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Episode 70- Imène Maharzi's vision to educate and train 2000 female business angels and get female founders greater access to capital for their startups.

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Terri talks to Imène Maharzi about why she started OwnYourCash this year to educate and train 2000 new female business angels and get female founders greater access to capital for their startups.   

Who is Imène Maharzi?  

Imène Maharzi is a French based professional, who started working in the French Private Equity space 18 years ago. She started out her career as an auditor with Arthur Andersen, and then became an investment professional with Butler Capital Partners where she had the opportunity to explore several sectors, geographies, investment sizes and targets.  

In 2013, she created Butterfly Partners, a company which invests time and money in start-ups and subject matter experts which demonstrate a social or environmental positive impact. In 2014-2015, she took over a majority stake in a school transportation company dedicated to exceptional children with autism, Down syndrome, etc.. As the CEO, she transformed a 15-year family business into a social business, with a resolution to trigger a positive social impact on both employees and beneficiaries, through a strong user-centric, quality-driven approach.  

As she moved through her professional career, she noticed that there was a problem in getting access to capital for female founders that she saw resulted in a massive waste of both economic and social value. This led her to create OwnYourCash this year. OwnYourCash is an educational platform, both online and IRL, to train women (and men) to become Business Angels. By opening a conversation on biases, gender-lens investing and impact investing, OwnYourCash will contribute to smoother access to capital for projects co-founded by women. 

With OwnYourCash, she is committed to training 2000 new female business angels by the year 2020.  The mission of OwnYourCash is to foster economic independence for women leading to true male/female equality 

  

Show Highlights 

  • Imène shared her professional journey into private equity and ultimately starting her new company OwnYourCash to educate and train 2000 new female business angels by 2020.   

  • Imène talks about social entrepreneurship in France…creating a social return and a financial return.   

  • Imène shares the details on OwnYourCash and how the time is right to educate new business angels and create a new business angle network and how the change in the tax laws in France this year will be a positive thing for new business angels. 

  • If Imène had a magic wand, she would make the ‘plain vanilla’ investing be impact investing with everyone going after economic return along with a social or environmental return.   

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Investing is an information business.  

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

Imène can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/im%C3%A8ne-maharzi-439294/. 

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 69 -How Accidental Entrepreneur, Fran Dunaway of TomboyX, happened to launch an apparel company

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Terri talks to Fran Dunaway of TomboyX about how she and her partner and wife Naomi Gonzalez started TomboyX in 2014 to create a better shirt and ended up launching an underwear company.  Fran and Naomi recently raised a Series A and Fran shares their journey to this point and where she sees TomboyX going in the next few years.  

Who is Fran Dunaway?  

Fran likes to call herself the accidental entrepreneur. In 2013, she had a great life as partner in a media strategies firm with big budgets, lots of vacation time, regular exercise, and excellent sleep habits. She and her wife, Naomi Gonzalez, started a little side business because they wanted some cool button-down shirts like a Robert Graham for women. They picked the name TomboyX because they thought it was cute.  
  
When the name started resonating with women and girls around the world, they knew they had an instant brand. It turns out that the word 'tomboy' opens the door to a conversation about being whoever it is you want to be. Women were SO elated to have a brand that saw them for who they are at their core. So, when customers started begging for TomboyX to design the first boxer briefs for women, Fran and Naomi obliged.  
  
In September 2014, they pre-sold two styles of boxer briefs designed for women and sold out in two weeks. They have never looked back. TomboyX has since refocused solely into the underwear/loungewear market and is thriving on the fact that people of all shapes and sizes want to be part of a brand that stands for values they share. Their customers continually prove that there is a toughness required to express your individuality – the defining characteristics of a tomboy. 
  
  

Show Highlights 

  • Fran shares the story behind TomboyX and the evolution of the TomboyX brand 

  • Fran continues to talk about how difficult it has been to raise funds to fund the business and what it’s like to run out of inventory as an apparel brand.  

  • Terri and Fran about the shifting landscape for female founders and the economic opportunity in investing in these founders.  

  • Fran explains how she went from a job in corporate to being a founder and focusing on TomboyX 100% 

  • Fran talks about how she and Naomi have evolved as founders and leaders and the evolution of their team as the company as grown and matured 

  • Terri asks Fran about how she sees the company evolve over the next few years 

  • If Fran could wave a magic wand, she would change the lens with which we see each other; to be less judgmental of each other and to have greater clarity as to who we are as individuals.   

  • Fran’s favorite founder resources are Loose Threads (podcast), Leap Frog (the book) and founders stories in general. 

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Money is power and to shift the power dynamic, we need to shift the economic dynamic.  

 

References in the Podcast 

 

 

Contact 

Fran can be reached through the TomboyX website https://tomboyx.com/,  on Twitter @fdunaway and via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/frandunaway/ 

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 68 - how investing in startups with female founders, and closing the wage gap, has a positive economic impact with shannon grant

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Terri talks to Shannon Grant about the positive economic impact associated with investing in female founders and the importance of getting more women, and exemplar men, to join them.  Shannon eloquently refers to this time as the ‘awakening’ in contrast to Terri’s term of ‘revolution’.  

Who is Shannon Grant?  

Shannon Grant is an investor, community builder and startup advisor. She leads knowledge programs for the best and brightest minds in tech to facilitate high-level knowledge transfer and create powerful experiences for time-strapped leaders.  
 
In 2014 she developed the Salon Series events at MKThink focusing on the future of education, and she helped build a membership organization of over 80 mission-driven CEOs with The Tugboat Group. She has coached founders to create original talks for CEO summits, hosted Jeffersonian dinners for awesome engineers and connected tech founders with the people or information they need to grow.  
 
To support this vision, she started Deus Capital to invest in companies with billion-dollar market opportunities that have at least one female founder.  
 
Her social impact work includes converting a liquor store into a children's writing center in the heart of San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood with 826 Valencia and building a new model for charity with Mama Hope. 

 

Show Highlights 

  • Shannon shares her journey through venture capital into angel investing.  

  • We talk about our shared interest in getting more women to invest and invest in female founders including the statistics around this.  

  • We discuss the importance of getting girls to see what is possible by exposing them to investing, startups, entrepreneurship, and technology.   

  • We talk about this being an economic opportunity and the importance of encouraging men to join us in investing in women and encouraging more exemplar men in this awakening.  

  • If Shannon could wave a magic wand and change something in this world, she would encourage people to speak; your voice is needed.   

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Investing in women will create trillions of dollars in economic opportunity.  It is not a zero sum game.  

 

References in the Podcast 

 

 

Contact 

Shannon can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannon-grant-6164139/.   

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 67 - Terri talks to Jennifer Ehlen of Brazen Global about her focus on supporting female entrepreneurship.

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Terri talks to Jennifer Ehlen of Brazen Global about her focus on supporting the advancement of women-led companies including why she created Brazen Global, a for-profit company, to better serve female founders. 

Who is Jennifer Ehlen?  

 

Jennifer Ehlen is the founder of Brazen and Prosper Women Entrepreneurs (PWE), two organizations aimed at advancing women-led companies. She is the CEO of Brazen Global and a Managing Partner of the PWE Startup Accelerator.  Before making the entrepreneurial leap to focus on Brazen Prosper full-time, Jennifer was a Director at Thompson Street Capital Partners, where Jennifer worked with senior management to help source and evaluate investment opportunities for the St. Louis based $1.5B+ private equity firm.  Prior to joining Thompson Street, Jennifer was the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Saint Louis University.   

Jennifer is an angel investor and invests in early stage ventures. She is also a member of Golden Seeds (NYC chapter).  Jennifer serves as a coach, mentor and advisory board member for companies ranging in size from pre-revenue to $200M+.   

