Lessons Learned from the Best of the Best

Like all little sisters, I always wanted to do everything my older brother would do. When my brother played football with my dad outside the garage, I would always join (I have a pretty good spiral now). When my brother did Speech and Debate, I wanted to do Speech and Debate. My brother has always been super smart and successful and I wanted no less.

In our family, I never felt discouraged from pursuing anything my brother had pursued. It didn’t matter that he was a boy, I expected as much excellence from myself. Why should it have been any different in the real world? I was shocked to find that same expectation was not found everywhere else. I had always been interested in businesses — namely in the creation and growth of them. Entrepreneurship and venture capital fascinated me! But everywhere I looked — nary a woman in sight. I was stumped. Why? A difference in gender isn’t a difference in intelligence and capability. There was nothing about me or any woman that biologically inhibited them from doing just as good of a job. So, why were there so few women when the only difference between women and men was just that — their gender? I needed to answer this question for myself and for other young women interested in pursuing a career in venture capital.

I wrote Women in Venture Capital: How to Break into the Boys Club of Venture Capital: Lessons Learned from the Best of the Best to understand why this discrepancy exists and how I can beat the odds to do what I have always wanted to do. I did research by talking to the women who have made it into the industry and learning what they have done to get to where they are and how they overcame the gap in representation. In Women in Venture Capital, I break down the lessons I’ve learned from these successful general partners and managing directors into actionable takeaways for the reader.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing tidbits from my book and expanding upon some of the themes within the book. My book, Women in Venture Capital is launching on Amazon on November 28, 2018. If you’d like to be the first to get a copy you can preorder it on Amazon here. If you’d like to join me in this discussion, please feel free to email me at kjc83@georgetown.edu or connect with me on LinkedIn.