Episode 50 - The making of the Piloting Your Life podcast and the journey to get to episode 50.

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Terri and Jacqueline sit down over a cup of coffee (not bubbly) to talk about the making of the Piloting Your Life podcast and the journey to get to episode 50. 

Contact

You can follow Jacqueline on Twitter @andYoureaGirl or go to her website at https://www.jacquelinesteenhuis.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.

Episode 49 - What to look for in a pitch as an Angel Investor

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Terri continues with her series on angel investing and goes into detail on what she looks for in a pitch from founders looking to her as a potential investor.

Show Highlights

  • Terri looks at the following when she is listening to a pitch regardless of the length of the pitch:
    • Problem being solved, how it is being solved, and why now is the time
    • Market opportunity and target market
    • Revenue and monetization strategy
    • Go to market strategy and scalability
    • How much the company will need to scale and exit? Is this a venture investable business?
    • What barriers are in place to prevent someone else from doing the same thing?
    • Competition
    • Management team and why they are qualified to bring the product to market or scale the business
    • How much are you raising? How long will it last? What are the plans for the use of funds?
    • What is the bigger vision and long-term strategy?
    • What is the exit strategy? How am I going to get my money back?
  • Every investor is going to have different requirements in terms of their decision-making process for investing
  • Terri uses the Q&A to get a general sense of the founder including how coachable they might be and how they react under pressure.
  • Terri looks to make sure that the founder is not just technically competent but is able to lead the business.
  • Terri invests in early stage companies which is heavily reliant on the team’s ability to execute so Terri generally invests in the ‘team’ and can make a decision to invest relatively quickly. Her level of due diligence after seeing the pitch depends on the size of the raise, the size of the check, and whether she is investing on her own or through a group or a syndicate.
  • Terri gets frustrated with founders who are unable to put together a decent pitch given the resources available online.

 

References in the Podcast

 

 

Contact

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.

Episode 48 - Thinking less about stereotypes and appreciating people as people in today's global economy and culture with Eric Quon-Lee

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Terri talks to Eric Quon-Lee about he was drawn to the US from Canada because of his need to go faster. Terri and Eric talk about how globalization has shaken people’s foundations making them revisit their values which can be very uncomfortable and resisting bias takes effort.

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 

  • It’s ok to be vulnerable 

  • You are worthy 

  • Ask for help; learn to receive as well as you give 

  • Friendships don’t need to be forever 

  • Trust others 

  • If you are feeling lonely, reach out your hand and someone will come running (modified from a song from Dear Evan Hanson) 

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. 

Episode 47 -Growing up a twin and Terri's Birthday Bubbly Bonus

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Terri and her producer Jacqueline sit down over a bottle of California bubby to talk about what Terri wanted to be when she grew up, growing up in a family business, being an identical twin, and what she would do with a magic wand.

Show Highlights

  • Terri and Jacqueline are enjoying an Iron Horse Vineyard Ocean Reserve in celebration of Terri’s birthday
  • Terri and Jacqueline talk about the badass women they interviewed for upcoming podcasts and that Terri will not be actively looking for men to be on the podcast.
  • Terri commented on how contrasts can provide clarity on what is important in our lives for us to take action.
  • Terri shares how the last few weeks have reinforced the need for her to recognize her value in all of her decisions.
  • Jacqueline talks about how difficult it is for her to feel comfortable getting paid for the work she is doing and the value she is bringing to other people’s lives.
  • Terri is wondering whether the startup advising she is doing is being valued because she is doing it for free.
  • Jacqueline asks what Terri wanted to be what she wanted to be when she grew up.
  • Terri talks about not wanting kids until she was around 22 when one of her ex-boyfriend’s sisters had twins and she got to spend a lot of time with them.
  • Jacqueline and Terri talk about daycare for their children.
  • Terri talks about her experience working on and off for her parents in their accounting firm between the age of 9 and 26.
  • Terri talks about working in a family business and the dynamics including marital dynamics, kid/parent dynamics, and founder dynamics. Terri talks about disappointing her dad by not taking over his CPA firm.
  • Terri’s diverse work experience came from working for all of her parents’ friends’ companies as she was growing up.
  • Terri talks about her relationship with her identical twin sister. They’ve always had a contentious relationship which continues to this day and makes Terri very sad.
  • Terri talks about how the universe gave her an older sister in Patty Nykodym who she met at the newborn parenting class when she was pregnant with her son. They ended up sharing a birthday and then delivering their first children (both boys) 4 hours apart at the same hospital by the same doctor.
  • Terri talked about having to learn, in college, how to be a good girlfriend to other girls because having an identical twin, despite how difficult the relationship was, gave her an automatic friend.
  • Terri talks about how hard it’s been to not have her sister active in her life because it feels like she’s lost a limb or part of her soul is missing.
  • Jacqueline asks what Terri’s big lesson learned: own your destiny and be the pilot in your own life.
  • If Terri could wave a magic wand, she would wave it over her family to eliminate whatever trauma or resentment exists in her family and create a new, functional and happy adult dynamic.
  • But she would truly, rather wave the magic wand to make her friends with some very sick kids, make the kids all better.
  • Jacqueline talks about how Terri built an amazing family atmosphere in her house that makes it fun to come over and hang out. It’s Jaqueline’s favorite co-working space.

Call to Action

What would you do with a magic wand? Share your wish with Terri and Jacqueline at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com or on Twitter and tag @PilotingLife hashtag #PilotingYourLife.

 

References in the Podcast

 

Contact

You can follow Jacqueline on Twitter at @tipsycopilot or find her on her website at www.jacquelinesteenhuis.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.

Episode 46 - Recap of the week in Angel Investing and syndicating a deal on Angellist

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Terri continues with her series on angel investing with a recap of her activities over the last week including her regular, weekly startup advising, her first syndicated deal, what a syndicate is, and the convergence of her work in life sciences and her investing.

Show Highlights

  • Terri recaps why she is doing this series of podcasts:  create a mesh network of like-minded investors to invest in the startups and founders who aren’t necessarily getting the attention from mainstream angel and venture investors despite having very promising and investable startups.
  • Terri talks in greater detail about syndicating her first deal on AngelList and what a syndicate is
  • Terri shares details about her regular advisory meetings, various meetings with startup founders and investors, and how her life in life sciences is converging with her angel investing 

 

Call to Action

Subscribe to one podcast or one newsletter and get into the groove of listening and reading.  Feel free to reach out to Terri if you have any questions or comments or other suggestions for resources for new angel investors.  PilotingYourLife@gmail.com

 

References in the Podcast

  • The Guild: https://theguilded.org/guild/home/index.html#/
  • Quinn Style: https://www.quinnstyle.com/
  • Tech Futures Group: www.techfuturesgroup.org
  • AngelList: https://angel.co/
  • Sendaride:  https://sendaride.com/
  • Bolt: https://bolt.io/

Contact

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.