Jennifer’s favorite and most important venture is raising her four children with her partner Craig.   

 

Show Highlights 

  • Jennifer shares her path from a small town in mid-Missouri in a socio-economically challenged family that provides a unique perspective where she has worked in and with the top 2% in private equity.  
  • Jennifer has been fascinated by intersectional feminism in entrepreneurship.  She worked at the St. Louis University, has been an investor, raised a fund, worked in private equity and saw the differences between men and women in entrepreneurialism.  
  • Jennifer saw some research in 2012 about the state of women-owned businesses and saw that St. Louis came in dead last, tied with San Francisco.  She and her colleagues had worked very hard at getting women a seat at the table and they were very frustrated by the reality and the study results. 
  • Jennifer, through Prosper, raised a $3M fund to invest in women and they built an accelerator. 
  • Realizing that the power is in the peer advisory groups, they decided to create Brazen to build the tools to create better peer groups and allow for global scaling.   
  • Brazen operates in 7 cities including St. Louis, Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, Denver, Detroit, and Philly.  Their goal is to expand into more cities this year.   
  • Brazen’s flagship program is the peer advisory groups (growth groups).  7-9 women are in each group and meet every month.  They use Brazen’s proprietary software that provides a rigorous structure that allows the participants to feel like they are fully understood before their peers start to provide guidance and support.   
  • Brazen is a for-profit organization and they license to franchisees.  They have 50 cities that could foreseeably be a new Brazen market, but it comes down to the director and who is delivering the program.   
  • At Brazen, they feel strongly about making sure that the directors understand startups/entrepreneurship/growth process at a deep level.  They need to be able to speak about gender parity in an articulate, evidence-based way.  The directors need to have a good network in the market already.   
  • Brazen has found that the software for the peer groups is applicable across sectors…not just for entrepreneurs.  
  • Jennifer shares what has been most surprising about her journey over the last year.   
  • Jennifer talks about how quite a few of their investors are men as they see the financial opportunity in this space.   
  • Terri asks Jennifer about what she is doing to temper the founder roller coaster.  Her response is a lot of self-care and she is no longer following her competitors in order to be focused on what she is trying to accomplish.  Her team follows them for her.     
  • Terri talks about how when she was going through a tough spot her executive coach reminded her that regardless of what ‘failures’ occurred or ‘down times’ existed in the past, I was able to recover, and this is so important to remember when we encounter tough times.  
  • Terri shared what she discussed with her executive coach about the comparison game and how easy it is to lose sight of your own goals. It is important to focus on your own journey and not someone else’s.   
  • If Jennifer could wave a magic wand to change something in this world, she would create true, total equity in the early stage capital space and have more women investing.  
  • Jennifer’s favorite founder resource is Brazen Global (of course) and recommends becoming a Brazen member. 

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Some of the best entrepreneurial ideas come from anger or angst.   

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

Jennifer can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferehlen/ or through the Brazen Global website https://brazenglobal.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. 

 

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Episode 66 -Lesley Jane Seymour about leveraging the power of women over the age of 40 to change the world.

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Terri talks to Lesley Jane Seymour about why she created CoveyClub for women over the age of 40 and how important it is to leverage these women in making the world a better place.

Who is Lesley Jane Seymour?  

Lesley Jane Seymour.  Lesley is a media entrepreneur and founder of CoveyClub, a new club for lifelong learners that she launched in February of this year.  The CoveyClub is for women over the age of 40 and has virtual salons, a monthly magazine, a daily blog, and a weekly podcast for women to bond over issues of interest and concern.  

Lesley was named Editor-in-Chief of More Magazine in 2008 and was Editor-in Chief and Social Media Director of More.com.  Before More, she served as Editor-in-Chief of Marie Claire and Redbook magazines, and teen book YM.  She was Beauty Director of Glamour and Senior Editor at Vogue.  She is author of two books, On the Edge, 100 Years of Vogue, and I Wish My Parents Understood.  In 2013 she was named Chair of the Editorial Advisory Board for Duke Magazine and a Global Ambassador for Vital Voices.  She is a trustee at Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts.   

Show Highlights 

  • Lesley shares what CoveyClub is and why she created it.  She expands on how women over the age of 40 are disenfranchised and being left out of the conversations.   

  • Terri comments that technology has increased the sense of loneliness and how ironic it is that Lesley is using technology to reduce the loneliness and bring women together.  

  • Terri talks about the importance of getting together in person to fill her soul.   

  • Lesley observes that there are no longer places for people to come together like offices, town squares, religious institutions, and community centers.   

  • Lesley named the company CoveyClub after a small group of birds.  She wants the groups to be small and provide ways for women to get to know who is in the room.  

  • Lesley talks about having a significant career and an amazing life and wants to be able to help women connect and help their dreams come true.   

  • Lesley knows that if you want better content, you’ll have to pay for it and she believes that others are looking for this.   

  • Lesley comments that right now our politicians in Washington DC don’t stay in town to eat together, to get to know each other, to see the humanity in each other, to be able to reach across the aisle to work together.   

  • Terri comments that we need to be intentional about coming together in person to connect as humans.  Terri loves how her city, Redwood City, makes a lot of effort to bring people together at various events around town.   

  • Terri talks about how quickly women over the age of 40 are overlooked and easily dismissed.  Lesley talks about how when we were in our 20s, we were seen as T&A and now she would like us to be seen for our $19T in assets that have control over.   

  • If Lesley had a magic wand, she would make Donald Trump go ‘poof’ and disappear.  Terri talks about the fear from the patriarchy who are trying to keep things as they were, and she hopes that we take this as an opportunity to slingshot forward. We need to drag everyone we know to the polls to make a difference in November.  

  • Lesley’s favorite founder resources are Hello Alice and the group that she is created to provide her with support (the red cup club). 

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Technology rather than bringing people together is leading to a sense of loneliness and isolation and it is time to reconnect in person.   

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

Lesley can be reached via email at lesley@coveyclub.com or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesleyjaneseymour/. 

 

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 65 -May Samali of Urban Innovation Fund talks about her path into her dream job in venture capital which started out in law.

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Terri talks to May Samali of Urban Innovation Fund about how she fell in love with idea of using social entrepreneurship to solve the world’s problems and her path from law to venture capital.

Who is May Samali?  

 

May Samali is an investor at the Urban Innovation Fund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm. May has had extensive experiences advising both early-stage startups and large companies across the U.S. and Australia. Prior to her current role, she was a Director at Tumml, an urban ventures accelerator in San Francisco. She also served as a Strategy Consultant at a boutique venture firm and as an attorney at Herbert Smith Freehills in Sydney.  

 
May earned her MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and her economics and law degrees from the University of Sydney. She is also an Australian John Monash Scholar, a Gleitsman Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, and an Australian American Young Leadership Dialogue delegate.  

 

Show Highlights 

  • Terri shares how she met May on the Connected Homes pitch panel at Launch Festival in 2017 which was an all-women panel.   

  • May shares her journey from Australia to the Silicon Valley. 

  • May started in law but fell in love with the idea of using social entrepreneurship to solve the world’s problems.  

  • May answers Terri’s question about how the tall poppy syndrome has influenced May in her life.   

  • May is working on bringing the best parts of the Silicon Valley to Australia.  

  • My comments on how helpful people have been to her in getting into investing.  May has taken the opportunity to reach out to people in a very intentional way and follow up after meeting at events.  

  • Terri discusses the importance of saying ‘why not me?’ instead of ‘why me?’ especially for women.  

  • Terri observes that May’s natural authenticity is very attractive and charming and hard to resist.   

  • May talks about how being of the Baha’ Faith influenced her view of the world from day one and later started to live them as a result of her personal choosing when she was in her twenties. 

