All Raise VC Summit 2020 Recap: Forces of Nature
By: All Raise
Tags: Female Founders, Venture Capital, Investors, Women In Tech, VC

In October we hosted our third annual All Raise VC Summit, the largest gathering of female and non-binary VC investors in the country. Our theme this year was “Forces of Nature” and in three days, 800+ Summit attendees enjoyed 5 keynotes and dozens of breakout sessions that featured over 100 inspirational speakers. True to our physics motif, we came together to create bonds, overcome inertia, resist against structural obstacles, catalyze change, and generate momentum.

To relive the magic or get a sense of the energy, check out this video and read the recap below. VCs, we hope to see you again next year!

Keynote highlights

Veteran tech executives Françoise and Emily courageously sounded the alarm about gender discrimination at their former companies, Pinterest and Carta. As they fight for equity and set an example for others, we could not have dreamed of a better moderator for this discussion than Tina Tchen, president and CEO of TIME’S UP Now and the TIME’S UP Foundation. Some key quotes:

Tina: “What do you think the broader problem is around these issues of equity, equal pay, and representation in Silicon Valley?”

Françoise: “The problem starts with the numbers. There are not enough women and people of color in leadership positions and on boards. The culture of inequality is deeply rooted in the fact that power resides in the hands of very few men.”

Emily: “People in power don’t want to give up power…we don’t have enough women at the table, and then when they’re at the table, we’re not including their voices and compensating them fairly, and you need to do all three things.”

Tina: “You both were at companies where their public positions were to be equitable yet, obviously, there was a disconnect between what they said publicly and how they actually operated as companies. How do we bring those together and is there a way to use those public pronouncements to drive internal change?”

Françoise: “70% of Pinterest users are women and the company is almost entirely run by men. A company’s public image is not always rooted in the ways they actually behave. We’re starting to see strength in numbers with women realizing they are not alone. I want to empower other women to tell their stories, feel supported, and advocate for change.”

Emily: “Performative activism is everywhere right now…VCs and boards need to demand measurement on these things. If someone says they’re going to do something we need to check back in, see if they did, and hold them accountable…There’s a lot of recognition that ‘mission-driven’ has become a trendy thing to say and while some companies try to live up to it, most do not and we need to call it out when we see it.”

Tina: “What should investors be looking for? What questions should they be asking if they’re on a board or about to make an investment? What are the issues they should look into that they might not be able to see on the surface?”

Emily: “Investors look at who you are hiring and who’s coming in the door. It’s just as important if not more important to look at who is going out the door and why. Are you retaining women, people of color, LGBTQ people at the same level as white, straight men? For boards don’t find information in a vacuum. Talk to people who work there, not just executives.

Françoise: “The focus in the Valley on hiring as a badge of honor versus retaining is just wrong. Boards should ask for data about promotion. Off-cycle promotions are another way to say promoting a friend instead of going through a normal process. Very few women and minorities get included in off-cycle promotions.”

Emily: “VCs are so worried about being founder-friendly. I wish they would be more employee-friendly. That shift might help a lot.”

Tina: “Do you think Silicon Valley and tech has a unique problem in addressing these issues or is it just a different flavor of what we see elsewhere?”

Françoise: “It exists to a certain extent everywhere but what has been dramatic for women in Silicon Valley is that in the last 20 years, there was a shift from being a place focused on innovation for good to innovation for profits. When I joined tech the goal was to have a positive impact on future generations with technology, but now it seems like most companies only value their bottom line. Many believe if you value profit you shouldn’t prioritize diversity and inclusion but the opposite is actually true.”

Emily: “It’s a unique kind of hypocrisy because we’re trying to move things forward and innovate, yet we’re operating as if it’s the status quo. We’re not innovating what it means to have good culture. Discrimination exists all over the place but for me it’s the hypocrisy of companies talking a big game but not putting their money where their mouth is.”

Glennon Doyle, New York Times bestselling author of “Untamed,” joined us for a lively conversation with Ita Ekpoudom, Partner at GingerBread Capital.

Some gems from Glennon:

“It makes me so furious to hear people saying that women are so competitive with each other. If we are conditioned to live in a world where there are fewer seats for women, who’s going to feel less relaxed, men or women?” “Little boys are allowed to tell each other the truth and be direct. Little girls are allowed to be nice and abandon themselves to keep the peace. We need to allow little girls to be direct!” “The goal is not just to get a seat at the table. The goal is to sit down at the table and blow up the culture…We have to call out racism & misogyny on the spot. We have to stop making white men comfortable.”

