Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Building Community at Scale: Jennifer Jeronimo's 5,000-Member Investment Revolution at Gaingels

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Building Community at Scale: Jennifer Jeronimo's 5,000-Member Investment Revolution at Gaingels · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:12
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:18
today's guest is Jennifer Geronimo, the Chief Executive
0:21
Officer at Gangels. They are a venture Capital Group
0:25
that invests in companies committed to advancing diversity
0:29
and inclusion, collaborating with top tier firms to expand
0:32
opportunities for under represented founders.
0:36
Under Jennifer's leadership, Gangels has supported over 2500
0:41
portfolio companies and surpassed $900 million in
0:45
investments. Founded in 2014, Gangels focuses
0:50
on Co investing with leading venture firms to foster
0:54
meaningful representation in the startup ecosystem.
0:58
She also launched the WAVE program Women Achieving Venture
1:03
Equality, empowering female leaders in the innovation
1:06
economy. With over 20 years of finance
1:09
and banking experience, Jennifer spent much of her career at JP
1:13
Morgan in areas like prime brokerage and compliance
1:16
operations. Known as a fixer and builders,
1:19
she helped establish global teams and crafted enhanced due
1:23
diligence procedures for high risk clients.
1:27
Her passion for uplifting divorce diverse voices in
1:30
venture LED her to Gangels in 2021, where she continues to
1:34
drive growth. Now before we get into all that
1:37
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Add Back benefits.com. All right, back to our guest
2:08
today, the CEO of Gangels, Jennifer Geronimo.
2:12
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:16
Thank you for having me. I'm I'm super excited to be
2:19
here. This is going to be fun.
2:20
Let's just jump right in. So before we talk about Gangels,
2:23
I want to talk a little bit about some of your earlier work.
2:27
You spent 19 years at JP Morgan. You were known as a fixer or a
2:33
builder. What does that mean and how did
2:35
you earn that reputation? So after spending a lot of time
2:41
in the prime brokerage space and it was really through Bear
2:45
Stearns and then Bear Stearns got had been taken over by JP
2:49
Morgan during the the credit crisis.
2:53
You know, I'd spent a lot of time in in prime brokerage and I
2:56
did really well there. But I'm the type of person that
3:00
likes to keep learning. I like to solve problems and I
3:03
like to solve big problems. So JP Morgan went under consent
3:08
with the OCC. It was, you know, a lot around
3:13
enhanced, enhanced due diligence or KYC.
3:19
And so I really wanted to, I decided to go in that route even
3:23
though working in prime brokerage kind of was like a
3:26
coveted position, right? But I wanted to be part of a
3:29
solution. And thereafter, I think people
3:32
saw that. Oh, wow.
3:34
So I, I started in one area, I was able to like sort of fix
3:37
that up and they just kept bringing me into other areas of
3:42
the consent order. And so it was just one of those
3:46
things where people realized I liked, I didn't mind difficult
3:52
problems, I didn't mind challenges that may not be sexy
3:57
or departments that that might not be sexy.
4:00
I just like being part of the solution.
4:02
And then after that, they just kept moving me around.
4:07
And every and plus every couple of years, I like to, you know,
4:10
move into a, a new department because 19 years at one firm can
4:17
get a little boring after a while if you're not like
4:20
continuously learning new things.
4:23
So, and you kind of sort of gently glossed over this, and I
4:27
want to come back to it because it wasn't always JP Morgan Chase
4:31
that you were with. You were with Bear Stearns and
4:34
you were there during the transition.
4:37
Tell us about what happened there for those folks who may
4:40
not remember Bear Stearns back in 2008.
4:44
Actually, Anthony, you froze. Are you back?
4:56
Well, you're I. Are you back with me?
4:58
You froze for a second. I don't know if that was me or.
5:00
You I'm I'm back. Yeah.
5:02
OK, good. OK, so let let me ask the we'll
5:05
we'll cut sort of the the blip out there.
5:08
So let me ask the question again.
5:10
So you kind of briefly touched on this, Jennifer, you sort of
5:14
glossed over and I, I want to hone in on this.
5:17
It wasn't always JP Morgan Chase that you were with.
5:20
You were there in one of the sort of predecessor entities,
5:24
Bear Stearns. And then part of that
5:26
transition. Now not everybody may remember
5:29
what happened to Bear Stearns back in 2008.
5:32
So walk us through what that was.
5:34
So there's a lot of news about us having liquidity issues over
5:40
at Bear Stearns. And as a result of that news, we
5:45
started to have a bit of a run on the bank and being in prime
5:50
brokerage right where, you know, our clients are hedge funds and
5:54
broker dealers and registered investment advisors.
5:57
In those days, you know, our phones were lit up with clients
6:02
trying to move their money out because they were concerned
6:05
about our future. And I remember, you know, the
6:11
day that there was, and I think I told you this story once
6:15
before, I had a phone that had like 20 lines on it.
6:18
And I always thought it was ridiculous that I had a phone
6:21
with 20 lines on it. But that very, you know, fateful
6:25
day in March of 2008, every line was lit up.
6:29
And that was because we had a lot of clients looking for their
6:32
money and they wanted us to wire it out.
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And so it was one of those moments where I said, Jen, you,
6:40
you've got an opportunity to actually show your stuff, right?
6:45
I was, you know, a, a managing director at the time at Bear
6:48
Stearns. And I wanted to show like my
6:52
management and my leaders that like, regardless of how scary
6:55
that time was, that I would be able to, you know, live up to
7:00
the challenge. And so I remember sitting down
7:04
with my entire staff saying I'm going to ask everybody to, you
7:08
know, I took off the TV's, right?
7:10
I said, because everybody was glued to the TV's and we weren't
7:13
doing our work right. Everybody wanted to know we were
7:16
watching the stock price go down.
7:18
We're watching all the news. And I remember just saying,
7:21
let's take off the TV's. Nobody goes to the Bloomberg
7:24
Terminal unless they need, need it for their job.
7:27
And let's just stay focused today.
7:30
We need to stay focused and do the right job because we just
7:34
wiring out a tremendous amount of money so.
7:38
Clients are calling in and you're not stonewalling them,
7:41
you're not trying to talk them out of it.
7:42
They want their money and you're sending them out.
7:45
Yeah, you're doing the best you can.
7:47
I mean, some of them felt like it.
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You know, we were stonewalling them because so many were
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looking for their money and they were waiting in line with, you
7:54
know, 10 other clients above them.
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But I do remember leaving on a Friday night thinking if JP
8:03
Morgan wasn't on the door by Monday, we would have an issue,
8:07
right? And we, we may all be out.
8:08
OK, so there had been rumors that maybe JP Morgan was going
8:11
to come in and sort of rescue the situation.
