Monique Woodard
@MoniqueWoodard
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Founding Partner & Head Baker @cakeventures 🍰 - investing in demographic change
San Francisco
Joined March 2008
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The latest
@cakeventures
insights report on the trillion dollar female economy is out and I wrote this piece for
@TechCrunch
.
Women are the growth market of the future and have been driving companies to billion-dollar (or more) outcomes.
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Today, I’m officially announcing Cake Ventures (
@cakeventures
) Fund I, a $17M seed and pre-seed fund to invest in founders building companies and products whose growth is accelerated by demographic change.
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After today, don’t let anyone tell you you’re unqualified for shit.
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I hope every woman who has been interrupted when she’s speaking in a meeting takes note and goes out and votes in her own self interest.
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I’ve given this advice to a couple of people, so it bears repeating here:
Don’t let someone else’s to-do list become your to-do list.
Protect your goals and priorities.
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Every Verzuz is a reminder that there are really two whole separate experiences happening on the internet right now.
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I was so excited to speak at Web Summit this year, but in light of the pro-Hamas comments by Paddy Cosgrave, I’ve rescinded my participation.
This was a hard decision only because of the founders that it will impact as many investors from around the world decide not to attend.
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Being able to hear “no” as “not right now” is a superpower.
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People underestimate how much of investing is just writing. Emails, deal memos, reports, tweets (!). Hone your ability to deliver clarity of thought through the written word.
If you don’t see me tweeting, it’s because I’m fighting for my life inside a Google doc ✌🏾
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This week, I launched something I spent a lot of time and effort working on - my first insights report on the aging market and where the opportunities for investment lie.
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Stop asking Black people what we think about Joe Lonsdale and start asking white people — specifically his LPs.
That’s the only article to write
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My mom is 70 years old and takes care of my 90+ y.o. great-aunt and her special needs son. Her partner is also suffering from MS. But she took the time to mail me a coronavirus care package today. I have no idea how she was able to get all this.
I’m beyond touched, y’all. 🥺😭
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It’s good to see so many Black women in VC these days. I’m looking forward to seeing even more of us represented at every stage of venture.
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Props to
@meganrosedickey
at
@protocol
on going deeper on my ‘demographic changes are changing technology’ investing thesis and why I’m building a new VC firm -
@cakeventures
- around it. 🍰 🤑
If you don’t know, now you know.
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Me waking up to find out how many of you are under 30
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Love seeing these $100M+ fund announcements from
@HarlemCapital
and
@MaCVentureCap
in the last few days. Raising a fund is hard work and it’s nice to see Black fund managers succeeding. Congrats y’all! 🙌🏾
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I have a genuine question:
If you are Black and have the immense privilege to be able to expatriate and NOT live in America, why are you still here?
I’m having a hard time justifying sticking around.
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Did someone open up an ancient sarcophagus and ✌🏾accidentally ✌🏾take something from it?
I’m not even mad, just put it back so we can reboot 2020.
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A new (to me) thing that
@uber
drivers are doing is reporting you for not wearing a mask when they just don’t want to pick you up. I’ve had 2 Uber drivers this week spoof their locations to say that they were at my house when they weren’t and never arrive or cancel.
@Uber_Support
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When people give you advice, you’ve got to learn to chew the meat and spit out the bones.
A lot of folks advice is all bones, though.
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I’m not sure how we’re supposed to tweet/work/perform through the collective pain of another police shooting.
I chose self-care and logging off for the morning. I hope you are giving your Black friends and colleagues grace and space today.
Its impossible to tweet about anything Tech x VC x Startups related. The news cycle makes it impossible
Im sitting in my Monday Partner meeting 100% useless. Haven’t unmuted once
“keep it pushing, stay professional” gets harder each time
But Im exhausted for us. I hate it here
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I don’t even have the words to express how traumatic this year has been for all of us. I was starting to get pretty numb, but this week has felt like being a human Jenga that people keep pulling pieces out of until you collapse.
This is not normal.
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A man interrupted my in-public meeting with another woman (who is Asian) to awkwardly show us that he has an Asian wife and kids.
Every single day, I have to ask men: are y’all ok?
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When the naked men come back, it means San Francisco is healing
Just saw an entirely naked man in San Francisco and even he was wearing a mask over his nose and mouth. If he can do it you can do it 🌈👏😷
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Oh hey...it me. Just getting ready for
@BloombergTV
with
@emilychangtv
. Not nervous at all 🥴
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I’ve never related to something as much as I relate to this hand-written list of affirmations that Octavia Butler wrote herself. I love the specificity of a home in Santa Monica, a $10M fortune, and a $20M scholarship fun
*From
@oaklandmuseumca
Afrofuturism exhibit
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18 months ago, I started a project with the support of
@Living_Cities
@Surdna_Fndn
&
@RockefellerFdn
to lead 3 cities to use capital to create more inclusive entrepreneurship ecosystems. Today, we’re coming out of stealth mode to talk about what we did.
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There are a number of successful men who wouldn’t be where they are today without a woman in their past who had access to a legal abortion.
Neutrality while women’s rights are stripped away is not an option.
