Women who Build
By Shreya Bakliwal
Women who BuildJun 12, 2023
Women Who Build: Kate Henningsen, Co-founder and COO, Arcadia, on Community Solar, Working with Utilities, and Building for Scale
In a world where we are bombarded by stories of wars and recessions, if we practice an abundance mindset, we can still grow! This practice helps us to focus on the future rather than the past. Kate Henningsen is one of the few leaders I have met who swear by this practice, and I am excited to share the latest episode of Women Who Build with her.
Kate is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Arcadia and has seen the company grow from a start-up that sold renewable energy certificates to a $1.5bn climate tech company that empowers any business in the world to make an impact.
Most of Kate’s 20s were spent in school. She was a corporate litigator before joining the clean energy industry. Kate leveraged her legal understanding to cold-email Kiran Bhatraju and got the job! Kate studied History, Politics, Economics, Philosophy, and Law at Georgetown and Oxford universities.
Key takeaways from the episode:
- Community solar is the fastest way to gain access to clean energy and is especially viable for communities with limited rooftop installation space
- How to work with 10k utilities? Tech and automation, while also having a strong team coordinating with utilities
- As you scale, your metrics, systems, and leadership change. Leadership transition at Arcadia: Generalists to specialists to managers who activate specialists to do amazing things
- The best people to hire are impact-first, curious, and motivated. They should have the SPARK!
- Climate tech, so far, is shielded from the macro/geopolitical issues that have been plaguing other markets. But you still need to have a solid business model and growth
- When making acquisitions, identify opportunities that accelerate where you want to go; assess internally for culture, focus, and capital risk
Follow Kate Henningsen at https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-henningsen/
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Twitter: @TheWomenWhoBui1
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-who-build-podcast/
Women Who Build: Lara Hodgson, President and CEO, Now on Mindset Alignment with Partners, SMB Metrics, Partnership with GS
This is one of the most insightful episodes of Women Who Build thus far, and also timely, in the wake of the SVB crisis. Small businesses run our economies. And to help these businesses innovate and grow, Lara Hodgson is building Now along with her co-founder, the one and only, Stacey Abrams. NowAccount® is an invoice payment solution that redefines how and when businesses get paid. In addition to building Now, Lara serves as an EIR at HBS. Prior to Now, Lara co-founded Nourish (the manufacturing company), and Insomnia, LLC, a firm specializing in investment, development, and management of complex and innovative “world-changing” projects. Her background also includes 5 years with Dewberry Capital Corporation, an Atlanta-based commercial real estate development and investment firm, where she served as the company’s Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Operating Officer. Her product experience includes Dunk, a performance footwear and apparel manufacturing/retail company built on the concept of mass customization and founded with Shaquille O’Neal & Mike Piazza, where she served as Executive Vice President. Lara received an MBA from the HBS, and a BS in Aerospace Engineering with highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Today, she serves as a Trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation in addition to other Boards. E&Y recognized Lara as a 2018 Finalist for the Southeast Entrepreneur of the Year.
Key insights from this episode:
- Business partners should be different. Otherwise, innovation will die. An individual does not have a 365-degree view of anything. Mindset alignment>skillset alignment
- Payment acceleration>financing for small businesses, as financing own accounts receivables increases the cost of capital
- Most important metrics for businesses to track: Days Sales Outstanding, and Cash "Flow" (Lara believes that while Cash is King, Flow is Queen! ;))
- Being an entrepreneur and a mom at the same time, makes you efficient!
- CXOs at large companies may not have the DNA to understand small businesses, but they want to help!
Follow Lara at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larahodgson/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-who-build-podcast/
Women Who Build: Natalie Rens, CEO and Founder, Astrea, on Adventure & Entrepreneurship, Smart Homes on Earth & Mars
It is often said that the most successful businesspeople follow their curiosity. Blending that with personal experience or association with the problem is a bonus! What is even better is to fight through every logistical hurdle to build towards your dream.
I am so inspired by Natalie Rens’ life and her vision to build human settlements on Mars through Astrea! Astrea is currently building self-sufficient smart homes for human peak performance on Earth first, and will later ship them to Mars. What intrigued her about space? SpaceX’s Starman!
Natalie is the CEO and Founder of Astrea. She is a neuroscientist and an AI buff who has worked extensively in the space, including launching a community of 2,500, dedicated to AI public engagement and education. Later, she worked as an AI specialist with the government of Australia at the Office of the Queensland Chief Entrepreneur. She is also a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Atlantic Council, an advisor to Proudly Human, and a Founding Board Member at Open Data Australia!
Natalie studied Biomedical Sciences at Newcastle University and pursued her PhD at The University of Queensland.
Above all, Natalie is such an evolved and persistent founder, all of us have so much to learn from her!