Ellen McGirt, Senior Editor at Fortune Magazine, gave a poetic, action-oriented introduction:

“To be an anti-racist is to notice who is not in the room and then ask why. To be an anti-racist in the workforce is notice who is not on your board, in your investor pool, in your portfolio, in your growing executive suite, in your store shelves, your professional service supply chains, your customer base, your teams, your personal LinkedIn — and then ask why. The why is the work.”

Beatriz Acevedo, Co-Founder and CEO of Suma Wealth, had just launched her new startup that morning, timed intentionally with Latina Equal Pay Day:

“Latinas are uniquely positioned to power the engine of economic growth and create a more vibrant, prosperous America. This is not a social justice argument, though I could certainly make one. This is all about numbers. We are the largest growth cohort in the U.S. We are entrepreneurial, starting 18% of all women-owned businesses.”

Lauren Maillian, CEO of digitalundivided on seeing a 500% increase in women entrepreneurs of color in the ecosystem from their first ProjectDiane report in 2016 to their 2020 report:

“My call to action to the VC community is to look at the data and see the stories of women defying the odds and becoming mainstream success stories. Help us shift your mindset about venture-backable founders with fact and figures. Trust and believe in women of color to succeed, thrive, and execute.”

Tiffany Dufu, Founder and CEO of The Cru on how she pulled off fundraising during COVID-19 while recovering from the virus herself:

“91% of Black women tech founders have other jobs in addition to running our companies because we are historically not funded and we have responsibilities to other people…Sometimes we are successful just because there is no other option. That’s what it means to be a force of nature.”

Carolina Huaranca Mendoza, Scout at Lightspeed Venture Partners and Board Member at Latinas in Tech, spoke about personally experiencing income inequality, growing up between two different worlds, and how to create more opportunities for others:

“My mom told me that life wasn’t going to be fair but she looked me straight in the eye and made me repeat that I was rich in determination, in spirit, and in ambition and that has always stayed with me…If we care about gender and racial equity and the intersections between them, what matters to you matters to me and what matters to me, I hope, matters to you. In the All Raise community, it’s not about one person rising, it’s ALL of us rising.”

Our “Unicorns in motion” panel featured an introduction from Fern Mandelbaum, Managing Director, Venture Investments at Emerson Collective, and a conversation with powerhouse female leaders Rachel Carlson, CEO & Co-Founder of Guild Education and Jennifer Tejada, CEO of PagerDuty, moderated by Heather Fernandez, Co-Founder and CEO of Solv.

Heather: “There’s a guideline for founders and CEOs that you should take as much money as you possibly can. Do you agree with that and how have you taken on the question of how much money to take as various stages of growth?”

Rachel: “It comes down to what you want to do. The amount of money you should raise really ties to how you’re going to deploy it.”

Jennifer: “We were thoughtful about how we raised. The company was very cost-efficient when I joined. I wanted to take the time to really understand the business and market before making a decision about what we needed. That caused us to continue to be disciplined in terms about how we grew our gross margins, managed our operating costs, scaled our people. So we’ve always had a lean culture as a result and it’s become a strength of the business.”

Heather: “As a CEO, how do you think of what your ‘signature move’ is? Is there one superpower that you have as a CEO?”

Jennifer: “I don’t think there’s just one. The CEO role is so multifaceted. Self-awareness is incredibly important. You have to know what you’re not good at and surround yourself with people who fill that gap. Blind spots kill companies and end leadership careers. Empathy has been an important part of my CEO journey. I can hone in on how a person’s feeling and how I can maybe be helpful to that person. Working with your team and being in the middle of things with them, not asking them to do things that you wouldn’t do yourself. Also constantly setting the bar higher so they stretch. Resilience is another really important characteristic. You have to continue to rise to the occasion and not let the doubt or cynicism of others get in the way of your vision, your path, and the velocity with which you need to create a market.”

Rachel: “Extensions on empathy have been helping me right now. Curiosity. Empathy can drown you if you absorb all of the emotions. Staying curious helps me sort through what’s going on with my team. Vulnerability is the next step after self-awareness. If you can say where you need help and where you’re strong and want to stand your ground, you can give a compass and a North Star to your team…I’ve probably been more vulnerable and open to my board over the last 8 months than any other chapter. Early on as a founder, I thought they were my boss and the judge so I was always trying to impress them and get A-pluses on my board deck assignments. I had to coach myself out of that. The board members who I can be the most vulnerable with treat it as a two-way street. They tell me what their objectives and their self-interests are and put that on the table so we can have honest conversations.”

Heather: “Are female CEOs held to a higher standard than male CEOs?”

