“When I got into venture capital, I noticed female founders were only getting 2% the venture funding available… they’re under-shopped and undervalued, yet they overdeliver. As well as a moral imperative argument, it’s a real economic argument.”
Nisa Amoils is a VC investor, focusing on fintech, blockchain and crypto. Nisa Amoils is author of the best-seller Wtf Is Happening: Women Tech Founders on the Rise.
Women founders receive only 2% of available venture funding yet their companies consistently over deliver. There is a large community of women founders that represent huge financial value. The absence of women-led venture funds plays a major role in this disparity. They’re more likely to invest in women-led companies that grow into success stories, creating a positive cycle. “As well as a moral imperative argument, it’s a real economic argument.”
Blockchain technology serves as an agent of change in the democratization of access to capital and also in revamping entire industry systems. Areas like supply chain management of healthcare, climate change and law represent huge opportunities. Blockchain tech and crypto will create transparency, efficiency and automation across global institutions and drive the tokenization of illiquid assets.
LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE
SPEAKER
Nisa Amoils
Managing Partner
A100x
MODERATOR
Anthony Scaramucci
Founder & Managing Partner
SkyBridge
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Rachel Pether: (00:07)
Hi, and welcome back to salt talks. My name is Rachel Pether and I'm a senior advisor at SkyBridge, as well as being the MC for salt and thought leadership forum and networking platform that encompasses business technology and politics. So it talks as a series of digital interviews with some of the world's foremost investors, creators and thinkers, and just as we do at our physical salt events, we aim to provide our audience a window into the minds of subject matter experts. Now, today we're going to be focusing on women, founders and tech and the democratization of venture capital. And I'm very excited to be speaking to a different of mine. Nisa miles Nisa is many things. She's a venture capital investor, a securities lawyer, a board member, and a former entrepreneur. She authored the best seller. WTF is happening. Women tech founders on the rise, and she's a regular panelist on business channels, as well as a contributor for Forbes and blockchain and magazine. She holds a business degree from the university of Michigan and a law degree from the university of Pennsylvania. So Nissa, welcome to salt tool.
Nisa Amoils: (01:22)
Thank you so much for having me Rachel. So nice to see you.
Rachel Pether: (01:26)
I apologize for profusely summarizing your biography. So maybe we could start by just giving me a bit more background about you and who you
Nisa Amoils: (01:35)
Are. Absolutely. So I've been in venture capital for the past 10 years for the past five years. I've been investing almost exclusively in FinTech and blockchain and crypto companies prior to getting into investing. I, as you noted, um, had a stint as an entrepreneur. I also worked in media, under Barry Diller, um, at, is what was started as NBC universal and then became interactive Corp I C. And back then we were investing in the first wave of internet disruption, um, as to how we communicate as opposed to no we're investing in the internet of trust or value. And, uh, yes, I practiced securities law, um, for a number of years before getting into media. And that background has been extremely helpful in terms of investing in, um, financial services and crypto,
Rachel Pether: (02:40)
Right? Want to come back to that point? You made about the internet of trust or value, but before we do that, you did author this book, a WTF is happening, woman tech founders on the rise. And I know you're very passionate about women and technology. And you spent a number of years researching and writing this book. Maybe you could talk me through, I guess, a, the process for that. And B what were some of your key findings from that book?
Nisa Amoils: (03:10)
Absolutely. When I got into venture capital, I noticed that female founders were only getting 2% of the venture funding that was available and it just didn't make sense to me. And I saw all these great female founders that were building in hard tech or disruptive tech, uh, areas like artificial intelligence, virtual reality robotics, and in particular blockchain, because I focus so heavily there. And so I saw them out performing. I actually see diverse teams always are performing, and I thought it was an investment opportunity to bring to light. And so the book profiles, 13 female founders in those areas, but really what it does is makes the business case for investing in, um, with a lot of data about how they all perform and they're under shopped undervalued yet they over-deliver. And to me, it was an arbitrage opportunity for investors. In addition to the moral imperative argument, this is a real economic argument as well.
Nisa Amoils: (04:22)
And so the findings really were, um, that you don't need to have a stem degree to go into these areas. Um, science, technology, engineering, math, um, you can tangentially learn along the way you can start companies. You know, I wanted to profile the women so that they could be role models for other women that were coming up in, in later generations. And that as long as you're passionate, you have grit. Um, the timing is right. Um, the market size is right. Um, you can really have some great winners here. So that was, uh, that was also meant to disrupt a bit of the systemic barriers that hold women back in terms of fund management and, um, access to capital access to opportunities. And that is, that is what I wanted to try and change. And that, that is ultimately what led me to blockchain technology as an agent of change for democratization of access to capital. And so when you started
Speaker 3: (05:39)
Writing or researching the book, and you mentioned the tiny percentage of fund funding that went to women founders, how long ago was this, that you started the process and how have you seen, or how has that number changed since that period? I started
Nisa Amoils: (05:56)
Writing book in 2018. It came out in March, 2019. And since we've had the pandemic, I have seen the number of women drop the funding that goes to female founders has gone even lower. Um, and I think this has been well publicized is that a lot of women have had to drop out of the workforce because of childcare and other, uh, issues. And so that's, uh, yeah, we're, we're going backwards instead of going forwards.
