You're first building these relationships with a Lady Gaga, with someone at that level of celebrity. How did you go about building these initial relationships? I always like to think, yes, they are a celebrity, but the capacity in which I'm meeting them is they're a founder. I would have the same conversation with them about their company or their idea as I would with any founder. Do you have any key tips and feedback in terms of maybe common mistakes that people make?
Start with their vision and why they are the perfect person to be building this and thinking really big with their vision. I believe the world will look entirely different. I encourage all of our companies to definitely be working with AI products. And then just thinking about what AI products can you introduce into your business?
It's so lovely to have you here today. I wanted to welcome you to the Icons podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Today we have the most special guest, Nicole Quinn, general partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners. She is an iconic investor. Just such incredible history of her background in investing and everything from goop to house labs and working with legendary people in the consumer space. And Medias List investor Jeremy Liu has said that she is the pioneer of monetizing your personal brand.
And so it's such a pleasure to have such an iconic investor in our presence today. So thank you so much for giving us some of your time. You are very kind. I'm excited for this conversation. Love to get a little bit deeper into your story. For those of you who are just becoming fans of you, I would love if you could walk back and tell us a little bit about your background, where you grew up and how it all started. Yes, of course. Very happy to.
So I grew up in England, as you can tell by the accent. I'm half Australian, half English, actually. And I had a very entrepreneurial father who was building online pharmaceutical marketplaces. And I started working with him in the sort of 1999 timeframe. And I like to say I learned a lot of lessons going through the 2000 crash. But I had studied math, and so I decided to go into finance. And I spent nearly a decade at Morgan Stanley.
I was in London and then New York. And I was covering first the retail and luxury names and then the internet names. It was a mix of equity research, IBD, and equity sales. I loved it, actually, because I got to cover names like the Facebook IPO, Groupon, Pandora. On the side, I could also do angel investing. Right. And then after so many years, I realized that's what I was so passionate about. I loved angel investing, working with young, passionate founders
and helping them think about their strategy and their growth and hiring. And so I decided to leave the world of Wall Street behind me. I went to a fintech startup back in London. And then I came out here to California, and I went to Stanford to do an MBA. And it really taught me that anything is possible, which I think you realize as kids, but that leaves you. And you need that belief to come back to you again, which Stanford really did for me.
So when I was there, I was able to work on a startup. I pitched that startup to Lightspeed. That's how I met Lightspeed. And then a couple of years later, I joined Lightspeed and have been there for nearly a decade now. Was there an early decision that you think really changed the trajectory for you as you were going on in your career? So I always say think three career steps ahead. And I believe I was always doing that.
Sometimes you just sort of lose sight of the prize. But I did often sort of take a step back and say, OK, where is my North Star? Am I making sure I'm walking towards it, moving towards it? And for me, the big pivotal moment, the big change was really going to business school. Because I think in your early career, your 20s, it's all about learning. And it's all about opening as many doors as possible. You don't want to close doors.
And so I felt at Morgan Stanley, I had maybe been closing doors to making me definitely more of an expert in finance, but closing so many other doors elsewhere. And so that's why I wanted to do the angel investing. But for me, going to Stanford opened up so many doors. You suddenly think to yourself, wow, I can do anything. I can be anyone. You know, you can change. Their motto is changing organizations' lives in the world.
And so that is definitely for me what was the big moment and a big decision to go there. I even remember the very moment where Derek Volton called and said, you've got in. It's one of those things where you always know exactly where you were, that exact moment that you realized your life was changing. And so that was it for me. Our podcast is about mentoring people at scale. And you have just this marvelous story of accomplishing all the things that you did.
And so we'd want to like walk back a little bit. These different stages of your life, starting from maybe early childhood, then we can go into university, early career, maybe your time at Stanford. And then at Lightspeed, what were some of the formative key things that you did? What set you apart from maybe your peers or things that you did that you felt really set you up for success into the next chapter? Maybe we can start with early childhood and university.
So I definitely had a big personality as a child. And I now have two children, a four-year-old and a two-year-old. And I like to say, OK, well, they also have big personalities. This is sort of karma. And so my poor mother, I would always just test the limits and not just accept the status quo for how it was, but always be saying, OK, well, why does it have to be that way? And that is so appreciated in Silicon Valley.
