September 26, 2022 • 27 mins
Naseem Sayani is Co-founder and Managing Director of Emmeline Ventures, a female-founded early stage fund investing in ambitious female founders who are building businesses that are helping women to manage their health, build their wealth, and live in a cleaner, safer world. Join host Shiva Mirhosseini as she chats with Naseem about making strategic investments to change the game and create an ecosystem around female founders.
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:09):
Hi. Welcome to Paving the Path. I'm your host, Shiva Meter.
Say me. People know me as a customer experience champion
and a digital executive at Fortune 50 companies. I plan
on paving the path in my show with women game changers,
thought leaders and executives touching the entire spectrum of digital
transformation in health care. Join me in exploring the digital
(00:32):
renaissance that's shaping health care today and forever changing the
future of wellness, care and health. Welcome to another episode
of Paving the Path today. My guest is the same Saini.
She's the co-founder and managing director of Emily Ventures, Pre-seed
(00:53):
and Seed Stage Venture Fund focused on investing in female founders,
building game changing businesses, which are helping women in particular
manage their health, build their wealth, and live in a cleaner,
safer world. As he brings 20 plus years of venture
business building and operating experience to her fund. Prior to
(01:14):
launching Emmeline, she was a partner at BCG Digital Ventures
managing director at the Corporate Venture Capital Fund in the
real estate sector, and then interim CEO of a global
travel publishing company. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner,
their three year old rowdy toddler and their very first
(01:34):
born name, Lola. I know this team for over a
decade and it's truly a pleasure to have her on
this show. I'm so excited for this episode. The same
here we are. It's great to have you and thank
you so much for making time and joining our show.
S2 (01:50):
Welcome. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
It's so nice to see you. And it is true
we've known each other for such a long time. It's
great to be doing something like this together. So thank you.
S3 (01:59):
Absolutely. I've been watching your career and I know you
as one of the most tenacious, bravest women leaders and
leaders in general, my network. So I'm so happy that
our task force again today for this very special episode,
maybe to give us a saw that you can maybe
share with our audience how you ended up being so
(02:22):
interested and focused with respect to women's led initiatives. What
brings you to this moment right now?
S2 (02:32):
Yeah, it's a great question. And it's funny because everything
in hindsight looks like it all hooks together really neatly. But,
you know, I could tell you for eight, ten years ago,
I couldn't have predicted I'd be running a fund right now.
But it absolutely makes sense now. So couple of things.
I come from a deep background in management consulting, which
is originally where you and I met, and it was
(02:54):
all revenue focus, all growth focused. And it was circa
27 when we first had iPhones in our hands and
clients were asking digital strategy questions and didn't know what
the phone was going to do to our everyday experience.
And so it that very serendipitously led me into just
now a 20 year career or more of being in
Digital Nomad. And so I've done a lot of great
(03:14):
work in pure digital strategy work. I've done a lot
of work in innovation and with incubators, I've led an agency,
I've led this, started a startup incubator, I've built businesses,
I have raised funding for them. I've done all of
those things. And and in all of those experiences, as
you may be able to relate to, I was always
one of two or three women in the room, always
(03:36):
one or two or three women of color in the
room and of any kind of color. And so it
became a scenario where I was always the face of diversity.
I was always pulling the other women, the younger women
up with me, making sure that their careers could be
supported the way mine had been. And as I was
then getting deeper into startup land, I was I was
applying a lot of skills, a lot of experience to
(03:58):
building businesses that didn't have enough women running them. And
it wasn't that those women don't exist is that they
were just not in the circles that I was working in.
So it became a personal mission to go find them
because the impact I wanted to have was, yes, we
can build businesses anywhere. But, you know, the the ecosystems
are built the way they are, the systems are built
(04:18):
the way they are. And either those women are not
crossing paths with me by way of structures, by way
of systems, or they simply don't have the systems and
structures around them that they need to then also elevate
and also succeed. So I went looking, so I got
plugged in to a few different networks, started meeting female founders,
started kind of digging in as an advisor or making
some angel investments. And it was really a matter of
(04:40):
bringing the same skills that I was using in my
day job to founders out in the wild who maybe
otherwise didn't have access or were trying to navigate. But
there was there's no path, right? We're kind of figuring
that out right now. And so it just merged in
my own personal experience with diversity, with and wanting to
pay it forward and create some better ecosystems around female
founders that that we're building now that are getting better
(05:01):
but that don't really exist in the same way. And
that's the impetus. So when I got to the. Of
really investing and then launching the fund. Entire focus is
female founders because we know the stats. 2% of VC
money goes to female founders, even less of that to
female founders of color. And so there's a lot of
work to do, and I wanted to be part of
(05:22):
doing that work.
S3 (05:23):
So if you don't mind, maybe we can just dig
a little bit deeper. Also for us is going through
a major transformation. I know that you invest in more
than just healthcare, but you have made a couple of
ground breaking investment in women that are startups, that have
made quite a bit of noise. And from a time perspective, again,
(05:45):
it's very much relevant to any just tell us what
is broken and what is investors doing in terms of
strategic investments to help kind of change.
S2 (05:58):
Yeah, I love that you ask the question that way
and we're hopeful to change the game. That's the mission
we're on. And so there's a couple of things happening.
You know, if you go back into the history of
clinical trials, it wasn't until about 1992 that women were
included in clinical trials and we have been excluded as
of something early 1970s. And so you're talking about two
(06:21):
decades of medical research that did not include women. And
but now floodgates have opened as of I believe was 1992,
and now women are now actively included. There's more of
a diversity mandate around clinical trials than there used to be.
