23. From Cold Emails to Hot Commodities

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Welcome to the meadow woman podcast. We address the

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issues, opportunities and challenges facing women in the

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development of the metaverse the biggest revolution since the

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internet itself. Every week we bring you conversations with top

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female talent and business executives operating in the

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gaming and crypto industries. Here's your host Lindsey the

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boss POS, the meta woman podcast starts now.

Lindsay Poss: 00:00:25

Hello, and welcome to the meta woman podcast part

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of the holodeck media Podcast Network. I'm your host Lindsay

Lindsay Poss: 00:00:30

The Boss Boss and from struggle to success. We're covering it

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all. For returning listeners. Thank you so much for supporting

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the show. Thank you for sending me feedback. Messages truly

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warmed my heart. And for all the new listeners. Welcome. I hope

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you enjoy and I hope you'll come back. This week's guest is going

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to be so much fun because we're going to do a deep dive into the

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metaverse, which is something that I've touched on but I

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haven't haven't really like fully gotten into yet. So I'm

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excited for that. For all of you that have been following the

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evolution of the show. You know that I've started with gaming

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and wound up in this crazy crossover between gaming merging

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tech Metaverse, all that stuff. And I'm just excited to be able

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to do more of the metaverse side this week. It's gonna be fun. So

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without further ado, I want to introduce Ashley Crowder, CEO

Lindsay Poss: 00:01:14

and co founder of Ventana, Ashley, I would love for you to

Lindsay Poss: 00:01:18

introduce yourself and Fontana because I think you'll just

Lindsay Poss: 00:01:21

explain it better and do it more justice than I can.

Unknown: 00:01:24

Awesome. Yeah, it's great to be here. I'm Ashley

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Crowder, I'm the co founder and CEO of Ventana. We are a 3d

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commerce platform that makes it incredibly easy to manage and

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distribute 3d and augmented reality at scale. We work with a

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lot of fashion brands. So VF Corp Hugo Boss, diesel, helping

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streamline 3d from design and manufacturing, helping people

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with b2b sales to replace physical samples and create

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amazing e commerce experiences and social media. And then of

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course, you can also use that same 3d model in the metaverse

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or different virtual worlds. So yeah,

Lindsay Poss: 00:02:06

because that was so cool. And I know that we're

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going to be talking about it more. But let's kind of start at

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the beginning because Ventana has been working in the 3d slash

Lindsay Poss: 00:02:14

AR slash VR space for almost 10 years, which is super exciting.

Lindsay Poss: 00:02:18

I know you're coming up on your anniversary here. And obviously,

Lindsay Poss: 00:02:21

the emerging tech landscape looks a lot different than what

Lindsay Poss: 00:02:24

it did 10 years ago. And so I would love to hear about the

Lindsay Poss: 00:02:27

evolution of the company, how you moved from kind of more

Lindsay Poss: 00:02:30

entertainment based services to more platform based services,

Lindsay Poss: 00:02:34

how you evolved into the software as a service company

Lindsay Poss: 00:02:37

that you are today.

Unknown: 00:02:39

Yeah, so my background is engineering, I did

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engineering at USC, got my Bachelor's and Master's there,

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you know, always loved building things. And the USC engineering

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school has a partnership with a military called ICT, where they

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funded research and 3d AR VR graphics and tech. And so that's

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where I first got exposed to all this stuff, like, almost 15

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years ago now, which is crazy. And I was like, this is gonna

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change the world. This is awesome. But you know, there

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were no career paths for that back then. So I ended up, you

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know, founding Montana. And it was really around how do we

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create these, you know, immersive experiences to engage

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consumers. And at the time, web didn't support 3d phones could

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do ar so we did location based mixed reality experiences for

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brands like Adidas, Nike, Lexus, and it was usually in retail

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stores or at sports stadiums or events like South by Southwest.

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And we built a profitable company doing that. But no one

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ever had the right 3d files to create this type of content. So

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we were creating interactive 3d content in game engines like

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Unity and Unreal, to play on our hardware at these different

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events. And we would get, just like these manufacturing design

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files from these brands that were way too big and not in the

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right format and required all this manual work. So we started

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writing software to help automate this. So that is really

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what led us to where we are today. So in 2019, we said you

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know what, we wrote all this software to make it easy to

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manage and optimize 3d models. Now, every web browser can

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support 3d and phone everyone has a phone that can do some

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pretty decent augmented reality. So we decided to raise around a

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funding and launch our software as a standalone service. We

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launched it February 2020, which is very good timing to then get

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out of events. So that was like crazy. And so you know, the plan

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had been to like have our events business kind of continue, but

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open up this new division and COVID obviously, we're like, you

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know what, I'm glad that we wrote All this software and have

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this product and we are 100% focus on our software now. And

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yeah, and it really grew from there because obviously with

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COVID, no one could get physical samples from from China, where,

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you know, 99%, German manufactured, no one was going

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into retail stores, people really started adopting 3d so

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much faster, because there's really no option. So even people

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who were afraid of new tech, we're kind of forced into it.