8:15
And and so you you knew or you had this sense of man with
8:20
everything that's going on. If if this doesn't come through
8:22
by Monday, we're we're hosed OK? Right.
8:26
And so, you know, we, we were all, you know, talking through
8:32
all the management team was talking throughout the weekend
8:35
to see, you know, what would happen.
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I think it was late on a Sunday night that they finally agreed
8:41
to buy JP Morgan for a very, for, I want to say it was $2.00
8:48
at the time. And I remember then going in
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that Monday and as you could imagine, people were scared,
8:58
people were upset at the price. And just, you know, standing in
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front of my team going, we answer the phone.
9:06
JP Morgan this morning, right? And let's not sit here and talk
9:12
about could or should or would if that was a good deal or not.
9:16
We have a job to do. Our job is to service our
9:19
clients, and that's where we need to focus.
9:21
And I always felt very proud of that because I never allowed my
9:25
team to see me freak out. I think they've probably seen me
9:31
freak out at less, at less. But that was a moment where I
9:36
said, Jen, you can't. You can't allow yourself, can't
9:38
allow yourself, and you can't allow your team to spiral.
9:41
You have to stay strong. You know, keep your chin up and
9:46
you know was there in front of the other.
9:48
Was there precedent for you stepping up in this kind of a
9:51
giant situation or did was this, did you almost surprise
9:56
yourself? Was it like, oh wow, I I hoped I
10:00
had that in me, but now I know. Well, what it was is, you know,
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I was still, this is, you know, still early in my career, right?
10:08
And I didn't have too many war stories, but I did have lots of
10:12
mentors, lots of managers who had like, we would spend lunch
10:15
talking about all those war stories all the time.
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And in the back of my head, I always said, you know, when it's
10:22
time for my war story, am I going to rise to the challenge
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or am I going to buckle under the pressure?
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And so having not, you know, there, there was a little, there
10:33
was the tech bubble, but I wasn't like senior at the time
10:37
when we start when, when some of that happened, when the tech
10:41
bubble burst. So this was really the first
10:44
time that I was at a I was a leader during a really
10:49
challenging time, but it was something that I was almost
10:52
always looking for because I wanted my own war story.
10:56
I wanted to be be able to tell a story you.
10:58
Wanted a war story? I.
11:00
Did you wanted battle scars? I want when you talk to the
11:05
people that I had worked with and everything that they've been
11:08
through and how and like and how they, their genius came out, it
11:13
was just something I always wanted, aspire to be.
11:15
So I wanted that war story, yes. You like being in the game.
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You're not sitting on the bench watching from the sideline.
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You want to be in the action. No.
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OK, so you had you had this painful transition where you
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stepped up big and then you developed a relation or a
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reputation at JP Morgan Chase for being a a fixer.
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And so you got put in all kinds of different situations where
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you know, your leadership skills were able to shine.
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What was behind the decision leaving there to start or or to
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join Gangels? Like how did that sort of come
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about? So that was really a tough
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decision, right? I had, I had always said for the
11:58
night, you know, well, you know, from 2008 to 2021, I bleed blue,
12:05
right? I'm, you know, JP Morgan is I
12:09
loved it there. I mean, the the management team
12:14
was stellar. I think I always thought Jamie
12:17
had, you know, knew how to like lead that, that company.
12:20
He said the right things. They believed in their values
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and principles. So I really enjoyed it there.
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I was not looking for another role, but one thing was is that
12:34
my purpose in life was always to help women take their seat at
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the table. Now I'm not working in an HR
12:41
role right at JP Morgan. How I sort of did that was I
12:46
mentored lots of women. I sponsored lots of women.
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I was on the promotion panels, you know, trying to support
12:53
women getting promoted and making sure we're treating them
12:56
fairly during the promotion process.
13:00
I was part of the Ergs for women and and Latinas.
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What's ERG? Oh, employee resource group, so
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groups that were specifically put together to help support
13:12
women or Latinas. And so I was a member of those
13:16
those groups and I really felt like I was feeding that purpose
13:21
just in the four walls of, of JP Morgan.
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And I did love what I did. I, you know, I like operations,
13:28
I like solving problems, I like efficiencies.
13:32
I like saving money. Those things kind of they, they
13:36
may seem nerdy and geeky, but I like that.
13:40
But you know, I decided to interview just because it had
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been, you know, 19 years since I'd been on an interview.
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And so, you know, I looked up the company, I met with the
13:55
founders and what really excited me was the mission of Gangels,
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which is where on a mission to show the world that
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accessibility and representation lead to positive returns.
14:10
And how we do that is we in like as you mentioned, invest at
14:15
scale with the best through community that measurably
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impacts diversity, right? So over a 60, I think it's about
14:22
60, 55% of my members are diverse, 50% of my dollars are
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diverse. So it's you know, a lot of what
14:29
we're about is providing that access of great deal flow to a
14:35
broader community, democratizing, you know, venture
14:39
capital and also making it more accessible.
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And so for me being able and then we also have like a board
14:48
access program or helping diverse folks get onto the
14:51
boards or advisory boards of our portfolio company.
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So when the opportunity came up, it was really being able to step
14:58
even further into that my particular purpose in life.
15:05
It just excited me. And I, and I also enjoyed, you
15:08
know, I enjoyed meeting the founders.
15:10
They were, you know, they really wanted to, you know, I, I could
15:14
feel the support from the organization that they were
15:17
going to help me succeed and that, and so that's why I made
15:21
the jump. Like I said, I was as surprised
15:24
as anybody else that I ended up not retiring again at at JP
15:28
Morgan because that was ultimately my plan.
15:32
So you said that roughly 60% of your members are diverse.
15:37
What do you mean by member? There's a membership platform
15:41
here in addition to the investments that you're doing.
15:44
That's right. So in order to get access to our
15:48
deal flow, you have to become a member, you have to attest to
15:52
the fact that you're an accredited investor.
15:55
And then and then we establish a relationship with you and then
15:58
we can share our deal flow. And so that's what I, you know,
16:04
that's what a member is. We also have social memberships
16:08
for people who aren't credited investors where they can come to
16:11
our events, they can learn about the venture economy and the
16:15
innovation economy. But you know our members are the
16:20
the folks that invest into the special purpose vehicles or the
16:26
SPV's that we are either in for a particular portfolio company
16:31
or you know LP's in our funds. Explain what an SPV is.
16:37
So a special purpose vehicle is basically, So what we do is we
16:42
invest in portfolio companies. So Madison Reed for example,
16:49
right, you know that was one of our investments.
16:51
And So what we do is we create a, a special purpose vehicle
16:56
which pulls our members money together.
17:00
And that is what actually goes on to the cap table, which is
17:04
just a listing of who owns that private company.
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It's that entity that goes on to the cap table of that portfolio
17:12
company. Now what's cool about that is it
17:14
allows us to take checks of all different sizes.
17:18
So a person can invest $1000 into a portfolio company or you
17:25
know, I, I've seen really large checks of hundreds of thousands
17:30
or you know, things of that, but they can put in what they're
17:33
comfortable. So this is a way for a non
17:35
accredited investor to be able to participate in some of these
17:39
deals. No, no, no.
17:41
So you must. Still have to be accredited.
17:43
Still have to be an accredited investor in order to
17:46
participate, which is why you need to become a member first
17:50
because you have to attest to the fact that you are an
17:55
accredited investor. Now it's not to say that I don't
17:59
take non accredited investors, but they can't participate in
18:03
deals. They can participate in my
18:06
events and and some of the programming we have, but I can't
18:12
present deals to them and. So the people who are taking
18:15
part in the deals, they're contributing their own cash.
18:20
What's the, I mean, you're saying they're accredited
18:22
investors. So, you know, they have at least
18:24
some kind of, you know, financial backing behind them.
18:28
But if you were to kind of paint a picture of the profile, are
18:32
there institutional investors? Are these just, you know, people
18:36
that have done well in their professions or they own their
18:38
own businesses? Like what?
18:40
What's kind of the make up? So it really is very broad,
18:45
right, to be an accredited investor.
18:46
Just two of the prongs, right, is I think $200,000 that you
18:50
make annually or 300 as a as a family, right?
18:54
That's two of the prongs. So those folks could be, you
18:59
know, employees of of companies, right?
19:04
They can be entrepreneurs who, who, you know, who have that
19:12
sort of level of, you know, of, of, of money and wealth and
19:17
that, you know, receiving that. We also have family offices and
19:22
larger individual investors, like qualified purchasers and
19:26
qualified clients. Those folks come into RSP VS all
19:31
the time as well. But it really varies, right?
19:34
But at the end of the day, so it's, you know, it could be
19:37
anywhere from an, you know, individual investor that you
19:41
know, works at a, you know, at a corporation and makes the sort
19:45
of the minimum amount to an actual family office or
19:50
institutional investor. And then what are the types of
19:54
entities that you're looking to invest in?
19:56
What's the criteria there? So we are industry agnostic, but
20:02
there are certain. But what we look to present to
20:06
our members there is deal flow that they really that they want
20:11
to take part in. So some of our sweet spots is
20:14
like AI, which I'm sure you're not surprised people want to be
20:18
in AI, healthcare technology and that's inclusive of like
20:25
Fintech, enterprise, SAS software, you know, those are
20:31
some of like the larger the, the industries that do well with us,
20:35
but we also do consumer products, future of food.
20:40
Again, we look at each deal individually and we look at a
20:44
handful of things like who is the lead investor, right?
20:48
Who is sort of setting the terms of the deal?
20:52
What industry are they in, what track, what traction that
20:55
particular company has, right? What is the experience level of
21:01
the of the founding team? Are they serial entrepreneurs?
21:05
Do they have a lot of experience in that space?
21:08
Understanding that, you know, diverse founders are not, you
21:12
know, women only get two solo women entrepreneurs only get 2%
21:16
of funding, right? That's a stat that many people
21:21
have known for a while, and it really hasn't budged, right?
21:24
So we don't always just look for serial entrepreneurs knowing
21:28
that, but we may look to see if that woman or that that person
21:33
has been in that space for a long time or they've been in a
21:38
company that is known to be, you know, experts in that space.
21:42
So those are some of the things we look at when we're assessing
21:45
a deal. And then from there we'll
21:49
present that to our membership and they can in or put it in or,
21:52
you know, present it to the ICS of the funds in which that that
21:57
deal or that investment fits the thesis.
22:00
And then we see, you know what type of check we can write for
22:03
the portfolio company. So the funds are all coming from
22:07
the members and you have some kind of a, a membership fee at
22:11
Gangels and then probably like some kind of a like fund
22:15
management fee on top of that just to kind of understand the
22:18
revenue model. So the revenue model is fees
22:22
from the SPVS and your funds, right.
22:25
That is where we get the majority of our revenue, right.
22:29
And so on an SPV, it is a 6% management fee that we we do
22:36
take upfront, but we are only permitted to use the 1st 2% in
22:41
the first like 30 days and then every year for the following
22:45
four years we pull in another percent.
22:49
So should the investment die before then we can return set
22:54
whatever is left of that management fee if it's, you
22:58
know, if it, if the company shuts down before we've taken
23:02
that last percentage or two. And then we have a $8000 admin
23:08
fee that is shared across the entire SPV and a 20% carry.
23:15
And so that's the on the SPV side.
23:18
And then funds it's, it's, it's specific to what the fees are
23:22
for that fund. And so the entities that you're
23:26
looking to invest in and and bring to your members, all of
23:29
them have a female, a minority in in ownership position.
23:35
No, that's not a criteria. No, that's not a criteria
23:39
because at the end of the day, well, you know, our first
23:43
priority is always to provide the best deal flow for our
23:47
membership, right? What we do and, and we don't,
23:52
you know, originally when Gangels was started in 2014,
23:56
that was the remit. It was a small investment club
23:59
of LGBTQ found investors investing into LGBTQ founders
24:05
and then in 2019 is when they changed it and they wanted to
24:10
expand that that remit, right? As they said, we're talking in
24:14
our own echo chamber and we're not actually making an impact,
24:19
right. So the thought process, if
24:23
you've ever heard the term little people, little problems,
24:25
big people, big problems, right? I always say little company,
24:29
little diversity problems, big company, big diversity problems.
24:33
So what we try to do is if let's just say that portfolio company
24:38
doesn't have any diversity on their in their leadership team,
24:43
we will ask if they need help to put diversity on their board.
24:48
And I have a whole board access program that helps supply them
24:53
with diverse candidates so that you know they could consider
24:57
them for border Advisory Board roles, right?
25:01
Because we believe that diversity starts at the top and
25:06
so you know they may want to participate there.
25:09
We also ask, we don't require, but we ask our portfolio
25:12
companies to sign what we call the Gangels letter.
25:16
And in that letter, it says things like I'm going to take
25:20
the parity pledge and interview a diverse slate of candidates
25:24
for every role I have. We are never mandating that.
25:28
You know, I don't believe in our company doesn't believe in
25:31
making mandates as to how many diverse votes you should have,
25:35
but believe that a good practice is to interview diverse slated
25:38
candidates to make sure you're hiring the absolute best
25:42
candidate. In that Gangel's letter, we also
25:45
asked them to say they're going to have anti discriminatory
25:48
policies that are inclusive of the LGBT community or, or
25:53
diversity policies that they give 1% of their upside to, you
25:59
know, whether it's time or actual profits to their local
26:03
communities that they, you know, interview or do mock interviews
26:10
with our Angel scholars, right? So it's about very practical
26:16
steps that a portfolio company can take that help increase
26:23
inclusivity of all people working at that company.
26:27
That's really what we're what. So if we can help them with
26:30
that, then we feel like that's really making an impact.
26:35
And so we don't require it for transparency purposes, but the
26:40
majority of the investments we make.
26:44
But you know, whether it's, you know what we we call core on our
26:48
paper, which is, you know, the SPV model or you know in our
26:52
funds, the majority of the companies to sign the Gangel's
26:56
pledge. Are you typically the lead
26:59
investor on a deal? Never the lead.
27:02
Never. Never.
27:04
We are a high volume shop and so as you'd imagine, you know,
27:10
we're not, we don't want to spend a lot of time trying to
27:12
set deal terms. We lead that up to the deal.
27:16
We own the the deal lead. We only follow on.
27:20
Now we do perform a legal review in most cases where we look to
27:25
make sure that the terms are are fair to us, but we're not.
27:31
We, we don't look to lead deals. We're just too high volume of a
27:34
shop. We would never be able to do the
27:37
type of volume we do if we were leading deals.
27:40
Why is it important to you to be so high volume?
27:44
It's to provide our membership with like that broad access,
27:48
right, to give them enough opportunities to invest in
27:51
companies that they believe in. And so, you know, venture is a
27:56
numbers game, right? You know, it's a high risk asset
28:01
class. As we all know, you're tying up
28:04
your money for a long period of time.
28:06
And so, you know, investing in one, you know, company is
28:11
probably not the best use of an investor's money unless they,
28:18
you know, unless they've done deep due diligence and they have
28:20
deep, deep conviction. What we want to be able to
28:24
provide our membership with is a wide array of selection so that
28:28
they can, you know, they can create a mini portfolio for
28:32
themselves of companies that they believe in.
28:36
So you're, if I'm understanding this correctly, Jennifer, you're
28:39
largely relying on relationships that you have with the lead
28:44
investors to sort of, I don't know, do most of the vetting for
28:49
you and say, OK, hey, Jennifer, we'd like to bring you guys in
28:54
on this now and you. Trust.
28:55
That's right. Yes, that's correct.
28:58
And so who are some of those firms that you've typically
29:01
worked with in that capacity? Before I talk through some of
29:05
the, the names that we've done and some of the, the, the deals
29:08
that we've done, I won't maybe ask get getting specific deals,
29:12
but it's important to note that we don't always get the deal
29:19
from the from the deal lead either, right?
29:23
A portfolio company CEO may want to ensure they've got a diverse
29:28
cap, a diverse check writer on their cap table, right?
29:32
And they may reach out to angels and say we'd look, you know, are
29:35
you interested in participating our members, right?
29:39
You know, we have close to 5000 members now, right?
29:45
They may be part of portfolio companies and say I'd love to,
29:48
I'd love if angels could get on the cap table and they'll make
29:52
an introduction that way or it could very well be the lead,
29:55
right. The other thing is, is that once
29:58
you make you know, we, we do everything from you know early
30:02
stage to later stage. So once you sort of get in a
30:05
deal you've now built that relationship with the portfolio
30:09
company and it is our hope that when they do follow on rounds,
30:12
they are reaching out to existing investors to do those
30:18
follow ONS. So we've done over 35 deals with
30:22
Sequoia. We've done over 75 deals with
30:25
Gray Croft General. We've done a lot of deals with
30:29
General Catalyst and they would say that we're probably one of
30:32
their top Co investors, Excel, NEAI, mean we've it we've you
30:41
know, think about it, it's a portfolio of 2500 companies.
30:45
There's there's been a lot of relationships that we've built
30:48
throughout the years. And so we really do have a lot
30:54
of investment experience with some of the big VC firms.
31:03
I'm going to guess with the number of investments that
31:05
Gangels does, it's, it's difficult for you to form a
31:09
close relationship with the founders at those companies.
31:14
I mean, you know, over 2000 deals, it's you probably can't
31:17
keep names straight, let alone, you know, have one-on-one
31:21
conversations with them. Just, I mean, it's sort of the
31:23
nature of the beast, you know, and being able to invest at that
31:26
kind of scale well. We've got, you know, we've got
31:31
partners, right? And each partner is bringing in
31:35
their own deal flow. And so typically the partner is
31:39
that that is brought in that deal has established a
31:42
relationship with that particular portfolio company.
31:45
So usually every portfolio company has one point of
31:49
reference of someone, you know, you know, one person that really
31:54
understands that company. I think you're absolutely right
31:57
to say there's no one partner or person that knows every single
32:01
portfolio company, but it is the, you know, we, you know,
32:05
each person who ran that deal so owns that relationship.
32:11
And we do really try to build relationships and be, you know,
32:17
a resource to our portfolio companies.
32:20
I mean, listen, we write a lot of checks.
32:22
We don't, you know, but we don't write huge checks all the time.
32:27
I mean, sometimes we write larger checks in the millions,
32:30
of course, but sometimes those check sizes may be smaller.
32:33
So we may not be getting like information rights or I'm, we're
32:37
not asking for seats on the board, right?
32:40
You know, but what we do tries to be a resource for them, you
32:43
know, if they want connections to another VC when they're doing
32:47
their follow arm round or, you know, Gangels is also very much
32:52
a community, right? And so the other, you know, sort
32:56
of unique is, you know, when I think about Gangels, right, we
33:00
have 3 uniques, right? One is the access, right?
33:03
And getting into some of the deals that we've gotten into,
33:06
right? And being able to to give that
33:09
access to our members, the accessibility meaning people can
33:14
invest, you know, lot smaller amount of money than if they
33:18
were in, you know, some of these larger funds and some of these
33:21
funds by the way are closed or oversubscribed.
33:24
So they couldn't get the deal otherwise, right.
33:27
But the third unique is our community and what we hold over
33:31
70 in person events across the country and that's for our
33:35
members and hundreds of webinars, right?
33:38
And that's for our members, for our portfolio companies, for our
33:43
venture partners. And so we will hold coaching
33:48
webinars for our entrepreneurs. We will, you know, go to, you
33:54
know, we will speak about diversity to their C-Suite.
33:58
We will make connections like I said to other VCs, to other
34:03
diverse, you know, to other investors.