And this is important for a lot of reasons, because
the implication of that is that for those two decades,
(06:42):
research on women's health was done on male physiology. That
has to sit for a minute. Research on women's health
was done on male physiology. Now we're doing research on
women's health, on women. That's a big, huge deal. And
it's what is fueling a lot of the Femtech innovation
that's happening and a lot of the work that a
lot of the founders that we're working with are doing,
(07:02):
and it's why they can do it. So that has
opened up just a whole Pandora's box of opportunities. So
a handful of pilot. And so we have pilot investments
prior to launching our fund one and there's one, there's
two companies in their particular where they're in the maternal
health space. And the reason we got excited was not
because they're supporting maternal health, but by way of supporting
(07:24):
maternal health, they're actually building a vast database of maternal
care protocols across all different types of women. Right. Race, ethnicity,
socioeconomic background, location, condition. ET cetera. That database simply does
not exist anywhere else. Right. So when you think about
the ten year, 20 year outcome of a business like that,
(07:45):
they will have the potential to not have only changed
what out at home maternal care looks like, but they
will have the potential to influence policy, to influence care protocols,
to change how we understand how women are cared for
when they're pregnant. And so it's the dramatic ness of
what we can do and what we can influence is significant.
And so we're always looking for that. When we make investments,
(08:06):
we have one in our and so our current portfolio
with Fund one, we have four health care investments so far.
One is in the sexual wellness space. And so when
we think about this, the lived experience of women, a
lot of previous funding, a lot of funding even today
is very tightly focused on fertility and that's fine. But
(08:27):
there's more to a woman's life than fertility. So we're
we're trying to make sure actively that we're looking for
investments that span her entire lived experience. So sexual wellness
is a big one. We have an investment there as
a company out of the UK. They have a whole
IP library around different sexual wellness technologies and solutions that
they're going to take to market. With CPG partners. We
(08:49):
have an investment in a mental health solution around women's health.
So specifically precision medicine means mental health for women so
they can be with you through your from your adolescence,
through your your fertility, your menopause, your grown up experience.
And it all connects back into your primary care at
every point in time, because mental health, again, historically has
(09:11):
not been gendered. It is all kind of one lens
for therapy, for access, for support. But women come at
this differently, right? We're dealing with different burdens. We're dealing
with different questions. We're solving for ten things at once,
the kind of support we need and mental health needs
to be very specific and deliberate. So that was an
important one for us. And again, they're going to build
an entire view on data and insight around different women
(09:35):
at different points in their life. That's going to change
how we think about women's mental health. Right. And then
another important one is one that's focused on postpartum care
for black women in particular. And so the morbidity rates
for black moms are severe. Most of them don't want
to have their babies in mainstream hospitals because they don't
trust the experience. You know, the we've heard stories about
(09:57):
that in the news more and more. And so this
founder is focused on building both a certification program and
community that can just encompass black women. When they're ready
to have their babies and that when they go to
into a hospital so they choose to, they can feel safe.
And then the fourth is a telehealth business that's supporting abortion,
(10:18):
miscarriage and postpartum. And the other the politics are what
they are around that topic in particular. But when it
comes to women's health, the connectivity between the a woman's
ability to manage her health and make life decisions for
herself and her ability to be financially secure and stable
and successful, those two things for us are deeply tied.
And so this business was important for that reason, because
(10:40):
when you connect the dots between a woman's access to abortion,
whether or not she has it and her ability to
actually continue to develop and support her life, these things
are very tight and you could derail her, the rest
of her family and all her financial outcomes because she
couldn't get this one service right. And so that was
a critically important investment for us, as well as why
(11:02):
our thesis is what it is. It's managing her health,
building her wealth, living in a cleaner, safer world. Because
at the bottom of it all, if we can clean
up the world around her and give her agency on
her health and her wealth, she's going to do so
much better than if we just solve for one or
the other. So those the connectivity between those things is
is critical for us. And we're not me, right? You hear, Oh,
(11:22):
Femtech is the only issue like, well, 51% of the population.
I'm not following how that's the issue. And so we're
working we're working through, you know, opening up that language,
saying the words, talking about the implications, why these investments
are important. And so and you'll see this soon in
our investor newsletters, we're going to start to communicate those KPIs.
So revenue is, of course, important growth, important traction important.
(11:46):
But we also want to know how many women were touching,
how many households are we affecting, how much elevation are
we creating in what they can do next? Because that
the we need to combine the business metrics with the
impact metrics, because then the story becomes that much more powerful.
And so for us, that's part of the strategy, right,
is to make sure that we're saying all the words
that we're not shying away. It's part of her experience.
(12:06):
And we need to be we need to take the
stigma out of it. We need to say out loud
what the needs are. We did not talk about it
in her supporters because that's going to make all the
difference right there. A reason, a big reason health care
skews the way it does right now is because we
we don't say the words right. Women's health has always
been in the shadows. And something you talk about at home,
but not out loud. And now we're getting more out
(12:28):
loud about it and it's going to hopefully make a
big difference.
S3 (12:31):
Let's talk about numbers a little bit. $2.7 trillion spent
on health care out of our GDP in the US
alone and estimation, somewhere between 40 to 60% essentially waste
that either because of bad experience with diagnosis, like there's
only about half of the population. We're talking about people
(12:55):
with different backgrounds, social determinants of health, a very big
issue here that are directly and indirectly essentially addressing. You're
talking about billions of dollars that have been addressed simply
because and this is what just to put the onus
on you and the team and those entrepreneurs are truly
(13:16):
giving voice and bringing the data and these applications to
life in a way that it was never addressed before.