Speaker 3: (06:32)
Yeah, that's definitely one another, one of the unfortunate side effects of the pandemic. I do want to go back to the points you made around access to capital and democratization and move to what you're focusing on now with, with a a hundred times and the focus there really being on democratizing finance. So can you talk me through exactly what this is and then also go into why is it so difficult for the average investor to access venture capital?
Nisa Amoils: (07:07)
Absolutely. So a 100 X ventures is a venture fund. It's a rolling fund that we've done with angel list, which means that each series in the fund can be viewed as its own fund individually, where investors in the fund can have more optionality in the quarters that they subscribe to. And in the amounts that they subscribed angel list serves as a backend service provider for everything that normally you would have a fund administrator, an auditor, a lawyer, et cetera, and they handle it one stop shop, which makes it easier for everybody it's, it's like they've automated the fun process, and that allows you to lower the barrier to entry while it's still right now, um, limited to accredited investors. Those laws are also changing and expanding. In fact, in the us yesterday, um, they raised the amount of reg CF to 5 million from 1 million for unaccredited investors to invest in these types of things.
Nisa Amoils: (08:17)
So that's very encouraging. They brought in the definition of what an accredited investor is, so that it's not only based on your wealth, it's also based on your sophistication and knowledge. So I think the trend is that, uh, we're broad, we're broadening the access Angeles just facilitated that. And we are able to offer women and minorities access to the fund at a very low minimum that would not normally be possible. What that does is it allows them to learn about blockchain and crypto and all the other digital and the applications there. And it allows them to participate in that wealth creation opportunity, which I personally believe is one of the biggest of our lifetimes. And they've been traditionally left out of it. If you look at all the lists of, of who's invested and who's, um, you know, the Forbes lists of, you know, there's no women on it. So, uh, we want to be able to change that through this vehicle and offer that opportunity. Yeah, that's great
Speaker 3: (09:25)
That it can be used as an educational resource as well. Cause there's really nothing better than actually trial and error, I guess when it comes to investing. So that's great. People can dip their toe in. And you mentioned that it's easier for women and minorities on the investor side. Do you have any particular diversity focus on the investing side as well?
Nisa Amoils: (09:49)
We don't, we're not saying that we're a gender lens fund, meaning that we invest in men. Of course, we, if you look at the companies we have invested in, many of them are started by men, but because it's private equity and venture capital, so much of it is about your sourcing and your networks. So because I'm part of so many groups, women's groups, women in blockchain, et cetera, by definition, I'm getting, um, you know, female founders coming to me, uh, where as a lot of times they don't know where else to go. Um, so yes, we will be investing in women and minorities as well. Great. And
Speaker 3: (10:33)
I wanted to just go back to one of the points you made at the very start when you were talking about this internet of trust and value and died down
Rachel Pether: (10:41)
A bit deeper and to
Speaker 3: (10:43)
Blockchain and the theory of, and I know you're very passionate about these technological technology breakthroughs. What has been in your opinion, the real value that's been created through this digitization of finance?
Nisa Amoils: (10:59)
Yeah, so I think you're seeing waves of innovation right now, and it started with the ICO's and, um, the run-up in crypto prices, Bitcoin Ethereum, especially this year, as you've seen the institutional stampede finally come in, uh, one after the other, uh, uh, traditional wall street. So, uh, most of the headlines go to the disruption of traditional finance and decentralized finance, and those are great innovations. Um, there's no question that they, the technology is making, um, antiquated systems, you know, you have T plus two settlement for instance, to, um, you know, there, it's making it much more, um, transparent, efficient, automated, and liquid. Um, so of course, tokenization and, um, of illiquid assets, uh, will continue to happen. Uh, however, what's not as well publicized is the use of the technology in other industries, in other areas of disruption that have real impact solving real world problems.
