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Hello and welcome to a brand new season of Build Mode. This week I'm joined by Paige Hendricks Buckner, the CEO of Alra, a nonprofit working to increase the power and influence of women and non-binary investors in venture capital. Since 2018, the percentage of women and non-binary people in senior roles at US venture firms has more than doubled. But as Paige explains, having a seat at the table doesn't necessarily mean having a say in where the money goes. So, in this episode, we're looking at who's actually making decisions in venture capital, who gets credit for successful investments, and how that ultimately shapes which founders get funded. I'm Isabelle Johannes, and you're listening to Build Mode.
Hi, Paige. How's it going? Oh my god, Isabelle. So good. So thrilled to be with you. Yes, me too. You brought so much energy into the studio this morning. I'm loving it. We had way too much fun already. So, I'm glad we kept that though, just for us. Um, but now we got to get to fitness. Yes. Okay. So, I'd love to start by talking, you know, high level for someone who may not be so steeped in the venture ecosystem. How would you describe where the industry is right now when it comes to, you know, who is making investment decisions and who is receiving venture capital? Great question as so when I think about the context of the industry, I start with
what Allra is really focused on and then that helps us really ground in what we're seeing for decision makers. So, AllRa is a national nonprofit that's focused on helping women and non-binary venture capitalists be wildly successful by growing their power and influence. And we do that through community, data, and lore. So, what we've been studying since 2018 is the percentage of women in non-binary folks in partner plus roles at US-based VC firms. And when we first started, we were at 9%. And I'm so excited to report that as of last year, we officially doubled that goal. And so many people were here to help us do that. So we went from 9% to 18.8% in less than a decade. But we discovered
that there is a new measurement that we need to focus on moving forward. Okay. Interesting. I want to circle back for a second to lore. What exactly do we mean by lore? That's I feel like my brain went in many different directions. I can imagine especially because of your role. The work you're doing is helping spread lore. That's exactly right. And I think add new stories to Laura. So I'm a really big nerd in lots of ways, but especially when it comes to story. And one of the big insights that I had as a founder and then coaching founders who are raising venture capital and then meeting with top venture capital is to help our founders in a program that I used to work with understand what it really took
to raise venture capital. I realized how much of it was about the stories that we tell ourselves about what we've done, our knowledge, our experience, our expertise, how we communicate that effectively. and then the stories that we're all pattern matching against. So when we established our new three-year strategy, we realized that there was an opportunity for us at All to help impact that lore by not only holding up the data, which is why our annual report is so important, but also the stories of people that are successful because most people don't remember the data, but they remember the people. And so when they're making decisions about who they want to invest in, they're thinking about the
last founder who was wildly successful and they want to have more of those folks in their portfolio. And when founders think about who they want to invest in their company, they're thinking about the storied investors and how they add more of those people to their cap table. So part of our strategy is to make sure that we are part of adding stories to the lore when it comes to the women and non-binary folks that people should consider on both sides of the cap table. Great. Um, so you've hit the goal 18.8% of the goal. So what now? Do we tick a box? Do we move on to what's the next step in this journey we're on? Well, first I just want to say thanks to everybody who did the hard work. I mean,
All I held up and I wasn't here for that. So, credit to all the people who upstart All this goal as a light that people should really look to and said, "Listen, we're at 9% today. We want to at least double it to 18% in 10 years." So, I want to stop and celebrate that. But what I also want to share with you is that last year when we started to see this data come in, we asked ourselves what was really going on. And we also wanted to share the news with people. And what I heard was, "Yeah, and that doesn't mean you have power and influence." And that's the punchline that we've come to now. But we realized this after we had 10 strategy dinners and so many one-on-one conversations with people and we
collected survey data. And what we heard is that having a title doesn't mean that you get to lead the best deals or take the best board seats. It doesn't mean that you have check writing authority or that you get carry or that you get attribution. At the end of the day, you need all of these pieces to help you build a great track record. And you and I were talking about this before recording, but I think this is especially important right now as we think about women and non-binary folks who are going out to build their own funds. And so you need a track record to be able to get LPs to get excited about investing in you. And then also to get founders excited about having you again on their cap table. So for us, the next
phase of our work is really identifying what are the indicators of power and influence and how do we help our community members grow that power and influence to great performance. But so what does that look like inside of an organization? Right? So say I get the title of partner at a venture firm. I feel like you know goal achieved. But how do you actually you know navigate the internal complexities to be able to be leading these deals and to be making decisions? Well, it depends on the firm. So what we've been learning is that at firms where somebody has, for example, a principal title at a big firm, you could have check writing authority and you could have a lot of influence. And when
