The post Startup Angel Robin Hood Ventures Temple University Ellen Weber Executive Director Show 036 Startup Entrepreneur Podcast Listenup Show first appeared on mitchellchadrow.com
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Startup Angel Robin Hood Ventures Temple University Ellen Weber Executive Director Listenup Show 036
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you’re listening to the listen up show
0:01
start-up entrepreneur podcast show 036
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today we’re talking with Robin Hood
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ventures executive director Ellen Webber
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she is also executive director at Temple
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University’s Fox School of Business
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Innovation and Entrepreneurship
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Institute friend it’s your business it’s
0:21
your family if you’re like let’s get
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started
Hey everybody
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Mitchell shadow here welcome to the
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by
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produced several times per week for your
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entertainment and show notes are found
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listen up show all the links are in the
1:41
show notes now let’s get into the show
1:43
what are we going to actually talk about
1:45
today well we’re going to talk to our
1:47
guest Ellen weber about how she helped
1:50
our dart off and the resources her
1:52
organization provide that she has had to
1:55
take to build great companies and what
1:57
drives her passion to innovate and what
1:59
are we going to see coming out of this
2:02
tri-state philadelphia area over the
2:04
next several years
2:05
Ellen how are you this evening
I’m great
2:09
thanks for having me on the show
2:11
well i gotta tell you it’s great to have
2:13
you on the show you know we have a ton
2:15
of information to get through that I
2:18
need to unpack so I want to cover it all
2:23
so let’s just jump right in how that
2:24
sound ok alright great
2:27
what’s the one thing that contributes
2:30
most to your success are you referring
2:36
to
2:36
Robin Hood success I think it’s the
2:38
depth and breadth of people in our group
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we have 50 people mostly serial
2:45
entrepreneurs who have you know really
2:49
seen a lot of different types of
2:51
companies and can can provide a lot of
2:54
help and support to the companies that
2:56
we invest in you know you’re involved in
2:58
a lot of different organizations here in
3:00
the tri-state area so arm that’s
3:04
certainly what contributes most i guess
3:06
to Robin Hood Ventures success but how
3:09
about Ellen Webber what what contributes
3:11
moving your success to my success I
3:15
think it’s a passion for growing
3:20
companies and growing the economy of the
3:23
of the region’s probably what drives me
3:25
more than anything
3:27
well you know I’ve already stated it and
3:30
you just did
3:31
obviously you’re very active in the
3:34
Philadelphia startup community and
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you’re also of course involved in many
3:38
organizations that we as we’ve just
3:40
stated so what are some of the recurring
3:43
themes that you’re experiencing as an
3:46
entrepreneur that you can summarize for
3:48
the benefit of the aspiring
3:50
entrepreneurs out there the current
3:52
startups who are obviously looking for
3:54
help and those who are looking for those
3:56
resources to help them not only start
3:59
off but grow and possibly even take
4:01
their business to the next level or you
4:04
know what it could even just be someone
4:06
who wants to get the experience as an
4:08
intern or find that first job in this
4:11
particular space
4:12
wow that’s a big question we trying to
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unpack that we’re going to unpack my
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question now we’re just going to try to
4:20
eat
4:21
ok so let’s start with the you know that
4:24
that the college student who was trying
4:27
to figure out how to get involved in the
4:29
entrepreneurial community there are a
4:32
number of ways of doing that and
4:34
actually this is true for anyone who
4:36
wants to put a toe in the water getting
4:37
to know the entrepreneurial community
4:39
first of all there’s an organization
4:40
called philly startup leaders and they
4:44
run event for you know people who want
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to lead technology companies and they
4:49
they run some excellent programs you can
4:52
read technically philly and that tells
4:55
you what’s going on in the tech and
4:57
entrepreneurial community and you can
4:59
also go to tech meetup in your in your
5:03
field of interest so I tell people start
