Carrie Colbert of Curate Capital: Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are Doing To Make That Happen

Be a mentor. Whether formally or informally, one-on-one or in a group setting, share yourself with another. Share your story, share your struggles, share your celebrations. Women need to see and hear from someone to whom they can relate. Don’t be afraid to share yourself — flaws and all!

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Carrie Colbert.

After almost two decades in the energy industry and five years of investing in female founders with her own personal capital, Carrie Colbert launched Curate Capital in 2020 to empower female founders to accelerate their paths to success — amplifying the work she was already doing. Carrie’s unique expertise, experience and perspective uniquely position her to champion businesses by women for women through the injection of both capital and advisory services. Carrie wholeheartedly believes that the rise of the female economy is one of the biggest factors reshaping the economy and is excited to be part of this growth.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

Certainly… In fact, I never once dreamed about starting a venture capital fund — nor did I even set out to do so. To make a long story short, I ended up here very organically and I’ve never had a more fulfilling professional experience!

My background is in the energy industry. I’m from a very small town in the Texas Panhandle so when I decided to go to The University of Texas, my choice in major was a very pragmatic choice; where did I have the best scholarship, and which degree would lead to a well-paying job upon graduation. I certainly don’t come from a wealthy, affluent, privileged background so, I studied petroleum engineering, graduated at the top of my class, and took a job in Houston when I graduated.

After five years at a large corporation, I was recruited to Hilcorp, a smallish-at-the-time privately held company. What led me to take the leap was that this new company was known for its entrepreneurial spirit, which is something that had always interested me. At Hilcorp, I held various leadership positions in engineering and finance, plus I went back to school and got my MBA.

One of the core tenets the company embraced was the idea of ownership. We as employees had the opportunity to have ownership in the company. I saw firsthand how this concept of aligning incentives across the workforce really created an engaged, motivated environment. During the twelve years I was there, we saw significant growth and made some very lucrative transactions. As a result, I had the chance to “retire” at age 37.

I stepped away without knowing exactly what would be next for me but knowing that I wanted to do something I was passionate about. Over time, I began connecting with female founders online (namely, on Instagram) and in person at conferences I spoke at. Quickly, I realized that sharing some of my business expertise helped to rapidly accelerate the success of these women.

Over time, the direct pipeline of deal flow became too robust for me to fund it all on my own. Yet, these investment opportunities were too good to pass up. So, that’s when I created Curate Capital. And it brings me such joy to tell the stories of these amazing founders and their businesses to my potential investors.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I think the great theme of my career has been the pivot. Certainly, we’ve heard a lot over the last year about career pivots out of necessity during the pandemic. But my “pivoting” started well before that. I’ve been a lifelong learner. I’m super motivated by soaking up all I can around me to grow each day, so when I felt like I had mastered one role, I was ready to move on to the next — always challenging myself more and more.

From engineer to management to investor relations to finance roles within a company, and then from influencing and blogging and investing and now venture capital, I’ve done so many unique things. Truly, each experience is a learning experience and a steppingstone to the next experience. Everything builds upon everything else. While experiences may seem very disjointed and disparate, they are more alike and connected than you might think. Lessons learned in one industry can translate wonderfully to an entirely different industry.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I’m fortunate to be surrounded by a great support system, both professionally and personally. I like to call them my personal board of directors. We all need people to fill in the blanks, so to speak, and help us see our blind spots. Put another way, it’s wise to know what you don’t know. In fact, there is a biblical proverb that says, “Plans fail when there is no counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.” And that’s a principle I put into practice both in my personal life and with Curate Capital.

In terms of a specific person who has played a pivotal role in my life, allow me to share a story… About a year ago, I was at a groundbreaking event for a new building at The University of Texas at Austin. The president of the university was hosting a reception for various alumni and donors. As I was chatting with the president, a gentleman whom I did not recognize approached me. He said, “You don’t recognize me, do you?” And I had to admit that I did not in fact immediately know who this was.

He then proceeded to introduce himself as Mike Riley — someone I knew from my hometown but hadn’t seen in 20+ years! All of a sudden, I was overcome with emotion.

You see, I am from a small town in the Texas Panhandle called Perryton. My parents didn’t graduate from college. But thankfully, a few people in my hometown took me under their wings, so to speak. One person in particular who did this was Mike Riley. He was the only engineer I knew at the time. Indeed, I think he was the only petroleum engineer in our small town. And I distinctly remember sitting across from his desk while he slid a brochure my way, encouraging me to checkout petroleum engineering at UT. He took it a step further and even made a phone call to the university recommending me for admission and scholarships.