But in traditional England, that mindset is not appreciated. Absolutely. It's very much like the old-fashioned, like children should be seen and not heard. Yep. Type mentality, which was the opposite of my personality. And so I think it was having a mother who really believed in that, having a father who was entrepreneurial himself, but having a mother who just really embraced who I was as a person and was like, OK, well, just be the biggest, best, kindest version of yourself.
And she also taught me you can be anything you want. You can do anything you want, you know, as long as you kind of act with kindness and integrity. And so to have that belief system in my mother at such an early age and, you know, throughout my life was really transformative. I grew up, similarly, not in the U.S., in Tokyo. And there's a famous Japanese phrase that says, the nail that sticks out gets hammered back in.
And it's all about how can you conform and be homogenous and fit perfectly into society. That's why, you know, countries like Japan really struggle with becoming huge innovators themselves. Because how can you embrace entrepreneurship when anything about you that's different or unique point of view is something that is seen as a huge negative? So I think there might be some parallels between, you know, the sort of cultural norms in which
we grew up in Japan and in the U.K. It was so important to have this, like, global perspective. And for me, it was like coming to the U.S. and getting to see, like, especially coming to San Francisco, that that uniqueness was so celebrated and seen as a huge asset. Completely agree. And the same with my parents. They really decided to really foster and mentor that side of me that was loud and a little bit outrageous because of what it could do, how different, and how I think both of our
parents really amplified who we were, especially, like, emphasizing compassion and kindness. But it seems like that sort of parenting style was so, like, instrumental into the next chapter. And hopefully you're taking it, it sounds like, with your kids as well. I definitely am. Celebrating who they are. Definitely a very, yes, intentional parenting style. Just making sure that I, yeah, do what my mom did. She's definitely the role model.
And then, you know, going into early, I guess, career in university, how did those sort of principles carry on to that chapter? And what were sort of the things that really stood out for you? How you structured that, that chapter of your life? So I would say university was an incredible experience in England. And then sort of early Morgan Stanley days. And it really was that belief that anything is possible. And so I never sort of fitted into the hierarchy.
Okay, well, I'm an analyst, so I can only really speak to the associate. I remember one day I just decided to email John Mack, who was the CEO at the time. He was such a sweetheart. He was like, oh, actually, I'm in England in our London office next week. Yes, great. Let's get together and talk. And became this sort of unofficial mentor to me. It really helped. And then the head of investment banking at the time, this incredible man called Frank Pedderger,
I actually bumped into him in London last week. And he had become the advisor on all of finance to the prime minister. And he is now in the House of Lords. And he was also just this incredible mentor to me. I really believe that that's why your podcast, I think, is so special. Because I really think, you know, they say it's not what you know, it's who you know. And I don't, there's some aspects of that that make you think, oh, well, it's more important to network.
And I would say both are important. You really have to work hard. I think, like, the harder you work, the luckier you get. So you definitely have to work hard. But you also, in addition to that, have to make sure to, you know, find your people, find folks that can, you know, help bring you up. And then you equally empower other people to bring them up. It's so important. And so I had those people at Morgan Stanley. And I always want to make sure to also have folks that I can help with as well.
And so it goes with the important people I met those early days for me in my career. And I think it's so fantastic that you decided to stay bold and to put yourself out there, you know, writing that email to the CEO and saying, like, you know, introducing yourself and not dimming that sort of light in yourself and this eagerness to make connections, to network, to put yourself out there. And then can you talk a little bit about your time at Stanford and how that experience was for you?
It definitely can. And I just think what you said is so important. My mother always told me at a young age, if you don't ask the question, you won't know the answer. And so that's why I believe you should always put yourself out there. I think we're talking a little bit later about Lady Gaga. But, like, something that's really amazing about her is she always puts herself out there, you know? And that's why she's able to create great movies and great albums that sometimes are pop and sometimes are jazz.
Yeah. And so if you don't put yourself out there, you don't know whether someone's going to say yes to your question or love what you do. And so it's always important to try. And so at Stanford, I did exactly that. It was this incredible time where you have this Stanford email address. Anybody you email from a Stanford email address basically replies, especially if they're a Stanford alum. And so you can, and I did, email everyone in the sort of, like, VC and also the broader sort of tech space just to learn from.
So I put together a group of 20 of us that really wanted to learn and had this deep curiosity. And then we just did this dinner series of incredible people that we emailed. You know, Jeremy Liu from Lightspeed was one of them. Videl Kostler, Doug Leone in the sort of VC world. And then Sarah Fryer, who's now CFO of OpenAI and was CEO of Nextdoor. Just wonderful operators, executives, founders, VCs. And just being able to sit down with them for a two-hour dinner and all of you just, you know, discuss and brainstorm and ask questions and learn was just the most transformative two years.