5:06
by doing those things and finding out
5:08
what is of interest to them and they
5:11
start meeting people that are really
5:13
interesting and we’re going to have all
5:15
those show notes back at MitchellChadrow.com/show036 because
5:21
obviously the audience is really really
5:24
interested in all these resources on and
5:27
and so continued I’m sorry I apologize
5:29
sure and then uh so i can speak about
5:33
temple university in particular we
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really have a robust program that helps
5:38
students and think they want to become
5:41
entrepreneurs again put a toe in the
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water so we have a actually a course
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that all entrepreneur majors and any
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other students across the university can
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take where they are matched up with a
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start-up or an accelerator they do a
5:55
hundred our project that is supervised
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by they take a course supervise you buy
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a very experienced professor who’s used
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to working when startups and the startup
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company has to create a project for that
6:11
person so the so the student is getting
6:14
a meaningful project but the company is
6:17
getting a student who can really hit the
6:20
ground running in addition to having a
6:22
project charter that’s laid out the
6:25
students get advice on
6:29
best practices for working and start up
6:32
from the professor and from other
6:35
interns have been through the program so
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we’re really helping our students put
6:40
their best foot forward but also helping
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and helping the the company’s get a
6:44
great experience from them but it also
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helping make sure that you know there’s
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a good there’s a good match and
6:51
everyone’s having a good experience for
6:53
everybody else you know as I mentioned
6:55
there’s all these other organizations
6:57
that you can participate in to get a
7:00
good feel for what you know for for how
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do i get involved with the startup
7:03
community that’s one of the that’s
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probably the most common questions I get
7:07
and once you go to even one event you a
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whole world opens up in front of people
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the different accelerators also run
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programs we work just had a phenomenal
7:17
program last week on the future of
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tekken silly startup grind through
7:24
Benjamin’s desk there’s a lot of ways of
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getting involved
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how did you are how did you wind up
7:30
getting involved
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well i was working for I don’t want my
7:36
background is I worked for Anderson
7:38
consulting when I graduated I then went
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to work for shared medical systems which
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was not a start-up by any means but a
7:47
very entrepreneurial company without
7:50
fantastic innovation-driven culture i
7:55
left in 1999 to do some consulting and
8:00
the idea was to bring the practices of
8:02
large companies startups and vice versa
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so i started working with a number of
8:06
companies particularly companies that
8:08
were in internet capital group and
8:12
Edison partners portfolios and I know
8:16
those I know both those names obviously
8:18
you know being here in the tri-state
8:21
area and we’re actually going to get
8:23
into a lot of detail in terms of all the
8:25
companies that you’ve been involved with
8:26
because you you’re also a founder of a
8:29
number of companies as well but before
8:32
we do that
8:33
hostgator sponsors this startup around
8:36
you know I use hostgator to host all of
8:38
my websites so check out the special
8:41
offer of twenty-five percent off
8:43
exclusive to my listeners of the listen
8:46
up show podcast audience at Mitchell
8:48
Chad row.com / hostgator Ellen can you
8:53
tell us what is the one best piece of
8:55
business advice that you personally have
8:58
ever received
9:01
Wow probably listen to understand as
9:06
opposed to listen to talk to really try
9:09
and probe on the person you’re speaking
9:12
to understand what it is that they
