Challenges faced by female founders and the impact investing revolution with Chiara Lung.

The return when you invest in a female founder, the chances are higher, around 30% higher that you get your returns back because women are, yeah, like I mentioned before, even as retail investors, they're way more conservatives, conservative investors, when they say we're talking around. We're talking with around 10 potential clients.

They're really close to closing a deal with those potential clients. For instance, I've worked with men before. When you're working with predominantly men's, there might be some bluffing there. That's Kiara l. Co-founder of Fin U Prize, the free impact investing data app that allows you to access sustainable data on 4,000 plus publicly traded stocks.

Thus, Giving you the power to make impactful decisions with your investments and in your future. And this conversation, Kiara shares the differences when it comes to fundraising between men and female founders. The kind of returns you can expect when you invo invest in women-led companies and what they did to get traction and new users to the platform.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. As you listen, you can find me on LinkedIn at Eric Melcor. Tag me, say hello. Let me know that you're listening and now, Let's chat with Kiara. Hey Kiara. How you doing? Welcome to Innovators. Can Laugh. How you doing today? I'm good. I'm good. How are you? I'm pretty good.

Okay. Let's pretend that you've been invited to participate in career day or job day at a local high school. What would you be excited and proud to talk about Kiara? Well, I love this specific example because this happened to me three weeks ago, and what was I proud to talk about is. Actually, my profession is pretty quote unquote young.

I'm a growth hacker. I focus on data and analysis and marketing, and that's not a profession that existed 10 years ago. So I was one of the youngest on the, on the. Off board, uh, speaking event and yeah, it got hilarious questions. Yeah. And for those that are not watching this, if you look at Kiara, she looks like she's like 18 here.

Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Now, what was one of the, the funny questions that you got from students? So, because it's still growth hacking the, the word hacking is in there. One of the students came in and she was like, oh, can you help me hack my Instagram? And I was like, no, that's not how it works. But you know, high school students, that's their thinking.

And also they really dive into, okay, how much do you make? Because I need to know before I choose another A direction. Yeah, my son, my son right now desires to be like either a fireman or even a garbage collector man. 'cause he thinks those occupations are so cool. But he hasn't gotten into the age yet where he knows about money and knows like the salaries.

But regardless of whatever, whatever profession he chooses, I want him to be passionate about it. So I don't, I don't, we'll see where it goes. But anyway. So when you think about all the marketing and digital campaigns you've worked on, Kiara, which one was your favorite? Ooh. Favorite campaign I worked on, I'm thinking between two.

I think the, the favorite I worked on is an e-com campaign, an e-commerce campaign, because I think that that one was very beautiful, focusing not only on the, the date of heart, but more on the, the content creation that we did. What we did is we. I used to work for them in a company that focused on making glasses, affordable glasses, and they had glasses in all these different colors.

So for pride, we made a a documentary, a mini documentary series, and focused giving everyone that resonates with the LGBTQ plus community, a chance to tell their story. So combining, yeah, mission and media and content creation. That. Okay. All right. All right. Now, tell us about Fin U Prize. What is it and what do customers get excited about when they discover it?

So Finfin Prime is, uh, is an impact investing app. Well, that was the original idea, but what, what people get excited about is that they can see if their portfolio aligns with their value. And we really simplified e S G metrics by making it red, gold or green, seeing if your portfolio is predominantly red, gold or green in what industry, and how you could possibly change that.

All right. Now, how have you guys get it? How did you guys get it to market? What did you focus on in terms of getting traction? Kiara? So our main focus in the beginning was definitely giving them the opportunity to see things transparently. E s G metrics are very hard to understand. So that was our main focus and we tried to make ourselves very sticky by giving it.

Predominantly free away in the beginning so we can see traction on the, on the, on the app. Alright. I mean, how does it work? I mean, if I were to invest, and I don't know if I could, but if I were to invest, let's say, in Apple through the app and it, what would it tell me or what would it show me? Whether or not Apple is like a hundred percent at go friendly, you know, company or, or how does this, how does this look from the eyes of, of a user?

So from the answer by a retail investor, ultimately like yourself, you have eight metrics that you could focus on and that you can see on our platform. You can then just go to our platform, look up, I want to find Apple. You find Apple, and then you can see those eight, eight metrics and how they're scoring.

So we have metrics that are like equal pay women on the board, c o two emissions waterways. So you can check out all these different metrics and see, okay, they're scoring red in this particular metric. Why are they scoring red? And then you can click on that information and see how they're scoring red, if they're progressing from before, and how are they doing now?

And also a detailed explanation of what this metric entails. All right. And your user base, is it pretty much globally or is it focused on certain regions Right now? Europe focused on Europe. The companies, a publicly traded company, don't need to be focused on Europe only. We also have American companies in there.

That's not the only part, but for users, it's Europe. Okay. Now, when you first took on the role at Fin Uprise as the Chief Growth officer and you're also part, you know, or you're also a co-founder, what level of success seemed realistic to you? Like what would be your minimum accomplishment for you to feel like, oh wow, I really made a difference in growing Thin U Prize.

