Stacy Brown-Philpot, founder of Cherryrock Capital and former CEO of TaskRabbit, discusses the fundraising timeline for her firm's debut fund.
Opinion
Brown-Philpot: There is no pipeline problem finding under-invested venture entrepreneurs
“The second is, is there's no pipeline problem of finding under-invested entrepreneurs. There just isn't. If you talk about what you want to do and do the work, it will happen.”
Insight
Brown-Philpot: Founders should delay forming a formal board until Series A
“Don't put a board together until you need one. And sometimes it's perfunctory and you feel like, well, I have to have a board. Think hard about, if you're raising a seed round, do you really need a board yet? Maybe you don't need a board member until there's t…”
Insight
Brown-Philpot: Enterprise AI requires human intervention for the final 0.1 percent accuracy
“Even with companies now trying to bring a, elements of artificial intelligence into how they run their business, it's not plug and play, because the data isn't secure enough, or It's not a hundred percent accurate. It's 99.9% accurate, which is not enough if y…”
Disclosure
Brown-Philpot: Diligence from major institutional LPs takes three to nine months
“We raised a lot of institutional capital. And when you're raising from Ford Foundation and JP Morgan and Mass Mutual and Goldman Sachs, these funds, these firms have a process, and their process is three to nine months, depending on when you start, how much yo…”
Insight
Brown-Philpot: The best board members ask questions rather than give advice
“The one thing that I learned from that board, the first thing that I learned was, it's not about the advice that you give, it's about the questions that you ask. The best board members in that room ask the best questions.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Sandberg told Brown-Philpot to lead Google's Black employee network herself
“And she said, no, because I'm not Black, and you are the person that needs to do it. And she says, Stacy, at one point, you have to realize that you're the person that we've been waiting for to make these things happen.”