Girls Into VC celebrated International Women’s Day with a women-led startups and venture capital summit Saturday.
The summit invited students from UCLA and across California to hear from leaders in venture capitalism. Saumya Mahajan, a third-year mathematics/economics student and GIVC vice president, said what began as a guest speaker series for club members transformed into a campuswide summit when the club heard how much members valued hearing from experts in the field.
Rajasvi Singh, the club’s president, said she founded the club alongside Mahajan after realizing there was no organization on campus for women wanting to explore venture capitalism.
“Having a close knit community of women who want to achieve the same things and help each other out is also another goal that we want to achieve,” said Singh, a third-year business economics student.
The summit consisted of four speakers, who shared about their experiences as women in venture capital.
Elisabeth Tuttass, a senior investment associate at Unshackled Ventures, said she became interested in becoming an investor after working at a startup accelerator. Though 95% of the startups she worked with had underrepresented founders, such as female, Black, Latinx and LGBTQ+ founders, none were able to receive investor support, Tuttass said on the panel.
Tuttass added that this experience motivated her to learn about the gender funding gap, where she found that only 2% of funding goes to female founders.
“The ultimate problem is not that female founders are not getting enough funding. It’s that there’s not enough female check-writers who are then investing in women,” Tuttass said to attendees.
Aparna Pande, the CEO of Make-A-Wish Greater Los Angeles, was the only non-venture capitalist on the panel. Pande, who is also an adjunct professor and entrepreneur-in-residence at USC, started two companies but soon switched to the nonprofit sector.
During the panel, she said working with children at Make-A-Wish showed her that children are not just fighting critical illness, but are becoming people who see the good of humanity.
“I’m now thinking about investment and impact in a different way,” Pande said. “If we can touch people in the earliest days in a deep, deep way, I hope they’ll be like some of these folks and some of you who are thinking about using their power and their capacity in a really positive, positive way.”
Singh said although the event was held on International Women’s Day, the club made sure it was not just restricted to women.
“We understood that it’s important for all men and women to understand how … a day such as the International Women’s Day is actually celebrated,” she said. “If it’s just women celebrating International Women’s Day, I think the whole purpose of having such a day gets defeated.”
Mira Chaurushiya, a managing director at Westlake BioPartners, said on the panel that many of the barriers women currently face in the industry stem from the fact that they are not given the opportunity to lead. As most first-time CEOs are selected based on past experience in the role, women are often excluded, she added.
Mahajan said that bridging the gender gap in the field is one of the key priorities of the club.
“We aim to empower the next generation of female investors by providing hands-on learning opportunities, mentorship and a strong community that supports each other in breaking into this traditionally male-dominated space,” she told attendees.
Lily Proctor, a first-year business economics student and GIVC general member, said events like the summit provide important opportunities for students to network with their peers and professionals in the field.
Pregya Vijayakumar, a quantitative economics graduate student, said GIVC provides a place where women can come together and share their experiences. She added that these events have been empowering for her and have been missing on campus for some time.
Kelly Kaihara, a founding partner at Blueward Ventures, said she began her career in biotechnology companies, but transitioned into venture capital after an opportunity in the field came her way. She added that taking opportunities and putting yourself out there is important in business-related fields.
“If you see these opportunities or seek out, look at the venture firms and just ask them if they have internship programs. I really highly recommend getting some experience,” Kaihara said during the panel.
June Qin, a first-year mathematics of computation student, said that even as an introvert, hearing the panelists talk about the importance of putting yourself out there was empowering.
“If you take a step back and look at the opportunities around you, there’s so much more you can do, whether that’s working at Anderson as a student consultant … joining clubs that actually interest you,” Singh said. “If one door closes, there’s always another that opens.”