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And then the benefits have just been so huge from, you know, 10s

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of 1000s of dollars of cost savings to reducing carbon

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footprint by not making samples, increasing speed to market, you

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know, increased conversion rate because of better consumer

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experience online. So COVID force people to try it, and then

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the results spoke for themselves for them to keep going. So

Lindsay Poss: 00:06:01

I want to pick apart this sample portion, just

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because the that interests me a lot. I mean, I'm by no means a

Lindsay Poss: 00:06:08

fashion person, we recently had the Met Gala. And I love that,

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but I'm not you know, I am not my sister in law actually has a

Lindsay Poss: 00:06:15

degree in fashion design and merchandising. So I would love

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to know more about what the sample process previously was,

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and how you've used Ventana to, like you said, reduce the carbon

Lindsay Poss: 00:06:28

footprint of that process. That's fascinating. So can you

Lindsay Poss: 00:06:31

describe a little bit more from start to finish? Yeah, so

Unknown: 00:06:35

we typically work with brands who design and

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manufacture their products. So whether that is you know, Hugo

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Boss or diesel, so like they design they manufacture, they

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might sell direct to consumer, but they also sell within retail

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stores. And so the typical process is you design, you make

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a sample, you ship that sample out to your various teams to

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review, you make changes, you go make another sample, you come

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back, you know, to finalize that maybe and then maybe the design

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is final. And then you order more samples, because they need

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to go to Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's showrooms for

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people to view and purchase. So it was this very time consuming.

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physical product process, right. Whereas once COVID hit, you

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know, all the factories in Asia were shut down. And logistics

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are still a problem right now. I mean, I moved into this new

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house, I have no furniture because I ordered furniture in

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November, and it's still not here in May. So

Lindsay Poss: 00:07:40

just as an interlude, there's a good tweet

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that said, due to supply chain issues, I'm fully out of

Lindsay Poss: 00:07:44

serotonin

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in this empty my room, but that's why. So, you know,

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it's still a problem. And so people, you know, we're like,

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why are we doing this physically, we'd have a true

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interactive 3d model, you want to make changes, you make

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changes instantly, and then you upload and share that link. And

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you can collaborate in real time on the 3d. So we had clients who

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had a six month sales cycle with where they were selling these

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moved down to three weeks, with 3d. And then on average, you

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know, making one shirt is about five kilograms of carbon of what

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it takes to make that one shirt. We had a client, they moved

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their whole collection to 3d. So they had almost 900 pieces that

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they used to make samples of that now is purely 3d, and

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they're using Ventana just sell to Nordstroms Bloomingdale's

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using 3d instead of physical. So 900 times five kilograms is

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like, over 4.4 tons of carbon saved. So that's equivalent of

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driving like 130,000 miles in a gasoline car, which is amazing.

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And then on top of that, like samples cost money samples, on

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average can be $100 per creation. So you know, 100 times

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900, you're saving $90,000 per season on not making those

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samples. So it's better for the environment. It's saving you

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money. It's increasing your speed to market. There's no

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reason you should not be using 3d.

Lindsay Poss: 00:09:26

So cool. I wonder so that's, that is like you

Lindsay Poss: 00:09:29

said, you're a b2b SaaS company to I know there has been a b2c

Lindsay Poss: 00:09:34

Particularly I remember reading about how Snapchat was allowing

Lindsay Poss: 00:09:37

you to try on clothes in basically, I think it was more

Lindsay Poss: 00:09:42

so augmented reality using your own camera to sort of put

Lindsay Poss: 00:09:45

clothes on your body. Do you see yourself moving into a b2c space

Lindsay Poss: 00:09:49

as I mean, you just you've just reached two years, so I'm not a

Lindsay Poss: 00:09:54

that would be the pinnacle. But yeah, what does that look like

Lindsay Poss: 00:09:57

for you? Yeah, so

Unknown: 00:09:59

our client ants are always going to be businesses,

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but they are creating these experiences for consumers as

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well. So that same 3d model they use for that, to sell to

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Nordstroms. And that b2b sale, they can also put on their

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website with with our software, so they can, they can have it on

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their e commerce sites, you can see it interacts in 3d, gonna

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hold up your phone and place it in your environment with

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augmented reality, we are working with the social media

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platforms. So whether it's Snapchat or meta to do to put a

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3d model into those platforms, it has to meet their

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specifications. And so this is again coming into what ventanas

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real secret sauces and the core value we provide is we can take

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these big manufacturing files and instantly convert them to

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meet these various specs. So you, you know, you can take that

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manufacturing file, upload to Ventana, and then you can

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instantly publish to Facebook or Instagram or to Snapchat. So

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we're just saving people a bunch of time there. Whereas before,

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they'd have to do manual work. Snapchats definitely the

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furthest along including Tryon, it's still not perfect, but

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they're definitely like, far out ahead. They've been acquiring a

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lot of companies in this space. Super excited about everything

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they're building. It's just not quite there yet. So, but it's

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coming.

Lindsay Poss: 00:11:27

It's so cool, though. And I want to talk more

Lindsay Poss: 00:11:29

about the partnership that you announced with meta. K Facebook,

Lindsay Poss: 00:11:34

which I also always make this joke, but I promise this podcast

Lindsay Poss: 00:11:37

was announced before they changed their name. It's about a

Lindsay Poss: 00:11:40

whole thing. But can you tell me about that partnership? And I

Lindsay Poss: 00:11:45

know you talked a little bit about snap but just how you see

Lindsay Poss: 00:11:48

Ventana working with social media companies. And that's a

Lindsay Poss: 00:11:52

much different client than say diesel Jones or Hugo Boss.

Lindsay Poss: 00:11:56

Right. So So what is it?

