Day 2/100 - Bedy yang, managing partner, 500 Startups

Day 2/100

Who’s Bedy Yang?

Bedy Yang is a Managing Partner at 500 Startups, where she manages strategic partnerships, investor education program, marketing and events team. She helped 500 in the early days to set up the global investment footprint and invested and worked with startups such as Viva Real, Talk Desk, Conta Azul, Descomplica, Cine Papaya. Bedy is a super-connector, knows Brazil inside & out, knows technology, supports entrepreneurs & startup events via Brazil Innovators, and speaks Mandarin, Spanish, English, & Portuguese, as well as some Taiwanese and German. She is passionate about innovation.
She founded Brazil Innovators, an organization that nurtures entrepreneurship and innovation through the connection to Silicon Valley and was also the co-organiser of Startup Weekend in Brazil and beyond. Previously she had a social business on income generation and fair trade working with Brazil and China.

Talk about being a Global Diversity Champion for Startups!

Why Should You Listen to Her Funding Tip?
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Above all, Bedy is a funding powerhouse: global, smart, action-focused and open-minded, who really does want to help entrepreneurs succeed.I met Bedy many years ago at WeXchange Miami in 2014, the leading event for women entrepreneurs across Latin America, where we were both speakers. I immediately warmed to her quick mind and generous sharing of key tips to as many entrepreneurs she could. We met again in Dublin and Paris at different startup conferences and in 2016, I had the pleasure of interviewing her for my Trailblazing Women Series . In fact, hers is by far my most read article :) also published on Huffpost.
I love watching her watch entrepreneurs pitch. If you look closely, you’ll see her glued to her phone while they are speaking. Now, some founders would read that as being rude, or she’s not interested in what they are saying. I observed her closely at a pitch event in Paris, and in fact, she was actually looking up the company on Crunchbase and Angel List, while listening intensely and then peppering them with astute, precise questions about their pitch. Bedy doesn’t miss a beat. She has a high, positive energy and you can be sure that whatever advice or feedback she gives you, will be pertinent. Follow it closely, and it will probably save you a lot of time, or mistakes. Such is my respect for her.
She is generous with her time and knowledge and can be seen sharing great advice at many startup and investor events around the world.

Watch her speaking at: Insights into Silicon Valley Investing | TNW Conference 2017
About 500 Startups500 Startups are a VC Fund, Seed Investor, Startup Accelerator and Education resource to help founders and future funders become the best they can be, to help innovate and change the world.

We are always looking at what more resources we can add (in comparison to traditional VC’s) and checking to see if what we have done is well established yet. In 5 years, I’d like to see more organizations, funds, build capital and how you provide funding, knowledge in different countries and women (for whom it is harder) to really level up opportunities globally. We are using 500 as a product/conduit to increase this diversity and access to global opportunity. (Trailblazing Women interview Huffington Post)
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Proof of that commitment and breadth of impact is the birth of their recent VC Unlocked Programme, led by Bedy, to help train the next generation of investors, available in several cities around the world and one I plan on doing myself in future.
What are they doing during the Covid-19 Crisis?Like many other accelerators and convenors, 500 startups have recently moved their recent Demo Days online registering over 5K unique views during the livestream and over 1300 investors joined the Slack channel to chat with ther founders. Now that’s traction! 500 startups also conducted a survey to see what investors think the impact of Covid-19 would be and have engaged their startups to help those on the frontline. You can read all about it here:

• How startups can navigate the change in the investment climate due to Covid-19
• Read the full report here
• How the 500 Startups Community is helping those affected by Covid-19

What’s her Funding Tip:Such good advice! She really means it when she talks about each interaction being a unique opportunity to connect. When building your relationship with investors, this is a key tip, to always remember when you are engaging with them. Each touchpoint should be positive and help them know you, your product and traction better, to make them more interested in you. When networking with investors, it really is all about building relationships, then following up with well prepared information, shared in a timely fashion, the way investors want it. Remember that!
What else should you do when looking for Funding? — More tips from Bedy:

• “You are a great founder, not because you are a woman founder, so pitch anyone in general. I would advise women founders to take advantage of the extra space people are making for diversity — use it. Don’t frame yourself as a woman founder. Understand what your strength is and play to it. Understand what will play in your favour and use that.
• Try to get your investor to say yes, and then once they say yes, say ‘ can I count you in, because I need to close the round by a certain time’. Then work on the documents. The less friction there is with the documents, the better.” (extracts from exclusive funding tips on Global Invest Her platform).

Learn more about Bedy Yang, here:

• 500 Startups website
• Her new Forbes column
• Her Twitter profile
• Her LinkedIn Profile

In my Huffpost interview, I asked her to describe herself in 3 words. Here’s what she said: 
● driven
● positive
● builder
Bedy is all three, and much more. Keep an eye on her, for more great things will come from her — for that I’m sure!

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Check out Global Invest Her website, to learn more about How to Get Ready for Funding
Day 3/100 coming tomorrow!
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 BLOG
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