Noramay Cadena_E4: Equity, Access, and Others [4/27/2020]
Noramay Cadena, GP at MiLA Capital in L.A
Note: References with links are listed at the end of the show notes.
INTRO:
“When we work with founders, we ask them not only: what does success look like for the company, but also, what does success look like for you personally?”
1:30 Shares teams passion for hardware, the accelerator, and their investments in “Tech you can touch”: ( Food / AgTech / Automation / Aerospace / ClimateTech / HealthTech )
2:20 How MiLA thinks about impact in a variety of ways. About 33% of portfolio company CEOs are women, and how over 50% of Founders they’ve backed are immigrants. Their own LP base is diverse. The team is looking at impact from the full value stream of investing.
3:00 Stages invested in are PreSeed / Seed stage between $75K to $150K.
3:15 Shares her entry into venture via the corporate world.
3:30 For Noramay, venture capital is the intersection of tech, innovation, and opportunity. Shares her love for venture, and the desire to help people build their dreams.
4:45 MiLA is bringing access the fund, via smaller buy in ticket sizes for those adding high value, and through strong outbound recruitment of new Founders.
SECTION1: Goals and Talking for Opportunity
7:00 Difficulties of current COVID19 stay-at-home, and investor focus on helping portfolio companies. Unpacks open-trust relationships, and how to find ways to support.
8:00 Highlights the need to help people, and how it can help reduce imposter syndrome, and builds relationships within portfolio companies.
8:30 Gives example of difficulty with an example hardware company, which was facing manufacturing issues. Discusses parts-shortage, and raw material constraints related to the supply chain.
11:00 Finding community in the work, and synergy with CEOs. Talks about taking a back seat, and being humble in communication, and helping to pull people together.
12:45 Discusses role of extroversion via fun viral meme example “Introverts please check in on your extroverted friends, they are not okay.” :]
14:00 Discuss positive impact intersection important to her. At the center is equity, access, and lifting others. Shares how MiLA is lifting Founders, and the responsibility to coach, creating internship opportunities, and progressive family leave policies, or simply helping others get funded.
SECTION2: Purpose in the Value Stream
17:00 Shares insights from her experience as an operator at Boeing, and Leaders for Global Operations Masters at MIT.
17:30 Highlights experience with value stream concept, to working as a VC. Shares an importance for causal impacts in value.
18:59 Shares how mission can be structured for new companies. How creating a new category, can be the purpose, and extend it into their own value stream. Uses driving economic development, as an example of how Founders can expand on their impact focus.
20:40 Positive networks on fund manager side; shares her work with a community of women VCs. (See Portfolia link below)
SECTION3: Traction without Conformity
22:15 How Founders in hardware can find the right investors. Laughs at view of bias: “I don’t invest in hardware”, and continues with a reframing. Uses example of low probability of reaching out purely as a hardware play, but rather reframe to ClimateTech with message of “I want to rid the world of diesel”, create a hook or synergy with investor to increase likelihood of a reply.
24:00 Delves into the sharing of value set, with emphasis on trust and relationship building. And follows up with shifting of mindset to a more personal note, to build relationships.
25:50 Red flags when open to hardware; shares example of early stage company who wasn’t prepared to dive into their situation in the pitch. How being underprepared on the mechanics of execution can hurt efforts in fundraising.
28:22 The importance of friendship to her, in building a long term relationship. Goodwill is a two-way street, and requires mutual engagement.
SOURCES:
-Noramay on Twitter www.twitter.com/noramayc
-Noramay Cadena — One Woman’s Journey from Pacoima to Startup Investor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ouJSxF5NzU
-MiLA Capital www.mila.vc
-Emerge www.emergenow.io
-Thesis www.thesiscouture.com
-Pathspot www.pathspottech.com
-Portfolia https://www.portfolia.co/
-Boeing www.boeing.com
-MIT Leaders for Global Operations program https://lgo.mit.edu/
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Song Credit: The Croft — By Joakim Karud
[ No Copyright on Music and Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 ]
