spire

Fortune Staff

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

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Spire

Clay Dillow

Here’s why small satellites are so big right now

https://fortune.com/2015/08/04/small-satellites-newspace/

Benjamin Snyder

PepsiCo launches ‘Spire’ self-serve dispenser

https://fortune.com/2014/05/19/pepsico-launches-spire-self-serve-dispenser/

Robert Reffkin talks about how he can turn losses to profits at the real estate brokerage firm he founded and how civil rights leader Vernon Jordan inspired his career.

Compass CEO: “2023 will be the last year of the housing correction”

Leadership

Robert Reffkin talks about how he can turn losses to profits at the real estate brokerage firm he founded & how civil rights leader Vernon Jordan inspired him.

Compass CEO: 2023 will be last year of housing correction

so great to meet you robert to talk about compass. You know, you've gotten a lot of attention for starting a real estate brokerage company from scratch and making it the go to brokerage for buyers and sellers from new york city to Los Angeles. You made news a year ago when you took compass public on the new york stock exchange and You earned evaluation of $7 billion 12 months have been tough the next 18 months. I fear that they can be tougher. What changed what happened? The real estate market in 2021 was a record year for agents in the overall industry. But policymakers started raising rates to bring down inflation. And what that did to mortgage rates is it brought us from an all time historical low in January to 20 year high in less than nine months, which really put the brakes on the real estate market. Alright, so on on that point, what's your turnaround plan? The turnaround plan is very clear. Uh it is bringing down our expenses along with the market, but our strategy is the same. We're still focused on hiring the best agents, 18% of the top 1000 agents of country or a compass. The company sells or leases the home on average, once a minute, we sell twice the, the average per agent and we have 30,000 agents in the country. And we, we as a company are building the best platform of tools, services and programs to help them grow their business and best serve their clients? The big question is, when are you an eternal profits? Yeah. So we made a commitment to our investors where we said on the last call that we're committed to being free casual positive next year, 2023, we feel very good about the progress in the path. And we're actually assuming the market is going to be worse than the average Of the analysts out there because we want to have a buffer just in case it's worse than people expect. It's clear that there were things that you had no control over policy makers, you know, raising interest rates, the inflation issues. But compass has just celebrated its ten-year anniversary and through that whole 10 years, you never turned a profit. Why is that? And so as a private company raised $1.5 billion dollars and all of those investors, they invested in the company with a mandate to focus on growth, in expanding the company over profit. That was the time of that period over the last year, the market really shifted to focus on profit overgrowth. And we're shifting with that market. Uh, and we're bringing down our expenses accordingly with the real estate market and we're pausing expansion so that we can create profit without having to expand and invest again and again again in new markets. One of the things that differentiated companies from a lot of other real estate firms is that you created this tech software platform, Do you think you got your money's worth? You spent almost a billion dollars to develop that. Would you have done that differently at Compass? We created the first con to close platform where a real estate agent can go from first contact, putting their client into a crm all the way through the buy and sell side process to their transaction management. Getting paid. There's no other place other than Compass where that can be done. We're very proud of that investment and you can see that the agents that use the platform the most grow their business and stay. Encompass the most. But do you think you got your money's worth for that $1 billion development. My mom has been an agent the majority of my life, she's an agent today at compass and I saw her move from firm to firm to firm, always hoping she would get the support and tools that she could realize her dreams as an entrepreneur build her business and best serve her clients. And so I created compass with the sole desire of how can we be best in the world and making agents better and agents are using over 700 tools in this country every single day. But no