achieving consistency and scale across all their properties is what they need us for.

From coordinating two to 10 weekly classes in a rental living property to running monthly events in a commercial building, we do just about anything you can imagine to leverage underutilized real estate. For example, we’ve brought an inflatable bounce house to the lobby of a commercial building and have turned residential patios into mini golf courses. We also want to honor the mission that led us to start the business, so for every week of classes we teach, we donate one class to someone on their journey with cancer at Gilda’s Club, a community organization for people with cancer, their families and friends.

DD: What challenges have you encountered along the way? How have you overcome them?

FL: Working with yoga and fitness instructors as independent contractors meant that we would sometimes have to compete against their other jobs or work. We didn’t want this to hurt our reliability, as we wanted to provide as consistent a brand experience as possible. We wanted our work to come first. As a result, hOM now offers full-time employment and benefits to our instructors. We also put classes within instructors’ neighborhoods, so they don’t have to travel extensively. As a result, we attract some of New York City and Toronto’s top talent.

Another challenge we encountered was the real estate sales cycle. This process took longer because the majority of real estate in New York City is family owned. It took time to build our reputation and trust to get into some of the portfolios we work with today.

DD: What’s coming up next for your company? Any big milestones on the horizon?

FL: We have a lot of exciting things coming up! We’re developing a community manager role, so we will have someone on staff who will focus mainly on engaging with our clients and developing a feedback loop.

We’re also launching the next version of our web app soon. This will feature updated graphics on sites that are specifically for tenants and teachers.

I am also excited to say that we’re now offering 12 weeks of paid parental leave as a benefit. As a mother, this was very important to me.

DD: What advice do you have for early-stage founders about raising money, growing a team, fostering company culture or other issues you’ve had to address?

FL: Stay true to your initial values of why you started the company. As a company, hOM is sitting in a niche and it can be tempting, especially when raising money, to tell the story you think the investor wants to hear and not the real story of your company.

During our first fundraising round, there was a moment when we were talking to VCs and they suggested we position ourselves as a marketplace because it’s a sexier story in their eyes, But, in sticking true to our vision and what we wanted the company to be, we were able to find investors like Golden Seeds and other angel investors that were aligned with our mission. It’s essential for early-stage founders to say “no” to things that don’t match the mission of their company.

DD: Tell us about your experience with Golden Seeds. How has the Golden Seeds network been helpful to you?

FL: The Golden Seeds network has been extremely helpful for a number of reasons. We were lucky to have the support of the network early on. As we made it through the different rounds of pitching, we got one-on-one coaching, analyzing what worked and what didn’t, as well as what we can expect in the next rounds. Managing directors at Golden Seeds also have connected us with various people in real estate, which has helped us with sales and partnerships. Without Golden Seeds, we would not be where we are today, so we’re very appreciative for everything the network has done for us.

Learn more about Golden Seeds companies and how women entrepreneurs are achieving success with Golden Seeds.

Cereal Success: Former CEO of Kellogg, U.S. Secretary of Commerce shares with Golden Seeds

Posted on October 16, 2018January 22, 2020 by Brian Jones

Carlos Gutierrez, Sr. and Carlos Gutierrez, Jr.

During Golden Seeds September 2018 Forum, our featured speaker, Carlos Gutierrez, Sr., shared his views on innovation and business with our investors. He was introduced and interviewed by his son Carlos Gutierrez, Jr., a fellow Golden Seeds investor.

Carlos Gutierrez, Sr. is chair of Albright Stonebridge Group (ASG), a global strategic consulting organization. He joined ASG from Citi, where he was vice chairman of the Institutional Clients Group. He was also U.S. Secretary of Commerce under President George W. Bush, who called the business leader “a visionary executive.”

Gutierrez’s talk focused mainly on his work at the Kellogg Company, the global manufacturer and marketer of food brands. He began his 30-year career with the company selling cereal to small grocers out of a van in Mexico City. He would become its youngest CEO, was named chairman of the board and is credited with reviving the company. Fortune Magazine dubbed him “The Man Who Fixed Kellogg.”

When an executive like Gutierrez speaks, I listen. The following are some of his reflections — wisdom that’s invaluable to investors, entrepreneurs, executives, everyone.