It's quite phenomenal. I want to switch a little bit
because I know that you listen very closely as part
of your role to a ton of entrepreneurs, other investors, friends,
(13:40):
Essentially the job of a venture capitalist, it reduces that
health care is being transformed, is being shocked in a
major way, but in many, many different ways. When it
comes to women's healthcare. What is your role in the
next one or two years and what are some of
the setbacks that you continue to see as you look
(14:02):
at the investment sets?
S2 (14:05):
Yeah, it's a good question. So my hope let's start there.
My my hope is that a lot of the a
lot of the stigma that we see around conditions that
women are working through, that they get more real attention. Right.
So a woman goes into a doctor's office because she's
having headaches or anxiety or whatever it is. You know,
(14:25):
she typically will get hope sent home and they will
take some time and I'll get some rest. Right. And
until she goes in three or four more times, you
don't get to the actual diagnosis. That could be much
more dramatic. And now months have gone by and we
could be saving lives at a different rate if we
the system listened a little bit better. So my hope
is that the system is listening better and that symptoms
(14:47):
coming from women are taken more seriously, are heard more earnestly,
and that the training that doctors are going through and
that the awareness they have around how to diagnose those things,
not that it's wrong and they're coming from a bad place,
it's simply not built into the problem solving right. And
so it just needs to get built into the problem solving.
So my hope is that that's all going to turn
a corner and get my. Sharper the road roadblocks. And
(15:09):
there's there's two I think one is, you know, just
by way of not having enough data on women's health,
it's hard to teach those things in medical school. So
my hope is that the new generations going to middle
school are going to be seeking it out, asking for it,
you know, supplementing what they need to do as far
(15:30):
as their their degree in their education so that so
they find it because they're a generation that's quite tangibly
dealing with it as well. Right. They're not we're not
in a world where we're going to take it for
granted anymore that my doctor always knows the right answer
where we are a much more empowered health care user
these days. And so my hope is that that personal
empowerment will translate into their educational empowerment. The second is
(15:54):
that as the language that the other block or other
is that a lot of the language isn't well understood
or even in awareness with traditional voices, right? And so
there's a whole crop of other emerging manager female focused
funds much like ours. And the what we're doing is
raising awareness. We're increasing representation. We are saying the words
(16:15):
out loud, like I said, because I can tell you
so many stories from founders I work with who will
have a conversation with a VC over a room of,
let's say, three male biases. Both start to talk about
pelvic floor and they get the gloss over because they
say they don't. It's not their experience. They don't understand.
They have to go home and ask their partner as
their daughter, as someone else. And so they they can't
(16:36):
engage in the solution because they don't understand the problem.
And then they get the same feeling, I guess, in
a room with us. And we're three women and they
don't have to explain those things. We're just like, We
get it. Tell me what you're doing about it. And
so it's the conversation is completely different. So that's a
blocker that will shift, but it's going to take more
and more funds like ours. Talking about those investments, raising
(16:56):
the capital, you know, being the rallying cry. This is
behind this language. And I think of those two things happen.
And then by way of that, our large traditional VC counterparts,
we're going to start to hear that as well because,
you know, this is a whole asset base of companies
that's going to be highly valuable, that's going to grow quickly,
that has outcomes that are going to be significant. And
(17:19):
so if you don't understand language, fine, but you're going
to want the exit. So let's get them educated enough
that they want to be involved because because the business
value was.
S3 (17:28):
That this was it. How fitting to listen to you
talking about paving the path essentially on this show? Part
of what you're doing is not just investment, is public service,
raising awareness, educating, and it takes a lot of bravery
(17:48):
and stamina to do that. And then to see mine
now is the person to truly the path. And I
mean that. I know you too long to go this
a value and so it's your investment into those investments.
And speaking of investments, what is what is the road
ahead look like for many ventures 12 months out?
S2 (18:12):
So we are in the midst of raising our fund,
one that we are registered as a503c fund. And I
say this because it's important, because the distinction is that
I can say out loud that we're fundraising and I
can say out loud, if you're interested in being an investor,
please call us if you're not registered that way. I
can't say that. So I'm going to say that out loud.
(18:32):
And so we're in the midst of raising our fund one.
We're raising 10 million, we're raising into it, and we're
aiming to have the full fund raised by the end
of next year, So the end of 2023. And then
we'll be investing that capital over the course of about
3 to 4 years. We've already start we're raising we're
deploying as we're raising, I should say. So we'll have
(18:52):
the bulk of the fund probably deployed by the end
of a four year window and then we'll be raising
fund to so fund to will hopefully be in the
25 and 30 million range. We'll get bigger with each
fund that we raise. And, you know, fingers crossed we
get the traction, the exits, the outcomes out of the fund,
one that makes fund to fund three, you know, that
(19:13):
much more possible. But the next 6 to 12 months
are double down on fund raising and bringing the capital together.
And then also in parallel, I lead all of our
deal flow. And so I'm continuously like in market talking
to founders, meeting people in building roster so that we
can be investing in things as we go because there's
a lot going on. So we want to make sure
(19:35):
that we're building a really smart, really thoughtful, really powerful portfolio.
And we're doing that in parallel to raising the cap.
S3 (19:41):
Absolutely. It's a very dynamic environment and I feel like
you probably have many more opportunities that would like to
probably extend techs to just because of how fast the
environment is changing. Just curious to see what other trends
are are you paying attention to?
