Pitching for Your First Check? Here are Five Brilliant Women Investors You Should Know
Early investors are rare, ones who add value even rarer.
I wrote this piece to celebrate the fact that more and more women are pitching LPs, starting funds, and writing checks. In an age where the gender imbalance in VC (and technology more broadly) is finally coming into the spotlight, it’s a breath of fresh air.
I absolutely hated fundraising when I was a founder. I don’t think I’m supposed to admit that as an investor! But it may make me better in my current role, because I know that the process is imperfect and far from transparent.
It can be challenging to find investors you click with, who can add value to your business, who believe in you, and who won’t do any of the terrible things you’ve heard whispered about by other CEOs.
On top of all that, they have to want to write you your first check, which is priceless: that alone can get you started, fund your first hires, and ultimately help you raise more money.
In other words, getting the right early investors can make or break your company.
Below are five prodigiously talented female investors who we love to collaborate with at Founder Collective, and who you should reach out to. All are savvy, long-time operators with a track record of finding and supporting high-growth companies, from IoT to media to enterprise SaaS. Several have worked with literally hundreds of startups over time, and all are legendary in their ecosystems. As I watch them racking up their track records, I strongly feel we should be celebrating their brilliance further — hence the need for this post.
Read more to see why I am so confident you will want them in your corner (and on your cap table):
Jenny Fielding (NYC): founder, managing director at TechStars, started Eclectic Fund this year
I met Jenny two summers ago when she was running the TechStars IoT accelerator in NYC, and nothing got me more excited than learning she had raised a fund and was starting to invest directly into teams she is passionate about.
- Areas of personal focus: Jenny invests broadly across tech verticals in super early stage founders. In her words: “I’m happy to be the first and only check or part of a larger round. I typically write $50–150k checks. Some areas that I pay particular attention to: Frontier tech, Fintech, IoT, Wellness.”
- Best way for people to reach her: “Through an introduction or contact me on Linkedin, I’m easy to get to.”
- One thing for founders to know: “I invest in people — not deals — and founders should know that when pitching me.”
Soraya Darabi (NYC): founder, marketing and branding thought leader, co-founded Trailmix.vc last year
I’ve known Soraya for almost ten years since we met at the NY Times, and she has always had her finger on the pulse of cutting edge brands and is a tireless advocate for founding teams. Her rolodex is unparalleled and she’s not afraid to wield it on behalf of her teams.
- Areas of personal focus: Soraya invests in frontier health and wellness brands, marketplaces and in the future of work. She has backed Casper, The Wing, Parsley Health and Hungryroot. Her checks range from $100K to $1M, and she likes to be the first call for any founder. As former founders themselves — as are the partners at Trail Mix Ventures — more value is placed on genuine value alignment than anything else during due diligence.
- Best way for people to reach her: “Email me soraya@trailmix.vc directly.”
- One thing for founders to know: “Design differentiation gives a brand the ability to build unique and lasting relationships with users.”
Nimi Katragadda (NYC): Xoogler, Forbes 30 under 30, partner at Box Group in NYC
Nimi and her team are one of our first calls to collaborate with our fund. Founders across the NYC startup community value her sharp insights especially on early go-to-market questions.
- Areas of personal focus: Nimi invests in early stage technology companies (notably healthcare/life sciences, financial tech, marketplaces, and brands.) “We’re generalist as a fund though, so we’re excited to dive into most areas. For pre-seed deals specifically, our check size can range ~$200k-500k.”
- Best way for people to reach her: “nimi@boxgroup.com and ideally share deck with more info.”
- One thing for founders to know: “I think it’s my job as an early stage investor to get to know founders as people — their values, how they’ll make decisions 5 years from now, the kind of culture they want to build — but I also deeply appreciate that the relationship begins post-investment.”
Nicole Stata (Boston): general partner and cofounder of Boston Seed Capital
Nicole is legendary in the Boston area for founding and leading Deploy Solutions (acquired by Kronos), as well as her commitment to early stage startups.
- Areas of personal focus: Software improving home and work and curious about the blockchain. Nicole may invest $250k-$1.5M as a first check into a company she is investing in.
- Best way for people to reach her: “Email! Nstata@bostonseed.com”
- One thing for founders to know: “I may like stuff from the Jetsons :)”
Elizabeth Yin (Bay Area): founder, ran 500 Startups Mountain View accelerator until 2017, when she founded Hustle Fund
Elizabeth and I were in grad school concurrently, and I remember her speaking and blogging about hacking acquisition for startups. Now, she’s doing it on a much more massive scale. Having reviewed over 20,000 deals with her fund partner Eric Bahn as VCs, she brings great experience to the table. I particularly admire her focus in finding teams who execute regardless of what their resumes and/or past qualifications look like!
- Areas of personal focus: Software / software-enabled generalists. In her words: “That being said, we don’t do “pure consumer” (ad-based monetization), and we aren’t likely going to do any ecommerce nor gaming.”
- Best way for people to reach her: “To submit a deal, we process all deals through hustlefund.vc to make sure we don’t drop anything through the cracks. Looking at deals aside, always happy to give advice on fundraising (shameless plug for my blog and newsletter at blog.elizabethyin.com!)”
- One thing for founders to know: “I’m a former entrepreneur and have been in their shoes. As a result, I really try to give everyone my candid thoughts / direct feedback / transparency, because entrepreneurs don’t have time to get the runaround from VCs as they often do.”
Is it hard to get in front of value-adding investors? Let me know in the comments and follow me to read more of my advice on fundraising and startup strategy.
— -
My other articles on fundraising:
This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by 318,983+ people.
Subscribe to receive our top stories here.
