“I can describe this through a few of our core values – they really exemplify what we go through day-to-day. We have three values that we search for in founders as well as what we exemplify as a team. Those three values are….”
Chloe Capital is a women-led venture capital firm dedicated to shifting the paradigm when it comes to the lack of venture capital activity and network-style business opportunities for women. The ownership at Chloe Capital seems to have a close relationship with analytics, and you start to get a feel for this as you explore their online content. “Despite recent progress, less than 5% of all venture capital in the U.S. goes to women-led tech companies.” A direct quote from their website, and a statement that reflects the reasoning behind the foundation of the company. Businesses who take a liking to analytics tend to have a better overall look at the bigger picture. Chloe Capital is no exception to this pattern. Their team recognizes the importance of a network of support and opportunity. The term “network” gets thrown around a lot today, and the frequency of use can diminish from its importance. Not here. The Chloe Capital team has manifested an ecosystem of support that extends access to resources, co-investors, mentorship opportunities, and the nuances of a network that helps startups grow.
Speaking with Chloe Capital was powerful, and a process that was dense with information that reflects the reality of our country’s economic state. For every eye-opening stat that supports the absolute need for the existence of companies like Chloe Capital, there were five more rooted in optimism from the sheer performance of women-led companies across the nation. The facts are in, and the data is easy to read; companies that focus on diversity perform better, and that gap is only going to continue to widen. Our conversation with Elisa Miller-Out, Co-Founder of Chloe Capital was truly a pleasure. Check it out below:
Question: “Chloe Capital is one of the ONLY venture capital and private equity firms that has an all-woman team and invests in only women-founded startups. How does the energy at Chloe Capital differ compared to firms with men involved?”
"Great question. We are one of a handful of firms that are in a space that are focused on women entrepreneurs. Luckily, it is a growing movement. There are other firms that are also women-based, which is great for the ecosystem due to our constant collaboration. We are building really a movement at Chloe Capital; we are much more than just a venture capital firm. We have been labeled a movement. We are building up an ecosystem to support these women entrepreneurs – not just providing them capital, but connecting them with mentorship, resources, with other co-investors as well as customers."
Question: “Some people have said Chloe Capital will struggle with a quality deal flow due to only investing in women companies – have you found that to be completely true or completely false?”
"This is my favorite question to discuss. I love answering that it is COMPLETELY false! When we were doing our customer discovery process during starting up, (we are a startup ourselves, we are only a year old), we heard a number of people constantly say “oh, you’re going to have a pipeline problem, where are you going to find these women-led companies? There just aren’t enough out there!” We are happy to say that after our national tour, which lasted one year, we have a pipeline of of over 1,500 companies! We have done our due diligence to over 150 of those. From the ones we have done our due diligence on, we have an exceptionally high quality deal flow. One of the interesting things we have seen with women-founded startups is that women are DERISKING these deals for us! These companies have more traction, much higher revenue, better numbers than what we expected in seed-stage companies. We found that a lot of women are waiting a little longer to raise until they are sure they have strong companies with a good base, enough demand, companies that are of true quality. We even have companies at the seed-stage that have 7 figure revenue numbers – and they are just beginning to raise."
Question: “What is the culture like at Chloe Capital?”
"I can describe this through a few of our core values – they really exemplify what we go through day-to-day. We have three values that we search for in founders as well as what we exemplify as a team. Those three values are: hustle, honesty and heart. Hustle is that drive, right, like something we really look for in our founders as well as something we have in abundance of; we are all very driven to make Chloe Capital successful. This is a project that is very near and dear to our heart; it is our mission. We work VERY hard to get the work done to make this movement happen. We look for honesty in both our team and our founders. This has a lot to do with transparency and being very ethical in our work. The third, heart, is the most important. We have a very deep passion for our work at Chloe. We have a very deep expertise in this space – in tech-entrepreneurship, in investing, in community building. These are areas where we have deep expertise; we also look for founders who have deep passion and deep subject-matter expertise in their work and company."
Question: “What is the most innovative tech company (in your eyes) that Chloe Capital has invested in or seen?”
"Very hard to pick just one. Our companies are like our children – impossible to pick your favorite. I can tell you that we have a portfolio of six companies so far. All the companies we have invested range from AI, to the food-business, we have one advanced in manufacturing in the cloud in the fashion world, we have one in the disaster/emergency management planning software side of things, we have one in the event software space for the Hispanic community, and we have one that is in the B2B flower-arranging for large businesses. Can’t pick one of my kids! All these companies are phenomenal and high-quality."
Question: “What can we expect to see from Chloe Capital in the next few months – anymore Shark Tank-style competitions?”
"Yeah! We are really excited to discuss what we will be doing next. We will be wrapping up our national tour in the next few weeks. As for next, we will be announcing a partnership pretty soon here; the project will be based on us perfecting our model that we have created on our national tour and then apply it to different industries and partner with different companies. For instance, we will partner with an insurance company and create a Fin-Tech accelerator. We will be announcing new programs and partnerships; we will be announcing it at our big event which is our finale in May."
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