S2 (20:00):
Yeah, that's a good question. So there's a lot kind
of the parallel trend of the summer of financial services
trend is that and it's. What we're looking for when
we're investing is that the financial services sector is starting
to catch up to how much disposable income and how
much deployment decision making sits with women. And yet all
(20:21):
the financial tools in the market are largely built for men.
And it's just the nature of how these things were built.
And so we're seeing I'm seeing a lot more solutions
that are catered to and built around, rather the behaviors
of female spenders. The behaviors around household spending, the behaviors around,
you know, planning for for household rather than signing for
(20:42):
an individual. And that's a big difference in how how
women are typically spending. And it's just innate to the
role we play in our our families and our communities.
And so you're we're seeing a lot more tools built
for that. The other thing that's happening is with with
crypto being as interesting and as volatile as it is,
we're big believers in the change that's going to create
for financial systems generally. And so the the democratization of
(21:06):
wealth generation and the access to all generation that that's
going to create and this the flexibility it's going to
create is going to be an important driver for how
women get more involved in asset classes. So that's a
big trend that we're watching. And we have one investment
in that space as well. The last one is more
specific to something that's important to us as a fund,
and that's happening kind of across the VC space is
(21:28):
that a lot of women have not invested in venture
before and they haven't invested in in the big ticket moneymaker,
things that a lot of our male counterparts have for years.
We are also being quite loud and being very active
about bringing in women into the fund as first time
check riders, because this is a place where a lot
(21:49):
of money has been made historically, and so we should
all be part of this asset class. It's it's it's
felt pretty out of reach, I think, for years. And
so us and a number of other funds have been
quite actively becoming an education channel for women to get involved,
to write small checks. So, you know, it doesn't have
to be the perception is that it's going to take
$250,000 to get involved in a venture. And it actually
(22:11):
doesn't have to require that. Right. It can be something
much smaller. And so you can get involved, you can
learn a lot. You can then decide to write bigger
checks later. But, you know, putting some capital to work
in a way that has returns is a different way
for women to deploy capital than they have previously. Philanthropic
donations are very easy for women who like the altruistic
(22:31):
ness of that and like, great, I'll do blah, blah,
blah with this foundation, and they'll do it without thinking
about it. But the same human thinking about putting that
same check into venture causes pause and say, Well, let
me talk to my partner, Let me talk to my husband.
Let me talk to the person, my family who manages
our bigger investments. And so and that's, I think, is
going to be a generational shift. So, you know, if
(22:52):
we talk to any of my parents or your parents
and I'm making assumptions, but, you know, my my mom
doesn't know what I do, nor does she nor could
she write a check into a fund like mine because
it's kind of outside of her purview. I'll sit down
and teach her about it, but it's not top of mind.
But I think for our generation, it's becoming much more
top of mind. So we're likely to see just a
lot more women active with their capital in this space.
S3 (23:15):
As I'm listening to you in this game, just a
number of different paths that you and the team are
truly paving, for lack of a better word, to begin
the long educated investment theme in your mission and life.
That I know and it resonates. Even when I was
(23:40):
announcing your bio at the beginning, it's very much consistent
with everything that you have done in life, and that
in itself is so powerful and a celebration and certainly
an honor to have you on this show and to
have you as a friend. You are doing amazing, amazing work.
(24:02):
Congratulations to you and to my you. She's always the
very best in the next few months as you post
the first fund and you're doing amazing work. Any final
thoughts that you want to leave with us in particular
for people that want to reach out?
S2 (24:20):
Yeah, I love that question. So there's a couple of
different ways. Our website ventures got VC and has the
recap on our thesis, our entire portfolio, and there's a
link at the bottom to either invest with us or
pitch us. So it's an easy spot to let us
know that you want to get involved. I am on
Twitter so you can find me at the symphony. You'll
find me. I'm not as active as I'd like to be,
(24:41):
but I'm certainly there and so happy to engage. And
then LinkedIn is very easy, fairly active on LinkedIn so
you can find me there. Email is always the easiest.
So in this team at Emily and Ventures, Dot VC
is perfect. I do manage all of our deal flows,
so send founders to us and I'm meeting anywhere from
8 to 10 a week, so I'm happy to meet
as many great humans as I can building great things.
(25:04):
And then if you want to invest, I would love
to have that conversation as well. Like I said, we're
actively in the depths of fundraising. Check sizes are very flexible.
We're working with both individuals like yourself, and we are
now getting into the larger family Office institutional conversations to
get the the bigger chunk of the checks in. So
it's all it's all raising. But if you have any
(25:25):
interest in learning more, want to ask questions? We're happy
for any questions. Anything that can help facilitate education to
get more people involved, please let us know and let's
talk because we want to create as much of an
open conversation both around what we're building as a fund
and you know what it means for the different sectors
we're investing in because we're here to change the world
and do some good and make some money. So let's
(25:45):
do that all together.
S3 (25:47):
Get in touch with us, see, so you can be
part of paving the path for amazing ideas and companies
and generational changes that are happening in many directions, but
especially also in healthcare. Pleasure to have you. Thank you
so much for your time today.
S2 (26:05):
Thank you so much for having me. I love talking
about everything we're doing and the change we're making, and
I appreciate the forum to do that with you and
and also love that you're part of the fund and
that we've stayed in touch for so long. So everything
you're doing is fantastic, and I'm so happy to know you.
So thanks for having me.
S3 (26:20):
Thank you. Let's zoom and thank you, everyone for listening
to this show. And we wish you a great rest
of the day.
S4 (26:30):
Thanks for tuning in. If you like what you heard,
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(26:53):
you need and it's all for free. And remember, we
might have a lot of work to do in health care,
but we'll get there faster together. Thanks again.