9:15
really are trying to tell you and what
9:17
their what their needs and concerns her
9:20
well you know with that with that
9:22
response in mind you know so that people
9:25
can actually get to know you better and
9:28
that’s why I actually call this podcast
9:30
to listen to podcast because i love to
9:32
talk but you really don’t start to have
9:34
a dialogue with somebody until you
9:36
really stop to listen to what they
9:38
actually have to say so can you fill in
9:41
some of the gaps and tell us a little
9:43
bit more about your own personal story
9:46
you began to tell us that but maybe
9:49
maybe go into a little bit more in depth
9:51
ok so as i mentioned i was working at
9:54
shared medical systems in the and
9:58
wonderful experience but i wanted to
10:00
start working with startups and so I
10:04
help with others I i we created a
10:10
consulting firm called and Tiffany and
10:13
we started taking on but both small
10:16
companies and large companies taking the
10:18
best practices of the of enterprise
10:21
companies and bringing it early stage
10:23
companies but also bringing the
10:24
innovation and drive of early-stage
10:26
companies to larger companies are
10:29
project consisted of everything from you
10:34
know strategic planning sessions to
10:36
helping companies figure out what their
10:38
next product would be to a lot of
10:43
ideation session we had a wide variety
10:45
of projects that we did and then
10:49
it you know we grew from there the next
10:52
thing I did with help with us
10:56
I help support George marks and Rob
10:59
Webber back way back in nineteen ninety
11:02
nine when they wanted to form a better
11:05
way of investing in early-stage
11:09
companies they created Robin Hood
11:11
ventures i started to to help them and
11:16
how did how did you how did you actually
11:17
meet them because you know since 1999
11:20
Robin adventures has become very
11:23
successful in their own right and so how
11:26
did you how did you formulate those
11:28
those personal relationships that we
11:31
talk to business people about that
11:33
that’s so critical in building and
11:36
building successful teams and companies
11:38
that well I was married to rob webber at
11:41
the time haha and George marks with a
11:45
certain about the very good friends and
11:47
a business business colleague and he’s
11:50
you know how anyways we started robbing
11:53
hood back in 1999 those two where the
11:55
drivers at the time I was supporting it
11:57
and then over time I takana you know a
12:00
larger and larger role in really became
12:03
very passionate about helping to grow
12:05
entrepreneurial companies the group has
12:07
continued to grow we had nine members
12:10
when we started in 99 we have 62 members
12:13
52 members as of today we’ve invested in
12:16
62 companies in the region you know have
12:20
a very active portfolio
12:22
we’ve had some tremendous successes and
12:24
notes in those companies along the way I
12:28
help
12:29
I i co-founded a company called vision
12:33
mind with colie brown and there we were
12:35
working with large companies who wanted
12:39
to come more entrepreneurial who wanted
12:41
to be able to find the interesting
12:43
technologies in the startup community
12:45
but also become more entrepreneurial and
12:48
help help bring out the entrepreneurial
12:50
spirit in their best employees and so we
12:53
started to work with ing they were our
12:56
first customer worldwide
12:58
and then you know we grew our client
13:00
list from there what did you do what did
13:03
you actually do for ing and then how did
13:05
you how did you sort of build that
13:07
relationship to sort of get in because
13:10
you know there’s a lot of entrepreneurs
13:11
out there right now who are obviously
13:13
trying to build up their client base and
13:17
and that that would be very interesting
13:20
to to sort of explore with you
13:22
well so Iong in the US had a history of
13:27
being very good about looking and
13:31
learning from early-stage companies the
13:35
chief innovation officer it in Amsterdam
13:40
was interested in learning from the US
13:42
organization how they did that we were
13:45
they brought us together and Koli and I
13:50
were included because they thought that
13:52
some form of you know creating some form
13:56
of not angel investing but some way of
13:59
of looking at at early-stage companies
14:01
as deal slow and doing due diligence and
14:05
other things an angel group would apply
14:08
to ing that we know what-ing was trying
14:13
to accomplish and in fact it did and we
14:15
helped ing discover many new interesting
14:18
technology we help them build a platform
14:23
that they used and you know how to make
14:27
I can we set that is matching we made a
14:29
lot of interesting matches and it was
14:32
really interesting work you know you you
14:36
mentioned a lot of companies that you
14:38
have helped co-found obviously we found
14:41
briefly discussed Robin Hood that’s
14:43
obviously invested in over 60 early
14:45
stage in high-growth startups so in
14:48
looking at all of your experience over