I talk to people inside those firms, sponsorship is really important. So having somebody who's willing to take you under their wing and not only show you the business because venture is an apprenticeship business, but it also means that they're helping to advocate for you when you're not in the room, they're helping connect you with great opportunities. Like for example, I've heard several uh members of our community share that they've been board observers or they've been able to shadow the person who's sponsoring them so they can get their chops up when it comes to being a great investor. And so when you get that title, the next step is understanding how to navigate the
politics of your firm, having somebody to guide you. That's why sponsorship and mentorship is so important, but then also building really strong relationships outside your firm because people need to know about you when they think, "Oh, I want to share this deal with this person because they're incredible for X, Y, and Z reason, or I want to co-invest with that person, or I want to invite them on my podcast, have a conversation about their expertise." And so it's a combination of navigating those internal politics, having a really great network, and then I think the biggest variable that I've been excited to see is curiosity. People are just insatiably curious about the business of venture, about founders, about their thesis,
about the thesis of the firm, about the industry that they're in because you need to be agile, especially in this moment when the industry is just going so fast. Um, you have to be the one who's responsive, who wants to learn as much as possible, who is also able to be discerning, especially as we see AI right now. Um, what are the human traits that you have that help you find the right investors, find the right founders and find the best deals? But there was something mentioned in your 2025 annual report about, you know, women not necessarily getting credit for deals that they parttook in even if, you know, to what extent they were participating in the deal. But what is what is happening behind the scenes
where credit may not be accurately allocated or appropriately allocated? Yeah. So I would say if we look broadly at venture, what we know is that it depends on the firm what attribution looks like. And again, if you have the sponsorship model and if you have many people who are going out to source deals and bring it in, I understand how attribution can be credited to one person in the firm and maybe not to the person who sourced the deal. I think that's the way that the business is and again depends on the firm. Um, I think what we're hearing over and over again, especially from women, is if you have a system where women and non-binary folks are not in decision-making roles, I
think it's even more important for them to get that attribution so they can build their track record. And so what we're hearing from people, and again, just want to remind people, we were only at 9% of decision makers 7 years ago. Now we're at 18%. If the people before you've been building their track record for some time, those people are the ones getting the credit for the deals, then it's hard for you to be able to get that credit for that deal and then to build your track record sometimes at the same time. And so I've talked to some folks who've said, you know, I've sourced a really great deal, but then u my sponsor has taken it. And I've also heard the flip side. And what's really
interesting, the stories that I hear from folks, and I'm intentionally being anonymous because people are kind enough um to give us this information privately, but I've heard from several women who've said to me, "Look, uh my sponsor is the one who not only helped me really get into that deal, but then also helped me get the credit for that deal and told other people that I got that credit, and that helped really create a flywheel in my career." So, it's it's important to note though that they didn't do that just because they thought that person was a nice person. They did that because they thought that investor was a really great talent. And by the way, this woman has gone on to be an exceptional talent. So I think
giving people the opportunity to lead and get attribution is a is not something everybody is willing to do regardless of gender, but when you do it, you really give people a shot in their career to be wildly successful. So I think it's a combination of um people who are coming up in the industry. I think also this really exciting time that we're in right now. And I think that every firm is different when it comes to attribution. Let's talk about why this is an exciting time right now. You were just mentioning before we started recording about how so many of the exits that are coming up, the IPOs that are coming are led by women, right? What are you seeing in the data that's backing that when you look
at so going back to founders because I know you spend a lot of time with founders and I'm so glad that you do. When I think about the data that says that only 1.1% of venture capital has gone to women founders, I believe at the top of the year according to Pitchbook, I'm incredibly disappointed by that data. And then if you look at where the majority of money that has gone to teams with women founders is, it's in AI. And so the two top companies that took the majority of that are anthropic and scale AI, which I'm incredibly excited for those folks. And if you look at also the top IPOs, historic IPOs this year, I can name a few of them that are going to be led by women. So it's it's both a
