Overhauling the Venture Capital Landscape with Jesse Draper of Halogen Ventures

Jesse Draper is the Founding Partner of Halogen Ventures, an early-stage venture capital fund focused on women-founded consumer technologies. A 4th generation venture capitalist, Jesse is an advocate for investing in innovation that solves some of the biggest issues facing women and families today. A leading voice of women in technology, Jesse was listed by Marie Claire magazine as one of the 50 Most Connected Women in America and was nominated by the NRF as a DealMakeHer. In addition to their work at Halogen Ventures, Jesse and her team created the Halogen Fellowship in Venture Capital to increase diversity and inclusion in the industry.

Jesse joins us today to discuss her experiences with simultaneously navigating an acting career and a budding interest in the tech industry. She describes the thought process and lessons she learned from building The Valley Girl Show. She reveals the best way to get the attention of a VC. Jesse also highlights the flaws of traditional funding and capital access and underscores the role of women- and minority-led funds in changing the system.

“Access to capital is an old, broken part of the system that started in slave-holding days and it’s a real problem. Women and minority-led funds are going to change it.” – Jesse Draper

If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can’t wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey!

This week’s takeaways from Entreprenista:

• Growing up in a family of entrepreneurs
• Jesse’s experience working in the entertainment industry and her journey to starting a venture capital fund
• Creating The Valley Girl Show and the challenges Jesse faced in the media
• Efficiently qualifying an investor for your fund
• How much capital Jesse was able to raise for her first fund
• How she decides which companies to invest in
• How her thought process as an angel investor changed over time
• Why women need to start funds and help other women entrepreneurs
• The best ways to reach out to angel investors and venture capitalists
• Influencer marketing and finding creative ways to help women get funding
• Jesse’s tips for time management and balancing business and family

Resources Mentioned:

• IFundWomen
• Affinity CRM

Our Favorite Quotes:

• “You want to ensure that any fund manager you’re talking to thinks 20 years into the future.” – Jesse Draper
• “As an investor, I love it when entrepreneurs are ruthless and won’t give up when trying to find me.” – Jesse Draper
• “Don’t take an investment check from anyone until you have a plan on how to make it back.” – Jesse Draper

Connect with Jesse Draper:

• Halogen
• Halogen on LinkedIn
• Halogen on Instagram
• Halogen on Facebook
• Halogen on Twitter
• Jesse Draper on LinkedIn
• Jesse Draper on Instagram
• Jesse Draper on Twitter
• Jesse Draper on YouTube

If you’re looking to take your business to the next level:

Join our Entreprenista League community of women founders! You’ll have access to a private community of like-minded Entreprenistas who are making an impact in business every day, special discounts on business products and solutions, exclusive content, private events, and the opportunity to have your story featured on our website and social channels, and MORE!

Whether you’re looking to scale your existing business and want to make the right connections, or you’re thinking about finally taking the leap to launch your business, we’re here to give you access to a community of women who will celebrate your every step, and with whom you can share the candid reality of building a business from scratch.

Join the Entreprenista League today at entreprenista.com/join. We can’t wait to welcome you, support you, and be part of your business journey!

Improve Your Customer Support with TextExpander

Every minute counts when running a business. That’s why we are so excited to introduce you to an amazing, time-saving customer support solution – TextExpander! TextExpander gives you an edge over your competition by speeding up your customer support and communications with easy-to-format snippets that save you time when typing. With TextExpander, your customer communications will have less repetition, fewer errors, and consistent messaging that will keep your growing team aligned and working more efficiently.

Here’s how it works…

1. Drop commonly used content (like email templates and FAQs) into TextExpander to create a snippet and assign an abbreviation.
2. Type the abbreviation to trigger your snippet and see your content expand.

It’s that easy!

TextExpander is available on Mac, Windows, Chrome, iPhone, and iPad so you can use your snippets on any device, in any program, and share them with your growing team.

Don’t miss out on your opportunity to save valuable time and get more done with the power of TextExpander. To start your journey toward better, faster, more consistent customer support and save 20% off your first year with TextExpander, visit www.TextExpander.com/Podcast.

Become An Entreprenista!

Thanks for tuning into this week’s episode of The Entreprenista Podcast – the most fun business meeting for female founders, by female founders. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to the show and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.

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