Meet Heidi, Investment Manager — Using her founder experience to find and build successful companies.
We are continuing the Meet the Team article by introducing you to Heidi Lee — Investment Manager at Dreamcraft. As a former founder, Heidi has hands-on experience with the challenges founders face. She’s also an explorer of the world and is always on the lookout for great opportunities. If that sparks your interest, keep on reading.
Already at a young age, Heidi was on the lookout for great opportunities that would progress her way of thinking and skillset. She was born and raised in New Zealand, but she always had an eye for the larger world. When the time came to study, she was lucky enough to chase bigger opportunities and go to The Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania. This was a life-changing experience for her.
“I really believe education democratizes opportunities. I’m lucky enough to be a part of a global community and have friends around the world that I have studied with.”
After graduating, Heidi gained great, professional experience at Morgan Stanley in New York and Perella Weinberg Partners in San Francisco, working on M&A deals with transaction values of $5B
“Being a part of the ecosystem in the Bay Area and the States was a huge experience. I had the chance to work on incredible deals for the number 1 skincare brand in the U.S., health tech companies, fast-growing startups, and Fortune 500 companies. I saw firsthand that money is extremely powerful, and as an investor, I want to use that money for good.”
After 6 years in the States, Heidi felt that it was time to look for her next opportunity, and she wanted a change of scenery. During her studies, she had done a semester exchange in Copenhagen and fell in love with the quality of life, innovation, and values of Denmark and the Danish people. So, that was what she wanted to explore closer. With her growing passion for making positive change, she applied and got a scholarship for a Masters in Organisation Innovation & Entrepreneurship at CBS. That turned out to be a great fit for her next project.
During the pandemic, Heidi and her roommate, and fellow classmate, spent much of their time having conversations about the difficulties they felt in investing their money ethically. Also, they felt the frustration from the unequal ownership of stocks — 90% of stocks belong to 10% of the wealthiest, and majority men.
So what did they do? They decided to fix the problem themselves and created the startup Finuprise, an impact investing platform for ordinary people. Money talks, so let’s be loud!
“As co-founder and CEO, I wore many hats, but my most enjoyable was heading the sustainability team and choosing our ESG partner, growing the team from 2 to 8, while maintaining strong team culture, and fundraising. I’m so proud of where we’ve come. But after 2 years, I decided I wanted to do something else. The company still lives on with my cofounder leading the next part of Finuprise’s journey”
From her time as a startup founder and operator, Heidi saw firsthand that many founders face the same challenges in the ecosystem. Whether it be fundraising, pivoting, or validating the elusive product-market fit. So, in order to work with the best founders and solve the biggest challenges, she decided to become an investor.
“After I stopped at Finuprise, I started actively advising climate tech startups and from countless conversations, I realized I get a lot of energy from helping motivated mission-driven founders solve impactful problems. At the end of the day, what is important is people.”
To Heidi, the best investor is transparent, motivated to help founders, and is a mix between a dreamer and a skilled craftsperson.
“My values directly lined up with what I saw at Dreamcraft, which is why I was so happy to join the Dreamcraft family.”
At Dreamcraft, Heidi is part of the Investment Team. Her areas of interest are FinTech, the circular economy, and sustainability, but she is open-minded and, therefore, always on the lookout for talented founders with great passion and motivation for building successful companies.
If you wish to get in touch with Heidi, you can reach her at heidi@dreamcraft.vc or connect with her on LinkedIn.
Meet more of the Dreamcraft team here:
