This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil - Revolutionizing Venture Capital for Women with Carrie Colbert | 248

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Whether you’re interested in entrepreneurship, or venture capital, or just love hearing from women who are blazing a trail like I do… you are going to love this conversation. Our guest, Carrie Colbert spent nearly two decades in the male-dominated oil and gas industry, with a standout career at Hilcorp. After “retiring” at age 38, Carrie transitioned into a new chapter of her life: investing in women-owned businesses. After five years as an angel investor, Carrie realized that women-led businesses are not only underfunded, but they consistently outperform. This led her to launch Curate Capital to champion female-founded consumer brands. In 2022, Carrie closed Fund 1 at $15 million—50% oversubscribed and with nearly 80% of her investors being women. Curate Capital is now breaking down barriers for female founders and making venture capital more accessible to potential investors. Whether you’re thinking about building a business, investing in one, or simply managing your finances with more intention – get into action toward it. Because it isn’t called trail waiting, or trail thinking, or even trail tiptoeing. Don’t wait for the perfect moment, don’t overthink every step, and don’t play it small. BLAZE your trail, take bold action, and create the future you want. Connect with Carrie: Website: https://www.curate.capital/  IG: https://www.instagram.com/carriec  Like what you heard? Please rate and review  Thanks to our This Is Woman’s Work Sponsor: Visit wisefitwealth.com, click the “Schedule a Meeting with our Team” button, and they’ll send you a free budget sheet and some helpful planning tips! WiseFit Wealth has ONE goal, and that is to help you achieve yours.

I am Nicole Kalil, your host of the This Is Woman's Work podcast. And if you're a regular listener, you know that I believe that the new and improved definition of woman's work is to do whatever feels authentic to you. Chase your dreams, share your gifts, live your purpose. When I say this is woman's work, I truly mean all of it. No limitations, no gender expectations for any of us. I love nothing more than being able to witness and encourage people, especially women, to do whatever it is that lights them up, to create success however they define it, and to live their truth. It's brave, it's inspiring,

and it's the ultimate expression of confidence. But I have to tell you, I get just a little extra excited when I see women breaking into spaces and places where women aren't expected. Male-dominated industries, roles where society often defaults to men, and opportunities that had previously been reserved for men. I, by the way, also love seeing this in reverse, like when a man takes on a role often associated with women, or someone breaks through the gender norms entirely and chases their passion. Basically, what I'm saying is I love me a trailblazer. And there are so many trailblazers in so many industries,

but given that it's money week, we're gonna take a break from talking and thinking about politics and shift our focus over to money. More specifically, venture capital and the opportunity associated with female-founded businesses and brands.

So whether you're interested in entrepreneurship, venture capital, or you just love hearing from women who are blazing a new trail like I do, you're going to love this conversation. Our guest, Keri Colbert, spent nearly two decades in the male-dominated oil and gas industry with a standout career at Hillcorp, the largest privately owned oil and gas producer in the male-dominated oil and gas industry with a standout career at Hillcorp, the largest privately owned oil and gas producer in the U.S. After, and I put in air quotes, retiring, at age 38, Carrie transitioned into a new chapter of her life, investing in women-owned businesses. After five years as an angel investor, Carrie realized that women-led businesses are not only underfunded,

but that they consistently outperformed. Motivated by this realization, she launched Curate Capital in 2021 to champion female-founded consumer brands. In 2022, Carrie and Curate closed Fund One at $15 million, 50% oversubscribed and with nearly 80% of her investors being women. Curate Capital is now breaking down barriers for female founders and making venture capital more accessible to potential investors. So, Keri, thank you for being here today to talk about a topic that I think feels very uncomfortable to so many women. So I'm going to ask if you'd share first a little bit about your journey into the world of investing and how you recognize this need for more female representation in this space. That's a big question to start off with, by the way. Sure. Well, thank you so much for having me, Nicole. It's a treat to be here with you. And I

just so admire and appreciate the work you do and how you feature so many incredible women. I think it's so important that we hear these stories to inspire us to do more and better in our own lives. So thank you for all the great content you put out in the world. So yeah, I had about a 20-year career in the energy industry. And going back even a little further, So I was the first in my family to go to college and we certainly didn't have the means to pay for it. I had a pretty rough childhood, in fact. So the decision of what to study and where to go was based on where I got the best scholarships. Then the decision of what job to accept was where did I get the best job