moment where we can acknowledge that there's still so much untapped opportunity. I mean, we're 51% of the population, but we get so few venture dollars. That seems like a massively missed opportunity to me over and over again. Also having been a founder myself. But then the second is what an exciting time that we do have uh women leading some of the most exciting innovative companies in history and they're they're wildly successful and again they add to that lore about what success can look like. But so I mean let's go back really quickly to this the stat of you know the number of women who are partners or above in a venture firm. Last year in 2024 was 18.6 I believe and this year it's 18.8. So does that doesn't sound like a huge increase, right? But
in the grand scheme of things, it's progress nonetheless. Are you seeing that there are women who are or non-binary folks of course as well who are deciding to start their own fund instead of trying to join the ranks of the venture, you know, the traditional venture uh capital company. Yeah, this was a really interesting insight. And so I'll go back. Our annual report talks about 18.8% last year because we're still measuring for this year. So we'll report out on this entire year next year. But what we are seeing are there's there's two buckets that we're really looking at right now. One is women and non-binary folks who've spun out to start their own firms who have left their organization um to start a fund one through three and there are
about 303 of those people and then there are 301 folks who are in principal plus roles at firms with a billion plus in aum. And so when we talked to those people and started surveying them about where they are in their career and especially those people who decided to leave, we kept hearing this thing about conviction. this theme of conviction came up over and over again and you know there are definitely women who have been pushed out of venture that is for sure happening. What I was surprised to learn is that one out of 20 people that we surveyed said that was the case for them that they were not promoted they felt pushed out. Um everybody else that we talked to said I've always wanted to
build my own firm or I've always wanted to have ownership and better economics. I was getting trained over here so I could go start my own firm. And that's exciting to me in this moment. And while it also may be kind of a tricky time, it's really hard to raise a venture fund right now. What I am excited about is we are building this bench of people who are growing their firms during such an important time in history. And I want to see the kind of bets they're making. and they're making really important bets in everything from AI generally speaking, but then also health care and IVF and transportation and construction and food systems and climate change is another big one that we see. So, I'm excited about those folks who are
striking out to start their own firms and the reason why is because I want to see what their investments look like a decade from now and what their performance looks like. And actually, this is the best part of my job. That while we know that where we are is not where we need to be, the story about why we need to be over there is really because we're growing the pie for everyone. So, when we look at the data time and time again, we know that it's not risky to bet on women and non-binary folks. We actually know that it's good for business. And I'm wondering how, you know, how does having a more diverse group of investors change not only who gets funded, but the types of problems
founders are encouraged to solve. I mean, what excites me again like I keep going back to excitement because I genuinely feel excited about the data. It is so very clear that number one, if you want to change who gets access to capital, you need to make sure that you have diverse decision makers on the VC side of the table. So, we were looking at the data that says a VC firm that has over 30% female partners in a firm actually is 4.7 times more likely to invest in a female founder. And they're not making those decisions because they're like, "Oh, you're a woman and I want to invest in you." They're doing that because they see great opportunities. And I think the reason why you see firms that then go on
to perform better when they have gender diversity is because you are adding perspectives in the room that can really call out risk, can call out opportunities to dig deeper, can expand the networks that you have access to for customers for example, and then also can spot new market opportunities. The example that I think about um several times actually a day and I the reason why is because it's so important is Maven Clinic and seeing what they've been able to build this incredible unicorn of a business that is serving women and their families, non-binary folks and men and getting access to the care that they need is not just a great market opportunity, but it's also good for society. And I've read a few
stories about what it was like for her to initially go out and raise. And it's not that people are hostile to people like Kate or other female founders. It's sometimes that they just don't see the opportunity. And so having somebody in the room who can say, "Oh, I either have that lived experience or I know people who have that lived experience then gets you to the next stage of diligence and you can have a conversation about um not just risk, which often female founders face. Conversations about risk like well are you sure it's this big? Are you sure that there's a market opportunity there?" um versus like, wow, this sounds like a great market opportunity. Where else could we go? So, I want to see um
