Linda J Porter-Cox: 5 Things I Need to See Before Making a VC or Angel Investment

An Interview With Kieran Powell

The nonprofit must be thinking long-term. I want to invest in an approach that leads to sustainable impact, i.e., “teaching people to fish” and giving them the skills to achieve on their own. I understand that handouts are critical during a crisis, but my style of philanthropy is about empowering people to live up to their own potential.

In the dynamic and fast-paced world of startups, venture capitalists and angel investors are at the forefront of innovation, deciding which ideas will shape our future. But what exactly are they looking for? What sparks the interest of these seasoned investors and convinces them to write the check that could catapult a startup to success? As part of this series we had the pleasure of interviewing Linda J. Porter-Cox, board member and fund development co-chair for iDE (International Development Enterprises).

Linda’s deep functional experience in strategic marketing, agile product and service innovation, brand building and customer development informs her input and guidance to iDE as a member of its board of directors. Her experience comes from a 17-year progressive and multi-functional career at Procter & Gamble, which included co-leading a global initiative to understand how best to serve low-income consumers in developing markets.

In 2004, she founded the AND group, a growth consultancy firm whose clients have included Medtronic, GHX (Global Healthcare Exchange), University of Colorado Health System, Millipore Sigma, Vail Resorts, HomeAdvisor (now Angi), TransUnion, Hedge Trackers, PepsiCo, Kellogg’s and numerous entrepreneurial endeavors. Today, Linda also serves as chief commercial officer for PotentiaMetrics, an emerging healthcare data and analytics company whose first commercial product, MyCancerJourney, provides advocacy services for people diagnosed with cancer.

A sought-after advisor and strategist, Linda is an inspiration and insights generator, growth designer, brand curator and agile change agent. She is deeply passionate about creating breakthroughs in thinking, solutions and commitment while building and sustaining prosperous results, competitive advantage and delighted stakeholders.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you please share with us the “backstory” behind what brought you to this specific career path?

I am wildly passionate about helping people in both their professional and personal lives to navigate complex situations that require making decisions that can dramatically change outcomes. Many times, this means helping people not only find their truth but also face head-on the truth of the situation, the market, their relationships and their resources.

I am the fourth of five children and my parents had a lot on their hands; they both worked in medicine and my sister Deborah, their third child, suffered brain damage at birth. As Deborah needed extra help and support, I was given a lot of responsibility at a young age. I faced a lot of adversity and learned to forge my own path. I became a master at being motivated by necessity and inventing creative solutions at every turn. There are many examples I can look back on and realize how they made me the fiercely independent, pioneering change-agent I am today and have been as I’ve navigated my life.

Throughout my childhood, college and early career, the peers, teachers, leaders and mentors I admired most were those who were intently focused on making the whole greater than the sum of its parts. I recognized early that my greatest accomplishments would be shared with other contributors and that great leaders were those who inspire others to be personally committed to achieving the stated goal. This learning helped me realize the importance of a clearly articulated goal, shared values and a healthy culture, as well as the significance of who we choose to surround ourselves with in every aspect of our lives.

I consider my investments at PotentiaMetrics and iDE as my legacy projects, as the sandboxes I have chosen to play in. PotentiaMetrics is systematically improving health equity and enabling person-centered care at very difficult times in a person’s life, and iDE is powering entrepreneurs to create prosperity in markets that have been underserved, delivering sustainable long-term solutions.

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?

Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I love the principle of “seek first to understand, then to be understood,” as empathy-building is truly a secret to success, as is “think win-win.” I often find myself working on the “win-win-win” in complex ecosystems. I also know that I feel most productive when I do the right thing the right way; conversely, I feel paralyzed when someone suggests or I find myself in a mode of doing the wrong thing or doing something the wrong way. I am super vigilant in letting others know I would never expect that of them and that I expect them to speak up if they ever feel that is what is being asked of them. Then, of course, there’s The 8th Habit, which focuses on finding your voice and helping others do the same. To me, this is the epitome of leveraging diversity. We all have such different life experiences and, of course, our experiences inform our judgment.