  • Terri talks about the importance of taking the leap without having it all figured out.  

  • May shares what she started to do when she was overanalyzing a situation.  She said that she would sit across from herself at the table and provide herself with her own advice.   

  • If May had a magic wand, she would make all of us more human and compassionate and living life in the moment.   

  • May’s favorite investor resources are Venture Deals and Information.  

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

If you believe you can do it, you can do it.   

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

You can follow May on Twitter @maysamali or reach her via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/msamali/ 

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 64 -Terri talks to Darryl Grant about why he started Inspiring Connectivity to bring women together.

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Terri talks to Darryl Grant about how he was inspired by his mother to create an event to bring women together in the Inspiring Connectivity event and how he sees community as the key to solving some of our biggest, societal issues.  

Who is Darryl Grant?  

Darryl Grant is a New York native, born in Harlem. He has 20 siblings and is uncle to over 50 nieces and nephews. He has been a Bay Area resident for the last 4.5 years and enjoys family time with his wife and 2.5 year old son, supporting his clients’ needs, sports (former Div-I Greco-Roman wrestler), reading, traveling, cooking, and supporting diversity and inclusion. 

Darryl is Managing Director of Merrill Corporation and Founder of Inspiring Connectivity.  He  has over 19 years of financial communication experience with the top three financial printers. Darryl began as a Customer Service Project Coordinator in Manhattan and later assumed various managerial roles and engineered XBRL operations for two Manhattan offices. Before assuming his role as Managing Director of Sales where he co-leads Merrill’s Bay Area Capital Markets team, Darryl spent 6 years as a Capital Markets Account Manager leading teams and working directly with C-level execs, law firms, corporate finance and legal departments to manage IPOs, mergers, spin-offs along with all routine SEC filing requirements. He has also managed three of the largest mergers in stock market history and over 20 prominent IPO’s in industries ranging from Tech, e-commerce, transportation, motion pictures, Biotech, retail and broker exchange services.  

Show Highlights 

  • Darryl starts off by talking about the event he puts on with his team called Inspiring Connectivity and why he, as a man, is putting on an event for women. 

  • Darryl talks about growing up in New York and about his mom who noticed a trend where children were being left behind.  This led her to adopting 18 children and raising a total of 21 of which Darryl was one of those adopted by her.   

  • Darryl shares how he worked with a coach who taught him that because he was having trouble with who he was, he was having trouble coming across authentically.  

  • Darryl was inspired to create an event for women because of the 2016 elections, the issues women were facing that were coming to light, and a conversation with a friend who fully supported him creating the event.  He was inspired by what his mother created around community.   

  • Terri comments on how important it is for Darryl to set the example for other men to create these kinds of events to support the change for women in society.  This is a human issue; not a women’s issue.  

  • Darryl observes that solving problems begins with community.   

  • Terri talks about her experience at Inspired Connectivity with Barbara Tien and how Barbara introduced her to the other women at the event.  This made Terri realize that she is having an impact even though she doesn’t always see it.   

  • Terri commented that a lot of founders don’t take the time to get to know her and how important it is to be seen as a person and not just as a checkbook.  

  • Terri asked Darryl about tribalism in a global community and he responds with the importance of connecting and community.   

  • Darryl talks about the importance of getting out of your own head when designing an event and thinking about what the guests are going to want.  

  • Terri asks Darryl if people give him a hard time for not focusing on women of color or people of color and he says that for the most part, no.  

  • Darryl talks about breaking down the platform, the panel, the awards and focus on the people at events.   

  • If Darryl could wave a magic wand, he would use it to genuinely connect people without bias.   

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Creating and building connections and community will be the key to solving our societal issues.   

 

References in the Podcast 

  • Vanessa Grant: Instagram:  @beautysecretary 

Contact 

Darryl can be reached through LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/darryl-grant/.  

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 63 -Terri explains how to set up a technical project for success

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Terri talks with Jacqueline about her process for planning a technical project to set the project up for success and be able to objectively evaluate the success at the end of the project.   

   

Show Highlights 

  • Terri talks about having to complete her professional education hours for her PMP (project management professional) certification.  She talks about writing some blog posts and putting on a webinar on planning a technology project which is covered in this episode.  

  • The presentation Terri provided covers the following areas (link in references): 

  • Project charter 

  • Project document 

  • Project plan 

  • Agreements 

  • Preparing for kick off 

  • Terri talks about how she is assuming that the lead candidate has been identified and the system is either business critical, a major enterprise project, or needs to be validated to meet 21 CFR Part 11 requirements.   

  • Terri shares that she is a believer in right-sizing the planning of a project.  

  • Terri talks about starting with a project charter to get the stakeholders on the same page regarding the project and shares details about what goes into the charter.   

  • Terri talks about creating a project document for the larger projects she works on which is the guidebook / playbook for the project.   

  • Terri shares why it is important to establish the acceptance criteria and success criteria for the project at the beginning of the project to be able to objectively assess the success of the project at the end of the project.  

  • Terri explains to Jacqueline why a project plan is wrong as soon as it is generated but you need to start someplace when it is good enough.  

  • Terri emphasizes the importance of NOT signing agreements with vendors until the project is planned.   

  • Terri talks about the practical aspects of managing and planning the overall project and the importance of understanding the motivations of all of the stakeholders.  

  • Terri shares her concerns about SaaS solutions and the assumption that they are plug-and-play without taking into account the integration within the business processes.  Terri is concerned about operationalizing the new system and associated processes.   

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

Jacqueline can be reached through her website at https://www.jacquelinesteenhuis.com/ or via Twitter at @andYoureaGirl.  

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 62 Bonus! - Terri and Jacqueline talk with Anne Cocquyt of The Guild about Serendipity, her annual un-conference held in San Francisco in October.

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Terri and Jacqueline talk with Anne Cocquyt of The Guild about Serendipity, her annual un-conference for women held in San Francisco over two days on October 26th and 27th.  Anne shares why she started Serendipity and the plans for this year’s event..  

   

Show Highlights 

  • Terri, Jacqueline and Anne talk about Serendipity.  Serendipity is anything but the typical conference.  There will be more than 80 speakers sharing their skills and expertise. Attendees are limited to 500 women.   

  • Terri talked about the salon she is hosting at Serendipity at Bolt VC for female accredited investors to learn more about investing in startups. This will be limited to 40 female accredited investors.   

  • The houses include: 

  • Starting Something 

  • Leadership 

  • Equality in the Workplace 

  • Voice Sessions 

  • Coaching 

  • Story Powerhouse 

  • Thought Leadership 

  • Social Responsibility 

  • Founders Meet Funders 

  • Emerging Tech  

  • Unplugging, Health and Wellness 

  • Women’s Health 

  • Investing 

  • There are 40 different sessions and each attendee can choose 4 different sessions over the two days.  Everyone will have a different, tailored experience but will be able to have a shared experience and connect with other women.  

  • There will be an opportunity to fill out your Guild profile, connect with women before the event, and then have a 15-minute call to help determine which sessions to attend.   

  • There will be happy hour on night one and the second night, there will be dinners hosted by various community members including discussions. You must buy a dinner ticket and a session will be recommended based on your interests.   

  • Anne is looking for volunteers to help with the conference who want to contribute to the event and participate on a very, special level.    

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

Anne can be reached through The Guild website www.letsguild.com or via email at anne@letsguild.com. Or through the Serendipity website:  www.guildserendipity.com.     

 

Jacqueline can be reached through her website at https://www.jacquelinesteenhuis.com/ or via Twitter at @andYoureaGirl.  

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 61 - Terri talks to Anne Cocquyt about her journey from Germany to Australia to Europe to South America and ultimately San Francisco and her desire to build community wherever she goes.

