“I think that if we start to think about the world in a much broader way, and sort of lift ourselves out of the immediacy of Silicon Valley— and this goes for both investors and founders— there are much, much bigger market opportunities for us to get excited about.”
— Monique Woodard (Founder at Cake Ventures)
Powered by RedCircle
Today's guest is Monique Woodard, Founder at Cake Ventures. Cake Ventures has a simple, effective motto, “Investing in where we’re going, not where we came from.” Monique invests at the intersection of technology and newly powerful consumer groups who are mostly overlooked by most.
Before starting her venture firm, Monique worked at 500 Startups, investing in pre-seed and seed companies in the US and Africa. She also worked as a product-focused operator and founded a national community of tech entrepreneurs.
Monique symbolizes how one can live a self-directed, meaningful life regardless of your background. Any investor and operator who is building the future of humanity can benefit from watching this video! You will feel a kinship with what Monique has to share! :)
“To put a clear perspective on it like back when I started, there were really very few black people in venture. There was Charles Hudson, and like that was it.”
— Monique Woodard
Highlights
Investing in where we’re going, not where we came from.
Venture Capital as a culture-setting vehicle.
The evolving state of diversity in tech and venture.
Market trends, changing demographics, and the newly powerful consumer groups.
The growing economic power of women in the world.
Gray New World— the aging market is still in its infancy.
Journey to the west— from programming to venture investing.
Breaking the mold for a more diverse, equitable venture ecosystem.
Transcript
Monique Woodard
Thank you. I'm based in San Francisco, and I'm the founding partner and managing director of a venture capital firm called Cake Ventures. So, I basically spend most of my time investing in and discovering great founders and then helping them be successful.
Jon Low
You've had quite a diverse and extensive career and in many sectors, so how did you discover this thing called venture. And you know what got you hooked into getting involved?
Monique Woodard
Yeah, I mean, I didn't grow up in a place where like, anyone knew anything about venture capital. I grew up in a super rural town in Florida, Central Florida. And you know, my grandfather was a farmer and I grew up on a farm basically. My dad worked Fire and Rescue for NASA. My mom worked for AT&T. So, super working class family.
But I am an only child and you know, got really into computers early. And my dad bought me my first computer when I was like eight or so, which then meant that he had to drive me into town for like these programming classes. And sort of became sort of self taught because like, there were no computer classes in my middle school in high school.
But then I started teaching myself HTML and like, back in like the early aughts, it wasn't really Even called starting a startup It was like, I'm going to build something on the internet. And then I'm going to use growth hacking and performance marketing techniques to make that thing get popular and make money. And I got really good at doing that. And that sort of led me into a more tech focused career company, based in San Francisco.
I knew that I was good at building products and companies asked me to come out and talk to them. I was out here for 36 hours, and I moved 30 days later. And I've been in San Francisco ever since. And I would say like, that really kicked off like the Silicon Valley part of my career. You know, I was at that company for a couple of years, left to start building a mobile app in the mobile shopping space, also started community founders called Black founders, because we weren't seeing like, it was like 2011 or so. And there was no diversity in the valley at that time.
And so you know, that really sort of catalyzed my interest in working with founders closely. And ultimately, I decided that I was probably well, I just discovered that I was sort of like doing the job of a VC. But without, like the actual money behind me to actually, like invest in companies. I was like, “You gotta fix that!” And that's how I ended up moving on to the investor side of the table. At 500 Startups, started investing out of their seed program, did some investing in sub-saharan Africa. And, yeah, and from there, it was sort of, you know, that became my life as an investor and as a person who likes to work closely with founders.
Jon Low
Wow, what a journey. Thanks for sharing that, Monique. And, you know, imagine you were doing the role of a VC without the actual money. You know, at a stage when you know, the VC ecosystem was arguably very different to what it is today. What are some of the memorable or meaningful highlights of that time you spent in VC? Because I would say you're one of the diverse venture capitalists and investors who really had insight into what it was like to work in that environment before diversity became a popular thing, you know.
