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This interview is part of a series on Trailblazing Women role models (Entrepreneurs and Leaders) from around the world and first appeared in the Huffington Post. See what you can be.  All in all, being an entrepreneur is an absolutely fascinating journey of personal and professional self-discover, incomparable with any other career path. I’ll do my absolute very best to support others who are thinking of taking that journey. The more entrepreneurially-minded people we have in the world, the brighter the future." Paulina is a serial entrepreneur, a philanthropist and a cofounder of GrantTree. In the last five years the team grew organically from 2 to 30, and raised over £30million for over 500 clients using government funding schemes such as R&D tax credits and Innovate UK grants. GrantTree is also an open culture company which is pioneering concepts such as total transparency (including salaries), trust, power, non-hierarchical self-organisation, and freedom. Visit her website www.granttree.co.uk and follow her on Twitter @Payah and @GrantTree Who is your role model as an entrepreneur? I never had any formal training in business, and have learned everything I know about our business by working with and being around people I looked up to. That started 7 years ago with my previous business partner who taught me a lot and gave me a lot of confidence — that it’s possible and fun to be an entrepreneur. In the early days I also went to a lot of Meetups with geeks. It gave me the insight that this is a bunch of people who want to change things and have a certain vision of what reality should look like, then actively go pursue their vision. I thought to myself, this is amazing, I want to be part of this world. Other than Richard Branson, I also look up to people who are closer and more accessible to me, that I have met on my journey. Recently I was mentored by Shaa Wasmund, a very productive, dynamic entrepreneur with great values. She is definitely an inspiration along with Eileen Burbidge (Fintech thought leader). I’ve always looked up to women who are able to tap into both female and male qualities when leading a company. In GrantTree we try to have a 50/50 gender split because I find that more conducive to a great working environment. Alistair Lukies talks about how he believes women leaders will change the world. We need more men like him sharing that key message, who appreciate the qualities and perception that women bring to the table." What is your greatest achievement to date? I think it’s incredible that in 5 years I have come from working from the kitchen table to working with a team of 30 people in Clerkenwell. We have an incredible company culture. There are challenges every day but when I take a moment to look back and see what we have built together through a great team effort, built from nothing to a great place to work, it makes me very proud. Grant Tree has helped over 600 clients raise more than £73 million in government funding and in many cases this money has made a big difference to the companies in either helping them restructure their business, change their offering, or bridge cash flow to move from surviving to thriving. The fact that we have grown organically and that this company exists in the shape it does is my greatest achievement in the professional space." What has been your biggest challenge as a woman entrepreneur? I think it’s all a matter of perception, so I consciously choose not to think that things are going to be harder for me because I’m a woman. In the beginning, being a girl with a strong eastern European accent (I’m from Poland), hanging around Meetups with programmers, looking a bit out of place was a bit challenging. Then again, I chose not to look at is as such. I never minded standing out a little bit. When GrantTree started and I was talking to male tech leaders twice my age, some of them felt it was a bit weird to be speaking to a woman — they were expecting to speak to someone else, and they got me! I made sure to use my personality and knowledge to win them over. Nowadays I’m more relaxed about it and don’t have as much insecurity about coming across as someone who is on a level playing field with them. What in your opinion is the key to your company’s success? First of all, the fact that we have been very commercially focused in the business from the very beginning. We grew organically so it was very important that the business tapped into a real need. I had the insight that there was a lack of knowledge in the market about equity free funding and those companies that did know about it saw it as a complex maze to navigate (which is still partially true). Even those that had looked into it at some point, felt guilty that they should have done it earlier. Because we had found a real pain-point and focused on the customer need, we started making money early on and we needed to. These days, even though we are a scale up, we still have great adaptability when it comes to looking at the market to see what we should be doing to evolve to meet our clients needs better. Another key to our success is our culture. We rejected traditional hierarchical authority and set things up so that all the business information is transparent, including complete access to financials, salaries, dividends, etc. Everybody on the team, no matter how junior, is empowered to make and implement any decision through something called the “advice process”. For example I send an email to the team saying I want to make a decision to purchase a service for X budget and outline the reasons why I think it would be good for the business and invite the team for feedback. I listen to their advice and take it into consideration before making whichever decision I believe will be good for the business. That powerful approach also goes for salaries, with some tweaks. We have a salary committee every 6 months where we do a pay review of the team members across the company, looking at the market, getting feedback where each of us had 3 people to review depending on mastery, complexity of the role and experience. Everyone takes the process very seriously, even though it’s often very difficult to get right