五年前,五位推特前成員和一位現(xiàn)高管組成了初創(chuàng)公司投資團(tuán)體Angels。五年后,她們經(jīng)常聽到別人把她們和“PayPal幫”相比。后者是2007年被《財富》雜志叫響的名號,指的是幾位硅谷大佬:彼得·蒂爾、埃隆·馬斯克、里德·霍夫曼等。eBay收購PayPal后他們都離開了,并把自己拿到的收購資金用于塑造新一代硅谷初創(chuàng)公司。Angels對這樣的類比付之一笑,并不完全認(rèn)同。Angels的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人、光速創(chuàng)投的合伙人珍娜·梅塞施密特曾經(jīng)在推特?fù)?dān)任全球業(yè)務(wù)發(fā)展與合作副總裁。她說:“我們是新的推特幫。” 現(xiàn)在這個比喻比以往任何時候都合適,涵蓋的團(tuán)體也越來越多。隨著PayPal幫協(xié)助建立的公司,比如Facebook和Lyft等進(jìn)入后IPO時代,更多硅谷女性開始躋身投資者行列。而且其中許多都在借鑒Angels的策略,那就是聯(lián)起手來,這樣會比任何單打獨斗的女性更有實力。 去年年底,F(xiàn)7加入了Angels,它的七名成員都曾經(jīng)或正在Facebook任職。另一個剛剛起步的10人團(tuán)體也加入了Angels,這10位女性均出自于Uber,后來分別在不同的公司進(jìn)入風(fēng)投領(lǐng)域,并在她們的人脈網(wǎng)上分享投資項目和機(jī)遇。合為一體后,這三撥人有可能塑造出下一代硅谷人。 這些投資者當(dāng)然愿意發(fā)現(xiàn)下一個Facebook,但和10年前的先行者相比,她們更有使命感。鑒于這些團(tuán)隊的結(jié)構(gòu),她們都很清楚硅谷的性別格局,但她們并不是專門支持女性。去年,美國完全由女性組成的創(chuàng)業(yè)團(tuán)隊只得到了2.2%的風(fēng)投資金。這些女性創(chuàng)始人獲得的資金總額比電子煙公司Juul的自行融資少了100億美元。在這些投資者中,有些人還加入了All Raise等組織,后者的目標(biāo)是為更多女性籌集資金或讓她們成為風(fēng)投合伙人,但這些組織才剛要進(jìn)入真正的投資階段。曾經(jīng)在Facebook擔(dān)任傳媒合作負(fù)責(zé)人、如今是F7創(chuàng)始合伙人的凱莉·加雷茲戴說:“我們需要更多女性的聲音來影響創(chuàng)新,而且要同時來自創(chuàng)業(yè)者和出資人兩方面。” F7是這些團(tuán)體中唯一正式建立的基金的一個,它從今年3月開始做了8筆投資,平均規(guī)模不大,為5萬美元(這些創(chuàng)始人投入的是個人資金,她們還沒有為了提升投資額而尋求外部融資)。其中近半數(shù)投資進(jìn)入了女性創(chuàng)立的公司。2015年以來,Angels已經(jīng)為120多家初創(chuàng)企業(yè)提供了支持,其中包括Carrot(生育保健)和Bird(電動滑板車)。Angels表示,已經(jīng)開始看到長期成效。Uber的人脈網(wǎng)囊括了來自Kleiner Perkins、紅衫資本、紅點投資和GV的投資者,它剛剛開始相互承攬投資項目,而且絕大多數(shù)都是通過一個活躍的WhatsApp群進(jìn)行,但這些投資者感興趣的是女性健康,當(dāng)然還有自動駕駛汽車。 這些團(tuán)體由曾經(jīng)的同事組成是有原因的。來自這三個人脈網(wǎng)絡(luò)的投資者將此歸結(jié)為在“同一個戰(zhàn)壕中”建立起來的信任以及并肩工作讓她們在談到錢時的放松程度。弗雷德麗克·德蒙曾經(jīng)在Uber擔(dān)任產(chǎn)品和工程經(jīng)理,現(xiàn)在是GV的合伙人。她說:“這些人都一起經(jīng)歷過高速成長階段,由此形成了終生紐帶。我們有共同語言。” 和單槍匹馬或兩三人結(jié)伴的PayPal幫不同,這些女性形成了一個整體。在風(fēng)投界,投資決策者中有11%是女性,男性則持有91%的初創(chuàng)公司權(quán)益,而且這些資金經(jīng)常會成為天使投資,這種情況下團(tuán)結(jié)就是優(yōu)勢。F7成員薏凡特·路易說:“其他六位女士可以帶來如此之多的經(jīng)驗,和她們一起工作非常放心和舒服。”路易曾經(jīng)是在Facebook負(fù)責(zé)銷售和全球合作事務(wù),加入F7前只做過很少的天使投資。就像該團(tuán)體的另一位成員蘿賓·瑞斯所說:“天使投資不存在競爭。沒有理由不去分享。” 別人的效仿讓Angels的成員感到榮幸,也倍受鼓舞。該組織成員、推特前產(chǎn)品負(fù)責(zé)人及Slack的前首席產(chǎn)品官埃普麗爾·安德伍德說,她們的共同投資正式形成了一項慣例,那就是天使投資人通過整個人脈網(wǎng)絡(luò)進(jìn)行合作,但“幾乎僅限于男性之間”。 今年更多女性通過IPO進(jìn)入了投資界,會有更多的類似團(tuán)體在短時間內(nèi)浮現(xiàn)嗎?這些投資者當(dāng)然歡迎這樣的變化。安德伍德說:“但愿我們是在某種趨勢的初期階段。”對于美國最高法院的女性大法官數(shù)量何時才算足夠的問題,女大法官魯斯·巴德·金斯伯格回答說:“要到有九位的時候。”安德伍德引用了這句話,讓Angels及類似團(tuán)體成了這個問題的硅谷版答案。或者也可以回答說,要到股權(quán)結(jié)構(gòu)表中都是女性的時候。 |
In the five years since five Twitter alumnae and one current executive banded together to invest in startups as #Angels, they’ve often heard one comparison: the “PayPal mafia.” A moniker popularized by Fortune in 2007, the nickname refers to the group of Silicon Valley bigwigs—Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman, et al.