Hi. Welcome to Paving the Path. I'm your host, Shiva Meter.
Say me. People know me as a customer experience champion
and a digital executive at Fortune 50 companies. I plan
on paving the path in my show with women game changers,
thought leaders and executives touching the entire spectrum of digital
transformation in health care. Join me in exploring the digital
(00:32):
renaissance that's shaping health care today and forever changing the
future of wellness, care and health. Welcome to another episode
of Paving the Path today. My guest is the same Saini.
She's the co-founder and managing director of Emily Ventures, Pre-seed
(00:53):
and Seed Stage Venture Fund focused on investing in female founders,
building game changing businesses, which are helping women in particular
manage their health, build their wealth, and live in a cleaner,
safer world. As he brings 20 plus years of venture
business building and operating experience to her fund. Prior to
(01:14):
launching Emmeline, she was a partner at BCG Digital Ventures
managing director at the Corporate Venture Capital Fund in the
real estate sector, and then interim CEO of a global
travel publishing company. She lives in Los Angeles with her partner,
their three year old rowdy toddler and their very first
(01:34):
born name, Lola. I know this team for over a
decade and it's truly a pleasure to have her on
this show. I'm so excited for this episode. The same
here we are. It's great to have you and thank
you so much for making time and joining our show.
S2 (01:50):
Welcome. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.
It's so nice to see you. And it is true
we've known each other for such a long time. It's
great to be doing something like this together. So thank you.
S3 (01:59):
Absolutely. I've been watching your career and I know you
as one of the most tenacious, bravest women leaders and
leaders in general, my network. So I'm so happy that
our task force again today for this very special episode,
maybe to give us a saw that you can maybe
share with our audience how you ended up being so
(02:22):
interested and focused with respect to women's led initiatives. What
brings you to this moment right now?
S2 (02:32):
Yeah, it's a great question. And it's funny because everything
in hindsight looks like it all hooks together really neatly. But,
you know, I could tell you for eight, ten years ago,
I couldn't have predicted I'd be running a fund right now.
But it absolutely makes sense now. So couple of things.
I come from a deep background in management consulting, which
is originally where you and I met, and it was
(02:54):
all revenue focus, all growth focused. And it was circa
27 when we first had iPhones in our hands and
clients were asking digital strategy questions and didn't know what
the phone was going to do to our everyday experience.
And so it that very serendipitously led me into just
now a 20 year career or more of being in
Digital Nomad. And so I've done a lot of great
(03:14):
work in pure digital strategy work. I've done a lot
of work in innovation and with incubators, I've led an agency,
I've led this, started a startup incubator, I've built businesses,
I have raised funding for them. I've done all of
those things. And and in all of those experiences, as
you may be able to relate to, I was always
one of two or three women in the room, always
(03:36):
one or two or three women of color in the
room and of any kind of color. And so it
became a scenario where I was always the face of diversity.
I was always pulling the other women, the younger women
up with me, making sure that their careers could be
supported the way mine had been. And as I was
then getting deeper into startup land, I was I was
applying a lot of skills, a lot of experience to
(03:58):
building businesses that didn't have enough women running them. And
it wasn't that those women don't exist is that they
were just not in the circles that I was working in.
So it became a personal mission to go find them
because the impact I wanted to have was, yes, we
can build businesses anywhere. But, you know, the the ecosystems
are built the way they are, the systems are built
(04:18):
the way they are. And either those women are not
crossing paths with me by way of structures, by way
of systems, or they simply don't have the systems and
structures around them that they need to then also elevate
and also succeed. So I went looking, so I got
plugged in to a few different networks, started meeting female founders,
started kind of digging in as an advisor or making
some angel investments. And it was really a matter of
(04:40):
bringing the same skills that I was using in my
day job to founders out in the wild who maybe
otherwise didn't have access or were trying to navigate. But
there was there's no path, right? We're kind of figuring
that out right now. And so it just merged in
my own personal experience with diversity, with and wanting to
pay it forward and create some better ecosystems around female
founders that that we're building now that are getting better
(05:01):
but that don't really exist in the same way. And
that's the impetus. So when I got to the. Of
really investing and then launching the fund. Entire focus is
female founders because we know the stats. 2% of VC
money goes to female founders, even less of that to
female founders of color. And so there's a lot of
work to do, and I wanted to be part of
(05:22):
doing that work.
S3 (05:23):
So if you don't mind, maybe we can just dig
a little bit deeper. Also for us is going through
a major transformation. I know that you invest in more
than just healthcare, but you have made a couple of
ground breaking investment in women that are startups, that have
made quite a bit of noise. And from a time perspective, again,
(05:45):
it's very much relevant to any just tell us what
is broken and what is investors doing in terms of
strategic investments to help kind of change.
S2 (05:58):
Yeah, I love that you ask the question that way
and we're hopeful to change the game. That's the mission
we're on. And so there's a couple of things happening.
You know, if you go back into the history of
clinical trials, it wasn't until about 1992 that women were
included in clinical trials and we have been excluded as
of something early 1970s. And so you're talking about two
(06:21):
decades of medical research that did not include women. And
but now floodgates have opened as of I believe was 1992,
and now women are now actively included. There's more of
a diversity mandate around clinical trials than there used to be.
