Piloting Your Life Episode 8 -Andrea Barrica

Terri talks to Andrea Barrica of O.School about how she is taking her successful startup experience with inDinero ,where she developed her vanilla cred, and is creating a safe place on the internet for women to learn about sex and pleasure and to ask for what they want both inside and outside of the bedroom.  

Who is Andrea Barrica? 

Andrea is CEO/co-founder of O.School, an online shame-free platform for pleasure education, powered by live-streaming and chat to help people unlearn shame, process trauma, and learn about sex and pleasure. Previously, Andrea co-founded YC-backed accounting and tax platform, inDinero.com, where she led sales and operations. She also served as a venture partner and entrepreneur-in-residence at 500 Startups, one of the world’s most active, global seed funds.  

 
Show Highlights 

• Andrea talks about how she went from being a linguist to being a co-founder of an accounting software startup in the Y Combinator accelerator that had raised $1M and how she never saw being an entrepreneur as an option.  She simply wanted to help her friend.   

• Andrea talks how she would have been better off without any sex education rather than what she received. She talks about how learning about sex and pleasure from porn is like learning how to drive while watching the Fast and the Furious 

• Terri asks about what sex education is available both offline and online and how Andrea is trying to bring some of the magical courses available offline, online broader audience with O.School 

• Andrea talks about the importance of consent and giving people permission to have their desires; these are life skills.  

• Andrea talks about economic and social agency and agency over your own body 

• Terri and Andrea talk about economic opportunity and the shifting demographics that are creating new product and service opportunities for startups and investors 

• Andrea talks about raising funds for O.School from investors who really don’t understand the problem or the scope of the problem and  resistance from investors because of their LPs (limited partners) as well as limitations on payment processing (or exorbitant fees and charges) or ads (like on Facebook) because of subjective things that put a company into a ‘high risk’ category  

• Terri and Andrea talk about the new and huge opportunities in FemTech, how some investors don’t know what FemTech is, and the investors who have been supportive and share her vision of making sure that everyone with an internet connection can get access to good, sex education 

• Andrea would wave a magic wand to increase people’s self-awareness at earlier ages  

Terri’s Key Takeway 

If you don’t have agency over your own body, how can you have economic and social agency?  

Contact 

You can follow Andrea on Twitter @abarrica or @odotschool or on her website at http://www.o.school/ 

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 Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com. 

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

Piloting Your Life Episode 7 -Angel Investing

Terri Mead became an angel investor at the prompting of her fellow helicopter buddy Stu’s suggestion and committed to doing it for two years as her ‘PhD.’ 

Show Highlights 

• Being an opportunist 

• How Terri became a member of Sand Hill Angels and the challenge of not fitting the ‘typical profile’ 

• How Terri’s value add is in providing diversity of through and perspective 

• Jumping into investing, demo days, and feeling a bit stupid about some of the early deals she brought to Sand Hill Angels 

• Becoming a board member and then vice president of Sand Hill Angels 

• Completing her unofficial PhD and making space for the next big thing 

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 Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.

Piloting Your Life Episode 6 -Monique Woodard

How founder, venture capitalist and trailblazer Monique Woodard charted her own course to become a VC and how she sees opportunities in the shifting demographics in the US.

Who is Monique Woodard?

Monique is an early stage investor raising a $25M fund to invest in intersection of startups led by Black and Latino founders and companies focusing on high-growth categories that will be impacted by coming demographic and economic growth. She has led 500 Startups’ investments in companies in the US and Africa, including Blavity, ROHO, and Printivo. She is currently on the board of advisors for Women 2.0 and has been an advisor to for-profit startups and technology-focused organizations including Hackers/Founders, EveryoneOn.org and Startup Policy Lab. She regularly speaks, writes, and advises on startups, consumer internet, and government technology.