Unknown: 00:11:58

Usual diesel is the is our client who's using us for

Unknown: 00:12:02

b2b sales, their e commerce site and publishing on meta? Does

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that make sense? So like, what you're doing? Yeah, so we're

Unknown: 00:12:11

enabling our brand. So the partnership, we set up with a

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meta kind of same thing like they were they wanted to launch

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3d and air ads. In order to do that they needed 3d models that

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met certain standards. So just kind of take a step back, like a

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typical manufacturing design file is 200 megabytes in size or

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bigger. If you want to use 3d on Facebook, it needs to be under

Unknown: 00:12:35

six megabytes in size. So that's like 5% of the original size. So

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they were struggling with the fact that they were asking

Unknown: 00:12:44

brands to manually fix all these files, which they're like, you

Unknown: 00:12:47

know, Hugo Boss launches 40,000 products a year, it's like

Lindsay Poss: 00:12:51

writing a file for each one.

Unknown: 00:12:55

So with our integration, you can upload

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these designs to Ventana, we instantly get them to meet

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Facebook and Instagram specs. And then you can publish it's a

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click of a button publish a 3d and AR ad unit. And so it's

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fully automated. So your social media manager can log in to

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Facebook or Instagram and create an ad the same way they create a

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2d ad today, because we're packaging up that 3d model and

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3d AR ad unit for you. So you don't have to know anything

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about 3d, which is great. Right? That's

Lindsay Poss: 00:13:29

what I was going to say is I know that one of the

Lindsay Poss: 00:13:31

key points of the product is that no coding is required,

Lindsay Poss: 00:13:33

which is a little crazy to think about.

Unknown: 00:13:36

Yeah, exactly. Like our whole mission is to democratize

Unknown: 00:13:40

3d and make it easy. That's how we're going to see more

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adoption. Because we know 3d has huge benefits. It's a better

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experience, you can increase conversion rates, save money,

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all the things we've been talking about the barrier has

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really been it's difficult and time consuming and I don't have

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the right staff you know, that's what we're trying to fix.

Lindsay Poss: 00:14:05

So cool. What kind of files get uploaded to turn

Lindsay Poss: 00:14:08

into 3d ads? I'm trying to get technical brains trying to catch

Lindsay Poss: 00:14:12

up with what you're saying. Yeah, so

Unknown: 00:14:15

like just like the car industry designs and AutoCAD

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programs in 3d fashion has their 3d design programs so for

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apparel, it's it's browse wearing clothes are typically

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the apparel 3d design programs for footwear, they're generally

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designing in KeyShot or Moto and so you know, there's all these

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different 3d design programs which are great for design and

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manufacturing. But again, the files too big and not in the

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right format. So Fontana has plugins to a lot of these

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software's so designers can work the way they work today and then

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just upload directly and we do the rest for you so you

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instantly get this you know web viewer you can embed on your

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website. You To publish to meta, or wherever else that you want.

Unknown: 00:15:05

Okay, that makes

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:06

a lot more sense. And yes, I have worked with

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:09

AutoCAD. And yeah, those files are a nightmare, basically. Can

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:14

you do with the metaverse coming in companies like yours, that

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:19

are leading the charge in terms of making these experience

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:22

mainstream? Can you just tell me what excites you about kind of

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:27

staying at the forefront of future tech? And what made you

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:30

passionate, I mean, from 15 years ago, as a student at USC,

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:34

all the way up until now, and adapting and pivoting and 2020,

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:37

kind of in a major way, like what drives you to keep making

Lindsay Poss: 00:15:41

these experiences available to people?

Unknown: 00:15:45

Yeah, I mean, I just love the medium. I think, in

Unknown: 00:15:49

general, I, you know, I love building things. I love math and

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sciences. Why did engineering but like I also like to be

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creative. And with the metaverse, it's this combination

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of engineering and art and creativity, that is so much fun

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for me. And I just think it has so much potential. You know, the

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metaverse, to me, it's just a spatial internet, or just going

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from the flat to the websites to like, it can now be interactive

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and 3d and spatial, whether that's still on my laptop

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browser and walking around a virtual space or fully putting

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on a headset. And you know, you know, immersing myself in VR.

Unknown: 00:16:31

It's just so much fun. And you know, I'm part of a group we

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meet in VR on Wednesday nights. And it's really fun. And like,

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we were doing that pre pandemic, and then the, the pandemic, it

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was amazing, because I actually felt like I was seeing friends,

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you know, I just like love it and love everything about it.

Unknown: 00:16:50

And I want to help make it faster to adopt for everyone.

Unknown: 00:16:56

And step one to create any of these types of experiences is

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you need digital twins or 3d models of your products or items

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that can work within these different platforms. And so

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that's really what we're trying to solve for people. And then

Unknown: 00:17:13

I'm excited to see all the amazing experiences that they

Unknown: 00:17:15

create with them.

Lindsay Poss: 00:17:17

What is your VR platform of choice that you meet

Lindsay Poss: 00:17:20

people on? So I just use

Unknown: 00:17:23

the Oculus, and that got it right over here.

Unknown: 00:17:26

streaming of bucks is cheaper than an iPhone? You know, I

Unknown: 00:17:29

think that's pretty amazing. True.

Lindsay Poss: 00:17:31

I never thought about it that way. But yes.

Unknown: 00:17:35

And then I personally love VR chat, because it's like

Unknown: 00:17:38

weird and wild and everyone, like, you never know what world

Unknown: 00:17:42

you're gonna go into. So that's my favorite. But, you know, with

Unknown: 00:17:45

this group, it's a lot of industry people. And my friend,

Unknown: 00:17:49

Christina Heller, the founder of Medisave. She started it years

Unknown: 00:17:53

ago. And it was really like just to like, learn and explore. So

Unknown: 00:17:57

like we would, when rec room first came out, we met in rec

Unknown: 00:18:00

room, and like half the things didn't work. Like I could only

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walk backwards. For some reason there was a bug and really fun.