Monique Woodard
Yeah, I mean, I think I think the conversation around diversity has really changed. And now, even you know, this year, in the wake of George Floyd and all the protests, the conversation has changed even more, and now you've got venture firms saying that Black Lives Matter, which was never a thing. You know, so that's a huge change.
And, you know, they're sort of ramping up their efforts to support black founders and also support black fund managers. And so there's been a true shift. I'm hoping that's a long lasting shift. Because, you know, when I started to support founders and work closely with founders, you know, you would introduce them to like, you would introduce black founders to like Sandhill Road VCs, and it would sort of go nowhere, right?
They weren't getting the same level of support and capital that their non black peers were and so, I think over time, that's certainly changed. I mean, you know, Dijon Amira, for Maven, I know Dijon from Day Zero of him starting Maven, and he went on to do 500 Startups, and then Andreessen invested in him and then rich Dennis, Richelieu. Dennis, you know, the founder of Shea Moisture, invested in him. And so, it's really sort of evolved in a way that I think black powders can get a lot of support. To put a clear perspective on it like back when I started, there were really very few black people in venture. There was Charles Hudson, and like that was it.
And like, it's so funny, like, sometimes I'll get on the phone with someone. And they're like, do you know Charles Hudson? They're like, Yeah, I do. I know Charles Hudson. You can't be in this business and not know Charles.
So, you know, there are very, very few black VCs. And now we're starting to see like this whole new black fund manager class come to market with like these interesting funds and interesting models. And I think that's a really good thing for the industry. So I'm excited by that change.
Jon Low
Oh, thank you for sharing. Wow. Such an interesting time. It’s interesting coming from arguably like new and fresh lens approach to venture because you didn't come from a traditional background whether it was an educational background upbringing. What did you see in those days that others just completely overlooked in terms of, like vetting founders, a quality or insights into markets that most people have potentially blinkers on, or biases that inhibit their capacity to see opportunity?
Monique Woodard
Yeah, I was definitely seeing them ignore founders who didn't fit, didn't fit the pattern, right didn't fit, didn't go to Stanford, but maybe they went to an HBCU. They went to Howard. Right. And I think, early on, a lot of traditional investors just didn't know how to evaluate those founders. And so they were discounting those founders. They're like, oh, that person didn't go to Stanford or doesn't have this education. You're like, wait, but they went to Howard University, which is like an amazing HBCU.
So, I think part of it was like being able to understand and recognize what a good founder looks like outside of the package that everyone else had, you know, become accustomed to seeing.
And then the second part of it was, you know, really understanding. You know, one of the things that I talk about a lot is that, like the world itself is changing. And one of the changes is like this rise of a new majority, where people of color are going to become the majority in the United States pretty soon and that's like, mostly black Latinx and Asian people will be the majority in the US.
And so if you think about that, that means a massive shift to the internet user base. And that's one of the things that I started talking about and thinking about really early. So, I'm an early investor in a company like Laverty, which is a media platform for black millennials. Invested there actually my first deal at 500 startups. So, invested in that company early, also angel investor in minted cosmetics, a beauty brand for women of color. And so it was really, those investments are all about sort of seeing where the world was moving to.
And, you know, skating to where the puck is going in my investments. And I think that people are still not quite recognizing a lot of investors are still not quite recognizing how deeply this change is going to affect, like what people want to buy, the way that they want to use the internet and the things that they are going to adopt when it comes to technology. And that's really I think sort of one of my superpowers is like, looking and understanding like this change to demographics is going to really change everything that we know about technology. And here's and then like putting an investor lens on that and saying, Okay, well, if that's true, then these are the things that we should be investing in.
Jon Low
Ah, so Well said, like on point we do brand tagline right investing where we're going, not where we’ve been.
Monique Woodard
Exactly.