Like versus where you guys are right now. Yeah, I think we pivoted with the product a bit and that's, yeah, that's start of life, I think. I think the pivoting of the product by really listening to, well, not listening because we didn't speak to our users, say, but we did look at how they were navigating on a website, so see how they were navigated, made us think, okay, let's try to change this and give them an angle that's an easier hook for them.

Based on that, we made new features. Alright, is it, tell us about the gender. Is it like 50 50 male or male versus female, or who's the audience? Like are they younger generation, gen Z, millennials? Can you tell us about the demographics? Yeah, definitely. So we really build our products focused on millennials and Gen Z.

So my co-founder, she, she's in finance and she wanted to also invest more sustainably herself. So that's, The audience that we really chose for and where we also build our metrics for, and it is, uh, 50 50 on the male and female. I mean, you can see in trends that females are more conservative investors because they really wanna make sure that what they're investing is, is.

And what they care about and that sometimes withholds them from investing. So I also once shared a prise on a female and female finance club, and the reactions on that were so good because for them that was like, oh, that's so good. Because I was withholding myself as investing. Because if you look at the s and p 500, there are a lot of companies that don't align with my salary.

I don't wanna. Invest in certain of these companies so they can see right away from the start when they start building their portfolio. Okay. What of the, like, which one of these companies really does align with my future forward thinking? After a quick break, Kiara and I talk about what kind of returns you can expect when you invest in female-led companies.

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And so you should learn more about how Reps Mate can help improve your business. At reps mate.com welcome back to my conversation with Kiara. I am fascinated at how much information when it comes to sustainability initiatives among publicly traded companies. Now let's hear more on what kind of returns you can expect from female driven companies.

Yeah, no, it seems like you're big into the data and early on, what did the data tell you in terms of what should you focus on on trying to attract new, new customers to the platform? Partnerships, I must honestly say, I think that. The Syntech market is a very competitive market. There are a lot of different investment apps and sustainability.

Is something that is now getting more traction, like I just mentioned with the women and how they wanna start investing. And you saw really just around the 2020 that a lot of more people started investing. And why was that? Because there were some insecurities that we had to overcome and a lot of people had more whole war to spend more time on on that.

So, Yeah. To return to your question, I think that the traction that we were seeing was because of external factors, and that was beneficial for us. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That was the year I invested most. There was a lot of free money, I guess you would say, in the market. Now, obviously, free money isn't free. But there, but there was various ways that I was able to take a majority of my income at that time and put it into the market.

Now listen, I was, I was stalking your Pinterest page, Kiara, and you have a lot of travel related pins. I think that's what you call them. I'm not really on Pinterest, but they're either pins or boards, right? Yeah. Now, what is your favorite travel hack or gear? Ooh, my favorite travel hack. I book in exam or super last minute, and the most important thing I always have would me is my power bank because I'm never fully offline.

So I think it's very important that my devices are always charged. No, that's, that's a good one. Definitely a good one. My wife always takes like two with her and I'm the one that's always having look, looking for the outlet. Like I need to charge my phone and I'm looking for the outlet 'cause I didn't bother, bother to bring them.

Okay. And just going back real quick, I know you mentioned partnerships, but are these partnerships with, again, I have no idea here. Like with banks or with other financial services firms or companies or, or with who? Kiara. Yes. So we are definitely open for partnerships with banks with love to, if you're hearing this, let me know.

But right now it's mostly with platforms that are focusing on educating financial literacy. Definitely. Got you. Got you, got you. How was it being part of a company where both, both founders were both female in terms of raising investment? Like did you guys face any challenges? What was it like being in a pitch?

Do you feel like, did you feel like it was a little bit harder versus if maybe one of the co-founders was amel? Ooh, the answer to topic, yes. I will just reflect on the data and give my opinion. Afterward, but for, yeah. Female founders in the eu, it is below 1%. Uh, right now to raise funds, it's very hard.

There are different program. Wait, do you mean, do you mean those that are trying to raise funds or below 1% female? No, to the, the ones that get fun. Really. So when, yeah, it is alarming. In 2022 it was, I think in 2022 it was still around the 1%. And now from January till now, it's below the 1%. It's like 0.9% right now for PC money.

What. What is expected to, to give on female founders or predominantly female teams, even if they're not 100% female founders. So if it's a, a male and a female, but it's, yeah, there's not a lot of money flowing to female founders, unfortunately. Okay. Well, let's unpack that a little bit. Like what's, what do you think is the percentage of founders that are female that are trying to fundraise and get money?

I know many though, but in the more than 10. More than 10%. More than 20%. So then we would have to dive back like even more into the data. How many startups do exist within Europe that are right now in pre-seed or seed stage? But if I'm taking that in consideration, I think it's around 50 to 20%. Uh, Yeah, of themes.

And the thing is that also investing in women is more successful, uh, if you look on return. So there's actually no reason for this to be the case. There's also a lot of research written on this and I would love to send it to you 'cause I saw how shocked you were by this fact that yeah. The return when you invest in a female founder, the chances are higher, around 30% higher that you get your returns back because women are, yeah, like I mentioned before, even as retail investors, they're way more conservatives, conservative investors, when they say we're talking around.

