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It's been a year since All Raise emerged with the support of dozens of the most powerful women of venture capital. The 34 founding members had an ambitious goal: to double the capital of founding women in five years and double the representation of VC women in 10 years.
After a few experiments, some trial and error and the first "Women Who Venture Summit", All Raise is strengthening its reputation as a force for change in Silicon Valley. Over the past 12 months, the organization has been connecting high-level VCs with founders through its "Female Founder Office Hours", sensitizing founders to diversity with the Founders for Change campaign and partnering from general male partners to nascent female investors with its VC Champions program.
Now, 501 (c) (3) is ready for his next act. As part of a campaign to formalize the organization and get more support in the form of money, All Raise Pam Kostka, a veteran operator in Silicon Valley, was hired by her first general manager (photo). Kostka – the former CEO of Loop, a now-defunct social media app for students, and start-up Bluebox Security, backed by Andreessen Horowitz – joins another full-time employee of All Raise, director Communications, Steffi Wu, who joined early March after six years in Gusto.
They are looking for offices in San Francisco large enough to accommodate their growing team – All Raise plans to hire five to six people imminently – and to organize events that can accommodate all of their members. For now, they are establishing temporary offices in various venture capital partners. When I met Kostka and Wu last week, they were working in a conference room in the Reach Capital office in San Francisco.
Kostka and Wu work a lot at night and on weekends too, they said, because that is when the rest of the All Raise community, a group of busy and full time investors, is able to write comments on initiatives and give direction: "We are two people and yet we have these incredibly connected and capable resources that amplify the organization. It's amazing, "Kostka told TechCrunch in an in-depth conversation about All Raise's future projects, published below for clarity and accuracy.
All Raise looks thin, but its founders, including Aileen Lee of Cowboy Venture, Jess Lee of Sequoia Capital and Kirsten Green of Forerunner Venture, are pbadionate and committed. Aileen Lee told TechCrunch that Kostka was the person they were waiting for after a nine-month long search with the CEO. "She is product-oriented, has a deep knowledge of the business world and has always evolved with a small team. She can take All Raise to the next level, "said Lee.
"What we are trying to do is quite different from other non-profit models," said Lee. "If we're lucky, it could have similarities with TED. TED is organizing a large conference bringing together a large number of people and sharing many ideas. You can go to TED.com and watch a conference. We want to make All Raise accessible in this way so that people can learn from us and be inspired, or that they can lead a workshop or book club, wherever they are. "
Lee adds that part of All Raise's maturation and expansion efforts is to put more emphasis on diversity, which she now admits to within the organization. Lolita Taub of Backstage Capital and Julia Collins, co-founder of Zume Pizza, lead this effort through the All Raise Intersection Working Group. Meanwhile, as All Raise reflects on national and possibly international expansion plans, he expects his members to offer their expertise where appropriate. Dream Machine founder and former TechCrunch editor Alexia Bonatsos, for example, donates her writing skills to help All Raise refine her content strategy.
The ecosystem of venture capital firms and startups is expected to see much more going on this year as Kostka puts all its growth effort into the growth of All Raise. Here are more TechCrunch discussions with the very first CEO of All Raise.
Kate Clark: All Raise is a non-profit organization, but she walks and talks like a startup …
Pam Kostka: Yes, we manage it as a startup, which links it to my past. This seems very geared towards startups. We have key objectives, we have OKRs that we put in place, we use a lean process methodology to test, refine, pilot, test, refine, pilot, test, refine before deploying things. There are probably many more things under the covers than now. We will go out a lot in 2019.
K: It looks like you're in the right place then. Still, All Raise is a 501 (c) (3) business and not a for-profit business. What made you decide to leave the world of startups?
PK: I just had a big birthday some time ago and I wondered what I wanted to do with my next 10 to 15 years in Silicon Valley. What is the most important job I can do? I really wanted to do something that made sense to me and I followed All Raise since their launch. I do not think you can be a Silicon Valley woman without being connected to this cause. For me, there is no more meaningful thing to which I can devote my time and that makes somehow the success and support that I have had during my career, and I hope to strengthen it for the generations to come. I have a nine year old daughter. She is interested in STEM. If she chooses to come in that direction, I want it to be different for her.
KC: When did you come to Silicon Valley?