offer? And so all of those early decisions were just very practical and pragmatic in nature. And I had a great career. But truth be told, it was not necessarily an industry or a role that I was passionate about. What was really a turning point for me, though, is that I did spend the majority of that career at a company called Hillcorp, which is privately held and is a super large company now. But it's run with such an entrepreneurial spirit. And I was there in the early days and learned so many

great lessons of entrepreneurship from the founder and CEO. And so part of that entrepreneurial culture was having ownership in the company. Everyone had equity of some sort and being there during such a time of high growth, that gave me financial freedom to consider other options. So I walked away from the company, uncertain of what I was going to do next. But I wanted it to be something that personally resonated with me something I was more passionate about within my my being, if you will. And I loved entrepreneurship. So I knew I wanted to start something. And then I kind of stumbled into investing. And it was a very indirect route to stumbling into that. So kind of by accident, I was on Instagram the week it launched. And I mentioned that because it's very pivotal in the

story. So I was on Instagram, because here I was single, no kids traveling a lot doing a lot of fun things. And I just liked taking pretty pictures. And remember those days where there was no algorithm, you didn't have to post video, you could just post pretty pictures and grow a pretty sizable organic following. So I grew in the early days of Instagram. And I started getting brand collaboration opportunities as a influencer. Now granted, I was not a big deal on the internet, but enough so I got some brand opportunities for collaborations. And so as I worked with brands I liked, I was not a big deal on the internet, but enough so I got some brand opportunities for collaborations. And so as I worked with brands I liked, I would very naively just kind of ask, hey,

are you looking for any advisors, any board members or investors? I'd love to get more involved in your business. And that's really how I started angel investing. So I knew nothing about what I was doing. But thankfully for my investors today, I learned a lot on my own dime. So I did that for about, gosh, five plus years. And what I realized in that process was three important things. One, I was having great fun. And I would not have used the word fun to describe my career before. It was a great career, but fun, not really. The second thing, I was having great results. I was seeing that with an infusion of capital and some mentorship, guidance, advisory services, those sorts of things, we were really helping these companies to grow bigger, faster. And then number three, and most importantly, I saw the great opportunity set. I mean, frankly, I saw that, wow, there were way more opportunities

to invest in these female founded businesses that I personally could handle. And so again, I took another leap very naively and thought, well, let's start a venture capital fund so we can do more of this. And so that's when I had the idea to start Curate Capital. And that was in late 2019, beginning of 2020. So right before the world changed. So we were getting all of our ducks in a row and getting ready to launch. And then of course, the pandemic kind of shifted that timeline. So really, we didn't start in earnest, if you will, until 2021. We had a goal of raising $10 million, which there were days and weeks and months, I didn't know if I was going to get there. And we can dive into the fundraising journey. But ultimately, we closed 50% over our goal. But what I was most proud of was not the result, but how we got there.

And as cheesy and cliche as it sounds, we really are an ecosystem of women supporting women. And we are not exclusive by any means. We have some great men investors and advisors and supporters. But I think there's something powerful about other women achieving success and then using their success to support other women as they build, in our case, the products and services that we believe other women want and need for themselves, their families, and their home. Okay. There is a lot of things to grab onto in there. But I think one thing that just kept jumping out to me is how often you said, I didn't know what I was doing, but I jumped in anyway. And also then the benefits of being an early adapter or an investor. So the benefits of starting in your company

early on and getting that equity position, the benefits of being on Instagram when it was brand new. I think something that holds us back as women in a lot of aspects of our life, but certainly when it comes to money, is this feeling that we need to have the answers, know what we're doing, have extreme knowledge, do all the research and ultimately feel ready before we can get into action. And everything in your story said pretty much the opposite. You're spot on, Nicole. And I see this time and time again with women in business, you know, who we're looking to invest in or, you know, just we've got a big community of founders, some who are looking for venture funding, some who are not, there are all sorts of ways to build businesses outside of venture capital. Having said that,