more of that. And the reason why is because it's good for business and it's good for society. I want to talk even higher level, right? So, of course, having more women and non-binary folks starting their own funds is a great thing to see. It's interesting that it's fairly similar to the amount of um folks that are in the larger venture capital firms, but Bank of America is estimating that, you know, women will inherit roughly 70% of this $124 trillion wealth transfer. And so I'm curious, how what do you think needs to happen to turn that growing financial influence into um investment in these emerging fund managers? I'm so hyped about this conversation because so when I first started my journey as a founder, I
didn't know what an LP was, what a limited partner was, and what an opportunity it is. And so I mostly heard about angel investors and starting your own company. But one of the reasons why I thought it was such an opportunity for always to focus specifically on venture capitalists is because it allowed us to go up the capital stack and ask where are LPs putting their money? where is an opportunity um to open up um new channels of LPS for all razors. And in fact, this is one component to our programming that we've really focused on this year is adding opportunities for people to connect with LPS to be relational again before they need to be transactional because this business is all about trust. So, when I
I see what's happening with women inheriting wealth this in this period of time, I'm excited to see them become LPs and I'm seeing more of it. In fact, I just had a conversation with a woman this week who said, you know, I didn't even know about this, but wow, do I love venture, and I love it because I get to be part of the journey of this professional woman investor. I'm less likely. She's like, listen, look, I'm not as good as many of the people that I invest in at angel investing as they are at VC. It's still a risky business. I want to be very clear about that. Rent venture capital is so early that you are taking a risk. And also, if you're able to bet on really experienced managers
who've built a great track record and have expertise, what an opportunity to not just put your money into the hands of another incredible woman or non-binary person, but also an opportunity to again down the capital stack affect the kind of innovation that makes it to market. Uh over the last couple of weeks, I've had the opportunity to talk a little bit more about this. And one thing that I have reflected on is how, you know, grants help us fund early innovation, but venture capital helps it get to market and helps ensure that you're solving those problems at scale so that it can reach you and I as consumers um or as business owners. So, I'm I'm thrilled. I want to see more women and non-binary folks who have uh wealth and specifically women in this wealth
transfer right now leverage that to not just be philanthropic which often women are coached into but also to enter venture as LPs but so I mean this massive women who are going to be inheriting this amount of wealth there are many options as you're indicating that of what they can do to invest their money right it can be philanthropic or they can go towards traditional you know banking or venture capital as an option public Yay. How do you go about sort of educating a group a whole generation of women who may not have had access to that level of wealth before, right? That they How do you put venture capital on their radar?
Yeah, there are so many great organizations that are doing this right now. Wealth managers are keen on this. Um I recently learned a stat something like only 18% of investment adviserss are women. And I've heard and this again goes back to representation and opportunity. And I've heard um from so many women who are in these seats that they were often coached away from trying to invest in women because it their investment advisors didn't see it as an opportunity. And so I think the banks um wealth managers um and there are also nonprofits and for-profits that are doing this kind of education as well. And so an example, how women invest is doing an incredible job of helping women get in early as LPs and get connected to really great
fund managers. And we need more of that. So I think two things. Number one is for those organizations that see women coming into this wealth right now, show them the opportunity and look at the data. There are many that are already doing this, which is great. So kudos to you if you're already on it. And then if you're not, do some research. There's some great opportunities. And then also look for the nonprofits and the organizations, the for-profits who are helping um women understand the opportunity to become an LP. And again, you know, I think what anybody would say, I am not a wealth adviser at all, but understanding the opportunity in a diverse portfolio to put your money to work to do good things
in the world. And I think what's really cool to me about venture capital is that you can both invest in great fund managers and companies and also do good and make money. But so of course, you know, venture is a trickle down ecosystem. we have more women getting into LP roles or we have more women who are in wealth managers and venture capital and kind of trickle down to people building at from the ground up the founder level right how do we encourage more women and non-binary folks to become founders and to become entrepreneurs so that we can kind of keep this flywheel going in the ecosystem well I think what you're doing is actually a huge part of this again and this goes back to the lore piece showing examples of how to do it um
people who have really failed what real failure looks like Because as a founder, my husband's a founder, going through life as a founder is really, really hard. You have the pressures of the business where if you are doing it well on a regular basis, you are stubbing your toe. You're figuring it out. You're trying to hire an early team, the next version of your team probably looks really different because the next version of the business looks different. You're dealing with the dynamics of innovation and people at the same time. And then also fundraising. If you're having to do that, it's incredibly hard.
