027: Badasses Invest In Each Other with Jesse Draper

Jesse Draper is the founding partner of Halogen Ventures and the creator and host of Emmy nominated TV series, The Valley Girl Show. Jesse joins me this week to talk about growing up as a 4th generation venture capitalist, and how she has shifted in her career from talk show host to venture capitalist, using both platforms to support and highlight women in tech. Jesse talks about the differences that she sees between men and women when pitching, the importance of networking, and how we can all be more badass in and out of the board room.    What You Will Hear in This Episode:    Jesse’s strong drive and ability to consistently network led her to an extremely successful acting career. She would offer to do the work for the writers and directors and made her name known as someone that would show up, be good to work with, and get the job done well.  Jesse wanted to spotlight more women in technology and female CEO’s and created Halogen Ventures to change the game in that arena.  Jesse’s parents encouraged her to look at things as a business, and that hustle stayed with her throughout her whole career.  Her TV show ‘The Valley Girls’ and Rocking Women Series created a space for Jesse to interview women in technology and hold prestigious roles in startups.  Diversity is extremely important at Halogen Ventures in every way. They have a diverse make up of age, ethnicity, viewpoints, etc. and always have several females on the executive team.  Badass females also recognize the contribution of males, and find ways that both genders can work well and compliment each other in business.  Jesse’s advice to females out there looking to pitch or even just sell themselves and their product even better:  Don’t apologize and feel like everything has to be perfect.  Know your market size.  Be confident about the possibility of being even bigger than your vision. Consider that you can create a billion dollar business.    Quotes:  “I think networking is really the key to success.”  “You need to at least act like a badass.”  “No successful person feels like a success, but you have to just fake it in some way.”  “Any investment you make in a female will pay off way more so.”  “Diversity breeds success in every way.”    Mentioned:  Halogen  Liz Hannah  Jesse Draper LinkedIn

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