industry should have to use all these different tools, average 11 tools. We built it all in one place to make it easier for them to do their job. I understand that you gave an upbeat speech recently to thousands of your real estate agents in Atlanta and your message was personal emotional and you encourage them to embrace one of your entrepreneurial principles bounced back with passion and you guys standing ovation. Well, how do you bounce back? Well, I think there's mindset and actions on mindset, you have to know that there's opportunity everywhere around you and so regardless of the challenge, what's the good news and so, okay, it's a really difficult real estate market. Well, the good news is 18% of the top 1000 agents of country or a compass and historically the best agents always getting market share in a downturn. That's great. That's the good news. I give plenty of examples like that. Um, and as it comes to the actual company and our actions, like I said before, we're going to bring down our expense base, The real estate market will bounce back and is we keep our expense base at a moderate level. That will create a lot of opportunity for profit in the years to come. Well, let's talk a little bit about the housing market and pivot away from just compass. How long do you expect this housing correction to last? I think Next year, 20, will be the last year of the housing correction and I think we'll even see a rebound towards the end of next year. There's still buyers that are out there. They've just been sitting on the sidelines a little bit because there's just record volatility and mortgage rates and a lot of volatility in the stock market Robert. Let's talk a little bit about you. Some of the words you use to describe yourself, hardworking, perseverance, optimistic. Those characteristics have not only propelled compass, but also you in amazing ways compass broke into the Fortune 500 this year you're the first black founder on the list ever to make the list. And there are only six black Ceo on the Fortune 500 you're one of them. What did it take for you to achieve so much? And at such a young age we have eight compass on first principles. The first one is dream big. And so I think I've always been a big dreamer. I'm from Berkeley California. I moved to new york because it's the city of dreams where anything can happen. Uh and I remember when I was an intern during my first summer, I went to Columbia University and I saw who was the Ceo of American Express and he was one of the first black Ceos that was in the Fortune 500. And just seeing him in that role made me think I could accomplish more. Uh, it made me feel like more was possible. And so I think I've tried to do my best to dream big and stay positive uh and have a lot of role models like him who helped pave the way for me. Well growing up, you were raised by your mother and you say that she inspired and encouraged you. What was the most important lesson that you learned from her and how has that guided you? My mom is an entrepreneur, she's a real estate agent today, she's been an agent my entire life. The first half is a life insurance agent, the second half is a real estate agent. And so I think the best lesson I got from her is that no matter how many times you fail, you just got to get back up and I just saw through her that failure isn't a hard thing, it just makes you better and you just, and if you can keep trying and trying again, you'll eventually succeed. You worked in many places before you started your own business, Mckinsey Goldman Sachs Lazard and even when I worked at the White House and you say that you had many mentors along the way, you were always asking for their advice. One of those mentors was vernon Jordan who's famous for advising so many american presidents and he also was an investment banker at Lazard, which is one of the firms that you were working at, I'm sure you learned a lot from him, but what would you say is the best leadership advice that he ever gave you, it wasn't just the advice, it was the confidence. I think at that age when I was in my early twenties, I had this thing in my mind of, you know, I can't do this, I can't do that. And for one reason or another. And then I saw this six ft six powerful black leader who was on more fortune 500 boards than anyone in the history of the United States. And it became clear to me I can do whatever I want. Yeah. He walked in Martha King and came from the segregated south to advising Bill Clinton and working in the White House. Uh, and if he can do that, I can realize my dreams and he interests me to the White House fellows program. He told me to apply like his good friend Colin Powell. And that really changed the trajectory of my life.

