1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Patricia Nakache of Trinity Ventures (Part 5)

Sramana Mitra: One comment I want to highlight is the big difference I see on how the issue is being recorded or reported right now is people are actually naming names. That was not at all common earlier on. It makes a huge difference.

Patricia Nakache: That’s right. Even recently with the Ellen Pao trial, there were names listed there. There didn’t seem to be any repercussions.

Sramana Mitra: Ellen Pao doesn’t have a lot of credibility with me because she was sleeping with a partner at Kleiner who was married. That’s not a credible situation. That’s not a sexual harassment situation.

Patricia Nakache: In the trial, there was testimony from other people at Kleiner indicating sexual harassment situations that I thought didn’t get the attention that they deserved. There’s the systemic long-term issue of very few women in the investor community and very few people of color and the impact of that in terms of where the dollars flow.

There’s also a lot of awareness built around that as well. We’re seeing a lot of hiring going on. We’re seeing a lot of firms hire their first woman, which is great. Some of them are being hired at the partner level, which I think is key. I don’t think it’s enough to just hire at the junior level and claim you checked the boxes.

Sramana Mitra: The other question that is very relevant to this discussion is women being the decision makers – the Chief Procurement Officer in the household. In a lot of different categories, the actual decision maker is the woman.

Traditionally, a lot of entrepreneurs who have worked in that category have found it very difficult to get through to investors because these investors are mostly men. They have no idea about the psychology of how that buying cycle works. As a result, they pass not because they don’t want to invest in women, it’s just because they don’t understand the business.

Patricia Nakache: I think that’s right. I remember when I invested in Care.com. I think it was really valuable for me to explain to my partners that at that time, I was spending $300 a year just to have a backup nanny service that I could call if my baby sitter calls in sick. It was like an insurance policy. It made my partners realize how critical childcare is to a working mother. I totally agree with you. It’s those personal experiences that can help you understand in a visceral level the potential market opportunity.

Sramana Mitra: I did fashion in 1999. Hardly anybody had any idea about what the hell that was.

Patricia Nakache: I know.

Sramana Mitra: Any parting comments to the audience?

Patricia Nakache: I would just say that I resonate your comments at the beginning before we started the interview which is, in some ways, there has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur in terms of the resources available and the information available. I think that it’s not a completely level playing field and it probably never will be. I do think that access to information is as good as it’s ever been. I encourage everybody to take advantage of the resources that are out there.

Sramana Mitra: Thank you for your time.

This segment is part 5 in the series : 1Mby1M Virtual Accelerator Investor Forum: With Patricia Nakache of Trinity Ventures
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