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I thought we ALL agreed to take LSD before our meetings?
Either everyone is microdosing or no one is microdosing.
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Rajeev Misra closing the Emerge showcase by announcing that SoftBank is investing in all of the startups who presented today.
#EmergeCohort
Make the hire, send the wire.
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There is a long history of Anti-Asian hate in this country. We owe Asian women, elders, and the entire community protection against the kind of violence that has escalated in the last few months. Solidarity.
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Skincare is going to be the clear winner during isolation. A lot of us aren’t wearing any makeup (maybe some lip gloss if the Zoom is worth it), but using a ton of skin products. Good skin is the video chat status symbol.
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Waking up at 5:30am is very much not my jam. How do you morning people even become such?
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It’s exciting to see a rocketship, some of us just wish access to jet fuel was more evenly distributed.
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Founders are dealing with so much right now: parents in the hospital with COVID, sick kids, home schooling, and building a business.
Every time you all show up in the middle of all this, I’m inspired by your resilience.
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The information asymmetry in women negotiating C-suite and executive level comp is a feature, not a bug. We all need to start helping each other get closer to ‘where the money reside’.
That goes for male allies too.
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JLo and Ben are engaged and Britney Spears is pregnant. I think Gen Z bringing back Y2K fashion put a rip in the space-time continuum.
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What are we all doing to combat burnout during the pandy?
Because the things that were working before are not working now.
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Expect to see a lot more stories like this as companies and investors wake up to the opportunities in Africa. 🇳🇬
Stripe acquires Nigeria's Paystack for $200M+ to expand into the African continent by
@ingridlunden
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Boarding SFO > Santa Barbara for a GP/LP event and waving to all your friends in business class as you head back to your deep in coach seat.
Fund I, baby! 😂😂
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Hopping on Zoom at 7am to meet my
@KauffmanFellows
cohort was the perfect way to start the week.
KF26 is full of familiar faces and new ones and I can’t wait to see what 2 years together brings us.
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I overslept this morning, but I’m also pretty sure I just had a breakthrough on an issue that’s been bugging me for months.
Sleep...get you some.
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Raising a debut fund is never easy – even if you have prior investing experience.
But first funds are like classic hip-hop albums — they outperform.
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I’m excited to welcome
@shaherose
to the
@cakeventures
team as Venture Partner.
I've known Shaherose for 10+ years -- she started Women 2.0 around the same time that I was building Black Founders. We worked out of the same co-working space and became friends and co-conspirators.
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Black women VCs managed only 0.03% of venture dollars allocated to Black VCs.
I bring this up every time someone wants a victory lap over the increase in Black fund managers. The increase is only in Black male-led firms.
It’s not a victory lap if the same gender gap is at play.
Remaining silent won’t save us. 💁🏽♀️💁🏾♀️💁🏼♀️🙋🏿♀️💁🏻♀️
Venture dollars under Black management remain small.
Looking at gender, 99.97% of total capital under management by Black VCs was controlled by men, while women only managed 0.03%.
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Apparently, my face doesn’t always convey excitement. Trust me: I am thrilled about everything you’re telling me, I’m probably just thinking.
Zoom is very hard for those of us who suffer from RBF 🥺
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I think everyone in venture (especially LPs!) should be reading
@BLCKVC
’s State of Black Venture report.
There has been a lot of progress, but still a lot of work to be done unlocking LP relationships and investing in Black fund managers.
Full report:
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If everything is important, then nothing is important. Life will force you into uncomfortable prioritization, but this is the way.
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My Friday phone calls and Zooms have become my favorite. They’re usually no-agenda meetings with smart, new people that I want to get to know. It’s a great way to kick off the weekend.
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I shouldn’t be surprised, but OH. MY. EFFING. GOD.
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Issuing a blanket apology here because I am behind on everything. Email. Deliverables. All of it.
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Every ‘no’ is the motivation to run through walls for the people who said ‘yes’.
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@alexisohanian
I’m biased (an investor), but what
@EncantosBrands
is doing for multicultural kids is very special. Issa is Black & Indian, lots of Afro-Latino representation in the Tiny Travelers series (+ Nigeria & Haiti coming). The bilingual nursery rhymes are on YT now & more video soon.
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Also: I’ve never seen the CEO of an organization be more of a self-sabotaging idiot.
I feel bad for the employees who worked so hard on Web Summit this year.
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There aren’t a lot of Black GPs in this industry and very few people in general who were as kind as Tyson. Losing someone of his caliber is a loss for all of us.
I wish I had pressed him about rescheduling the hangout we kept moving. This is hitting hard.
With great sadness, we share that Tyson Clark, our friend and GV general partner, passed away yesterday due to sudden complications from a health issue. We are shattered by this loss, and will miss him profoundly.
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I know people have had complaints about the SF vaccine rollout, but Moscone was like a well-oiled machine this morning. I walked in at 9:30am and was back at home by 10:30.
Dose 1 down - I’m ready for the bacchanalia to begin!
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BRB! Leaving my house to go meet founders that I invested in and finally get to meet IRL.
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Honored to be recognized by
@FastCompany
on the
#FCQueer50
list alongside friends like
@lepitts
and
@abarrica
and folx like
@JanelleMonae
and
@janetmock
.