Thasunda Brown Duckett is serious about change: "I want to make an impact and to inspire"

TIAA's New CEO: "The Buck Stops With Me"

santa. So great to see you and to talk about your plans for A. T. I. A. And let's begin with the question that's top of mind for everyone these days, how do I protect my retirement savings with the stock market selling off and the U. S. Economy in trouble? What are you and your financial advisors telling people to do? You're right, our participants are calling us. Um They have lots of questions and what we're telling them is to remember that it's about the long game that we're talking about their retirement income. And the most important advice is to stay invested and to remember that at T. I. A. They have exposure to guaranteed income, guaranteed lifetime income. And so with that other feature within their asset allocation they can have confidence, they can withstand the market volatility. Well you know for many people this is their first time experiencing a bear market and it's scary to see that the money that you've been saving a lot of it it's just disappearing and it doesn't help that every day there's a new prediction that a recession is coming. So this is emotional for many people. So what are the smart moves that you say that people should be doing in difficult times like this? Well money is emotional. Um And so I think it's important when we are talking to them to meet them where they are, there's a lot that's on people's minds but what's important for them to know is to stay contributing to their retirement plan To don't cut short their contributions to their four oh one K. Or 43 B secondly to make sure that they are talking to us as their trusted advisor to make sure that they can have confidence in their asset allocation and knowing that it is going to have some market volatility and we're experiencing at all. But again to stay invested for the long term. And then lastly to make sure that as they are having these concerns even when they hang out with us to call us back or we'll follow up and check in on you staying calm and staying invested is I think some of the most important things that we can tell our participants to do you know since you became ceo of T. I. A. It's a year now you said your priority is to help people save for retirement and to retire with dignity and to get there. You're talking about closing the gender pay gap, closing the racial wealth gap and closing the retirement savings gap, what's the first step in closing all those gaps? Well the first step in closing the gap is asking every american a basic question, are you on track to retire? And by asking that question will bring awareness to an issue that many of us are not proximate to. And so when I think about that question, once we are getting out there and talking about the gap, talking about the statistics, the next step is to make sure that we're connecting with people in a way that they can take action at work asking your company do I have benefits like a four oh one K. And 43 B. Plan. Am I contributing? Can I contribute one more dollar so that I can get the benefit of compounding and starting to get on a path to being able to secure my retirement? And so yes, it's a big lofty goal and there are questions that we want to make sure every individual is asking. But then there's the accountability that we're asking ourselves and saying, what do we have to do differently in order to accelerate our role in being able to close the wealth gap and that's what we're focused on doing at T. I. A. So many people are so impressed with what you've been doing. I'm sure you hear this all the time and there are high expectations for you to be a change agent. I mean after all, you're one of only 44 Female seals on the Fortune 500 and you're one of only two black women ceo on that list. You're smart, you're energetic. I mean, it's no wonder that people are looking to you for leadership. How do you feel about this responsibility and how much do you think you really can change? Well, first no one could put more of an expectation than what I put on myself in terms of the responsibility. Too much is given much is required and the fact that I am one of only two is progress And still more progress to be done. But I would also say that it is not just my responsibility alone or the 41 women that are leading Fortune 500 responsibility alone. It's also the responsibility of the boards of all the companies that may not have the level of representation as well as my allies and my counterparts that are leading companies to making sure that as a collective, we're all doing our part to make sure that we're making progress. You know, one word I hear you using a lot is intentionality. Um talk us through what that means to you and why is it so important? Intentionality? Is everything operating with intentionality means you're not going to stop at the problem. It means we're going to say, what actions can we take? It means that we're going to disaggregate the data. We're going to look at our policies and process. It does not take an external event to make us get focused. Its inherent to who we are when we operate with intentionality. That is the only way that progress can be done. And with intentionality, you're going to think about sustainability. Not just a moment in time. So intentionality is the only way progress can be done, especially when you're talking about gender and racial gaps. Let's talk a little bit more about intentionality because you bring that up when you talk about your goals for diversity and inclusion and when I spoke with your predecessor ceo roger Ferguson, he was extremely intentional on this issue. What more do you want to do at T. I. A Well, I want to continue that level of intentionality. Um it's at the heart of who we are and with intentionality means that you're relentless about the problem that needs to be solved. Your relentless of understanding what are the actions that we need to take and your relentless about tracking the outcomes. And you understand that the job is never done. It is with that intention, that progress can be made. Well, just about every Ceo I interview these days in this post pandemic world that we