I think, yes, and I myself am guilty of this, where we can almost get that analysis by paralysis, or paralysis by analysis, if you will, where we overthink things and get in our own ways. And I found that where I've had the most success is when I've taken that leap. Now, granted, I mean, I'm an engineer, an MBA by education. I'm a data nerd, a spreadsheet, you know, a geek. I like to count the cost, so to speak. I'll build that model. I'll build that business plan. And I'll do that. But ultimately, you don't know what you don't know. And, you know, looking back, some things, if I would have known, maybe it would have scared me out of taking that leap. But the fact of the matter is, we can overcome so much. We as women particularly are very resilient. We can talk about multitasking and all that. We're used to juggling a lot of balls. We're used to overcoming

challenges. So many things that just kind of by default, we've had to be in our lifetime, serve us really well in business, particularly as entrepreneurs. And so starting my own fund makes me kind of a startup founder, just like the founders I'm investing in. So I understand their pain points. But to your point, sometimes we just have to take that leap and do it. We can't let the fact that everything's not perfect stop us from moving forward. We just have to take that leap. And we are so fortunate to live in a day and age where we can learn so much, whether that's Googling, asking chat GPT, surrounding ourselves with community of women or other trusted advisors and mentors and all that. We have so much that we can lean on these days. And so we don't have to do it alone. We can do it within community and the wisdom of others' experience and expertise.

Okay. So what I'd love to dive into based on your unique experience is some of the specific challenges you see as women, for women in the field of investing and venture capital. And how do we overcome that? And is it real or is it made up? Like, do we perceive that it's harder for women in this space? Or is it actually? Yeah, so I'll answer that from a couple perspectives, perhaps, you know, I think, on the founder side, it's clear, the data shows that women still get less than 2% of VC funding.

And we can say you're in bonbon that and I've got a lot of thoughts on why that is and how we change that. But really, from an investor perspective, to me, that creates opportunity, right? These businesses are generally underfunded. And if we can provide value and develop relationships with founders, you know, before they're looking for investors, then that gives us kind of an inside track to connect with those businesses. So there's that piece of it. Then on the investor side, you know, you'll read a lot of articles, and there's even some research where it says women are just more risk averse. I don't really know that that's the case, because I see women taking on amazing, amazingly daunting, you know, challenges and risk every day. So I don't really know that that's it either. So as I was fundraising for Curate Capital Fund One, it became kind of a secondary mission of mine, if you will, to just break down barriers to understanding investing in venture capital. My strong belief is that knowledge is power. And for whatever reason, for a long time, a certain demographic has kind of held that knowledge and power. And one way they do that

is by using a lot of jargon and lingo. And it almost makes it like this unapproachable black box, like, oh, venture capital. I don't know. That's just the other people understand that, right? And the fact of the matter is it's not rocket science. And so I began talking about it on social media, in person at events and just casually with friends or whatever. Like I started talking about it in simple, normal, everyday terms. Let's do away with the jargon. And let's just talk about, you know, simple questions like, who can invest in venture capital? Well, the answer is the SEC says you have to be an accredited investor. And most people would say, well, I don't think that's me. That sounds like something you have to apply for whatever. Well, no, then I would,

you know, take pleasure in just telling them, there's a simple definition, the SEC says you either have this much in income or this much in net worth. And the bar is not as high as many perceive, you know, granted, it's not everyone that can invest in private assets like this. But it's more people can than realize it, right. And so I, as I started talking about that, people are like, well, I qualify for that, that means I can invest with you. And of course, there are certain risks and certain time horizons that you have to take into account and all that. But what I found is that once women understood who we are, what we're about, how venture investing works, so many were willing to jump on board with us. Really, it was just fantastic in my mind that

80% of our investor base is women. And most of those are first time venture capital investors. And I consider it a real honor to be able to kind of help them learn about this asset class. And hopefully we all make a lot of money together as well. But I think just breaking down barriers to understanding things then helps people take that leap and take that risk into whatever they're wanting to do next. It's money week, which is all about taking control of your finances and building a secure future. But here's a surprising statistic. Only 26% of women feel confident in managing their investments. If you've ever hesitated with your financial plan, now is the perfect time to take action. Wise Fit Wealth is all about giving you