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Episode 45 - Holly Ruxin explains her journey to creating a wealth management company that invests in alignment with values

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Terri talks to Holly Ruxin about her journey into discovering her heart and getting out of her head to lead a more authentic life. She started a new kind of wealth management company, Montcalm TCR where she helps her clients invest in alignment with their personal values.

Who is Holly Ruxin?

Holly founded Montcalm TCR, a female-led wealth management firm in San Francisco combining over twenty years’ experience in risk management on Wall Street with a transparent process that empowers clients. Holly has an extensive background in finances having begun her investment career at Goldman Sachs in the fixed income derivatives division, where she learned indelible lessons about risk management and cultivated an expert understanding of money. She later managed assets and led private client teams at Morgan Stanley, Montgomery Securities, and Bank of America.

 

Show Highlights

  • If Holly had a magic wand she would change the existing power infrastructure where everyone leads from their heads and have everyone lead from their hearts.  
  • Holly talks about following your heart and your gut to be more grounded in your decisions.  
  • Terri talks about having spent the last two years stripping out the adaptations and the accommodations to succeed in a man’s world 
  • Holly shared her experience being on Wall Street where she was taught to be very good at leading from the head but later realized there was another way.  She spent several years working with coaches to unravel ‘her head.’
  • She talked about the difference in the ‘masculine’ versus the ‘feminine’ values and how hard it is to undo the values one is trained to follow. 
  • Terri talks about the current situation in the world presenting us with the perfect opportunity to shift in the way we operate in the world and embracing values that are no longer serving us in the world. 
  • Terri talks about working with a coach over the summer to learn to embrace her intuition as the decisions she made intuitively have been some of her best decisions.  
  • Holly talks about how women differ from men in having not only just fear/flight but having fear/flight and building of community. 
  • Holly has spent the last few years learning to build new ‘super highways’ in her brain to operate in the world differently. 
  • The contrasts in the world are providing people with the opportunities to speak up and say they want to come from a more authentic place.  
  • She had her third child in 2008 when the financial markets were crashing and she had two other children at the time.  Her oldest child started losing his motor skills and language and she couldn’t get a diagnosis even after having gone to a number of prominent medical facilities in the SF Bay Area.  She resorted to looking to non-western medicine to get answers.  This led her to start thinking about being more authentic in the world.
  • She saw that it was possible to bring this new way of thinking and this new value system into the financial world. 
  • She thinks that love is about truth and authenticity.  It is important to be grateful and not have judgment.  
  • The nature of the C corporation is that legally it has fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders; they must make profits higher.  
  • The B corporation must support people, environment and profits.  With the change to B corps, there will be different motivations.  
  • Terri talks about the need to redefine the definition of success.  
  • Holly started her wealth management company Montcalm TCR to give…not just extract which is what was expected of her at Morgan Stanley and Bank of America. 
  • Holly provides her clients with the opportunity to ask questions to engage and understand and feel empowered with her money and their investments. 
  • Terri asked Holly about Stash Wealth for millennials to get better service as they are building their wealth and want to invest in things that aligned with their values. 
  • Holly talks about how we have lost our community banking where there was connection in the community and one was able to borrow because they were known in the community. 
  • Holly talks about how some of her very wealthy clients being very nervous about losing all of their money.  People who are scared come from a scarcity perspective and she works with them to reduce that fear to create greater abundance.  
  • Holly says that people are afraid because they really aren’t invested in their investments
  • Holly talks about the Last Mile and how it helps inmates in the criminal justice learn to code.  She talks about NPX Investors and how it is providing a different and new way to have money flow and build sustainability for people.  
  • Terri puts Holly on the spot in asking her about CNote.  CNote is tied into community developed financial institutions.  They give the investor a chance to be involved in the cash flows. 
  • Holly continues to ask about how you can continue to focus on transformational behavior.  
  • Jacqueline asks Terri to ask Holly about how to become a more heart-centered investor…Holly responds by encouraging you to ask questions.  The questions are:  What do I own?  What do I owe?  What do I earn?  What do I need?  These bring it out of your head and into your heart.  
  • Terri talks about her semi-annual financial review to get her concerns out of her head and focus on the reality.  It reduces a lot of stress for her. 

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

It is possible to collaborate and have all stakeholders win.  Life is not a zero-sum game.  

 

References in the Podcast

 

 

Contact

Holly can be reached through her website http://montcalmtcr.com/ or through LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollyziegelruxin/ or on Twitter @hollyruxin.  

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.

Episode 44 - Angel Investing Q and A with Jacqueline

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Terri answers her producer Jacqueline’s questions about angel investing.  This is the third episode in the series on angel investing. Main topics:  pitch events, demo days, evergreen fund, fundraising rounds, and what Terri looks for in a pitch. 

Show Highlights

  • Terri answers Jacqueline’s questions about pitch events and demo days
  • Terri talks about the Ada program in Berlin to encourage more women to be founders and entrepreneurs where she will be a mentor in their first cohort. 
  • Terri talks about the SwissNex event last year where she met Anne Cocquyt of The Guild where she had to ask to be on the all-male panel and the facilitator said they would be declaring the king of the evening.  Terri had to shout out “or queen.” The winner ended up being a female founder.  
  • Terri comments on how she dislikes pitch events where winners are declared but there’s no actual financial reward.
  • Terri attends events to learn about what is going on, the latest technology, and potentially find new startups to invest in.  She also looks for founders/startups to help even if she doesn’t invest in the startups.  
  • Terri clarifies her understanding of an evergreen fund for her own investing. 
  • How long does it take a company to exit?  Typically, 7-10 years.  But it depends on the business and the exit strategy (IPO, acquisition).  
  • What is an accredited investor?  Terri talks about the discussions around investing in startups and the SEC requirements and that the net worth and income requirements limit who can invest regardless of knowledge and experience.  
  • Terri shares what she is listening for at the various pitch events.  It depends on which hat she is wearing.  In addition to the standard pitch elements, she is looking for ability to communicate.  
  • Is Terri looking for leadership style in the pitches?  Indirectly, yes.  
  • The point of the pitch is to pique interest for follow up conversations.  
  • In early stage startups, you are generally investing in the team.  
  • Terri is excited about one of her investments, Zum, that just announced their $19M Series B raise. Zum is on demand and scheduled rides for kids ages 5-15.  They have a female co-founder/CEO.  
  • At what point do big VCs invest in startups?  What are the various rounds?  Seed, Series A, Series B, etc.  Terri talks about the current landscape with more money coming into startups earlier and VCs investing earlier in the startups.  Geography impacts this as well.  
  • Terri talks about when she invests in convertible notes versus priced rounds. 
  • Terri is excited about the first deal, Sendaride, she is syndicating on AngelList.  (This is not a solicitation for funds).  Terri is sharing out to folks in her network who she knows are accredited investors to get them onto the AngelList platform.  Terri found getting onto the platform a bit confusing without a specific deal to invest in.  
  • Terri and Jacqueline were saved by the bell when Terri’s neighbor, Sean,  came over with a cocktail to discuss cryptocurrency, blockchain and ICO’s.  