are in. Uh I was talking about how they're accelerating their goals for diversity and inclusion on the board, on the executive team and with their new employee hires. Are you encouraged? But what you see is going on or what more do you want to see? I'm very encouraged and I'm encouraged because I fundamentally believe that talent is created equally. Opportunity is not. And so when I see progress at the board level, when I see progress at the C suite level, that's telling me that we are opening the aperture of talent, we're not compromising, we're not watering down. We're actually expanding. And what I think we're going to see in the long term is that we're going to see more innovation. We're going to see the ability for leaders to tackle the toughest problems because we're gonna have a diverse group of people at the table running companies and for that, that leaves me very optimistic. Well you have a tremendous opportunity to groom the next generation of leaders. Not only is your company maybe, but at many other companies. So what kinds of things are you already doing to make that happen? Well, you know, one of the old sayings is that you have to reach as you climb. And I hope that I am modeling what A CEO can look like and how a CEO can lead in creating additional chapters so that every young person can see themselves, not just in the Ceo that have come before me, but also within what I represent. And it's important to make sure that young people understand that there is not one path to starting in corporate America and there's not one path to ascend. What's most important is that you are authentic, that you connect to your history to your perspective and you bring your voice And that you give yourself permission to go for the job regardless if you see someone who looks like you or not because you maybe that first Trailblazer, I'm sure a lot of women look at you with all and say what do I need to do to become the ceo of a Fortune 500 company. I mean what do you say to that? I mean, what advice do you have for young women who are ambitious and want to get ahead and bu I mean the same advice that I share with women I share with men in terms of of course, first you want to be intellectually curious, you want to do your job with excellent, you want to be bold. But when I think about the nuances of being a woman, I think about the mental gymnastics that were in my head. And so what I would share, two women get the mental gymnastics out of your head. I know that you are worthy and deserving and that your voice is required and necessary and know that when you walk into a room and you may be the only, don't lean back, pull up the chair, sit next to the person at the table and make sure you're bringing your voice and your perspective. You told an audience of business leaders recently that this is an exciting time to lead, tell us why you feel that way. What I feel so incredibly proud of being a Ceo at this moment and at this time is that we get to tackle some of the toughest issues like mental health. We get to tackle the acceleration of technology and how that can unlock greater innovation, what it means to work and how do you work? And we are at the forefront of tackling one of America's toughest problems, which is to retire inequality. So yes, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of headwinds, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to be in the car driving it. Well, how is this different way of leading then the many years that you were leaving at Jpmorgan where you were a top executive there, What's different, well what's different is the buck stops with me, you know, at Jpmorgan Chase, I was one of the lieutenants, but Jamie Diamond was at the helm and so being able to come into T. I a building on Rogers success, but also all the learnings from someone like Jamie Diamond or Gordon smith. I'm able to bring all of that to Tia as well as my own talents and my own strength that I've been able to accumulate over the years and lead well in all those years that you were working at Jpmorgan, you had a lot of contact with Ceo Jamie Diamond and you said there were a lot of learning what was the most important learning or lessons that you learned from Jamie, I've learned so much from Jamie um he definitely is one of the most impactful ceo of our time and what I can tell you is that when I was named Ceo T I a Jamie checks in on me. Jamie, even though I'm no longer at Jpmorgan Chase, he's one of the people that checks in to see how I'm doing. He's one of the people that will read what's going on at TIA and give me his perspective and thoughts and so what I value and appreciate is that he's always being a teacher and he's always and continues to be available to ensure that hopefully the impact I was able to provide at Jpmorgan Chase, I'm able to do that on an even greater level here at T. I. A. You also tell many stories about your parents and the big influence they had on you and on your success. I mean what did you learn about leadership from your parents and how did it guide you? My parents are my biggest inspiration when I think about leadership, they taught me resilience, they taught me empathy, they taught me courage, they taught me to reach for the moon because even if I miss, I would be among the Stars. Ultimately they said that I have a voice and that I can make impact. That's what they taught me. Well. You know, you're working at a legendary company, C. I A as you mentioned a moment ago, has been around for more than 100 years. So how do you want people to describe your years of ceo, how do you want them to describe your mark as a leader? I want to make impact and I want to inspire and having the opportunity to lead a company like T I. A I get to inspire people every single day, inspire them to never lose sight of our North star to be the best version of themselves to deliver for our clients, and ultimately, that will drive impact impact for our participants impact to continue to have P A. B. Such an impact maker for the next 100 years, but also the ability to impact people's lives on a personal level. That's what I hope people will remember me for or my legacy, inspiring and making impact lasting impact.