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Terri talks to Anne Cocquyt about the importance of building community and growing through travel.  Anne also talks about being an adrenaline junky which has fueled her big leaps from Germany to Australia to Europe to South America and ultimately San Francisco to start her company, The Guild.  

   

Who is Anne Cocquyt? 

Anne Cocquyt is originally from Germany where she studied computer sciences and got her undergrad and master’s degree.  She left Germany for Australia and ultimately landed in Switzerland where she started her career in the IT industry for Detecon Switzerland leading multi-million-dollar IT outsourcing projects across Europe and Asia with clients like Philips, Shell and Deutsche Telekom. She launched her first NGO in Switzerland, organizing high-end events to fundraise for charitable projects in Zambia, South America and Switzerland. She then ventured into the business of art, which she discovered was not her forte, before launching her own IT strategy consultancy company in the UK and Switzerland.  After some time on Route 66, she got married, moved to San Francisco, and joined Genentech managing the execution of 12,000 educational programs and then leading commercial partnerships all the while advocating and implementing digital health innovation across the company. Simultaneously, she founded and sold a small consumer product company, Bezl LLC. In 2016, Anne decided to take the leap and transform her knowledge in data science, her commitment to women leaders and her close connections to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Silicon Valley to support her new venture: The GUILD.  

 

Show Highlights 

  • Anne shares her journey from Stuttgart, Germany which was fairly conservative, and she knew she wanted to get out into the world. After she finished her MBA, she booked a trip to Australia which was on the other side of the world from where she was living.   

  • While in Australia, she worked a number of odd jobs until she realized that she needed to get back into the real world.  She moved into IT transformation consulting out of Switzerland.   

  • The work ultimately didn’t align with her values so she started a non-profit organization with a friend and put on large, high-end events for fundraising for organizations or projects they cared about.  

  • Anne shared her grandparents’ story that influenced how she operates in the world in terms of the importance of building community.  Her grandmother was pushed out and she had to create a new home.  Anne decided to find her own home. 

  • Anne shared her journey through South America and how traveling taught her that whenever she thought she was at the end, or that she was stuck, that there are ways out.  She learned to trust in herself and in serendipity.  

  • Terri talked about the importance of traveling and putting herself in uncomfortable positions to build resilience, adaptability, and self-reliance.   

  • Anne says new is scary, but this doesn’t seem to hold her back.  

  • Anne believes that networks are so important. 

  • When she was in South America, she got a call to do a consulting project in Europe.  She started a company in England and Switzerland to support the project.   

  • Anne came to America and rented a red convertible to drive Route 66 to drive west which turned out to be her route to freedom.  She felt like there was something waiting for her at the end of it.   

  • She ended up in LA with a friend and two months later she was married and living in San Francisco.   

  • She loves the SF ecosystem which is crazy, and you can ideate, and people are always saying yes, and… 

  • Anne talked about being new to the area and knowing absolutely no one.  She attended lots of events to meet people but knew that there were a lot of people in the groups that had something in common.  She started connecting them and realized that she had a passion for something that feels really good.   

  • She started a consumer product company as a side hustle with her husband and started working for Genentech.  She saw there was no support system in place for women, so she started Bubbles and Biz. 

  • Her experience at Genentech focused on neural networking led to an idea to create an algorithm to find the ways that people connect leveraging AI.  She took her hypothesis tested it out.     

  • Anne quit her job at Genentech and took the leap to create the Guild.  She recently added video chat options to the in-person meeting options.  They now have members from almost all states on the platform.  

  • Terri asked about who the ideal Guild member is, and Anne responded that it is any women from 18-90.  The algorithm considers many aspects of a woman’s life and interests and so it is not limited to professional women.  It can help other groups help their community members connect with each other and help companies connect their employees to each.   

  • Terri talks about the importance of the women’s groups and organizations coming together to build a stronger, collective force.  

  • If Anne could wave a magic wand, she would have people take a moment, before they do or say anything, to think about the effect of their actions on other people.   

 

Anne’s Recommended Funder Resource  

Hello Alice is a great resource, especially for female founders.   

She also recommends taking a look at founder groups including the former YC group on Facebook and Founder Network.  

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

New is scary but it shouldn’t hold you back.   

 

References in the Podcast 

Contact 

Anne can be reached by email at anne@letsguild.com or through The Guild website at http://www.letsguild.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 60 - IT compliance and IT strategy consulting for biotech, medical device, diagnostic, and digital health companies with Terri

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Terri talks with Jacqueline about her work consulting with biotech, medical device, diagnostic, and digital health companies providing IT strategy and IT compliance services.     

Show Highlights 

  • Terri and Jacqueline start out with some discussion about end of school year and the beginning of summertime.   

  • Terri talks about her consulting work with Solutions2Projects and that she is still consulting, despite a recent comment by someone that they didn’t realize she was consulting.   

  • Terri started her consulting company, Solutions2Projects, 13 years ago.   

  • Terri does higher level IT strategic and compliance work within biotech, medical device, diagnostic, and digital health companies.  This has included IT strategy, IT compliance, IT system selection, IT project management, and vendor audits within life sciences companies.  

  • Terri works with companies that have 30-300 people, moving towards or in Phase III clinical trials and/or getting ready for market approval and commercialization.  Terri likes to come in during Phase II to help the companies plan out their IT strategies in advance of when they need the systems in alignment with their corporate strategies.   

  • Terri talks about how biotech companies outsource certain systems and processes early on and then later decide to bring in house and how the planning for this should be aligned with the corporate strategy.  

  • Terri talks about computer validation and 21 CFR Part 11 (electronic records / electronic signatures) in an FDA regulated industry.   

  • Terri works with systems and processes across an organization including clinical, regulatory, quality, financial, manufacturing, distribution, quality, HR, payroll, budgeting, business performance management, lab systems, etc.    

  • Terri is a business person who understands technology and compliance.  Solutions2Projects’ value is in considering business, technology, and compliance requirements and needs.  

  • Terri talks about the importance of data integrity in life sciences and how we use computer validation to demonstrate data integrity and control over the data and the systems.  

  • Terri talks about the challenges associated with the introduction of SaaS in life sciences.  

  • Jacqueline asked Terri about her first system selection and validation.  Terri talks about how she fell into life sciences a year after the 21 CFR Part 11 regulation was released (1997) and her first implementation and validation of JD Edwards at Coulter Pharmaceuticals following GAMP4.  GAMP5 has since been released and computer validation has evolved over the last 20 years.  

  • Terri is a believer in taking a risk-based approach to computer validation and tailoring to each company’s risk tolerance and approach to the system.  

  • Computer validation is all about defining what you want, testing to confirm you got what you wanted, training people to effectively use the system in a consistent manner, and then maintaining the system in a controlled manner.  To Terri, this makes good business sense.  

  • Terri talks about the evolution of computer validation and some project and client stories.  

  • Terri talks about GDPR.  

  • Terri shares her concerns about potential litigation in the life sciences space between SaaS companies and life sciences companies because of computer validation and potential exclusion of data from regulatory submissions or complete response letters. She is starting to see more warning letters and 483’s around data integrity.   

  • Terri talks about blockchain in the life sciences space.   

  • Solutions2Projects is ideally suited for situations where this is an internal lead or project manager and Terri provides guidance, structure, and templates to help them with their processes.  Terri can help guide the business through the changes related to the new system implementations.   

  • Terri has some project managers she likes to work with whereby she plans the project and then they are able to manage the projects with high level advisory and guidance from Terri.  

  • Everything comes down to process and technology.  Terri’s favorite part of her work is to aligning corporate strategy with the system strategy.  When she can help life sciences companies see systems as business enablers and meet compliance requirements she is a happy camper.   