Unknown: 00:18:08

We used it as this like fun social virtual meetup, but like

Unknown: 00:18:13

to learn new technology and test out new platforms. So

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:18

that's really cool. And how has it? I don't

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:22

know exactly how to ask this question, because obviously, we

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:25

know that we're way ahead of where we are 10 years from now,

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:28

but I guess are Are we where you expect to be? Or do you think

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:35

that like, what what do you think about the pace of growth,

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:39

I guess is what I'm trying to get at? Are we growing? You

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:43

know, if you think about 10 years ago, and where you

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:45

started, or 15 years ago? Are we growing at the rate you

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:48

expected? Or do you think like, we're kind of at the beginning

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:51

of a really fast pickup now or? Like what what does that pace

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:56

look like? For you? Who's someone who's been exploring in

Lindsay Poss: 00:18:58

the metaverse for long?

Unknown: 00:19:02

Yeah, I'd say you know, I obviously hoped it would the

Unknown: 00:19:06

adoption would have been faster, but I will say that pandemic

Unknown: 00:19:09

really sped things up. And on top of that, just the advent of

Unknown: 00:19:13

NF T's

Lindsay Poss: 00:19:15

so, you know, NF

Unknown: 00:19:17

T's have proven people are willing to pay real money

Unknown: 00:19:21

for digital goods, which you know, we talk with a lot of our,

Unknown: 00:19:25

our clients of, hey, yes, you should use 3d and all these

Unknown: 00:19:29

stages of your current process, but you could also be selling

Unknown: 00:19:32

digital assets, which is a whole new revenue stream, because I

Unknown: 00:19:35

want my avatar to look cool in fortnight or Roblox right. So I

Unknown: 00:19:41

think I think the pandemic has has sped up a lot of that. But

Unknown: 00:19:46

we're NF T's have also helped make it exciting. It's really

Unknown: 00:19:51

democratizes the ownership so right now if I'm in Roblox and I

Unknown: 00:19:58

you know, bye Nike hat. Well, I can only wear that 3d Nike hat

Unknown: 00:20:04

and robots. I can't take it out of that game with NF T's. I own

Unknown: 00:20:09

this 3d asset. And I can take that 3d file anywhere in the

Unknown: 00:20:14

metaverse. I want. And that's what's so exciting about the web

Unknown: 00:20:18

three platforms like decentraland and somnium space

Unknown: 00:20:22

that are open, because any 3d objects I buy there I own and I

Unknown: 00:20:27

can take it with me into these other virtual spaces. So I

Unknown: 00:20:31

think, you know, it's a matter of time until, you know, these

Unknown: 00:20:35

these walled gardens like fortnight and Robox open up to

Unknown: 00:20:39

allow that.

Lindsay Poss: 00:20:42

That just reminds me of when you go to friends

Lindsay Poss: 00:20:45

houses when you were little to play with their toys, because

Lindsay Poss: 00:20:47

you didn't have them. As if your parents actually bought you the

Lindsay Poss: 00:20:52

toy and brought it home. It was yours forever. Yeah. Which is a

Lindsay Poss: 00:20:59

silly, that's a very, like 90s Kid analogy right there. But

Lindsay Poss: 00:21:02

that's exactly what we think of.