Also speaks to the fact that you were such a community builder during that time, bringing together alumni, students, as well as people who were in the different networks that you were interested in getting involved with. So you took advantage of those opportunities and thought, OK, how can I make it even more exponential, your time there? And then how did this opportunity at Lightspeed come about? Well, it's funny how things happen because I went to Lightspeed to pitch a startup to them.
And so I was sitting across the other side of the table to them, pitching them my startup. And I was so passionate about it. And I'd gone really deep into the wearables space. And so we had a really terrific, passionate discussion for an hour. And I have to say, I also met most other VCs on Sand Hill Road while doing the startup. And Lightspeed really stood out to me. I just felt like they would be the kind of supportive partner that I would want on my cap table and my board for the next 10 years.
And so it was terrific to be able to see them and hear them and just get an idea of what they'd be like to truly work with. And so my partner and I just thought, wow, they're a terrific firm. And then funnily enough, Lightspeed then reached out to me and said, have you also thought about VC after the startup? And so the startup didn't work out because of Apple Watch. I came along and unfortunately crashed us. But the relationship with Lightspeed really did work out.
And so I joined them. I sort of worked for them part time during the end of business school. And then I joined them full time afterwards. Gosh, I mean, 10 years later, it really has been terrific. I co-run the consumer team, invest in the U.S. and Europe, helped open a Europe office. And so I just think it is the most incredible. Maybe we'll talk a little bit about Lightspeed in a minute. Everyone that I've had a chance to interact with at Lightspeed has had such a unique taste of excellence and compassion and curiosity and all these qualities.
What was it about Lightspeed that initially stood out to you when you were pitching as a founder and then working as an investor? What made you say yes to coming on board full time? Well, it was definitely Jeremy Lowe. I really thought that Jeremy Lowe was and is one of the best consumer investors of all time. He is. I mean, he's top 20 Midas list. And he thinks about the world just so differently. He does. It's amazing.
Again, it's this idea of people think that the world should be a certain way. And then he just thinks entirely differently. And it's like, OK, well, we have always understood steering wheels to be round. But Elon Musk has decided, no, actually, they can be this yoke shape instead. And just questioning everything about the status quo. And that's Jeremy. So I love the way that he obsesses about human behavior because I do too.
And just constantly thinking about unique insights that founders bring. So it was definitely Jeremy that made me so excited to go to Lightspeed. I think Jeremy was one of my mentors and someone I look up to so much as well. And when we were talking about my podcast as well as what sort of iconic people are out there that I should interview, your name was at the top of the list. And he was talking about how you've just been this pioneer identifying potential in people,
especially on the consumer side, and being able to unleash that and monetize that, how you can create a brand and really take that to the next level and that sort of global perspective that you have. And so it's just such an exciting thing to be able to sit across from you and interact with you firsthand. Because I think you've influenced this entire generation of women to go into being investors as well as founders in the consumer space.
So I just wanted to thank you for the legacy that you've already had so early. Well, that was very kind. And I do think that as I look at the consumer team at Lightspeed, we have hired such incredible people. You know, there's Mike Magano and Moritz Valenz and Fraz Fatimi and Mercedes-Benz. She's out on maternity leave right now. But I just look at the team and I just think, gosh, we have hired such incredible people.
And so I'm so excited for the relationship between Jeremy and I, for us to also have that relationship with the rest of the team, the consumer team at Lightspeed. Can you talk a little bit about the investment thesis at the consumer team at Lightspeed and then how you developed your own investor thesis? Yes. So when I first joined Lightspeed, we were raising funds that were about $700 million to a billion. Now they are $7 billion funds.
We have about $30 billion assets under management. And so you can imagine that as the fund sizes have scaled so much, we have to constantly think that for every investment we make, can this be not just a $200 million company as maybe we would look at 10 years ago, but now it's, hey, does this have the potential to be a $2 or $20 billion company? And really, we want to stay with those companies throughout their entire life journey.
