or new customers, or new users.
We'll figure out with each company as they're onboarded what are the key metrics
that actually start to build up to some semblance of what success could look like.
In the early days there was not much going on, so anything is positive.
Assuming it's moving forward.
But over time we start to realize okay well,
if this is a business that requires marketplace dynamics.
Well then who's a buyer, who's a seller?
Are the buyers becoming sellers?
Okay, then how much are they buying?
So you start thinking about what numbers really help support a view.
And I think what's fun for us is, in a world where people are talking a lot about
heightened valuations and mark downs and all this stuff.
We look at our portfolio and we say, we avoided the crazy mark up situation,
and we feel really confident that the valuation that
our companies have are warranted.
But one statistic we actually pulled for our own pitch stack was that our portfolio
has $900 million, almost $1 billion of revenue.
>> Wow. >> Just companies in our portfolio.
>> That's actual revenue.
>> Actual revenue.
And I think that's really notable.
So we work really hard to to invest in companies that have real business models.
>> Yeah. >> And are really sort of offering to
the consumer, whoever the consumer is,
I think that's a little different than maybe audience faced businesses.
Or things that are a little bit more intangible and
take a long time to figure out what the monetization would be.
>> Right. I have a lot of you people tell me they
want to be venture confidence, and you probably hear that yourself.
But tell us a little bit about how you got into the business and
what advice you'd give to someone.
>> Sure. I think it's such a serendipitous path for
a lot of people.
There's a handful of folks who can just go the finance route, or banker, or
it was in school.
You came out and you went to a big firm, and that's great.
But more and more I think Venture capitals about what your unique perspective is,
what you have to the table that might attract the founder.
And honestly founders have so much diversity.
So I connect with you as a partner, I'm more likely to come to you for
investment capital.
If it's somebody that I feel, like doesn't understand where I came from or
what I'm even trying to do, then no matter what fancy brand the firm is,
it's happening such that doesn't make as much of a difference to the founders.
So as a result, my quick background is,
I started off at management consulting at bay here in San Francisco.
It was the best starting point in a career that I could ever have.
You learn how to be a good business person, you learn how to be analytical,
you learn how to think about what is important for a business to be sound.
And at the time i was able to get into the retail practice pretty quickly,
I already had a passion for the consumer perspective and put up my hand and
said this is what I want to learn more about ,so managed to do that and I also.
>> Within Bane?
>> Within Bane, and we had several.
>> Were really large retail clients that were great brains in the market.
But really thinking, and this was a long time ago, so
they were thinking more like okay how do you generally grow?
What's the market expansion plan?
What's the cost reduction plan?
So general stuff.
And then private equity was pretty hot back then, and so
I got into a private equity group and was learning what investing looked like.
But really the consultants that supported those
Investments we're thinking about is this a good business?
What opportunity is there in the market and
what does this business think to look like to make it an attractive investment.
So it's a little bit more tactical.
But through that, I ended up moving over to a private equity firm that was consumer
retail specific.
So really tying the gap between investing and retail more closely,
and that was at Castanea partners which is a firm in Boston and
they really have an active management approach too.
So you invest in few companies but you spend a lot of time with the companies.
Really helping the founders, ultimately the family that ran the business or
the founder that ran the business think about how to scale.
So you've got a great.
Company, you're 20 million in revenue, you've got a few million in cashflow.
What do you want to do with it?
You want to grow it to, 50 stores, or do you stay at five stores?
And so those are all the foundation of just tactical skills that I learned, but
I always had a passion for entrepreneurship.
Wanted to start something.
Had a bunch of ideas.
But, it was always like, I think I need to learn this I think I need to learn that.
At a certain point I thought, I've learned a lot, I should probably just do it.
I don't know if I have the right idea but I could just get out there and do it.
At the time actually when I went to Wharton,
it was a time where I had an Idea, maybe didn't have quite
all the pieces aligned to just go out there myself and have a team.
I didn't know anything about the industry I was thinking about disrupting.
And so
Wharton was a great place where I took all these entrepreneurial management classes.
I was able to write my business plan, my financial model, my marketing strategy,
my consumer research all in classes at Wharton, which was so fun.
Actually thought of a bunch of ideas in your class but they didn't work.
[LAUGH] And I spent a lot of time watch Wharton entrepreneurial programs,
venture initiation programs.
>> Mm-hm.
>> Spent my summer launching the company.
So it really took my time at Wharton and threw it into starting a business.
And after that,
for family reasons, after graduation I had to come back to the bay area.
>> Yeah. >> And so it didn't make sense for
me to continue my business in New York.
>> Yeah. >> So I said, okay,
well, personal things always happen.
>> Sure. >> And you've got to be flexible, so
I said being here, they're an amazing team.
I love everything I've done there.
Why don't I go back, reinvigorate my network in the bay area.
Think about what ecommerce is looking right now, and
it was definitely percolating more and more.
And so I spent another two years back at bay doing exactly that.
And I think that was the best decision for me at the time,
because it actually got a sort of top level view of the way traditional
companies were thinking about the changes in the industry.
And then when I met Kirsten through a business school classmate of mine and
my cohort, she was really pulling together the thesis for
enough happening in the commerce space and technology being at this critical mass
that it was time that a firm could really focus on this space.
And so we met and there was nothing there.
A foreigner was one investor, Kirsten,
20 companies in her angel portfolio and no office.
>> Yeah.
>> And that in itself is like starting a start up company.
So I think my experience, because having done all these different things,
allowed me to say, I can leave this amazing company right before promotion,
leave all this money on the table and just try this thing.
And at worse, it'll be interesting.
It'll be a ride and I'll learn a lot.
So. >> Now that was how long ago?
>> It was in late 2011.
>> Wow. >> We started early, 2012,
so almost four years.
>> Yeah, yeah.
>> Time flies.
>> Yeah.
So if I go to the website, I click on about us.
I'll see five women.
Five lovely women by the way.
>> Thank you.
[LAUGH] >> [LAUGH] And five lovely women, is that,
let's forget the lovely part.
But is it accidental that it's five women?