—who came out of the payments platform and used their payouts from its acquisition by eBay to shape the next generation of Silicon Valley startups. The #Angels laugh at the comparison, but they don’t entirely disagree. “We’re the new Twitter mafia,” says #Angels cofounder Jana Messerschmidt, a Lightspeed partner and former vice president of global business development and partnerships at Twitter. Today the analogy is more apt than ever—to a growing number of groups. As the companies that the PayPal mafia helped build, including Facebook and Lyft, transition into their post-IPO eras, more Silicon Valley women are coming into investor-level money. And many are taking a cue from #Angels’ strategy: Pooled together, their capital is more powerful than one woman’s alone. Late last year, the #Angels were joined by F7—a group of seven former and current Facebookers—and by a still nascent group of 10 women who worked at Uber and have since gone into venture at separate firms, sharing deals and opportunities across their network. Together, these three groups could mold the next generation of Silicon Valley. These investors would certainly love to find the next Facebook, but they’re more mission-driven than their predecessors of a decade ago. Given their makeup, all are attuned to the gender dynamics of Silicon Valley—even if they’re not exclusively backing women. Last year, U.S. female-only founding teams received just 2.2% of venture capital funding. Altogether, female founders took in $10 billion less than the ?e-cigarette company Juul did by itself. Some of these investors are also involved in All Raise and other organizations aiming to get more women funded and into VC partnerships, but these groups are about making the investments themselves. “We need more female voices shaping innovation, and we need that from both founders and funders,” says Kelly Graziadei, a former director of media partnerships for Facebook and a founding partner of F7. Since March, F7, the only one of these groups to formally create a fund, has made eight investments with a modest average check size of $50,000 (the founders are investing their personal capital and haven’t sought outside money to grow that amount yet). Nearly half of those investments have been in female-founded companies. Since 2015, #Angels has backed more than 120 startups, from Carrot (fertility care) to Bird (e-scooters), and says it’s starting to see long-term results. Uber’s network, which includes investors at Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Redpoint, and GV, is just getting started on sourcing deals through one another—mostly via a very active WhatsApp group chat—but its investors are interested in women’s health and, of course, autonomous vehicles. There’s a reason these groups are taking shape among former colleagues. Investors from all three networks mention the trust developed from their time in the trenches together—and a level of comfort discussing money that comes from working side by side in a business context. “The network of people who have been through hypergrowth together—it creates bonds for life,” says Frédérique Dame, a former product and engineering manager at Uber who’s now a partner at GV. “We