and is emotionally loaded, and I am so proud about the way we do things. Our purpose is to help people and businesses achieve their potential. That has an impact on how we behave and strive to fulfil that. Giving people the space to grow and seeing leadership as a service to create that environment where people feel empowered to take responsibility, that’s what leadership means to me." If you could do 1 thing differently, what would it be? In business, I would have encouraged myself to think bigger earlier on. It’s a matter of confidence and having a better perception of what’s possible. I also would have implemented some systems and processes earlier on to make it easier to scale things in the business. I made the most of the knowledge and skills available to me at the time. I am a positive person, proud of the way things turned out and believe that the challenges we face on the journey are there to teach us things. What would you say to others to encourage them to become entrepreneurs? I would tell them to go out and find other people to learn what work really means. Work doesn’t have to be a chore. It doesn’t have to be something that you do in order to have money to do other things. That perception is really changing, and you need to be on the right side of that change. Hang out with people who have created things, who have done a variety of jobs, to understand how people with more work experience feel about the importance of work. Perhaps you’ll get inspired by people who have chosen to freely and confidently define work for themselves eg “I want to see this difference in the world”, or “I want to do something to help me grow, and the best way for me will be starting my own company.” I encourage people to consider different perspectives and not just follow the path of their peers, or constantly compare themselves, like when you say to yourself that ‘X is working in banking and making three times as much salary as me.’ Be confident to follow your own path and base your happiness on how it’s working for you. There was definitely a time in my career when I wondered whether it was ok for me work differently from my peers. For people who want to be entrepreneurs, I would tell them to get to grips with the fact that it’s ok and great to have the confidence to redefine what work means to you. That’s something to be proud of. The whole startup scene is kind of becoming a social incubator for change — seize that opportunity! How would you describe your leadership style? I think my colleagues would say I have a collaborative leadership style. I do not have a sense that because I have hierarchical power over you, you have to do what I say. We hire very smart, dedicated people in our company. It would be very silly of me to give them work to do and tell them they have to do what I say. As a leader, how much more could I benefit, if I say — “this is the vision of the company when we started, this is what we have done so far, how do you think you can grow this company?” To me it makes more sense that I share that leadership and tap into other people’s skills and brains, as opposed to me setting the direction that everyone follows,. When you give people the information and space to use their skills, sometimes you can be really surprised about what can be created. Seeing people shine in that way gives me a lot of satisfaction. I try to give people space to grow and become better versions of themselves. I also like to energise the team and give them boosts of creativity and enthusiasm. I also make sure I take time to replenish my own energy and grow it within myself to then pass it on to my business. What advice would you give to your younger self? This question made me smile. I pictured my smart but troubled 16 year-old self, who wasn’t very sure of her place in the world yet. The most important advice I would give her, would be to work on her self-perception. It was a big discovery for me, that being truly comfortable in your own skin, with all your differences, the ways you stand out, is a beautiful asset that will really help you in the future. Giving yourself that confidence is important. Trust your instincts, trust your inner wisdom." Focus on things you already have, in terms of personality traits, values, beliefs, as opposed to what you are lacking. Those will be your foundations in the future. I was always very organised and knew how to organise myself and my time. At that time, I didn’t see that as something that might be connected to entrepreneurship. Now, looking back, I’m absolutely convinced that is a key personality trait that helped me. To young girls who may look at the entrepreneurial world as scary and inaccessible, I would say, focus on things you already have that can help you achieve that kind of lifestyle, and get inspired by others. Trust your own wisdom and dream big! What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years? At Grand Tree, we are working hard on diversifying our product offering, introducing a new service not yet available in the UK. One of the key pillars of our business is to help companies get R&D tax credits as a way to recuperate a portion of your development costs. We are introducing an option that will allow people to get the cash flow to get a loan against the Tax credit that’s coming later. We are also introducing a new Grant offering around innovation consultancy, and also making filing tax credits easier and cheaper for our clients. There are a few teams in the company who have taken responsibility to explore different options. I am personally working on expanding the company to the North of the UK, so I’ll be spending more time getting our brand name and presence known outside of London. In 5 years time I’d like to see GrantTree as a brand that is on every tech entrepreneur’s mind when it comes to getting equity-free funding for their company. At that point, we will be a group of companies exploring quite a few different offerings around finance eg culture consulting. By letting people within the organisation explore their interests in line with those of the company, we will expand to create a group of brands working under one umbrella/vision, growing in different directions. 3 key words to describe yourself?