And this is important for a lot of reasons, because
the implication of that is that for those two decades,
(06:42):
research on women's health was done on male physiology. That
has to sit for a minute. Research on women's health
was done on male physiology. Now we're doing research on
women's health, on women. That's a big, huge deal. And
it's what is fueling a lot of the Femtech innovation
that's happening and a lot of the work that a
lot of the founders that we're working with are doing,
(07:02):
and it's why they can do it. So that has
opened up just a whole Pandora's box of opportunities. So
a handful of pilot. And so we have pilot investments
prior to launching our fund one and there's one, there's
two companies in their particular where they're in the maternal
health space. And the reason we got excited was not
because they're supporting maternal health, but by way of supporting
(07:24):
maternal health, they're actually building a vast database of maternal
care protocols across all different types of women. Right. Race, ethnicity,
socioeconomic background, location, condition. ET cetera. That database simply does
not exist anywhere else. Right. So when you think about
the ten year, 20 year outcome of a business like that,
(07:45):
they will have the potential to not have only changed
what out at home maternal care looks like, but they
will have the potential to influence policy, to influence care protocols,
to change how we understand how women are cared for
when they're pregnant. And so it's the dramatic ness of
what we can do and what we can influence is significant.
And so we're always looking for that. When we make investments,
(08:06):
we have one in our and so our current portfolio
with Fund one, we have four health care investments so far.
One is in the sexual wellness space. And so when
we think about this, the lived experience of women, a
lot of previous funding, a lot of funding even today
is very tightly focused on fertility and that's fine. But
(08:27):
there's more to a woman's life than fertility. So we're
we're trying to make sure actively that we're looking for
investments that span her entire lived experience. So sexual wellness
is a big one. We have an investment there as
a company out of the UK. They have a whole
IP library around different sexual wellness technologies and solutions that
they're going to take to market. With CPG partners. We
(08:49):
have an investment in a mental health solution around women's health.
So specifically precision medicine means mental health for women so
they can be with you through your from your adolescence,
through your your fertility, your menopause, your grown up experience.
And it all connects back into your primary care at
every point in time, because mental health, again, historically has
(09:11):
not been gendered. It is all kind of one lens
for therapy, for access, for support. But women come at
this differently, right? We're dealing with different burdens. We're dealing
with different questions. We're solving for ten things at once,
the kind of support we need and mental health needs
to be very specific and deliberate. So that was an
important one for us. And again, they're going to build
an entire view on data and insight around different women
(09:35):
at different points in their life. That's going to change
how we think about women's mental health. Right. And then
another important one is one that's focused on postpartum care
for black women in particular. And so the morbidity rates
for black moms are severe. Most of them don't want
to have their babies in mainstream hospitals because they don't
trust the experience. You know, the we've heard stories about
(09:57):
that in the news more and more. And so this
founder is focused on building both a certification program and
community that can just encompass black women. When they're ready
to have their babies and that when they go to
into a hospital so they choose to, they can feel safe.
And then the fourth is a telehealth business that's supporting abortion,
(10:18):
miscarriage and postpartum. And the other the politics are what
they are around that topic in particular. But when it
comes to women's health, the connectivity between the a woman's
ability to manage her health and make life decisions for
herself and her ability to be financially secure and stable
and successful, those two things for us are deeply tied.
And so this business was important for that reason, because
(10:40):
when you connect the dots between a woman's access to abortion,
whether or not she has it and her ability to
actually continue to develop and support her life, these things
are very tight and you could derail her, the rest
of her family and all her financial outcomes because she
couldn't get this one service right. And so that was
a critically important investment for us, as well as why
(11:02):
our thesis is what it is. It's managing her health,
building her wealth, living in a cleaner, safer world. Because
at the bottom of it all, if we can clean
up the world around her and give her agency on
her health and her wealth, she's going to do so
much better than if we just solve for one or
the other. So those the connectivity between those things is
is critical for us. And we're not me, right? You hear, Oh,
(11:22):
Femtech is the only issue like, well, 51% of the population.
I'm not following how that's the issue. And so we're
working we're working through, you know, opening up that language,
saying the words, talking about the implications, why these investments
are important. And so and you'll see this soon in
our investor newsletters, we're going to start to communicate those KPIs.
So revenue is, of course, important growth, important traction important.
(11:46):
But we also want to know how many women were touching,
how many households are we affecting, how much elevation are
we creating in what they can do next? Because that
the we need to combine the business metrics with the
impact metrics, because then the story becomes that much more powerful.
And so for us, that's part of the strategy, right,
is to make sure that we're saying all the words
that we're not shying away. It's part of her experience.
(12:06):
And we need to be we need to take the
stigma out of it. We need to say out loud
what the needs are. We did not talk about it
in her supporters because that's going to make all the
difference right there. A reason, a big reason health care
skews the way it does right now is because we
we don't say the words right. Women's health has always
been in the shadows. And something you talk about at home,
but not out loud. And now we're getting more out
(12:28):
loud about it and it's going to hopefully make a
big difference.
S3 (12:31):
Let's talk about numbers a little bit. $2.7 trillion spent
on health care out of our GDP in the US
alone and estimation, somewhere between 40 to 60% essentially waste
that either because of bad experience with diagnosis, like there's
only about half of the population. We're talking about people
(12:55):
with different backgrounds, social determinants of health, a very big
issue here that are directly and indirectly essentially addressing. You're
talking about billions of dollars that have been addressed simply
because and this is what just to put the onus
on you and the team and those entrepreneurs are truly
(13:16):
giving voice and bringing the data and these applications to
life in a way that it was never addressed before.
It's quite phenomenal. I want to switch a little bit
because I know that you listen very closely as part
of your role to a ton of entrepreneurs, other investors, friends,
(13:40):
Essentially the job of a venture capitalist, it reduces that
health care is being transformed, is being shocked in a
major way, but in many, many different ways. When it
comes to women's healthcare. What is your role in the
next one or two years and what are some of
the setbacks that you continue to see as you look
(14:02):
at the investment sets?
