Episode 30 - Panel on Shifting Demographics at Slush Helsinki

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Terri moderated a panel on shifting demographics and the need to shift investing along with it while in Helsinki for Slush recently. On the panel were Monique Woodard of 500 Startups and Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures. 

Terri had the pleasure of moderating a panel at Slush in Helsinki on November 30th and the video was released which allowed Jacqueline to strip the audio for your listening pleasure. The topic was shifting demographics and the need to shift investment along with it. Terri was joined by Monique Woodard of 500 Startups and Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures.

 

Who is Terri Mead?

Terri Hanson Mead is President of Solutions2Projects, LLC, a consulting company that provides IT strategy and IT compliance services in the life sciences space in addition to expert witness consulting services.  She is also an active angel investor and former Vice President of Sand Hill Angels, regularly advises startups and in her spare time, flies helicopters.  She is passionate about supporting, and advocating for, female founders and investors and has created Class Bravo Ventures to more formally do so. 

Show Highlights

  1. Setting the stage for the panel discussion with Monique Woodard of 500 Startups and Albert Wenger of Union Square Ventures (USV): this is not a diversity panel; it is a panel on investing
  2. Why don’t we see more venture capital going to startups focused on building and providing products and services for these underserved markets?
  3. What is the market shift that you see so clearly and how can VCs capitalize on the opportunities for significant and real returns?
  4. Should we see the recent IPO of Stitch Fix as something that will ignite the interest of investors in startups targeting the female consumer?
  5. Should we see the shift of digital health, specifically in FemTech, from B2C to B2B as being potentially more attractive to the primarily male VCs or will the startups still be overlooked due to lack relatability or the ‘Ick’ factor so commonly associated with female-focused companies?
  6. Where are you seeing progress in getting more money into the hands of the startups focused on the black and LatinX markets? Or are you?
  7. Do you think we are going to be able to get VCs to shift along with the demographics and demand or do you think we are better off creating new investors to focus on investing in startups that more closely align with their values?
  8. Do you think that the political climate in the US will have any impact on startups targeting these under-represented markets?
  9. How do we convince our primarily male, white VCs that if they don’t shift their investing lens and strategies that they will be missing out on huge opportunities?

 

References:

 

Contacts

You can follow Monique on Twitter @moniquewoodard or on her website at http://www.moniquewoodard.com/

You can follow Albert on Twitter @albertwenger or on their website at https://www.usv.com/about/albert-wenger

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead

Feel free to email her at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.