Follow Natalie at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-natalie-rens/ Follow Women who Build on - Twitter: @TheWomenWhoBui1 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-who-build-podcast/
Women Who Build: Joanna Lichter, Associate Director, Venture Investing at Emerson Collective on What Constitutes a Collective, Menopause, and Why Clarity is Kindness
As investors, we are constantly looking for how we can add value to portfolio companies. While focus is important in company building, thinking systemically about your company can unlock opportunities like never before. And this practice has become increasingly relevant in today's world where different stakeholder types have the potential to influence your company's trajectory. Joanna Lichter at Emerson Collective helps founders with systemic thinking! Joanna is an Associate Director on Emerson Collective’s early-stage venture investing team where she focuses on impact-driven companies across Sustainability, Healthcare, and Financial Inclusion. Prior to Emerson, Joanna was an investor at Founder Collective. Before venture, Joanna worked at Via Transportation, a global mobility and transit startup, where she led operations and strategy in Chicago. Joanna graduated with her MBA from MIT Sloan and received her BA from Duke University. Follow
Joanna on Twitter @joannalichter, LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannalichter/ Women who Build on Twitter @TheWomenWhoBui1, LinkedIn at https://bit.ly/3Kx0xY4
Women Who Build: Yin Lu, Partner, MCJ Collective on Building a Community at MCJ Collective, Investing in Climate, Finding What you Like
Companies are made of teams, and these teams not only comprise founders and investors, but also operators, policy makers, and so many other stakeholders. And it is in hard problems like climate change and education that all have to come together to make a difference.
Yin Lu loves mobilizing people with the community that she has built over the course of her career. Yin is a Partner at MCJ Collective, which is an early-stage fund that invests in climate tech companies around the world, with a strong focus on North America.
Yin’s focus at MCJ is on community strategy, investments and post-investment support, all with a lens toward ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion are at the forefront of decision-making, which makes her a perfect guest for Women who Build!
Yin previously worked on DEI efforts at Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation and was GM of Khan Academy’s international business, where she and her team scaled Khan Academy’s content into 30 languages and launched offices in Mexico, Brazil, Peru and India. Yin also built up the first community, international and marketing teams at Coursera. She began her tech career at Google and Microsoft. Yin holds a B.A. in Economics and M. Ed. in counseling, both from UCLA.
Follow on Twitter:
Yin @yinnerdo
Women who Build @TheWomenWhoBui1
Women who Build LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3Kx0xY4
Women Who Build: Monica Bhatia, Co-founder and CEO, Equii on Fermentation, Taking Products from Lab to Scale, and Relationships.
The global health and wellness foods market is poised to grow at 6.1% to $1,495bn by 2032. However, purchasing healthy food is complex - sometimes we buy new food types and find it hard to incorporate them into our daily diets and sometimes the food we buy is just not tasty.
Monica is solving exactly these two problems through Equii, where her first product is sliced bread that gives 10gm of protein per slice. Equii has developed a proprietary approach to discovering highly nutritious sources of microbial proteins that are used to ferment grains and produce high-protein grain flours. Equii’s flour has three to six times more protein than regular flour, with about half as many carbohydrates, and all nine essential amino acids.
Monica Bhatia has 15 years of experience in bio-manufacturing and commercialization of sustainable products, including food, fuels and chemicals. Most recently she was vice president of process development at Geltor, a developer of alternative proteins. Baljit Ghotra, PhD, co-founder and chief technology officer, has held research and development roles at Ingredion, Mondelez International, Cargill, ADM and Nature’s Fynd.
It has been a delight to get to know Monica. Every chat with her is so refreshing - I learn something new all the time!
Follow Monica at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicabhatia1/
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Twitter: @TheWomenWhoBui1
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Women Who Build: Sarah Hinkfuss, Partner, Bain Capital Ventures on Climate Fintech, Building Trust in Partnerships, Content that Resonates, Leadership Lessons from Sailing
Companies are built by people, and when investing in companies, it is vital to bring out the human in you to be the best partner to their people.
Sarah Hinkfuss brings humanness and trust to her investments at Bain Capital Ventures. Sarah is a Partner at the fund and works with growth-stage founders across application software and fintech. She started her career at Applied Predictive Technologies, where within a few years, she was a Senior Vice President in Client Services helping lead business engagements and sales / BD efforts. Sarah saw the company’s acquisition by Mastercard. She later went on to work at Cowboy Ventures and KKR’S growth investing team. Some of her themes of interest include B2B payments, climate fintech, insurance, and wealthtech. So hit her up if you are building in the space!
Sarah has an AB in Economics, Environmental Science, and Public Policy from Harvard University and an MBA from Stanford GSB.
Sarah is a new mom and a sailor. She has some incredible life and leadership lessons from there!
Women Who Build: Emma Silverman, Principal, TMV on Building Flamingo within Harry's, Investing @TMV, Creative Writing, Ideating with Parents!
When people think about building, startups come to mind. We often forget that building a new investment firm takes a similar amount of blood and sweat, and most importantly, commitment!
In this episode of Women who Build, Emma Silverman shares her journey of building TMV along with her most amazing partners, Soraya Dorabi and Marina Hadjipateras. From creative writing in school to now communicating with LPs, founders, and the entire tech ecosystem in the US, Emma has so much to offer for anybody looking to learn how to communicate their point of view in a sharper manner!
