Day 5/100 — Adam Quinton, Founder and CEO, Lucas Point Ventures

Who’s Adam Quinton?Adam Quinton in an Adjunct Professor and member of the Management and Gender & Public Policy Faculties at Columbia University, as well as Faculty advisor to the SIPA Women in Leadership student group. He is currently a finals judge for the Cartier Women’s Initative Awards and has been mentor for the 92Y “Women in Power”Program since its inception in 2016.
Although currently not actively investing, as the Founder/CEO of Lucas Point Ventures, Adam Quinton has invested in and advised 15 early stage companies with a focus on diverse management teams. His investments include The Muse, Glassbreakers, Venuebook, Pinks and Greens, Snaps, Rapt Media, Hire an Esquire and Validately. Adam is on the Board of Pinks and Greens and serve as an Advisor to a number of companies as well as Chicago based techweek. He was previously a Managing Director of Bank of America Merill Lynch.
In 2014 he was named by AlleyWatch one of “25 Angel Investors in New York You Need to Know” and also one the “100 NYC Tech Influencers You Need to Know”. In 2015 Adam was featured in Tech.co as “One of 8 VCs Making Waves” and in 2016 was named as one of “26 great people spearheading change in tech investment” by Silicon Republic.
I have the pleasure of knowing Adam for many years, seeing him most recently when he was a speaker on the investor panel at Inspirefest in Dublin. He truly believes in investing in diversity and puts his money where his mouth is, when it comes to funding diverse founders:
“I want to make money, so I choose to invest in women entrepreneurs!”
Don’t you just love that quote! Adam saw early on, that investing in women entrepreneurs is an arbitrage opportunity.
Learn more about him here.


What’s his Funding Tip:​

If I had a dollar or euro for every time I’ve heard a female founder tell me how difficult it is to ‘read’ investors, and that they felt they had been kept hanging on for an investment, instead of getting a clear NO, I’d be a millionaire by now! It can be very hard for first time founders to understand when an investor is saying no. Investors often say things like ‘you’re too early’, ‘come back to me when you’ve shown X or Y in traction’ and then when you do, they can move the goalposts again and ask for some other metric. That’s why Adam’s advice is timely — if it’s not clear from the investor side, just simply ask them directly if they plan on investing now. If they say no, at least you can move on, to the next warm lead on your investor list.


Why Should You Listen to His Funding Tip?
Adam is not only an Adjunct Professor at Columbia, on the board of several startups, he’s a judge at the prestigious Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards, where he gets to keep a pulse on other great women founded startups on the rise. He has a lot of experience in this funding game and is generous in sharing it. I appreciate his frank, no nonsense approach when he does so.
“Raising money is hard for everyone — Since you can’t change the system, do your best to get through the system. That means presenting in a compelling way, knowing your business inside out and your numbers cold.”
Adam Quinton is clearly an advocate for more diversity in funding. Whether through speaking at conferences with tips for female founders, or also to advocate for more women in venture capital, like it this video captured at Inspirefest in 2016, he is on the front line, spreading the good word about why we need to change the world of funding.
Thank you Adam, for all you do! We need more male champions of change, just like you!
Learn more about Adam Quinton, here:

• Lucas Point Ventures Website
• His portfolio of companies he has invested in
• His Twitter profile
• His LinkedIn Profile

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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

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