Unknown: 00:21:05

And then the kids today like my friend's kid, she asked

Unknown: 00:21:08

for her allowance and robots not in American dollars, because she

Unknown: 00:21:12

just wants to buy things for her avatar in Roblox because that's

Unknown: 00:21:16

where she meets her friends. Right. So like, this whole

Unknown: 00:21:18

generation is growing up, comfortable and used to buying

Unknown: 00:21:22

digital goods. And, you know, with digital currency,

Lindsay Poss: 00:21:26

which is fascinating. That is a really

Lindsay Poss: 00:21:31

big change. Yeah, I mean, definitely a big change. I know

Lindsay Poss: 00:21:38

I was thinking about it, like I have Beyblades. Actually, I

Lindsay Poss: 00:21:40

didn't have Beyblades I wanted Beyblades much different than

Lindsay Poss: 00:21:46

robots. I want to pivot and shift gears a little bit because

Lindsay Poss: 00:21:51

I do want to talk about what it's been like for you to build

Lindsay Poss: 00:21:54

this company over 10 years as a female founder. We both I'm sure

Lindsay Poss: 00:21:58

know that securing VC funding for women can be difficult to

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:01

just kind of a different process. So just finished a

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:04

great book called bro topia by Emily Chang all about Silicon

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:07

Valley and the season stuff super fascinating. According to

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:12

an article invoke Business Research has found that

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:15

historically, less than 5% of VC funding has gone to women owned

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:19

or women led businesses. In some cases, there is a backward

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:22

shift. According to software and data provider PitchBook. This

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:26

figure has shrank to 2.2% in 2021 Despite the creation of

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:30

women's centric funds, such as female Founders Fund, which

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:34

narrows women's shot at our small shot of funding, or just

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:38

narrows it. So I would love to talk about your experience

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:40

building your business because Ben Tonto has the backing of

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:44

some heavy hitters from the partnership with metta and I

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:47

know Mark Cuban and the formula former Oculus CEO Brendan Uribe

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:51

hope I'm pronouncing arrived they arrived. Okay. ism is among

Lindsay Poss: 00:22:58

you know, among many others have have backed Ventana, and we

Lindsay Poss: 00:23:01

don't necessarily have to look fully through the lens of

Lindsay Poss: 00:23:04

gender. But can you just walk me through what the growth and

Lindsay Poss: 00:23:07

funding experience has been like for you? Yeah, look, I

Unknown: 00:23:11

think no matter who you are funding, it's hard to start

Unknown: 00:23:15

to grow a business but you need funding. And as the CEO, my job

Unknown: 00:23:19

is to make sure we're bringing in the right partners and

Unknown: 00:23:21

investors to grow the business. And it was something I had to

Unknown: 00:23:25

learn. You know, I studied engineering and I wanted to

Unknown: 00:23:27

start this company. I knew no one did not know anything about

Unknown: 00:23:31

VC funding when I started, had to figure a lot of it out. And

Unknown: 00:23:36

really started by just going to networking events and trying to

Unknown: 00:23:40

learn and asking people to coffee. And, you know, Shimon

Unknown: 00:23:45

Walsh was one of our very first backers. She's like a female

Unknown: 00:23:49

partner at at a fund who's amazing, and has invested in

Unknown: 00:23:54

some incredible companies like sweet green all the way to other

Unknown: 00:23:57

tech companies. And having her as a mentor was so helpful to

Unknown: 00:24:02

like learn the process. I would also say a really great book is

Unknown: 00:24:06

venture deals. So it was written by a guy who, what he was an

Unknown: 00:24:11

entrepreneur who grew, raised money, sold his company, and now

Unknown: 00:24:15

he's a VC. So he writes it from kind of the entrepreneur and the

Unknown: 00:24:18

VC perspective. I wish I had read that book before I raised

Unknown: 00:24:22

any money a couple years ago, it just it's so helpful. And it's

Unknown: 00:24:27

not that long. So read it, I suggest it. But so much of of

Unknown: 00:24:33

raising money is it's about trust, right? It's showing, yes,

Unknown: 00:24:38

I have I have this company with real Tech and a real business.

Unknown: 00:24:43

And I'm going to take it from A to B, and this is the money I

Unknown: 00:24:47

need to get there. And this is how I'm going to spend the

Unknown: 00:24:49

money. And, you know, investors want to need to be able to trust

Unknown: 00:24:54

that you're going to do that. Hey, that's what it comes down

Unknown: 00:24:57

to. And I think part of the issue with wise Many women and

Unknown: 00:25:00

minorities don't have as much funding is they just don't have

Unknown: 00:25:04

those networks, right? Like I didn't know, anyone. I had to do

Unknown: 00:25:08

tons of networking and reaching out and asking for introductions

Unknown: 00:25:12

and building those relationships over time. To get to the point

Unknown: 00:25:17

that said, I cold emailed Mark Cuban, and he responded and

Unknown: 00:25:22

invested a couple of days later. So that was wild. And you know,

Unknown: 00:25:27

I read an article about how he's investing in NF T's and the

Unknown: 00:25:30

metaverse and I just was like, He's gonna love what we're

Unknown: 00:25:33

doing. And so I just, like found his email and emailed him. So

Unknown: 00:25:36

like, that can also happen. But yeah, so I think, you know, part

Unknown: 00:25:43

of it is, and that's why it is good that we have these networks

Unknown: 00:25:46

in organizations trying to help women and minorities meet more

Unknown: 00:25:50

VCs. Again, because I just think it's a matter of, I think so

Unknown: 00:25:56

much of it is not malicious. It's just like, who do you know,

Unknown: 00:26:00

I've watched them build this before. I know they can do it.