Hearing stories about real stories about how people have done it and what it really takes and how long it takes, I think, is incredibly important. So, I think stories are important. I think number two though is ensuring that people actually know about getting access to capital because so often and the data is clear about this as well, often women have to build with less. So, they become more efficient. They're more capital efficient than their peers, which is great, but also that can lead to burnout. That can be really I mean it's really hard for you to scale over time. And venture capital is a very specific tool, not for every
business to be very clear, for only a small number of businesses that help you go from 0 to 100 very quickly. And so as you think about building out your business, I and this is me going back to being a founder, really ask yourself what kind of company you want to build and how does that align with your personal goals and your stage of life. And then ask yourself what do I really need to build that company so that it aligns with the vision that I have and I you have to ask questions about the capital stack and what's your personal capital like how long can you survive as a founder versus um what does your business need because what you don't want to do is not be capitalized enough
as an individual and then you have to siphon money off your business to be successful at a critical time and it needs that capital to scale. But I mean on that note, right? So if we're seeing more and more women and non-binary folks starting their own venture funds, but also enter into entrepreneurship as a founder in the tech space, right? What does that say about, you know, folks wanting to have control over what they're building and not being part of the rat race that we're kind of taught to be on, but wanting to really build their own and build it themselves? I guess two things, and you'll have to tell me if we're on track here, off track based on your question. I think
number one is this is why community is so important. You need people who can help you understand what does it look like to build successfully. And by the way, even incredibly successful investors have to have good firm building skill sets and those are totally different, right? You may be really good at uh spotting great talent. You may be really good at spotting great product, but are you good at firm building? And that is a totally different skill set. So having a community who can help you understand firm building is really important. Well, let's double click on that. What does good firm building look like? Yeah. I mean, I think being a good firm builder means that you're able to raise capital successfully. You're able to
manage the relationships with your LPs. You're able to spot really great deal flow. You're able to manage relationships with those founders. You're able to hire the right team at the right time. And this is why I think capital is so important because you need to have enough capital to go out and deploy, pay yourself a little bit, and then over time hopefully pay a team to help you. I think this is so interesting when it comes to AI. I've talked to so many folks who are building firms right now who are leveraging AI to scale their firms before they have enough capital to do that. And I remember being a founder and leveraging
Zapier back in the day, which sounds very rudimentary compared to where we are right now. Um, shout out to Zapier. I feel like I was a power user. Still am by the way, for very different reasons now personally helping me scale my mom capacity. But when I think about what automation looks like now, I think you have an opportunity to scale before you have the capital. Then I think that's a question of like well how many you know tokens can you afford and how much AI support can you afford but anyway so I think uh when it comes to firm building really understanding managing the people and the capital also brand building this is a huge part of being successful and actually one insight that we had at
all is that we have been leveraging our PR resources to help last year help uh fund managers announce their firms announce their new fund announce maybe a company being successful and that um that announcement has often led to for those folks deal flow and LPS and so that's a really exciting indicator that one we can be helpful in that way but then also two that people are looking to folks who have credibility in the ecosystem and I think press and again going back to why I think this format is so important opportunities to get to know people in a public way through a podcast interview or being on stage or whatever it might be helps build credibility with your LPs and with founders.
Yeah. And we're also seeing more and more turn to social media, right? Creating a following of day by day, what does it look like to be a woman leading my own fund and what am I what kind of meetings am I taking on a daily basis? How am I engaging with my community? I've seen some really great creators in the space. Yes, me too. And I think it's awesome because I often see those people also decode or try to explain how venture capital works in a really compelling and fun way. And a teacher. I'm I started my life as a teacher. I will forever be a teacher. I think that's also another way to help create a bridge into the ecosystem because you're demystifying it for people. So they feel like, oh, you
know, finance is so inaccessible, but then I hear this person Kate explain it so well to me and now I feel like, you know, maybe I should check it out. Well, so on that note, so say you're, you know, a young woman who found out about venture capital through TikTok and there was some fun content and now you're curious about this and they want to become a venture capitalist one day. what is the best path still to try and join an established VC player and learn the ropes that way or um are there other avenues into venture capital?