34:06
We try to, you know, not only be not just be a check, but to add
34:12
value to the portfolio company without adding a whole lot of
34:16
pressure. Tell me more about these in
34:20
person events. Are they like all in just kind
34:24
of a handful of locations? Do you kind of spread them
34:26
around? So the, I mean, we do have, you
34:30
know, we have critical mass in a couple of key areas like New
34:33
York, LA, San Fran. So we do hold a large amount of,
34:38
you know, a large number of them in those three locations.
34:42
But it really is across the the country, right?
34:44
One of my partners, Lorenzo is in Chicago.
34:48
So we hold lots of events in Chicago.
34:49
Another partner is in Miami. So we do, you know, lots of
34:53
events in Miami. We'll be at South by Southwest.
34:57
You know, we try to go to, you know, we, we try to meet our
35:02
members wherever they are and they are all around the country.
35:06
So we will hold events and you know, in Utah and you know,
35:12
Texas and you know Florida, it's but but critical mass honestly
35:18
and like the majority will be New York, San Fran, you know,
35:21
LA, but we do hold them across. And what takes place at these
35:26
events? Are they just kind of like
35:27
mixers, Like, hey, you never know who you're going to bump
35:30
into kind of a thing, or they're like more structured
35:33
presentations and courses? So it's a little, we try to
35:38
shake it up all the time. Like just earlier this week, I,
35:42
we did a book signing where we brought Amana Al Tai just
35:49
launched. She's an executive coach.
35:51
She just launched her book about ambition.
35:54
It's called the ambition Trap. We had her speak to our members,
35:58
talk about, you know, you know, purposeful ambition versus like,
36:02
you know, toxic ambition and do a book signing.
36:07
We've done, you know, obviously we do a fair bit of just, you
36:11
know, fireside chats about or, or panel discussions on a
36:15
particular topic. Like, you know, always at the
36:18
start of the year we talk about the big, what are the big trends
36:22
that we expect to see in 2025? We obviously AI is a really hot
36:27
topic. So oftentimes we talk about, you
36:30
know, where we see the future of AI going.
36:34
Lorenzo, the partner I mentioned earlier is absolutely a thought
36:38
leader in that space. And then we try to do different
36:41
things like Nick, you know, breath work classes for our
36:48
entrepreneurs, right? Or we'll have small dinners with
36:52
some of our portfolio with the CEO's of our portfolio companies
36:56
news. We may have a dinner of like 15
36:59
entrepreneurs that may be in different industries, but all at
37:03
the same stage. Because what we find is
37:07
regardless of what your company is to, it's more, you're more
37:11
aligned by stage than you actually are by industry, right?
37:15
So. You're going through the same
37:16
sort of growth problems, whatever those might be.
37:19
That's right. So we'll, we'll hold those sort
37:22
of entrepreneurial dinners where we bring them together to talk
37:28
about problems, help them expand their networks, help them meet
37:31
people, you know, doing similar things that they're doing.
37:36
So it really runs the gamut our events and you know, we work
37:41
really hard at trying to make sure our members feel engaged
37:47
and that from a membership perspective, we're, you know,
37:50
we're providing value outside of just our deal flow, right?
37:55
You know, you know, you mentioned at the start of the
37:58
call the Wave program, that's part of our community, right?
38:02
It you know, way. More about what that is.
38:06
Yep. So Wave, as you mentioned stands
38:09
for women achieving venture equality.
38:12
And we believe it's important for women investors to start,
38:16
you know, coming to the table and venture because that's when
38:20
you'll start seeing more products in the innovation
38:23
economy that are geared towards women.
38:25
I mean, we are half the population, right?
38:29
But because women historically have not been in the venture
38:33
space, we need to educate them. So we created a six month
38:40
program that is geared to demystifying the asset class.
38:45
So we, you know, of course we kick it off with just what is
38:48
venture? What are the different stages of
38:50
venture? How should you be thinking about
38:52
venture as it relates to your portfolio?
38:56
But then we start getting into topics like how to read a term
39:00
sheet or how to cap tables of all from Angel friends and
39:05
family seed, you know, precede seed, you know, all the way up
39:09
to pre IPO. You know, how to create your
39:13
investor thesis because we don't think that you know, necessarily
39:17
investing with FOMO is the best approach to take when investing
39:22
in in venture. That could be a little
39:25
exhausting if you're looking at every single thing, every single
39:29
industry and stage out there, how to think about due
39:32
diligence, what questions to ask a portfolio company.
39:37
You know, one thing we always do is we have Q&A's with every
39:40
portfolio company we run. And so helping our members know
39:44
what type of questions they should be asking those CEOs
39:47
right when they go into the room with them.
39:53
You mentioned that one of your partners is a real thought
39:56
leader in AI and you guys put on a number of events and.
40:01
Or topics at the events about kind of where you see the future
40:05
AI going enlighten us, like what?
40:07
What are some of the directions that you think it's heading that
40:11
maybe the average Joe isn't in tune with?
40:16
It's not my area of expertise. I really these are questions I
40:20
typically ask Lorenzo around SO. What would Lorenzo tell you?
40:24
So what I think he would say, right, is, you know, right now,
40:29
well, one thing that him and I did to talk about was, you know,
40:33
AI is so broad that you should really think about if you're, if
40:37
you want to invest in AI, kind of bring it down to what kind of
40:40
AI are you interested in? Because you know, there are
40:43
companies that can say they're AI companies because they use
40:47
AI, right? And there are companies that are
40:49
actually, you know, creating some like they're, they're
40:53
actual companies based on AI and that's the product they're
40:57
selling to their to their clients.
41:00
So, but I think it's containment of AI, right?
41:08
With all of this, how are we going to identify deepfakes?
41:12
You know, so I think that kind of excites us, You know, when we
41:15
look at AI is just, you know, how how can we ensure AI is safe
41:21
in a lot of ways, right? I also think seeing AI not as
41:27
just a chip, right, but actually now creating value for companies
41:34
is something that we're, we're seeing.
41:37
And you know, it was one of the things that we, we said in the
41:40
beginning of this year that we're looking forward to seeing
41:43
now not just the chips, but how are healthcare companies using
41:48
AI to create efficiencies? How are companies using AI to,
41:53
to improve, improve the product or service that they are
42:00
providing their clients? Like really making a difference
42:03
Now go beyond that chip and actually seeing AI make a
42:07
difference. But on the flip of that, there's
42:09
a lot of competition in AI right now.
42:12
There's a lot of companies going out and, and, you know, using
42:16
that banner and the valuations are high, right?
42:19
So it's those are things that, you know, we ask investors to
42:22
consider when they're looking at AI as well.
42:25
So one of the things you said is, you know, how can we make
42:28
sure that AI is safe? And I think that's a question
42:30
lots of people are asking. Is there money to be made in
42:34
answering that question? Absolutely right.