Unknown: 00:26:04

Oh, I've never met you before. So

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:08

my one, yeah, there's definitely reasons why

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:12

women and minorities don't have those networks built in right

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:15

away. But there's also ways around that, which I think is

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:17

good. So that's completely cold email MerKiVa. That's great. I'm

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:25

a big proponent of that, as someone who used to work in

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:29

communications, and I always had to email reporters and reporters

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:32

are notorious for never responding, which makes sense,

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:36

they get a billion emails, it's not a problem. But I remember I

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:39

have like a 13 follow ups rule where I'll follow up 13 times

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:45

and you can't take it personally, because everyone

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:47

knows that everyone else is busy. You just kind of have to,

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:49

like, Hey, it's me again. How's it going? I'm a big fan. I'm a

Lindsay Poss: 00:26:56

multiple texter, multiple emailer. You gotta try to not be

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:02

too pushy. But also, keep in mind that everyone else is busy

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:06

and in their own world, in order to get into their world, you

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:08

kind of have to make sure you're always top of mind. Some big fan

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:14

of cold emails do, I wouldn't have thought to cold email, Mark

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:18

Cuban, but you know,

Unknown: 00:27:21

he's gonna, like, kill me, because all these people are

Unknown: 00:27:22

going to email him now. But

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:27

hopefully, he has a good army of, you know,

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:30

executive assistants and whatnot to filter through and find the

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:33

really cool opportunities, which I'm sure he does. And kind of on

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:38

that note, there's, there's definitely a place for lodging

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:41

complaints about this process. Thankful that social media has

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:45

given many people a voice to express in justices that happen

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:49

in Silicon Valley and in the venture funding world. But I

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:52

would love to focus on some of the positive things you've had,

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:55

in your experience getting funding, and potential solutions

Lindsay Poss: 00:27:58

to make it a more inviting environment for women. So could

Lindsay Poss: 00:28:02

you tell me what some of and I know, you've mentioned certain

Lindsay Poss: 00:28:05

relationships, specifically, but what were some of the positive

Lindsay Poss: 00:28:08

ways you were able to interact with potential VCs? And what are

Lindsay Poss: 00:28:12

some of the ways you think the VC environment or just the

Lindsay Poss: 00:28:14

funding process itself could improve? Yeah, I

Unknown: 00:28:20

mean, I've had the benefit of some really great

Unknown: 00:28:24

mentors, you know, another investors, Jamie Montgomery, the

Unknown: 00:28:27

founder of March capital, I think I met him because I gave a

Unknown: 00:28:33

pitch at USC that he was attending and spoke. And then

Unknown: 00:28:37

he's done a lot for female founders, he has an event every

Unknown: 00:28:40

year, he gives, like a certain number of female founders free

Unknown: 00:28:43

tickets, and, you know, tries to help with that. I think just

Unknown: 00:28:50

building those allies and mentors within your network is

Unknown: 00:28:54

so helpful to give you advice and help make introductions. And

Unknown: 00:29:02

then how to make it better. I mean, so much, there's like so

Unknown: 00:29:08

much to do. Right. So I think, you know, funds can make sure

Unknown: 00:29:13

that they're at least seeing a variety of deals, you know, if

Unknown: 00:29:17

you're looking at your deal pipeline, and your deal pipeline

Unknown: 00:29:20

is 90%. White man. Okay, what can you do to get more diverse

Unknown: 00:29:26

founders in your deal pipeline, right? Like, if you're not even

Unknown: 00:29:30

having the pipeline of the diverse deals, there's no way

Unknown: 00:29:34

you're going to actually fund diverse deals, right? So whether

Unknown: 00:29:38

that's partnering with a women or minority network or school or

Unknown: 00:29:42

you know, there's a lot of different ways to do it. I think

Unknown: 00:29:46

that could really, really help and then setting up frameworks

Unknown: 00:29:51

for investing. So you know, so many and then the earlier the

Unknown: 00:29:55

stage, that stage of your company, the more they're just

Unknown: 00:29:57

investing in you, right? If you're Doing a seed round, you

Unknown: 00:30:01

don't necessarily have revenue or a business to look at yet.

Unknown: 00:30:04

It's a little it's like the beginning. But it's you like, do

Unknown: 00:30:08

we trust that you can build this? And so that can get very

Unknown: 00:30:13

subjective quickly, right. And so I think funds building

Unknown: 00:30:17

frameworks of, of analysis of how they're evaluating founders

Unknown: 00:30:25

and their companies, and keeping that consistent, will help also

Unknown: 00:30:30

make it a more fair playing field, right across gender and

Unknown: 00:30:34

ethnicity and everything else.

Lindsay Poss: 00:30:37

It's yeah, all those studies of when you remove

Lindsay Poss: 00:30:40

the name of a resume and who gets hired. Yeah, I essentially

Lindsay Poss: 00:30:45

feel that same vibe from what you just said. But I do think

Lindsay Poss: 00:30:49

that it's accurate. It's, it's, I mean, we live in a world where

Lindsay Poss: 00:30:51

there's a lot of unconscious biases. And it's hard to even if

Lindsay Poss: 00:30:54

you think you're a person who doesn't hold them in some way,

Lindsay Poss: 00:30:57

shape, or form you probably do so I can see what you're saying

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:01

and trying to make that process more consistent to limit the

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:04

impact of those at least is one way of getting different people

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:08

in the room. So that does make sense to me. Um, and switching

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:13

over to you for a second because we've talked all about Ventana

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:15

we've talked all about Vc, Vc funding and what it's like to be

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:19

a female founder. But I want to know about you know, you and how

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:22

you got to where you are. I know that you mentioned that you

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:25

started engineering at USC. But it's it's pretty, you know, it

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:31

takes a lot of gumption to be run a tech and specifically

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:36

Metaverse focus 3d technology company for 10 years. So tell me

Lindsay Poss: 00:31:42

a little bit about yourself.

Unknown: 00:31:46

Yeah, I'm one of those people where I get an idea and I

Unknown: 00:31:49

just nothing I have crazy, like blindsided focus on this to a

Unknown: 00:31:54

fault. And I'm going to do it. So my poor parents growing up.

Unknown: 00:32:00

You know, if I wanted to do something, I was going to do it.

Unknown: 00:32:03

But, but yeah, I mean, growing up, I loved math and science, I

Unknown: 00:32:06

hated writing with passion. So I would do everything to like,

Unknown: 00:32:09

take more math and science classes, and I love building

Unknown: 00:32:13

stuff. My dad was an electrician. And he, he, the

Unknown: 00:32:19

company he worked for went out of business. And I was in first

Unknown: 00:32:21

grade. So he decided to just, you know, start his own company.