Jon Low
Just giving Cake VC a plug there, everyone. Just remember. That's so fascinating. And, and so, you know, being adventurous sometimes now, like now that you saw these trends, while before others, and it's still, arguably even early days now. What are some of the opportunities to disrupt or what are some of the possibilities you see, for the world that you're super excited about?
Monique Woodard
Yeah, I mean, I'm super excited about the aging market. That's a huge market opportunity that I think people are only now starting to understand how big the aging market is, and how influential boomers are today. But how influential millennials and Gen Gen X will be as they get older, right. And so, previously, like the aging market was under innovated and definitely under invested. And now we're starting to see a new crop of startups come to market with these new products that are totally targeted at this aging demographic.
And it can be anywhere from helping people age in place, to helping them think through retirement and benefits to helping them think through, like if older people want to remain in the workforce and a lot of them do, you know, what are the what are the support systems that they're going to need from HR and from management in order to actually do that? Right. And that's one of the big areas. I'm super excited about.
I wrote a white paper on aging called Gray New World. You know, I'm also really interested in, sort of the influence of the female on companies, you know, basically, there are a lot, there are now a new number of companies that are driving to $2 billion outcomes based on the economic power of women. And so the real real is a really good one because they just recently did an IPO. But now we're also going to start to see it outside of ecommerce into other categories. So, I think that's like one area where I see a lot of opportunity that I think is still relatively untapped by most VCs.
Jon Low
So well said and I think Arjun and I can attest to sort of that trend as well. But you know, curious from your point of view, it's like, what assumption limits the speed of new VCs actually seeing the size of this opportunity? Are they aware that would actually help them really put their attention more to this space and realize, like how, first of all how important it is. But number two, like how untapped the opportunities are?
Monique Woodard
Yeah, I mean, I still think that a lot of VCs, especially Silicon Valley VCs are there's a whole world and a whole, you know, if we're just talking about the US, there's a whole, you know, other part of the country out there, people who don't have Silicon Valley problems, right. They have Midwest problems. They've got Iowa problems. They've got rural Florida problems, right.
And there's this big opportunity there to solve those problems, which arguably, is a much bigger market than continuing to solve for Silicon Valley backyard problems. And I think it's, it can be really hard for you to sort of like lift yourself up and lift your head up out of Silicon Valley, what we think is really cool. And we'll get to know you, what does a mom of three in Peoria like? It's that old radio saying like, does it play in Peoria? Right? Like, does it do people in Peoria? Like, listen to this? And so like, does a mom of four and Peoria need?
What are they thinking about? And what are their needs? And what are the problems that you're going to solve for her? What is this truck driver in, you know, Ocala, Florida need? Like, what are their problems? And how can we solve those? And, you know, I think that if we start to think about the world in a much broader way, and sort of lift ourselves out of like, the immediacy, the immediacy of Silicon Valley, and this goes for both investors and founders, right? Goes for both, then there are much, much bigger market opportunities for us to, to address and for us to get excited about.
Jon Low
So well said, and I'm just gonna pause and like, absorbed out for a bit before we pivot. But, you know, you've had such a rich insight both on the operational end and arguably been an innovator in a lot of the career paths that you've taken to get to where you are today. You know, you taught yourself coding, right programming and then you decided to move out to the valley after spending 30 hours in the Bay.
If one were to look at your career pathway, you could easily deduce that you would have needed a strong growth mindset to pull that off, and what are some of the things that you learned about yourself? What did you have to learn through experience along the way that really helped you keep continuing that career evolution?
Monique Woodard
Yeah, I mean, it was, it was it's really out of pure necessity, right? Because I don't think I'm ever going to be the sort of person who likes to keep doing the same thing in the same way over and over and over again, like now the rest of my career will be about investing. But I intend to innovate the way that it's being done.
I think my career path has just always been about, like waking up every day and when it's hard, just not giving up. Like is honestly it's like pure stubbornness basically. It's like purely being like, stubborn and like, even when there are massive roadblocks, you just like keep working at keep working at it, keep working at it. And at some point like the wall breaks, right? You like yeah, I knew that was gonna break. And eventually it does.