Strategy and Direction

Gutierrez’s is known for a pioneering strategy, “Volume to Value,” which is a way to increase sales by focusing resources on higher-margin products. Extra income is then used for advertising, promotions and R&D, which further high-margin sales growth. It’s a specific tactical approach, and during his talk, Gutierrez said he felt strategy was too often aspirational and vision-like. He noted: “Strategy should be something that provides direction on a day-to-day basis. Good strategies come from simple insights.”

Empowering, Simplifying

Under his leadership, Kellogg moved from a hands-on company to one with a strategic process to be followed by all, advancing everyone towards the same goal in tandem. This freed up their senior leaders to manage the process, which resulted in the greatest string of innovation Kellogg’s ever had.

He recalled: “It was amazing for me, liberating in the sense that I sat in my office and knew the process they were following …. We gave them parameters, but they just ran with it. Empowerment of people is so important.” Gutierrez also remarked how a lot of executives today confuse complexity with sophistication: “Our job is to provide clarity in an age of ambiguity. Simplify, simplify!”

Innovation and Results

A favorite line from Gutierrez’s talk was direct and brief: “Innovation is important to driving growth — but execution drives results.” Ideas and advancements can attract interest and bring about expansion, but, in the end, making them a reality is what impacts the bottom line.

Fads vs. Trends

Gutierrez said one of the toughest and most important things an executive can do is distinguish between a lasting trend and fleeting fad. As he noted, “If you identify an important trend, companies will build plants and make large capital expenditures. However, if it turns out to be a fad, then you’ve wasted many corporate resources.” Kellogg was actually a “fast follower.”

As he explains, they didn’t invent Pop-Tarts, they just beat the competition with their go-to-market execution.

He further emphasized the need to provide clear consumer benefits when making claims; if you’re fuzzy or too conceptual, consumers will walk away. He cautioned that trends change; the current fading of diet soda after decades in the spotlight is an example. As for a current fad, he thinks a product being non-GMO (genetically modified organisms) sounds good but it isn’t clear that it delivers a true consumer benefit.

Building the Better Business

There was a lot to take in from his remarks, including tips that can build a better business. For instance, Gutierrez cautioned to closely monitor product margins: “Too little and you become a commodity, while a high gross margin can allow you to spend and build a brand.”

When it comes to acquiring companies, he recommends that it’s best to leave acquisitions alone and simply help all you can. He cites Kashi as an example, a brand with a unique niche that really only required Kellogg’s key contacts and resources for success. For startups, he advises not doing things just to look attractive for a potential exit — run a business as if you’ll have it for the long-term and buyers will find you.

Golden Seeds was honored to feature Secretary Gutierrez at our investors forum. His words of wisdom extend far beyond cereal!

Learn about the work of Golden Seeds.

How did she do it? A Q&A with Tania Yuki, founder and CEO of Shareablee

Posted on September 27, 2018December 21, 2021 by Brian Jones

One founder’s perpetual curiosity led her to develop a successful social media platform:

Tania Yuki began her career as a media and internet attorney, specializing in digital rights management, IP and film financing. However, her curiosity regarding the commercial impact of emerging digital platforms lead her to roles in digital media and measurement. Convinced that social media would change the way companies communicate with their customers and do business, she dedicated herself to understanding what makes social content successful and founded Shareablee, a company that has become the industry leader in evaluating brand performance and audience behavior across social platforms.

I recently spoke with Yuki about Shareablee and the company’s mission to help publishers, agencies and brands understand their audiences and quantify the impact and effectiveness of social media.

ES: Tell us about the origins of your company.
TY: I founded Shareablee in 2013. I had been working at comScore in product management, where I led the development of its first online video measurement product. In that role, I also began observing the amazing velocity happening across Facebook and realized it was different to anything that had been measured before. I was curious about how marketers could succeed and make things work. I started Shareablee initially as a service to help companies create engaging content on social media. We then realized we had a larger opportunity provide optics and visibility to big enterprises regarding their competitive performance, cross-engagement and audience insights.

ES: What market needs are you solving, and how is your approach different from how others who have addressed this need?
TY: Platforms change every day. It’s such a fast-paced environment. Musical.ly, for example, had more than 2 billion users and then quietly got acquired and shut down. We want to arm the next generation of leaders and visionaries with the data and visibility they need to innovate and make predictive decisions with confidence.