Let me share a simple story to illustrate that 8th habit. Back in the 90s, which really wasn’t that long ago, I was asked to join a leadership team for which I had not yet earned the level to be part of. It was all about ensuring that people of color and female voices were part of leadership discussions. The topics of the day were succession planning and near-term promotions. If I had not been in the room, the person who was most qualified for a specific promotion would not have been offered the position, because her male boss said, “Given her husband has just been promoted, she won’t be willing to relocate, which is required, so let’s move on to whoever is next on the list.” This leader’s intent was to not tell this woman about her preferred placement for the promotion. It was wrong on so many levels. Not telling her that she was promotion-ready and giving her the opportunity to accept or decline the promotion would mean that she and others wouldn’t understand why she wasn’t promoted and would allow nonproductive scripts to be created. Plus, the leader would have lost the opportunity to reinforce to her what a great job she was doing and his interest in retaining her. This isn’t what happened, of course, because I used my voice. I said, “What if the tables were turned and you were speaking of a man whose wife had just been promoted? Would you not offer the position to him? Would you simply move on to the next person on the list?” The answer was “Of course not” — so then why do that to a woman?

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

“You CAN have it all, just not all at once.” This proved insightful; it helped me to reframe work-life balance as pacing myself and committing to set my own expectations versus assuming those projected on me from others. I had my children in the 90s, when there were many men who were still not comfortable with women in positions of power, as well as many stay-at-home mothers who somehow thought we working women were “less than,” even though some of us, myself included, had husbands who contributed as stay-at-home fathers. That said, I am glad this idea of “you can have it all, just not all at once” was shared with me when my kids were young, as it helped me to be intentional in how I invested in my homelife to ensure I’d have positive long-term relationships with my spouse, children and friends.

Life is indeed a marathon, not a sprint! As one of my favorite bosses at P&G taught me, your future value will be based on your judgment, and your judgment will be based on your experiences. So take the road less traveled, be an early adopter, master new skills and put yourself in challenging situations, because it will all make you a better leader — one with really sound judgment who is sought after for their ability to break down barriers and make a real difference. Net-net: Use your time wisely and play the long game.

How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?

I’d say leadership is one part envisioning a future reality that is meaningful to stakeholders, one part architecting the path to achieving it, and two parts persuading and nurturing a team toward delivering it. Sometimes I think people in charge forget how important it is for employees to know what they’re working toward and how they personally are contributing to the bigger picture — and that that picture be something they believe in.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world, whether in your business or philanthropic endeavors?

At this stage of my life, I am a philanthropic investor deeply ingrained in the mission of the organizations I support. I see myself as an enterprise entrepreneur who creates prosperity for many. In other words, my philanthropic initiatives — as well as my business pursuits — are not solely focused on my prosperity; they are about the collective prospering. The collective includes all contributors, e.g., employees, vendors, investors and volunteers, as well as the enterprise’s clients or beneficiaries.

I am especially proud of my investment in PotentiaMetrics, an emerging company whose first commercial product, MyCancerJourney, provides advocacy services for people diagnosed with cancer. Their advocates are enabled by a one-of-a-kind data and analytics platform that provides insight into outcomes by treatment modality for “people like me,” i.e., same age, sex, ethnicity and health status, with the same cancer and stage. This information is invaluable in helping patients and their loved ones think through goals and preferences for treatment, make informed decisions and improve quality of life. Architecting and operationalizing their path to market as a standard of person-centered care is a fulfilling challenge.

I am equally proud of my investment in iDE. I believe in their mission, goals and leadership. I am delighted to have found a nonprofit with such rigorous approaches to envisioning a future reality that is meaningful to stakeholders, architecting the path to achieving it and nurturing a team and their clients toward achieving it. Ending global poverty is possible, and women entrepreneurs are the catalytic force iDE will further invest in for long-term sustainable prosperity.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main part of our discussion. Can you tell us the story of one of your most successful philanthropic investments and the top reasons why these investments were impactful? Please feel free to be as elaborate as you’d like.