Watch Anne Ravanona’s TEDx talk on Investing in Women Entrepreneurs and learn more about her @anneravanona or www.anneravanona.com
Learn more about Global Invest Her www.globalinvesther.com@GlobalInvestHer
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This interview is part of a series on Trailblazing Women role models (Entrepreneurs and Leaders) from around the world and first appeared on Huffpost. You have to see what you can be.  Entrepreneurs are around 3% of the population and have a different mentality about how they see the world and their purpose. I always had that streak in me and thought there was something wrong with me vs something great about me! As soon as I realized, that it was not only ok but something special about me, that set me up for success.” Elizabeth Galbut is the Founding Partner of two start-up venture capital firms, SoGal Ventures and A-Level Capital. During Elizabeth’s graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University & Maryland Institute College of Art, Elizabeth consulted with hundreds of start-ups and identified the lack of pre-seed funding as the major issue preventing these startups from succeeding. To solve this, she co-founded A-Level Capital, the student-led venture capital firm powered by Johns Hopkins students. With a team of 24 student investment team members, A-Level Capital aims to invest in 80 JHU student and young alumni startups in the next five years. On a mission to create the change she wished to see, Elizabeth and Pocket Sunfounded SoGal Ventures, the first female-led millennial venture capital firm, with an investment focus on exceptional, diverse founding teams that have plans for global domination through tackling major consumer or healthcare problems in the U.S. and Asia. SoGal Ventures represents how far our generation has come, and how deep our impact on the world can be. Elizabeth’s favorite investment area is the intersection of smart design and machine learning/AI fueling major health tech innovation. Her placements include digital pathology standout Proscia, mobile health platform eMocha, smart air detector Birdi, lab research platform Nebulab, smart water bottleHidrateSpark, and mental health app Docz. Elizabeth is proud alumnus of Georgetown University, London School of Economics, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland Institute College of Art, and Deloitte Consulting. Learn more about Sogal Ventures and A-Level Capital and follow Elizabeth on Twitter @design4innov8 @sogalventures Who is your role model as a leader? My mom is a great example of how far women have come in a single generation. She is a real role model for me and encouraged me to go for everything I wanted, even though it’s tough. When she was in college, she wanted to be an athletic trainer for a collegiate football team. There had never been a woman in that role before. She tried for 2 years to get the job, and the coach didn’t take her seriously and wrote back to her as if her request for the job was a joke. After taking her story to the press and continuing to follow-up with the coach, she finally did get the job. Back then, there was less than 10% women in her medical school class. Now at many medical schools including my alma mater John Hopkins University, over half the students in Medical School are women. I see my mom as someone who always pushed for gender equality for both herself and the generation of women around her — and this is a quality I’ve always greatly admired. I hope that by the time I have a daughter, more than 50% of VC’s (venture capitalists) will be women. A lot of the LP’s in our funds are men with younger daughters. They want to support females so that there will be a change when their daughters are looking for jobs or raising funding for their business. What is your greatest achievement to date? I’ve accomplished a number of things, and plan to accomplish many more in my lifetime. Yet my biggest accomplishment so far, is not a singular success, but rather my ability to stay true to myself and put my integrity first in all business and personal interactions. Reputation is something that’s difficult to build, and very easy to tarnish. I pride myself in following my gut, acting with honesty and good intention, and doing what I believe is right. I’ve made mistakes, just like everyone else, but as a whole, I’ve always acted with intention and integrity. What has been your biggest challenge as a woman leader? It was a lot harder to gain the respect of some of my male colleagues and team members. For example, I created A-Level Capital while still at grad school. My co-founders are both men. In the beginning, there was a much lower level of initial respect from our team. I’ve had to build our team’s respect for me to get to the point that it’s equal. When I was in Consulting, I felt as respected as my male colleagues. In this investing industry I have to prove myself more, to be respected at the same level. I’m not naturally one to brag, so I am currently working on how I communicate and highlight my own achievements better. Something I’ve seen work really well for women, is to have someone else who the other party respects, say good things about you and build that ground level of respect. One male VC once told me “ I think what you’re doing is cute”. I don’t know how to react to that type of demeaning comment. A VC is usually committed to their fund for 10–14 years and the success of a fund is highly dependent on who the General Partners are. Some people say to me: “You are 26, how do you know you’ll still want to do this at 36?” I have to boldly say it’s my passion and that I am excited to wake up every day to do this. Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook when he was 20 years old and he is still there today. Just because I’m young, doesn’t mean I am not focused and know what I want. How do you grow people in your organization? At A-level Capital, I have 24 Student team members from undergraduate freshmans to grad students. A big part of it is how to grow them as individuals on my team. The biggest advice I got was from a female manager at Deloitte who coached me on how to identify someone’s best attributes and allow them to thrive using their skills & interests. You must identify them very quickly, so you don’t place someone in the wrong role. If you enable your team members to enjoy their work and experience personal growth from day 1, you’re setting up your entire organization for success. It’s good to let people try out different areas to discover where their talents and passions can be best applied and let them shine doing it. Understanding your team members’ motivations, background, what they like and don’t like, is a constant journey for a leader. As I manage my team remotely, I set up development calls with each person every few months to touch base. Although it’s increasingly difficult as our team grows, it’s an essential part of our success. If you could do 1 thing differently, what would it be? I would get rid of my perception that I needed everyone to accept me, to please everyone and be the person that ‘fit in’. Growing up and in college, I spent a lot of time and energy trying to be that person and I always fell short and felt like an outcast. There are probably reasons for that. Entrepreneurs are around 3% of the population and have a different mentality about how they see the world and their purpose. I always had that streak in me and thought there was something wrong with me vs. something great about me! As soon as I realized that it was not only ok but something special about me, that set me up for success. My ‘aha moment’ came, when I finished my consulting career to start grad school and got handed the leadership reins of the student entrepreneurship club. I still didn’t know then that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, even though my mom always told me ‘you’re going to be an entrepreneur’, and many of my managers gave me feedback that I had an entrepreneurial spirit. As an analyst in consulting, I was very successful at selling complex projects to big clients and that would sometimes get me into trouble, because I kept overstepping the role I should have been doing and sometimes overstepped management above me. At the entrepreneurial club at John Hopkins, I led a team of 52 student leaders across schools, hosting an event every week on average. Only after I had consulted with dozens of startups, did I realize that I was doing something I really liked. Bringing in investors, evaluating companies, matching startups to capital — suddenly I realized I was actually very good at that. What differences do you notice between men and women investor’s styles? I don’t want to generalize. There is a spectrum of attributes for both men and women. As an investor, I typically like to go to coffee/lunch or meet someone at events to get to know them better in an informal setting. Particularly for women entrepreneurs, that makes them more comfortable, brings out their personality and helps me understand who they are and why they are doing what they do. Because of this, we often find out information that other investors don’t get, such as the company’s current problems, worries, and deep aspirations. We get a full picture, not just the highlight reel. I never have startups pitch formally to me or come to my office, which a lot of traditional investors do. I don’t like that power/ no power situation, where investors seem to have the upperhand and feel ‘I’m the investor who has power. If you don’t listen to me, you won’t get my money’ and ‘you’ll be so lucky if I invest in you’. I don’t think that’s a good approach to pick out a company and begin a partnership. I respect entrepreneurs. They are the ones investing their whole lives and sacrificing to build their companies and bring about real change. I see myself as lucky to invest in our portfolio companies and partner with the founders on their journeys. How would you describe your leadership style? I like to be an advocate for everyone on my team and seeing the best in every person. You have to be a role model and lead the way you want everyone else to perform. Your actions as a leader determine how your team behaves. I am a very cognizant, thoughtful and even-keeled leader and don’t usually get flustered. I like to help people achieve and challenge my team often, pushing them to grow and evolve professionally. We picked the best people for our student team because each person has an amazing skillset. I wasn’t aware of my talents at their age (team ranges from 18 to early 30 year olds). I like to help them become aware of their talents and understand what they are capable of. What advice would you give to your younger self? That it will all be OK. As a child I struggled with my weight and was bullied a lot. It was very hard for me emotionally. My mother has multiple sclerosis and the fear that she wouldn’t be in my life or would be disabled really impacted me. Despite all her challenges, my mom instilled in me ‘no matter what, you’ll be ok’. What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years? I want to keep on doing a great job with A-Level Capital and SoGal Ventures. Of course, with SoGal, we’d want to raise a second and third fund by then, and grow our ability to invest in diverse entrerpeneurs at the seed stage. I’d like us to have dozens of thriving businesses solving big societal issues with innovative technology (healthcare, education, energy, finance, etc.) in our portfolio. Through my investments, I know I’ll be facilitating real technological progress and change in the world. 3 key words to describe yourself?
