Podcasts Business Piloting your Life Bringing groups of women together to introduce them to angel investing and funding female-led startups with Lynn-Ann Gries

Bringing groups of women together to introduce them to angel investing and funding female-led startups with Lynn-Ann Gries

Published: Nov. 6, 2018, 2 p.m.

Who\xa0is\xa0Lynn-Ann\xa0Gries?\xa0\xa0

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Lynn-Ann\xa0Gries\xa0has spent her career in the financial arena. From investment banking to venture capital\xa0she has experience working with a wide range of companies, from start-ups to those in the Fortune\xa01000.\xa0

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She began her career in the mid-80s working for two investment banking firms in New York, Smith\xa0Barney and Morgan Stanley. When marriage brought her to the Midwest she began working for the\xa0regional firm McDonald and Company, now part of KeyBank. At McDonald she was primarily\xa0responsible for helping companies access capital through the public equity markets, but also assisted\xa0

companies in the processes of raising growth capital or transitioning ownership through sales or\xa0mergers.\xa0

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In 2001 she began working in venture capital, managing a small venture development fund with a\xa0mission to invest in tech-based start-ups. Over the course of 12 years she and her team invested $30M\xa0in 80 companies, all located in Northeast Ohio, including\xa0CoverMyMeds\xa0(sold to McKesson for $1.1\xa0billion),\xa0CardioInsight\xa0(sold to Medtronic for $90 million), Wireless Environment (recently sold to Ring for\xa0an undisclosed amount) and OnShift, one of the Northeast Ohio region\u2019s premier software companies.\xa0\xa0

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As of July 2018, she is the newly hired Managing Partner of the First Check Fund, the newest in a family\xa0of 15+ funds managed by Alumni Ventures Group. She also runs her own consulting firm providing a\xa0variety of business services including management of a women\u2019s angel network, financial analysis,\xa0market research, and advisory services to entrepreneurs seeking capital.\xa0She currently serves on the boards of the Smith College Club of Cleveland, Summer on the Cuyahoga\xa0

and In Counsel with Women.\xa0\xa0

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Lynn-Ann received her MBA from New York University (Stern School of Business)\xa0and holds a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College where she majored in Economics. She is mom to two\xa0grown children and resides in Shaker Heights with\u202fher husband, a sixth generation Clevelander, high\xa0school lacrosse coach and devoted Cleveland sports fan who has successfully managed to turn a Jersey into a Cleveland Indians superfan.\xa0\xa0

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Show Highlights\xa0

  • Lynn-Ann shared her background starting in New Jersey and ultimately in Cleveland, OH including her time investment banking and early stage investing in the Midwest.\xa0 Lynn-Ann goes into detail on economic redevelopment in Ohio\xa0and her work with Jumpstart\xa0and the Ohio Third Frontier Program.\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0
  • Lynn-Ann talks about\xa0how she used to think that women didn\u2019t need any preferential treatment to get funding until she saw the data.\xa0\xa0This prompted her to share a female founder deal with her successful female friends\xa0that led to syndicating her first deal.\xa0\xa0 Her goal was to get the women she knew in her community with big jobs, at big corporations, where there is no intersection with an entrepreneur, to bring them together with the female led startups looking for capital.\xa0\xa0\xa0
  • Terri and Lynn-Ann talk about the importance of getting more women to invest and the difference in risk tolerance between men and women\xa0and how this affects\xa0investing by women.\xa0\xa0
  • Terri and Lynn-Ann discuss doing the work for free to support the female founder and female investor ecosystem and investigating options to monetize the time spent building it.\xa0\xa0\xa0
  • Lynn-Ann talks about the women starting very small funds to build track record to be able to raise bigger funds\xa0at a later date.\xa0\xa0\xa0
  • If Lynn-Ann could wave a magic wand, she would make universal healthcare coverage a reality.\xa0\xa0\xa0

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Terri\u2019s Key Takeaway\xa0

We need to continue to build the connections between investors interested in female-led startups to make it easier for them to get access to capital.\xa0\xa0\xa0

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References in the Podcast\xa0

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Contact\xa0

Lynn-Ann can be reached\xa0through LinkedIn at\xa0https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynn-ann-gries-44440/\xa0

You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium:\u202f https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.\u202f\xa0

Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.\xa0

To continue the conversation, go to Twitter at @PilotingLife\xa0and use hashtag #PilotingYourLife.\xa0