14:50
all these years and dealing with all of
14:52
these different businesses
14:53
what would you think are some of the
14:55
more common mistakes that you’re seeing
14:58
the startups or the entrepreneurs or the
15:01
students who are actually interested in
15:03
business make or what actually delays
15:07
and to sort of go forward or actually
15:09
prevents their success so I see a wide
15:12
variety of things one thing I see is
15:15
companies trying to raise money before
15:18
they are ready to do so so they should
15:20
really be spending their time building a
15:24
minimal Viable Product is what we call
15:26
it you know enough to be able to test it
15:28
in the market if you tested in the
15:30
market and you have what we call
15:32
proof-of-concept then when you come to
15:34
investors for money they’re in a much
15:36
better position both from a financial
15:40
perspective and just from you know from
15:42
the diet from that from a dynamic from
15:44
the negotiation dynamic perspective
15:48
no I do see companies going out for
15:50
funding a little bit too early
15:51
on the other hand I see companies that
15:53
are minimizing the amount of funding
15:58
that they need and so they find
16:00
themselves in an endless cycle of
16:02
fundraising so that’s another issue that
16:05
I you know that we see we see some
16:07
companies that spend without a clear
16:11
plan but the companies that are really
16:14
successful you know we see have a strong
16:18
team and understanding of their market
16:21
and their customers needs and an ability
16:25
to change the direction of the product
16:30
based on what they’re learning they have
16:32
enough understanding of their customer
16:35
and the market did to do that so they
16:39
don’t get stuck in this is the product
16:42
and this is what we’re delivering but
16:44
they’re also not giving every 10 seconds
16:47
based on the last conversation you have
16:49
to have both a deep understanding of
16:51
your market but you also have to you
16:54
will be able to understand what the
16:55
customers telling you you know going
16:57
into business is not for the faint at
16:59
heart and a lot of our successful
17:01
entrepreneurs that we interview here you
17:04
know there are recurring themes that we
17:06
hear over and over and over again and
17:07
that is is that you know you really have
17:09
to be in it for the long haul and you
17:12
know you have to be able to withstand
17:14
the ups and the downs and you basically
17:16
have to have the right mindset on like
17:18
and even tell you that some of our
17:20
younger entrepreneurs even a few that
17:22
have actually been on the show have
17:24
decided to sort of you know go to career
17:27
path so you know again it’s not for the
17:29
faint at heart so with that can you tell
17:32
us some of the essential understandings
17:34
that entrepreneurs were students should
17:38
have in order to sort of have that
17:39
proper mindset to kind of deal with
17:42
those daily challenges that they’re
17:44
obviously going to face right so you
17:47
know one of the things we really focus
17:49
on here at Temple is creating what we
17:50
call an entrepreneurial mindset good
17:53
mindset plays whether you are working in
17:57
a large corporation and the government
17:59
of you know organization whether you’re
18:03
in a start-up and that is the idea that
18:05
you are all always thinking you know
18:11
looking at the business model
18:13
understanding what the customer want you
18:18
know thinking innovatively trying to
18:22
uncover the untapped needs and we you
18:27
know we have a number of courses that
18:29
are focused on ideation design thinking
18:34
and you know really understanding the
18:38
customer business model etc most
18:41
companies focus their time and energy on
18:44
creating new product when the reality is
18:49
that the bulk that that research shows
18:52
that the bulk of profit over time comes
18:55
from new business models so you could
18:57
have so for example you could have a
18:59
instead of having tabs that are yellow
19:02
you could have cats that are green or
19:04
blue but it’s changing the underlying
19:06
business model where them you know where
19:08
them where the money gets made and we
19:11
tryin and so that’s one of the things we
19:13
try and instill in our students to think
19:15
entrepreneurially regardless of what
19:17
type of environment that they’re in you
19:20
know we talk about teams and teamwork
19:22
and building that team ever obviously
19:24
everybody
19:26
no can’t have everybody can’t do
19:28
everything and and so so what are what
19:32
are some of the things that you find
19:33
yourself delegating that you might not
19:36
be as good at but because you have a
19:38
team that’s backing you you’re able to
19:40
sort of work with them in that regard
19:42
right so that has been tremendously
19:46
helpful having you know a great team of
19:48
people at and it’s actually different
19:50
teams so there’s a team that supports
19:51
robin hood there’s a team that support
19:54
there’s a team that you know that
19:57
supports the innovation and