Shareablee offers so much more than just competitive data. We measure all social platforms, provide recommendations on when to post and what about, and show brands where their customers are spending their time. This way, brands can better engage and customize their messaging. If we measure something it has to be industry-wide because in this economy and in this marketplace, you don’t know who your competitors are. So, if brands just get optics into what they already believe is the problem, they will be lulled into a false sense of security.

ES: What challenges have you encountered along the way? How have you overcome them?
TY: The biggest challenge I’ve encountered was figuring out what to focus on while growing the company. At any time, I’m juggling hiring, product innovation, new clients, servicing clients, new sales, marketing, engineering and infrastructure, privacy in General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) — the list goes on. As a founder, a lot of areas are competing for your time, so you must figure out what is critical for your business.

I loved product management so transitioning away from that area and into a role that focuses on macro-level activities and empowering leadership was a big transition. I also was challenged with doing less. I had to give up day to day execution in order to get much better at delivering our vision. When you’re a small company, your only goal is survival and traction, but as the organization matures, effectively articulating your vision and why it is so critical for the company becomes the priority. Communication with your employees plays an essential role. At the end of the day, you need to be an excellent communicator.

ES: What’s coming up next for your company? Any big milestones on the horizon?
TY: We have a few things on the horizon. The first is making a big move into influencer measurement and helping with transparency in this fast growing, wild-west space. There was a big outcry a few months ago about true influencer metrics. Shareablee will give brands trustworthy and consistent ways of measuring, as well as letting influencers know their own value. Both areas are not truly done in the marketplace right now.

Secondly, Shareablee is moving insights and analytics into the predictive space. Today, customers use our data to take action, but the future is focused on predictive analytics and helping our customers make decisions and recommendations.

ES: What advice do you have for early-stage founders?
TY: The biggest piece of advice I have is to be clear on why you are starting your company. I think it can seem romantic to be an entrepreneur and it is, if it is the right decision for you. But you must be clear on the mission and why you want to bring your company to market. You need certainty and resilience to get you through the ups and downs. I speak to a lot of early-stage entrepreneurs wondering if they should quit their jobs, take a loan, etc. I tell them to be 1,000 percent sure it is something they want. If you have any doubt, you won’t power through it. Managing the psychology and the reason why you’re starting a company before you make that leap is essential to success.

ES: Tell us about your experience with Golden Seeds. How has the Golden Seeds network been helpful to you?
TY: Golden Seeds has been with me since the beginning of Shareablee. They’ve been supportive as an investor but more importantly, we’ve kept regular check-ins with the Golden Seeds networks. They’ve not only offered to give help, but actually followed through and delivered help with respect to introductions, hiring talent, troubleshooting situations and acted as an advisor and a supporter, when necessary.

Interested in learning more about how women entrepreneurs are achieving success? Subscribe to our newsletter.

How did she do it? A Q&A with Surbhi Sarna, founder and president of nVision Medical, a Boston Scientific Company

Posted on September 6, 2018January 22, 2020 by Brian Jones

One founder’s path to a successful exit for her medical device company:

Surbhi Sarna, founder and president of nVision Medical

Surbhi Sarna’s quest to detect ovarian cancer started with a health scare she had as a teenager. She founded nVision Medical after graduating from college, and the company has since developed the only device cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to collect fallopian tube cells. The fallopian tubes are now understood to be the primary site of origin for the most lethal types of ovarian cancer. Sarna’s work earned nVision investments from angel groups and venture capital firms, including Golden Seeds, followed by larger round of funding in which Golden Seeds also participated, and recently, a $275 million exit to Boston Scientific five years after the Series A investment.

Below, I talk with Sarna about how she grew nVision Medical and her advice for early-stage entrepreneurs.

GE: Tell us a bit more about the origins of your company.

SS: For as long as I can remember wanting to do something with my career, it’s always been about making an impact on women’s health. That began in my early high school years, when I had an ovarian cancer scare. Being that young and going to the hospital with some frequency and having that uncertainty about my health — it brought to the forefront the idea that if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything else. It’s an interesting realization to have so young. The genesis for nVision and my motivation around the company’s mission came from that personal experience.

GE: How is your approach to cancer detection different from others in your market?