Prior to TMV, Emma was Chief of Staff at coffee automation startup Truebird, and helped to launch women's personal care brand Flamingo, where she led Consumer Insights and Product Innovation. Emma was also an Associate Consultant at Bain & Company and holds a BS from the University of Pennsylvania.
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq_mLbgTn4E&t=37s
Women Who Build: Amie Patel, Partner & CEO, Elevar Equity on Building for Low-income Communities, Captables for Impact Investments, Happiness as a Path to Success
There is a nuance to building companies and products for low-income communities. In this episode of Women who Build, Amie Patel covers how she is helping entrepreneurs build for exactly these communities at Elevar Equity.
Amie describes herself as a “Motel Patel”, which until now I thought was a made-up term from Bollywood! Growing up in Florida as part of a traditional Gujarati family, Amie was fiercely independent. She carved her path from working at premier financial institutions in the world such as Goldman Sachs and Soros Fund to now leading an impact investment firm working to improve the lives of low-income communities in LatAm and India. Many of you already know about her work. This episode provides a deeper look into how a leader should embrace self-awareness and vulnerability to achieve her/his truest, highest potential.
Amie is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and Georgetown University.
Women Who Build: Ashley Aydin, Principal, Vamos Ventures on Building a New Fund, Supporting Founders, Culturally Competent Healthcare
This episode is really close to my heart as I speak with Ashley Aydin who is working to bring more diversity to the world of entrepreneurship and venture capital through her work at Vamos. Ashley represents the true spirit of Women who Build and is one of the most helpful people I know in the New York startup ecosystem. She is also the go-to person for everything consumer and healthcare for founders in New York!
Ashley started her career at Morgan Stanley in Capital Markets and moved into strategic roles at Shoptiques.com, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Estee Lauder focused on the intersection of consumer and technology. She was previously an investor at Brand Foundry Ventures, Founders Factory, and Dorm Room Fund across commerce, health and wellness, and financial technology. Ashley holds a BA from Brown University and an MBA from MIT Sloan.
To get more such stories of inspiring women around you, follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-who-build-podcast/ or on Twitter at @TheWomenWhoBui1.
Women Who Build: Monica Varman, Partner, G2 Venture Partners on Evaluating Food & Agri Businesses, S-1 Teardowns, Importance of Writing
Global decarbonization efforts over the next three decades will require a $100tn investment, generating a massive opportunity for private capital to deploy and drive the energy transition. And Monica Varman sits at the forefront of this.
Monica is a Partner at G2 Venture Partners. She was most recently a core member of the sustainability practice at McKinsey & Company, where she advised senior executives in the energy and infrastructure sectors on decarbonization and growth strategies. At G2, Monica focuses on investments in the circular economy, grid resilience, and food/agriculture sectors.
Monica was previously part of the business operations team at Tesla, where she helped scale Model S manufacturing. She also worked at off-grid solar company Zola Electric, where she developed its distribution and logistics strategy in Tanzania and Rwanda. Monica spent a year as a researcher with the Program on Energy Security and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations and worked on the sustainable seafood program at the World Wildlife Fund.
Monica holds a BA degree in Economics-Mathematics and Sustainable Development from Columbia University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She also holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.
To get more such stories of inspiring women around you, follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/women-who-build-podcast/ or on Twitter at @TheWomenWhoBui1.
Introducing the Third Edition of the Women Who Build Podcast by Shreya Bakliwal
Over the last two seasons of Women who Build and two waves of the pandemic, we know when it comes to company building, a few things matters for sure -
- Building for the long-term from early on
- Learning from what is happening around the world, sectors, and stages
- Focusing on personal lives and how that influences who we are as a leader
So in the third season of Women who Build, we have something special for you -
- We will learn about new business models, cultures, and sectors in a new geography - the United States
- Women involved in the growth and late stages of companies will share their perspectives and learnings, so you always build for the long term
- We will dig deeper into who our guests are beyond the professional titles they hold, so you can make work a part of life, just like family and friends
We hope that with every episode of the third season, you are filled with more ambition to build enduring and meaningful companies in the world!
Women Who Build: Abhilasha Sinha, Chief Product Officer, Open Secret on Connecting the Dots, Readying Companies for Innovation, the Power of Spirituality, Community, and Coaching in Business Success.
We are often asked by our dear ones to build a career around what we “love” doing. What is not talked about is how to find what we love, and this process requires a LOT of reflection.
Abhilasha Sinha is one of the few individuals who have done the hard work to ultimately find what she loves and been transparent about it! In this episode of Women who Build, Abhilasha talks about how she was fortunate to have been admitted to Harvard Business School’s 2+2 program, as that equipped her with the risk appetite to embark on a journey of career exploration. She started her career in education at Avanti, went on to consult with large companies on disruption at Innosight (a firm started by Prof. Clayton Christensen), streamlined operations at a biotech company, Elucidata, joined the digital revolution in India as the Chief of Staff at Hike, and is now “un-junking” food at Open Secret. In the process, Abhilasha has reflected deeply on the impact that she wants to have in the world, which makes her every day very deliberate.