 

Call to Action

Subscribe to one podcast or one newsletter about angel investing and get into the groove of listening and reading.  Feel free to reach out to Terri if you have any questions or comments or other suggestions for resources for new angel investors.  PilotingYourLife@gmail.com

References in the Podcast

  • The Guild: https://theguilded.org/guild/home/index.html#/
  • Founder Institute: https://fi.co/
  • Sand Hill Angels: http://www.sandhillangels.com/
  • Terri’s Medium post on what she looks for in a pitch: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead/pitching-to-angel-investors-or-at-least-to-me-30696345ebe6
  • Y Combinator: http://www.ycombinator.com/
  • 500 Startups: https://500.co/
  • Acceleprise: http://acceleprise.vc/
  • Alchemist Accelerator: http://alchemistaccelerator.com/
  • Ada Accelerator (Ignore Gravity):  https://www.ada-accelerator.com/
  • SwissNex: https://www.swissnexsanfrancisco.org/
  • Terri’s Medium post on cryptocurrency, blockchain, ICOs: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead/cryptocurrency-and-ico-resources-55766cae29e
  • GoBambino: http://www.gobambino.com/
  • Ben Narasin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bennarasin/
  • NEA: http://www.nea.com/
  • Accredited investor requirements: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accreditedinvestor.asp
  • SeedInvest: https://www.seedinvest.com/
  • Jason Calacanis: http://calacanis.com/
  • Launch Festival: https://www.launchfestival.com/
  • Jobs Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpstart_Our_Business_Startups_Act
  • Clara Brenner of Urban Venture Fund talks about the Series A crunch at a Founder University event: http://thisweekinstartups.com/founder-university-clara-brenner/
  • Sequoia Capital: https://www.sequoiacap.com/
  • AngelList: https://angel.co/
  • Sendaride: https://sendaride.com/

Contact

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.

Episode 43 -Getting started in Angel Investing; a recap of two weeks with events and startup advising and plans for events in Europe

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Terri continues with her series on angel investing with a recap of her activities over the last two weeks including events with Springboard, office hours at Bolt and InTeaHouse, her weekly advising of three startups, and plans for her trip to Europe in June/July with InTeaHouse. 

Show Highlights

  • Terri recaps why she is doing this series of podcasts: create a mesh network of like-minded investors to invest in the startups and founders who aren’t necessarily getting the attention from mainstream angel and venture investors despite having very promising and investable startups
  • Terri attended Springboard’s Digital Health cohort final presentations and the pitches for the new cohort of biotech companies.
  • Terri talks about the deal she is working on syndicating on AngelList called Sendaride. She is performing due diligence not for her own investing but for others who will be considering investing alongside her. She looked at the deal, the company, the management team, financials, projections, technology, the product, market opportunity, and sales.
  • Terri talks about the office hours she held at Bolt on Brannan St. in SF.
  • Terri did some office hours for some founders at InTeaHouse with about 20 founders with startups that crossed all industries. She provided some advice and guidance to the founders while she was there.
  • Terri had registered for a MedTech Women event but had to skip it due to her busy schedule.
  • Terri handles emails, calls, research on a daily basis.
  • Terri is advising three companies including The Guild, Quinn Style, and Lisa Health and picked up half a dozen new clients through Tech Futures Group.
  • Terri loves learning things in one place and applies it to other companies and people.
  • Terri learns by doing and is learning as she goes along. It’s painful to see how ignorant she was two years ago and how much more needs to be learned.
  • Terri talks about the European fireside chat tour she is going to do with InTeaHouse where she will be visiting Geneva, Zurich, Munich, Berlin, Tel Aviv, Vienna, Slovakia, and of course, Paris.

 

Call to Action

Subscribe to one podcast and one newsletter and get into the groove of listening and reading. Feel free to reach out to Terri if you have any questions or comments or other suggestions for resources for new angel investors. PilotingYourLife@gmail.com

 

References in the Podcast

Contact

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.

Episode 42 - Initiative, Tenacity and a Love for Hockey bring Fei Wu from China to Fryeburg Maine

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Terri talks to Fei Wu about how she researched coming to the US from China to study when she was a teenager and picked a school in Fryeburg, Maine so she could play ice hockey. Fei talks about launching her podcast in 2014 in order to have something of her own that didn’t require multiple rounds of client approval. She looks forward to using her platform to bring people together to make the world a better place. 

Who is Fei Wu?

Fei Wu is from Beijing, China and came to the US in her teens to study in Fryeburg, Maine. Fei left her job in marketing and advertising to build a company of her own called Feisworld, LLC, with a mission to help small businesses and people tell better stories, find more customers and create new revenue streams. Fei is the creator and host of Feisworld Podcast which has listeners from over 40 countries.

 

Show Highlights

  • Fei tells the story about how she came from China to study in the US and how she looked for a school that had ice hockey and ended up in Fryeburg, Maine.
  • Terri shares her story about how first experienced ice hockey at a Give Hockey a Try Day last year.
  • Terri talks about exchanging houses with families in France and how valuable the experience was in terms of being forced to adapt to a different culture and language in developing empathy.
  • Fei teaches art at a local high school and encourages the kids to travel and get exposed to other languages and cultures.
  • Fei talks about how she was excited to come to school in the US and didn’t think she was brave or courageous at the time.
  • Fei launched her podcast in October 2014 because she wanted to create something on her own without requiring approval from anyone else. She was influenced by Krista Tippett and her podcast On Being.
  • Fei loves being able to learn about other people through her interviews with people on her podcast.
  • Terri likes that she can be ‘nosy’ when she interviews people for her podcast.
  • Fei learned how to actively listen as a podcaster which was somewhat in contrast to the way she was raised in China. Being an active listener is so important when interviewing for podcasts because it brings the listeners along with the process.
  • Fei talks about how she learned to use her podcast as a platform to gain new consulting clients. Dorie Clark encouraged her to write an eBook about this (which is available on Fei’s website). She is seen as someone who delivers and is trustworthy.
  • For Fei, 2018 will define who she is and who she will be in terms of her consulting work. She now chooses who she works with and doesn’t feel the need to say yes to everyone.
  • If Fei could wave a magic wand, she would love to use her platform to bring people together.

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

Empathy is the key to reducing the divisiveness in the world.

 

References in the Podcast

 

Contact

Fei can be reached through her website https://www.feisworld.com/ or on Twitter @feisworld or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/feisworld/ or on Instagram @feisworld.

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.

Episode 41 - How to get started Angel Investing

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Terri launches her new series on angel investing and includes the resources for new angel investors to get started.  She recently attended a Bay Angels Fashion Tech event and shares why she attended and what she got out of it.  Her goal with the series is to help to create new investors to create a mesh-network of like minded investors to invest in the startups and founders that are not getting the attention and funding they so richly deserve.