So our investment thesis is to try and be the first institutional capital in, but then to really stay with that company through the journey. So we have a lot of companies where we did the seed round or the A round, and then did maybe the B, then maybe the D round, then maybe the pre-IPO round, and then held those companies through IPO. And that's really important to founders to know that we're there for them as a supportive board member,
but also to have the capital to continue to invest in them right the way through that journey and also sends very positive signals to private as well as public markets that we're continuing not just to hold, but to put more money into the companies and to invest. So it really gives peace of mind to the founders that there is that capital to continue to invest and just having that really supportive partner. It's actually so important that Lightspeed was started in early 2000
because then we went through the crash. And so we'd know what it's like to work with founders through the very good times as well as the really tough times. And being that supportive partner throughout, that's very important to us. It's amazing. And you have cultivated this brand of not only excellence, but leading with compassion and building trust with the people that you work with. And I'm curious, you know, when you're first building these relationships with a Lady Gaga,
with a Gwyneth Paltrow, with someone at that level of celebrity, how did you go about building these initial relationships? Well, I always like to think, yes, they are a celebrity, but the capacity in which I'm meeting them is they're a founder. And so I would have the same conversation with them about their company or their idea as I would with any founder. And so we'll sit down and, well, with Gwyneth Paltrow, we already knew of Goop
because they were an established brand and we were looking at a growth round. It was very different with Lady Gaga because she came to us and she said, listen, I have three passions in this world. It is acting, music and beauty. And I'm so passionate about beauty and I want to make it a really important part, not just of my life, but of people in the world. I really want to be able to create products that they are able to benefit from
and create those products with kindness. And so we decided, OK, great, let's do this. I went about hiring the CEO, Ben Jones, who is terrific, and the rest of the team over at House. And so it was very special to start that company together, like right in the early days and six, seven years later now, it's doing tremendously well. You know, these beauty companies, you can't just, you know, switch on the product the next day.
You have to really be, you know, it takes two years really from when we come up with a product launching it. So we've definitely been through a good journey together. What have you learned about the intersection between business and creativity with working with a Gwyneth Paltrow or a Lady Gaga? So I really believe that great actresses, musicians, at their heart are artists. They are the most creative people. And so when it comes to a startup,
it makes sense that they bring their creative passions and talents to the business. And so whether they're the founder or the CEO or the creative director, we really love working with celebrities because I do truly believe that they have the most creative genes and are able to, again, I think outside the box. You know, that's maybe one of the big trends from this, like challenging the status quo and thinking outside the box.
And we see that in those celebrities, founders, and are excited to work with them. Would you say that particular qualities around people who do make it successful founders are that they are willing to challenge the status quo? Or do you think it's other sort of patterns that you've seen across the successful, many successful investments that you've made? We've definitely seen a lot of patterns. And it's something that we think about a lot at Lightspeed
and just say, what are the traits that we see in these truly exceptional people? And so for us, it is somebody who has the founder product fit for exactly what they're doing. And so that will be different from a social media founder to a marketplace, to a fintech company. So you need to think about why that person is so perfect for that exact product and market that they're building in. And then there are maybe the traits that are similar throughout.
So I would say that is somebody who has this sheer, relentless drive, focus, and attention to build what they have set out to. Maybe there's a chip on their shoulder or maybe there's some internal, external factor that means that they are going to stop at nothing to build this. And they really have that urgency and that drive and that fire to be building this. And also that they've built a product which customers love.
Yes, I obviously focus more on the consumer side of things, but I do just think a founder who puts their all into building a terrific product is the number one thing. And so we definitely focus on those deep product thinkers at Lightspeed. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn't say, you know, that sort of trust and integrity piece, which I think is always paramount when you're investing in any founder. Absolutely.
You have such an amazing, unique quality of having your finger on the pulse of what is the next big thing before it becomes mainstream. Can you talk a little bit about how you developed this skill? Do you think it's potentially like a combination of your international experience and always being so inquisitive that you're so in tune with what's going on in the world? I love that question. I do think being curious, inquisitive is super important.
I do think, for me, maybe it's international, but I would say like whatever your thing is, right? Because the best decisions get made when you have diversity of opinion and experience and backgrounds around any table. And so whatever your thing is that makes you have your unique views and opinions in this world, you should really lean into. And so for me, yes, you know, it was some of those things that made me constantly look at like,
what is the new trend that's emerging? But I like to think like, what are the new, what are the leading indicators of a true brand being built? And so for me, those are several things. One, what are the customers saying about it, which you can generally measure from the NPS score? Do they love the product? Are the customers returning? Do they love it so much that they're returning? So you look at the repeat rate. Do the customers love it so much
they're telling their friends about it? And so that's the referral rate. What are they saying about it? You know, are they, you want to look at the qualitative side as well. And then lastly, you can generally see on social media, the engagement on there. And so you want to see the way in which people are talking about it online. So those are some of the leading indicators that we definitely look for that show us whether something new is emerging.