SS: The only time we have truly made an impact on a disease from a prevention standpoint is when we’ve been able to get to the source of the tissue or the source organ — for example, think about colon cancer and the colonoscopy, cervical cancer and the pap smear or breast cancer and the mammogram — these tests offer direct access. nVision uses a different approach to diagnosing ovarian cancer that follows in the footsteps of those other successful methods of catching cancer early. nVision allows the physician to access the full length of the fallopian tube, where the vast majority of lethal ovarian cancers begin, and take a sample during an office visit. Our device is now in clinical trials, and we’ll launch to the broader market in the next year or so.

GE: What’s it like for startups trying to raise money in the women’s health market?

SS: Before, in women’s health, there were not a lot of successful exits to point to, so that definitely made fundraising in this space a bit more difficult. However, I’m lucky to be able to say that I had buy-in from a diverse range of investors. By the time we got to Series A and Golden Seeds invested, we saw about half and half women and men investors. It’s fantastic that men were so supportive. Especially in the early days, though, when we just had the concept, we did see that men had some trouble relating to what we were doing.

GE: What has Boston Scientific’s acquisition of nVision meant for other women-led medical device startups?

SS: Being able to return more than 10x to investors on a pre-commercial women’s health product — folks are excited about that, and investors are energized by that. Recently, I’ve been hearing about more women’s health companies being funded. Entrepreneurs reach out to me and say, “Hey, we were able to cite your exit as a potential exit path for our company.” A couple of companies I know of that have been trying to fundraise for a year or two are now starting to get funded, so that feels really good. If I can do anything with my time on this planet and make this world a better place for women, that’s what I feel like I’ve been put here to do. If this exit means the next investor takes the next woman CEO or the next women’s health company — or preferably both — more seriously, what a wonderful feeling.

GE: What advice do you have for early-stage founders who are trying to raise money?

SS: Unfortunately, people tend to respond more positively right off the bat if you think like them, talk like them and look like them. Sometimes as a female founder, you’ll feel that and know that’s happening; people are more obvious in their body language than they think they are. Don’t let that distract you from making it really obvious that nobody knows your space better than you. I faced skepticism from women investors too, because I was younger. A young, brown woman, starting a company in a space that hadn’t had historical exits — that doubt was omnipresent as I went out. But people are willing to look past that when you start talking about numbers and clinical need, and you bring out the human aspect of what you’re trying to do. That doesn’t mean it isn’t an exhausting fight, but it’s possible.

GE: What are some of the other things founders ask your advice about?

SS: One question I get asked a lot is, “How do you find mentors?” I’ve always been really blessed in the caliber and type of people who were willing to let me stand on their shoulders and support me. For example, Andrew Cleeland was on my board. He’s one of the most successful medical device CEOs of our time, and he ended up sitting on little old nVision’s board, making people ask, “How did that happen?”

I basically advise them to not waste people’s time. If you’re asking to meet with people, you have to understand their backgrounds and the potential connections with what you’re trying to achieve. A bit of self-awareness and doing your homework goes a long way. And if questions come up during meetings with would-be advisors that you can’t answer, follow up in an email. The scarcest resource people have is time, so make that extra effort to be prepared.

GE: What can you share about your experience with Golden Seeds?

SS: You, in particular, Gwen, have been extremely helpful, and Golden Seeds came on before we had any clinical data. It was great to have a group that believed in us before the product had been thoroughly vetted to do what it needed to do. I also really like that Golden Seeds is a bicoastal organization, so I had that benefit of folks in the Bay Area, as well as on the East Coast.

GE: I remember that your initial pitch to us was astonishingly good. It was effectively planned and organized, and it was clear that you were respecting our time.

SS: I remember that day well! Thank you so much, and thank you for all your support. You know, this is one of the ways that Golden Seeds’ involvement really helped. The network is made up of women who have seen a lot of success in their own careers, and we all know there is a dearth of women role models. To be surrounded by women who have had illustrious careers and to be inspired by their achievements, that is a powerful benefit of Golden Seeds.

Learn about the work of Golden Seeds.

Promotion vs. prevention: How entrepreneurs can deal with bias in pitch meetings

Posted on August 30, 2018January 27, 2020 by Brian Jones

Implicit bias is when we have stereotypes or attitudes toward people without consciously realizing it. Therefore, by definition, implicit bias is a tricky thing to recognize and understand.

