Iman Abuzeid, Co-founder and CEO, Incredible Health 
Kirsten Green, Founder and Managing Partner, Forerunner Ventures
Moderator: Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon, All Raise

Most Powerful Women 2022 - Breaking Barriers And Raising Capital

Iman Abuzeid, Co-founder and CEO, Incredible Health 
Kirsten Green, Founder, Forerunner Ventures
Moderator: Mandela Schumacher-Hodge Dixon, All Raise

Breaking Barriers And Raising Capital

our next session is about something also near and dear to my heart, something we can all probably agree on the world needs more female founders. Uh, there is some good news on that front. A recent study found that in 2021, of new businesses were started by women. We love that. But female founders and especially female founders of color still face daunting and discriminatory challenges. We are about to hear from three women in the know about breaking barriers and overcoming hurdles when building a business from the ground up. Iman abou Zeid is co founder and Ceo of incredible health. She is also the first black woman founder to lead a company to unicorn status. Kirsten Green is an award winning VC and the founder and managing partner at forerunner Ventures and they're joining us today for a conversation with Mandela schumacher, Hodge Dixon. The Ceo of all raise an M. P. W. Summit guest co chair. Please join me in welcoming them to the stage. Hello. Alrighty. Welcome Welcome. Hello everyone. Alright. Hello everyone. You didn't know the energy arrived. All right, so I'm super excited to be joined by two powerhouse individuals who I've admired from afar and now get to admire up close. So to set context, I'll never forget the first time I sat in on a pitch meeting between an investor and a founder. It felt like I was having a front row seat to the future and it felt like I was having insider access to this very special relationship between a venture capitalist and the founder and the partnership that it takes to create these mythical tech unicorns that many of us in the room use we work at, we sit on the boards of, and so now I am joined by two leaders in the industry and and we have iman and Kirsten. So starting with you, iman, congratulations on the big news. If you haven't heard iman's company, incredible health raised 80 million in series B funding and is valued at 1.65 billion. She is the fourth black woman in history to ever lead her company to unicorn status. So iman, what does this smile? So mean to you personally, I mean personally I'm, I'm proud of the accomplishment. We've also just gotten started right. So the company is only five years old, so we still got a long way to go. You know, we're pursuing this vision of helping healthcare professionals live better lives and the mission of helping them find and do their best work. And you know, we're aiming to be this category defining market leading company. Now. On a personal note, of course, I'm proud of the accomplishments and impressed by what the team has achieved too. But I hope this is not, this is one of the last times, it's actually like a headline like that, like we need, we need to be on the 100 or 200 or 700, you know, women or black women starting a unicorn company. So I hope it's not as big a deal over time too. So Kirsten, I also want to tell you congratulations because it's the 10 year anniversary of forerunner ventures existence in Silicon Valley, the venture ecosystem this past july, you passed that Mile Stone, you are one of the most successful and celebrated women in venture capital today. You have invested in top brands like Glossier Away ritual, the farmer's dog chime fair and many, many more. And earlier this year you announced the close of another one billion in funding, making forerunner ventures a um north now of $2 billion. No, so I want to ask you the same question question I asked him on is how does this feel for you personally, what does this mean for you? Um the last 10 years has been a really incredible journey. And um, I think when I started forerunner, um and I was an outsider to Silicon Valley and the tech industry, I came in with tons of ambition and enthusiasm and naivety. Um and my goal really was to try to learn how to be a great partner to founders, try to build a team around, you know, that could work together and to over time earn the right to invest in a company that we thought was worthy and making an impact at whatever stage and we sort of had to start somewhere on that journey. So when we, when I launched the firm in 2012, we had a $40 million dollar fund. So it's been a series of building blocks and 10 years felt like a big milestone because it's been a decade and I was able to look around and feel so grateful for the incredible team that I get to work with and for um, all of the founders that we've backed. Um, but, and, and the billion dollars felt like a milestone in that, um, in that it sort of was that moment of like, okay, we have enough capital now that we can start early with the company, you can follow through, we can invest in a little bit later stage as well as the early stage, but really it was just like a mark on the journey and I still feel, you know, really excited and ambitious