Making Wealth Accessible

ideas42 Ventures: building companies that solve massive social challenges

Meet Jackie Hyland. Jackie is experienced in real estate, investment banking, operating and has recently broken into the venture studio space. She’s currently based in Los Angeles, Joshua Tree, and New Mexico. Currently, she’s working at ideas42 Ventures as a Business Lead. There, they recruit founders from diverse backgrounds and work to create wealth inequality for middle and low-income Americans.

We dive into making wealth accessible to lower and middle-income individuals, how to expand into real estate and the importance of the right partner.

Eve #WealthWednesday Highlight 37 - Jackie Hyland, Business Lead at ideas42 Ventures?

What was your first investment?

I moved to Mexico in 2012 on a Fulbright scholarship. Mexico has a really unique business program. I ended up being an analyst at a firm called Angel Ventures Mexico. My first coordination of an angel investment through this network of folks was around a company called connecta, which still exists today in Mexico. But at that point they were trying to help other businesses do like a Shopify sales online and then they pivoted to payments. But that was one of the first investment memos that I've put together and put in front of Mexican angel investors to see if they wanted to make it happen.

Before that, I was doing more microfinance, which exposed me to financial markets, at least at a micro-level. And I got really interested in entrepreneurship.

My parents didn't ever invest in the stock market. My dad is very risk-averse, but I actually remember when I was 13, my friend, one of my best friends in high school was telling me about his stock portfolio in freshman year in high school. He said that for Christmas his dad had gotten him more Disney stock and Coca-Cola stock. I had no idea really what that meant. That was my actual first exposure to hearing someone my age telling me that his dad was building this fun portfolio for him, brands that I knew. And that's what he was trying to teach him is like, You already use these brands. We go to these places and let's invest in them. So that's the first thing that got started to think about it, but it really wasn't until I would say probably in my first job, I definitely understood and was doing 401k and was trying to set up some savings. I paid off my student loans and then was just trying to figure out how to save enough money then eventually start doing some stock portfolio stuff. But I was still pretty minimal.?

I didn't start doing real stock portfolio construction probably until my early thirties, I ended up actually investing more in friends' projects and more high-risk things. But it felt more fun in my twenties and felt like it was the time to do that if I could. I don't know if I necessarily could have done both at the time, but I was way more interested in the angel investment seed-stage investment technology phase.?

How/why did you get into your space?

When I was working at Accion, an early-stage FinTech fund, I felt really fortunate to be managing a portfolio of about eight companies and then investing in six new companies during my time there. It was interesting. I always felt like I really wanted to do the best work. I could find the best companies for the fund and prove myself as an investment professional.?

And that worked out really well, but I didn't know the feeling of your own money. Like what is, what would be like, to really bet on something. I was super interested in FinTech. But at the same time, I was like, if I really invested in something that I cared about, what would it feel like? When I was working at Silicon Valley banks, I got exposed to a lot of different industries and beyond FinTech and different types of companies and got really interested in trying to put my investor hat to work and say, “What do I want the future to look like?” I didn't know many other women investing at the time. And so I was using it as an, also as a way to connect with other women and find those communities.?

I made mistakes, lost money. Made the classic mistakes that you think you're smart enough to remember, but I invested in things that I thought were interesting, but really had known nothing about. And those didn't work out. I learned a lot, but then did a lot better in B2B, FinTech. Like what I actually was spending a lot of time thinking about. But It's all learning.?

I think it was Tim Ferris a long time ago, said, “For me. It's like thinking of doing an MBA. If I could spend $200,000 on investing in myself for a college degree, what else could I do with $200,000?” And I think building an early stage angel portfolio created so much learning and connection and friendships and community for me, that I thought about doing my MBA for so many years and then felt like I'm more of a doer and more of a learner by doing.

And then real estate came a little bit later. I had been wanting to buy a home. I was thinking about the different ways to do that. Because I'm more of a digital nomad I thought, it could be exciting to have a couple places that I love to go to, but then rent them out when I'm not there. And then during the pandemic, stuck in the city, I thought, where do I want to go? Where would I like to spend some time and I started spending some time out in Joshua Tree.?

And then also spending some time near Santa Fe, New Mexico. And being exposed to those two places that are beautiful in their own ways, I started dreaming about having a portfolio of six to seven properties that are lovely places that lots of people like to go to, but that I also want to spend time in. I didn't really do the analysis of which market is the hottest rental market, long term, short term. I really was just following my desires of, what are good markets that are a little bit more affordable than large cities, but that are in some ways destinations and have a specialness about them. That's how I got started there and started Airbnbing out in Joshua tree. And now in New Mexico, I just got my first review the other day. So that's very exciting.?

There is so much great real estate investing you can do that is fractional ownership. There's great platforms if you don't really care, but I really enjoy talking to people and I really enjoyed learning the process of the rental business. And, then also just owning assets, appreciating assets that hopefully will be really valuable for me and my family in the future.

What role do you play in the wealth space and why is it important?