PK: I started my career here more than 20 years ago, in 1995 – in the era of e-commerce – and I have held several roles in different startups, from product management to marketing. going through the sale, usually on the business side, but focusing on companies that: were doing something disruptive. [All Raise] That's probably one of the biggest challenges I've identified because it's not about changing a company or changing a sector, it's about changing an ecosystem.
KC: Now that All Raise has his first CEO, does he have any big hiring plans?
PK: We will definitely hire more people. So there is a job vacancy that is actively recruited, which is a data strategist. We believe that data is at the heart of what we do. We need to report numbers, our progress and the impact we have on women and their funding.
KC: I know that Melinda Gates donated $ 4 million last year, via Pivotal Ventures, Silicon Valley Bank, EY and others, but is there any plan to raise funds? additional?
PK: Yes, the intention is in a few months, once I have my legs under the sea, to go back and rear. I was a fundraiser and I thought part of my call was to understand what it means to sit in an operator's chair, as well as interact with the private sector community. I feel empathy for both sides of the equation, and I have personally experienced the challenges of technology in trying to raise money.
KC: What can we expect from All Raise in 2019?
PK: Right now, we are focusing on funders and founders. We offer all kinds of programs, initiatives, education and awareness that really help women in these two communities develop, but also bring them together in a more meaningful way. That's the short-term goal and we're looking at a lot of things in the long run. This year, you will see much of the work invested in 2018 come to fruition and be exposed.
KC: Last year, All Raise hosted its first ever Women Who Venture Summit, an incredibly magical and historic moment that put more VC women in the same room than ever before. Will it come back in 2019?
PK: Yes, we plan to bring this event back and amplify it even more. It was awesome and I call it a great first year. We are now reviewing all our lessons and trying to expand them. I think 400 people were able to attend this event. We want to organize a bigger event, invite more and more people and create that kind of inclusive tent that everyone can come to. We will also make a parallel for the founders, then try to bring these two groups together, again, to create this empathy between these two entities. It is an absolutely crucial event and you will see us doing it every year.
10 of the 32 founding members of All Raise
KC: What do you think of the status of financing women entrepreneurs and the number of women in business?
PK: I do not think it's a coincidence that All Raise started a year ago and we have since moved the needle, but we did not do it, not far away. In 2018, we went from 9% to 11% of female placement partners. That being said, of the 720 US venture capital firms, 70% still do not have a single partner around the table.
KC: Let's talk about diversity. All Raise has supported hundreds of women, but the majority of VCs are white and Asian. Can All Raise do more to promote other under-represented groups?
PK: We need to have more diversity around the table. By doing this, we will discover opportunities that we simply do not have because we do not represent the population. Intersectionality is one of our initiatives to move forward in 2019 and it's a big one. This is an important question for me; I took advantage of privileges that are simply not available to women of color. So we created a working group on intersectionality within our organization with Julia Collins. [co-founder of] Zoom Pizza and Lolita Taub from Backstage Capital. These two elements help us to define a whole series of programs and initiatives, events and partnerships that can incorporate intersectionality into our discussions.
One of the things we are thinking about right now is how to eliminate the need for a warm introduction for people who do not even start accessing the network. How can we introduce these people to the risk community, regardless of gender or race? How can we get these introductions for Latinx and people of color in the risk community?
Promotional material for an All Raise event in 2018
KC: What is your goal for 2019?
PK: To bottle and boost this community. I think there is a stereotype that women do not help women. There is some of that happening in the pockets, and that is understandable. But there was something so special every time I interviewed and replaced the post at All Raise. I just felt that kind of warm hug that made me think where have you been all my life. I attended all these meetings and I left with this feeling that if you had been in my career, I would have felt much less alone, much less alone. And I would have had this network of people to go ask questions, get advice and who could help me in my career.
KC: Where would you like to see All Raise in five years?
PK: I would like us to reach our indicators and our goals. We have these two key initiatives, which are to double the representation of VC women around the table in 10 years and double the funding for women in five years. We must continue to strive for these goals and we measure ourselves every day.
KC: Where did All Raise get all that momentum? Why now?
PK: There was a group of women who were tired of the status quo, who looked around and saw the headlines and said to each other: It's time to do something. I saw the flow of emails, it was instant, the answer [Aileen Lee] obtained from his female peers. It's been so long since my arrival in Silicon Valley in 1995 to now. I do not think we are in a moment. I think we created a movement.
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