The Female Founders & Funders at Berkeley Summit Recap

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An ex-Sequoia Capital team member and Berkeley Alumna stressed that part of the challenge is that women entrepreneurs “don't brag enough” compared to their male peers.

At the workshop "Pitch better: Fundraising in a biased environment" at the Female Founders and Funders of Berkeley Summit, Lily Yuen Xu, Global Program Lead Underrepresented Founder Startups at AWS (Amazon) taught women founders how to recognize the biases in the VC investors questions and respond to them turning the preventive questions into promotional answers. The workshop is based on the research of Dr. Laura Huang, a professor at HBS who spent five years studying gender parity in the startup world. She found that women founders were often asked preventative questions when pitching to investors, while their male counterparts were asked promotional questions.

The fireside chat with Lalitha Rajagopalan, Co-founder of Oro Labs, which recently secured $34 million in a Series B funding round, was moderated by Ashley Keyes, the co-VP of EMBA at Female Founders and Funders of Berkeley. Lalitha emphasized that the relationship between founders and funders is a two-way street. She explained that founders are not only being chosen but are also making a choice themselves. Lalitha encouraged founders not to shy away from conducting thorough background checks on VC and ask challenging questions. She also advised the participants of the FFFB Summit to "fall in love with the problem" in order to build best-in-class solutions and products.

The founders panel, co-moderated by Lauren Miller, VP of Equity and Inclusion, and Sharanya Reddy Charabuddi, VP of EWMBA at Female Founders and Funders of Berkeley, featured insightful discussions. The panelists, Dr. Ashley Zehnder, Co-founder and CEO of Fauna Bio, Amelia Lin, Co-founder and CEO of Honeycomb, and Jacqueline Cheong, Co-founder and CEO of Artie (YC S23), shared their experiences and insights on navigating the funding process, building their companies, and combating biases. A particularly challenging topic discussed was the dynamics between female founders and VCs, specifically addressing the biases faced by women who are pregnant or mothers.

Lauren Miller introduced the Equity and Engagement Program, an initiative by the Female Founders and Funders of Berkeley aimed at enhancing equity and inclusion for female founders and funders. During the Summit, participants engaged in an FFFB survey, which is part of this initiative. The survey was designed to collect essential data to help the Club develop more effective strategies.

Sandy Diao, an investor at IOVC and instructor at Haas, led the "Growth Marketing from a VC Lens" workshop at the Summit. She discussed how venture capitalists assess startup scalability and market potential, focusing on growth strategies in the age of generative AI.

During the "Empowering Change" funders' panel, leading voices in venture capital, including Dr. Yvonne Lutsch from Bosch Ventures, Vivian Qu of SOSV, Meera Oak from Alumni Ventures, and Yulia Lalutska, CFA of Adam Street Partners, shared their insights on the future of female leadership in the industry.  

They discussed emerging trends, opportunities for advancement, and offered predictions on how women can shape the next era of venture capital. The session was moderated by Pavitraa Parthasarathy, Co-VP of Marketing for the Female Founders and Funders of Berkeley.

The Startup Showcase highlighted pitches from select female-founded startups, showcasing innovative business models and the potential to reshape industries. 

Participants included Ashley Keyes of Rely, Laura I. Gómez of Cepanoa Health, Yasemin Oğuz of Kaizen Intelligence & Pusula.ai, Dana Sydorenko 🇺🇦 🔜 Nordic Game of GameTree, and Amy Jain of SwipeFund.

The FFFB Summit was made possible thanks to the support of several organizations, including the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business Full-time program, ASUC, the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, and AddsVal (Bronze Sponsor of the FFFB Summit), as well as the FFFB team and volunteers.

Active participation from our dedicated team members was crucial to the preparation of the summit. We extend our gratitude to VP of Industry Relations Ansu George , Co-VPs of Marketing Pavitraa Parthasarathy and Anastasia Yip, VP of EWMBA Sharanya Reddy Charabuddi, Co-VPs of Alumni Relations Kavi Solanki and Diya Das, Co-VPs of EMBA Ashley Keyes and Amrutha Suresh, VP of Partnerships Shweta Subramanian, VP of Events Marya Unwala, FFFB Allies John Adams and Cam Immesoete, VP of Engagement & Equity Lauren Miller, VP of FTMBA Anupama Tej, and Board Adviser & Head of Entrepreneurship Program at Berkeley Haas Rhonda Shrader for their tireless efforts.

Special thanks to the FFFB Summit volunteers Sarah Janjua-Alavi, Pranathi Gompa, Debapriya Pal, and Jahnavi Uday Shah for their invaluable contributions to the success of the event.

Photos: Michelle Copo