Because you're right, when we invested in Rothies, Rothies said the shoe company had only sold, I'd say hundreds of shoes at that time. Had only really launched a couple of months beforehand. And so we saw that very early and we knew that they were going to very quickly get to hundreds of millions in revenue, which they did. And it is such an incredible company because it's taking plastic recycled bottles and turning them into shoes.
And so it is just so special what they're doing. In fact, I have my Rothies on now. I always say it feels like a hug for the foot. They're so comfortable. They're so comfortable. They look great. You can throw them in the washing machine. So good for the environment. And so it's a terrific sustainable business. And it was great to see the company, a company like Rothies early. How did you differentiate yourself from other investors
when you're competing for the same deal? That is something that we focus on. I think it is something that has to be very true to you. So one of my life mottos is to thine own self be true. And so you have to be true to yourself in this world. You have to also just deeply know who you are. And so if you know who you are, then you can really focus on how do you sell yourself? How do you sell yourself? How do you sell your teeth?
How do you sell your firm? In my case, Lightspeed. And so I think there's like those three things that you are selling. And, you know, there's many reasons why I can sell our team of, you know, deep expertise. We have Mike, who's an expert in product and Fraz, who's an expert in community and Alex, who is in marketplaces. So I really like to say, you know, you can you get all of us in the team. I'd like to be not just myself.
And then for me, when I'm selling to a founder, I always like to say we have two ears and one mouth. You should use them in that proportion. This is more talking than I ever do, by the way. And so usually I'm asking the questions and I'm listening. I'm not just listening, but I'm really hearing what they're saying. And so I like to go very deep and better understand who that founder is, what problem they have, how I can help them solve that
by being their partner and being on the board with them. And so that is what I then tap into to then sell as to why they should take Lightspeed's money. This is amazing. I think a common theme is really that you've highlighted the incredible people on your team. And I want to ask you a little bit about how you mentor as well as Lightspeed's mentorship philosophy for whether it's the investors and operating team as well as how you work
with founders and mentor them. So VC is very much an apprenticeship business. And so I learned from Jeremy as I hope to teach, you know, folks like Faraz on our team. And the way in which we do that is we believe, well, empowered people empower other people. And so we really want to empower everybody in the team to truly be a partner, to know that there's no hierarchy and everybody has a view. And OK, maybe you haven't been
doing investing for as long, but you might have gone so much deeper into this particular company or space. And so you really have terrific thoughts to share on this. And so we're not a top-down heavy organization where only the senior folks speak. Like it really is, hey, if you're an expert in this field, you should be the one who's sharing your thoughts. And that provides terrific role models for others in the organization
to then look to those people and know that they can speak up as well and share their thoughts. And it really elevates all the younger folks internally. And it just helps them know that this is a place that you can do your very best work and you will be really appreciated for it. Can you talk a little bit about the relationships? Yes. And the sort of partnerships that you build over time. Exactly. That's a partnership.
Also for me, I like to take on a role of a coach. And so a few years ago, I actually got my coaching qualification. So I went to the Hudson Institute down in Santa Barbara. It takes place over two years. You don't have to spend two years down there, but you have to come and go. And I got the coaching qualification and it made me think, well, that is what I want to apply. I want to apply that mindset to the founders that I'm working with.