about the next decade. Oh, exciting. Okay, awesome. Well, thank you both so much and if you aren't impressed yet, I want to ground you in some stats of the environment they're working in. So 93% of all venture capital dollars are managed by white men, 82% of all capital deployed to startup founders last year went to all male teams project Diane reported that less than 1%, even less than .3% of all venture capital went to black women founders. So this is the environment they're Navigating. So my question to both of you and I'll start with you, Eamon is as you've navigated these environments, what has kept you motivated to continue to break through barriers and forge your own path to success. I mean, I mean, first and foremost is the the level of assertiveness and determination. You need to just get through all of that is a lot. Um, now the truth is I didn't do it by myself. Okay, so first and foremost I align myself with investors and venture capitalists who frankly, I wasn't their first female Ceo, I wasn't their first minority Ceo. And so the great thing about, you know, the Internet, it's like their portfolio companies are all available, right? You can see who has a track record of investing in women and minorities or not. And you know, when your craft, when I crafted my list of, okay, which investors am I gonna go for? Yes. For me, in my case it mattered that they were in the bay area. I needed marketplace investors and tech investors and so on. But I did eliminate from the list of those that have never invested in a woman. So it's almost like you, you can self select. Um, secondly, I really, uh, fundraising in and of itself is a, is a skill and honestly operating a company. This is a whole set of skills and just really worked on honing my craft. And there were two couple ways I did that first is just surrounded myself with uh, C E O. S that were ahead of me. You know, they were in the next they're in this next stage. Uh and and those were individuals who really, you know, gave me an enormous amount of advice. You know, we're all in the same WhatsApp group or whatever it is, we do our meet ups and our lunches and dinners and so on, where you can really um be extremely, you know, empathetic and open with each other. Uh, and then finally I just really uh made sure to focus on like process honestly when it came to, especially when it comes to the fundraising. Um, you know, it's not just uh it's not enough to just select the right investors to pursue, but like the way you come up with the content of your pitch, the way you come up with the um, the way you run the process, there's a lot of nuance there that has to get learned over time. Um, Yeah. And ultimately, like the last thing I'll just mention is, you know, the statistics. Yes, it's dismal. It's terrible. There's all this bias in the system. But honestly, if you're a ceo it might be the same. Even if you're an investor running a fund. Like you can't actually think about that stuff too much. It's very distracting honestly. And so you just have to really just focus on your your mission and your vision what you're trying to achieve because the biggest thing I can do for this industry is just win, frankly and the same person, right? Like as long as more and more of us are successful, that's, that's a big thing that's going to transform this industry and change some of the statistics Well said, Well said, and how many years have you been running incredible health, five years, five years and then you're 10 years into forerunners journey. So what has kept you motivated to keep going, keep growing, You said you're just getting started? Well, one, I feel really fortunate that I found a job that I love as much personally, that I feel like I get a lot of energy and satisfaction out of the opportunity to be learning all the time and meeting new people and being inspired by seeing their passion, what they're putting forward. Um, but in keeping a little bit with the broader theme in this conversation and thinking about those stats and feeling like I came into this industry, like I mentioned as an outsider, I will admit, I was thinking more about what I wanted to accomplish and the kinds of companies I wanted to invest in and where I thought the opportunity was over time. I've come to really appreciate venture capital, very ecosystem driven business. I've come to really understand that, but appreciate where I am, You know, find support and um and how we collaborate together and to really think about um you know, there are there, it is, it is frustrating to think about only 2% of the money going to women or only, you know, six or 7% of the money being in the hands of women, but I think that like there's a lot of ways to have impact beyond just those stats. Um and so yes, we think about diversity in our portfolio and making sure that we're um you know, being open minded about everything we're investing in. I think when we're in the boardroom, I'm thinking about how do we have an impact on the conversation about the leadership team about the priorities for the company, around sort of career development around a diversified executive team to really think about getting kind of more parity in the