a personalized, bespoke financial experience. They don't just offer advice. They ask the tough questions. They listen to your answers, remember the details, and encourage you to take action and even challenge you when you don't because their goal is to help you reach yours. During money week, there's no better time to start planning. Head over to wisefitwealth.com and click the schedule a meeting with our team button and they'll give you a free budget worksheet and some essential planning tips to get you started. Visit wisefitwealth.com today and take control of your financial future. And then we can head back to the show. Yeah. And a big fat yes to the jargon thing. It makes me want to roll my eyes in the back of my

head. I'm like, do you even know what you're talking about? Like when people, but it is, it's such a barrier. And I would love to continue to kind of shine the light in that black box of venture capital. You hit on some things. It's like, it's probably more available than most people would think or an opportunity that maybe we self-select out of without knowing whether or not we can. Could you give us, I don't know, some parameters? Like, what do you see as typically the minimum amount of investment? Or what do you need to be making or have as a net worth in order to be considered not approved? But you know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we'll go there into these taboo subjects of money, right? So who can invest

in venture capital, or really be like be an angel investor or like invest in private equity or hedge funds? All these are like called private investments. Right. So not the publicly traded stock market. So who can invest in that? Well, the SEC says accredited investor. Well, interestingly, they haven't updated this definition in quite some time. So as you can imagine, with inflation and other things, you know, maybe, maybe they'll consider updating it. But as it stands now, and has for quite some time, the definition is simply an individual that makes over $200,000 a year, or a household that makes over 300. Or you have a net worth of a million dollars, excluding your primary residence. So in my experience, most people qualify under that income requirement. But a lot of people believe it's both. It's not an end statement. You don't have to have the income

and the net worth. It's one or the other. Now, of course, like any other legalese or government talk, there's more words. You can go on the SEC website or just Google it and you can get more details. But I mean, that's the bottom line. It's $200,000 as an individual or $300,000 in the household. And I think the language says over the last two years, and you reasonably expect that to continue into the future or something like that. And this is not something that I check on. You just self-accredit. When you sign up as an investor, you apply to invest on our website. We get you more information. If you decide yes, you don't have to disclose your finance or info to me. You simply check a box that states that you're an accredited investor.

And I can imagine some people listening in feel like having rules like that, at least in part, are to protect the investor, right? Because, you know, if you're making a certain amount or less or have a certain amount or less of net worth, taking on a risk that big and putting sizable dollars into something might just be too big of a risk for people. That's right. I mean, I think that's the right, Nicole. I think that's the spirit of the law. You know, we can debate whether or not government should be protecting us for ourselves. But there we are.

That's the spirit of it. And so to your point, most venture capital funds do have a pretty high minimum. Now, with our first fund in particular, I tried to make the minimum as low as practically possible. But again, we've got to work within the confines of the rules the government gives us. And the SEC also limits the number of investors I can have. No idea where this number came from, but the most I can have in a venture capital fund is 99. So I had to take into consideration how big of a fund I wanted to raise and then kind of back calculate the math in terms

of the minimum and all that. But another thing to keep in mind is that when you invest in a venture capital fund, very rarely are you like writing that full check on day one. Generally speaking, funds will do what's called a capital call. And so it may be over a period of two or three, or even four or five years that your money is called. So for instance, if you were invested $100,000, you might have to do, you know, $10,000 for a quarter for 10 quarters or something like that. It's a lot more broken up into smaller chunks than just like having to write a check tomorrow or wire money tomorrow. So keep that in mind as you start looking at investing opportunities. And, you know, just a little unsolicited investment advice, you know, a diversified portfolio is always a good thing.

So if someone doesn't want to go to a fund like ours, which, hey, you know, everyone's got their own choice. If you come to a fund, I'll say that, you know, we're doing that work where we're looking at, we see over 100 deals a month. And so we're evaluating all those and really high grading and picking what we think are the best of the best and investing in those. And then you're going to get a portfolio of 15 or 20 or 30 or 50 companies. And so that's a higher probability of things turning out well, theoretically. If instead, though, you want to try your own hand at angel investing and picking and choosing which companies you invest in, I would do things a little differently than I did. I went a little too heavy into say a handful of companies. If I had to do it over again, I would probably write smaller checks in more companies,

