Trailblazers

This week we’re talking the membership economy with the knowledgable expert, Robbie Kellman Baxter. In this explained episode, Erica and Robbie chat through what exactly the membership economy is, why Robbie thinks those companies are best set up for success in the coming decade, and how Robbie coins terminology that the industry adopts. She has a fascinating path starting off in consulting and carving her niche as the world's expert on the membership economy.Robbie Kellman Baxter helps companies leverage subscription pricing, digital communities, and freemium models to build deeper relationships with customers. Over the past 21 years, she has worked with over 100 organizations in over 20 industries like the National Basketball Association, Hagerty, The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft, and Ingram Micro.  As a keynote speaker, she has presented globally at major conferences, association meetings, trade shows and elite universities as well as to private audiences at many of the world's most well-known companies. She hosts the podcast, “Subscription Stories,” where she sits down with business leaders to discuss how they’re using subscription pricing and membership models to redefine the biggest industries and generate predictable recurring revenue. Robbie has also developed and taught nine video courses for LinkedIn Learning on business topics ranging from innovation to customer success and membership.Her first book, “The Membership Economy: Find Your Superusers, Master the Forever Transaction & Build Recurring Revenue,” anticipated and defined the massive transformation from ownership to membership and the rise of subscription pricing. It was named a top 10 marketing book of all time by BookAuthority. Her second book, “The Forever Transaction,” takes readers through every step of the subscription business process – from initial start-up or testing of a new model to scaling the operation for long-term growth and sustainability. Prior to launching Peninsula Strategies, Robbie was a strategy consultant at Booz-Allen & Hamilton, a New York City Urban Fellow, and a Silicon Valley product marketer. She received her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and graduated with honors from Harvard College. Twentysomethings, tune in now for a jam-packed chat on all things membership economy.Follow Us!Robbie Kellman Baxter: @robbiebaxBuy The Membership Economy hereBuy The Forever Transaction hereErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

This week we chat with Lee Anne Grant! Lee Anne has been an executive at various consumer companies and has launched numerous new products and businesses in her career. She’s passionate about helping companies grow revenue in a profitable, thoughtful, and aggressive way.Currently, Lee Anne Grant manages the sales and marketing team at Babylist, the leading vertical marketplace and commerce destination for baby- responsible for driving profitable revenue through community growth, partnerships, and the development of new products. (Babylist is now driving purchases for over 9M people each year.) She uses her extensive experience in performance and brand marketing to optimize an eight-figure marketing budget with content and brand strategies that support an industry-leading NPS score. A true sleeping giant, Babylist has built a nearly $300M business around baby registries, transforming from a simple baby registry website to a multi-faceted marketplace encompassing e-commerce, content creation, and healthcare resources for the entire family graph.Her greatest passion lies in helping people feel good. She prides herself on being a wellness enthusiast: She’s completed an Ironman and 4 marathons and is a certified yoga instructor and trans-Tahoe swimmer.Follow Us!Lee Anne Grant: Linkedin hereBabylist: website hereErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

This week we’re talking fundraising with the enthusiastic storytelling expert, Robbie Crabtree. In this explained episode, Erica and Robbie chat through Robbie's fascinating story and his advice for founders who plan to or are actively fundraising. He gives away a lot of his proprietary tips in this episode that he normally reserves just for his clients. If you are a founder or VC raising $ anytime soon, you don't want to miss this episode!Robbie Crabtree spent the first seven years of his career as a trial lawyer in Dallas, TX where he tried 102 jury trials. He specialized in violent felonies like robberies and murders before moving into the special crimes unit focused on child abuse cases. During his 16 months in that unit he tried cases of child sexual abuse, child physical abuse, and child death cases. After 7 years as a trial lawyer, he left the legal world behind to work in the tech industry. He first founded an edtech startup around public speaking for tech company executives and leadership that was acquired by On Deck at the end of 2020. Since that acquisition he’s founded Competitive Storytelling and turned it into the premier storytelling practice for founders, CEOs, and other leaders inside of the tech and venture capital world. Over the past 2 years, Robbie has trained thousands of these leaders from startups all the way to large public companies to help them become world-class storytellers.Founders and CEOs that he’s privately coached have raised over $575 million dollars and been backed by the biggest venture capital funds in the world. His approach to storytelling and fundraising comes directly from his experience as a trial lawyer which is why he’s regularly asked to speak across the world on the subject. He’s spoken at Stanford University multiple times where he’s addressed the funding gap for minority and female founders while providing a roadmap for how capital allocators and founders can change that dynamic. Robbie is also the author of the upcoming book titled Competitive Storytelling: Raise Capital, Win Influence, and Shape the Future.Twentysomethings, tune in now for a jam-packed chat on all things fundraising.Follow Us!Robbie Crabtree: @robbiecrabCompetitive Storytelling: website hereErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

This week our host, Erica Wenger, chats about one of the questions she gets asked most often... how to break into venture capital?On this episode Erica talks through why someone would want to break into the industry, what types of people would thrive and in what roles (hint: pretty much anyone can find their place!), and my miscellaneous tips for someone who has that as a future goal. I share the behind-the-scenes on how I did it (working for a fund and then starting my own) and all the other ways you can get exposure to the industry before officially taking a full-time job.For anyone thinking about becoming an investor or wanting to break into VC, this episode is for you!Follow Us!Erica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