Bringing financial prosperity especially to lower-income individuals. So our entrepreneurs, we have eight right now. We had three in the first cohort. Now we have five in our second. We really think about, “How are we going to meaningfully influence the financial lives of low and middle-income people in the United States?” You might've heard this stat, but something like 40% of Americans wouldn't be able to find $400 for an emergency, even if they had it. And so there's just a huge gap for financial support. I think that's one area where we can come in. One of our companies, WellMoney, is actually working on just direct assistance. Emergency aid, without the sob story that you have to put on GoFundMe and just supporting individuals through different moments in their life.?

Emergencies are what often puts people in debt. And so if we can prevent individuals from going into significant debt over things that just happen in life that you don't expect, I think that really helps individuals either get on a wealth path or at least stay from these cycles.

Similarly, a lot of the entrepreneurs that we're trying to recruit and what we focus on are what we call undiscovered talent. They come from backgrounds where they don't have friends and family to rely on for their first investment or they can't work from their dad's garage, or if it doesn't work out, fall back on friends and other friends and family. And so there's this really interesting opportunity to focus on BIPOC folks who want to participate and build a company. For us, this is their first step into building a company that can create generational wealth for their families to come. We hope that it obviously helps the studio and helps keep us sustainable, but we really believe that these individuals are so magnificent, they just really didn't have that generational support that oftentimes other groups of people have. And so by tapping into that rich having into a new pool of talent, that's going to build wealth for themselves and hopefully wealth for middle income Americans.?

What do you believe is the most exciting thing you’ve learned and want others to know?

I think one of the most important things is going to be a little high level.?

It came very clear through the real estate when I kicked off the real estate business and Airbnb. It's just who you work with. Partnership is so important. Partnership with the right people and the right people, not meaning bad or good, but just knowing what you need from a partnership. And especially when you're building something and taking risks and putting your money into both a business or a real estate project. I took a risk and started building this with my friend, Virginia. She's been a friend for a long time. And I just knew that she, whether we would learn together with the highs and the lows, I would just love to spend time with her. For a long time in my career, I was just chasing the opportunity and wanting to grow my career and achieve and get the next role like VP, director, CEO. And as I went through the motions, I just realized being a CEO or a director or whatever you want. Having these positions is a little bit empty if you don't love the people that you're building with. And so for me, the deep and true long-term partnership is just so valuable.

You can get through the highs and lows. You can pivot. I almost feel like I could do anything with the right people through the pandemic and through starting these projects.?

It really is a lot about self, like understanding what you need and being able to communicate that as well. There's certain things that I'm really good at that I would love to find a complimentary partner or partners. And I think what's really worked well for me is I'm drawn to other big thinkers. We could imagine a whole relationship and world together. But I think the nice thing is that what's worked is like we take a step back and say, what can we do? Something small??

I'll share an example. During the pandemic, I did a project with two girlfriends. We were thinking of this big project together, like, let's do this and build this new world. And we said, well, let's just start with this small one. Let's do this six-week project. See how we work together and then go from there. It was really insightful because we learned a lot about our dynamic as even three women. We ended up not doing the bigger picture thing, but we had a successful one project. We were like, that was fun, but maybe it doesn't actually align with what we all really want. And so just starting small, trying, not being afraid to just test it out, iterate, try something new. I'm working on another project with a girlfriend and it's just like a two-month project and we're evaluating what that feels like afterward. And it's a fun side thing. Not being afraid to just test it out, I think is really smart, and being really clear about what you're trying to figure out.?

Who is a person or company that inspires you in the space and why?

A woman and a friend of mine who's always been inspiring is my friend, Emily Joffrion. She is a dear friend of mine who I met just a couple of years ago, but we have become super close. She runs her own business. She's a consultant. She was at Airbnb. And she's also done real estate investments for herself and thought about diversifying and having conversations with other women.

Emily's so specific. I think sometimes when we talk about finances or personal finance, and especially if you maybe feel like you make a lot of money or maybe you don't make a lot of money, it's like shame on both sides. She's very encouraging. She just has specific numbers. She likes to talk about her portfolio. She talks about her tech experience like with her close friends and then also gathers women to dig in deeper. And I just appreciate that so much because we could be so vague and we could be so off-putting but it's so empowering when you have a true friend. Who's just like, here's how I do it. No secrets open book. And when I was doing my consulting business, I had some monthly goals of what I wanted to make. And I was like, Emily, what do you think? And she was like, you need to make three times more than that. And I just decided like every proposal I'd send out, I’d 3X it, just testing it out. And no one pushed back. And so it's friends like that that just say, “You deserve this, you have so much value. This is what I've seen. It's been working for me. And I know the value that I have.” It's a continued regenerative process where like her success is my success. She's not afraid to share that. And then she has just been so supportive on that, on those types of things. So shout out to Emily.?

How can we stay in touch?

We do post a lot on LinkedIn. Ideas 42 ventures want to find us. We also have a website where we do a newsletter about once a month. So feel free to put your email in there. All of our entrepreneurs are actually on the websites, so you can find them there. WellMoney, Handoff and ProsperWorks are the three companies. And then we've got five new entrepreneurs who just started off with us. And, for me as well, you can find me on LinkedIn or Twitter. I'm a little less active on social media these days, but I'm definitely there.?

#fintech #womenswealth #futureoffinance #investing #investment

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Have thoughts on this week’s topic or questions for me or Jackie Hyland? Post your thoughts in the comment section. Until next week. ??

Follow Alana on LINKEDIN for the latest news in #fintech