19:59
entrepreneurship institute and so you
20:02
know generally as team will come and I
20:06
you know I partners as well in both
20:08
organizations so as a team will come up
20:12
with what are the big initiatives that
20:14
we want to do this year and then you
20:16
know we have just you know a wonderful
20:19
team of people that can then figure out
20:21
okay if we say that we really want to
20:23
for example a temple if we really want
20:26
to focus on engagement this year
20:28
what are the things that we need to do
20:30
that will really drive engagement in the
20:32
university or if we really want to work
20:39
with engineering and you know a and and
20:45
and and and the men and the medical
20:47
school was involved in doing that and
20:49
what are the next steps so that’s that’s
20:51
been really wonderful sure you know
20:55
resources are really big for our young
20:58
entrepreneurs and and really those who
21:00
are trying to take things to the next
21:02
level
21:03
what would you say some of the resources
21:05
are that you can recommend to the
21:08
audience you know obviously you know
21:11
that that that’s a really big help to
21:13
them as well right
21:15
well first and foremost you know interns
21:18
interns interns if you can carve out
21:19
project I think interns can really be a
21:22
great solution for an early stage
21:25
company that does not have a lot of
21:26
money
21:27
and don’t think creatively they work
21:30
hard they want to learn so interns
21:33
intern interns I’m a week but you know
21:35
there’s a lot of tools we use here I’m
21:36
constantly looking at is there something
21:39
that I’m doing repetitively and if so is
21:42
there a way that you know can i find a
21:44
nap or something that will help me do it
21:46
so for example i’m spending a crazy
21:48
amount of time with people trying to
21:49
schedule meetings back and forth and so
21:52
you know i use something called schedule
21:54
me which let me just include a little
21:58
text in an email and you know I let
22:02
people look at my schedule and and and
22:05
you look at their schedule and sign up
22:07
for time period i have to make that
22:09
probably safely five hours of work a
22:11
week there’s a lot of different
22:13
applications like that we automated our
22:16
business plan here at Temple using white
22:20
I’ve which was really tremendous
22:23
mid-atlantic diamond dentures and Robin
22:27
Hood depend on an application called
22:30
costs which helps us manage our deal
22:32
flow so having the right tools in place
22:34
and really make a difference and they
22:38
don’t have to cost a lot of money but
22:41
they do take some time to think about
22:42
you know how you’re going to use them
22:44
but they’ve made such a difference
22:46
especially with some your the rabbit
22:48
side were very virtual and so we need a
22:51
lot of tools that help us
22:53
ok can’t just walk down the hall and ask
22:55
someone a question we need lots of ways
22:57
to share information dropbox box that
22:59
you know it’s at Temple those tools
23:02
really make a huge difference
23:04
that’s that’s terrific you know you
23:05
mentioned mid-atlantic diamond ventures
23:08
and I know that the organization assist
23:12
early-stage technology and innovation
23:14
based companies but can you just talk to
23:18
us a little bit more about you know your
23:20
involvement with the mid-atlantic
23:22
diamond ventures sure how you got
23:24
involved
23:25
yes the mid-atlantic diamond ventures is
23:27
actually run by temple university
23:30
although it it’s for everybody
23:34
it just happens to run through temple
23:36
and
23:37
and I get without uh and what happens is
23:40
we do for forums a year where eight ten
23:44
companies get introduced to early stage
23:48
investors and also large companies you
23:52
know that the innovation officers people
23:54
who can assist those companies in other
23:56
ways by being the first customer as part
24:00
of the quarterly process companies apply
24:03
to present we select we probably get you
24:09
know anywhere from a hundred 200
24:11
companies of those maybe 70 meet our
24:14
criteria we have to winnow it down to
24:17
about 12 to 14 companies had actually
24:20
come in and present to our board above
24:24
the board then you’ll give them a lot of
24:28
advice and guidance in terms of feedback
24:32
and then we select you know eight to ten
24:35
companies that will actually present at
24:38
the forum and there’s about a month
24:41
period of time where the board is also
24:44
providing guidance and assistance we
24:48
have people who are great at pitch
24:51
coaching people who really understand
24:53
business models people who really
24:55
understand financials and so we are tag
24:58
teaming with the companies to make sure
25:00
they’ve really got everything together
25:02
before they come up in front of
25:04
investors for a lot of time for a lot of
25:06
people it’s their first investor
25:07
presentations we try and make them as
25:10
effective as as possible and then the
25:13
hope is that you know investors will
25:16