In this episode of Women who Build, we will learn -
- Abhilasha’s journey - from growing up in Delhi to making products at Open Secret
- Innovation in the interview process of a company started by Clay Christensen - peer to peer interviews
- How can large companies and executives prepare for disruptions in their industries? Processes to build, teams to form, the timing of disruption
- Platform as a Service - balancing personalization and automation: a case on Elucidata
- Building processes for a company that is amidst a business model transition
- Gaining the trust of team members as a generalist/Chief of Staff
- Power of spirituality, community, and coaching in business success
There was so much to learn from Abhilasha's journey - this is by far the longest episode we have done!
Women Who Build: Kanika Mayar, Senior Executive Director, Vertex Ventures on Late to Early Stage Investing, Healthcare in India, Finding Answers to Hard Problems, and Investing in Deep Markets.
Many of us who start our careers in investment banking get drawn towards startup investing. But there are several stages to this investing - early, growth, and late. Kanika Mayar brings her unique experience of investment banking at Goldman Sachs and startup investing across all stages at IFC and now at Vertex Ventures. Some of her notable investments include Proactive for Her, Karkhana.io, and Kapiva, amongst others.
Kanika is a Senior Executive Director at Vertex. Prior to this, at IFC, she focused on investing in early-stage technology, telecom, renewable energy, and infrastructure companies across India and South Asia. At Goldman Sachs, she covered transactions in natural resources in Europe.
Kanika holds a Bachelor in Economics from the Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
In this episode of Women who Build, we will learn -
- From late-stage to early-stage investing - how to identify what you like?
- Deep markets - what they are and identifying companies in these markets.
- Identifying category creators within sectors.
- Differentiating between different agritech models and white spaces in the sector.
- Market of D2C enablers.
- How to get answers to questions - why rank of a person does/should not matter?!
- Inspiring young founders of today!
Women Who Build: Tarana Lalwani, Founding Partner of InnoVen Capital on Venture Debt, Negotiation, State of fintech, Sports and Consistency.
Whenever we think of startup financing, venture capital comes to mind. Coming from investment banking, I realize that there are other ways to fund your company based on your goals and situations.
Venture debt is one such instrument and Tarana Lalwani is leading the way in India when it comes to that. It is a special episode for me as I have been fortunate to get to know her closely in the past few months and I only realized recently that our journies are very similar. I am yet to raise a fund on my own though. ;)
Tarana is the Founding Partner at InnoVen Capital. She has covered the full spectrum of financial services. She started her career in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and then moved on to work in ABS/MBS space to early-stage venture capital at Seedfund. In her most recent role, she helps startups with venture debt at InnoVen. Tarana was born and raised in Bombay and pursued her education and early parts of her career in the US, which have clearly shaped how she thinks about the world. She pursued her MBA in Corporate Finance and Entrepreneurship from Columbia University.
In this episode, we will learn -
- Venture Debt as a form of financing - factors for startups to consider, sectors of interest, cash flow is IMPORTANT!
- Running a Venture Debt firm - fundraising, LP expectations and education, risks, taking investment decisions.
- Negotiations - being yourself is key!
- State of fintech - current and future.
- How playing a sport can impact your personal and professional lives.
Women Who Build: Sneha Biswas, Founder of Early Steps Academy on Importance of Confidence and Real-world Skills, Building Education Products for Kids, Building your Legacy, Thinking Long-term.
If schools, a disproportionate amount of focus is put into cognitive skills. A high achiever is defined as the person scoring the “highest” in Math and Science. But as we grow up, we realize that the most successful people possess strong non-cognitive skills like confidence and collaboration and are able to connect the dots amongst several disciplines. But make no mistake, building these skills takes time!
Through Early Steps Academy, Sneha Biswas wants kids aged 8-18 years to build exactly these skills. Early Steps Academy conducts small-group online live sessions on real-world topics such as entrepreneurship, climate change. These sessions are structured in a way that they impart 4 critical skills - Communication, Critical Thinking, Collaboration, and Creativity. ESA has raised money from the likes of Whiteboard Capital and BEENEXT.
Sneha is one of the most passionate education entrepreneurs I have spoken to. And why not? Education has played the biggest role in her career. Sneha hails from Jamshedpur and has always been a great student - she pursued her engineering at IIT Kharagpur and general management at HBS. She has worked across 4 continents, running small and large teams, and (massive) P&Ls at Schlumberger, and has consulted at Bain. But despite her full-time roles, she was always in classrooms, teaching students of various age groups and backgrounds!
So glad to finally share Sneha’s story with the world.
In this podcast of Women who Build, we will learn -
- How to build products for kids?
- How to think about gamification?
- Why and when an R&D team is important for an edtech company?
- Customers becoming team members.
- Recruiting Growth and Strategy team - skills to look for and the process.
- Measuring customer love.
- Thinking about your careers as building a legacy - what will be yours? How to identify?
- Sneha’s decision-making process + how to manage stakeholder expectations while making decisions?
Women Who Build: Sonam Motwani, Founder of Karkhana.io on Manufacturing in India, Modelling Finances Before Starting Up, Having Honest Conversations with Yourself.