Because if I can be a coach to those founders, I can help them be the very best versions of themselves. And so when I'm on a board and working with a founder, I really want them to be the best version of themselves because we're not just investing in a company. We're investing in the founder. Like it's so people focused. It's people more than the company, more than the product, more than the traction. Like honestly,
if you just have the great product and traction and technology, it probably will fade over time if you don't have the right founder who started that. You know, so many of these companies are sharks in charts right now. But when you have the great founder, anytime they hit trouble, well, they will have the right approach getting through that and moving on to, you know, the next level. And so I really like to be a consistent
partner to them. I believe that the best CEOs or partners are the ones who you never know if they're having a bad day because they're always consistent. And that to me is a really good leadership. I also think that consistency is behind any good brand and any good company and any good leader and so super important. There's going to be a lot of really excited founders tuning in, wanting to get some feedback and advice
if they're coming to pitch to Lightspeed. Do you have any, I guess, like key tips and feedback, maybe common mistakes that people make or what you've seen are really successful pitches that people come in with that make you think this is a person or a brand I really want to work with? Yes. It's definitely founders who, you know, start with their vision and why they are the perfect person to be building this and thinking really big
with their vision. So sharing with us these unique insights as to how the world will look and then creating this vision that we can then really buy into and one that isn't just sort of changing things on the edge, no sort of edge case changes, but really a belief that the world will look entirely different and how AI or robotics or whatever they're building in will change it. I mean, I'm so excited for how AI is going to change fashion,
how AI is going to change beauty. I think it will be so different to the way that we do things today. And so those are the founders we get excited about. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit more about your perspective on AI as well as like the future consumer trends that excite you? Yes. So AI is definitely where I'm spending nearly all of my time right now. I'm spending my time in digital health, sort of post-product market fit digital health
and trying to bring those health businesses to the masses. And then AI. And so I'd say within AI, it's AI, consumer, prosumer, SMB for our team. And then we have a whole separate team that does the infrastructure, enterprise, LLM side. But I really believe AI is going to change everything in the consumer, prosumer world. You can imagine a world where you and I, we can do our jobs instead of in eight hours, we could do them
in four hours. Everything will become much more efficient just to be paid the same. But you'll have four extra hours in your working day. And so what are you going to do with all that time? It'll be like winning the lottery of time. And so I think you will spend that on all different types of entertainment, different passions, whether it be travel, whether it be learning languages like the Duolingos of the world, meditating with Calm
or doing fitness, you know, on apps like Calm, as well as working with agents to be able to buy you things they'll know you so well you won't need to go to any websites anymore because the agents will just tap into that and just say, hey, we think this is the perfect dress for you and so wear this on your next podcast. And so that's the world that we see and I think we're getting to a point of AGI much faster than any of us
expected really. I know if anything, you know, when folks said that, you know, 2027 type time would be the point, nobody believed them. But now we're looking at it and saying, hey, that is right. The clock is ticking, yeah. Exactly. And so we're very heavily investing behind AI and super excited about it. How do you think consumer companies should be thinking about AI? You talked and touched a lot about the different tools
and levers, but what do you think that a lot of these companies may be missing? So I encourage all of our companies to definitely be working with AI products for customer support. It can be done entirely on AI if you want. On the operational side of the business to really streamline things and just make everything in your company much more efficient. At Lightspeed, we use products like Glean, which really allow us to search anything
internally and would recommend that to all of our companies. And then there's thinking about, well, what AI products can you introduce into your business? For example, Beehive, which I'm on the board of, they've, it's a newsletter platform. And instead of it taking you four hours to write your newsletter, you can use their AI tool within Beehive to use their AI to write your newsletter so much faster and, you know, more efficient
than ever before. And again, giving you time back in your day to write another newsletter or to do whatever you want with that time. So we're super excited about companies like Beehive and what they're doing. And even in the beauty space, House Labs, for example, we've used AI in our beauty foundation color matching product. And so it helps you better understand what your skin type is and what beauty foundation you should be using
over our 40 different colors. And so the AI has really helped us with that. So many different directions you could take. wanted to shift gears a little bit and talk about your journey, not just as an incredible investor, legendary investor, but also your mother of two. And that must be such an amazing and different challenging journey. We've really loved your articles on Medium talking about motherhood and equal parental leave,
things like that. Can you talk to us a little bit about how your mom has shifted and changed the way that you see things from the investing lens as well as how it's changing as a person? My gosh, it's changing as a person in so many ways. I have a four-year-old and a two-year-old, Charlie and Zienna. Gosh, they are just my source of joy and I hope I'm their source of joy and fun. I love them with all of my heart. And the mornings
and the evenings are just this really sacred time in my house. And then it means that when they go off to school and, you know, you have the sort of eight, nine hours, my gosh, I am much more efficient with that because I used to just, I used to work all the time. And now, no, I want to make sure that I'm with them for the two hours before they go to sleep. And so, I'm going to be so much more efficient during the day.
