127. Not "Female Founder," Just "Founder" Rachel McCrickard, CEO @ Motivo Health
It's important to build a diverse team because diverse teams outperform non-diverse teams. It's important to invest in great founders. And women happen to make great founders.
Read Rachel's original post about fundraising on LinkedIn.
About SpringTime Ventures
SpringTime Ventures seeds high-growth startups in healthcare, fintech, logistics, and marketplace businesses. We look for founders with domain expertise, forging a path with a truly transformative technology. We only invest in software-based businesses in the USA. We bring a people-focused approach, work quickly, and reach conviction independently. Our initial check size is $600k. You can learn more about us and our approach.
About Rich Maloy
Rich’s mission is to rebuild the American dream through entrepreneurship. He believes technology gives all people the opportunity to grow, learn and earn. He is a Managing Partner at SpringTime Ventures and the host of the VC Minute podcast. With prior careers in finance and sales, he's been focused on the startup ecosystem for over a dozen years. He's a father of two young children and loves sci-fi, skiing, and video games.
I do have a perspective on the term female founder.I don't mind it when it's used as a fund that's focused on female founders and that sort of thing.But when people refer to me as a female founder,I often like cringe a little bit.It's even worse when they call me a girl boss cause it kind of feels like.You're an anomaly.This is different than what the standard process is.I want to be judged by the performance of my company,by the health of my company,by the metrics,all of those things.I don't wanna be referred to as a great female founder.I wanna be referred to as a great founder.I think expanding that conversation a little bit and thinking about how that might hold female founders back.I'm a founder that happens to be a woman.That's what I am.But not using it as an identifier.And it kinda makes me think about this one episode that I love of Silicon Valley and it's all the men,the engineers are in the house and there's two women.The women couldn't be more different.One's an attorney,super straight-laced.One's kind of like a hippie engineer woman.And the guy's like,let me move over so you can stand next to the woman.I'm sure you guys have things to talk about,women things.I might have far more in common with the other male founders in the room than I do with the female whatever.Some of the best healthcare companies that I know of are run by women.People should invest in founders that are women because women make great founders.Not because we are female founders and you're trying to up your diversity metrics.It's important to build a diverse team because diverse teams outperform non-diverse teams.It's important to invest in great founders.And women happen to make great founders.
Rich:Wow.That was amazing.Rachel,thank you for two weeks of incredible insights and advice.I truly appreciate everything that you shared with us.Did you all know that VC minute is on sub stack?Head to VC minute dot sub stack.dot com and join us over there.And as always.Time is our most precious asset.And I'm grateful that you'd spend some of it with me.Have a great weekend
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