As consumers, we always see finished products - from our favourite cars to favourite soaps. One of the most important sectors that impacts what we get in our hands is the manufacturing sector. This episode of Women who Build is extremely special for me as Sonam is probably the only startup founder I know from my hometown Gwalior. Also, she has a way of always following very “different” paths and is an incredible human being.
Sonam Motwani is the founder of Karkhana.io, a digital platform that simplifies manufacturing for businesses of all sizes so that new products can go from prototypes to production at blazing fast speed. Before starting Karkhana.io, she worked with Procter & Gamble in engineering and manufacturing roles across different business units.
She is an Aerospace Engineer from IIT Bombay.
She enjoys conversations around technology, building teams, leadership, and decision making.
In this episode of Women who Build, we will learn -
- Manufacturing in India - stakeholders and inefficiency in processes
- Budgeting/modelling your finances before starting up (for everyone who loves maintaining excel sheets!)
- Hiring and fundraising in an unconventional sector - timelines, messaging, external support, standing out
- Category creation and creativity when working on “different” things
- Having honest conversations with yourself
- Finding inspiration from regular things
Women Who Build: Matilde Giglio, Co-founder of Even.in on Health Insurance in India, Building the Best Teams, Innovating as an Outsider.
As Indians, most of us have had this day where we decided to buy an insurance plan and by the end of the exercise, felt hopeless and clueless. Some of us have had to pay extraordinarily large sums for ourselves or our family members, which has often left us wondering why we did not avail healthcare service in time! Infact, India has one-of-the highest levels of Out-Of-Pocket Expenditures (OOPE) on health - of about 65%!
This is exactly what Matilde Giglio found during her research about the Indian healthcare space. To solve this, she founded Even.in. The company partners directly with the best hospitals in India to provide users with hospital cover, unlimited, cashless access to consultations, diagnostics and primary care. Even is backed by some of the world's leading investors including Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund and Nikesh Arora.
Matilde is also a well known and prolific angel investor, with a track record in the healthcare and fintech space. So far, she has invested in over 20 companies from Europe, the US and India. Prior to Even, Matilde was a Principal at Hambro Perks, a London-based VC & she co-founded Compass News, a venture-backed journalism startup with offices in London and New York. She loves solving hard problems, building great teams and improving lives through practical action.
What I loved about all my conversations with Matilde is that she is so full of energy and honesty. These traits have enabled her to build some incredible teams at both her startups at very early stages.
For this podcast, I want to convey a special thanks to Mayank Banerjee, Co-founder of Even.in and Mati’s colleague who was kind enough to share his perspective on Mati’s work and leadership skills.
In this episode, we will learn -
- Matilde’s journey leading up to Even.in
- Choosing the right problem in a new country
- Decision-making for determining a company’s trajectory
- What to do when you do not know anybody in the startup ecosystem?
- Learnings from insurance markets in China and Latin America
- Building the best teams - factors to consider when hiring senior members who are experts in their respective fields and are spoilt for choice vs hiring junior members
- New ESOP structures
- Cultivating the habit of team building early on in your life
- Innovating as an outsider to an industry
Women Who Build: Jo Pattabiraman, Founder of Grow Fit on Following your Curiosity, Cloud Kitchens, Right Market Timing, Being a Single Founder.
Neuroscience confirms that to be truly happy, human beings will always need something more. To seek this “more”, we must ensure that our bodies and brains exhibit their peak performance, and what we eat clearly defines this performance. In India, while we like our Samosas and Chola Bhaturas, we have now acquired a taste for health and wellness. And COVID has only accelerated the trend.
Jo Pattabiraman, CEO and Founder of Grow Fit recognized the potential of healthy foods in India early on, as she founded Grow Fit in 2015. Grow Fit is one of India’s leading result-oriented health food companies that provides everything ranging from expert consultations to medically-proven food on its website and our daily go-tos such as Zomato, Swiggy, and Amazon.
Jo is an internet and mobile maven, having spent her career on the frontlines of internet businesses. Starting her career at payments pioneer Cybercash (later acquired by Paypal), she has played leadership roles at marquee companies like Oracle, eBay and Yahoo in Silicon Valley during their growth phases. She went on to play key roles at venture-funded companies backed by the likes of Kleiner Perkins and Menlo Ventures before moving to India in 2008. Back home in Bangalore, Jyotsna has helped build businesses at scale, such as OnMobile and Knowlarity (Sequoia-funded). She is active in the startup world as a panelist, writer and speaker. Her work has been covered at the Wall Street Journal, Femina, CNBC, Outlook and other prominent publications.
What intrigued me about Jo is how she exhibits this constant state of awareness, which makes her flexible and allows her to follows her curiosity. I hope you all are able to capture this from our conversation.