Nisa Amoils: (12:19)
And that's a lot of what we want to focus on at a 100 X is for instance, the pandemic has exposed a lot of different problems with our supply chains being just in time with our healthcare system, whether that be data and tracing and privacy issues and identity, or whether that be coordination of clinical trials around the world, um, to save money and time, or whether that be vaccination, rollout and distribution, right? So there are so many different areas of healthcare alone that, um, can use the technology to solve some of those problems. Uh, on the other hand, there are so many different areas of climate change that can benefit from the technology as well, such as carbon credit offsets. Um, there are areas of legal title, uh, insurance, um, that are being disrupted using the technology, for instance, automobile, um, total loss claims that, um, can be expedited from 50 days down to one day using the technology and from paper systems from the 1970s. And then that gets rid of cars that are sitting in landfills, um, and it creates a better land use, uh, situation. And so that's almost a secondary effect of that has impact. Um, so we're very interested in sustainability ESG STGs impact, and we're always looking to align with founders that have that same mentality and that can use the technology for good as well. That's great. And
Speaker 3: (14:10)
On the, um, on the healthcare side that you mentioned, what would be some examples of technology that would improve either that supply chain or that process? Have you looked at one specifically?
Nisa Amoils: (14:25)
Yes. So as I mentioned, the clinical trials, um, reduction of cost and coordination of, uh, efforts that are going on around the world that involve many different stakeholders where blockchain technology can be used to coordinate and track, you know, any kind of, um, it's immutable, right? So, so the records can be, uh, secure and they can be, um, not tampered with et cetera. Um, the supply chain example that's often used is, is about our food, um, and the provenance of where that is coming from. If you eat something and you get sick, you know, where, what, what countries did it stop in? What was the origin who touched it? Um, you know, you, you can feel secure and safe that when you go to your local supermarket and it has a verified organic label, um, that's trackable with a code that, that gets you on chain data. Um, that's a huge breakthrough in terms of, of where things are coming from, and that, that applies to medical devices as well. Um, or any kind of supply chain, distribution efforts, um, vaccines, et cetera. Mm. And you mentioned
Speaker 3: (15:51)
When you were talking about some of the examples about, it's not always sort of a primary impact in terms of ESG, but there's often, I guess, secondary impacts as well. So maybe you could tell me a bit more about what impact looks like for you and how you sort of define it and consider it when you're looking at investments.
Nisa Amoils: (16:15)
Right? So that was the example about the second order effects of the land, um, usage ha happening from title insurance. Um, another example is a company we're going to invest in that's providing climate data to real estate developers and insurance companies based on artificial intelligence and blockchain. And they will be able to predict based on the patterns that are happening, where, um, some weather related effects might occur and that gets priced into the transaction. Um, so that is something we consider impact that, that, um, is, you know, anything that's trying to help the world solve these, some of these real problems and make the world a better place, um, can be defined as impact.
Rachel Pether: (17:15)
I think that's an excellent definition. And then if you take all these, these big themes and the things that you're passionate about, so diversity and, and blockchain technology, how can blockchain and technology be used as a tool for diversity,
Nisa Amoils: (17:34)
Exactly how we're using it and also through security token offerings, um, to give you an example of that there a few years ago, there was, um, a transaction with one of the trophy properties, uh, real estate pro hotels, um, in the world. And they tokenized part of the hotel and that investment was made available to any accredited investor, as opposed to the insiders working on real estate, private equity that it would normally go to, and that allowed them to have investors from around the world. And it allowed accredited investors to get in at a very low access point. And through tokenization, after your one-year lockup, you can trade that token on exchanges. And what I've seen in the three years since is that, um, I did invest and that token has appreciated in value despite the pandemic, um, trading very well. And I consider that a success because it's a wealth creation opportunity that went to somebody like me that would not have had access to it before. And I think that trend is going to continue and allow unaccredited investors, some access as well. That we're S we're seeing that, um, with the vaccine Jeff and reggae plus, but I think, um, it wouldn't have been possible without blockchain technology before. And so there are, uh, also, um, alternative ways to raise capital and capital formation that democratize the process. So for founders that go to access venture capital, that normally cannot access it, they can use these different tools to raise capital. And that's exciting. No, that's
Speaker 3: (19:45)
Very exciting. And it's interesting, you mentioned the example of trashy hotels as someone who, you know, moved to the middle east to work for a sovereign wealth fund in 2008, I think pretty much at that point middle east Southern wealth funds own most of the, the kind of trophy hotels globally. So it was good to see that opening up a little bit as well. I would really like to touch on, you know, I've been reading a lot recently. I think Robin hood, you know, made an announcement about X percent of Robin hood customers are now female, um, with all the work that you're doing in sort of gender diversity and, you know, the writing that you're doing with Forbes, et cetera,
Rachel Pether: (20:26)
What have been some of the
Speaker 3: (20:29)
Findings on women's participation in the cryptocurrency markets themselves.