When I recently encountered him, I was struck by the profundity of that encounter so many years ago. While I no longer am a practicing engineer, nevertheless, studying engineering completely led me to where I am today! If I hadn’t studied petroleum engineering, I wouldn’t have gone to work for the entrepreneurial-minded oil and gas company. And if I hadn’t worked at Hilcorp, I wouldn’t have learned the entrepreneurial lessons nor created the personal wealth to take my next step — investing in female founders. Every step led to the next step.

So, as I stood before Mike Riley, I had quite a full-circle moment, realizing how much the course of my life had been so profoundly impacted by his investing in me.

For me, the takeaway from that encounter is to never underestimate the power of seemingly small actions.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I’m a voracious reader of business books! So many have influenced my business philosophies and added to my business toolkit, so to speak. But one book in particular that created an “aha moment” for me was Strengths Based Leadership. In my corporate experience, I had encountered way too many managers focused on employees’ weaknesses. They were intent on “fixing” deficiencies, rather than focusing on strengths.

So, when I discovered this codified system of identifying and focusing on strengths, I was blown away.

I believe the pinnacle of productivity is found at the intersection of doing what you enjoy and doing what you’re good at. For myself, for our venture capital fund, for our portfolio companies, I’m constantly asking: “Are we giving people the opportunity to do what they’re best at every day?”

Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle”

It sounds simple and almost trite, but it’s so true. If 2020 taught us anything, it’s to practice more empathy towards one another. I think women in general have always excelled at this, and the pandemic has made it more broadly acceptable to practice empathy, kindness, and vulnerability in the workplace.

Personally speaking, I remember back in 2017, I was getting ready to launch a new business, a new brand, and a new website. Besides that, I had just given birth to my first baby. As we were approaching launch date, tempers flared between a consultant and me. That consultant had been a longtime friend. I was very taken aback by his words and actions — as he probably was with mine as well!

It was about a year and a half later when he approached me to catch up with one another. When we got together, he shared with me that he was going through a very rough period personally when we had been working together. I had had no idea what he was going through! He proceeded to apologize, as did I. Thankfully, our friendship survived, as did our professional relationship. But that underscored for me how we never know what someone else is experiencing.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

The entire premise of what I’m doing these days centers on paying it forward. It brings me immense joy to invest capital and time into this young generation of female founders. Mentoring and advising them by sharing the lessons I’ve learned over the years is quite fulfilling.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

Experiencing That 20% number actually takes into account all companies that even have a single female founder. Many of those have male founders as well. When you look at companies solely female founded, that number is abysmally low at less than 3%!

Certainly, that number is appalling. But I’d like to posit that you’re asking the wrong question. The problem isn’t a lack of female founders. Females found upwards of 40 percent of all businesses in the US. In fact, women are one of the fastest growing groups of entrepreneurs in the country!

Rather, the problem is a shortage of female investors. Women want and need investors who innately understand them, their businesses, and their customers. Let’s face it: we all have biases in our decision making, whether we realize it or not. For instance, we inherently have an affinity bias. That is, we gravitate toward people who are similar to us in appearance, beliefs, interests, background, and so on and so forth.

So, in order to attack the female funding problem, we have to back up another step and identify the real problem: a lack of female investors. How do we fix that? I suggest a two-pronged approach.

First, we need more female check writers. According to Harvard Business Review in October 2019, “If you don’t have a female check writer on your team, you are missing out ono valuable perspective as well as valuable deal flow.” We need more women making investment decisions. This goes beyond a token seat at the table; this involves taking over some tables! Afterall, women control 80% of consumer spending, so doesn’t it make reasonable sense that female investors and entrepreneurs would best understand that customer demographic?

Second, we must educate our male counterparts on this investment opportunity. As they say, money is power. And if men control the majority of investment dollars in the established investment community, we must somehow transfer that wealth. And how do we best do that? Well, I believe that the best way is not by preaching to them about how horrid the funding gap is for women — even though it is horrid. Rather, we must make a compelling business case.

Good news: the business case for female founders is strong! A recent study by Boston Consulting Group showed that for every dollar of investment raised, female founded companies generated 78 cents of revenue while their male counterparts generated only 31 cents.

In fact, today we are living in what I call an opportunity arbitrage.

Women are delivering above average results while having less access to capital. So, from an investing standpoint, anytime an arbitrage exists, one should take advantage of it before it eventually disappears.

