Helping the world's most ambitious companies drive growth through Venture Building and Venture Investing as a Board Member In Residence at Mach49
On #InternationalWomensDay I'm full of gratitude for the career and personal life I've been able to build for myself, in part due to many opportunities that a woman like me didn't have even 50 years ago. I am especially grateful to the people who have supported my learning, my growth and my ambition. A shout out some of the great women I am working with today... Right now I'm working on an amazing program to build a new Venture Factory for Corporación AG with Gabriela ROCA, Jackeline Turcios of AG, as well as Laura Moon, Michelle Frye, Laura Green, and Valerie Moreno of Mach49, amongst many others. We are building new ventures to foster growth and change lives in the Central American region. It's a rocket ship and this crew is amazing! I'm working on the launch of Mach49's Consumer Brand Ventures practice with Janet Kang and Monifa Porter and Kelly Nizolek. What a brilliant crew and an amazing opportunity to create new ventures, building on the strengths of legacy brands, leveraging empathy for their customers and communities to find new paths to growth. We're doing it all under the leadership of the incredibly accomplished and talented Linda Yates, founder of Mach49, a powerhouse board member and investor who literally wrote the book on Corporate Venture Building (It's called The Unicorn Within, top rated Forbes business book). At this moment I take the opportunity to remind the men in my network of a few things you can do to help promote women's equality in the workplace, since we all rise when women have full opportunity: 1) Listen attentively and give women the floor. 2) Boost great ideas you hear from your female colleagues and give the women who came up with ideas credit *every time*, supporting them build on them and make them a reality. 3) Drop a note of appreciation to the bosses of the best women you work with, endorsing and praising their accomplishments. 3) Give flexibility to all your teams so that they can manage their personal lives effectively. Support all people, regardless of gender, taking on family responsibilities and sharing them, as business women cannot achieve our full potential if we carry an unequal weight of household responsibilities. 4) If you pay attention, you will notice that women often automatically get roped into administrative and organizational tasks, such as setting up the next meeting, publishing notes, chasing action items, organizing team social activities, even at the most progressive companies. That's not our job (unless we're an Executive Assistant or Project Manager) and it takes real time and energy. So please, men, please look proactively for opportunities to share the organizational burden in your daily work. Finally, they say behind every strong woman there's a strong life partner, and I am thankful to my fella of 32 years, Chris T., for all his support. And to his mom, who raised an even better feminist than mine did! #womenempoweringwomen #venturebuilding #corporateventuring
Mach49
4mo
THIS ☝🏽 x 100. Thank you for your leadership Valerie Hoecke!
Laura Moon
4mo
Valerie Hoecke What a pleasure it is to work with you every day! I'm honored to be part of the Mach49 team and to coach the incredible Corporación AG new venture team as their Venture Partner. Happy International Women's Day to you and all the other amazing women out there.
What a great surprise Val! It is an honor to have the opportunity to learn from som many amazing women! 🫶🏻💪🏻 thanks for everything!
Managing Partner
4moI love this - especially the zero-excuse action items! Honored to be working with you and I continue to be inspired by your leadership.