At all points of your life, act like a sponge and absorb everything around you, even if it seems trivial. There’s a lot to learn about the world and yourself. Absorb all that knowledge and personal growth. Where you are now is not where you will be in 5 years. You can grow exponentially.” Watch Anne Ravanona’s TEDx talk on Investing in Women Entrepreneurs and learn more about her @anneravanona or Book Her as as Speaker at www.anneravanona.com
Learn more about Global Invest Her www.globalinvesther.com@GlobalInvestHer This interview is part of a series on Trailblazing Women role models (Entrepreneurs and Leaders) from around the world and first appeared on Global Invest Her. You have to see what you can be.  I would tell younger people to trust their gut about what they think is best for them and not be afraid to try and fail.” Bedy Yang is Managing Partner at 500Startups. 500Startups is a leading seed and incubator fund in Silicon Valley with vibrant spaces in Mountain View and San Francisco. It provides early-stage companies with funding and mentorship from over 200 experienced startup mentors. Bedy has invested in over 50 startups, not only in Brazil and Spanish speaking countries, but also in Kenya and Russia. In addition to 500 Startups, Bedy founded Brazil Innovators, an organization that became the epicenter and resource for Brazilian tech founders. Through her leadership, her work has been featured in leading media such as Exame, Veja, Folha de São Paulo, Estadão, Techcrunch, TNW, Washington Post, Globo. She was selected as America Quarterly Innovator, featured as women leader on Forbes. Bedy has been active speaker in conferences including Berkeley, Bloomberg Link, Dell Women Entrepreneur Network, Endeavor, Instituto de Empresas, FGV, Startup Chile. Before 500 Startups and Brazil Innovators, Bedy worked as management consultant specializing in distribution and go-to-market strategies for Fortune 500 companies in Brazil. She has also worked as social entrepreneur creating opportunities for women and indigenous tribes in Brazil and China. Bedy holds a BA at Fundação Getúlio Vargas and MLA (East Asian Studies) from University of Pennsylvania. She speaks Chinese, English, Portuguese and Spanish fluently. She is also a member of the Society of Kauffman Fellows and graduated with recognition for her leadership. Visit the 500 startups website or Brazil Innovators website and follow Bedy on Twitter @bedy Who is your role model as a leader? The first role model who is my foundation is my Mom, because she is very entrepreneurial. She moved from Taiwan to Paraguay without speaking a word of Spanish or other Latin languages. She has very strong leadership and built a few businesses. I really looked up to her as I was growing up. She was always very supportive of us to learn foreign languages, travel and explore new things (Bedy speaks Portuguese, Chinese, English, Spanish and some Taiwanese and German) and provided us with an important foundation. When I look at how much she achieved and her leadership, she is a big reference for me. I really admire my other fellow Managing Partners at 500 Startups. Starting with Dave — he will never stop on his vision. He is very smart and is the inspiration behind the vision for the organization. With Christine, one thing I really enjoy about her leadership is that she’s very anchored and has a great balance of being successful and being a mom and wife. She’s not talkative or social at all, but it’s great to see her as a different leadership role model. You may think that every leader has to be loud, out there, but a lot of success at 500Startups is because of her. I really admire her being so centered given the craziness around us. Another great member of the management is Khailee, he is the most energetic person I know! One thing that’s important for me regarding role models, is that a lot of role models come from small moments of interactions with other people around me, including the founders of startups I work with. What is your greatest achievement to date? For me, it’s really important to create optionality and opportunity for other people at scale. My biggest achievement is that I know exactly what I want and I have found ways to fulfil my purpose. I am co-creating a venture fund that is different: global and scalable. I have also started some organizations that I know have created impact for founders which make me very happy! For me as an individual, what is important is the capacity to empower a lot of other people and level very different environments. For example, if I’m in the Bay area that is rich in terms of resources and mindset, I think ‘how can I take that and bring it to a lot of other places?’ I like to see how I can take different vehicles and bring them to fruition. For instance Brazil Innovators, the organization that I founded, now has a team that makes magic happen. We have 10,000 entrepreneurs and investors in a very vibrant community. I wouldn’t say that one person ‘owns’ it, but I feel that the beginning vision, the first spark was important and has created the seed for a lot of things I see today in the Brazilian tech ecosystem. Being able to create a platform where we are not just helping 5 people but thousands of founders, I feel that is a really big accomplishment and I am proud of that. What has been your biggest challenge as a woman leader? I think it’s a mix between being a woman and being a constant immigrant. My parents are immigrants and I have been moving to a different country every 10 years since I was young. First they moved from Taiwan to Paraguay. Then from Paraguay to Brazil and then on to the US. Very often, I’ve come from a minority perspective coming in to change the status quo. The immigrant/minority/woman perspective gets blended so it’s very hard for me to pinpoint what’s what. It’s hard for me to point out an environment where being a woman has been a challenge for me. I spend the majority of my time at 500 Startups which is really an environment that allows different backgrounds to grow. So I don’t feel any difference within my work environment. Also we are an organization that is constantly trying to disrupt, so the way we invest is very different from traditional venture capitalists. I really fit in at 500 so don’t feel any pressure from the outside. How do you grow people in your organization? The way I look at it, 500 Startups is not just a VC fund — we are a platform, so we need to have a network and scale. Very often when I think about a platform/marketplace, it doesn’t count on one single item, it’s a balance of several different factors. What we think about when we are growing the team or the organization, is more from the founders’ perspective. So at early stage, what do founders need most? They need cash and being fast about whether you will invest or not is important, even if it’s a small check. The other thing that’s important at that stage is ‘how do I build my company so that it reaches the customer?’ Internally we call that team the Distribution team — who help startups get user acquisition, growth hacking, leverage pre-existing platforms to reach the audience they want to reach (eg via google search or using video). Another important component we help startups with is when they Exit (with follow-on cash and on how to exit). So when we are growing the organization and the core team, we are always thinking about how can we help startups from a growth and capital perspective and ensure to give them the right resources. We have 300 mentors who really help founders and the founders help each other out too as peers. That’s an important part of our community. If you could do 1 thing differently, what would it be? I would like to find better work life balance. I do think I have made significant shift in my first years, from being a runner to a leader. In the past, I always used to think I needed a lot more time, now I need a lot more team. The team fulfils the lack of time you have. I like to learn and have a very systemic way of thinking, where I see the system as a whole. Building a community, environment and platforms is something I like doing, because that’s the way I learn. Before, I was learning from role models and now that I know what to do, I want to run as fast as I can and I need more time. I moved from being inspired and needing more time, to now needing the right people to work with as a peer. I see everyone in our organization as a peer, a co-worker. My mindset on worklife balance has shifted. I know it’s still not sustainable, but in years to come I do want to be able to look back and not just see what I have done in terms of work, but also my family and friends. That’s really important to me. What differences do you notice between men and women’s leadership styles? That’s a hard question because I think it’s always biased. I think it comes down to confidence. I always have a matrix of confidence and competence when looking at founders. I think back to that imposter syndrome and how it affects women differently. Even when men are less confident, in their communication style they can still come across as more confident. However, we have to be aware of bias and not put people into boxes. How would you describe your leadership style? I am open minded and really want my team members to be successful and accomplished in life. In general, I have a high bar for results and look for entrepreneurial and resourceful people and try to make sure they can become successful at their role. What advice would you give to your younger self? The key thing for me, what I would have told my younger self is, to trust my gut about what I wanted to do. I’ve always challenged myself to do new things, different things, but for a long time I wasn’t really sure because I was always and outsider that broke into new networks. I would tell younger people to trust their gut about what they think is best for them and not be afraid to try and to learn with the journey and not the final result. What would you like to achieve in the next 5 years? I link it directly to what I’m doing at 500, because that’s a great conduit for what I believe for life in general. What I’d like to see in 5 years, is that globally (and not just the organization) access to technology, capital and resources for startups will level up. 500’s work moves the needle forward in that direction and as an organization, we are still learning about how to sustain ourselves. 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. 3 key words to describe yourself? ● Driven ● Positive ● Builder Don’t be afraid to try new things to find out who you are and where you are going.” Watch Anne Ravanona’s TEDx talk on Investing in Women Entrepreneurs and learn more about her @anneravanona or Book Her as as Speaker at www.anneravanona.com
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