Unknown: 00:32:24

So it was him and a friend doing like it started as like house

Unknown: 00:32:28

calls. I'd like ride around in the truck on the weekends to

Unknown: 00:32:32

construction sites. So I'm gonna have a break. So I think that's

Unknown: 00:32:36

where I got interested in, in engineering. And I watched him

Unknown: 00:32:41

you know, it was it was really hard. It was full on startup,

Unknown: 00:32:44

you know, when I was in elementary school, but I watched

Unknown: 00:32:46

him grow it to a couple 100 person company that did jobs

Unknown: 00:32:50

around the world. And it was really cool to watch that. And

Unknown: 00:32:57

really inspiring. And I was like, you know, I want to build

Unknown: 00:32:59

my own company someday like that. That was awesome. And so,

Unknown: 00:33:05

yeah, but my dad, you know, he never got the chance to go to

Unknown: 00:33:08

college. She was like, you know, you're gonna go to college. It's

Unknown: 00:33:10

like, sounds good. I put engineering and got in and, you

Unknown: 00:33:17

know, ended up like, again, I could avoid as much writing as

Unknown: 00:33:21

possible. I liked it. And yeah, I knew I wanted to start my own

Unknown: 00:33:29

company. Wasn't sure what, you know, I worked at British

Unknown: 00:33:33

Petroleum for a while actually, after I graduated, I worked at

Unknown: 00:33:36

an oil refinery. I learned a lot, not my passion at all. I

Unknown: 00:33:42

was like, what kind of like, like, I'm still friends with

Unknown: 00:33:45

some of the people. I mean, refineries are intense, like,

Unknown: 00:33:48

literal fires happen, and you got to work together and figure

Unknown: 00:33:51

it out. So I'm still friends with the people there. It just

Unknown: 00:33:54

was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. And so I

Unknown: 00:33:59

ended up leaving. I took a leave of absence and didn't go back. I

Unknown: 00:34:05

got a job programming light shows for DJs on the weekends.

Unknown: 00:34:10

And that was super fun. So it was like finally combining like

Unknown: 00:34:14

engineering and art. It was one of the most fun jobs I ever had.

Unknown: 00:34:19

And that's kind of where I was like, Alright, how do we take

Unknown: 00:34:22

these light shows to the next level? How do we create more

Unknown: 00:34:25

interactive experiences? And that's really what led me to to

Unknown: 00:34:30

co founded Ventana. So midlife crisis or quarterlife crisis to

Unknown: 00:34:35

working at a nightclub and starting a company

Lindsay Poss: 00:34:39

now I was actually kind of picturing while you're

Lindsay Poss: 00:34:42

saying that you know what I enjoy a lot about music and

Lindsay Poss: 00:34:45

lightness or a lot of it is that I mean I can actually see the

Lindsay Poss: 00:34:49

the crossover into kind of 3d models and stuff because it's a

Lindsay Poss: 00:34:52

very like yeah, I don't know I think of like, it's it is kind

Lindsay Poss: 00:34:57

of an immersive thing, right? Like it's It makes everything

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:01

feel more alive when you have really cool lighting. That's

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:06

something that I actually really value. I went to college at a

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:10

place where we had a very good theater program, and I met a

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:13

lighting major my first year. And then after a while, she

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:17

totally convinced me she actually switched to sound too.

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:20

But she totally convincing the importance of lighting. And I

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:22

feel like ever since then. Yeah. That actually transitions pretty

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:26

well into the kind of 3d hands on things I think. And yeah.

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:32

Live.

Unknown: 00:35:33

Yeah, it's another way to put how do we put the digital

Unknown: 00:35:36

in the real environment? How do we, you know, take these visuals

Unknown: 00:35:40

to that next level and augmented reality and virtual reality?

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:44

You know how to do that. Yeah. Well, it's such a

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:49

funny way. Yeah. So next time, you're at a big club, everyone

Lindsay Poss: 00:35:52

listening.

Unknown: 00:35:55

You know, like, like the, I mean, the lights are

Unknown: 00:35:59

incredible. Everything that's happening with like, the drone

Unknown: 00:36:02

light shows are amazing. Every year now Coachella has augmented

Unknown: 00:36:07

reality experiences overlaid on top of the show, you know, so it

Unknown: 00:36:11

still?

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:12

Yeah, super cool. Actually, one of my favorite

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:15

shows that I saw was MGMT, and they had horrible stage

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:18

presence. But what they did have was an incredible, like, it was,

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:23

it was it definitely felt like augmented reality. But it was

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:26

not but an incredible life display during the whole show.

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:30

And I was just like, fascinated, we all had glow sticks going

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:32

along with it. It was amazing. So yes, I think that music is

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:37

one of the best ways to get into 3d experiences. For sure. That's

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:41

my own personal opinion. So I really enjoyed listening to

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:44

music. But you know, I'm, so I love that whole story. And thank

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:48

you, thank you for telling me about your childhood stuff. And

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:51

really cool that your dad was able to build such a huge

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:53

business. And that takes so much work. And you mentioned just

Lindsay Poss: 00:36:58

from a very young age, dating, writing, loving math and

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:00

science. I think that's the thing that a lot of women

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:03

experience. But we do see really low retention rates by the time

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:07

women start to get into their late 30s ish in STEM and tech

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:11

fields. What do you think we can do? And particularly we I'm

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:17

talking more so probably about small to midsize companies who

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:20

have a lot of flexibility in their practice, not like society

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:22

as a whole and enormous institutions. But what can

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:26

people who are in positions of leadership within a business do

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:30

to better recruit and retain women in STEM positions? Yeah, I

Unknown: 00:37:36

think, you know, I do a lot of volunteering.

Lindsay Poss: 00:37:39

I think it starts with teachers, right

Unknown: 00:37:42

and encouraging that the from a young age, I had no

Unknown: 00:37:48

credible third grade teacher who like let me do extra science

Unknown: 00:37:51

experiments in the back of the room. I still remember this

Unknown: 00:37:55

Mackenzie's she was awesome. So it kind of starts there. And

Unknown: 00:37:59

then you know, I do lots of volunteering at USC, which, you

Unknown: 00:38:03

know, I think 2020 was the first year we had like a 45%, woman

Unknown: 00:38:09

engineering freshman class, which is amazing, because when I

Unknown: 00:38:12

graduated, like the graduating engineering class was like, 19%

Unknown: 00:38:16

women, so that so the schools are doing a lot to help recruit

Unknown: 00:38:19

and promote and retain more diverse students. So don't tell

Unknown: 00:38:24

me it's pipeline problem, you know, hiring. You know, like,

Unknown: 00:38:31

we're fixing that problem, right. And so then as a

Unknown: 00:38:34

business, making sure that there's those entry level

Unknown: 00:38:37

positions that have like training and support to grow

Unknown: 00:38:42

into those next roles. And that's just good for your

Unknown: 00:38:45

business in general, right? You want to be building a pipeline

Unknown: 00:38:48

of students to mid mid managers.

