92 - Allison Baum Gates (General Partner, SemperVirens) on funding the future of work
Allison Baum Gates, General Partner at SemperVirens, joined us on The Modern People Leader.
We talked what led her to the intersection of VC and work tech, why the future of work is the single most important problem to solve, and her upcoming book, “Breaking into Venture”.
Go listen now on?Apple ?or wherever you get your podcasts.
Don't have enough time to listen to the whole thing? See the top takeaways below.
Top 3 takeaways from the episode:
1. Making work better is the most important problem of our lifetimes??
Work is something that touches every single one of us.
We spend over 70,000 hours of our lives at work, and we're miserable. In fact, going into the pandemic, 80% of people were so unhappy at work that it was impacting their personal lives.?
That's why Allison thinks this is the most important problem of our lifetimes, and why she has spent the last 8 years investing in technology to improve work.
This includes everything from how you find your job, interview for your job, do your job, to how you get paid and the benefits you're offered.
2. We need to make Venture Capital more accessible ??
Breaking into venture , Allison's upcoming book, demystifies how VC really works.?
She shares things like how VCs score investment opportunities, how VCs make money, and how to navigate the industry.
Her goal is to draw more diverse voices into the VC world.
She says there's a huge disconnect between the people funding new technology and the people who it ultimately impacts.
One example that she gave was social media companies, and how we're now dealing with the terrible ramifications on the mental health of teens and young women.
Allison says that the more diverse voices that we can bring onto the investing side, the more power we'll have to influence the technology we use and how it impacts us.
3. The 3 D's of the future of work are Digital, Distributed, and Data-Driven ??
1???Digital:
A lot of work is happening virtually and not in person, and even if work is happening in person, there is still a digital component to it.
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2???Distributed:
People’s careers are distributed over time and space.
It’s much rarer for someone to spend their entire career at the same company. On average, people are now changing jobs every two years.
And with remote work, people are now distributed all over the world.
3???Data-Driven:
As we do work digitally, it's measurable.
The two D’s that Allison added post-pandemic???
Dynamic:
Allison disagrees with the idea that the power is back in the employer’s hands. But with more options and flexibility for employees, comes more volatility.
People are getting laid off for the second or third time in the matter of three years, and unfortunately, she doesn’t think that’s going away.
Diverse:
Because we've removed a lot of the physical constraints of work, it means it should be a lot easier to work with people that are different from you.
The career advice Allison would give to her 22-year-old self
"Stop feeling bad about everything. I've always followed my gut feelings as I've navigated different chapters of my career. But I've always had those thoughts in the back of my head of should I be feeling this way? Is this the right thing? Once you finally let go of that, you're able to forge a path that's right for you. And that's what makes me so excited about how technology is unlocking the future of work because there are so many more pathways that you can follow. There's not just one cookie cutter way of doing things."?
See you next week!
P.S.?Transform ?is just 50 days away. If you haven't bought your ticket yet, use our link to get $200 off.
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I wish I had access to "Breaking Into Venture" back in 2014. Can't wait to get my copy ??