Show Highlights

• Monique talks about how it is both well-meaning but condescending to be called a unicorn.
• Monique paints the picture of what a typical venture capitalist looks like
• How Monique became a VC and the challenges she overcame on the way to 500Startups
• Monique talks about she and her friends noticed that there were so few black founders at various demo days and wanted to change that by creating Black Founders
• How she leveraged her ability to develop and nurture relationships to surround herself with people who wanted her to succeed
• Terri and Monique talk about being fangirls of Kirsten Green of Forerunner Ventures and how she didn’t follow the traditional path to VC
• Monique talks about how you have to be what you have never seen before when there are no role models or examples in front of you
• Monique and Terri talk about the problem in VC right now in that they are not shifting with the change in demographics and are not keeping up with how the market is changing
• How VC circles are no longer reflective of what the US represents and the problem with the resulting bias
• Blue ocean /green field market opportunities in shifting demographics and purchasing behaviors
• Monique would wave a magic wand to change the viewpoint of VCs towards founders and markets as well as changing the flow and direction of money from LPs to go into a broader swathe to create a portfolio that better represents actual demographics.

Terri’s Key Takeaway:

While we have focused on the difficult of being something we cannot see, if we can’t see it, we need to create it for ourselves and for those who follow us.

Contact Monique can be found on Twitter @moniquewoodard and via her website www.monique.vc

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 Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.

Piloting Your Life Episode 5 - Becoming a helicopter pilot (solo cast)

Show Summary

Terri talks about when she fell in love with aviation and how she became a helicopter pilot.  In this episode, she focuses on getting her private rating when she was 38. 

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

• Terri talks about flying with her dad as a kid and going up in a helicopter at the age of 8, knowing then that she wanted to fly helicopters
• She shares about how she only told her husband and her husband gave her a discovery flight for her 38th birthday hoping she would shut up about it
• Terri's road to her private rating was bumpy and took about 10 months and about 6 different instructors
• Becoming a helicopter pilot was one of the hardest things Terri has ever done but she persisted
• She still had doubts about her skills as a pilot even after getting her private rating and until recently didn't see herself as a real helicopter pilot

Terri’s Key Takeaway

Don't let anyone take away your sense of accomplishment or joy.

Contacts

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.

Piloting your Life Episode 4 -Jason Calacanis

Show Summary

How angel investor, author Jason Calacanis succeeded despite feeling like "the cards were stacked against him".  @Jason @Launch

Who is Jason Calcanis?

Jason Calacanis is a technology entrepreneur, angel investor, and the host of the popular weekly podcast, This Week in Startups.  He is the founder of a series of conferences that bring entrepreneurs together with potential investors including Launch Festival and more recently, started an incubator for early stage startups.  He is an avid poker player, is originally from Brooklyn, NY and currently lives in San Francisco with his wife and three young daughters.  He has a new book called "Angel, How to Invest in Technology Startups" which is a great read for anyone interested in angel investing or understanding how angel investors operate.  To say that he loves working with tech startups is an understatement. 

Show Highlights

• How did Jason get to where he is right now? 
• Is Jason internally motivated or motivated to prove others wrong? 
• Has Jason already been curious? How has that impacted his life?
• Is Jason creating an inclusive ecosystem and how has Fraeda Kapor influenced his approach to be intentionally inclusive?
• Why does Jason think we have a massive on-boarding problem? 
• Does Jason like being an outsider and has he used it to build his brand?  (Thanks, Monique Woodard for the question. http://www.moniquewoodard.com/)
• What would Jason do to wave a magic wand to make for a better world?  

Terri’s Key Takeaway

Being “open” doesn’t mean that you will create a diverse environment; you must be intentional in order to expand the types of people in your life or at an event.  

Contact

You can reach Jason via Twitter:  @Jason, @Launch or via Instagram:  @jason or via his website   http://calacanis.com/ or by email:  jason@calcanis.com

If you are interested in his book, Angel:  How to Invest in Technology Startups, it can be purchased at www.angelthebook.com

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 Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.

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

Piloting Your Life Episode 3 - Mary Jo Dionne

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Show Summary

How Mary-Jo Dionne sees obstacles as opportunities and adventures and found humor in her darkest moments.  @MaryJoDionne

Who is Mary-Jo Dionne?

Mary-Jo is a writer, speaker, performer, podcaster, philanthropist and has her own company, Mary-Jo Dionne Productions based in Vancouver, Canada.  Prior to starting her company, she worked as a copywriter with multi-national ad agencies and in-house marketing departments. She writes for outlets like The Huffington Post and has performed stand-up comedy in Vancouver, New York, Toronto, and LA and wrote and produced a one-woman show called "Glowing: A Reproduction Production". She now has two young and adorable daughters, JouJou and Birdie. She now has a podcast called Tea with a Titan where she interviews people who have fallen but continue to get back up every time.  What started as a gift to her daughters now has listeners in over 70 countries.  She is also a three-time melanoma survivor. 