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

Jacqueline can be reached through her website at https://www.jacquelinesteenhuis.com/ or via Twitter at @andYoureaGirl.  

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 59 - Terri talks to Christine Tao about founding SoundingBoard and how she was taught to dream big and ask for what she wants

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Terri talks to Christine Tao of Sounding Board about how working with her dad in the family business taught her to be scrappy, to be a hustler and find ways to do more with less.  He also taught her to dream big and ask for what she wanted.  She shares how this ultimately led her to start her company, Sounding Board.     

    

Who is Christine Tao?  

 

Christine Tao is the CEO/Co-founder of Sounding Board, a VC-backed startup bringing personalized, continuous leadership development to the $40B+ leadership & training industry. Prior to co-founding Sounding Board Christine was a Senior Vice President of Developer Relations at Tapjoy, a venture-backed, leading mobile advertising platform. She led the growth of Tapjoy’s network business from $0 to over $100 million in revenues in less than 3 years.  She has also advised several venture-backed startups including Flyby Media (acquired by Apple), Immersv & Comprendi. Prior to that she led e-commerce partnerships and strategy at YouTube. Christine holds an MBA in Marketing & Operations from Wharton and a BA in Business Administration from UC Berkeley. 

 

Show Highlights 

  • Christine shares her experience growing up in a family business and how that has influenced her professionally and how she operates as the CEO/Founder of Sounding Board.   

  • Christine shares the importance of thinking big when starting a business and making sure there is a strong sense of purpose for the employees to believe in and subscribe to.  She gives her dad credit for this thinking.   

  • Christine talks about the importance of providing employees with purpose and opportunities for growth. This is important right now because there is a war for talent and you want to attract the best talent.   

  • Christine explains her personal journey that led her to start Sounding Board.  

  • Terri talks about her experience working with an executive coach and how valuable the experience has been for her.   

  • Sounding Board is all about democratizing coaching for employees throughout the organization so that they can grow and scale at a rate they aren’t able to do on their own.   

  • Christine turns the tables on Terri and asks her for one of the major takeaways from working with a coach.  She responded in how she recommends approaching working with coaches.   

  • Terri shares how her experience working with a coach helped her not only professionally but personally as well.  The work she did applied across her life.   

  • Christine talks about how coaching has shifted and how Sounding Board uses tech to scale coaching.   

  • If Christine could wave a magic wand, she would change people’s assumptions and have them come into conversations thinking the best of the other person or people in the conversation.   

  • Bonus questions (new):  Christine’s recommended founder resource is the podcast The Startup Chat.   

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Dream big and ask for what you want.   

 

References in the Podcast 

 

 

Contact 

Christine can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/christineptao/.   

 

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 58 - Terri talks to Stan Mirzayev about coming over to the US from the former Soviet Union when he was 4 and how is dad is his hero.

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Terri talks to Stan Mirzayev about his family’s journey from the former Soviet Union to New York City to Phoenix, Arizona and how his dad has inspired him to start his own businesses without fear.  He talks about his dad being his hero and how he learned from him to see failure as an opportunity to get right back up and learn from the experience. 

    

Who is Stan Mirzayev?  

Stan Mirzayev is a serial entrepreneur and an auto enthusiast in Phoenix, Arizona.  He is CEO of Parts Detect and COO of his family’s business, In & Out Lube and Repairs.  Stan is also on the board of advisors at the Arizona automotive institute and has invested his knowledge into his craft, community and industry. 

 

Show Highlights 

  • Stan was born in the former Soviet Union and his family migrated to the US when he was 4.  They had a choice between the US and Israel. They had to leave everything behind and start from ground zero.  

  • Stan talked about growing up in New York City.  His father worked 20 hours a day to provide for his family and ultimately got into the automotive industry.   

  • Stan works with his dad in one of the family’s automotive shop in Phoenix, Arizona where they moved to 13 years ago. Stan talks about the move to Phoenix from NYC when he was in high school.   

  • Stan talks about his father being his hero. He was inspired to start his own businesses because he saw his father doing it.   

  • He knew that if he failed, he could treat it as an opportunity to learn and that he could always start over again.  Seeing what happens is half of the excitement.   

  • Stan started a new venture with his cousin, Alex after reviewing lots of ideas with Alex and Alex finding agreeing that the idea was THE idea.  The company is to simplify the parts logistics for auto shops.   

  • They created an MVP and took it to some vendors and then did some research.  They got a great response and then they ran with it.   They are converting the current product onto the blockchain.  

  • Stan shares the story behind the name of his company, PartsDetect. The journey to the name involved testing it out on his dad and making sure he could say the name.   

  • Stan’s dad thinks he owns 50% of the company because Stan is his son.  His dad is coming around the slowly to the idea of the company but is somewhat old fashioned when it comes to work and productivity.   

  • Stan and Alex share their experience as new entrepreneurs.  

  • Stan has a sister with a daughter named Bella who is 7 who is his heart and joy.   

  • If he could wave a magic wand and change something in the world, he would remove irrational fear.   

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Failure is an opportunity to learn.   

 

References in the Podcast 

  • PartsDetect:  http://www.partsdetect.com/ 

 

Contact 

Stan can be reached via Linked at https://www.linkedin.com/in/stan-mirzayev-14028970/ or by email at Stan@PartsDetect.com.  You can follow him on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/partsdetect/ or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/PartsDetect 

 

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 57 - population health and the future of blockchain in healthcare with marquesa finch

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Terri talks to Marquesa Finch about Marquesa’s journey into population health and the work that she is doing in blockchain to further better health for all.  Marquesa advocates for eliminating barriers to equity to increase innovation which is ultimately great for business. 

    

Who is Marquesa Finch? 

Marquesa is a Founding Partner at P2Health Ventures, a startup ecosystem and venture fund supporting entrepreneurs building public health tech solutions. She is the Blockchain Health Lead for the Silicon Valley Blockchain Society where she works on their blockchain health investments and initiatives, and is an active thought leader in leveraging blockchain technology to improve equity and access. Marquesa has worked on improving diversity and inclusion in tech through entrepreneurship at the Kapor Center for Social Impact and at the American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA). She disseminated global health interventions in the Palestinian West Bank. Upon returning from the Middle East, she continued to work in digital health at Kaiser Permanente, building their first app analytics program. 

 

Marquesa studied Art History and Biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara and earned her Master’s in Public Health (MPH) in Global Health at The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health in Washington, D.C.  She is a San Francisco native, a classical pianist, and ballerina. 

 

Show Highlights 

  • Marquesa walks us through her journey into population health through global health and what global health is. 

  • Marquesa was very interested in studying the effects of maternal and child health during a war and post conflict.  After grad school she worked in the Middle East.   

  • Marquesa and her team were trying to figure out why there was such a high incident of breast cancer in the West Bank.  They found there were political and cultural issues that needed to be addressed.   

  • To address the problem, they leveraged SMS to send messages to the target and educate the influential women.  This was Marquesa’s first introduction to digital health.   

  • Marquesa came back and worked for Kaiser on their technology solutions in their Mobility Centers of Excellence in 2012 and helped build out their mobile analytics platform.   

  • Terri and Marquesa talk about how Kaiser adopts and deploys digital health technology and some misconceptions about the lack of integration within Kaiser by region.  

  • Terri talks about the difficulty in implementing technology in a regulated industry.  

  • Marquesa explains what population health is and why it is fascinating to her and why she is focusing on it. 

  • Marquesa talks about the importance of focusing on digital health outside of the doctor’s office and hospitals.  

  • Marquesa explains what social determinants of health are and why it’s important to take them into consideration when focusing on population health and individual health.   