Show Highlights

  • Terri introduces the new series on angel investing and provides a list of resources to start to get educated on the space
  • Terri shares her experience at a Bay Angels Fashion Tech pitch event in San Francisco
  • Terri shares her lofty goal of creating a mesh-network of like-minded investors to invest in the startups and founders that are not getting the attention and funding they so richly deserve. 

 

Call to Action

Subscribe to one podcast and one newsletter and get into the groove of listening and reading.  Feel free to reach out to Terri if you have any questions or comments or other suggestions for resources for new angel investors.  PilotingYourLife@gmail.com

 

References in the Podcast

 

Contact

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.

empower yourself with confidence, a webinar for international women's day

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Terri shares information about Jacqueline’s webinar on confidence for 100 women who want to take it to the next level in celebration of International Women’s Day.

  

Jacqueline’s Webinar

March 8th is International Women’s Day and Jacqueline has partnered with FairFunders to provide a webinar for 100 women who want to take it to the next level.

During the webinar on March 8th, Jacqueline will walk you through how to better understand what influences our confidence, how we represent our confidence to the world, ways that we erode our own confidence, and show you ways to build confidence both short and long term. You will leave with an action plan to apply confidence in your quest for greatness.

The webinar is on March 8th at 12:30 PM pacific time and tickets are only $10. To register go to the FairFunders website which is https://fairfunders.org/fave.php. Jacqueline’s event is The Confidence Empowerment Series. Space is limited so register now to avoid missing out on fabulous opportunity to get you moving on your quest for greatness.

 

Contact

You can follow Jacqueline on Twitter at @andyoureagirl or find her on her website at www.jacquelinesteenhuis.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.

Episode 40 - How to get heard above the noise and be recognized for your expertise with Dorie Clark

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Terri talks to Dorie Clark about how to get heard above the noise and shares her playbook on being recognized for your expertise through content creation, social proof and your network.

Who is Dorie Clark?

Dorie Clark is an adjunct professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the author of Entrepreneurial You, Reinventing You and Stand Out, which was named the #1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc. magazine. A former presidential campaign spokeswoman, the New York Times described her as an “expert at self-reinvention and helping others make changes in their lives.”

A frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review, she consults and speaks for clients including Google, Microsoft, and the World Bank. She is also a producer of a multiple Grammy-award-winning jazz album. You can download her free Entrepreneurial You self-assessment workbook and learn more at dorieclark.com/entrepreneur.

 

Show Highlights

  • Dorie believes there is a science to breaking through to be heard above the noise which is different from being good at what you do; if we give people the playbook, we will lift all boats
  • Dorie wants to live in a world where the best ideas win, not just the loudest
  • She emphasizes the importance of being recognized for your expertise and there are three keys: content creation, social proof, your network
  • Content creation format is less important than getting your ideas out into the public sphere; give people an opportunity to discover you
  • Social proof is your credibility; this is what gives you authority or credibility on a particular issue
  • Your network is valuable to help you refine your ideas and amplify your ideas
  • She finds that really accomplished people are really in touch with their weaknesses; it may be a good sign to have imposter syndrome because of the humility that comes with it
  • Dorie talks about innovation and the importance of having a different perspective to look at something in a new way to create new ways of doing things.
  • Dorie emphasizes the importance to stay focused when one encounters obstacles, keep the higher purpose in mind.
  • Dorie was a philosophy major as an undergrad and decided that if she didn’t understand theology, she couldn’t fully understand philosophy. She got her doctorate in theology to dive into the background on religious forces.
  • Dorie is a fan of doing anything that makes one a more interesting person.
  • Dorie believes that to optimize people’s lives, you need to optimize people’s work
  • Professional speakers have a range for a few topics because there is a narrow band of expertise for most people. Dorie keeps it fresh by understanding the audience and the client’s goal for the event. Clients want to pay for what you are good at.
  • Dorie practices what she preaches in terms of moving into a new space with her foray into musical theater writing.
  • If Dorie could wave a magic wand, she would get animal over-population under control.

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

Content creation is so important; if you don’t get your ideas out there for people to discover, how are you going to be perceived as an expert or authority in your field?

 

References in the Podcast

 

Contact

Dorie can be reached through her website: https://dorieclark.com/ or on Twitter @dorieclark

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.

Episode 39 - Building Community through cooking and sharing meals both with family and with friends

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Terri joined Diana Silva aka Molé Mama on her 12Radio program to talk about building community over food, the importance of cooking and dining as a family, her love for her French cooking.   

Show Highlights 

  • Diana introduces Terri by reading her bio and providing her own perspective on Terri  

  • Terri talks about the importance in showing vulnerabilities, showing that even if something is hard, that we can work through the challenges 

  • Terri loves to cook, is a self-professed Francophile, and would love to spend part of every year in France 

  • Terri shows her love for other people through her cooking and entertaining and bringing people together 

  • Terri tells the story of the Monday night white-trash party in her front yard and how it was the catalyst for Terri and Zeke to build an outdoor sitting area in the front yard for regular entertaining 

  • Terri loves setting a beautiful table because it adds to the dining experience and helps people relax and celebrate the little beauty in life 

  • Terri purchases linens, dishes, glasses, candles on her various trips and adventures and enjoys reliving the memory of those adventures 

  • Diana prompted Terri to talk about her family’s annual scarefest and how they like to entertain or have activities at Halloween to not focus on begging for candy.  Terri loves Halloween and loves to dress up.  The themes have been everything from mad scientist to zombie café, to fairy tales gone bad, to HellthScare 2017.  This is too scary for Diana and her house is the caring and loving house for those people who get scared at our house.  

  • Terri likes to bring women together to meet, support each other, and enjoy a nice dinner wearing tiara nights.  Her friends connect personally and/or professionally and simply enjoy each other.  

  • Diana comments on how whimsical Terri’s events are and Terri uses these as an opportunity to explore her creative site and have a creative outlet.  

  • Terri learned about home exchanges from high school friends and arranged from a month in Paris in 2013 and two other exchanges in France in 2015.  

  • Terri likes to cook things that are amazing and easy but appear to be hard.  Terri likes clean flavors and food and cooking French with a California twist.  

  • Terri talks about her favorite recipes including handmade pasta, Bolognese sauce, ciabatta, potato dauphinoise, Eton’s mess, and panna cotta.   

  • Terri’s daughter Rachel is a great baker because she is precise and able to follow directions.  Terri prefers to cook because the precision isn’t as necessary.  

  • Terri had Diana’s husband over to experiment with creating cocktails.   

  • Terri talks about one summer when they did two different home exchanges in Paris and Provence and how she made gazpacho with some fresh vegetables from the garden.  

  • Terri shared the story of how they went from dining at Chez Serge in Carpentras, France to getting an invitation to the owners’ house for dinner with other amazing people and ultimately getting a backstage view of a French family circus.   