Presented by: Denise Bradley-Tyson, Founder and CEO, Inspired Luxe
Dr. Paul Farmer, posthumously
Accepting Award: Didi Bertrand Farmer, Senior Adviser, Partners in Health; Co-founder and President, The Women and Girls Initiative

Fortune Brainstorm Health Bernard J. Tyson Memorial Award

Conferences

Presented by: Denise Bradley-Tyson, Founder and CEO, Inspired Luxe
Dr. Paul Farmer, posthumously
Accepting Award: Didi Bertrand Farmer

Fortune Brainstorm Health Bernard J. Tyson Memorial Award


My first aria is a short one from Rigoletto. Um thank you and it really is wonderful to be with you all the former Ceo of Kaiser Permanente, the late Bernard Tyson believed in the interdependence of equity, community health and well being. He championed a holistic approach to health care, asserting that we needed to treat the whole person, the mental and physical well being were one and the same. Bernard believes believes strongly in the key role that social determinants play in health, and he believes that improving the lives of others requires a steady focus on the social and economic conditions that surround them. His wisdom and vision resonate as we emerge from the Covid pandemic amid strains on our public health system, concerns over access to care and worsening mental health, all issues we've been talking about today and one of the central themes of this year's brainstorm health, our global interconnectedness speaks to Bernard's enduring values as well. Bernard is, as many of you know, died in 2019, he was a great friend to me personally and to us at fortune, brainstorm health and we miss him dearly to celebrate his work and memory. Fortune created the Bernard J. Tyson Memorial Award, bestowing it upon leaders who echo Bernard's values and actions promoting social well being as an integral part of human health. Bernard's widow Denise Bradley. Tyson was was going to be with with us tonight to present this year's a word as she has nearly or every year rather. And she even rearranged her schedule to be with us from Uruguay to do so. But unfortunately, she just tested positive for Covid and is unable to join us and we're happy to report that she's doing okay. But the impact of Bernard's work knew no boundaries and that certainly is true for the recipient of this year's Bernard J. Tyson Memorial Leadership Award. Dr paul Farmer who died earlier this year. Dr Farmer saved countless lives and changed medicine with his tireless efforts on behalf of the poor and the underserved. Starting in Haiti treating patients with multi drug resistant tuberculosis and expanding his care and his teaching to other under to people in other under resourced countries leading by example, Dr Farmer dedicated his life to improving public health and access to quality health care in regions that the world too often ignores. In this way. He challenged and reduced health disparities suffered by the forgotten, bringing hope and improved health to the many communities that he touched. We're so very, very pleased to welcome this evening DD Bertrand Farmer, Senior advisor at Partners in Health, founder of the Women and Girls Initiative and widow of the late paul Farmer DD. If you would please come to the stage. Right, thank you. Yeah, Stevie, we would be honored if you would accept the brainstorm health Bernard J. Tyson Memorial Award on behalf of all thanks. The best part is thank you so much. Good evening. It's an exceptional for me to receive this award on behalf of my beloved husband. I'm grateful The leadership of 14 magazines for knowing him. I know he would have been humbled by this recognition. It will soon be three months already since paul's sudden passing my Children and I still feel his loss every single day. The outpouring of love and affection from the global community he created was overwhelming. It has been such a personal and collective grieving experience as I reflect on my dear paul's life. I'm equally filled with sadness and gratitude, sadness that his life was so short, but gratitude for the transformative impact of his work, tackling inequalities and injustices in healthcare and other issues a cause that he took On for 40 long years of his life, Paul has been an inspiration to so many around the world, patients and their families, students, colleagues at partners in health and other institutions and beyond. This program is a testament to the fact that paul's great vision for social justice for all will never die as I know that everyone here is committed to use our skills, knowledge, influence power and money to pursue the fight for health care, to truly be for human rights for all. Many thanks again on my behalf and on behalf of course, most people, thank you. Thank you so much DD and we'd now like to share a tribute videos celebrating the remarkable life and career of dr paul farmer. Thank you. I'm paul farmer. Uh, what do I say next? MD Chief strategist, P I H I love that title by the way, founder. I'm proud of that first medical director. I wasn't qualified for that, but hey, I did my best. So there there's some titles. Biggest struggles of my life have always been around. The fight for social justice can be better than being an activist. It's something you're doing because you want to do it. It's not a job that you're paid to do. It's something you choose to do. So I think that's a big deal. Being an activist. We really believe that all people have equal value and we can all build healthcare systems that are compassionate and merciful. You know this work that we are so lucky to do is not just about diagnosing the problem but about responding to it. And when you do with even modest resources that return on that investment is incredible. This effort is motivated by love and should be informed by compassion and expert. Mercy. Really? Is it okay to write bravo in the medical chart? I mean, you gotta love this job. Mm hmm mm hmm.

Sarah Kunst, Managing Director, Cleo Capital
Steph Mui, Co-founder and General Partner, 2020 Fund
Leyla Seka, Partner, Operator Collective
Alexa von Tobel, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Inspired Capital

Moderator: Jen Wieczner, FORTUNE

MPW Next Gen 2020: Who Wants To Be An Investor?

Uncategorized

How do we mitigate the impact of the virus, and simultaneously make sure that progress for women in investing means progress for women of color, too?