42:37
I mean, think about it, you know, there's with AI, there's
42:43
so much sharing of data. Now, how do we make sure there's
42:47
that data doesn't get shared too broadly or the wrong or
42:51
incorrect data gets shared? You know, again, I, I don't
42:55
claim to be the AI expert at Gangels, right?
42:58
But I mean, it's what it's what we're going to need as we sort
43:04
of, you know, continue to expand in this, you know, in the asset
43:10
class. I mean, at one point, you know,
43:13
AI though, will be like investing in the Internet
43:16
because it's going to be so broad.
43:18
So like I said, containment actually gives you sort of a, a,
43:22
a a level of detail beyond that that says this is like sort of
43:27
it's, it's a, a way. You can sort of build that.
43:32
Funnel a little bit more as you look at your investments in AI,
43:36
you know, early in the conversation.
43:37
We talked about how you developed a reputation at Bears
43:40
and then JP Morgan as being a fixer or a builder, kind of your
43:45
superpower, if you will. How are you putting those
43:48
superpowers to use now at Gangels?
43:52
Where do you really see your strengths kind of coming into
43:55
play so? I think, you know, right from
44:01
the start, like when I came in, right, Gangels was already I
44:05
think you know, already had quite a bit under management,
44:08
already had a lot of portfolio companies that we had invested
44:11
in. And it was about ensuring that
44:14
we could continue to scale. Because when you make an
44:18
investment into a portfolio company, you know, that
44:21
investment is out there, could be out there from anywhere from
44:24
5 to 10 years, right? And that, you know, you need to
44:27
service that investment, you need to do tax on that
44:31
investment. You need to do port, you know,
44:34
updates and update your, your, your members that invested in
44:38
that portfolio company. And so I think the first thing
44:43
you know I did when I came here was like, how do we do this in
44:46
the most automated way? Because we can't, you know, with
44:50
the type of volume we were doing at the time and the type of
44:53
volume that we knew we would get to, we couldn't be throwing
44:57
bodies at it. We had to work smarter, not
45:00
harder. We had to.
45:02
And, and that is something that JP Morgan has all like has
45:05
taught me. You know, I definitely couldn't
45:08
have taken this job without having all the experience at JP
45:12
Morgan of thinking. About how do I?
45:17
Make this process less cumbersome, less prone to
45:20
errors, more automated, less hand touching, but still a
45:24
quality product. It was something that was
45:28
drilled. It's drilled into every
45:29
manager's head, right? Is thinking about, you know,
45:32
it's that old saying that I felt was very true for JP, right?
45:36
If you're doing what you were do this, you're doing what you were
45:39
doing last year in the same exact way.
45:42
You're not only not moving forward, you're actually moving
45:45
forward, right? And so that sort of mindset is
45:50
what I brought to Gangels. And so, you know, quickly
45:54
working with my team, we were really able to scale up this
45:58
company to, I mean, we are really closely approaching a
46:01
billion dollars. We're at 991,000,000 at this
46:05
point, right? And I haven't doubled my staff.
46:10
So it was being able to you doubled the investments in the
46:13
time. That you've been there but not
46:14
doubled the size of your staff. That's correct, but.
46:17
And we keep improving, right? We improve our reporting.
46:21
You know, our members want to see that angels is is constantly
46:24
innovating and and thinking about how we can service them
46:27
better. You know, at one point, you
46:30
know, we brought in our taxes in house, right?
46:32
We deliver our K ones directly to our members and and I think
46:37
we do a really good job of it, right?
46:40
And we do it in a really scalable way.
46:43
Everything at Angels must be scalable because of the volume
46:47
that we do. And I think that was, you know,
46:50
my area of expertise that's just from working at Angels.
46:55
I mean JP Morgan, yeah, sure. We're able to bring a lot.
46:58
Of those skills and those experiences over as you kind of
47:02
think about the growth that you've seen both in terms of
47:04
members as and it's closely tied to, you know, being able to
47:08
invest dollars into deals, but you know, getting access to
47:12
those deals and and getting more members.
47:14
What are what would you think is sort of the number one biggest
47:18
lever in terms of growth that you've been able to pull while
47:22
you're there to increase the number of members, increase the
47:26
the deal flow well, so. I think deal flow for, I have to
47:32
be truly honest, you know, my partners Paul and Lorenzo, they,
47:38
they really do the majority of the deal sourcing and they do a
47:42
phenomenal job of sourcing that, that those deals.
47:45
They have built the relationships with the portfolio
47:48
companies and the, and the leads and things of that nature.
47:53
So I've got to give all the credit to my partners for the
47:56
sourcing, Paul. And Lorenzo do the.
47:59
Sourcing, but as far as bringing in like new members, right, it's
48:03
about creating that that platform, right.
48:07
So making sure that people are aware of Gangels and you know
48:10
our events do a lot of that right.
48:12
We, you know people, not only you know, we invite our members
48:16
and we tell our members to bring others.
48:18
The I mean the greatest source of of bringing in new.
48:23
Members. Is just referrals, right?
48:26
We do get some folks who have seen us on LinkedIn or, or have
48:31
seen us on a lot of cap tables and that they want to learn
48:35
more, but the vast majority of the time it just comes from
48:40
other referrals. Our, our membership growth has
48:43
been organic, but that doesn't mean that we didn't have to do
48:47
something in order to get those referrals right.
48:50
What we try to do is to ensure that our members feel engaged.
48:55
So it's, it's, it's holding those events, it's providing
48:59
them, you know, with value, whether it be access to our open
49:04
board positions or you know. Access to a very.
49:12
Cool company, right, It's, you know, or, or providing them with
49:19
really great network by all of the events we have or just
49:22
knowledge share right from the programs we run.
49:26
It's about not only providing value with deal flow, but
49:30
providing our providing value in multiple ways for our members so
49:35
that they can go to their friends and go, oh, you're
49:38
interested in investing in Gangel?
49:40
I mean in venture. Let me you know, you should look
49:43
at Gangels. They're really, you know,
49:45
they'll hold your hands. They have lots of deal flow.
49:48
You can learn more about the asset class.
49:51
You know, there's, there's more than just deals.
49:54
There's a whole community behind us they're sending you.
49:57
Customers, you know you're doing something right Jennifer, what's
50:02
a serious challenge that you've overcome in your life, personal
50:07
or professional how'd you get through it what did you learn
50:11
so. Being fully transparent, I
50:14
think, you know, being a first time CEO, right?
50:18
I'll never forget when you you go on guard and leave in
50:23
between, you know, the previous job to your your current job,
50:26
right. And I looked up all the lists of
50:30
top books that CEO's should be, you know, reading.