In this episode, we will learn -
- Jo’s journey of starting Grow Fit - follow your curiosity
- Identifying the right market timing
- Wizard of Oz model for product development
- Habits of a premium and aware Indian consumer
- The role of distribution in food tech and when should you partner with third-party distributors such as Zomato and Swiggy
- Cloud kitchens - building teams and tracking metrics of success
- Impact of COVID and common leadership/customer themes observed across startups
- Being a single founder
- Importance of meditation in one’s life
Women Who Build: Sanna Vohra, Founder, The Wedding Brigade on Creating Adoption for Online Wedding Shopping, >1 million Social Media Followers, Why Customer Experience Matters, and the Power of NOW.
Most of us look forward to the wedding of a relative or a friend where we can dance and eat! For some of us, our weddings got planned by our parents and relatives right after we entered college. Because apparently, it takes a LOT of time and effort to organize one.
In this episode of Women who Build, I talk to Sanna Vohra who is making it easier to plan weddings through her company, The Wedding Brigade. The Wedding Brigade is an online portal where users can discover the best wedding content and buy curated wedding fashion. The highlight for me was her belief in the power of NOW.
Sanna was elected to Forbes Asia’s 30 Under 30 List of 2018, and The Wedding Brigade was recognized as one of the Top 50 Ventures in India by the Smart CEO-Startup50 2017 Awards, in the consumer brand category. Prior to The Wedding Brigade, Sanna worked in investment banking at Morgan Stanley in New York, and at the advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi X. She discovered her passion for building businesses at Brown University when she co-founded the largest student-run business at the time.
Together, we will learn about -
- Sanna’s love for weddings and the beginning of the Wedding Brigade
- Online vs offline wedding markets, and creating adoption for online wedding shopping
- How the Wedding Brigade got >1 million social media followers
- Building a team for social media - freelancers vs full-time, hire per what the content demands
- Identifying transient vs lasting social media trend
- Curating supply-side on marketplaces - volume vs quality
- Different preferences of regional brides
- Why the “number of days to delivery” is important
- COVID challenges and learnings
- The Power of Now
Women Who Build: Namita Dalmia, Karuna Jain, Jayshree Patodi of Enzia Ventures on Why Education, Health, Environment; Edtech and Health in the Next Decade; Working Together for Better Outcomes.
We have seen 2, 3, 4, 5 women investment partners at venture capital firms. Have we seen firms where all three investment partners are women? Not too many!
I am so excited about today’s podcast with Enzia Ventures. The team at Enzia has been an early supporter of Women who Build. Enzia is an early-stage investment firm in India that invests in education, health, and the environment.
So let us get to know them -
- Namita is one of the most empathetic people I know in startups :) Namita pursued her undergraduate and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay and an MBA from the Stanford GSB. Post business school, wanting to work at the grassroots, she joined Central Square Foundation where she helped establish and grow the Edtech team. Later, she went on to lead education investments at Omidyar Network India and has invested in the likes of WhiteHat Jr, amongst many others. Her love for entrepreneurship and working at early stages led her to join Enzia.
- Karuna Jain - Karuna has extensive experience and expertise in early-stage and growth investing in healthcare, skilling, and renewables. Prior to Enzia, she worked in the leadership teams at Acumen and Aditya Birla Group. At Acumen, she led healthcare investments globally, managed a portfolio of 25+ companies, and kickstarted investments in tech startups in healthcare, agriculture, and the environment. At Aditya Birla, Karuna handled multiple roles in finance, investing, and strategy.
- Jayshree Kanther Patodi - Jayshree has been both an operator and investor in healthcare space. Prior to Enzia, she has worked in leadership roles at IHH Healthcare Berhad, Asia’s largest hospital chain, and Khazanah Nasional, Malaysia, where she led their India division for Investment in Healthcare and Sustainable Development and played a key role in establishing their India office. Jayshree's portfolio companies include Apollo Hospitals, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, amongst others.
In this episode, we will learn -
- Why and how did team Enzia come together?
- Why their focus is on investing in the most fundamental things in life - education, health, environment.
- How they work together for best outcomes.
- Learnings launching a new fund.
- What will define education and climate in the next decade?
- Many other inspiring stories!
Women Who Build: Shruti, Founder and CEO of ApnaKlub on Pivoting during COVID, Resilience and Spirituality in Entrepreneurship, Building the Right Teams, Using WhatsApp as a Communication Tool.
Whenever I complained about “bad luck”, my mom always said that success is about what you make out of a situation, good or bad. Shruti, Founder and CEO of ApnaKlub is a true personification of this. I am so happy to do this episode of Women who Build with her, as I have personally followed her journey and am so proud of how she is impacting the lives of thousands of small businessmen/women through her company. She is also one of the very few founders who practices spirituality in her day-to-day, a trait that I feel builds up resilience like nothing else!
Shruti built an entrepreneurial streak early on during her time at IIT Delhi, where she organized initiatives for her hostel, Himadri. Post her under-graduation, she worked at Bain and Omidyar Network India. It was during this time, giving founders advice to do x,y,z things, that she built conviction about starting up herself. She went to Harvard Business School to study business and is now back in India, building for the small businesses here.
Apnaklub is a B2B social commerce platform. It digitizes and organizes the FMCG procurement market by connecting buyers and brands through a single platform. Despite a full transition from Sair to Sair Mall to Apnaklub, all during COVID, it has served over 5,000 partners across 6,000 pin codes in India and raised funds from the likes of Sequoia’s Surge, Blume Ventures, and Whiteboard Capital.
