One of the most influential Silicon Valley Investors for SAAS Founders || FT. Cindy Padnos

Radically Yours by Radhika

“𝐈𝐧 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐕𝐂 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝, 𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝, 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞”.
Meet Cindy Padnos, founder of Illuminate Ventures, a seed and early-stage venture capital firm based out of Oakland that invests exclusively in enterprise/B2B software companies.
In this interview episode of ‘Wiping Out the Norm,’ Cindy shares her journey in Venture Capital with our founder Radhika Bajoria.
Cindy started her career by working with a large corporation, then did management consulting within the tech sector and soon founded her own startup in B2B software which she eventually exited and built a VC fund to invest in B2B SaaS sector.
After working in the VC world, she conducted many researches to understand what helps startups and founders to become successful. She shared many of her valuable insights in the conversation like,
“𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲. 𝐌𝐞𝐧 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐢𝐧 ‘𝐟𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐢𝐭’ 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐝”.
In the conversation, Cindy revealed many other observations from her interesting research like,
“𝐈𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐡𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐮𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐕𝐂𝐬, 𝐕𝐂𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧.” She highlighted the subtle but unintentional biases that women face.
“VCs do not want to invest in companies where husband and wife are running the company together, but we invested in such a company, and made massive returns”.
There are many such preconceived notions in the mind of VCs and avoid investing in companies that are different from the ‘norm’.
In addition to women, she found that people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, those from other nationalities, and even those with different accents were frequently impacted by prejudices and biases.
In her VC fund, they have focused on inclusion, and also shared that half of the companies in their portfolio have at least one female co-founder. Along with conducting researches, she has been involved in a number of nonprofits supporting women entrepreneurship for 20 years.
Watch our full conversation with Cindy as she shared with us many more learnings from her researches and experiences in the VC world.
Watch the full video- https://lnkd.in/dK-kzJ2U
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