50:33
And I spent like those three weeks just reading, right?
50:38
And educating myself and trying to figure out like how, you
50:41
know, I read the first 90 days or the three things the CEO
50:45
should be focused on. I was educating myself on the
50:49
venture asset class, right? And I felt really confident
50:53
going into that first day, right?
50:56
And then you walk in and like, you know, you don't realize, I
50:59
guess, until you're in this, the, the sea that it can be a
51:04
little bit lonely, right? You know, my partners who are,
51:09
you know, who are essentially my bosses, they hired me to run the
51:13
company from a day-to-day perspective, right?
51:16
So they don't want to hear about my, you know, the challenges.
51:19
I mean, they always, I, I will say I've got phenomenal partners
51:23
that they want to help, but it's not really their job to help me
51:27
through challenges, right? And I can't really talk to the
51:30
team about some of my challenges, frustrations, right?
51:34
So I had to quickly learn other ways.
51:38
You know, being from JP Morgan, there was always like 10 other
51:41
people that had done my job, maybe in another line of
51:45
business. But you know, I always had
51:48
somebody you could go to your manager, you know, now all of a
51:50
sudden I'm the CEO and I felt like very vulnerable.
51:54
And so I had to really think about I got, you know, of what,
51:58
what, what am I going to do here?
52:00
Right? And so I got a coach, you know,
52:04
Amano, which I mentioned, we did her book signing just earlier
52:09
this week. She was phenomenal and helping
52:12
me navigate through certain challenges.
52:14
Like I'd give her very specific issues and she'd help me not she
52:19
wouldn't solve it, but she would tell me the right questions I
52:21
should be asking myself in order to get to the solution.
52:25
I also realized how important my network was.
52:28
So I immediately knew I had to really hit the pavement and
52:32
meeting as many people as I could, fund managers in the in
52:37
venture space, going to events, like really building that
52:40
network so that I had a group of people to go to when I, when I
52:47
was questioning myself or when I needed to understand how other
52:50
people solved it. And like you really learn very
52:54
quickly. Like I think being a CEO is sink
52:57
or swim, right? You either figure it out really
53:00
quickly. Your, your, what your tool kit
53:03
looks like or you let yourself drown.
53:08
And so, you know, I didn't want to drown.
53:10
This was really, really important to me.
53:13
So I built out that network. I got a coach.
53:17
I continued to read a lot about the asset class.
53:20
I asked the partners questions and, and stuff, but not, not to
53:24
be to burden them 'cause that's not their, that wasn't their
53:27
job. But really like building that
53:32
that. Network that could help.
53:34
Me be successful. I appreciate you giving.
53:37
Voice to all that because you know, I would surmise that as
53:40
people heard the first part of your story, you know you're
53:44
you're a fixer, you're a builder.
53:46
You kind of moved into all these different roles, solving all
53:48
these different big challenges at a giant company.
53:52
And, you know, Bear Stearns and then JP Morgan Chase, like, oh,
53:55
you know, she's got that thick skin.
53:58
She's just got, you know, the stuff that it takes like water
54:02
must roll off her back. Everything comes easy to her.
54:05
And now then, you know, a few years ago, you're put into a,
54:08
you know, your first time as Aceo and they think, oh, yeah,
54:12
of course, she's just going to fit right into that.
54:14
And it's like, well, no, Now all of a sudden you're alone at the
54:16
top. There's a pyramid.
54:18
There's one of you, right? You used to have, you know, at
54:21
JP Morgan, there were there were more of you or people around you
54:25
just now you're the person that everybody turns to.
54:27
And that's right. That was initially felt very
54:31
lonely, probably still feels lonely at times alienating like
54:34
who do I go to? Who's who's my support system?
54:37
And great that you found peers, right, that you're able to
54:41
connect with and talk to and share the same stories.
54:44
And then also great that you found a wonderful business
54:48
coach. And I think what was really
54:52
remarkable about the approach that they took that that you
54:54
mentioned here is that rather than just trying to give you the
54:57
answers, be like, hey, this is what you need to do.
55:01
They gave you the questions. That's right.
55:04
Jennifer. Here here's here's what you need
55:06
to ask yourself because. Nobody.
55:10
Knows the situation better than you do.
55:12
You can give all the details to your coach and bounce some ideas
55:16
around, but all the fine minute details and the gut feeling for
55:20
how this person fits into the structure and what's going on
55:24
with this deal. You're the only one who knows
55:26
that. So being able to give you sort
55:28
of more of the framework to help you make the decision seems like
55:31
it that was a lot more helpful to you.
55:33
Oh, and like it's. It goes back to that saying you
55:36
could either, if you teach, teach a person to fish, you feed
55:41
them forever, right. And so I, you know, I am so
55:44
blessed and I, I will say the partners were also, you know,
55:48
the partners like angels have, have been truly supportive too.
55:52
But it was really important for people to teach me how to think
55:56
as a CEO as opposed to giving me the answer.
55:59
So that when, when a similar challenge came up, I, I had that
56:04
like to, you know, framework to use to sort of get to my
56:08
solution. And then, you know, before I
56:11
knew it, I was, I would reach out to my coach and say, here is
56:14
the problem, Here is how I thought about it.
56:17
Here is what I came out with. Let me know your thoughts,
56:21
right? And she would say, no, this is
56:23
great. You're, you know, you're, you're
56:25
thinking about this in the right way, you know, and you know, I
56:29
would do the same with the partners, the same with my
56:31
mentors. I can, I still use them.
56:34
I still use everybody. I, you know, I'm a continuous
56:38
learner. I, you know, I will be learning
56:42
until, you know, the day I retire, and probably well beyond
56:46
that. I don't, you know, 'cause nobody
56:49
knows everything. And not only that, but we're in
56:51
such changing times that there's so much, there's gonna be so
56:56
much new information tomorrow that in order for me to stay on
57:01
top, I'm just gonna have to keep learning.
57:05
So like, I just, that's why I think learning frameworks is
57:09
more important than just getting fed answers.
57:12
What advice would you? Have for somebody who is either
57:15
going through or about to go through a similar kind of
57:17
transition. They have been a fixer, they've
57:20
been a builder, they've been a doer, they've gotten stuff done,
57:23
and now they're stepping into the ultimate leadership role for
57:26
the first time. How do you think like ACEO?
57:32
So I would say #1. Do it scared, Did you say do it
57:37
scared? Yes.
57:39
So. You know, and it's a I'm a big
57:41
fan of Jennifer Lopez and she says that all the time.
57:44
She was like, it's not that I'm not scared.
57:46
I just do it scared. So the first, so the first thing
57:49
I would say is don't sell yourself short, right?