Bi women are often invisible on these lists, so I appreciate the love from FC &
@lesbiantech
💜💜💜
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Yesterday, I spent the day entirely offline. Got an oxygen facial and a 90 minute massage (my first massage in MONTHS). Read a book. Today, I’m going to the farmer’s market.
I might actually feel like a whole human again after this weekend.
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Thanks everyone for amplifying my words at the
@BLCKVC
event. Kinda unexpected, but I’m glad it resonated.
Today, I’m taking a break to watch 90 Day Fiancé & shop online for Lucite purses and door knocker earrings.
I hope you’re all finding some respite & balance this weekend.
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Thanks for the love on the Bloomberg spot. I was on camera for 10 mins today, but the rest of it was looking at companies in Airtable, helping founders refine pitches, convertible notes, and talking to other investors.
Mostly un-glamorous and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙌🏾
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This is the right verdict and I’m satisfied with it, but understand how blatantly obvious it had to be for this to be the outcome.
Cameras caught Chauvin in 4K and if they hadn’t...
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Barbie is going to be the biggest movie of the year and it’s all thanks to women consumers/moviegoers.
Yet another proof point that the ‘trillion dollar female economy’ is here and hungry for products that center women and speak to their wants, needs, and interests.
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One of the things I’ve been watching is how small retailers are using IG Live to sell. I just spent all morning in a coordinated vintage pop-up event by
@acurrentaffair
. The overall numbers are small, the coordination across accounts and engagement is impressive.
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There’s an important distinction to be made between 1) a person whose FT job is to invest at a fund and earns the majority of their money from management fees and carry and 2) those who have services as part of their business model and also do some investing
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Oh hey! I’m about to go on
@CNBC
(from my living room) at 4pm PST/7pm ET for a special discussion on race in corporate America with
@jonfortt
and
@andrewrsorkin
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On my coffee run this morning, I met this young guy who trades stonks, works at his friend’s startup, and has a night job.
He heard me on the phone talking about my fund and asked me how I got into tech and VC.
Can’t wait to see this guy in a few years - the hustle is real.
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“When an entire asset class overlooks a possible source of returns, what does that say about its real desire for performance?”
There are too many good parts to this piece from
@tiffani
, so you have to read the whole thing.
Make the hire, send the wire.
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As tech companies make these broad statements about how much Black Lives Matter to them, now is the time to consider the DEI cuts they made just weeks ago. People speak with their mouths & their money.
This piece from
@BariAWilliams
can’t be more relevant
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Suggesting that I’m not wearing a mask when I am definitely always wearing a mask in public (because I have good sense) is actually highly offensive.
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Jill Scott’s energy seems so pure. I’ll get there one day. I’m still at Babyface.
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I want the Mary Ellen Pleasant story made into a movie.
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My little daily subversion is always putting the female team member’s name first in any correspondence — no matter the seniority.
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Zuck is putting someone on getting ads inside IG Live EXPEDITIOUSLY
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Only coming back on Twitter to let you know that my mom’s hens laid 18 eggs today
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Seems like an appropriate place to start this morning’s meetings
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This coming week is going to be about doing a lot less (and hopefully achieving more).
The word ‘no’ has (re)entered the chat.
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Hear me out: Clubhouse but just for talking about food
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I’m still recovering from a very special birthday weekend.
I’ll always be a Hot Cheetos and Veuve Clicquot kind of girl.
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Who are the VCs who invest in medical devices and remote care monitoring?
*working on a list to help a founder*
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Hope for the best, but always be prepared for the worst.
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Who are the active Gen Z angels who like consumer startups? Operators and smaller syndicate checks extremely welcome.
I have something you’ll be interested in
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.
@BrownAdvisory
got me,
@chudson
and
@kerby
to sit down and have an important discussion about ‘Widening the Aperture of Venture Capital’ and the role that LPs can play in changing the culture.
Have a listen!
Spotify:
Apple:
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The only thing more difficult than getting into venture is staying in venture.
I’m rooting for the
@Backstage_Cap
team and hope that
@ArlanWasHere
@imchristiepitts
and
@iBrittDavis
get the grace and more shots on goal to continue proving their strategy.
🗣Since I’ve received a lot of love and a lot of questions the past day or so since letting you know about
@Backstage_Cap
updates, I recorded a part 2 on my podcast. This is my statement, y’all.
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This is absolutely heart-warming and so relatable for anyone whose phone goes on DND after 10pm 🌚
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Lifting up this message from
@ArianSimone
and Ayana Parsons
@FearlessFund
.
Their words and willingness to fight is all that really needs to be said. I hope this turns into even more opportunity for them.
Bring a folding chair 🪑-
#FearlessFreedomNow
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One of my Miami LPs asked why I wanted to meet them in person and it’s because the people & institutions who invest in Fund I are more than anything investing in ME
Breaking bread w/ people who trusted me to manage their capital from a Zoom call has been a highlight of this trip
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I may have followed
@MindaHarts
lead a few days ago and allowed my hopefulness to book a hotel room in DC for the inauguration.
Glad that worked out.
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