Show Highlights

• How she sees obstacles as opportunities and adventures. 
• Does she see herself as fearless or courageous and how does she move through fear to achieve?
• How her mom influenced her positive outlook on life and view of life from a place of abundance.
• How she consciously aims to expand and how her upbringing influenced her way of being in the world. 
• How Mary-Jo survived her darkest days, pregnant with a diagnosis and treatment of melanoma. (Thank you, Susanne Biro for the great question @susannebiro)
• How she imagines difficult people as sitcom characters.  
• Her experience on Necker Island and talking to Richard Branson. 
• How she would wave a magic wand to eliminate self-doubt.
• How decisions can change your life and it only takes a decision to move from one state of mind to another. 

   Terri's Key Takeaway

Perception is not part of the equation; it is the equation.

Contacts

Follow Mary-Jo on Twitter:  @MaryJoDionne or via her website at https://maryjodionne.com/

Her podcast Tea with a Titan can be found at:  https://maryjodionne.com/tea-with-a-titan/

To help with the recovery in the British Virgin Islands, go to www.bvihelp.com

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com. 

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

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

Piloting Your Life Episode 2 - Tyler Lynch

Show Summary

How Tyler Lynch went from a successful tech job to minimum-security prison to another successful six figure tech job and an advocate for marginalized people in his community.  

Who is Tyler Lynch?

Tyler Lynch is a software and solutions architect focusing on Clinical Solutions for Elsevier, a global information and analytics that help institutions and professionals progress science, advance healthcare and improve performance. His passions include relaxing with his boyfriend eating Asian food and watching Netflix, solving complex problems with technology, advocating for homeless and transgender community members, and paying it forward wherever possible.  

Show Highlights

• How did Tyler end up in prison?
• How was Tyler able to get a high paying tech job with a $45B global company while on house arrest after being in prison?
• How did Tyler use an Amazon wish list to upskill while in prison and maintain his tech skills?
• Do people treat him differently because of his past drug use and time in prison in the workplace?
• What was Tyler’s journey to sobriety and how did the DEA, Homeland Security, and the Federal prosecutor help him on this journey? 
• How he supports the marginalized in his Philadelphia community and the Wall of Love. Sharing the message of love, tolerance, and resistance to hate. 
• What are Tyler’s suggestions for addressing gender parity and some of the disparity issues with people of color? Should we be more proactive?  Should we consider civil disobedience? 
• How he serves the Federal government outside of prison. 
• How he would use a magic wand to help the LGBTQ youth and how he is helping transgenders in his community.  

Terri’s Key Takeaway

In this charged political and social climate, now more than ever, it is important to take the time to listen to others, especially those who may have different experiences in this world.  We need to check our assumptions and keep open minds.  

Contacts

Connect with Tyler on Linked-in:  www.linkedin.com/in/tylerlynch 

If you are interested in supporting the LGBTQ community: www.aidsfundphilly.org 

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.

Piloting Your Life Introduction

Welcome Aboard! 

My podcast, Piloting Your Life, has been cleared for takeoff and I am excited to see you have boarded the aircraft.

I need all of you on board to pay attention as I give you your in-flight instructions.  We may encounter some turbulence upon takeoff, so please remain in your seat with your seat belts fastened until we reach a comfortable cruising altitude and the seat belt light has been turned off. 

Your in-flight entertainment will consist of inspiring interviews with people who chose not to rely on their internal fortitude to chart their own course. Terri discusses what helped them achieve the success they enjoy today. The goal is to provide inspiration for those struggling to overcome, among other things, sexism, racism, socioeconomic, cultural and educational challenges, that may or may not have been of their own doing, to be the pilots in their own lives. There will also be solo casts where Terri describes aspects of her own journeys that have been challenging or life changing.

If there are points of interest that you would like to check out along our journey (for the in-flight entertainment) , please drop us a line at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.  This includes other inspirational guests you may want me to interview or some of my stories you would like to hear.  

I thank you for flying with me today.  It’s a beautiful day to fly, and we are cleared for takeoff.  

Terri

@PilotingLife #PilotingYourLife    @TerriHansonMead    @Sol2Proj

Medium:  https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead

www.terrihansonmead.com