As professional women we all know that we are not playing on a level playing field. Sure, we have made great strides in the last 100 years but things are far from equal. Men are still getting more than their fair share of promotions and make more money for equal work.
As women navigate the world of business they need support and what better place for that support to come from than other women? Together we can overcome the obstacles that women face. By supporting each other we can level the playing field.
Support can take many forms. Sometimes an encouraging word is enough and other times what a woman needs is to have someone believe in her vision. These four women are doing just by investing in women and helping them grow their business.
Stacey Feinberg
Stacey graduated from Northwestern University and studied The Business of Entertainment, Media, and Sports (BEMS) at Harvard Business School. In 1987 she began working for her father at Bob Woolf Associates, the sports and entertainment law firm.
Stacey began focusing on Pre IPO investing in 2008. Some of her most successful early stage investments include Uber, Facebook, Alibaba, Zico Water, and Michael Kors. She is the founder of 33 Capital as well as the managing director at golden seeds.
Stacey is now focused on supporting and empowering female entrepreneurs by helping them launch and grow their businesses. She is a frequent judge at VC competitions, speaker on numerous panels, and mentor at USC Business School and Women Founders Network. Stacey has shown great commitment to supporting women and helping them reach their goals.
Kim Folsom
Kim is the co-founder and managing partner at Founders First Capital Partners. The company funds small business that are generating between $50K and $2.5M in annual revenue. Their focus is on companies which are led by ethnic minorities, military veterans, or women. Founders First uses two proven investment methodologies, revenue based financing fund and recurring revenue generating companies.
Founders First offers proprietary business accelerator programs, an online learning platform, and growth methodologies to help business founders grow their companies to annual seven and eight figure revenues. They help startups transition into tech-enabled companies while adding premium wage jobs in their communities.
Founders First provides new opportunities for smart investors who want to address economic inequality in underserved small business markets. Their methods provide, high-yield investments for fund limited partners (LPs) that perform like bonds but generate returns on par with equity investments.
Leslie Goldman
For over 25 years Leslie practiced as a corporate lawyer. Either directly or in syndicates and venture funds, she has invested in over 40 early stage high growth companies. She is the Co-Founder and Principal of The Artemis Fund.
The Artemis Fund is a female led venture fund for female led companies. The organization was founded by three women, Leslie Goldman, Diana Murakhovskaya and Stephanie Campbell, who seek to capitalize on the proven value of gender diversity. Each one of these ladies has invested their own time, money, and energy in hundreds of entrepreneurs.
Artemis seeks to move the needle on female founders’ access to capital and seeks to bring more female investors into the fold by exposing more women to the power and impact of venture investing. They invests in high growth, tech-enabled Seed and Series A stage companies led by women across the US. The companies are post-launch, have demonstrable traction, and have exceptional management teams.
Alicia Robb
Alicia studied at the University of North Carolina. She has worked as an economist with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Office of Economic Research. She worked with the Kauffman Foundation for more than a decade and is also the founder of the Foundation for Sustainable Development.
Alicia is the founder and CEO of Next Wave Impact. The organization’s focus is to increase diversity, inclusion and impact in early stage investing through an innovative learning-by-doing progressive fund model. They are building on the Rising Tide Pilots in the United States and Europe. Together they are creating the next wave of educated and trained investors focused on both social impact and financial returns.
The global fund has 99 women investors, 25 of which are women of color. The group is led by an experienced investment committee of ten women. Over a four year investment period they are building a portfolio of investments in early stage impact companies that are diversified across industry and geography.
Sierra E is a Los-Angeles based trial lawyer and entrepreneur. She became partner at her law firm in 2015 and has made numerous appearances as a guest legal correspondent on CNN. In 2018, Sierra launched SuitKits, an online shopping service that allows women to custom design suits and separates to fit their exact measurements, style, color and cut. Through her career, her writings, and her company, Sierra hopes to help women from all backgrounds achieve both personal and professional success for the benefit of themselves and their families. You can find her on Twitter/Facebook/IG @SuitKits