  • Terri and Marquesa talk about how these healthcare solutions and tools get paid for and funded. Marquesa’s VC fund, P2Health, is focused on just this. Marquesa talks about the misconceptions about assuming that government is responsible for paying for these solutions.  

  • Marquesa shares that what Omada Health is doing is rooted in population health concepts and is a VC backable company.   

  • Marquesa talks about her journey into blockchain and how the understanding of the foundational elements led to an ‘aha’ moment for her and the potential use cases in healthcare.   

  • Marquesa went into details around some of the potential blockchain applications in the healthcare space.   

  • Terri shared her experience three years ago when she was first introduced to blockchain and immediately saw the use case in drug traceability and medical device serialization and traceability.  It’s still early days and the blockchain isn’t mature enough for prime time.  

  • If Marquesa could wave a magic wand, she would change the barrier to equity.  We live in an inequitable world and this prevents us from moving forward as a society.  This would allow people to contribute optimally to society.  There’s a lot of talent in some communities that is not being tapped that could be very useful to others in the community and in the world.  Innovation is suffering as a result of the barriers to equity.  

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway 

Eliminating inequities will provide all of us with an opportunity live better lives.   

 

References in the Podcast 

 

Contact 

Marquesa can be reached through LinkedIn via https://www.linkedin.com/in/marquesafinch/ 

 

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 56 - Digging in with the Investor

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Terri and Jaqueline sit down over a cup of coffee (not bubbly) to talk about Terri’s approach to due diligence, why she does it, when she does it, and what she looks for.  She also encourages founders to do their own due diligence on potential investors.     

Show Highlights 

  • Terri talks about how founders should pull together a deal room in advance of fundraising to make it easier to share information with investors during the due diligence process. It sends good signal and looks professional.  

  • Founders can’t be prepared for everything but have an organized and complete deal room will set a solid foundation and leave time to deal with the additional requests for information.   

  • Terri describes a deal room and the importance of keeping track of who gets access to it.  Create the structure and then add to it over time.   

  • Terri’s level of due diligence depends the size of the deal, the size of her check, and if she is bringing other investors into the deal. She believes in right-sizing due diligence and has a checklist she works from.  

  • Terri uses the due diligence process as an opportunity to build a relationship with the founding team.   

  • Deal information:  terms, term sheet, use of funds, milestones, existing investors in the round, side letters/special treatment.  Terri cross checks this against what she has been told or what is in the pitch deck.  

  • Financial:  financial statements, projections, assumptions, management team, references, key personnel, board members and advisors, contact information, capital and equity structure both current and projected cap table, financial obligations, agreements and restrictions.    

  • Organizational:  entity formation and maintenance documents, founders, prior acquisitions or mergers, failed transactions, consulting agreements, compensation, advisors, contact information, facility agreements.   

  • Intellectual Property/Technology:  patents, copyrights, trademarks, proprietary invention agreements, license agreements. 

  • Product Marketing and Sales:  product list, marketing collateral, marketing plan, go-to-market strategy, anticipated customer acquisition cost, anticipated lifetime value of each customer, align to projections, major customers (to do reference customers), sales team, forecasts, backlog, pipeline, distribution channels and agreements, competition, production process and costs, suppliers, exclusivity, geography of suppliers or software developers, R&D projects.   

  • Terri spends 4-6 hours to review all this information (with a glass  or two of wine) and she enjoys this but has to set aside the time to do it.  Her background as an auditor (financial and vendor) lends itself well to this work along with her experience negotiating agreements for herself and clients.  

  • Terri prefers not to outsource this to someone else because she doesn’t do it very often and likes to get to know the company and the business through the process.  She also uses the Q&A process to build the relationship and get a sense of what it is like to worth with the founder.   

  • Terri also asks around and talks to other founders, investors, and might do background checks. 

  • What should founders do as part of their due diligence?  First of all, do it.  Ask other founders and investors about them.  Find out what happened when the startup didn’t go well as to how the investor reacted and either helped or didn’t.    Make sure they are going to be a good fit; it’s hard to get rid of them later.  Reputation of the investor is important because a bad investor on the cap table can be a bad signal to other investors.   

  • As a founder, where does one start?  Create the deal room and start to populate it with the static documents or documents as they are requested.  For the dynamic documents, put in the most recent version.   

  • Founders should not ask for a signed NDA from a potential investor; you have to assume good intent.  If you aren’t comfortable, don’t share.  Investors can’t keep track of all of the signed agreements and terms.   

  • Final tips:  investors should look at due diligence as an investment in supporting the value of the deal and the founders can see it as something to build a relationship with the investors.  Founders should respond quickly to questions asked by potential investors and be transparent to build the relationship.   

References in the Podcast 

  • Women’s Startup Lab: https://womenstartuplab.com/ 

  • AngelList: https://angel.co/ 

  • Venture Deals (online class):  https://www.kauffmanfellows.org/online-course-venture-deals/ 

  • Brad Feld: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bfeld/ 

  • Jason Mendelson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmendelson/ 

  • Venture Deals (the book):  https://www.feld.com/archives/2016/10/venture-deals-third-edition.html 

  • Angel (the book):  https://www.angelthebook.com/ 

  • Jason Calacanis: http://calacanis.com/ 

  • SendaRide: https://sendaride.com/ 

  • Laura Fleet: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-brookins-fleet-49aa9a54/ 

  • Crunchbase: https://www.crunchbase.com/ 

  • Y Combinator Series A Due Diligence Checklist 

 

 

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 55 -Leigh Koechner about how she realized that she was on the planet to shine her light and helps others do the same.

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Terri talks to Leigh Koechner about her journey to becoming a spiritual teacher.  She now works with others to help them find greater meaning in their lives and answer the questions as to why they are on the planet and what they are meant to do.   

Who is Leigh Koechner?

Leigh Koechner is a writer, speaker, and spiritual teacher (who likes doing the splits and sipping martinis). She inspires by being unapologetically who she is and maintains an open mind and heart. She is the parenting expert for Deepak Chopra’s Global Wellbeing App JIYO, Executive Producer on The Mindfulness Movement Documentary, and launched her most recent Facebook Live Series on April 11th called Coming Home, 33 Days of Self-Care. 

 

She has appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s “Your Own Show”, The Comebacks, and her One-Woman Show “Miss Junior Overland Park” on the Oxygen Network. 

Leigh is a stand-up comedic who has graced the stages of Flappers and The Comedy Store.  

Leigh resides in the City of Angeles with her beloved husband, actor David Koechner, and their five beautiful children. 

 