all speak the same language.” Unlike the PayPal mafia, who mostly struck out on their own or in duos or trios, these women are sticking together. In a venture landscape in which women make up 11% of venture capital decision-makers and men hold 91% of startup equity—the ?money that often turns into angel investments—solidarity has its advantages. “It’s so comforting and supportive working with six other women who have so much experience to bring to the table. It makes it less scary,” says Yvette Lui of F7, who was a director of sales and global partnerships at Facebook and had done only a little bit of angel investing prior to F7. As Robyn Reiss, also of F7, puts it: “Angel investing is not competitive. There’s no reason not to share.” The women of #Angels are flattered—and encouraged—by others following in their footsteps. The founding of their investment collective formalized a long-standing practice of angel investors collaborating across their networks, but “almost exclusively among men,” says #Angels’ April Underwood, former director of product at Twitter and former chief product officer at Slack. With more women coming into liquidity through this year’s IPOs, could there soon be more groups taking shape? These investors would certainly welcome such a change. “Hopefully, we’re in the early stages of a trend,” Underwood says. She quotes Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, making #Angels and its peers Silicon Valley’s answer to the correct number of women on the bench: “When there are nine.” Or when there’s a cap table with only women on the page. |
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各團(tuán)體簡介 F7 Facebook的六位前成員和一位現(xiàn)高管于去年出資建立。它已經(jīng)支持了8家初創(chuàng)企業(yè),平均投資額為5萬美元,其中包括共享辦公初創(chuàng)公司Codi、技術(shù)-銷售求職平臺Flockjay和非營利性融資平臺NPX。 #Angels 五位前推特成員(和一位現(xiàn)任高管)自2015年以來已經(jīng)分別為120家初創(chuàng)企業(yè)提供了支持。她們的投資包括生育保健初創(chuàng)公司Carrot、電子商務(wù)品牌Brandless、電動滑板車公司Bird以及合作服務(wù)公司Airtable。 Uber 10位前員工分別進(jìn)入了GV、Kleiner Perkins和紅杉資本等風(fēng)投公司。合伙人在女性健康和自動駕駛汽車等領(lǐng)域通過她們的人脈網(wǎng)絡(luò)來承攬投資項目。(財富中文網(wǎng)) 本文另一版本登載于《財富》雜志2019年11月刊,標(biāo)題為《數(shù)字中的實力》。 譯者:Charlie 審校:夏林 |
The Families F7 Six former Facebookers and a current executive pooled their money in a fund last year. With an average check size of $50,000, the fund has backed eight startups, including coworking startup Codi, tech-sales job platform Flockjay, and nonprofit funding platform NPX. #Angels =The five Twitter alumnae (and one current executive) have separately backed 120 startups since 2015. Their investments include fertility startup Carrot, e-commerce brand Brandless, e-scooter company, Bird, and collaboration service Airtable. Uber Ten alumnae went into venture firms including GV, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia. Partners are sourcing deals from their network in categories like women’s health and autonomous vehicles. A version of this article appears in the November 2019 issue of Fortune with the headline “Strength in Numbers.” |