You know, my dad used to always say, pressure busts pipes, like put enough pressure, like pressure busts pipes. So, it's like that level of just doggedness and going after something is really what it takes to make any sort of career, especially venture because venture is hard. It's hard to get into, it's hard to stay in. It's hard to be successful.
And I think, you know, there are always people who will have these opinions of what you should be doing in your life or with your career. But, I mean, my goal is to be the best investor. And that's not even like the best black investor or the best woman investor or the best black woman investor. No, I want to be the best investor period. And you can't get there if you are doing what other people want you to do. Right?
You can't get there if you are taking the path that other people think that you should be taking for your life. You've got to like blaze this path where there is no path probably. And you gotta do it in the way that you know is totally yours. And that's the only way you're going to get to, you know, some level of like, what is the best?
Jon Low
Well, thanks for sharing that was so clear. And you know, respecting confidentiality. What are some of the exciting walls we can expect you to crack?
Monique Woodard
You know, I'm very excited about Cake Ventures and, you know, what the role of Cake Ventures will be and, and having, you know, another seed fund in the market, I'm really thinking about it. Beyond it just being a fund that makes investments, right, a fund is certainly an investment vehicle.
But this fund, I think, is so much more than that, you know, there's the opportunity to set culture both internally to the fun, but also that external culture setting is incredibly important. I've already invested in some great entrepreneurs, you know, in my career, you know, and I think that those entrepreneurs in those companies that they're building are going to be the companies that everyone is going to be using, and it's really the opportunity to set the future of the consumer landscape. And so the landscape is changing.
And I think a lot of people don't really recognize it as it's happening, but these founders and by extension, hopefully I recognize it quite a bit, are going to be the ones that are that are reaping the benefits and, and changing the culture of what it means to like, you know, teach your kids bilingual language skills, or what it means to buy jewelry online, or what it means to consume media. And so I think that there are these huge opportunities that are going to be happening and I'm really excited about Cake Ventures as a fund also, CakeVentures as a culture setting, company and organization.
Jon Low
Oh, very exciting. And if you could share, you know, what are some of the values or traits that you would say, define, like the Cake Ventures team and obviously that's gonna grow over time. But yeah, you know, just so that for our audience, like, for the people out there who may not know of you yet? Or who do what are some things that define a kick ventures cultural fit?
Monique Woodard
Yeah, I think the number one thing and I mean, you can probably guess this because the culture starts with me, right. And the number one thing that I look for in people, you know, whether that's a founder or someone to join the Cake Ventures fund team is resiliency, right?
So, one who can get knocked down today, and then wake up tomorrow and they're standing up and they've figured out, you know, figured their way around, whatever knocked them down the day before. And so someone who can do that over and over and over again, is the sort of person that I want to invest in, right? And it almost doesn't matter what they're doing as much as the fact that I can be confident that if it doesn't work today, they're going to figure out something that does work tomorrow. So that's like, the number one thing that I look for is resiliency and the ability to just keep showing up and keep giving 110% until, you know until it works.
Jon Low
Oh, so well said. I did and I say that we like looking for the founder who, who smiles at all the hard things they know they have to do.
Monique Woodard
Yeah, yeah. I like to say like, I look for people who can take a punch in the mouth and like, go away. Keep going.
Jon Low
That's the partner meeting if you're a founder. Fight Club.
We're almost at the end, but I want to give you an opportunity to share any final words, whether that's for the broader ecosystem for founders of VCs or any future people who want to partner with you?
Monique Woodard
I mean, yeah, I mean, you know, I encourage people to reach out, you can find me on Twitter, a lot, you can reach out to me, my website is Monique, VC, also Cake.VC is the website for Cake Ventures. And, you know, I'm always interested in hearing from great founders and working with other investors who also share the same beliefs in resiliency and culture setting and like that there are these new markets that we need to be figuring out and looking toward.