20 VC 021: Gender Equality, Startup Valuations and 'Friend Raising before Fund Raising with Sharon Wienbar

Sharon Wienbar invests in Mobile and Internet companies at Scale Venture Partners, where she sits on the board of Actiance, Applause, BeachMint, Everyday Health, PlayPhone, Reply.com and uTest. Prior to working at Scale Venture Partners, Sharon was VP of Marketing for Amplitude Software and Critical Path.

Items Mentioned in Today's Show:

• Applause
• Kate Mitchell
• National Venture Capital Association
• Why Software is Eating the World?
• CloudHealth

What you will learn in Today's Show:

• How Sharon made her entry into the technology world and later the Venture Capital sector?
• Why is there gender misrepresentation in both the tech and the VC industry and what can be done to improve this gender inequality.
• What Sharon's views are on investing outside of the valley?
• What are the necessary aspects required for a startup located outside of the valley?
• With such large amounts of capital creating extremely high valuations, is it possible to make money investing in startups?
• With increasing competition between VC firms for startups, what else can VC's bring to the table other than capital?
• What sector is Sharon most excited about and why?

We then move on to a quick fire round where we hear Sharon's thoughts on what Sharon likes and dislikes about being a VC? The most recent investment Sharon has made and why she said yes?