This week we chat with fellow twin, Ali Partovi! Ali Partovi is CEO of Neo, a diverse community of tech veterans coming together to invest in the leaders of tomorrow. Neo identifies awesome undergrads, connects them with other community members, and invests in companies they start or join. Ali was born in Tehran and lived through the Iran-Iraq war. He studied CS at Harvard. His first startup, LinkExchange, was acquired in 1998. He has backed Airbnb, Dropbox, Facebook, & Uber. He co-founded Code.org to promote CS education. Ali is passionate about sustainable food and loves climbing, guitar, puzzles, and family.Ali is a legend in the Silicon Valley ecosystem who started building businesses at a very young age. He gives fascinating advice in this episode for very entrepreneurial individuals and very technical individuals on how they should approach their early career decisions. Lots of gems in this one. Enjoy!Follow Us!Ali Partovi: @apartoviNeo: @neoCode.org: website hereErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

This week we’re talking egg freezing with the extremely inspiring Lauren Makler. Lauren Makler is the Co-founder and CEO of Cofertility. Her winding road of a fertility journey led her to believe that everyone should have the opportunity to freeze their eggs –and that the egg donation experience should be made more positive and human-centered for everyone involved. Lauren also founded Uber Health, a product that enables healthcare organizations to leverage Uber’s driver network to improve healthcare outcomes through patient transportation and delivery. Under her leadership, the business helped millions of patients get to the care they needed. Prior to that, Lauren helped launch Uber’s core business throughout the east coast and led the company’s first experiments in healthcare, national on demand flu shot campaigns. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their miracle baby girl.In this explained episode, Erica and Lauren chat through all the myths and facts around egg freezing, so for any twentysomething who wants to take control of their life... this episode is for you. It'll hopefully give you the information you need to make the right choices for YOU. Lauren also talks through what a more human-centered approach looks like in the fertility space and her personal story that started it all.Twentysomethings, listen now for an hour of inspiration with Lauren Makler!Follow Us!Lauren Makler: @laurenmaklerCofertility: @cofertilityErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

This week we chat about why our host, Erica Wenger, decided to move from LA to NYC!It's a tough decision to leave comfort (family, friends, amazing apartment, great weather), but after lots of consideration, it was time to make the leap. The tech scene in NYC these days is buzzing and for those of you looking to be in the heart of the energy, a move may be in store.On this episode Erica talks through the rationale behind her decision and what she's most excited about when she gets to NYC. For anyone thinking about making the move to NYC or another city based on your current priorities, this episode is for you!Follow Us!Erica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

This week we’re talking all things public relations for founders & VCs with the knowledgable Jenna Birch. Jenna Birch is the founder of Sisu Brand & PR, a communications consultancy serving both venture capital firms and startups. She has previously worked as the VP, Narrative & Communications at NFX, as well as the Head of Content & Communications at Forerunner, crafting inventive marketing and PR strategies for both firms. In those roles, she's also worked with startups across sectors like consumer, enterprise, SaaS, bio, digital health, travel, crypto, fintech/e-commerce, and more. Prior to working in-house at VC firms, she was a longtime journalist and published author (THE LOVE GAP, Grand Central Publishing, 2018).In this explained episode, Erica and Jenna talk about Jenna's windy journey from being a freelance journalist to writing a dating book to uncovering her passion for storytelling which landed her in the world of venture capital. Jenna has since left venture capital and kickstarted her own firm to support mostly female founders and fund managers with everything PR related. She's a wealth of knowledge and we're so glad she shared her time with us!Twentysomethings, listen now for an hour of inspiration with Jenna Birch!Follow Us!Jenna Birch: @jennabirchEmail Jenna at: jenna@sisubrandpr.comErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

This week we chat with Miri Buckland! In this episode, Miri and Erica talk about how they each define creativity and how Miri's business, Landing, was created to help members find their inner creative voice. She shares the origin stories of the business (originally was targeting interior designers!) and what it's been like to scale their community and uncover trends before the rest of the world sees them (ex. tomato girl summer, which you can learn about in the episode)!Miri Buckland is the COO and co-founder of LANDING, an online social commerce platform that allows users to tap into daily creativity, discover collective inspiration, deliver authentic expression, and nurture meaningful connections. As someone who discovered her identity as a 'creative' later in life, Miri is on a mission to empower everyone to be and feel creative. Together with her team, she is developing LANDING’s platform to ignite creativity across its growing +200k global LANDING VERSE community.Landing is backed by leading investors including Cowboy Ventures, Defy VC, DreamMachine Ventures, and Progression Fund. By trade, Miri is a marketer, community builder and consumer tech operator. Prior to co-founding LANDING, Miri held roles at Sky TV in London and in venture capital in San Francisco. Miri was a 2022 Forbes 30 under 30 recipient and a Graduate of Stanford University School of Business.Follow Us!Miri Buckland: @miribucklandLANDING: @landing__space, website hereErica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething

This week we chat about the investing thesis that our host, Erica Wenger, has crafted for her venture fund! She's backing the next generation of elephant companies (not unicorns) and she walks explains the thesis here in her foundational essay.She shares why every VC (and even founder too!) should craft a thoughtful long-form foundational essay with a unique, clear point of view. It's not easy to be differentiated in an industry with so many businesses and so many funds, so it's essential to craft your own terminology and stand out from the crowd. Erica walks through the process of writing the essay with an amazing collaborator and her plans for the future of writing content.For anyone going out to fundraise (whether they're a VC or a founder) or anyone looking to kickstart their investing career as an angel or LP, this episode is for you!Follow Us!Erica Wenger: @erica_wengerDear Twentysomething: @deartwentysomething