We're talking with around 10 potential clients, they're really close to closing a deal with those potential clients. For instance, I've worked with men before. When you're working with predominantly men, there might be some bluffing there, and that is something, there's a big difference in that. So right now there are a lot of courses where they're teaching women to be more, take more seriously by having more of the male trait.

In doing business. Well, actually I think it would be interesting to flip it around and think, what did you want to, as a VC, get a higher chance of getting your money back also for your client? Yeah. Well, this reminds me, this reminds me of something I, I once read and it was like, you know, a, a man could look at a, a job opening and it says like, you must have these 10 qualifications.

And he's looking at it and he is like, Oh, I've got two of them. Let me go ahead and, and apply. Whereas a woman may look at it and say, I've only got eight of these, so I guess I'm not a good fit for the job, and she won't apply. Yeah, and it seems like it's, it's very similar when, when you're pitching and you're telling the story and you know, men may be, I guess, hyping the story up a bit and saying, yeah, the market potential is this, and we've already got this many potential customers in the pipeline.

Whereas a woman is gonna be a lot more. Honest, in lack of a better word, and, and be more realistic and pragmatic about the pitch. And so therefore it's just not that as exciting from an investment standpoint. So it would, it would be good to, I don't, I don't know if you wanna call it, you know, take those no traits or whatever, or women to, to, to act a little bit more like men.

I think they should be themselves, and I think it's the men investors. That should become a little bit wiser, that should be a little bit smarter about where they're allocating their money. And then I think after the, after the recent economic downturn that we just experienced, I think, I think a lot of them are, as they're saying, is camels are the new unicorns.

I mean, you wanna find founders that have got. Good hit a good hit on their shoulders and are being very honest and genuine about the situation. So we'll see what happens. But it sounded like that's what you were saying though, right? Kiara, is that there's a lot of fluff when it goes into these pitches.

There is so much fluff, but I think like especially in the Dutch market, there are a lot of women also. Let's take a bit of culture in, uh, consideration. The doctor are very direct. So a lot of women here, they pitch and the pitching is also very direct. So there, there is no fluffiness to, to even walk around.

This is the pitch, this is the, the, the higher chance of return in invest in women. Conclusion. Well, I'm really laughing because that's something that I've concluded to in this season of the show is that the Dutch are very direct. And so, and that's why I was just laughing 'cause I've, I've, I've spoken to guests and I'm like, oh wow.

They are very, very direct and some of their answers to questions that I've had. Okay. Well, Kiara. Another question before we go into the, into the rapid fire question stage here. If you were the growth hacking queen of the world and could speak on a stage at the largest event for B two B and SaaS companies, what one thing as it relates to growth, would you talk about personalization?

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. If I need. As long as I can remember with growth hacking, I've always, always known that the personalization and building that your buyer persona is super important. And every time a client is like, oh no, we already know that data. You don't need to do research. Just, just continue with your growth skills and it experimenting it always fail.

That research and that personalization is super important. And where, yeah, everywhere I focused on that, the result has been more successful. Love it, love it, love it. I think companies that talk to their customers on a frequent basis or something like, I don't know, more than a hundred percent higher likelihood, likelihood of them succeeding.

So I love that. Okay. Rapid fire question. Kiara, you ready? Yes. Okay. Gimme the first thing that pops into your head. First question for you, blank is how you want to be remembered. Blank is how you want to be remembered. Fill in that blank, please. Kind. All right. What celebrity did you have a crush on as a teenager?

Uh, Nick Jonas. Nick Jonas. Sure. I was very young. Okay. You wanted to be blank when you were a kid. A dolphin trainer. All right. All right. If you weren't a startup founder, what occupation would you be doing now? Maybe journalism. Okay. What's an unusual food or drink that you consume? Kiara? I really, I don't think it's weird.

A lot of people might not know it's, it's, it's from the Caribbean with a, a corn nail corn for, okay. Okay. Yeah, no, it sounds good. One of my favorite restaurants back in Houston was a Honduras chef, and some of the dishes had like this corn meal. Maybe. Maybe some of that was similar to what you're talking about.

I think it is. Yeah. Kiara, thank you so much for coming on. Innovators can laugh. We will put links to the show notes. Infin Prize in the in the newsletter and website. Kiara, pleasure having you here. Thank you so much. Yeah. Five was mine. Thank you. All right everybody, this is Eric signing off. Cheers. I enjoy chatting with Kiara.

She's got a friendly smile and the app that she and her co-founder have built really make it easy to pick the companies that represent your values. I also like what she shared about female-driven companies and how investing in them is a smarter choice because women tend to be more pragmatic.

Realistic as to what they can achieve in the marketplace. If you wanna learn more about venue uprise, go to venue u prize.com. Links to all of this are on the I C O, innovators Can Laugh, website and newsletter in show notes. Thank you to Kiara for being on the show. And if you like this episode, subscribe here on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple and uh, please tell other others about it.

Alright, thanks.