  • Terri discusses the importance of being gracious guests in foreign countries and how well she’s been treated as a result 

  • Cooking with her family is important and making sure her kids know how to cook is important to Terri; she wants to make sure her kids will be eating more than ramen when they leave the house. 

  • While her kids generally hate it, Terri tries to make sure that her family sits down for dinner as often as possible.  It’s important to her to make sure that she and her husband are around when the kids decide to talk.   

  • Diana asked about Terri’s podcast and what prompted her to start it.  One of Diana’s favorite episodes is when Terri interviews her son Adam.   

  • If Terri could wave a magic wand, she would make people comfortable in their own skin.  

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

You can find out more about Diana at her website:  http://www.molemama.com/.  Don’t forget to try some of her recipes and read her book.   

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. 

 

Episode 38- Strengthening the European startup/investing ecosystem through community, knowledge sharing and connections with Ben Costantini of Startup Sesame

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Terri talks to Ben Costantini about how Startup Sesame events are designed to help founders identify the best events to build their businesses and ultimately strengthen the European startup/investing ecosystem through community, knowledge sharing and connections.

Who is Ben Costantini?

Ben Costantini runs Startup Sesame, the largest alliance of Tech events in Europe and Connectors, an innovation studio specialized in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Ben is also the curator of Symposium Stockholm, the festival of ideas founded by Daniel Ek and Ash Pournouri. Ben has more than ten years of experience in conference organization, and has one of the most extensive and trusted networks of event founders in the world. He is an expert in the creative industries and advises entrepreneurs and investors in early and growth stages.  He was a Global Entertainment and Music Business instructor at the Valencia Campus of Berklee College of Music and the co-founder of the school’s student-run label, Disrupción Records.

 

Show Highlights

  • Ben talks about Startup Sesame; there are 30 partner events and right now they are accepting applications for the 2018 cohort of startups with applications due by 3/1 to participate in the one-year program.

  • Startup Sesame curates events to help startup founders identify the best events to attend to help build their businesses and to strengthen the European startup/investing ecosystem.

  • Terri’s favorite startup event is Slush in Helsinki because of the content and the events that encourage connecting.

  • What is Startup Sesame’s criteria for adding new event partners?   

  • Is it a startup event?  

  • Does it provide a strong startup offering?  

  • Is it happening at the same time as an existing partner event?

  • Is it happening in the same city where there is an existing partner event?  

  • Ben sees positive activity in startups, investing, and regulations in Europe to make innovation easier. There are now entrepreneurial and technical classes in school for kids.   Innovation doesn’t only happen in Silicon Valley.

Ben Costantini of Startup Sesame sees positive activity in startups, investing, and regulations in Europe to make innovation easier.  Innovation doesn’t only happen in Silicon Valley. @PilotingLife  Click to Tweet

  • One of the challenges in Europe is around funding.  There’s early stage money and later stage money but there’s a gap in the middle.   

  • Another challenge is around regulation and politics.  The European startup cities are competing rather than focusing on a pan-European market or a digital single market.   

  • Terri asked about whether GDPR is going to be helpful for European startups or a barrier to entry.  Per Ben, bigger companies are going to have an advantage because they can hire more people to comply with GDPR.  This will be harder for smaller companies and will have a negative impact on innovation.  This will provide opportunities for innovation in helping companies comply with GDPR.  There’s a great opportunity in copywriting in Europe for innovation.   

  • Terri talks about hoping to see a right-sizing of the need to meet the GDPR regulations.  

  • Anyone who wants to meet up with Startup Sesame or Ben at 4YFN in Barcelona, they will be there Feb 26th through March 1st 2018.   

  • Startup Sesame will be reviewing applications and narrowing down to 30 candidates to identify the final startups for the 2018 program. The winners will be attending a retreat in Valencia, Spain at the end of March to meet each other and the Startup Sesame community.   

  • Valencia, Spain has a robust startup scene with over 100 startups, there are 30 investment funds and 40 co-working spaces.   

  • If Ben could wave a magic wand, he would make information and knowledge available to everyone, everywhere because a lot of struggles and wars occur because information is not readily available.   

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

Innovation happens at the fringe; not at the center

 

References in the Podcast

  • Startup Sesame: https://www.startupsesame.com/

  • GDPR:  https://www.eugdpr.org/

  • 4YFN: https://www.4yfn.com/

  • Slush: http://www.slush.org/

  • Mobile World Congress: https://www.mobileworldcongress.com/

  • Station F: https://stationf.co/

  • theCamp:  https://thecamp.fr/

 

Contact

Ben can be reached at ben@startupsesame.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.

Information about Startup Sesame's latest application process for European Startups/

Startup Sesame picture.jpg

Terri talks about how she forgot to press Record for the interview of Ben Costantini of Startup Sesame but wanted to share the info about the new Startup Sesame cohort with applications due on March 1 for startups wishing to apply for the Startup Sesame 2018 program. www.startupsesame.com. 

What is Startup Sesame? 

Startup Sesame is the largest alliance of tech events in Europe, helping startups grow with conferences, education and networking.  Startup Sesame is based in Paris, France and is led by Ben Costantini.   

click to tweet: When you are a Sesamer, you are part of a community that shares knowledge and experiences around tech events and benefit from its members. 

You can be a Sesamer if you are a startup, a company or an event.   Applications are due March 1, 2018

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

Ben can be reached at ben@startupsesame.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. 

Episode 37 -Leaving the world a better place through job creation with Jillian Manus

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Terri talks to Jillian Manus about how she went from having her own businesses to leveraging her vast network to help build brands and companies and ultimately invest.  Jillian shares her passion for creating jobs that people can be proud of and the importance of being life-long learners.   

Who is Jillian Manus?

Jillian Manus is an experienced banking and media executive, a technology investor and entrepreneur.  She is the Managing Partner of Structure Capital.  In her role with Structure Capital, Jillian provides strategic support to founding teams.  Prior to Structure Capital, Jillian was founder of Broad Strategy, Manus Media and Global Goal Sports Management.  Jillian is a co-host on the podcast The Pitch, which has been called a ‘better, more realistic version of Shark Tank.’

 

Show Highlights

  • Terri asked Jillian about how she transitioned from starting her businesses to investing in startups

  • Jillian talks about how she used the Ginsu knife method to slice and dice to optimize and amplify the message for her clients

  • When she heard people wanted to venture into other areas, she would coach them through the path and use her vast network to bring the best people in

  • Jillian attributes her vast network to the fact that she talks to everyone she meets regardless of where she is and who they are

  • Jillian’s’ first question to people is ‘what can I do for you?’ which helps to build the relationship and build trust which makes it easier to ask for something later.  

  • Jillian uses the principle outlined in "the one thing" to focus on the most important because it makes everything behind it easier and helps to set boundaries for her time.   