find find a company they find
25:19
interesting and invite them to come back
25:20
to their groups present and you know go
25:23
through a due diligence process you know
25:26
I hope everybody’s listening out because
25:28
one of the main reasons I wanted to have
25:29
you want is that you’re literally
25:31
involved with so many different things
25:33
that’s so fascinating and so interesting
25:35
and I know that someone out there is
25:37
going to get something you know there’s
25:40
gonna be so many different takeaways I
25:41
mean we’ve talked about your involvement
25:43
with the philly startup leaders with the
25:45
philly tech meetup week we talked about
25:47
how you’re managing director of
25:49
and Tiffany partners one of the one of
25:52
the groups that you haven’t actually
25:53
mentioned as of yet which I was most
25:56
fascinated to find out about especially
25:58
given the fact that i have two girls
26:00
that are 16 and 14 and their young
26:01
entrepreneurs start up to you in their
26:03
own right is is your involvement with
26:05
the Alliance of women entrepreneurs and
26:08
if you can talk to us about that and
26:10
actually how that can actually impact
26:12
and empower younger females who are
26:15
trying to get involved in this
26:16
particular space
26:18
yep I i would love to sew supporting
26:21
women entrepreneurs has always been one
26:23
of my passions and i’ve been involved
26:25
and the Alliance of women entrepreneurs
26:28
was formed 20 years ago by four
26:31
wonderful women who could not get funded
26:36
and thought there had to be a better way
26:37
to do it so they came they came together
26:40
and trying to figure out how do we know
26:45
how do we support each other
26:46
the group has grown and grown
26:48
tremendously and actually serves
26:50
different audiences sure it supports
26:54
both the first time entrepreneur the
26:57
person who’s thinking about becoming an
26:59
entrepreneur and also the experienced
27:02
woman entrepreneur there are some
27:05
fantastic programs in the Alliance women
27:08
entrepreneurs include there’s a
27:09
mentorship program there’s some so we we
27:15
mentor a number of young women actually
27:18
doesn’t the young women it’s it’s more
27:20
first time women entrepreneurs you can
27:23
be any age and be a first-time
27:25
entrepreneurs and still need need
27:27
support and help although many of the
27:28
entrepreneurs are young and so we will
27:33
meet with those companies and figure out
27:35
what they need and how can we best
27:36
support and help them and who do we
27:39
connect them with you know in addition
27:42
there’s that there are education
27:44
programs and in the last few years we
27:48
started partnering with Ben Franklin a
27:51
fund for women women led companies and
27:56
we have funded a number of companies
27:58
including Lee diagnostics
28:00
and war for good and oh my goodness i’m
28:03
forgetting the others but we’ve probably
28:06
funded six or seven companies that I’m
28:10
very proud of my involvement with that
28:12
and also proud of the fact that we’ve
28:14
been trying to also teach women how to
28:17
invest in companies so that they can go
28:20
that route investors and that’s it
28:22
that’s really super yeah i was i was
28:25
like i said when i when i saw that you
28:27
were involved with that with that group
28:29
i was so excited to want to you know
28:31
Delta into a little bit further because
28:33
like i said not only because of my two
28:35
young daughters who are involved in
28:37
business
28:38
I just know that there’s a lot of other
28:40
girls out there that are in middle
28:42
school and high school that you know
28:44
want to get into this space before they
28:46
get into college and how to get them
28:48
actively involved so you know I i really
28:51
appreciate your passion offered for that
28:53
are mammals so if I could interject from
28:56
a from a little more personal
28:57
we have from a regional economic
28:59
development standpoint especially in the
29:00
tech community one of the tech
29:02
community’s biggest problems is not
29:03
having enough tech-focused you know
29:08
people and so if we can encourage girls
29:11
and so there’s programs like catgirls
29:13
which helped no young girls decide to go
29:16
into tech and we can nourish you know
29:19
this interest in students while they’re
29:22
in college and then help them find
29:25
technology jobs then we really will have
29:27
a fantastic impact on the region’s
29:31
economy and so it’s it’s um you know I I
29:34
come to it from I want to help women but
29:37
it also really helps the Philadelphia
29:40
region and the whole tech community and
29:43
that’s one who helped in hopes of start
29:45
that group and and what’s your
29:48
involvement in with her with them what
29:50
girls was started by a traceywilson
29:52
rossman is the leader of that and cheese
29:54
you should have on your show sometimes
29:56
you don’t know why you definitely will
29:57
on you know this is just the subject
29:59
matter that that I also you know just
30:02
because it hits close to home mom but i
30:04