Nisa Amoils: (20:38)
I just saw that same statistic actually that, um, more women are trading in crypto than ever before, which brilliant. And it ju it's a factor of, um, partly, you know, Robin hood phenomenon is, is the lockdown and, and people are looking for alternative forms of, um, entertainment say, and they're, they have more time, maybe they're, they're reading more and they're self-learning and their experiments thing, which is great. And then, you know, we've seen, um, in the us, these stimulus checks and, and the correlated run-up in crypto prices. So, you know, that, um, people are putting part of their stimulus checks into crypto. And so that, um, I think the combination of the education and the time, um, has allowed more women to get into trading crypto and, and participate in that wealth creation.
Speaker 3: (21:46)
It's interesting. You're actually, I think about the third person this week, who's used Robinhood and entertainment and the same in the same sentence. Um, I'd just like to ask a few questions on the capital raising side. I know that you were,
Rachel Pether: (22:03)
Uh, you know, you used to work in
Speaker 3: (22:05)
A venture capital or used to work. Um, you are an entrepreneur previously, were you involved in the fundraising process and was it sort of the struggles from you personally that led to you really wanting to help democratize this industry? Or has it, will you more looking at it through the lens of an investment perspective?
Nisa Amoils: (22:28)
Yes, it is both. It is, um, for female fund owned funds. Um, there are, I think 90% of them are very small, um, or, you know, other than a handful. Um, and they go through this process of being part of emerging manager programs, whether that be a pensions or, um, sovereign wealth funds or endowments. And there are a lot of barriers to getting through their systems, right? You have to be a certain size fund to, um, participate with them. And it's hard to get from a to B. So I, and, and the number of women fund managers in general, I think is about maybe five or 7%. It's very small and that's the trickle down effect that, um, if there were more and running funds, they would invest more in female founders and those female founders would grow up and, and go public. And, and then the cycle they would have well to create and invest more so that kind of cycle would continue. And so it's very hard to, um, kind of wait for those systems to change because it could take decades or, or hundreds of years by some calculations. And so part of the process is really de-risking emerging managers for these institutions and by the same token, allowing more women and minorities, to be able to incur the expense and take the risk of entering into fund management.
Rachel Pether: (24:22)
Yeah. And I think you made an important point before, you know, it's not just some fluffy Duffy feel-good factor here. There's actually a bonafide underlying economic data to support this as well in terms of, you know, returns and things like that.
Nisa Amoils: (24:40)
Right. Exactly. And if people would pay attention to the data and believe the data, then why wouldn't they want to invest there? Right. Everybody is seeking returns first. So, so why wouldn't you,
Rachel Pether: (24:56)
And do you think that comes from sort of subconscious biases? What do you think it was, but I'll, uh, I will take it as a response, a very succinct one word response. And also just to, you know, I guess close I'd really be interested. You know, you've been, you've had such a variety of experience and, you know, you've worked on both sides of the fence and also been, uh, a lawyer when you're looking like within, within the fund I a hundred X, what are you most excited about seeing over the next 12 or 24 months? And what would success look like
Nisa Amoils: (25:44)
For you? Yeah, so we like to think that we're Prehype investors and my partner, Alex, who spent 15 years as a technologist at Goldman Sachs likes to always say that, um, you know, there are so many different, uh, companies that don't even need a block chain or AI that are, you know, tagging it onto, uh, them. We like to decipher the wheat from the chaff there. Um, we think, I mean, he, he seated a company called dapper labs three years ago, and now it's worth $2 billion, um, in the NFT space, which of course you must be reading about because it's, it's hard not to, um, now that's blown up. So we we'd like to get in before that happens. And we really think that the next wave of innovation is going to come, um, with this ESG lens and impact lens that we're, um, seeing these world use cases, um, happen.
Nisa Amoils: (26:46)
That's not to say we wouldn't, uh, again, invest in, in a blockchain based gaming company we have, and we would, um, be opportunistic as well, um, or in, you know, financial services or, or in, um, other kinds of disruption. But we really do believe that the world is trending towards, um, solving some of these issues that really have been brought to light this year. And that so many different governments are trying to use technology to do that now. And so that's really going to be where we see these, this next wave into your as time we hope to participate now, get in early, have great returns for investors. Um, and then, you know, continue to make positive impact.
Rachel Pether: (27:40)
Fabulous. Well, I really hope we can get you back on in a year and, you know, see where you are in that evolution. And I was just thinking, we actually met just over a year ago and at an alternative investments summit in the Cayman islands. So here's hoping we can actually meet again in person as well.
Nisa Amoils: (28:01)
I can't wait for that. Rachel. I'd love to.
Rachel Pether: (28:04)
Perfect. Thanks so much for your time today, Lisa, it's been a real pleasure. Thank you so much.