All Raise, A Movement On The Rise
At current rates of progress, gender equality in the U.S. is still 208 years away, according to the World Economic Forum. After recently committing $1 billion over the next 10 years to expand women’s power and influence in society, Melinda Gates wrote, “Equality can’t wait, and no one in a position to act should either.”
All Raise began with a call for connection and action back in 2017. Sparked by a series of emails and gatherings, our movement grew irresistibly after that — powered by a passionate group’s urgent desire to enact change. It quickly became a 100% volunteer-led operation, with female founders and funders across the country devoting their nights and weekends to building programs. We have been fueled by the generous contributions of our Founding Partners (Pivotal Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank) and National Partners (EY, J.P. Morgan, Bank of America, Anchor Point Foundation, Foundry Group). In the past six months since I joined All Raise as CEO, my job has been to learn all the moving parts, meet our incredible drivers and pit crews, and begin assembling a vehicle that moves the needle faster on our goals.
Today I’m delighted to share some major milestones for All Raise:
- We’re launching new chapters in Boston and Los Angeles!
- Our full-time team is growing and we’re hiring.
- We’re rolling out a brand new website to help you navigate our programs and find opportunities to join us.
Boston and LA, here we come
As the largest markets for technology venture investing, San Francisco Bay Area and New York were natural launchpads for our movement.
This week, we are launching new All Raise chapters in the next largest venture-backed startup communities — Boston and Los Angeles. With these additional cities, we will have a presence where 70 percent of venture capital investment in the U.S. is deployed. In these markets, we aim to dramatically increase both the number of women investors writing checks and the amount of funding raised by female founders.
We’ve already seen strong demand for All Raise in those cities. For instance, several female founders who participated in our Series A to B Bootcamp flew in to attend our sessions in San Francisco! We want to save these entrepreneurs both time and airfare by starting programs where they are.
All Raise is lucky to have founding crew members across the country, a few in particular who gave us crucial guidance about how to set down roots in these cities: Dayna Grayson and Katie Rae for Boston and Dana Settle, Eva Ho, and Kara Nortman for LA.
To celebrate and connect with our new communities, we’re hosting inaugural events for founders and funders in Boston and LA on consecutive days. We’re on the lookout for fresh volunteers, partners, and allies who share our mission. We hope you can join us and become a part of our growing crew:
- October 17th in Boston: “How Deals Are Done” in partnership with EY
- October 18th in LA: “The Beauty of Ambition” in partnership with Silicon Valley Bank
Meet the newest members of our dream team
We have some friendly new faces at All Raise HQ! Our full-time team will continue to work closely with our energetic crew of volunteers — the backbone of our organization — to focus on expanding our programs, deploying resources for maximum effectiveness, and improving engagement with volunteers, allies, and partners interested in joining our movement.
Alicia Burt, Chief of Staff
Alicia was most recently Jack Dorsey’s Chief of Staff at Square, where she also built and led their diversity and inclusion efforts. She is currently completing her master’s degree in nonprofit administration and we already have so much to learn from her! Alicia’s patience and mindfulness as a certified yoga instructor will surely come in handy as she implements new systems and processes to help All Raise execute and scale.
Domonique Fines, Director of Engagement
Dom comes to All Raise from Y Combinator, where she spent the last three years producing and planning all of their events, from Demo Days and Female Founder Conferences to campus outreach tours and alumni gatherings. A native of Oakland, Dom can combine her love for travel and community through All Raise as she sets our events strategy, establishes a volunteer engagement program, and charts our course for geographic expansion.
Ini Li, Head of Data
Ini has a wealth of data analytics experience and was most recently at Zillow as a Senior Data Scientist. Ini will be working closely with our amazing Data volunteer crew, ensuring we continue to shine a spotlight on the systemic barriers to female founder and funder success while holding ourselves, and the industry, accountable for aggressively moving the needle on our dual objectives. An avid cook (and former entrepreneur who started a bagel company) we are looking forward to being her willing taste-testers at HQ!
Katie Andresen, Community Manager
Katie brings a wealth of experience in community building to the table, most recently at Square where she led their employee group for women and spearheaded a dedicated seller community for women in business. She volunteered as Head of Partnerships & Events for the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign and is a licensed mediator for San Francisco Community Boards. Katie also produces a podcast about being multiracial called Mixed Kids Chronicles.
Tamanna Khemani, Business Operations Intern
Tamanna is a recent graduate of UC Berkeley who joined All Raise through sheer hustle and persistence. No assignment is too big or small for Tamanna and she fearlessly tackles projects as she pursues a future career in venture capital. In her free time, she enjoys painting, coral restoration, and scuba diving, which are great activities to do in her beautiful home country of Curaçao.
Fresh website
If you’re curious to see what we’ve been up to, check out our newly designed website at allraise.org. Shoutout to Steffi Wu (Director of Communications) for leading this project, and big thanks to creative agencies Nimble and Nelson Cash for their excellent work and collaboration.
Whether you’re a founder or a funder who wants to participate in our programs, or an ally who wants to support us, there’s something for everyone. The only cost of admission is passion and action.
Upcoming events
As you’ll see on our new events page, we are excited to share our 2019 capstone events for founders and funders:
- October 25th: When Founder Met Funder: In partnership with Unusual Ventures, we are hosting an event for 50+ amazing black women founders that will connect them with investors for both guidance on their startups and access to future capital.
- November 12–13: All Raise VC Summit: Our second annual convening of women in VC is doubling in size to 600 attendees, who will partake in inspirational keynote speakers, tactical breakout sessions, and extraordinary networking opportunities.
What would it look like if the people shaping our future better represented the world we live in? What ideas would get nourished and what solutions would we uncover?
We won’t wait to find out!