but I think like you said how do you how
30:07
do you sort of build up a region and an
30:09
economy
30:10
and and one of the ways is obviously do
30:12
this and write so and then you at the
30:16
university level so for example you know
30:18
i can speak to you know i can speak to
30:21
temple we recently formed the women
30:23
entrepreneur or the women’s
30:25
entrepreneurship organization we’ve had
30:27
a long history with the lead for
30:29
entrepreneurial women was more you know
30:31
that was focused on both alumni and and
30:34
student and I I just last semester top
30:40
for the first time created a course
30:42
called empowering women through
30:43
entrepreneurship and it’s about teaching
30:45
women how to negotiate how to ask for
30:48
things to find out what are the
30:51
organizations that support women
30:53
entrepreneurs and to really look at the
30:55
the data how how well our venture
30:58
capital firms firms performing you know
31:02
related to investing in women having
31:04
women on board having women in their
31:08
firms which most of them you are not
31:11
good at I’m very proud to say that Robin
31:13
Hood it’s been a big focus area for us
31:16
to you know to build a community of
31:19
women within or to grow the number of
31:23
women and people of color within our
31:26
organization because you know because
31:29
again research shows that a diverse
31:31
organization makes more money is more
31:34
secure file achieves more goals and so
31:36
that’s been a big focus area for robin
31:38
hood and I’m really excited about the
31:40
fact that you know we have really grown
31:43
the number of women in our organization
31:45
and the number of people of color we’ve
31:46
got a long way to go but you know very
31:49
different than it was just five years
31:51
ago
31:51
no I think it’s awesome you know Otto
31:54
ball is an and design company and a
31:56
sponsor our fastpitch i also started my
31:59
own book club with all of my
32:01
recommendations and the recommendations
32:03
of our guests back at Mitchell Chad
32:05
row.com / audible so that’s a UD ible
32:09
again Mitchell chatter dot-com / audible
32:13
on this next round we call it a L&R
32:16
fastpitch because we have some very fast
32:19
questions looking for some quick answers
32:22
and it just gives us a little bit more
32:23
in depth of you so if you could
32:26
recommend the book whether it be in
32:28
business personal or life that can
32:31
inspire or motivate for the audience
32:34
that would be great
32:37
wow so I’m looking right in front of me
32:39
at the art of startup fundraising for
32:42
Jojo thinking about fundraising it’s a
32:44
very easy to read go to guide in terms
32:49
of motivation you know I’m well you know
32:54
we’re really focused on the business
32:56
model canvas here on campus and the
32:59
author their own name since you have it
33:04
right there in front of you
33:05
oh yeah I do ok so and you have Xavier I
33:09
wonder who is working that will provide
33:11
the lake
33:12
ok i’m alexander osterwalder and even
33:15
senior are no one of that book and then
33:18
it happened i mentioned earlier i’m
33:20
asked for it
33:21
linois ah yeah I’m gonna have to i’m
33:25
going to hungry you know what i’ll
33:27
definitely google that and and i’ll put
33:29
it in the show notes most most
33:30
definitely thinking I’m certainly not as
33:34
far as I’m really a big quote guy i
33:36
don’t i don’t know if you are not but
33:38
but anyway with that being said you know
33:41
obviously quotes will either motivate or
33:43
inspire or you know something that you
33:46
were just kind of put right up there on
33:48
a billboard if you could um but but but
33:50
something that you could you can leave
33:52
us with here
33:53
well and I think ask for it is is ok
34:00
that’s all I leave them the mantra you
34:02
know it’s interesting I i alluded to it
34:04
before our interview and I actually went
34:06
to your website which of course all have
34:08
a link to it and tiffany.com and there’s
34:11
actually a quote from from from john
34:15
quincy adams where he says if your
34:17
actions inspire others to dream more
34:19
learn more do more and become more
34:22
you are a leader so I thought that was
34:25
really cool too so I just wanted to kind
34:28
of an energetic that you you’ve already
34:30
given us so many different apps on for
34:33
productivity I know that you’ve already
34:35
mentioned that because I had listened up
34:37
while you were talking as i continue to
34:39
learn that skill set as i get a little
34:41
bit older here arm but can you tell us
34:44
another app that you get in business or
34:47
family and life go for it so it’s called
34:50
dashlane and add this is particularly as
34:53
you get older I can’t remember as much
34:54
and so dashlane very securely hold all
34:59
my passwords and I don’t have to
35:02
remember them anymore it’s all built
35:03
instant internationally so as long as i
35:06
can remember the dashlane password
35:08
I’m good isn’t that cool in that great
35:11
that that that somebody came up with
35:14
something so creative like that you know
35:17