S2 (14:05):
Yeah, it's a good question. So my hope let's start there.
My my hope is that a lot of the a
lot of the stigma that we see around conditions that
women are working through, that they get more real attention. Right.
So a woman goes into a doctor's office because she's
having headaches or anxiety or whatever it is. You know,
(14:25):
she typically will get hope sent home and they will
take some time and I'll get some rest. Right. And
until she goes in three or four more times, you
don't get to the actual diagnosis. That could be much
more dramatic. And now months have gone by and we
could be saving lives at a different rate if we
the system listened a little bit better. So my hope
is that the system is listening better and that symptoms
(14:47):
coming from women are taken more seriously, are heard more earnestly,
and that the training that doctors are going through and
that the awareness they have around how to diagnose those things,
not that it's wrong and they're coming from a bad place,
it's simply not built into the problem solving right. And
so it just needs to get built into the problem solving.
So my hope is that that's all going to turn
a corner and get my. Sharper the road roadblocks. And
(15:09):
there's there's two I think one is, you know, just
by way of not having enough data on women's health,
it's hard to teach those things in medical school. So
my hope is that the new generations going to middle
school are going to be seeking it out, asking for it,
you know, supplementing what they need to do as far
(15:30):
as their their degree in their education so that so
they find it because they're a generation that's quite tangibly
dealing with it as well. Right. They're not we're not
in a world where we're going to take it for
granted anymore that my doctor always knows the right answer
where we are a much more empowered health care user
these days. And so my hope is that that personal
empowerment will translate into their educational empowerment. The second is
(15:54):
that as the language that the other block or other
is that a lot of the language isn't well understood
or even in awareness with traditional voices, right? And so
there's a whole crop of other emerging manager female focused
funds much like ours. And the what we're doing is
raising awareness. We're increasing representation. We are saying the words
(16:15):
out loud, like I said, because I can tell you
so many stories from founders I work with who will
have a conversation with a VC over a room of,
let's say, three male biases. Both start to talk about
pelvic floor and they get the gloss over because they
say they don't. It's not their experience. They don't understand.
They have to go home and ask their partner as
their daughter, as someone else. And so they they can't
(16:36):
engage in the solution because they don't understand the problem.
And then they get the same feeling, I guess, in
a room with us. And we're three women and they
don't have to explain those things. We're just like, We
get it. Tell me what you're doing about it. And
so it's the conversation is completely different. So that's a
blocker that will shift, but it's going to take more
and more funds like ours. Talking about those investments, raising
(16:56):
the capital, you know, being the rallying cry. This is
behind this language. And I think of those two things happen.
And then by way of that, our large traditional VC counterparts,
we're going to start to hear that as well because,
you know, this is a whole asset base of companies
that's going to be highly valuable, that's going to grow quickly,
that has outcomes that are going to be significant. And
(17:19):
so if you don't understand language, fine, but you're going
to want the exit. So let's get them educated enough
that they want to be involved because because the business
value was.
S3 (17:28):
That this was it. How fitting to listen to you
talking about paving the path essentially on this show? Part
of what you're doing is not just investment, is public service,
raising awareness, educating, and it takes a lot of bravery
(17:48):
and stamina to do that. And then to see mine
now is the person to truly the path. And I
mean that. I know you too long to go this
a value and so it's your investment into those investments.
And speaking of investments, what is what is the road
ahead look like for many ventures 12 months out?
S2 (18:12):
So we are in the midst of raising our fund,
one that we are registered as a503c fund. And I
say this because it's important, because the distinction is that
I can say out loud that we're fundraising and I
can say out loud, if you're interested in being an investor,
please call us if you're not registered that way. I
can't say that. So I'm going to say that out loud.
(18:32):
And so we're in the midst of raising our fund one.
We're raising 10 million, we're raising into it, and we're
aiming to have the full fund raised by the end
of next year, So the end of 2023. And then
we'll be investing that capital over the course of about
3 to 4 years. We've already start we're raising we're
deploying as we're raising, I should say. So we'll have
(18:52):
the bulk of the fund probably deployed by the end
of a four year window and then we'll be raising
fund to so fund to will hopefully be in the
25 and 30 million range. We'll get bigger with each
fund that we raise. And, you know, fingers crossed we
get the traction, the exits, the outcomes out of the fund,
one that makes fund to fund three, you know, that
(19:13):
much more possible. But the next 6 to 12 months
are double down on fund raising and bringing the capital together.
And then also in parallel, I lead all of our
deal flow. And so I'm continuously like in market talking
to founders, meeting people in building roster so that we
can be investing in things as we go because there's
a lot going on. So we want to make sure
(19:35):
that we're building a really smart, really thoughtful, really powerful portfolio.
And we're doing that in parallel to raising the cap.
S3 (19:41):
Absolutely. It's a very dynamic environment and I feel like
you probably have many more opportunities that would like to
probably extend techs to just because of how fast the
environment is changing. Just curious to see what other trends
are are you paying attention to?
S2 (20:00):
Yeah, that's a good question. So there's a lot kind
of the parallel trend of the summer of financial services
trend is that and it's. What we're looking for when
we're investing is that the financial services sector is starting
to catch up to how much disposable income and how
much deployment decision making sits with women. And yet all
(20:21):
the financial tools in the market are largely built for men.
And it's just the nature of how these things were built.