we have a fantastic panel of investors only here to talk about investing in the pandemic, what it's like to be, not only a few more investor, but uh, a woman of color who's an investor as well as an entrepreneur and how we can create more diversity in the venture capital world as well as the world of startup. Um, so I would like to introduce are for fantastic panelists if you could give a wave when I sing her name, That's great. Uh, First up is Sarah Kuhn, who's the managing director of Cleo Capital. Thanks for being here, Sarah. Um next up is my boy, the co founder and general partner of the 2020 Fund. Hi stuff. Leila Seca, who's a partner at operator collective. Thanks Leila and Alexa von Tobel, whose co founder and managing partner of inspired capitals. Great to see you all. So Yeah, thanks for being here. I want to dive right into a really important question. And let's start with you, Sarah, because you wrote a really interesting piece of years ago back in 2016, like mentioned of the female lead hold up, only 4% of those are led by black women. Has anything changed since then? Happy with any progress? And what are the barriers there? Yeah. You know, the 4% led by black women. I believe that members in a little bit for the bigger problem is that the funding functionally hasn't. Um, and so, you know, we're still a lot of porn for the vast majority of funding does not go to black and Hispanic, uh, founders. And even when it does, it tend to disproportionately go to black Hispanic, male founders of the first female. And so, you know, there are so many brilliant of living black women for any companies and there's not nearly enough capital for them to them. Yeah. Um, I want to talk a lot more about that. But first to remind her to everybody who's watching, if you have any questions about investing about starting companies, these women are the efforts, please put them in the flat and we'll have a chance to do that during Q and A later. Um, but Leila, you just want something I believe yesterday that's targeted out this problem with the lack of diversity on lots of black crime boss investors. Can you talk a little bit about that and what you're aiming to accomplish? Famous? Yeah, sure. So operator collective was sort of founded on the notion that if we could change who the investors were, um, we could change the kinds of companies that were being created and who was in those companies. So taking that principle. Um, uh, you know, when the murder of George Floyd and the protests began, I felt real impetus to do something. So I sort of thought through all my resources and I sit on the board of cow. And of course I went to Salesforce for a very long time. Um, so I called a whole bunch of folks, most notably I called someone named Jackson Cummings who had worked with his tail for us that he and I began working on this idea. So we launched yesterday something called Black Venture interviewed the idea of being there right now. Adventure, less than 75 people can write checks that are black, 75 black dealer around 75 less than that's attractive. Just not acceptable. So Black Venture Institute aims to graduate 300 people in the next three years. So we'll all have writing ability and hopefully we'll get out there and start writing some of those checks. Yeah. And stuff I want to ask you because I know of your limited partners at the 2020 Fund, you actually have, um, 60% of them who are women or underrepresented minorities. Can you talk a little bit about that? Did you? You know, how how did you get the compass plot or what kind of overtures did you move to get more diversity among our investors? Yeah. For us we had a pretty easy because our our community of stanford was already diverse. And so it was just really our job to formalize it and make sure about the entity together was fully inclusive of our class and frankly would not have done it if we haven't been able to do that. I wouldn't say it was an active, I've heard of us to make sure that if we knew that it was already diverse and we wanted to accomplish that, but we didn't go out of our way to make it an extra liver. But I'm extra I'm really proud that the, for the institution itself ended up being even more representative that our costs and is, uh, let's blame. Yeah. And I know Alexa, you've also been, um, making some efforts to source more diverse founders in your deals. Can you talk a little bit about that? You know, are making any progress there? And what does it take to, um, you know, find those companies that are founded around and find those founders Sure. That's the first entire capital, $200 million from, located out of Manhattan, but investing globally, particularly United States, uh, series day, uh, we built the farm models from day one with three female partners of four. Um, a great mix between men and women and different backgrounds and diversity with all different states advises. And I'll just say, I think that, you know, having a firm that represents who all the potential founders can be out of date. We just 15 our deal flow. Uh, we just had a 13 year old meeting where we looked at, you know, 40% of our females are founders on the 3% are black or hispanic. And I think when you have different archetypes at the top of a firm and you have different investors out there and I couldn't agree more with everything that we've heard here today. You simply have different workflow and so we have to change to the investors are and, and fired capital, the secretary director. We have so much more work to do. But I do believe you have to change the archetypes of the founders see so that they feel comfortable and show up and they leave their whole authentic selves when they go out and get investment. Yeah. Sarah, I'd love to get your input on that. I mean, it sounds like he's describing a little bit of the chicken on the problem that, you know, in order to find diverse founders, um, you know, you need diverse investors. But what does that mean? You know, if you are women of color, who is looking to start a company or looking for DC money and funding, what do you think? What are the issues there? And, and how do you, um, how do you go about combating them? Yeah. I