because that's really how you're going to learn. Every check you write is an opportunity to learn, because then you'll be getting investor updates on those companies. And you can figure, you know, just one about the startup culture and the mentality of how to grow those businesses. But also, you know, it's fun to invest in what you like. And so you'll find out more like, oh, I enjoyed that kind of business or that was really cool to be a part of that or that one didn't really resonate with me. And then you can kind of tweak what you're investing in as you go forward. Okay. So my next question is maybe more on the other side. If somebody has a business or a brand and they're looking for investors, and I think at least some part of why women aren't getting the same level of investors

might be just the connection and access. We tend to hang out with people we know and that we like and who are like us. And so I imagine, I don't know, I have this visual of men on the golf course talking about opportunities. And I don't know if women are getting those same exposure opportunities. And so it could be really daunting to even figure out how do I get investors? Who do I talk to? What is venture capital? Like, where do I start? So that's my question is on that side.

Well, and really, frankly, the market's pretty tough for fundraising right now anyway. And so I find myself giving the same advice to anyone I talk to, whether male or female. But, you know, really, this advice is born out of lessons I learned when I was fundraising. You know, I thought when I was launching my fund, that, gosh, it would be easy to raise $10 million, right? Because I had this 20-year career, this rich network. And I didn't mean that dollar-wise, but yes, some of them are in oil and gas. And that I would just go out to my colleagues from that, you know, 20-year career. And then, gosh, you know, that guy's gonna write me a check for a million dollars, this guy's gonna write me a check for, you know, 500,000, we're just going to raise $10 million real nice and

easily. Well, the fact of the matter is that they didn't really get the value proposition. A few of them did. And I really, you know, appreciate that. But you know these men were concerned that I had gone down some leftist feminist path and what am I doing being this female founder champion? I could write a whole book with some of the comments I got in the process of fundraising. I'm sure. You know, my take on that is like quite the opposite. I just want to highlight the incredible work women are doing. This isn't agenda driven other than I believe women are building incredible businesses and there's a great opportunity to make great returns. And so it just makes business sense. And of course we can do some good in the process as well. But so I thought I would go out to a

certain demographic and find fundraising success. Well, I didn't. And really, the turning point for us was when I found my people. And that's what I encourage everyone to do. Think outside the traditional fundraising box and think, who is your message going to resonate with? Those people that automatically resonate with you, your message, your vision, what you're doing, those are going to be easy yeses. What I wasted way too much time on is trying to change people's mind, make them go from a no to a yes. And that

was really a fruitless effort on my part. And so it's really critical that you get people to know faster, right? If people are interested, fine, let them be not interested. Get to that no quicker than continue beating your head against the wall, so to speak. You will find your people. And maybe that's passionate customers. Maybe that's people that align with your mission. Maybe that's friends from grade school or college or whatever. But find those people. And that's where you're going to have success. And even with founders, many times it's more fruitful for them to go that route than pursuing traditional VCs because there's all sorts of challenges and there are all sorts of expectations once you officially accept venture capital money. And so sometimes it can be a lot easier to build your business, really just leveraging the resources of those who are already passionate about you, your product, your business, or whatever. So yeah, get to know sooner, get used to hearing no, I was not used to

hearing no before I fundraise, and then really find those people that resonate with you. You know, when we raised our first fund, we didn't raise any money from the East Coast or West Coast. So like the traditional VC hotspots, we didn't. We raised practically all of our fund from what I would call middle America. So we really broke out of the norm, both in terms of gender, also in terms of geography. So there were several ways where we just took a different approach to fundraising. And I think it really worked out well. Everything that you're saying sounds, it feels like truth to me. I don't know how to explain it in any other way than that because trying to convince people is exhausting and more often than

not doesn't work, especially when it comes to their money. They've already got their mind made up about what they think is important or where they want to put their money for the most part. And then the flip side is you've already got raving fans, most likely, of you, of your product, of your business, your brand. And going where there's already some yes, and then just getting a different yes feels, I don't know, a little bit more rewarding and easier. Yeah. I'll share with you recently, one of our portfolio companies, it's one of the most successful in our portfolio in terms of revenue levels. And so you would think they would have no trouble attracting VC money. Well, at this point, VCs are just in a weird spot right now