Yeah, it's a great question. We've been looking at the paths especially for women who've gone out to start their own firms and um there are people of course who join firms and that's a great way to do it. So join is really junior talent or come in as like a fellow or an intern. Um I see that a lot with MBA programs. So those MBAs will get a summer internship, get a taste of venture capital, and then we'll leverage that to either get hired at a firm or another firm, which is great. But we're also seeing operators enter the space. People who join companies have some success and then when they jump into venture capital, they have that other perspective, but they also have that network and they have those builder
chops. And it's a great way for you to add value to a team. Um, and then I think for anybody who is curious about venture capital, interview a bunch of people about it. So, this is something you can do well before you're applying for a job, but look at people in your network. Uh, see if you can get a coffee conversation with them and understand what the job is. What I love about venture is, and that also makes it challenging at times, is that is an apprenticeship business. So, people really are learning on the job and so learn as much as you can before you get into the job by talking to a bunch of different people about what the job has looked like. So, I work with hundreds of early stage founders every year. And
something I often hear is that especially our women founders um feel overlooked by the industry, right? Maybe they're building something they're very deeply passionate about, but it's not maybe resonating with some of the bigger investors. What is your advice to founders um that are feeling like venture capital isn't for them these days? So, as a founder who has previously fundraised, I know first of all, it's an incredibly painful process. And I think about three things that helped me really get better at the process and then helped coach founders on this because I had the privilege of coaching founders on how to raise venture capital. Number one is have a really great process. So
that means sourcing the right investors who are aligned with you who uh can bring the right capital, the right network, the right expertise to the table and you feel comfortable calling them on a tough day. The second thing is you need to be realistic about how hard this journey is. That means you're going to have a hundred conversations. One of them is going to be a yes. So, if you get two yeses, hallelujah. That's going to be amazing. But it is it's just hard to raise money full stop with anything you're doing. And it's incredibly hard to raise money when is your vision for a world that, by the way, does not exist today. So, you're trying to convince people to come on this journey with you.
And the last piece of it is really rooted in people. You want people around the table, whether it's your co-founders or early employees or uh investors or sponsors or founders or whomever who are down for the cause. And so even if in the early days you raise less money than someone else you but you have the right people around the table to help you go faster like double down on that and keep going. I would say overall we need you innovating. We need women and non-binary folks innovating right now because they see problems and they see opportunities in markets that other people may not see. And so even if it's hard, keep going, find your community, stay close, and then a really good process. I couldn't agree more. Um,
let's talk about All Rays Summit 2026 coming up now in November. You guys have an all-star speaker lineup. What can we expect from this year's summit? Yeah, so for context for everybody, summit is a small curated gathering of top VCs, mostly senior VCs in the industry who get together to talk about timely topics. We have mainstage experiences. Last year, um, we had the great fortune of having Dr. Joe Biden, we had Gwennneth Paltro. Um, and they came and they talked about their experience in their specific domains. What's really great is the fact that it's off the record, so people really feel comfortable sharing their real insights. And what I love about being in that space is it's not only a place for people to keep it very real with each
other, but it's also an opportunity for people to share deal flow, for people to prepare to co-invest with each other, for people who are LPs to invest in GPS in the room. So I think VC summit is exciting because it is a it is the embodiment of that relational transactional experience that we always want to have in the all race community. So this year I think what you can look forward to hearing about afterwards because we do not live stream the event but we will report out afterwards is um number one hearing about some really exciting trends in AI right now. We have some speakers that we can't announce yet who will be talking about that. Um, number two, talking about uh what does it take to be a really sharp investor,
whether it is sitting on a board and being the best board member possible or trying to win the best deal. And I think the last piece is running really great firms and what does it mean to run a great firm in this era. Um, especially as we think about people who are building AI enabled firms or agentic firms and as we think about people who are really aspiring to be the best of the best when it comes to being in venture. Um, and most of all, people are going to have fun with each other and connect. And I hope LinkedIn is just filled with love afterwards and insights. I'm sure it will be. Um, thank you so much for joining us, Paige. It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me. An honor to be part of this experience. You are a
fantastic interviewer. Thank you. Thanks as well. Build mode is a TechCrunch podcast. Each episode is produced and edited by Maggie Nye and hosted by me, Isabelle Johannes. Our art and design is also by Maggie Nye. A big thanks to Morgan Little who leads our audience development, the Foundry and Cheddar video teams, and most of all to you, the builders, and everyone else in the wider startup community. We'll see you back here next time.