Among those who encounter implicit bias are women entrepreneurs looking for funding. A fact that Columbia Business School Doctoral Fellow Dana Kanze shared during a recent presentation to Golden Seeds investors tells the story: Women entrepreneurs often face a different line of questions than male entrepreneurs — leading to discrepancies in funding, support and ultimate success.

The entrepreneurs who apply to Golden Seeds, who are usually women, often feel this bias, both implicitly, and explicitly in feedback they receive from potential funding sources. Kanze says there is a way entrepreneurs and investors can attempt to break through this bias. She leverages the concept of promotion vs. prevention in research co-authored with colleagues at Harvard Business School (Laura Huang) and at Columbia University (Mark A. Conley and Tory Higgins) that was recently published in the Academy of Management Journal and Harvard Business Review.

Implicit bias: promotion versus prevention

Implicit bias leads investors to ask very different questions of entrepreneurs based on their gender. Some founders (men) tend to get promotion questions in the domain of gains, while others (women) are asked prevention questions in the domain of losses. What’s the difference?

Implicit bias leads investors to ask very different questions of entrepreneurs based on their gender.

Let’s look at two common questions by investors:“How long will it take you to break even?” versus, “How do you plan to monetize this idea?”

The first question is promotion-based, and focuses on potential gains with concepts like hopes, accomplishments, and advancement needs. An answer to this question might use words like “grow,” “expand” and “momentum.”

The second question is prevention-based. It focuses on potential losses, and concepts like safety, responsibility, and security needs. Answering this question might include terms like “careful,” “protect,” and “loss.”

Below are examples from Kanze and her colleagues’ research of promotion versus prevention questions that further illustrate these biases:

The effects of implicit bias on angel investments

Make no mistake, both promotion and prevention questions are part of a thorough meeting with any entrepreneur. However, female entrepreneurs tend to be asked more prevention questions, while male entrepreneurs get more promotion questions.

The effects of this shift in question focus are astonishing. Kanze and colleague’s research shows that entrepreneurs who are asked primarily promotion questions raise, on average, seven times more money than those who face mainly prevention questions.

Kanze and colleague’s research shows that entrepreneurs who are asked primarily promotion questions raise, on average, seven times more money than those who face mainly prevention questions.

Fighting promotion versus prevention implicit bias in fundraising

The risks of this type of bias are clear for entrepreneurs in search of funding. But, on the investor side, the risks of this bias are also severe. By framing more prevention questions to women founders, they miss out on potentially lucrative investments and expose themselves to greater risk from companies that hear primarily promotion-oriented questions.

To prevent this bias from slipping into their meetings investors must recognize the types of questions they’re asking. It’s OK — and necessary — to ask prevention questions; they help identify risks. The key is to frame questions consistently, whether the entrepreneurs in the room are men or women.

For entrepreneurs, as part of improving your pitch, learn to recognize when you’re getting too many prevention questions, and switch your answers to promotional tone and content. If you’ve been facing prevention questions and someone asks, “How long will it take you to break even?” shift your response to a more promotional bent, like how you plan to monetize your idea.

This strategy’s effectiveness is shown in Kanze and colleague’s research, both in the field and experimentally. Those who answered prevention questions with promotion-focused responses were allocated significantly more investment funds.

By recognizing implicit bias — in this case in the form of the questions asked, and how they’re answered — and taking steps to correct them, investors can help put male and female founders on a more equal footing. And entrepreneurs will learn to adapt their responses so as to build the confidence of potential investors.

Kanze’s research has provided significant insight into these important issues. Read more about her research in Inc. and Forbes.

Learn more about Golden Seeds companies and how women entrepreneurs are achieving success with Golden Seeds.

How did she do it? A Q&A with Ciara Kennedy, CEO of Amplyx

Posted on August 23, 2018January 22, 2020 by Brian Jones

Golden Seeds is focused on investing in the vibrant opportunities of women-led companies. As such, we work with many talented, passionate female entrepreneurs who are doing truly remarkable things. Our “How Did She Do It?” series shares the stories, challenges and successes of the women behind the companies of Golden Seeds.

Today, Peggy Wallace, managing partner of Golden Seeds, interviews Ciara Kennedy, president and CEO of Amplyx. Below, they discuss the work Amplyx is doing to advance novel therapeutic solutions to life-threatening infections.

