For too long, female-forward founders and businesses have been overlooked and underfunded, in spite of a plethora of data and information that shows companies are better off with diverse leadership. As women supporting women, we’re unapologetic about being female-forward. This isn’t just a theme or a trend, we believe it’s what it takes to create change.
Our Misson
Generate outsized returns by capturing underserved market opportunity in female-led businesses.
Create a robust investment pipeline towards female founders’ best ideas.
Reinforce the voice of female founders through a balance of strategic investment and advisory support.
Pool investment dollars to close wealth gaps and catalyze opportunity among overlooked potential investors.
Lend industry and operational advisory network to portfolio investments to spur success.
Our Team
“What if we built something to change the amount of investment dollars that are allocated to female founded companies?”
Sheila, Mercedee and Lauren met in business school, but it wasn’t until a conversation after graduation that they realized their shared mission. In the middle of a catch up call, the conversation shifted to some of the trends that were pointed out in a finance class. The call quickly shifted to a realization and strategizing: if few dollars are allocated towards female founders, we would have a competitive advantage with returns AND can start to address the problem.
Sheila Bangalore
Chief Legal and Strategy Officer
Sheila Bangalore is a board member and former public company C-level executive with global business experience spanning public and private multinational technology (B2B/C), and specialty materials businesses over 20+ years. Presently, Ms. Bangalore serves as a non-executive director for Games Global Limited, a private global gaming company, where she chairs the Risk & Compliance Committee and sits on the Nominations and Audit Committees, and also as a Venture Partner at Springtide Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on investment in cutting-edge healthcare technology businesses. Previously, Ms. Bangalore served as Chief Strategy Officer, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of MP Materials (NYSE: MP), a regulated specialty materials company she helped take public in 2020. MP’s IPO raised $545 million in capital. At MP, Ms. Bangalore promoted ESG and optimization strategies while overseeing legal, compliance and corporate governance on behalf of the company. Prior to MP, spent close to 15 years in senior legal and business roles to grow the mobile footprint at Zappos.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon, and to support scaling gaming technology businesses at Aristocrat Technologies, a global gaming technology company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Aristocrat Leisure Limited (ASX: ALL), and Bally Technologies, a global gaming technology company and wholly-owned subsidiary of Light and Wonder (NASDAQ: LNW). Ms. Bangalore received her MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania; her Juris Doctorate from the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis; and her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Tufts University.
Mercedee Hutton
Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG)
Mercedee Renz Hutton is a thought leader in the field of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG), with fifteen years’ experience achieving social impact via innovative go-to-market strategies, business development, and metrics-based change management.
She has spent the past six years at Dell Technologies, currently heading up ESG Governance and Disclosure, and previously lead on sustainability service and product development, customer engagements on ESG, and internal ESG education and support. Prior to Dell, for ten years Mercedee was a marketing and communications manager and consultant for small and non-profit organizations.
She holds a MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, with majors in Finance, Data Analytics, and Management, and two humanities degrees, a B.A., magna cum laude from the University of Texas at Dallas, and an M.A. from Richmond, The American International University in London.
Lauren Schmidt
Portfolio Manager
As a current portfolio manager of a public venture fund, Lauren is an expert at evaluating a company’s go to market strategy, and designing a well balanced portfolio to appropriately manage risk and reward. As the former Chief Business Officer at an orthopedic device company, Lauren has overseen the sales, marketing and financial strategies for a healthcare start up.
She has also consulted with several other small companies in the healthcare space. She holds her undergraduate degree from Stanford University, and an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”
– Ruth Bader Ginsburg
