Meet Some of the Female Tech Leaders in the Inovia Community

International Women’s Day is an astounding 108 years old this year, and yet the power and purpose of the day seems more clear and more important than ever. With a year capped by #MeToo, coming so soon after #ImWithHer, #IAmANastyWoman, #HeForShe, #WhyIStayed, #YesAllWomen — and of course, the un-deletable and forever Google-able #BindersFullOfWomen — we’ve felt joy and solidarity in building online communities that push boundaries and question the status quo. As entrepreneurs and innovators, we’re basically all-in on efforts that challenge patterns which have gone unexamined for too long.

These online movements can be exciting to rally around, but we also felt they have the potential to distract from the incredible personal connections and significant achievements that women bring to the workplace — and specifically the tech workplace — every day. In our role as investors, we work with tenacious, high achievers from diverse backgrounds, and we don’t want their stories to be lost behind a hashtag; we want to foster meaningful conversation, community, and connection for all.

And so to that end, we have gathered stories from just a few of the many female leaders from our community, and shared them on our website here [2019 note: this page is no longer available on our site]. Below is a brief overview of the founders, CEOs, VPs, and team members we have featured this year. If you click through to the site, you’ll see photos and comments from them on their backgrounds, passions, beliefs, and goals. Congrats and thank you to all for sharing your reflections! We look forward to continuing to work with you and all the women in our community to transform the role of women in the space, and to create great companies.

We also want to acknowledge the special, extra effort that women necessarily bring to the table as mothers balancing career and family, even as they work to meet the demands of a venture-backed startup.

One special story that stands out is from Bonnie Powell, Director of People at one of our newest investments, Bench Accounting. Bonnie’s young daughter Ava had a heart condition that required difficult surgery and recovery. Her story has been captured online here, and it’s well worth a read. It inspires us to remember what really matters, and how staying connected in community is a big part of getting through the toughest days.

As we’ve said before, our community is one of our greatest assets, and we believe that you’ll see why as you browse the profiles on our site. We also would like to underscore that we want our community to grow — and so we wanted to take a moment to re-share the newly launched Inovia Empower initiative.

Inovia Empower is intended to help founders from diverse backgrounds (not only women) to make sure they know our door is always open. We are looking for individuals who have an understanding of the fundraising process, have a few successes to report, and who are looking for ways to build and strengthen their own bench in order to grow their business. Read more about it here, get your pitch materials together, and then complete our online intake form here. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Thank you for joining us in celebrating these women today and every day.

Operations

Amanda Levin, COO, LocalLogic

Camille Pfeiffer, Operations Analyst, Inovia

Cherry Miao, VP of Data and Analytics, Lightspeed

Emily Key, VP Operations, Bench Accounting

Julie Lacasse, VP Operations, TrackTik

Katherine Berry, CPO and Co-Founder, Allocadia

Kerry Bianchi, President & CEO, Visto

Kristine Steuart, CEO and Co-Founder, Allocadia

Magaly Charbonneau, Principal, Inovia

Nina Sodhi, COO, Spatial

Sarah Marion, Senior Analyst, Inovia

Finance

Alison Forrest, VP, Revenue, Chatkit

Asha Bakshani, VP Finance, Lightspeed

Michelle Rogers, VP Finance, Two Hat Security

Samantha Bannister, VP Finance, Allocadia

Tiffany Hsiao, VP Finance, Rubikloud

HR

Bonnie Powell, Director, People, Bench Accounting

Chelsea Finnemore, VP of Human Resources, Lightspeed

Lisa Brown, VP Talent, Vidyard

Manon Frayssinet, Head of People & Culture, Busbud

Melissa Friday, People & Culture Lead, Smooch

Michelle Robertson, Senior Director — Talent, Tracktik

Salima Ladha, Head of Talent and People, Inovia

Marketing

Alyssa Atkins, CP Marketing, Careguide

Andrea Masterton, VP Marketing, Poka

Melissa Mecca, Head of Communications & Community, Inovia

Sales & Customer Success

Annette Iafrate, VP of Alliances and Partners, Vidyard

Denise Nahas, VP Customer Support, Lightspeed

Jacquie Dwyer, VP, NA Enterprise Sales & APAC, Top Hat

Jocelyn Brown, VP Customer Success, Allocadia

Michelle Audas, Director, Customer Success, Swept

Monica Jonas, SVP, Strategic Services, Workfusion