PW: Tell us about the origins of your company.

CK: Amplyx is a San Diego-based company developing advanced therapeutic solutions for life-threatening fungal infections. I joined the company in October 2015, coming on board as the company was about to transition from a research organization to a development-stage company. I joined to transform and elevate the team to be development-oriented and appropriately financed to advance our lead asset and propel Amplyx forward.

PW: What market need are you solving, and how is your approach different from how others have addressed this need?

CK: We’ve created a brand-new class of treatments to attack fungal infections. While there are some other treatments available in the market, they are hard on patients, and patients continue to die from these infections. They’re often vulnerable because of another condition or because they’re already in the hospital, which compromises their immune systems and makes them more susceptible. We’ve conducted Phase 1 clinical studies and animal efficacy studies with excellent outcomes. We’re now kicking off Phase 2 studies to see how this treatment performs in infected patients.

PW: What challenges have you encountered along the way?

CK: Like any organization facing a change, we’ve had to overcome challenges at multiple levels. Moving from research to development causes a huge shift in culture. It’s important to keep the company grounded in good science, while growing the team and bringing in new skill sets to meet demands for development. The magnitude of financing in a development-focused company is much different than that of a research organization, as well. In research phases, $10 million is a lot. In the development phase, that might only fund one clinical trial. So, I needed to bring in a new team, new leadership and new investors — and all as quickly as possible.

PW: How have you overcome those challenges?

CK: When I came to Amplyx, I was helping the original founder socialize the assets with high-caliber investors I’d worked with previously, such as NEA and RiverVest. We closed a $50 million Series B in October 2015 to fund the company in Phase 2 development. It wasn’t such a challenging round because we had a very solid asset. Investors tend to invest in people as much as assets, and we built a strong team at Amplyx. Many team members had worked with me at a prior company, and we had a reputation as a team that could execute and that was experienced in drug development. Investors were confident we could put together the best plan and execute on it. That was an area I had a lot of comfort in — bringing in that money and adding investors to the company.

About a year later, in fall 2016, we were well-financed, had started human Phase 1 studies and had started to raise the visibility of the company. In summer 2017, we decided to raise a large Series C to fund the company through proof of concept studies and determine which type of patients this treatment can best help. At the end of the day, we have a great asset being driven forward by a great team and supported by investors who understand drug development.

We’re working to cure life-threatening infections; it’s a life-saving therapy. For me, that’s the type of product I want to work on. I don’t want to work on products with incremental improvements. I want to focus on ones that will make a difference. We all have different ways we can spend our time and make choices accordingly. Our investors are really motivated to do things that make a big difference — that’s how you create big value.

PW: What’s coming up next for your company?

CK: Infectious disease is an interesting space because animal models are predictive of clinical disease. That’s not always the case; they don’t always translate. We’ve worked through our Phase 1 clinical trials. Now we’re in Phase 2 studies, and determining if this drug will kill the bug in a patient with the acceptable safety profile. This year is all about executing — it’s where the rubber meets the road. Then the next phase further down the road is shifting from development to commercialization.

PW: What advice do you have for early-stage founders about raising money, growing a team, fostering company culture or other issues you’ve had to address?

CK: Having the right team in place — and having a balanced team — is important. During research, it’s easy to focus only on what you know from a research perspective. In prior companies, I’ve seen the void between research and development. Proper communication can help close that void.

Adding some development resources to the team during research can help, as well. It’s important not to do research in a vacuum. There are things you can do during research periods to help set up for development, and doing them early on rather than redoing it later can create real value, saving time and money.

The two hardest transitions to make are going from research to development (and in some ways this is the hardest) and going from development to commercialization. It’s challenging to make great hires when you have limited resources. A good investment can be hiring a consultant. Having the right advice is always money well spent.

And — you don’t always have to hire someone to get that advice. You can always ask the right questions to people in your network. You’d be surprised at how much people want to help small companies. Never be shy about asking for help.

One of the challenges in terms of raising money is telling your story in a way that people can translate to their terms and determine if this is working or not. You need to lay out the story in a way that clearly shows people how you will know if you’re being successful. This is critically important to raising money and attracting team members. You need a clear path to the next value inflection points and where you’ll go from there. It’s a road map to value creation and is key to efficient fundraising and rallying the team around your vision — then achieving that vision.