Rachel: “Unfortunately, yes, though I don’t ever want to sound like I’m making excuses for myself. Being a founder and CEO is incredibly hard. We have created more allowance for tough decisions within a masculine construct than in a feminine one. There are also a number of characteristics that when men exercise them, we still want them to be leaders, and when women exercise them, we don’t want them to be. The competence-likeability bias research shows that when men are more competent, we see them as more likeable and when they’re more likeable, we see them as more competent. For women, those two characteristics negate each other. If the press and markets could train themselves out of that unconscious bias, we would have more women in leadership.”

Jennifer: “We have to push for more diversity in boards, in the investment community, and change the tapestry of decision-makers. We also need to continue to educate investors, leaders, and boards and build deeper benches that are diverse. So when someone calls me about a board position, I tell them no but send them 5–6 names of candidates who I know and they’ve probably never heard of, but specifically match who they’re looking for. It’s about changing the composition of the decision-makers.”

Heather: “What’s the role of politics and civic responsibility as CEOs?”

Rachel: “We still need a functioning government and society. Silicon Valley forgot to drive that conversation for a while, that there should be deep partnership between the three sectors. My employees feel like they have a broken social contract with their communities and their government because of the perfect storm of COVID and what’s going on in the world and isolation. Everyone is bringing that energy to work. I don’t think we’re going to have a great society if our tightest social contract is with our work. Our work has to be one piece of the fabric and CEOs can drive that conversation by saying what can be done within the four walls of the business and also what they’d like to see more of from government and communities.”

Jennifer: “When there’s an issue, we have a dialogue about it and we try to be disciplined about the right forums for them. Once you’ve made a decision, it’s important to take a position and let your company know what the position is and the way you’re going to manage that. You cannot be afraid to face these hard topics. They’re hard for a reason. They need solutions. Saying “Oh sorry, it’s just about business” is just tone deaf and you’re becoming part of the problem if you’re not investing your efforts, scale, and influence to be part of the solution. As CEOs we have a much broader stakeholder community. Not just our customers, investors, and employees but the communities that we participate and engage in. The cities we live in. The schools our children go to. We’re expected to be part of progress and moving things forward. I don’t know how you do that by compartmentalizing. That makes no sense to me.”

The closing keynote of VC Summit featured soccer icons Shannon Boxx and Julie Foudy. They, along with Kara Nortman, Managing Partner at Upfront Ventures, are investors in the new National Women’s Soccer League team, Angel City FC. Terri Burns, Partner at GV, moderated a lively discussion about starting a new pro soccer team in Los Angeles. Angel City FC has the distinction of being the first majority-female ownership group in sports and it also has the youngest co-owner in sports history (Serena Williams’ three-year-old daughter, Olympia).

On women helping other women:

Shannon: “Because of the efforts of the 1999 U.S. Women’s National Team, I became a professional soccer player at the age of 24. After the second year, the league was struggling and asked players to take pretty big pay cuts, so I had to decide whether to keep going with it or maybe go back to school or get another job. The ‘99ers took those pay cuts for us, which was amazing. It gave me the opportunity to finish out my third year, showcase my skills, and ultimately make the [USWNT] team.”

On her inspiration for investing in Angel City FC:

Kara: “I went to the 2015 Women’s World Cup with my three daughters, my husband, and parents and I was so moved by the whole experience. It was everything we [as investors] look for in consumer experiences — community, passion, spirit. I felt proud my girls had seen these athletes who are role models and cultural icons. I came back and talked to everybody I could about women’s soccer and I was irritated because I couldn’t find jerseys anywhere. I was confused why nobody would take my money! I couldn’t understand why people weren’t putting NWSL on television and we couldn’t buy merchandise and eventually found people who were working on changing that.”

On what Angel City FC means to her:

Julie: “It feels different. That’s important because we are bringing something exciting and new in a very crowded sports landscape. What I love about it is this incredibly committed group of owners and investors who care deeply about making an impact not just on the field but also in terms of giving back to the LA community.”

Breakout highlights

We held two kinds of breakout sessions at the VC Summit — one day was dedicated to career acceleration and another was focused on sector deep dives. All breakouts were super tactical and offered a range of hands-on, actionable advice from experts.

We kept these off-the-record to facilitate open, transparent conversation but here’s a highlight from Devika Patil, Managing Director, Venture Capital at SVB, who moderated a panel with Amy Wu of Lightspeed and Citi Ventures’ Suman Natarajan about expanding your domain and building credibility in a new investment category:

“We discussed active and passive activities we can do to bolster trust and conviction with partners and founders such as continuous research, talking with sector experts, and leveraging the network of industry professionals to stay current, evolve, re-tool, and pivot.”

Devika, who also serves on our All Raise Advisory Board, mentioned that the “smart question quota” is integral for us to keep at the forefront when sitting in a boardroom.