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LA Catalyst Hosts Angel Investing Roundtable

LA Catalyst — “LA CAT” for short — will host a May 24 roundtable on the subject of angel investing.

The meeting will run from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will be held in Briefing Room below the Apple Store on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica.

Angel investing is a hot topic in Silicon Beach — and just about everywhere, really — as the entrepreneurial boom continues unabated.

The Apple Store Briefing Room offers a big electronic board for presentations, a big table and several chairs.  Nibbles, water and soft drinks are available.

But the room isn’t that big, and organizers urge those who want to attend to sign up quickly.  Those who wish to go should sign up here.

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Men and women discussed gender inequality at a recent LA Catalyst meeting.  Runa Bouius is in the middle.

At the last LA Catalyst meeting, discussion leaders tackled the issue of gender inequality in the tech space.

Roundtable panelists included Alyse Killeen, Kevin Lew, Mari Bower, Nancy Pearlman, Rob Kornegay and Tracey Freed.

Statistics provided on the big electronic board showed that companies with females in the management team often do better than all-male teams; additional statistics indicated female-led startups are less likely to get funded than all-male teams.

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Female entrepreneurs discussed their personal strategies for navigating a male-dominated field

Speakers explored many possible reasons for this seeming paradox: upbringing; education; lack of mentoring; men feeling threatened by strong female leaders; female insecurities related to asserting themselves; and women choosing to start businesses that target women (and that male investors don’t appreciate or understand)

According to some in the room, things are changing.  Rob Kornegay of Wilson Sonsini (a law firm that specializes in the tech space) said a perfectly well-qualified colleague in the firm didn’t make partner several years ago and she eventually left.

Today the firm has female partners.

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Rob Kornegay of Wilson Sonsini lamented the fate of an female colleague who didn’t make partner several years back. Things are changing for the better, he said.

Tracey Freed, another attorney in the entertainment field, said she had an excellent working relationship with a male mentor early in her career.

Colleagues at the time snarkily suggested she received favoritism from the boss because she was “pretty.”

Flavia Sparacino, who got her PhD from MIT, said early in her professional career, she had a hard time gaining credibility among decision makers in big companies for her firm, which specialized in user experience.  This was despite her MIT DNA and long track record of inventions.
So she showed up one day at an important business meeting in her motorcycle leathers and plunked her helmet down loudly in the middle of the table.
THAT got their attention — and established her “strong” credentials. From that moment on black leathers became her signature suit at important business meetings.
Flavia continued to research creative solutions to win over those who might have unconscious prejudices about women in the workforce.
At MIT she found the best way to make friends and learn from senior male colleagues was to show up at late-night work sessions with home-made tiramisu.
Peter Mansfield of CMO.la said that in his experience “alpha males tend to get their deals funded.”  But, he added, “women who act like alpha males tend to freak out older white guys.”
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Peter Mansfield knows what causes older white guys to “freak out.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This led to an interesting conversation, moderated by Sonya Sepahban and Leslie Huynh, about the various hypotheses  surrounding why women are underrepresented in the start-up ecosystem, and real-time discussion of actionable solutions.

Several proactive recommendations were proposed by the panelists: get more women involved in investing; educate the investing community about real data (women-led businesses often do well); promote successful role models; offer tax incentives and policies that encourage investing in women-led businesses; increase mentorship and peer networking; broaden female founder networks; and “get creative” (think “tiramisu”).

Perhaps the most important piece of advice: “Be yourself.”

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