Podcasts Business Piloting your Life May Samali of Urban Innovation Fund talks about her path into her dream job in venture capital which started out in law.

May Samali of Urban Innovation Fund talks about her path into her dream job in venture capital which started out in law.

Published: July 24, 2018, 1 p.m.

Who\xa0is\xa0May\xa0Samali?\xa0\xa0

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May\xa0Samali\xa0is an\xa0investor\u202fat the\u202fUrban\u202fInnovation\u202fFund, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm.\xa0May has had extensive experiences advising both early-stage startups and large companies across the U.S. and Australia. Prior to her current role, she was a Director at\xa0Tumml, an urban ventures accelerator in San Francisco. She also served as a Strategy Consultant at a boutique venture firm and as an attorney at Herbert Smith Freehills in Sydney.\u202f\xa0

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May\u202fearned\u202fher\u202fMPP from the Harvard Kennedy School and\u202fher\u202feconomics and law degrees from the University of Sydney. She is also an Australian John Monash Scholar, a\xa0Gleitsman\xa0Leadership Fellow at the Harvard Center for Public Leadership, and an Australian American Young Leadership Dialogue delegate.\u202f\xa0

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Show Highlights\xa0

  • Terri shares how she met May on the Connected Homes pitch panel at Launch Festival in 2017 which was an all-women panel.\xa0\xa0\xa0
  • May shares her journey from Australia to the Silicon Valley.\xa0
  • May started in law but fell in love with the idea of using social entrepreneurship to solve the world\u2019s problems.\xa0\xa0
  • May answers Terri\u2019s question about how the tall poppy syndrome has influenced May in her life.\xa0\xa0\xa0
  • May is working on bringing the best parts of the Silicon Valley to Australia.\xa0\xa0
  • My comments on how helpful people have been to her in\xa0getting into investing.\xa0 May has taken the opportunity to reach out to people in a very intentional way and follow up after meeting at events.\xa0\xa0
  • Terri discusses the importance of saying \u2018why not me?\u2019 instead of \u2018why me?\u2019 especially for women.\xa0\xa0
  • Terri observes that May\u2019s natural authenticity is very attractive and charming and hard to resist.\xa0\xa0\xa0
  • May talks about how being of the Baha\u2019i Faith influenced her view of the world from day one and later started to live them\xa0as a result of\xa0her personal choosing when she was in her twenties.\xa0
  • Terri talks about the importance of taking the leap without having it all figured out.\xa0\xa0
  • May shares what she started to do when she was overanalyzing a situation.\xa0 She said that she would sit across from herself at the table and provide herself with her own advice.\xa0\xa0\xa0
  • If May had a\xa0magic wand, she would make all of us more human and compassionate and living life in the moment.\xa0\xa0\xa0
  • May\u2019s favorite investor resources are Venture Deals and Information.\xa0\xa0

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Terri\u2019s Key Takeaway\xa0

If you believe you can do it, you can do it.\xa0\xa0\xa0

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References in the Podcast\xa0

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Contact\xa0

You can follow May on Twitter\xa0@maysamali\xa0or reach her via LinkedIn at\u202fhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/msamali/\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