Show Highlights

  • Leigh explains what a spiritual teacher is and her journey to become one. 
  • In working with a life coach, she found the language that spoke to her soul and decided to attend the University of Santa Monica for a Master’s in Spiritual Psychology.  
  • She wanted to get an answer to these two questions:  Who in the hell am I and why am I on this planet? She learned that she was on the planet to shine her light.  
  • Leigh spoke at an event in Aspen on manifesting and ended up sitting next to a gentleman at the bar who had created a global wellbeing app with Deepak Chopra global called Jiyo. After he returned to India, he reached out and asked her to be the parenting expert for the app because she was living the life.
  • Leigh got past her own self-judgment and agreed to do it.   She owned her own hard work. 
  • Terri observed that Leigh seemed to have learned to express, and embrace, who she was while attending the University of Santa Monica.  
  • Leigh was asked by another dad at her kids’ school about participating in a mindfulness documentary and she had to go look up the word.  Mindfulness is giving all your attention to the present moment without judgment. She is now co-producer of the mindfulness documentary with Deepak Chopra.  
  • Leigh does month-long Facebook programs on topics like mindfulness, finding your gift, owner-shit, and manifesting.  
  • Leigh comments on how we have a choice in how we show up and we can choose to be happy.  
  • Leigh believes that when we are good inside, things are better outside.  
  • Terri talks about how we are rewarded for being ‘busy’ and how we can miss the magical moments in our lives.  
  • Terri talks about how she was raised by two parents who had very different views regarding life:  her dad emphasized the importance of planning for the future and her mom emphasized the need to pay attention to today. It was quite the tug-o-war. Terri is focused on living now and preparing for the future.  
  • Leigh talks about how any time you are holding things or worrying about things that you are hurting your body.  Don’t live in fear. Do your work and then enjoy life like looking both ways and then crossing the street.  
  • Terri talks about how she realized how much time she spent planning for every eventuality and how she was missing out on the current moment. Terri realized that as a recovering control freak, that it was her way of establishing some level of control in times when everything was uncertain and out of her control.  
  • Leigh’s mom was not involved in her life growing up so when her first child was born, she found that she was a blank slate.  She had to learn behaviors that she had no basis from her own experience. 
  • Leigh learned from her mom that she just wanted to be seen and heard and realized that this is what parenting is all about.  
  • If Leigh could wave a magic wand, she would wave so it sprinkles like pixie dust into people’s hair, and when it touches them, that they have a flash of their greatness; that for a second, they could feel their power.  Once you feel it, you can’t stop it.  

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

We can choose to be happy; we can choose how we show up in the world.  

 

References in the Podcast

  • University of Santa Monica: http://www.universityofsantamonica.edu/
  • Jiyo: https://jiyo.com/home
  • Deepak Chopra: https://www.deepakchopra.com/
  • Holly Ruxin:  http://montcalmtcr.com/

 

Contact

Leigh can be reached through her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/LeighKoechner33/

 

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 54 -The path from being an Air Force Flight nurse into High tech and ultimately venture capital and investing in startups with Amanda Lettmann

Amanda Lettmann.png

Terri talks to Amanda Lettmann about her path from being an Air Force flight nurse into high tech and ultimately working with and investing in startups.   Amanda talks about how a life-threatening illness 11 years ago taught her to lead with her heart and how that has allowed her to make better connections and be even more successful.

Who is Amanda Lettmann? 

Amanda Lettmann, a US Air Force Veteran, is an executive and serial entrepreneur with 20 years of global Business Operations and Transformation expertise for startups and Fortune 500 companies in the HiTech, InsurTech and FinTech industries.  She has an extensive M&A background with $4B in acquisition execution in the past 10 years.  As the Founder and CEO of Kardia Ventures, Amanda is an advisor, consultant and Angel Investor for tech startups.  She is also the Co-Founder and COO of SimpleDisability Inc, a data analytics InsurTech startup in Silicon Valley. Amanda holds an MBA in Technology Management, she is a Business Advisor at The Founder Institute and EvoNexus, and Board Advisor at Girls in Tech San Diego and SmartMoney Veterans. 

 

Show Highlights

  • Amanda was active duty Air Force and separated in 2000.  She realized she didn’t want to be a flight nurse for the rest of her career
  • Amanda was recruited by someone in semi-conductor in 1999 by an esteemed colleague and was a business operations manager and then pursued her master’s degree in technology in 2000 
  • She consulted at the Pentagon which led to consulting with other parts of the government.  Her company was acquired by EMC so she went from a small firm to a massive firm.  
  • At EMC, she proposed a new business plan that was ultimately accepted and moved her to Orange County to lead the West Coast consulting practice.  
  • She then got recruited by Adobe and moved up to San Jose.
  • Terri comments on how Amanda takes advantage of and creates opportunities for herself.
  • 11 years ago, Amanda was an athlete in good health and started getting ill.  After collapsing she found out that a virus had attacked her blood and ultimately led to her organs shutting down.  She was in the hospital for 6-9 months.   
  • She later learned that her heart valves were damaged by the virus and that they were failing which lead to open heart surgery
  • Amanda was a medical anomaly because of the virus and the treatment, and she had many people studying and following her. 
  • Amanda shares who was there to support her during her illness and recovery.  She had to embrace vulnerability.  
  • Amanda remembers her life before the illness.  Her essence didn’t change but she found herself seeking high quality, deep substance people with heart.  Her life before was all about competency.  Her life after became more about heart and not just skill, which ended up changing her life.  
  • She became more recognized because of her personal story which she uses to inspire others.  People now get to know her for more than her skills.  
  • Amanda is working with ESPN BisTalk Radio. She wants to do an inspirational series for women to share their stories.  
  • She is creating a speaker series on ‘Women of Impact’. She finds that women talk about taking action to inspire others, to be proactive, to turn their potential into action. She thinks others are looking for this deep, inspiration.  
  • Terri talks about why she started her podcast, Piloting Your Life, to give a platform for these voices and stories and inspire these same people. 
  • Amanda has a consulting company called Kardia which means heart in Greek. She advises and consults enterprises, entrepreneurs, and does angel investing.  
  • Amanda invests in seed stage, technology startups and looks to co-invest in SaaS companies looking to disrupt the market using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), ALP, big data, and predictive analytics.  She looks for female founders and veteran founders.  
  • She is now a mentor with a new program called SmartMoney Veterans sponsored by UCSD and SmartMoney Startups. The experience for veterans is different as they need to relearn skills after getting out of the military.  
  • Terri has seen a few startups that are helping veterans bridge the gap between military and civilian work. Companies like Skillmil and Shift are helping with this.  
  • Terri comments on how impressed she is with UCSD and its support of the startup ecosystem.  Amanda said that UCSD also supports veterans.  There is a significant number of veterans in the San Diego area. 
  • Amanda is an advisor for EvoNexus (an incubator/accelerator) and the Founder Institute in San Diego.  
  • Transformation is an important concept for Amanda.  She has been through several transformations and which led to coaching others on transforming.  She loves seeing both enterprise transformation (through M&A) and individuals transform.  
  • If Amanda could wave a magic wand, she would create a future where entrepreneurs and businesses come in all varieties and embrace their responsibility to co-create for equality and social good.  
  • Terri asks how we can help with this wish.  Amanda said that companies should be filling out the diversity of their teams.  As investors, we should invest in companies who are working towards more diverse teams and products.  

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

If the opportunities aren’t there, create them.  If the opportunities present themselves, take them.  

 

References in the Podcast

  • Kardia Ventures: http://kardiaventures.com/
  • Skillmil: https://www.skillmil.com/
  • Shift: https://www.shift.org/
  • SmartMoney Startups: https://www.smartmoneystartups.com/
  • SmartMoney Veterans:  https://www.smartmoneyveterans.com/
  • EvoNexus: https://evonexus.org/
  • Founder Institute:  https://fi.co/

 

 

Contact

Amanda can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandalettmann/ or through her website http://kardiaventures.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 53 - Redefining Success at age 35 and diversifying Angel Investments with CEO of Delta Nutrassentials and Angel Investor, Amy Chang.

Amy Chang (1).png

Terri talks to Amy Chang about how at the age of 35 she had checked all life’s boxes but wasn’t completely fulfilled. She found religion to fill the void and was able to redefine success for herself.  Amy talks about how this changed the way she operates in the world and how she wants to see more women angel investing. 

Who is Amy Chang? 

Amy C. Chang is the CEO of Delta Nutrassentials, a consumer health supplement company. Previously, she was VP of Strategy & Investor Relations for AMN Healthcare and prior to joining AMN, she held various leadership roles with other companies in operations, customer service and finance after beginning her career with KPMG. 