As a side note: when I’m trying to convince an LP to invest with us, it’s often a case of telling them to trust me. And by that, I mean this: These investment opportunities may not look like what you’re used to seeing. You may not understand the value proposition of the products and the company. But trust me — I do! I understand the founder, I understand the business, and I understand the customer — because, essentially, I am her.

Can you share with our readers what your firm is doing to help empower women to become founders?

Again, I contend that the problem is not a dearth of female founders. The pipeline is packed full of female founders. Often times, though, for a number of reasons, these investment opportunities just aren’t visible to traditional investment firms. Women’s access to capital is generally limited.

So, when we connect with female founders, it’s often a breath of fresh air to them. Finally, they have someone who can relate to them — someone who understands their plight, understands their challenges, understands their unique strengths, and understands how to help them succeed.

I implore women to remember that all money is not created equal. Sometimes, women are told (albeit indirectly) to just be grateful for any money they can raise. However, it’s important to raise the right money. You should be getting more than just money. You want an investment partner who will also lend her expertise, her experience, her network and more with you.

And that’s exactly what we endeavor to do at Curate Capital each and every day. We intentionally limit the number of companies in which we invest with each fund, as we want to have the capacity to be involved with each and every company. We want to stand at the ready to contribute and add value alongside the founder and her team. Truly, it’s a case of “better together” when we invest in a company.

This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

First and foremost, since women control over 80% of consumer spending in the US, it only makes good business and logical sense for women to found businesses that cater to those women.

From a broader perspective, here are five key strengths women bring to the table:

1. Women are great communicators.
2. Women are less ego driven.
3. Women are more relationally driven.
4. Women embrace empathy and vulnerability more readily.
5. Women are skilled multi-taskers.

Truly, the rise of the female economy (driven by female founders and female investors) is going to be one of the top contributors to transforming the economy. I rank it right up there with the impact of technology.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. Can you please share 5 things that can be done or should be done to help empower more women to become founders? If you can, please share an example or story for each.

Given my belief that what we really need is more female investors, I’ll tweak this question a little bit. I’ll answer in terms of how we can generally empower women more in business.

5 practical tips for empowering women in business:

1. Be a mentor. Whether formally or informally, one-on-one or in a group setting, share yourself with another. Share your story, share your struggles, share your celebrations. Women need to see and hear from someone to whom they can relate. Don’t be afraid to share yourself — flaws and all!
2. Be a cheerleader. Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely path. Plus, it can be a rollercoaster of a journey — the highest highs and the lowest lows! If you see someone struggling, cheer them on. Encourage them to keep going. Tell them not to give up.
3. Be a coach. In the right circumstance, give constructive feedback. Sometimes, we don’t know what we don’t know. And sometimes we are so deep in the forest that we can’t see the trees. Furthermore, sometimes we are too emotionally involved with our business to see things as they really are. In times like these, a little bit of well-worded correction can go a long way. We must not be afraid to have hard conversations.
4. Be a connector. We’ve all heard of the old boys’ club. Well, it’s about time we create the new girls’ club! I say that somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Obviously, I am not advocating for cronyism. But I am advocating for us to use our connections for the benefit of those around us.
5. Be an investor. At the risk of sounding cliché, “put your money where your mouth is!” While investing in venture capital has traditionally required a significant level of investment, I predict that minimum investment level to shrink to allow more people to buy into the equity investment game. In fact, I think we will see more and more crowdsourcing for equity funds.

And besides being a literal investor in female entrepreneurs and female-led VC funds, you can also invest indirectly by consciously choosing how you spend your hard-earned dollars. Is the company female-founded? Do they have a “do good” / social impact component to their business? Are they sustainable and environmentally friendly? Do they give back to the community? Do they have a diverse leadership team and board of directors? Every dollar you spend is essentially a vote, and you get to pick which companies you support with your vote aka dollars.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Great question! At this point in life, I am a passionate cheerleader for female founders. Investing in women isn’t charity; we aren’t doing this simply because it’s the politically correct thing to do. No! It goes much deeper than that. I am advocating for and investing in women-led companies because they are the best investment opportunities I’ve found to date. These women are trailblazing women disrupting the status quo in profoundly powerful ways and delivering prolific results. And we at Curate Capital think that’s something to smile about!

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.

Oh, I’d want to have an entire dinner party! The invitation list would be far too long to list here. Suffice it to say that it would include a host of female founders, female investors, business leaders, and other women making a difference in the world. There’s power in breaking bread together and sharing our stories.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.