In this episode, we will learn -
- Shruti’s journey of pivoting during COVID
- FMCG distribution and white spaces within
- WhatsApp as a tool for businesses and building teams to support WhatsApp
- Importance of generalists in a 0-1 journey
- Spirituality and entrepreneurship
- Impact that the words of great leaders can have on you
Finally, I want to thank Azeez Gupta, Shruti’s partner, who was generous enough to share Shruti’s journey and growth as an individual and professional. You absolutely helped frame this.
Introducing the Second Edition of the Women Who Build Podcast by Shreya Bakliwal.
Most of you who know me, know that my niece inspired me to start Women who Build. She is a 14-year-old baker who wants to launch her bakery business and wants to learn how. And now, my listeners encourage me to keep it going (see image).
In the first edition of Women who Build, we launched >10 episodes, talked to women worldwide, and were fortunate to have been called the “Best Podcast” by a few.
Then, the second wave of COVID hit India and I took what I thought was the scariest decision of my life at the time. I quit my job and took some time off to pause and reflect. I spoke to more and more listeners and understood them better. Interestingly, during our cool-off period, we witnessed a 60% MoM growth in the number of listeners!
On a macro level, the face of women's entrepreneurship was changing. In India for example, women entrepreneurs built back better. Only 6% of women did not make shifts to their business models. It is this grit and acumen that we think is important for today’s new-age entrepreneurs.
Thus, in this second edition of Women who Build, we will enhance our conversations with 3 things, which will help our listeners improve their decision-making. ONLY 3 things -
- Intention - Why did you embark on this journey? We want to answer some of these questions for listeners to decide for themselves.
- Resilience - How do you continue growing, failing, and growing again? We want you to take the long-term lens while keeping yourself sane.
- Teams - Building the right internal team, choosing the right investors, building for customers.
So if you have any interesting women founders, investors, operators, or even customers who would enjoy being a part of the podcast, hit me up and let us together help more and more women enter the startup ecosystem!
Women who Build: Paula Mariwala, Founder & Co-President, Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs India on Evaluating Early-stage Companies, Companies Becoming Verbs, Missed Investment in Flipkart, Climate-tech Opportunities, and Mentoring.
I was in middle school when Paula Mariwala gauged the potential of the Indian startup ecosystem and started investing through Seedfund. Paula is the Managing Director of Seedfund Advisors, a venture capital firm, which invests in early-stage companies in India, and the Co-Founder and President of Stanford Angels & Entrepreneurs India. Some of her key investments include Unacademy, redBus, and CarWale. She has decades of entrepreneurial and operating experience in the technology sectors of both the US and India.
Paula holds an MS in Applied Physics from Stanford University, USA and BSc (Hons) in Physics from St. Xavier’s college, Mumbai, and sits on the alumni boards of both institutions.
I could not have been prouder to launch this episode!
In this episode, we will learn:
- Paula's journey to the world of entrepreneurship and venture.
- Evaluating early-stage companies - Founding teams are the most important data points.
- How do companies become verbs?
- Missed investment in Flipkart.
- Opportunities in Climate tech.
- Paula's love for mentoring - Two of her mentees are Netflix stars :)
Follow on Twitter - Paula @pmariwala and The Women who Build @TheWomenWhoBui1.
Women Who Build: Lumikai Fund GP Salone Sehgal on the Growth Drivers for the Indian Gaming Market, Capturing Consumers' Mind Space, Building Games for Women, Building VC Teams.
I still remember how my sister and I used to play Mario Bros and the Jungle Book as kids. The thing that fascinated us the most about these games was discovering the unknown with every new level we entered. Storytelling was important to us. 20 years later, my nieces seek the same stories. I went a step ahead to figure out how many games in the market actually cater to their needs.
I spoke to Salone Sehgal, General Partner, Lumikai Fund. Salone has over a decade of cross-sector experience in advising, operating, and evaluating tech businesses. Salone started her career in the investment banking and private equity spaces at Morgan Stanley and Barclays and later went on to found a gaming company for the female audience called TrulySocial. To fund such games, she joined the world of venture at London Venture Partners, later launching the first fund with a focus on gaming in India. She has been recognized as one of the “Top 30 Women in Mobile” and “Top 100 Asian Stars in UK Tech”. She is a graduate of IESE Business School.
In this episode, we will learn:
- Salone’s journey to the world of venture
- Growth drivers for the Indian gaming space
- Finding space in the consumers’ minds - game mechanics is key
- Building and enhancing brand equity
- Qualities displayed by gaming companies that have seen exits - having a view on the market and creativity are key
- Building games for girls / women - INSPIRATION is important; ‘tend and befriend’ vs ‘fight or flight’ responses
- Importance of niche funds - it helps for investors to have deep sector expertise
- Building diverse VC teams
Follow on Twitter - Lumikai @Lumikai, Salone @salonesehgal, and The Women who Build @TheWomenWhoBui1.