Amy is an advisor, board member, and investor of various start-ups in San Diego, as well as a board member of Hera Angels and member of the Keiretsu Forum, Wharton Angel Network, and SheEO. She served as a board member of the National Investor Relations Institute - San Diego Chapter and has been a member of the San Diego YMCA Overnight Camps Board of Advisors.  She is Chair-Elect of the San Diego YMCA Board of Governors and has been involved in homeless ministries and has served as a foster youth mentor and foster parent.

 

Show Highlights

  • Amy talks about being the driver’s seat of your life (similar to Terri talking about being the pilot in your own life) and not just letting life happen.
  • Amy talks about being driven and the importance of checking the boxes to achieve ‘success’ in her life and still being unfulfilled.  She realized that she might have had the wrong measure of success in her life. 
  • Despite checking all of the boxes, she realized she wasn’t happy enough.  She became a born-again Christian at the age of 35 which has made the biggest difference in her life and has changed the way she looks at her life and the rewards she wants to get out of life.
  • Her definition of success has changed, and she worries about far fewer things as a result. She thinks that people are happier when they are living something beyond themselves. 
  • Amy talks about what she looks for as an angel investor and some of the startups she’s invested in.  
  • Three years ago, Amy didn’t know that angel investing was an option but has since invested in quite a few companies directly.  She joined the Keiretsu Forum, the Wharton Angel Network and she is now on the board of Hera Ventures.  
  • Amy likes to invest directly into a startup to help them fuel their growth which helps to create innovation and helps the local economy.   She does caution that angel investing is not for everyone. 
  • Amy talks about the importance of diversifying your portfolio and how networking has contributed to her deal flow.  She has learned the most from other angel investors.  
  • Terri talks about her experience in Sand Hill Angels being a great training ground.  
  • Amy and Terri would like to see more female angel investors, and both shared the importance of being supported by other female angel investors. 
  • Based on what she wishes she knew when she started investing, Amy recommends that women start with small checks and get to know the founders as much as you can.  
  • If Amy could wave a magic wand, she would encourage people to get to know each other on an individual basis.  

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

Founder integrity is critical when investing in a startup. 

 

References in the Podcast

  • Venture Deals:  https://www.feld.com/archives/2016/10/venture-deals-third-edition.html
  • JDoe: https://jdoe.io/
  • Delta Nutrassentials: https://www.deltanutra.com/
  • Keiretsu Forum: http://www.keiretsuforum.com/
  • Wharton Angel Network: http://www.whartonangelnetwork.co/ 
  • Hera Angels:  https://www.heraangels.com/ 
  • Tech Coast Angels:  https://www.techcoastangels.com/

 

 

Contact

Amy can be reached via LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/amychang8/ or her company’s website, www.deltanutra.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 52 -Terri talks to Tracy Warren about FemTech, PediaTech, and the need to better fund these startup companies which provide huge opportunities.

Terri talks to Tracy Warren, the CEO of Astarte Ventures, about FemTech, PediaTech, and the need to better fund these healthcare and technology companies that are struggling due to lack of funding, Terri is challenging Venture Capitalists to go back to being risk takers and invest in these startups because of the huge opportunities in these spaces. 

Episode 51 -How being physically and mentally strong saved Jillian Kaplans life

Jillian Kaplan.png

Terri talks to Jillian Kaplan about how her decision to become strong and healthy four years ago saved her life when she was hit by a car in the fall of 2016 and how she’s chosen to make a ‘message’ of the ‘mess'.  

Who is Jillian Kaplan?

Jillian Kaplan is a trauma survivor, animal advocate, rainbow baby mama, former binge eater turned health and fitness coach. Jillian was hit by a car crossing a crosswalk and had emergency brain surgery to save her life.  She also had a shattered pelvis, face, sacrum, and septum.  She spent 3 months in a wheelchair unable to walk or stand but has now fully recovered, lives pain free, and is the mom to a healthy baby girl born in September 2017, 13 months after the traumatic injury.  

 

Jillian has worked in corporate doing product management and marketing and is pursuing her passion around health as a coach for Beach Body which is part of her online health and fitness coaching business.  She has a B.S. in Management and an MBA from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and lives with her amazing husband and daughter outside of Boston, Mass.  

 

 

Show Highlights

  • Jillian talks about growing up in a healthy household and how she chose not to listen and ended up binge eating, addicted to diet pills, and struggling with her weight.  
  • Four years ago, Jillian made the choice to be healthy and strong which ended up saving her life.  
  • Jillian wants to share the message that you are beautiful the way you are, and that health is a lifestyle.  
  • Jillian talks about walking her puppy and getting hit by a car in September 2016 where the doctors weren’t sure if she would survive let alone walk again. 
  • She woke up after the accident and chose to let it be part of her story and to not define her. She has decided to make a ‘message’ out of the ‘mess.’ 
  • Jillian talks about the group Safe Roads Alliance that she works with in Massachusetts.  She spoke at an event where she was the only living survivor of an accident like the one she was in.  
  • Jillian talks about how being in good shape helped her body deal with the trauma she endured.  She had two surgeries within two days of each other which were traumatic in and of themselves.  She was not only physically fit but mentally fit which came from making the decision to become healthier and changing her habits. 
  • Jillian’s husband was notified because of the number on her dog’s tag.  She wasn’t carrying an ID and now she is an advocate for always carrying some form of ID. 
  • Jillian talks about how rehab was so mentally challenging since she was very young compared to the other people there and that she had no one to talk to.  She was alone a lot and was unable to get out of bed on her own. She stayed sane by being active on social media and sharing her story. 
  • Jillian’s husband was incredibly supportive throughout this entire process.  
  • Jillian avoids the crosswalk where the accident occurred but did go there on the one-year anniversary of her accident.  She is cautious now when she is out walking. 
  • Terri talks about the conversations she has with her children about being aware of drivers who are generally distracted and to remain vigilant when riding their bikes or walking out on the streets.  
  • Jillian talks about how she had a miscarriage, was experiencing infertility and was scheduled to meet with specialists but then had the accident.  She was fortunate to have a young, female surgeon who was sensitive to the fact that Jillian was a young woman when fixing her after the accident.
  • Jillian talks about how surprised she was to find out she was five months pregnant when she went in for a medical appointment and ended up delivering a healthy baby girl in the fall of 2017, thirteen months after her accident. 
  • Jillian talks about being a Beach Body coach before and after the accident.  She appreciates the physical and mental strength that she has gained from the program.  She feels an obligation to pay it forward at this point for people who feel defeated or stuck.  
  • Jillian likes to share the things she loves like Ipsy and Artic Zero ice cream and she pays for her products. Terri talks about how she hopes that Jillian ends up benefitting financially from promoting and supporting the products with her audience. 
  • If Jillian had a magic wand, she would change the way people communicate.  She thinks that a lot of the world’s problems could be solved if we just talked to each other (and not through text or email).  
  • Brian Alvey introduced Terri to Jillian and they met through the adoption of their dog.  Jillian talks about how she works with dog rescue organizations on fundraising.  While she wasn’t raised with dogs, she ended up with a dog after a breakup and then wanted to foster dogs and ultimately providing support for dog rescues.  

 

Terri’s Key Takeaway

Carry some sort of ID when out and about in the event of an accident or emergency.  You never know who might need to reach someone on your behalf.  

 

References in the Podcast

  • Safe Roads Alliance:  https://www.saferoadsalliance.org/
  • Beach Body: http://www.teambeachbody.com/jilliankaplan
  • Ipsy: https://www.ipsy.com/glambag#/
  • Artic Zero ice cream: https://www.arcticzero.com/
  • Brian Alvey: http://www.brianalvey.com/

 

Contact

Jillian can be reached through her website www.jilliankaplan.com or by email at fitresq@gmail.com.  She is also active on Instagram and Twitter @xoJillianKaplan and Pinterest.  

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.