mean, you know, we really don't have to do divers to invest in diverse, um, founders. Right. And, but unfortunately, uh, non divers investors are often a bit myopic about who they're backing. And so it does tend to be that the more diverse and investor bases out of fun, the more diverse portfolio will be as well. Um, and, and they're certainly not along with having a lot more amazing diverse investors as well. Um, and so, but you will be our women of color and you're outdoors and now or your thoughts about and fundraising, you can't wait for the investor world. You know, your old for the investor would love to get sort of more diverse. I don't think that means that you didn't go out and raise. I think it's understanding, you know, that there was the same in the black community that, you know, you have twice. This will be, will have as much, and you know, that is obviously not easily like these authorities and unfairness of the world. Um, but I sort of just slip on and internalize it as like you get to be twice as done right? Like how many times in your life you look around and you're like doing and so upset. That is twice as good as everybody else with them, Right. And so when you do the backpack, when you do get that investment and it's just a question of flight, it was totally normal. No matter your race or gender, the look of 100 people to raise a pre seed round, it's pretty normal to raise it to 300 people, particularly the kind of economic time. We took a crazy amount of resistance in a crazy amount of preparation and you know, knowing what you're doing and being able to kind of wild people with your coach. Um, and finding the right people to, to put doing what and if you are a person of color, if you are willing, but you do get funded. You know, you should feel pretty good that you probably are better specifically than the average white soldiers raising because that's unfortunately the world we live in right now. On the left side is your brother. Yeah. I would love to know, you know, what does discrimination look like today? And you know, against women, female founders, female investors, um, as well as women of color. Um, and people investors have fallen in general, um, Steph, I know you have, uh, done some interesting things where you have a low, a low minimum investment, uh, in your fund. Does that help, um, you know, overcome some of those systemic barriers for, um, for women, for people of color? Yeah, that was a super part, a big part of why we write the fund in the way that we did. We wanted to buy and to be as flexible as possible and $3000. And um, how do not be enterprises pretty unheard of and possible. That certainly helped. Um, I think the other stuff and I'm really proud of is about 80% of the investors in our funds and never been angel investing before. And so certainly this is a really big opportunity not only to invest financially, but a really good educational point as well. Yeah, reminder that people who have questions can put them in the chat and we'll have a chance in a few minutes to take Q and A. Um, but I want to move onto a different topic as well, which is the pandemic and you know, as hard as it was for, uh, investors, particularly women investors before we all got quarantined. Um, as well as people of color, I feel like this must make it, um, this must just be Adam and new Ranch Leila, you launched operate their selective, um, I believe just last year. So not very long before the world kind of exploded. What has that been like? How has the panda almost um you know, affected you as an investor affected women? Um more generally. Yeah. I mean look, we launched operation collective in this sort of mode. We never had an office. We're always working out of our houses or coffee shops. So you know, we're not in coffee shops anymore. Um I'll tell you, I only do enterprise and blessing and deal flow has been pretty good, right? Um In a lot of ways the pandemic has pushed people to the cloud in a way that they were never quite a comfortable doing before as far as business is concerned. So um you know, but I think people are scared. People are kg. This is uncharted territory we're in with this pandemic. So I definitely think people are looking, you know, measuring twice and cutting once uh as my mother would say. Right? So um but but more and more, at least on the business enterprise side, things aren't really slow in my world. Yeah, Alexa. What do you think? How has the pandemic? I mean, has it made it harder or has it helped um women investors and entrepreneurs? Um Well, so I would say a few things we started a year in 2020 and I think we're sort of ending in 2030. Uh And what I mean by that is just a dramatic digital technology magnet. Um that's rapidly digitizing every single category, every industry. So when I remove all of the things that keep me up at night and all the things that I'm very worried about for the world, it's a really exciting time to be faster. So I want to start by by um the other thing that I think is different about this new world is and you said specifically for women, you know, it's a far more authentic way to be right, The like whole scene of professionalism is hearing everyone's homes, you're literally in their lives. When you get to know founders, it instantly get more real, more authentic, more intimate because often you are accidentally getting to meet their kids that are similar their self. Um and so those elements of this that I absolutely love. You know what inspired? I think one of the things really all about this is it almost feels very, very direct when you're really getting to somebody, you know, you are allowed coffee shop, you're actually sitting with them quietly able to really get to the core of why they want to build a business and how you can be helpful. Um So I have found many elements of this, again, removing the extreme worry that unemployment because you know the dramatic stuff that we're doubling every single day on the news. Um I think this is a really exciting time for venture and inspired. We've been more active, you know, we we stood the fund up at the end of last year and that was in one group, quite lucky because we went