57:53
You know, you know, when the role came up, I, you know, I
57:57
could have looked and went, I've never been a CEO before.
58:01
I don't know. Venture.
58:02
Yeah, I've not been in that venture space.
58:04
Yeah, I've been in the banking space.
58:08
I can't do this, right. Or, you know, I don't know if I
58:11
can do this. I just go.
58:13
All right, number one, you know what, I think I really want this
58:16
opportunity. I'm going to do it and I'll go
58:18
figure it out, right. So the first thing is like, just
58:24
recognize that you're going to walk into that you're going to
58:26
be scared you're not going to know everything and that you
58:30
just and have faith in your abilities that you'll be able to
58:34
figure it out, right? That would be advice number one.
58:40
Advice 2 is read, you know, read books on topics that you want to
58:47
learn. You know, immerse.
58:49
Like it's sort of like learning a new language when they say,
58:53
yeah, Duolingo is great, but you're not going to learn the
58:56
language unless you immerse yourself in it.
58:58
And I would say whatever role that you're about to take,
59:02
you've got to take that time to really immerse yourself in it,
59:06
understand the product or you know, what it is that you're
59:09
what kind of company you're going into.
59:13
Find people who have done it before you and ask them
59:17
questions. And again, you know, I probably
59:21
was so annoying in the beginning when I was at networking events,
59:24
like, you know, talking to, you know, waiting online for a fund
59:28
manager or waiting online to talk to somebody and, you know,
59:32
build that rapport. But I knew I needed that, right?
59:37
And then I'd say it just be, you know, and then not.
59:40
And then I also think the first 90 days, that book, I loved it,
59:44
right? It it really gives you yes.
59:47
It gives you a. Framework of how you go into a
59:50
company like you should really spend your first like couple of
59:53
weeks like definitely the first week just listening.
59:58
No, you know. I and I remember this at JP
1:00:02
Morgan, every once in a while, a leader would come in, write a
1:00:06
new, you know, senior leader would come in and before they
1:00:10
actually learned because they wanted to make a mark on that
1:00:13
department, they started changing things up really
1:00:16
quickly, right. You know, the first thing is to
1:00:19
just sit there. You know, if you're going into
1:00:22
CEO role, talk to all the people you need to talk to that first
1:00:25
week and you know, know the question, you ask them all the
1:00:28
same questions so that then you could see you could sort of, you
1:00:32
know, see where there are variations or where this company
1:00:36
is really aligned right. I learned that from the 1st 90
1:00:40
days. So I thought that was
1:00:41
tremendously helpful. So if you're going into a new
1:00:43
company for I highly recommend 1st 90 days regardless if you're
1:00:47
going to be the CEO or not. I think it's a good way to to
1:00:50
think about how you approach the first few weeks of you going
1:00:54
into a company. But again, it is like really
1:00:59
listening for the first couple of weeks, understanding what
1:01:03
people's concerns are, what their biggest pain points are so
1:01:06
that you can make that assessment.
1:01:08
And then lastly is just like continue always think about your
1:01:12
network and, and level up your network.
1:01:15
I will, you know, I'm always thinking about what's the next
1:01:19
thing I want to learn and who are the people that can teach me
1:01:21
that and how do I meet them? And you know, what are the
1:01:26
events I need to go to? What are the groups I need to
1:01:28
join just so that I can get that additional level of knowledge?
1:01:34
But I mean, listen and like I said, but most importantly, like
1:01:38
don't let being scared stop you, you know, just recognize, you
1:01:42
know, get comfortable beat. Another saying is get
1:01:45
comfortable being uncomfortable in the beginning days and just
1:01:48
think, as long as you're doing, as long as you have like sort of
1:01:51
a process and you know, and you're, you're trying every day
1:01:56
to like work through it, you know, eventually, I mean, I
1:02:00
believe I'll, I will always eventually solve for it.
1:02:03
Always eventually solve for it. Jennifer, I've just got one
1:02:06
more. Question for you, but before I
1:02:07
ask it, I want to do 2 things. First, I'm going to invite
1:02:10
everyone to go ahead and hit the follow button on their favorite
1:02:12
podcast app. We've had a great interview
1:02:14
today with Jennifer Geronimo from Gangels, and I want you to
1:02:17
continue to get more great conversations like this going
1:02:21
forward. Jennifer, I also want to let
1:02:22
people know the best way to get in touch with you or to continue
1:02:27
following your story. Yeah, well.
1:02:30
I mean, you could reach out to me on LinkedIn.
1:02:34
You can become a member of Angels and then reach out to me.
1:02:38
Well, that's if you, I mean, I don't want people to become
1:02:40
member of Angels just to meet me.
1:02:42
But if they're interested in Venture and they're, you know,
1:02:46
join Angels, hit me up on LinkedIn.
1:02:51
Those are sort of the two best ways to get in touch with me and
1:02:55
tell me, you know, what it is that you're interested in
1:02:58
hearing. And I'm I'm always happy to talk
1:03:01
to anybody who wants to chat with me.
1:03:03
We'll include links to both. Gangels.com as well as your
1:03:06
LinkedIn profile on the show notes for folks.
1:03:09
The last question I want to ask you, Jennifer, as you look to
1:03:12
the future, maybe the next two to three years, where would you
1:03:14
like to take Gangels? Where would you like to see it
1:03:17
be in the next 24 to 36 months? So.
1:03:22
I think you know, really continuing to have the best deal
1:03:27
flow, you know, I think you know, continuing to increase
1:03:34
our, you know, our membership and giving people access to
1:03:39
venture capital to continue educating folks on the venture
1:03:46
asset class. I would love angels to be known
1:03:49
as a really safe place for people to learn about the asset
1:03:54
class, especially if they've never, you know, been been in it
1:03:58
before, because I think it's, you know, we make it accessible.
1:04:03
We give lots of options and, you know, and you know, we've got
1:04:08
lots of deal flow and, you know, and eventually I'd, you know,
1:04:13
ultimately like to see that we don't care about diversity
1:04:16
because we live in Utopia and all companies, you know, have,
1:04:21
you know, have diverse teams and things of that nature.
1:04:26
So that's what I'd, you know, I'd love to get to Utopia at
1:04:29
some point, but you know, and I'd love to see women getting a
1:04:33
lot more than 2% funding. I love it.
1:04:37
Good stuff. Jennifer Geronimo from Gangels,
1:04:40
I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your
1:04:42
time and your story with us today.
1:04:44
I really appreciate it. Awesome.
1:04:47
It was a pleasure. Talking with you, Anthony.
1:04:49
Thank you for having me folks. That's a wrap on another.
1:04:52
Episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:04:55
Thanks for learning with us today.