If you can do that in a couple of sentences, it makes a big difference in how your organization functions and how you finance your company.

PW: Tell us about your experience with Golden Seeds. How has the Golden Seeds network been helpful to you?

CK: Golden Seeds was one of the initial investors and was foundational for funding Amplyx in the early phase, plus they’ve shown a lot of loyalty in subsequent rounds. I’ve presented a couple of times at the Golden Seeds partner meeting and have had tremendous conversations, and felt enormous support about what we’re doing. Going back to what I said before about asking for help, that can sometimes be uncomfortable. Golden Seeds can be really helpful in creating the right ecosystem to connect to people and get advice from them. You have to put yourself out there in the first place. Getting feedback and having the hard conversations about your company, ideas and teams — you want to do that long before you have the same conversation with potential investors.

Learn about the work of Golden Seeds.

More female angel investors means more funding for female entrepreneurs

Posted on August 16, 2018January 23, 2020 by Brian Jones

In the past 14 years, we’ve seen an extraordinary rise in the number of women angel investors in the United States — a more than 400 percent increase between 2004 and 2017. Just as women have claimed a larger share of the pie in the angel investing community, a growing number of women have also secured funding for their businesses.

This is not a coincidence.

The women who have recognized that their skills, interests, networks and capital qualify them for entry into the world of angel investing have left the door open for a growing number of women-led startups in search of funding. Consider two data points about early-stage companies that correlate to the rise in the number of women angel investors:

In 2004, there were 48,000 companies that received angel investments. Three percent of those — about 1,500 — were led by women.
Thirteen years later, in 2017, women entrepreneurs represented 24 percent of all the companies that received startup funding — a jump to more than 14,000 women-led companies.
The women who have recognized that their skills, interests, networks and capital qualify them for entry into the world of angel investing have left the door open for a growing number of women-led startups in search of funding.
Male angels investors back women-led companies as well, of course, but clearly there is a correlation between the momentum of women investors and the increased funding for women entrepreneurs.

Why is this?

Babson College’s Diana Project found that venture capital firms with women partners invest in companies with women leaders twice as often as VC firms that do not have women partners. When there is gender diversity among investors, there is also diversity of life experience, interest and understanding about the range of businesses that can create value. It’s not surprising, then, that there is also gender diversity in the entrepreneurs in whom they choose to invest.

Regardless of the gender of the entrepreneurs seeking funding, investors want to see:

A strong leadership team
Realistic budgets
Specific goals
Open communication with investors
Evidence of past success

That final point is another area in which women founders are advancing. Women founders can either stress their operational or management experience, their education or — increasingly — their previous entrepreneurial success. In fact, serial entrepreneurs comprised one-third of new Golden Seeds investments in 2017. Whatever the source of strength in their backgrounds, women entrepreneurs must convey confidence in their ability to succeed, their understanding of the best business model for success and their ability to adapt, especially as business realities change — as they inevitably do in the early stages of a company.

As the numbers rise for both women investors and women entrepreneurs, the potential for value creation rises for everyone.

Learn more about Golden Seeds companies and how women entrepreneurs are achieving success with Golden Seeds.

How did she do it? A Q&A with Anita Brearton and Sheryl Schultz, co-founders of CabinetM

Posted on July 26, 2018January 23, 2020 by Brian Jones

Anita Brearton, co-founder and CEO of CabinetMSheryl Schultz, co-founder and COO of CabinetM

Today, Jean Hammond, managing director of Golden Seeds and CabinetM investor, interviews Anita Brearton, co-founder and CEO, and Sheryl Schultz, co-founder and COO of CabinetM.

Below, they discuss CabinetM’s mission to help marketers map increasingly complex marketing technology usage and spending.

JH: Tell us about the origins of your company.

AB: Before we founded CabinetM in 2014, I had spent two years working as the interim CEO at an e-commerce company, where I saw how hard it was for digital marketing teams to find the technology they needed to acquire, engage with, and retain customers. Sheryl had been busy investing in and advising marketing technology startups during that time, and she had seen the same problem from another perspective. Potential customers were ignoring the emails and phone calls from technology vendors. These two groups that needed each other were ships passing in the night. We knew the problem was only going to get worse with the rapid expansion of the marketing technology landscape. We determined that vendors and marketers needed, a warm, contextual environment in which to engage, and CabinetM was born.