with all the uncertainty of the economy and elections and all that, but companies still need to raise money. And where this founder has had great success is going to speak at events for her sorority that she was in college. Granted, she's in her 50s, I think at this point. But so going to speak at events like, you know, if it's other female founders, or maybe you're in a sorority, or the other thing, she's had success fundraising from her customers. And she was a little uncomfortable doing that when we first discussed the idea. She was like, oh, is that a little uncouth? What am I going to do? But she ultimately took the approach of sending very lovely FedEx packages to her top customer list. And we started out with just like three or so. And she got a couple investors out of it. So then she was comfortable

to go a few more customers deep in the list. And really, that's what I'm saying. If you've got those people that are already passionate about your product or they're already passionate about you, maybe they're a sorority sister or something like that, go, you know, don't be afraid, you know, don't feel like it's, you know, not good manners or, you know, you're breaching some, you know, societal norms or something.

Don't be afraid to take that conversation a step further because many people will be open to it. And if they're not, fine, you know, then maybe that's not the right approach either. But, you know, you never know if you don't ask. A hundred percent. Somebody told me once, a woman I used to work with, that the answer is always no, unless you ask. At least give yourself the opportunity of getting the yes.

That always stuck with me. My last question is going to be a pretty big detour because I just feel like there are some people listening who are like, this is very interesting. But from where I'm at to investing or venture capital is a pretty far distance. So my question is a little bit more for the average person who's wanting to take a more active role in managing their finances or plan better for a future goal like retirement or college fund. Anything that you've learned that you would pass forward with us on just getting a more

productive and empowered relationship with money in general and our finances. Yes. And I'm so glad you brought this up, Nicole. It was on my mind when I was answering some previous question that I got sidetracked. But I think that's so important for us as women not to bury our heads in the sand, right? I mean, it can be so easy, particularly if you're in a marriage or a partnership, like, oh, well, he handles the finances, or, oh, well, you know, that's just not something that I know about, or I don't, that stresses me out. Well, no, what should be stressful is not knowing things. So at a bare minimum, you need to know your numbers. So, you know, make sure you know, you know, all the accounts and passwords you have, make sure you know, kind of this current state of

your finances, because again, knowledge is power. And if we don't know what's going on, we can't affect change. We can't make it grow. We can't make it better if we don't know where it is today. So take inventory of where you are today. Make sure that you have a basic understanding of where your money is, how much you have, how much you don't have, how much debt you have, whatever, and then make a game plan, right? Like, tell your money what to do rather than just being passive and reactive to it. So, you know, I don't care what plan you take. And there are all sorts of different, you know, approaches that advisors will tell you, I'm not going to get in the middle of your finance. But the point is, have a plan, know where you stand today, then have a plan. And

really, you know, little steps may not seem significant today, but with time on your side and with the power of compound interest, good things will happen if you are just consistent and disciplined with what you do with your money. So that speaks to my experience of don't wait. It actually costs you more to wait to find, and I put in air quotes, the perfect vehicle or investment or whatever. Doing something now, working, whether that's a trusted advisor or there's so many resources available, but getting into action because as you said, consistency, action, compounding

interest. I mean, there's so much value in moving forward. So Carrie, I can't believe we're at time. This has been such an intriguing conversation, I know for me and I'm sure people listening in. So the website you want to go to if you want to learn more about Carrie and Curate Capital is curate.capital. We'll put the link in show notes along with Carrie's Instagram, which is at Carrie C. So C-A-R-R-I-E and then C at the end. I think we have so much to learn from you and I'm excited for one to be exposed to more of your work and

your information. Carrie, thank you so much for doing it. Nicole, it's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you again for all the wonderful work that you highlight on your show. And thank you for including me. It is absolutely my pleasure. Okay. Let me close by saying that I don't think the conversation about money should just be about making as much of it as possible or just about making smart investments. It's also, and maybe more importantly, about taking action to get into spaces where we do in fact belong, where we thrive, and where we have the power to shape the future. Of course you should dream big. Of course you should have a plan.

And of course, financial security is important. And in order to achieve any and all of that, it is action that is required. Action on your part. Whether you're thinking about building a business, investing in one, or simply managing your finances with more intention, get into action toward it. Because it isn't called trail waiting or trail thinking or even trail tiptoeing. Don't wait for the perfect moment. Don't overthink every step and don't play it small. Blaze your trail. Take bold action and create the future you want, not just for yourself, but for those

who follow down your path. Get into action and invest in what matters most. And that is woman's work.