  • Terri asked Jillian whether Jillian is bad at receiving and she responded with a story about Southern women who taught her the importance of graciously receiving a compliment with ‘thank you for being so kind.’

  • Jillian doesn’t see herself as successful yet and that she is not yet the best person she can be.  This fuels her and motivates her. She is fearless and gets out of her own way.   

  • Jillian and Terri talk about how women can be very mean to themselves and need to speak to themselves like they would to their friends and their seven year-old selves.

  • Jillian is the eternal optimist.  Jillian strong believes that you cannot waste time on worrying and other people’s bad behavior.   

  • To Jillian, 50 is fabulous.  You know your voice, you know who you are, you know what you don’t want.   

  • Terri talks about how she was demoralized for about 24-48 hours after reading Ellen Pau’s book Reset and the lack for accountability for the VCs because of the amount of money they have had and the resulting power associated with it.   

  • Terri and Jillian discuss whether we can shift the existing VCs to increase diversity in investing or if we need to create a separate funding ecosystem.  Jillian thinks the answer is a hybrid.  The existing investors are getting educated.   

  • Jillian says the problem is that men invest in people who look like them.  They can connect to the founder and their philosophies and character traits.  It’s a place of comfort to invest in other men.  Once they shift, there is a better outcome.  We aren’t going to be able to change all of them to step outside of their comfort zone.   

  • Jillian said that we need to create more onramps for other investors and provide women with the ability to invest in small amounts into the Seed round.  Before doing this, develop the top 10 questions to ask an entrepreneur and get educated on how to run a business.  This will give the comfort to be able to put money into startups.  

  • Jillian talks about the importance of being a life-long learner.   

  • Jillian never invests in a woman because she is a woman, but she does give women more opportunity to pitch to her.  Once there, they need to prove themselves at the same level.   

  • Women have an insight into men that men don’t have, having raised children.  Women are more easily able to see a person’s strengths and weaknesses.

  • Jillian is living the life she wants to live more than she has at any time in her life. 

  • If Jillian could wave a magic wand, she would make sure that every single person in this world had a job that they were proud of. The path to self-sufficiency paves the path to happiness and peace.  

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Jillian Manus would use her magic wand to give everyone a job they were proud of. The path to self-sufficiency paves the path to happiness and peace.

Click to Tweet

 

  • Jillian did not become a VC to make money, her mission is to create jobs for people and invest in founders for that reason.  She gives away 90% of income every year.   

  • She is passionate about supporting veterans and has invested in a startup (The Shift) to help veterans translate their military skills into the private sector.   

  • Jillian wants to leave the world a better place and she is doing it through creating jobs.   

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

You cannot waste time on worrying and other people’s bad behavior.

 

References in the Podcast

  • The Pitch Episode #17:  Jillian’s backstory:  https://www.gimletmedia.com/the-pitch/17-investor-spotlight-jillian-manus

  • Structure Capital: http://structure.vc/

  • The One Thing:  The Surprisingly Simple Thing Behind Extraordinary Results: http://bit.ly/BookTheOneThing

  • Reset by Ellen Pau:  http://bit.ly/BookReset

  • The Shift: https://www.shift.org/

  • The Pitch:  The Shift:  https://www.gimletmedia.com/the-pitch/15-shift

  • Skillmil: https://www.skillmil.com/

 

Contact

Listen to Jillian on The Pitch: https://www.gimletmedia.com/the-pitch.   

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.

Episode 36: Irrelevant after 40

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Terri and her producer Jacqueline sit down on MLK Day over an Aviation cocktail to talk about how women over the age of 40 are so often perceived as irrelevant and yet based on their life experience, emotional connectedness, and the shifting needs of their kids (they are needed less), that this is the perfect time to stand more in who they are to become their best possible selves.   

Show Highlights 

  • Terri loves to participate and attend events organized by women because they tend to send home goodies as parting gifts. 

  • Terri and Jacqueline talk about how their kids are being more difficult and angsty; Jacqueline’s daughter Julia is stepping into her own and is encountering resistance with Jacqueline and her other daughter Naomi.  Terri is experiencing something similar with her daughter Rachel and they are both struggling with the shift.   

  • Jacqueline talk about the importance of recognizing when others are disrupting the pattern and shifting with the pattern disruption. 

  • Terri talks about how hard she works to have a better relationship with her children as they go through their teenage years and her need to have a more harmonious situation than she had with her parents.  

  • Terri talks about how hard it is to redefine who she is as her kids need her less and as she ages and is often overlooked or dismissed because of her age and appearance 

  • They talk about an article that came out citing that women over the age of 50 have so much to offer when starting up a company 

  • Jacqueline talks about having known some women over the age of 40 who knew what they wanted and stood tall with who they were; she had good role models for aging 

  • Jacqueline talks about how scary it is as a parent to let go of managing your kids and letting them figure it out on their own.   

  • As their kids are getting older, and are pulling away, it is acting as a great reminder to let go and focus more on themselves.   

  • Jacqueline talks about being a fangirl to marketing consultants instead of popstars 

  • Terri talks about her mentoring at the CSU Biotechnology Symposium students in Santa Clara, CA 

  • Terri talks about how often she gets dismissed in her investing work when people find out her degrees are from a Cal State school and expressed thanks to Neil Stanley for commenting that he wonders how anyone could ever dismiss her.  

  • Terri talks about how she is proud of being a helicopter pilot, being a Tesla early adopter and how she often uses these things when she isn’t grabbing the attention of others in her work and investing.  The men perk up when they otherwise dismiss her.   

  • Terri shares her conversation with her friend Eva who is a new mom and who is concerned about being able to contribute to the women’s movement at the same level and Terri reminded her that her focus needs to be on raising her child and eventually she will have time to give back at the level that she wants. She reminded Eva that there are ebbs and flows to the time that is available to contribute at more extensive levels. And that creating good members of society is an important role in society. 

  • Jacqueline talks about how being a parent is a boot camp for other things in life.  

  • Terri talks about how as parents we have to get outside of ourselves to learn how to coach, mentor and guide our children so that they know how to think and act independently when they leave the house college.  

  • Terri talks about how she was drunk the first semester of college as a result of her parents having been incredibly strict.  She sobered up her second semester and ended up engaged but not focused on school.  The drug/alcohol options were so limited at that time versus what is available now both in high school and college.   Terri is using the show Grown-ish to feed her information to have conversations with her son Adam.   

  • Terri talks about how we are in this fabulous place of change and we have huge opportunities to make a significant shift.  Jacqueline responded with how we have been focused externally and now we have an opportunity to focus internally.   

  • Jacqueline talks to how important it is to practice compassion as we make this shift    

  • Words of wisdom 

  • Practice radical compassion for yourself 

  • Continue to grow and develop 

  • You are an individual with needs, desires, and dreams and there is going to be an ebb and flow to available time and energy.  Remain in tune with who you are…remain the pilot in your own life regardless of who is in your aircraft.   