SS: Anita and I had both had long, successful careers in marketing, and we saw it becoming an increasingly technical role. We saw the boundary between marketing and sales blurring, with marketing responsible for the entire customer lifecycle, from lead gen to acquisition, engagement and retention. We wanted to build a platform that would serve the needs of the new technical marketer as their marketing technology use evolved. We spent six months validating the market opportunity, and confirmed that marketing organizations were increasingly relying on technology to achieve their goals. That six months was invaluable; because of it, we started to frame the business and our platform.

JH: What market need are you solving, and how is your approach different from other companies that have addressed this need?

SS: In response to the initial problem we identified, we built the industry’s largest database of marketing technology products (8,700 products) to make it easy for marketers to find the products they need and connect with the right vendors. But since embarking on our entrepreneurial journey, we’ve expanded our vision to include full lifecycle management of the products that marketers are using. Our clients are using anywhere from 50 to 250 marketing technology tools to execute their marketing goals and objectives. For each tool, they’re trying to track a set of 20+ attributes, including information like “what did the product do,” “who owns it,” “who are the super users,” “is it General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliant,” and “what do the contract details look like.”

AB: Tracking those variables and generating the reports needed by the organization is exceeding beyond the capabilities of a spreadsheet, but until now that’s been the only solution. No one is doing what we’re doing, which is providing a platform capable of managing the jigsaw puzzle of technology tools at the enterprise level, across what had been siloed areas.

JH: What challenges have you encountered along the way? What are ways you overcome them?

AB: Fundraising has been a challenge from the minute we started. The bar is much higher for women in the fundraising environment, where we’ve seen prospective investors continually move the goal posts. First, it’s “You don’t have the platform,” and then when you do, the response is, “But you don’t have customers,” and when you bring the customer stories, the demand is for something else. We pitched investors who, left to their own devices, would have waited until we completely de-risked the business before investing. That taught us to be very capital efficient. We spent smart, and we’ve gotten to where we are for one-tenth of what comparable companies have spent.

SS: We also met people along the way who actively discouraged us, as middle-aged women, from starting and leading this company. For example, industry colleagues we’d known for years suggested we should hire attractive young women to go into investor pitches first, ask those investors to close their eyes, and keep them closed until our pitch was done. Other investors who knew us as both entrepreneurs and investors said, “Startups are hard. You gals are smart. Why don’t you just take CMO jobs?”

By contrast, Golden Seeds has been tremendously supportive and helpful. Anita and I joined Golden Seeds as members in 2007, and then led the Boston chapter together from 2009 to 2011, which was a great dry run for us as business partners. We understood their process and the value their members could bring to us — not just through connections and expertise, but through concrete capital.

JH: I know there were other challenges beyond funding. What were they?

AB: The other challenge we faced was creating a new product category with our platform. Nobody was talking about managing all this marketing technology when we started. We had to evangelize around the problem and the solution. It took a couple of years for the market to catch up to us, but now we see people regularly talking about the challenges of managing their marketing stack. We spent a lot of time establishing ourselves as industry thought leaders, to the point where people think we’re a much bigger company because we’re everywhere.

JH: What’s coming up next for your company? Any big milestones on the horizon?

AB: We built an enterprise version of our platform last year, honing in on exactly what large organizations need to manage marketing technology use, performance and strategy across teams and geographies, and we are starting to see strong adoption. Our focus now is on acquiring new customers and making the ones we have exceptionally happy. As we move forward, we’ll be expanding our capabilities — our customers are very vocal about what they need, and in essence, they serve as our product management team. They are rabid advocates, and they’re very engaged in our product roadmap.

JH: What additional advice do you have for early-stage founders?

SS: Don’t start raising money too early. A lot of entrepreneurs feel intense pressure to start raising money straight out of the gate, but you need to get somewhere first. Investors will always remember your first story, and startups don’t move in a predictable straight line. It’s hard to recraft a story once it has been internalized. Validate your market, learn what your customers want, find your champions and then pitch investors.

Learn more about Golden Seeds companies and how women entrepreneurs are achieving success with Golden Seeds.