into an unprecedented moment. So clean sheet of paper, $200 million and working in a way that I think is in so many ways better. Um and so that would be my two front. Yeah. Steph, I know you're 2020 Fund adults is relatively new. Um what has it been like new in this environment? And you have any, you know, advice about uh how, how to overcome the academic, I guess as a female investor or a female entrepreneur. Yeah. We launched the fund three months ago and so it's brand new and we've been fortunate me often enough. And since then, I think one operation that I've seen is that people are having many more meetings than they were before. Both on both positively in the sunset. I think they're getting meetings, conductors who informally for president about meeting companies outside of their traditional area discomfort of others and industry or locations that are more comfortable and trusting in. Um, and so people are much more open minded and therefore people are having many more conversations than they otherwise would have. Um, That also means it's been, you know, the hit rate is smaller and so in some ways that quantity than it is also necessary for conversations come up. Yeah. Thanks. I want to bring in A Q and A. You know, we have a couple of questions. Hi Kristen. Hi everybody. We'll see you guys. Um, we have a couple of audience questions. The first one is actually from Fortune's Maria Aston. Um, Maria is asking the amount of venture capital that went to female founders just dropped to its lowest lowest quarterly level in three years according to pitchbook. Um, why do you think this is? And are you worried about a long term slowdown in a very small percentage of the capital to those women? Yeah. Sarah, do you want to start with that? Yeah, totally. Thank you. 11 thing I'll say is we've seen this movie before. All right. During the 2000 and eight down form, um, in 2000 and seven, there were actually more females capital investors than there were through like 2015. Right? And so, you know, the reality that we've seen this was really easy to work for us. Um, you know, there are there is a tendency when there are fewer resources or fewer percent resources, um, either for women to have to step back because of their sort of life opposition or for investors to pull back on women. Because even though women tend to return more capital per dollar invested, there's the feeling that a scarier things than that, which of course goes back to my point, which is I believe that if you have more women as investors than we will be left of this downturn. Mm Layla, you nodding your head add to that? I think Sarah covered it. Uh, you know, I think that I think, I think we see a lot of things going in the right direction, but there's always more room. There's no finish line than any of us. We've got to keep pushing all the time. Yeah. Thanks. Kristen you have another question? Yeah, I do. I actually have another one. Um, this one from a fortune and how Labrum is asking, uh, do you think it's scrutiny and female founders, including some of the recent allegations of toxic work environment, could have a detrimental impact. Um, with even less female founders getting funded Alexa. I know he's a female founder yourself. I'd love to hear your take on that. Yeah, so my thought was the first, uh, pain to see all the things that we've seen in the news. Um, and you know, I think a little bit paco what we're saying, which is everything is on a straight line to the top, right? We're like going through product seismic shift of numbers that are 2% but needs to get to 50%. Um, you know, there isn't a straight line for progress, but I will just say we know women make Fantastic founders. They bring very different leadership thanks to the total to Sarah point. They were turned better capital. Um, and one thing I will just say it inspired capital were not a female mental fund. We just happened to be a venture fund with female partners investing in any kind of me and you know, today as 20 months of up and running, we have about 40% of the ceos in our portfolio or women. So we're not experiencing what all of related class arc. Um, and I would say that none of what I've read about makes me less hesitant in any way to invest in women. We've been reading about toxic male ceos for decades, so I don't expect to hear it. I mean, what people have been reading is changing how we think about investing. Um, nobody should be toxic in the world. Culture, men and women alike. Um, and so, uh, that, that you're sensible. We've been seeing. Thanks. I've been a consumer seconds. We have left. I'd love to just get a tip from each of you for, you know, if you're a female founder or a woman of color who is looking to start a company, um, looking for investments, what's your top pick for them? I'll start with you sail on. I would say just get really, really active on social media. It's a great place to get noticed by investors. Thanks. That's what about you? It's a numbers game to just keep pushing awesome. Leila, get ready to pitch a lot. Like if you don't like selling your stuff and yourself think again, because you're going to pitch, it's all you do is just get ready to pitch a lot. Thanks and Alexa just, well I would say find an ambassador a complete self because building a business as I've experienced a decade long journey minimum. If you want to do it really well and you need to be able to be yourself through that process, you need to press with an ambassador can push you and also look at your whole life because your whole life is the business. Um your personal life fits into the crevices of the business and so you want to just make sure you have investors are believing you see you and and really want you to be majorly successful. I think that's critical, awesome. Well thank you all for all of your advice and insight. Better to be with you. Thanks so much for being here. Thanks for having us.

Year	Revenues ($M)	Profits ($M)	Assets ($M)	Total Stockholder Equity ($M)
2021	$1,855.4-5%	$88.6-52%	$8,241.2	$2,522.3
2020
2019	$1,96512.9%	$214.232.5%	$6,843.6	$2,255.4
2016	$1,97621.5%	$13761.8%	$5,290	$1,574

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