  • Terri talks how important it was to her to share her vulnerability over the loss of her friend’s husband over the weekend and how importance it is for her to have her kids see her being vulnerability. Terri continues to strip away the adaptations that no longer serve her and continue to redefine who she is and her own definition of success.  

  • Jacqueline talks about how women are able to process both the emotional and the rational and yet men are not able to do both at the same time.  And men are not able to recognize that women can do both.   

  • Feel free to reach out to Terri and Jacqueline if you need help feeling empowered.   

  • They both send out a little extra love and compassion.  

 

Call to Action 

If you want to come and co-work with Terri and Jacqueline at Terri’s house in Redwood City. send an email to PilotingYourLife@gmail.com and we will figure out how to make it happen.   

 

References in the Podcast 

  • Aviation cocktail:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_(cocktail) 

  • Helsin Gin:  https://www.macwellcreative.fi/helsingin 

  • OP Financial: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OP_Financial_Group 

  • TheVault:  https://www.thevault.co/ 

  • NAWBO: https://www.nawbo.org/san-francisco-bay-area 

  • Neil Stanley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neiljstanley/ 

  • Black-ish:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-ish 

  • Grown-ish: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grown-ish 

 

Contact 

You can follow Jacqueline on Twitter at @jacquelineStee or find her on her website at www.jacquelinesteenhuis.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. 

Episode 35 -Micah Brown on the definition of success and providing greater opportunities for people of color in business

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Terri talks with Micah Brown about now being the perfect time to redefine the definition of success and provide greater opportunities to a more diverse group of people. 

Terri talks to Micah Brown about his experience as a founder of color in New York City and how we can change the funding dynamics for founders of color and female founders and ultimately the definition of success.  This is the second part of the interview that we abruptly cut off last week leaving you, hopefully, hanging on the edge of your seat for Micah’s experience with the diversity investor. Wait no more.     

 

Who is Micah Brown? 

Micah is a self-proclaimed visionary technologist with an intersection of skills consisting of data and algorithm understanding, HCI-centric digital technologies, financial services, financial engineering and media services. He has over 10 years of experience (up to the SVP level) across companies like Aon, Barclays, NBC and Viacom. Micah has a deep technological understanding and a strong commitment to social causes; at the center of Centiment and FilmFundr is the need to level the playing field in media for minorities. 

 

Show Highlights 

  • Micah talks about an experience with an investor with a diversity lens who led him to take a hard, corrective action.  The investor said that Micah was example of a POC founder that should be invested in although he doesn’t actually invest in diversity.   

  • Micah points out some logic to the investor about his portfolio, the data around the startups in his portfolio, and then the data about the POC company in his portfolio which was beating out all the other companies in the portfolio.  

  • Micah points out the importance of deploying raw intellect with these investors to point out the flaws in the investors’ hypotheses to ultimately shift.   

  • Terri talks about how difficult for people to shift off their value sets to  

  • Terri poses the question as to whether we are going to be able to get these primarily white male investors to shift in their investing or do we need to create a new ecosystem of funding.  

  • Micah talks about how difficult it is starting up a company and raising money and the difficulty for the investors to empathize with struggling founders of color.   

  • Micah talks about the difficulty in getting funding if you are a person of color because of the makeup of the current VCs.   

  • Micah talks about the importance of getting LPs to invest in funds that can create a new ecosystem of funding to invest in startups because right now saying that you invest with a diversity lens is PR and there is no substance behind it.  

  • Micah talked about the H&M and Pepsi advertisement debacle where they had badly sourced focus groups.  This was a perfect example of why having people who could potentially be offended in the decision-making process 

  • Last year in NYC, there were 780 non-POC companies that got funding in 2017 and only 15.   

  • He talked about the importance of naming and shaming to raise awareness and begin to affect change.   

  • Terri talked about how Trump’s election triggered many people, including her, to no longer be complacent, and emphasized the need to speak up and take action.  She was cautiously optimistic after the Justin Caldbeck scandal but then more optimistic after Harvey Weinstein and then the politicians in terms of we might be able to move the needle and move more quickly in leveling the playing field.    

  • Terri talks about the importance of getting LPs to invest not because it’s a diversity play, but because it’s a good business play.  Terri is concerned about the funding gap in later stages for these startups.   

  • Centiment is brain-powered advertising.  Micah said that big companies are able to get away with what they are doing because their processes and perspectives are narrow.  Centiment.io is scalable neurocomputing delivered by SaaS that can be used to provide responses as one would get in focus groups.  They have an emotional search that takes the ideas and provides feedback as to what the emotional response will be.   

  • If Micah could wave a magic wand, he would change the definition of success.  Once you change the definition of success, you can affect so much including how women perceive themselves and promoting opportunities for the American Dream for a larger group of people.  

  • Micah and Terri talk about what they have sacrificed, and the cost associated with pursuing ‘success’ as it is currently defined.   

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

References in the Podcast 

  • Centiment: https://centiment.io/beta/ 

  • Film Fundr:  https://filmfundr.com/ 

  • Harlem Capital Partners:  http://harlem.capital/ 

  • Kapor Capital: http://www.kaporcapital.com/ 

  • Backstage Capital: http://backstagecapital.com/ 

  • StitchFix: https://www.stitchfix.com/ 

  • Neuromarketing: Neuromarketing is a field that applies the principles of neuroscience to marketing research, studying consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli (Wikipedia). 

  • How Centiment could have helped H&M avoid the PR issue:  https://brandthropologie.com/hm 

  • Founders Privilege:  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/founders-privilege-doing-everything-nothing-ainsley-patrick-brown/?trackingId=CuoGabO7WC4wrR8OXAEyMg%3D%3D 

  • Girl Boss Radio:  https://www.girlboss.com/podcast/ 

 

Contact 

Micah can be reached via Twitter @MicahAPBrown 

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. 

 

 

 

References in the Podcast

 

Contact

Micah can be reached via Twitter @MicahAPBrown

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.

Episode 34 -Micah Brown and how he hacked the system to get ahead in business.

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Terri talks with Micah Brown about his early days in South London where he learned how to hack the processes that screened out people like him.

Terri talks to Micah Brown about his early days growing up in South London, becoming Mr. Banker Man while working at Barclay’s starting at age 16, and how learned to hack the processes that screened out people like him. This is the first of a two-part interview where he gives us the background that eventually led to starting Film Fundr and Centiment.io.

Who is Micah Brown?

Micah is a self-proclaimed visionary technologist with an intersection of skills consisting of data and algorithm understanding, HCI-centric digital technologies, financial services, financial engineering and media services. He has over 10 years of experience (up to the SVP level) across companies like Aon, Barclays, NBC and Viacom. Micah has a deep technological understanding and a strong commitment to social causes; at the center of Centiment and FilmFundr is the need to level the playing field in media for minorities.