And so, it's allowed me to be able to say no to the things that, you know, really I should have said no to before and to like have more boundaries and to be able to just focus on what matters most. Exactly. Like, that is what I would say. I should have done that many, many years ago. But yes, that was the catalyst. Having children for me was the catalyst to really focus on what matters most, to cut out the noise, to say no to more things
and then to hone in on the companies that matter most, the issues that matter most and the ways that I could help. It's so amazing how motherhood has changed so many people. And it sounds like for you that a lot of times saying no to other people, saying no to ourselves and getting that time back and being so much more efficient with the time that you do have. Can you talk a little bit about the support system that you have
and the importance of asking for help and how that sort of changed from when you had kids and before you had kids? So for me, a support system is always incredibly important, especially since my mother is all the way over in England so I don't have the sort of traditional family unit. But I would say Lightspeed is a place where for us, for our founders, they have a family. And so it starts from the very top, right? Culture always starts
from the top. And so what we really do is make sure that everybody knows, hey, listen, we're going to be with our children between these hours. And, you know, I'm sure you will too. And so we don't really, you know, send emails or do any calls over that time because that's our sacred time with our family. And so I think working at a company that has the same aligned values as you is incredibly important. And then at home,
also having a nanny that is wonderful, I'm very grateful for. And then having a husband that equally, well, he is my equal partner. And we really do share all the responsibilities. There's actually this really fun card set you can get, which basically has about 100 different cards and you kind of say, OK, this task is yours. This task is mine. You just sort of divvy up the household tasks. We recently did that. And so just having,
you know, your true life partner that you can depend on, rely on, that consistency again is incredibly important with family. So important. What do you think the VC community as well as startups in general could be doing to better support women who are mothers? Well, I really think this idea around equal parental leave is so important. So for me, we should be having women take four or five months maternity leave. And then it would be
terrific for the men to also take that in paternity leave. That is really how like true equality in the workplace is going to happen. That is exactly what the Medium article should all check out. I haven't read it. It's amazing. It's called My Two Families. So that's something that we should all be thinking about. And then also something else Lightspeed has done is we gave through Carrot and Maven we give about $20,000
per employee for egg freezing or IVF, any kind of fertility treatment that you want. Incredibly important for potential mothers or fathers. And other sort of benefits around, you know, sort of keeping healthy. Healthy mind, then, you know, you're going to be able to have that healthy family life as it will as be able to have that in your work as well. There's going to be a lot of women listening who are aspiring VC is that there could be
just such a competitive and a general fear around joining the space. And do you have any feedback for those who are excited but maybe still trying to figure out and navigate their steps on how to enter the VC space? I definitely have advice on it. And I would say don't have any fear. The best thing to do is to, like with any career, act as if you're doing that career already. So in VC, that looks like if you have any
available cash, angel investing in your friends. If you don't, then just helping your friends' companies, being there for them, advising them. Maybe they'll even give you equity in their company for advising them and helping them in different areas. It means going to lots of conferences and events and making sure you network, hearing all the different latest podcasts as well as, you know, reading Sam Altman's blogs and just really
consuming great content so that you yourself have strong views on AI or any topic. And then you writing your views on a blog or, you know, starting your own beehive newsletter or putting your views on X. That's really important to kind of get your view out there, get your voice out there. Exactly. Yeah, create a brand for yourself. That would be my advice to folks who want to get into VC. Stop acting like you're doing it today.
You've had this really inspiring and aspirational career, mother, VC, and role model to so many and wanted to ask you what you wanted your legacy to be. Wow, that is probably the hardest question anybody could ask, sort of like your purpose in life as well. I recently, I went to Bali actually over New Year's as a sort of almost like a honeymoon with my husband but many years later we went to go and see a spiritual guide
and I asked him kind of a similar question. Yeah. And we together arrived at the answer which is helping others. So for me, I love this idea of empowered people empower other people. We really need to all be helping one another in this world in whatever way you can and so think about what your specialty is and so tap into like what your specialty is and then use that area to then be able to help others, to help them
elevate themselves as people, to help their companies grow faster. So for me, you know, I really help companies with marketing and branding and be able to focus on growth and to be able to think about their product from like a very human-centric perspective as we think about like the customer behavior. And so do what you do best and I learn self-beet through and then going to help other people. That's what I hope that my legacy is
that I've helped many, many people. And you've already helped so many so I'm so excited for very kind of you. And delimously getting to see all the great work that you'll be doing and thank you so much for coming on this podcast. So grateful for your time and getting to know you a little bit better. Thank you for having me, Melanie. Thank you so much for watching the Icons podcast with Nicole Quinn. How can people find you?
You can definitely find me on X, Twitter, and then also on the Lightspeed webpage which has all of my information. Amazing. Thank you so much, everybody. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.