As a dedicated board member and annual donor to iDE for six years, I am immensely proud to support an organization committed to ending global poverty. My contributions to iDE go beyond mere charity; they are investments in a brighter future for communities around the world. I often say that iDE provides a hand up, not a handout, empowering small-scale entrepreneurs such as farmers and toilet suppliers to foster prosperity in low-income areas.

One of the most rewarding aspects of my philanthropic work with iDE is fostering their market-based approach to ending poverty. This method deeply resonates with me as an entrepreneur and a business leader.

Through iDE, I’ve been fortunate to meet entrepreneurs around the world whose journeys from poverty to running successful micro-businesses have been truly uplifting. I am looking forward to joining other iDE supporters and partners in Ghana this October to learn more about the communities we work with and see the impact firsthand.

I’ve also had the opportunity to introduce iDE to my network, including The P&G Alumni Foundation. I’m thrilled to share that this connection led to The P&G Alumni Foundation awarding two grants to iDE to tackle the challenges faced by rural farmers in Nepal.

Nepal is an agricultural economy that is highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change because most people depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. Due in large part to its mountainous terrain, many communities in rural Nepal are cut off from essential resources and profitable markets.

Approximately 80% of Nepal’s population depends on agriculture, yet only 40% of farmers have access to quality fertilizers. iDE is helping to change that by training farmers to produce their own fertilizer. Early results show that the fertilizer is helping to increase farm productivity by 15%; and farmers are even able to sell excess fertilizer to their neighbors, creating another income stream.

The majority of the farmers iDE works with are women. However, restrictive social norms have kept many women from engaging in agricultural production and the traditional marketplace. As someone who is passionate about women’s empowerment, I am incredibly proud of the positive impact we are making through iDE.

​​As a legacy donor, my commitment to iDE extends beyond immediate contributions; it ensures a lasting impact that will empower future generations. iDE has reached more than 41 million people over its lifetime, and I feel a sense of confidence knowing that for every dollar I donate to iDE, their clients generate $14 in increased annual income (as a global average). As a businesswoman, I am especially drawn to these data points because assessing ROI and tracking financial growth is second nature to me. Through my legacy gift, I am helping to secure the long-term sustainability of iDE’s innovative programs. This enduring support allows iDE to continue transforming lives by fostering entrepreneurship, promoting self-sufficiency and breaking the cycle of poverty. Knowing that my legacy will help future farmers and entrepreneurs build prosperous, resilient communities long after my lifetime fills me with immense pride and satisfaction.

Can you share a story with us about a problem that one of your business clients encountered and how you helped to correct the problem? We’d love to hear the details and what its lesson was.

I’ll never tire of telling the stories of clients who want help bringing their concept or invention to market but have no real idea of specifically who would be willing to pay for the product or what they’d be willing to pay. Too many people become so enamored with how they can leverage new technology to do something totally novel that they forget to “start with the end in mind,” another Stephen Covey habit. This habit is based on the principle that all things are created twice, once in your mind and once in the physical world. The latter requires that you know who you aim to bring a solution into the market for, who you will design the concept to serve.

I’ve assisted these clients by helping them take a big step back and ask what the concept or invention solves for, what it fundamentally does, and then, what are its potential use cases. After that, what opportunity does it present, how would you measure the value of the use cases (critical to establishing a pricing strategy) and for whom, specifically? How meaningful would the derived value be, what would it be worth to the user in terms that matter to the user, to the entity or environment the user operates in and the actual buyer? Then, we must identify existing competition, barriers to entry, cost of entry, sales cycle, etc., all of which inform a prioritization process.

A deep understanding of the market you choose to serve and empathy for your customers is knowledge that should inform everything you do. Building this knowledge, synthesizing it in an actionable format and ensuring the client owns it as their own is the aim, as these are the foundations for envisioning a future reality and architecting the smartest path forward across product, marketing, sales and operations. This process supports human-centered design, peak productivity and the conviction that you are working on the right thing the right way for the right target.

What are your “5 Things I Need to See Before Making an Investment” and why?

As my main financial investments are now focused in the nonprofit world, here are my tips to making the most impactful decision as an investor.