Show Highlights

  • Micah talks about growing up in South London in a very Christian, strict and sheltered household with his dad who was a pharmacy technician and his mom who was a hairdresser
  • Micah’s dad was a trained pharmacist in Jamaica and had his own pharmacy when he met Micah’s mom and proposed when they first met. Eventually she said yes and because his mom had dual citizenship, after they married, they moved to the UK.
  • Terri tells the story of her dating and dumping her husband three times starting in 8th grade and how they eventually got married when they were 26 and are still married 21 years later. They met when they were 10 in the 5th grade (or so her husband remembers as he met both Terri and her identical twin sister Sherry on the same day).
  • Micah talks about his early work days and earning money to learn how to code that eventually led to working at Barclay’s Bank as a cashier at 16, being called Mr. Banker Man and how he ended up in credit risk at 17.
  • He kept getting turned down for a Barclay’s job because he didn’t have a degree and found a different way to be seen as a person, and not just a number, to get the credit risk job.
click to tweet Click to Tweet: In business and Technology the incumbents have created mental moats that make simple things seem impossible -@MicahAPBrown on #PilotingYourLife @PilotingLife bit.ly/PYL034-2018

In business and Technology the incumbents have created mental moats that make simple things seem impossible -Micah Brown on Piloting Your Life bit.ly/PYL034-2018

 

  • Micah talks about how the tech incumbents create mental moats around fairly simple things seem impossible for women and people of color. There is mythology around these things that makes these people think that it’s too hard and impossible, and not for them and this needs to stop.
  • Terri talks about how the check-the-box criteria perpetuates the problem associated with screening out a diverse candidate set because the checkboxes tend to only allow in one set of candidates that all fit the same mold. It’s not about lowering the standards; it’s about changing the requirements to introduce a new and more powerful dynamic.
  • Micah talks about the cognitive dissonance associated with how the hierarchical society is supposed to work versus how it actually works here in the US.
  • We end abruptly with Micah talking about how he counters some of this with raw intellect and data which he explains in detail in the second part of the interview.

 

 

 

 

References in the Podcast

 

 

Contact

Micah can be reached via Twitter @MicahAPBrown

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.

Episode 33 - Angel Investments

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Terri and her producer Jacqueline sit down over some champagne to talk about how she made her first angel investment in MyHealthTeams and realized after her second, third and fourth investments (Sandstone Diagnostics, Zum and TomboyX) that her investment thesis was to invest in companies with products or services that improve people’s lives. Now she is focused exclusively on digital health which is a narrowing of her original thesis. 

Show Highlights

  • Terri makes the intro as to the topic and why this week she is talking about her angel investments
  • Terri is going to be on a medtech angels panel at RESI in San Francisco this week and will be focused on her investment interest area of digital health while the other panelists will most likely be focused on
  • Terri talks about the need to leverage data and technology to flip healthcare on its head and put information in the hands of patients
  • Terri talks about how optimistic she is about Apple’s approach to changing healthcare versus how disappointed she is with Google and Verily and her experience with Project Baseline
  • Terri’s first angel investment was in: MyHealthTeams: social networks for millions of people living with chronic illnesses. They currently have 28 conditions including MS, Lupus, HIV, diabetes, Parkinsons. Female co-founder based in San Francisco. Terri has doubled down on this company in their Series B and Series C raises.
  • Jacqueline asked what an investment thesis is and Terri responded that she sees it as the criteria under which she chooses in her investments. Her investment thesis is to invest in companies that have products or services that improve people’s lives.
  • Terri talks about not actively looking for diverse founding teams but gravitating towards
  • Sandstone Diagnostics: home sperm count device and kit with an application for men to monitor their sperm count from home with guidance for improving the count from the application. The product is Trak and is FDA cleared. Founder was male but they brought in a new CEO, Karen Drexler shortly after Terri’s first investment (she’s tripled down on this one). They are based Livermore, CA.
  • Zum: on demand and scheduled rides and care for kids ages 5 and up. Terri has tripled down on her investment with them. Female CEO and co-founder. If this had existed when her kids were little, her husband could have continued to work. Sequoia led a $5M Series A in early 2017 which is a good signal.
  • Jacqueline asks Terri how she decides to invest in a company. Her response:
    • She listens to her gut
    • It has to be something that the world needs
    • She has to believe the management team is going to take the company far
    • There has to be a big enough market opportunity
    • The company needs to have a big enough opportunity that a VC will invest to help the startup grow
    • It has to make sense and be reasonable and rational
    • She looks for revenue opportunities and the possibility of getting profitable
  • Terri is an EIR (advisor) with Tech Futures Group and sees a lot of people looking for angel investors to invest in their research projects. This doesn’t resonate well with Terri; she needs to be able to see a path to revenue.
  • TomboyX: underwear, swimwear, socks and hats designed for people regardless of where they fit into the size or gender spectrum. Terri knows many women who have been buying men’s underwear that doesn’t quite fit them. The female co-founders saw this as an opportunity and have created a fabulous brand and product. Terri’s daughter and one of Jacqueline’s daughters loves their underwear. Terri has tripled down on this one. They are based in Seattle, WA. Terri loves the brand play and sees them as an early exit to a company like Calvin Klein, Nordstrom, Fruit of the Loom, or Hanes.
  • Terri talks about the shift in demographics and how women would much rather buy, and pay a premium, for products made for them.
  • Jacqueline asked why Terri invested in TomboyX again. Terri continued to believe in what they were doing, was impressed with their growth, and she wanted to continue to support them as they encountered cash crunches due to their growth. Terri is frustrated by the lack of funding opportunities for some of these companies.
  • Terri was asked to contribute an essay for a book that Jenn LeBlanc is writing about supporting female founders. Terri is determined to work with other like-minded women looking to invest in some of the overlooked opportunities by creating a mesh network of investors across the country and around the world.
  • Tactical Haptics: tactical feedback controller, initially for VR. Long term, medical training. All male team based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
  • Terri believes that women need to take bigger financial risks to achieve the rewards that men are able to achieve.
  • Terri was looking at between 250-500 deals a month between January and August 2017 and didn’t feel the need to invest in any of them.
  • Tueo Health: digital health solution to improve the monitoring and management of children’s’ asthma. Female CEO/Co-Founder: Bronwyn Harris…she is totally kick ass. They are based in San Francisco.
  • Terri talked about the importance of having healthcare solutions for kids that make the lives of parents better as most of the impact is on the mom. It’s also important to get ahead of the diseases because they turn into more significant issues when the kids become adults.
  • Magnetic Insight: they are bringing clinical imaging into the 21st century. They do magnetic particle imagining which is a new ultrasensitive high resolution molecular imaging approach that detects nanoparticles in the body over a great length of time. Female CEO and Co-Founder; based in Alameda, CA.

 

Call to Action

Get outside of your comfort zone. Take a risk. And share with me your mini-adventure at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.

 

References in the Podcast

 

Contact

You can follow Jacqueline on Twitter at @jacquelineStee or find her on her website at www.jacquelinesteenhuis.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.