In case of any questions/suggestions, write to me at shreya.bakliwal1993@gmail.com.
Women who Build: Jesse Draper (Founding Partner, Halogen VC), Manish Kheterpal (Founding Partner, WaterBridge Ventures), Ankur Goyal (Founder and CEO, &Me), Hena Mehta (Founder and CEO, Basis) on Women as an Opportunity - How do women add value,? What can the startup ecosystem do?
Women who Build: Shakun Sethi, Founder and CEO, Tickle.Life on Building a Sexual Wellness Marketplace: Journey from MVP to Now, Advertising for Sextech Products, Choosing Team Members when Recruitment is Hard
Fun fact: On its first launch, it had 5,000 user sign-ups on the first day!
Shakun has over a decade of experience and specialization in Community Management, International Communications, Brand Management, and Digital Media. Inclusivity is paramount for her and that is evident in her work. This is her second start-up after running a crisis communication company successfully for over 8 years called Dizuna Communications.
In this episode, you will learn:
- Shakun’s journey of starting Tickle.Life - from her visit to a sex toy shop in Netherlands.
- Tickle.Life as a marketplace.
- Journey from MVP to now: consumers may not know what you are expecting them to, demand and supply sides should feel comfortable with each other’s work.
- Tips for building marketplaces: respond when consumers respond, use terms that consumers are familiar with to improve user base, what time do the consumers use the product?
- Advertising strategy for sextech products.
- Choosing a co-founder: experimentation helps!
- Choosing team members: referrals, matching team members’ age with user age.
- How can you not compromise on talent quality when recruitment gets hard?
- Investor feedback on sextech.
- Biggest learning - FOCUS!
Follow on Twitter - Tickle.Life @TickleLife and The Women who Build @TheWomenWhoBui1.
In case of any questions / suggestions, write to me at shreya.bakliwal1993@gmail.com or drop a message at +91-7702366262.
Women who Build: Tanvi Bikhchandani, Co-Founder, Tamarind Chutney on Building a D2C Fashion Brand, Finding Right Mentors and Co-Founders, Determining Consumer Preferences in the World of Fast Fashion, Government's Role in Building Scalable Enterprises
Women who Build: Anisha Singh, Founding Partner, She Capital on Journey to Founding a Female Focused Fund, Opportunity in Femtech and Sextech Industries, Building Grit, Challenges of Starting a New Fund.
Women who Build: Ashley Ramirez, Chief of Staff at Halogen Ventures on Merits of a Non-linear Path to Venture; Avenues of Scale for Consumer Brands: Communities, Influencers, Customer Service; Importance of 1:1 Mentoring in VC; Power of Manifestation
For the 5th episode of The Women who Build Podcast, I spoke to Ashley Ramirez, an investor and Chief of Staff at Halogen, which invests in early-stage consumer tech startups founded by female founders. Started by Jesse Draper, a 4th generation VC and Founding Partner, the fund currently has 62 startups in its portfolio.
Ashley has a knack for spotting interesting startups in the consumer tech space, and has been with the fund through the close of 62 investments to date. Prior to joining Halogen, she worked at iHeartMedia and a boutique PR firm. She is a graduate of UCLA and is dedicated to supporting young entrepreneurs and women in Finance.
You will learn -
- What led Ashley to the world of venture?
- How has Ashley’s non-linear path to VC helped her add value to her portfolio?
- Core components of Investment Thesis - how can it help with deal flow?
- Avenues of scale for consumer brands - role of communities, customer service, influencer marketing.
- What do VCs look for? Social Media is IMPORTANT!
- How has Jesse been a mentor to Ashley; importance of 1:1 mentoring.
- Power of manifestation.
Women who Build: Ausum CEO Mayura Rao on Defining TG for Consumer Brands, Pros / Cons of Bootstrapping, Power of Women, Building and Tracking Vision
Women Who Build: Onco.com CEO Rashie Jain on How to Build Conviction with a Startup Idea, Building Consumer Internet Products: From MVP to Scaled-up Versions, Roadblocks Faced as a New Founder
Rashie is an engineer from IIT Kanpur and a business major from the Wharton School. Her professional experiences have mainly centered around the healthcare industry. She has worked at the likes of JP Morgan, Accel Partners, and Biocon, where she led the launch of a breast cancer drug for the US market.
In this episode, you will learn the following:
- What led Rashie to launch Onco, and how the platform has differentiated itself with becoming a one-stop-shop for cancer-related needs of patients and caregivers?
- How to build conviction when starting out with an idea that is unique?
- Building a consumer internet product - start to scale; how to decide which features to incorporate.
- Which problem can give you scale?
- Hiring the right team, and word of mouth to build credibility.
- How to choose the right investor?
- Challenges of a new founder
- Onco's growth plans
- How does Onco hire?
- What does Rashie do outside of work?
- How can founders build emotional resilience?
Women who Build: &Me Co-founder Sheta Mittal on Consumer Research to Create a New Category, Ambassador Program to Grow your D2C Business, COVID Impact on Consumer Brands, Communicating with Investors during COVID, "Just Do It" Framework to Take Decisions