1. The nonprofit partner must be accountable to creating the impact defined in their mission. This means a leadership team that relies on data-informed decision-making, an engaged board of directors, clear and compelling storytelling about how their impact is felt by beneficiaries, and a solid process for how it is measured by their staff utilizing trusted, proven, rigorous methods.

2. The nonprofit must be thinking long-term. I want to invest in an approach that leads to sustainable impact, i.e., “teaching people to fish” and giving them the skills to achieve on their own. I understand that handouts are critical during a crisis, but my style of philanthropy is about empowering people to live up to their own potential.

3. The nonprofit must have conviction about who they have chosen to serve. There should be clearly defined cohorts, and the organization must show they have the wherewithal to effectively serve them.

4. The organization must listen to the voices of their beneficiaries and understand the psychology behind behavior change. Human-centered design is one way to gain this understanding of how the people you’re trying to help think and feel. The best nonprofits I’ve worked with are agile and nimble because they are steeped in design theory.

5. The organization must invest in their leaders and staff. Whether they hire for talent or build talent, they must ensure that the mastery needed exists or is readily accessible to accomplish their goals. As I often say, “A great business strategy without a complementary organizational strategy is malpractice.”

A good example of all five of these principles is how iDE recently expanded their operations into Madagascar. This decision, driven by a recognition of the immense need, was both carefully researched and intentional. Madagascar, an island country to the east of Africa, faces chronic malnutrition, extreme weather events, high poverty rates and severe drought, all of which create a dire situation. The scale of need in this country is overwhelming.

Focusing on the fact that only one in ten people has access to basic sanitation and two-thirds of the rural population lack basic drinking water, iDE saw an opportunity to make an impact in alignment with their mission.

With determination and expertise, iDE’s team identified opportunities and barriers in the market. They developed a series of recommendations to facilitate a market-based approach to sanitation (“teaching people to fish”). The next step is investing in a local team with local experience and applying iDE’s human-centered design expertise to build empathy for all parties in the market system: the entrepreneurs, their partners and the end consumer.

As a board member, I see the conviction in the iDE leadership team that has chosen to serve this population. Their commitment to the Malagasy people is palpable. It is this level of dedication that will drive them to invest in their team, navigate the challenges ahead and make a measurable, lasting impact.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

If I could inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, I would create a movement that supports women in defining success on their own terms, finding their “happy place” at each life stage.

In my experience as a business leader and philanthropist, I’ve seen firsthand the transformative power of enabling women to chart their own paths. True equality and empowerment come from giving women the tools, opportunities and support to determine what success and happiness mean to them personally. This movement would focus on breaking down societal expectations and stereotypes that limit women’s potential, encouraging them to pursue their passions and ambitions without constraints and creating a collective of men and women working in partnership.

By fostering an environment where women can define their own success, we can address the diverse needs and aspirations of women from all walks of life. This approach not only promotes gender equality but also enhances the overall quality of life for everyone, as empowered women contribute exponentially to their communities, economies and societies.

This holistic approach ensures that women are not just striving for professional achievements but are also maintaining their health, happiness and personal fulfillment. This is essential for creating a more inclusive, fair and prosperous world for all.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might see this. :-)

I would love to have a private lunch with Queen Victoria, the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for 63 years and 216 days and the mother of nine.

As a business leader passionate about philanthropy and committed to advancing gender equality, I find Queen Victoria’s legacy profoundly inspiring. She ruled during a time when women’s roles were severely restricted, yet she became one of the most powerful and influential figures in history. Her reign saw significant social, economic and technological advancements, and she navigated the complexities of her position with strength and resilience.

Queen Victoria’s ability to lead a global empire while also being a devoted wife and mother offers valuable insights into balancing professional and personal responsibilities. Her influence extended beyond political boundaries, impacting cultural and social norms. I am particularly interested in discussing how she managed to assert her authority in a male-dominated society and how she viewed the progress and challenges women faced during her time.

Queen Victoria’s experiences and wisdom could provide unique insights into how we can further empower women to achieve leadership roles and make impactful contributions across all sectors of society.

This was really meaningful! Thank you so much for your time.