100 Days of Funding Tips: Day 3/100: Shelly Porges, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Beyond The Billion

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Who’s Shelly Porges?
Shelly Porges is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, a global consortium of venture funds pledged to invest in female-founded firms and Beyond the Billion, mobilizing LP investors into TBDF funds. She is also a Board Member of the Financial Alliance for Women and on the Advisory Board for Cornerstone Capital, Mindshift Capital, Different Funds and Global Invest Her.
Ms. Porges also served as President of the North American Jury for Cartier Women’s Initiative for over a decade and as the former Senior Advisor, Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) at the U.S. State Department, a program she expanded to almost 150 countries, under Secretary Hillary Clinton. Before joining the State Department, she had a distinguished career in the private sector, including both corporate and entrepreneurial ventures. She served as executive head of marketing for American Express Canada and as chief marketing officer for Bank of America during a historic turn-around. Ms. Porges co-founded six ventures including Porges/Hudson Marketing; Scudder Weisel Capital LLC, a joint venture between Thomas Weisel Partners and Zurich Scudder Investments; and Global Payments Experts LLC, a payments industry advisory firm.
Learn more about her here.
What’s her Funding Tip:Investors are extremely busy people, like all of us. Most VC funds get anything from 2000–5000 or more pitches per year, which means that they spend most of their time talking to entrepreneurs, reviewing pitch decks, going to pitch competitions and other places for deal flow, always on the hunt for the next big thing. That’s why Shelly’s advice is so valuable on this point. You need to grab investors attention in the right way and be extremely mindful of their time. Know how each investor likes to be contacted. Do your homeowork.
We’ll have plenty more tips coming your way soon on this topic too.
Why Should You Listen to Her Funding Tip?Well, first of all, Shelly is a 7-time serial woman entrepreneur herself and before that, she was a very successful top executive in the banking world. She is an incredible women’s advocate and I’ve been honoured to have her on our Advisory board at Global Invest Her for many years. Shelly walks the talk when it comes to funding women entrepreneurs and thinks systemically, about taking bold measures to move things forward.
Not content with investing in women-led companies, being a global advocate and speaker on the topic of funding women entrepreneurs, and the person behind the Global Entrepreneurship Program at the U.S. State department changing the ecosystem for entrepreneurs in over 150 countries, when Shelly saw the opportunity to make a difference in using her mobilizing and influencing skills to get more capital to women-led businesses, the Billion Dollar Fund was born.
Learn more about her adventure below and I’d also recommend you listen to her podcast episode on our very own InvestHer Podcast — and see/hear for yourself, what a trailblazer she is.
About Beyond the Billion“The Billion Dollar Fund for Women™ began as a pledge campaign aimed at mobilizing a global consortium committed to invest $1 BILLION by 2020 in women founders, rapidly increasing the funding pipeline. With the goal met in under 9 months, today, we are going Beyond The Billion™, targeting the top of the capital stack — driving returns through diversity.”
What are they doing during the Covid-19 Crisis?Beyond the Billion are continuing to mobilise the next cohort of funds to take new pledges of investing in women entrepreneurs.
They are also working on engaging with more LPs (Limited Partners ie investors who invest their money into funds, not the startups directly) to be able to mobilize even more capital to female founders, by showing that investing in women in great for the bottom line.
“To continue to fuel innovation by women, we must change the larger game of capital: by ensuring venture funds who drive investments into women-founded companies are supported at large. Beyond a moral imperative, we see this as a business case — investing in women is good business.” (Beyond the Billion website)
Learn more about Shelly Porges, here:

• Beyond the Billion Website
• LIST OF PARTNER FUNDs WHO TOOK THE PLEDGE — to invest in female founders
• Blog
• Trailblazing Woman interview with Shelly Porges in the Huffpost
• Her Twitter profile
• Her LinkedIn Profile

In my Huffpost interview with Shelly a few years ago, the 3 words she used to describe herself are: High energy, Optimistic, Inspiring. When you listen to her podcast episode, all of those qualities will be shining through your earphones! As for me, I’m lucky to count her not only as an advisor, but as a friend.

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Anne
About the Author: Anne Ravanona is Founder & CEO of Global Invest Her, a recognised international Gender Diversity Advocate and Consultant, and TEDx Speaker. She’s passionate about getting 1 Million Women Entrepreneurs Funded by 2030.
Learn more about Anne here:

• personal website
• Follow Anne on twitter or instagram
• linkedin profile
• Global Invest Her website

Global Invest Her BLOGGlobal Invest Her blog is for female founders, investors…
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