Imagine: Women with power through wealth with Sallie Krawcheck

The magic of collective empowerment

What happens when like-minded, passionate investors, founders, executives, and creatives converge in a shared space? A kind of magic happens. It's the magic of synergy, innovation, and collective empowerment.

Last October, I had the unique privilege of hosting an exclusive member event at Soho House. The event was designed as a unique melting pot, bringing together Soho House members, Ellevest VIP clients, and angels and founders in my community. The objective? To enable that magic we create an experience to hear directly from the inspiring force behind Ellevest , Sallie Krawcheck through a live podcast recording with Rachel V. and yours truly.

Tune in to experience the energy of the room and hear about:

• The most engaging and humble career path account from a Wall Street icon
• Times she took the contrarian view and how it led to a Fortune Magazine as the last honest analyst
• Ellevest’s origin story and the gender wealth gap
• Changing the negative narrative of women and money in media - did you know 90% of articles to women on money are negative. The flip side is 75% of articles to men about money are about expansion and growth, and positivity. ?
• How women are an attractive demographic for the financial services industry, yet still so underserved
• Introducing Ellevest Women's Financial Health Index
• Reality check on Series B funding for women:?1% of series B dollars & 1% of FinTech dollars
• Investing in a bear market
• How to have a positive impact and a market rate returns

This episode is brought to you by two female founded firms that are also investors in Ellevest: Alternative Wealth Partners founded by Kelly Ann Winget and J&O Law founded by Christina Oshan and Rachel Johnson .?It can also be heard on sister podcast Ctrl Alt Default .

In case you haven't heard about Ellevest , it's the top investing platform made for women by women. It's pretty cool and I think you should check it out. #notanAD https://www.ellevest.com/

Case Study: Harnessing the Collective Power of Women - A Network of Mutual Empowerment

Two simple introductions created a ripple effect of connections, friendships, business partnerships, and much more. Thanks to Ann Berry 's introduction?to Caroline Lewis and then Sallie Krawcheck , a ripple effect of women helping women ignited. For me, it started with a small investment into Caroline's syndicate for Ellevest, enabling me to back an investment I believed in but also the work of a female fund manager.

When I shared my passion to elevate the collective intelligence of women through investing and asked Sallie to keep me posted on her next round for my collective of badass angel-operators and allies.... she said why wait, let's do it now. Note, she didn't need us as the round was closing and our allocation took Ellevest over their target raise. This was an opportunity and a social experiment I'm on a mission to prove out.

This inclusive move allowed a diverse group of accredited women and allies to invest alongside top tier investors such as Kholsa Ventures, Melinda Gates, and Salesforce Ventures, among others. This allowed our community to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the leading names in the investment world, an empowering experience by all accounts. Our investment base stood as a testament to our mission of inclusive investing. Women constituted a remarkable 72% of our investor base, while minorities made up 58% of the total. Furthermore, 39% of our investors were founders, business owners, or fund managers. This diversity in our investor base showcased a broad spectrum of professionals, including tech enthusiasts, film industry veterans, finance experts, digital agency professionals, beauty and fashion insiders, lawyers, and even former athletes.

Offering this investment opportunity to our community, along with fund managers like Caroline Lewis or Jesse Draper, who did the same, not only diversified Ellevest's investor base but also fostered a sense of ownership and participation among a group that will likely accelerate the company's growth through WOM, warm intros, and support as the company needs it. This democratization of investment access underscores our belief that everyone should have the opportunity to generate wealth as they shape the future of innovative platforms like Ellevest as users and consumers.

These moments are a step towards breaking barriers in the investment world, and we are proud to be a part of this transformative journey.

How Generative AI fits into this

Even before Open AI branded and launched ChatGPT November 2022, our friends at Ian Eck and Mike Gioia of Late Arrivals were tinkering with GPT3 and generative AI art. The podcast transcript was synthesized with GPT3 to form summaries for text prompts. These text prompts were used to create generative AI art. Here's a few examples of their interpretation of the event. While anyone can use MidJourney or one of many AI art generation tools out there, not anyone can get the same results. I've found that the interesting art and short films created with generative AI are from creative director types themselves who have a unique eye for creating descriptive prompts and imagining what's possible. It's no surprise that Ian and Mike passion comes as designers and film makers.

Before launching Apertura, I used OpenAI user interface (now ChatGPT) to brainstorm and iterate on a podcast name and various versions of the trailer. It was also an excuse to test the possibilities/boundaries of native OpenAI versus applications like Jasper. I created the logo leveraging a few different multimodal applications built on top of Stable Diffusion and Dall-E2 and tested out text based prompts as well as image based prompts. I'm not jazzed about the current one, but its a work in progress and I had to put a time limit on it. Hence my deep respect for true creatives like Ian and Mike! I dropped out of art school so that's my excuse.

Comment below if you want to hear more on my exploration of prompt engineering, product testing various platforms built on top of foundational LLM models and other research in the space.

Additional information on our partners:

Syzygy Cities founded by Rachel V. is an impact real estate program developer with a "withintrification" model to revitalize communities, and catalyze wealth in disinvested communities.

Founded by Kelly Ann Winget , Alternative Wealth Partners is a Dallas-based Private Equity firm specializing in non-correlated investment assets, from emerging market ventures to real estate, energy, and infrastructure. AWP is the only millennial, LGBTQ, female solo-founded private equity firm focused exclusively on alternative assets.

Female-founded law firm J&O Law works with high-growth companies as they scale. Christina Oshan and Rachel Johnson founded J&O over eight years ago and have built an incredible team representing category-defining companies. J&O has headquarters in both South Florida and New York City, with other team members across the country. Please note this is an advertisement for legal services.

Sound editing and production by Ben Moroney at Interlaken Associates.

Disclaimer: Elements of this blog post (e.g., title, excerpts) have been generated by ChatGPT, Claude, and OpenAssist (LLama), and user-generated bots created on Poe. This newsletter is part of my product testing journey and geeking out on prompt engineering. All content is accurate and has had a handprinted touch. However, writing styles might be different. Can you spot them?

P.S. The text below was generated on GPT4 based on a short prompt and a few iterations and did not include the podcast transcript. I left it out the excerpt below out of the main blog post because it was not really my writing and a little cheesy and long winded. However, I was surprised how it captured the IRL moment.

... The atmosphere was electrifying, filled with earnest curiosity and invigorating discussions. Sallie shared her journey, detailing the inception of Ellevest, the challenges faced, and the victories celebrated. Her story, raw and authentic, resonated deeply with the audience, serving as a powerful testament to the potential of perseverance and vision.

The evening was not just about story-telling, though. It was about connection, interaction, and creating a supportive network. As conversations flowed and laughter echoed, it was evident that we were doing more than just listening to a story. We were building a community, one that strongly believes in supporting women in their quest for financial independence.

New connections were forged, old ones were rekindled, and the spirit of communal growth was truly embraced. Many members left that evening not just with a renewed sense of motivation, but also with a sense of belonging to a community that genuinely supports their financial growth.

The event underscored our belief that community-building is a powerful tool in supporting women in their wealth-building journey. Ellevest's mission goes beyond providing an innovative investment platform for women. It's about fostering a sense of belonging and mutual support among women striving to achieve their financial goals.

As I reflect on that unforgettable evening, I am reminded of the strength that lies within a community. That night at Soho House, we did more than share the Ellevest story. We reinforced our commitment to supporting each other and amplified the power of community in our journey towards financial independence.

We're excited about the connections made that night, and even more thrilled about the opportunities and collaborations these new relationships will bring in the future. Here's to more such events, filled with engaging dialogues, shared experiences, and communal growth. -- ChatGPT4