leadership roles and having that be part of the role of advancing the whole industry. Um and it's a collective of all of those things working together, that I think gives us the best chance to see more progress. Awesome, awesome. And I know because of the conversations I've been having around the wonderful breakfast bars and the coffee stations, people are very interested and potentially becoming a venture capitalists, there's a lot of growing interest. So, Kirsten, what is your advice to those who are not yet in the room, not yet playing the game, who want to um Okay, so let's see. So i it's been 10 years, I think when I started, I felt like there was a it was even a more closed ecosystem, there were fewer people that had started funds or firms. Um I definitely think that's changed over the last 10 years, we've sort of had a booming economy, a really, you know, a hyper paced startup ecosystem. A lot more founders have been drawn to the ecosystem, A lot more investors have been drawn to the ecosystem, and honestly, while the numbers aren't high enough, it's been encouraging to see the amount of women coming into the market and um, and coming with their whole passion and their whole heart and their ambitions to do that too. I think at some point, you know, now we're in a different part of the economic cycle. Um the conversations are much different around all of our tables and with our founders and trying to set priorities in many ways, it's, it's a lot better, it's more constructive. Um and I think is, you know, a lot of the conversation is more about really sound business building and thinking about building for the future, but back to the venture ecosystem, I think there's also some natural kind of flushing out as people understand like the fullness of the job, it's not just chasing deals around, it's really about helping being um, constructive around the table and bringing, you know, some experience or some expertise to bear to try to make the company better. Um, but I also think with all of the, the way the venture capital ecosystem has grown, there's so many more types of investors and so many more pockets of money if you want to think about making a statement in this space? I think it's important to have some focus, like your mom was saying about her company, so in your business, like think about what do I want to be known for? What kind of, you know, what kinds of companies do I want to back? What sort of theme or thesis do I wa you have, what sort of expertise do I want to bring to the table and try to lean into that? Um it's also obviously helpful to to really have a marquee company and a founder to pair closely with and and sort of be able to be on that journey together. Awesome. Thank you. And I know you already iman shared some of the tactics that you've enlisted to get to the place you are at and you've been kind enough to even support founders in my network, so on your path to greatness, you're still stopping and helping people even being here right now. So for, for people who are reading the blog post listening to the podcast, all the ways to raise capital, like what have they not heard that you want to share with them right now that they need to hear. Uh okay, what are they not heard? I'm trying to think of things that haven't been mentioned before. Um ah uh for first is just like, let's just talk about the topic of content, like what you're actually saying. Um the number one piece of advice I give to almost every ceo, particularly a female ceo is, can you please be more ambitious? Okay, so the, I'll give you an example from our company. So I could, I could go in there and say incredible health is a career marketplace for health care workers. Or I could go in there and say incredible health is a career marketplace for health care workers. And we're aiming to be the category defining market leading company in healthcare labor, like which of those is going to have the investor lean in more. Right? So, and, and I think every part of the pitch is supposed to be like a mic drop like that, right? Like that. The way you talk about product, the way you talk about your go to market strategy, the way, like, the way that you paint the picture for the future, just really have to be very, very ambitious because guess what your, what your male counterparts are like going, going in their crazy ambitious too, and you need to really match that level of ambition. Also understand the, the incentives and the numbers that are motivating the venture capitalists to, I mean, they need high returns, really, really high returns. So pitching big tends to help, um, the second piece of advice all offer on the, on the fundraising pieces, just like, do your background references are very, very important. And there really is only one group of backdoor references that matters and that is the other portfolio Ceo. That's it. And so, um, no other investors, not. You know, other people they might have worked with in the past. It's what is going on with the portfolio Ceo, particularly Ceos whose companies have crashed and burned. Oh, and that is the mic drop. We want to put a round of applause together for these two pioneers. Thank you so much for your time.