we we talk about resources and what I’d
35:20
like to try to let entrepreneurs know is
35:22
you don’t have to spend a lot to get a
35:24
lot in other words some of them are
35:26
obviously bootstrapping they’re trying
35:28
to leverage what they have so this would
35:31
actually be a resource that under a
35:33
hundred dollars but it’s been the most
35:35
impactful for you
35:39
hmm under a hundred dollars and impact
35:43
OC sure i guess i don’t know i’m almost
35:49
want to say my iphone backup I carry the
35:52
movie with me everywhere there you don’t
35:54
right answer but I don’t know I i think
35:57
it’s i think it’s terrific you know and
35:59
and having a fun fact about Ellen that
36:02
maybe not a lot of people know about but
36:05
he kind of takes us in a little bit and
36:07
it gets us to learn a little bit more
36:09
about you as so when I was a when I was
36:14
younger I wanted to be the first women
36:16
woman baseball analyst on TV
36:19
wow that’s cool you know I I grew up in
36:24
my family my mom was like the biggest
36:26
baseball fan she knew all the stats all
36:28
my friends would come over she would
36:30
know everything from batting averages to
36:32
you know hitting statistics you name it
36:34
she would now it and so that that’s
36:36
that’s really really cool you know
36:38
skinny can you tell us one of the
36:40
challenges that you faced and how you
36:42
came through it challenges I faced and
36:44
how I came through it and so many along
36:48
the way right let’s go to your resort
36:50
this actually goes to your
36:51
resourcefulness because as an
36:53
entrepreneur we got to be really
36:55
creative sometimes when were faced with
36:57
different issues or problems that arise
36:59
you know I think for me it’s been more
37:02
you know along along uh my career at
37:06
some at some point have really geared up
37:09
and at some point I’ve gear down and I
37:12
guess one of the things i always tell
37:14
people you know when they’re starting
37:16
their career is ok to gear up and gear
37:18
down and you know every six months or so
37:21
do your own you know do your own review
37:25
how am i doing am i breathing isn’t
37:28
working
37:29
do i do I like what I’m doing
37:32
do I feel like I’m adding value and if
37:36
I’m not then I then I course correct and
37:39
so that’s something that I’ve I’ve done
37:41
throughout my career so there’s not one
37:44
particular challenge but just it’s more
37:46
that’s one of the things that help me
37:48
manage through challenges is doing that
37:50
you know internal resume assessment as i
37:54
was saying before snapping sponsors are
37:56
wrap up around i was so impressed with
37:59
this company and what they can do to
38:01
help you with all of your graphic design
38:04
needs check out Mitchell Chad row.com /
38:07
snap thats SN Appa that’s Mitchell Chad
38:11
row.com / snap but I interviewed the
38:14
founder of snap Christopher gimmer and
38:18
the interview is actually back at
38:19
Mitchell Chad row.com / show 028 Ellen
38:25
as we’re wrapping up can you leave us
38:27
with three main takeaways that we can
38:30
leave the audience three main points
38:32
higher my students number one that
38:40
diversity in organization
38:42
is really critical to their success
38:44
number you for people in the
38:47
Philadelphia region you know there is
38:51
investment going on and you know it
38:54
takes work to network your way to to
38:57
find the funding but it it definitely
38:59
exists and is growing own how are we
39:04
gonna stay in contact with you
39:07
probably the best way would be to email
39:10
me weber at an tiffany.com and is there
39:14
any special links or resources that we
39:17
can put right there in the show notes
39:18
that you want me to include i’m happy to
39:20
yeah probably the better thing would be
39:23
our website of the different websites so
39:26
for temple ye i got temple.edu that’s
39:32
the innovation and entrepreneurship
39:34
institute and for Robin Hood www Probyn
39:39
hood centers dot-com and ma dvdman
39:43
Atlantic time adventures for those
39:44
entrepreneurs who are just starting out
39:46
and thinking about funding wwwm a DVD at
39:49
work well and this has really been a
39:52
blast we really want to thank you so
39:54
very much
39:54
I thoroughly enjoyed this and I’m really
39:57
looking forward to staying in contact
39:59
with you and we just want to thank you
40:02
for everything that you’re doing in this
40:03
tri-state area for everything that
40:05
you’re doing for entrepreneurship
40:07
well thank you it’s a pleasure to be
40:09
here tonight thank you take care talk to
40:11
you soon bye bye
40:21
your life
40:25
let me ask my audience for their help
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40:31
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friends
Published on Jan 30, 2017
Startup Angel Robin Hood Ventures Temple University Ellen Weber Executive Director Show 036
The post Startup Angel Robin Hood Ventures Temple University Ellen Weber Executive Director Show 036 Startup Entrepreneur Podcast Listenup Show first appeared on mitchellchadrow.com