And so we're seeing I'm seeing a lot more solutions
that are catered to and built around, rather the behaviors
of female spenders. The behaviors around household spending, the behaviors around,
you know, planning for for household rather than signing for
(20:42):
an individual. And that's a big difference in how how
women are typically spending. And it's just innate to the
role we play in our our families and our communities.
And so you're we're seeing a lot more tools built
for that. The other thing that's happening is with with
crypto being as interesting and as volatile as it is,
we're big believers in the change that's going to create
for financial systems generally. And so the the democratization of
(21:06):
wealth generation and the access to all generation that that's
going to create and this the flexibility it's going to
create is going to be an important driver for how
women get more involved in asset classes. So that's a
big trend that we're watching. And we have one investment
in that space as well. The last one is more
specific to something that's important to us as a fund,
and that's happening kind of across the VC space is
(21:28):
that a lot of women have not invested in venture
before and they haven't invested in in the big ticket moneymaker,
things that a lot of our male counterparts have for years.
We are also being quite loud and being very active
about bringing in women into the fund as first time
check riders, because this is a place where a lot
(21:49):
of money has been made historically, and so we should
all be part of this asset class. It's it's it's
felt pretty out of reach, I think, for years. And
so us and a number of other funds have been
quite actively becoming an education channel for women to get involved,
to write small checks. So, you know, it doesn't have
to be the perception is that it's going to take
$250,000 to get involved in a venture. And it actually
(22:11):
doesn't have to require that. Right. It can be something
much smaller. And so you can get involved, you can
learn a lot. You can then decide to write bigger
checks later. But, you know, putting some capital to work
in a way that has returns is a different way
for women to deploy capital than they have previously. Philanthropic
donations are very easy for women who like the altruistic
(22:31):
ness of that and like, great, I'll do blah, blah,
blah with this foundation, and they'll do it without thinking
about it. But the same human thinking about putting that
same check into venture causes pause and say, Well, let
me talk to my partner, Let me talk to my husband.
Let me talk to the person, my family who manages
our bigger investments. And so and that's, I think, is
going to be a generational shift. So, you know, if
(22:52):
we talk to any of my parents or your parents
and I'm making assumptions, but, you know, my my mom
doesn't know what I do, nor does she nor could
she write a check into a fund like mine because
it's kind of outside of her purview. I'll sit down
and teach her about it, but it's not top of mind.
But I think for our generation, it's becoming much more
top of mind. So we're likely to see just a
lot more women active with their capital in this space.
S3 (23:15):
As I'm listening to you in this game, just a
number of different paths that you and the team are
truly paving, for lack of a better word, to begin
the long educated investment theme in your mission and life.
That I know and it resonates. Even when I was
(23:40):
announcing your bio at the beginning, it's very much consistent
with everything that you have done in life, and that
in itself is so powerful and a celebration and certainly
an honor to have you on this show and to
have you as a friend. You are doing amazing, amazing work.
(24:02):
Congratulations to you and to my you. She's always the
very best in the next few months as you post
the first fund and you're doing amazing work. Any final
thoughts that you want to leave with us in particular
for people that want to reach out?
S2 (24:20):
Yeah, I love that question. So there's a couple of
different ways. Our website ventures got VC and has the
recap on our thesis, our entire portfolio, and there's a
link at the bottom to either invest with us or
pitch us. So it's an easy spot to let us
know that you want to get involved. I am on
Twitter so you can find me at the symphony. You'll
find me. I'm not as active as I'd like to be,
(24:41):
but I'm certainly there and so happy to engage. And
then LinkedIn is very easy, fairly active on LinkedIn so
you can find me there. Email is always the easiest.
So in this team at Emily and Ventures, Dot VC
is perfect. I do manage all of our deal flows,
so send founders to us and I'm meeting anywhere from
8 to 10 a week, so I'm happy to meet
as many great humans as I can building great things.
(25:04):
And then if you want to invest, I would love
to have that conversation as well. Like I said, we're
actively in the depths of fundraising. Check sizes are very flexible.
We're working with both individuals like yourself, and we are
now getting into the larger family Office institutional conversations to
get the the bigger chunk of the checks in. So
it's all it's all raising. But if you have any
(25:25):
interest in learning more, want to ask questions? We're happy
for any questions. Anything that can help facilitate education to
get more people involved, please let us know and let's
talk because we want to create as much of an
open conversation both around what we're building as a fund
and you know what it means for the different sectors
we're investing in because we're here to change the world
and do some good and make some money. So let's
(25:45):
do that all together.
S3 (25:47):
Get in touch with us, see, so you can be
part of paving the path for amazing ideas and companies
and generational changes that are happening in many directions, but
especially also in healthcare. Pleasure to have you. Thank you
so much for your time today.
S2 (26:05):
Thank you so much for having me. I love talking
about everything we're doing and the change we're making, and
I appreciate the forum to do that with you and
and also love that you're part of the fund and
that we've stayed in touch for so long. So everything
you're doing is fantastic, and I'm so happy to know you.
So thanks for having me.
S3 (26:20):
Thank you. Let's zoom and thank you, everyone for listening
to this show. And we wish you a great rest
of the day.
S4 (26:30):
Thanks for tuning in. If you like what you heard,
please spread the word. Tell your colleagues to tune in
for all the awesomeness, then leave a review on Apple, Spotify,
or wherever you listen. This show is produced by Shift
Forward Health. The channel for Change Makers Subscribe to Shift
Forward Health on your favorite podcast app and you'll be
subscribed to our entire library of shows. See our full
lineup at Shift Forward Health.com one subscription All the podcasts
(26:53):
you need and it's all for free. And remember, we
might have a lot of work to do in health care,
but we'll get there faster together. Thanks again.
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