Lindsay Poss: 00:38:52

But I think, and

Unknown: 00:38:55

this isn't like a gender or minority thing, but

Unknown: 00:38:58

just humans, every human in general learns differently. And,

Unknown: 00:39:02

you know, I think making sure you build a program, like a

Unknown: 00:39:08

training program within your company that can help people get

Unknown: 00:39:11

to that next level. And I'm not saying to like, do special

Unknown: 00:39:14

things for women. I'm just saying in general, like you

Unknown: 00:39:17

should have a clear pass for promotion within your company.

Unknown: 00:39:24

Which is good for like growth and retention in general. But I

Unknown: 00:39:28

think

Lindsay Poss: 00:39:29

just as a little side plug, yes, that is

Lindsay Poss: 00:39:31

basically the number one reason people cite for resigning from

Lindsay Poss: 00:39:34

cushy jobs is no growth potential.

Unknown: 00:39:36

Exactly. Yeah. So So I think doing that and I think

Unknown: 00:39:39

you'll end up just being more attractive and more attractive

Unknown: 00:39:42

to more people, which will give you a more diverse pool of

Unknown: 00:39:46

candidates. And then of course, in your interview process. I

Unknown: 00:39:49

think Airbnb did a study, they realized that they weren't

Unknown: 00:39:53

hiring enough women or minorities, and they realized

Unknown: 00:39:56

like all the interviewers were men, and they're like, oh, we

Unknown: 00:39:59

should To throw in and make sure the interviewers are diverse,

Unknown: 00:40:03

and lo and behold, when they switched up the interviewers,

Unknown: 00:40:07

all of a sudden they were hiring more diverse people. And I think

Unknown: 00:40:10

it's a combination of so many factors of the, you know, if

Unknown: 00:40:13

you're a minority coming in and you see another minority, that

Unknown: 00:40:16

company, maybe you're more comfortable and confident in

Unknown: 00:40:19

that interview, you know, like, I think there's a lot of factors

Unknown: 00:40:23

at play. But that's like a very easy thing that you could do.

Unknown: 00:40:27

Just make sure your people are doing the interviews are diverse

Unknown: 00:40:31

themselves some. So

Lindsay Poss: 00:40:34

yeah, the Rooney rule. But for everyone. We have

Lindsay Poss: 00:40:37

any NFL fans out there. We don't google the Rooney Rule. It's a

Lindsay Poss: 00:40:41

good rule. Well, actually, I before we get into our last

Lindsay Poss: 00:40:46

segment, I want to quickly just summarize everything we've

Lindsay Poss: 00:40:48

talked about so far. We started with you giving me basically a

Lindsay Poss: 00:40:53

whole primer on what Ventana does, which was super cool. And

Lindsay Poss: 00:40:56

I, I truly mean that I really enjoyed getting to learn about

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:00

the technology. And what Fontana does do is streamline 3d from

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:06

for design, the manufacturing processes. The it's a, I'm gonna

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:12

say all of this, and then you interject if I'm wrong, but it's

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:14

a b2b software as a solution service that basically takes

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:17

shape files from any 3d type of program that designers might use

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:23

across industries, and converts them into a much smaller, much

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:28

more ready to use customer facing type of file for use and

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:32

advertisements for use in collaboration. One really cool

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:36

example that you gave was use in samples within the fashion

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:39

industry. So allowing people to easily share those rather than

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:43

creating a physical sample should not only reduce costs,

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:46

but severely or severely sorry, word impactfully reduced carbon

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:50

footprint quite a bit. One thing that I thought was super cool is

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:53

that by using 3d models, and going through the design process

Lindsay Poss: 00:41:57

that ways one of your clients was able to go from a six month

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:00

design time to a three week design time, which is a huge

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:04

savings in so many ways. And so this is a b2b service with b2c

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:08

impacts, meaning that clients can create better experience for

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:11

their customers using the optimized files that come from

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:14

fatahna. So I get that right.

Unknown: 00:42:17

Yeah, exactly. And the easiest analogy is just like

Unknown: 00:42:21

Vimeo and YouTube make it easy for you to upload embed into

Unknown: 00:42:24

your video. And Tonya makes it easy for you to upload, embed

Unknown: 00:42:28

and share 3d and

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:30

AR which is so cool. It also democratizes AR

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:34

and VR for all audiences because it removes difficulty and

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:37

converting files to all kinds of different platforms for the

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:40

person who created the file so then be able to use and share

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:42

them. And then we after discussing Ventana, you just did

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:48

a great job of explaining to me how you've interacted with the

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:52

metaverse, which was so fun. I haven't had anyone on quite yet.

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:56

Who's it? Who's done it in the same way you have. I've

Lindsay Poss: 00:42:59

certainly had people who are super involved in Metaverse

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:01

design and building but you're someone who's been having

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:04

Metaverse meetups like before it was cool. You're like a

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:06

Metaverse hipster. So that was really, really fun to learn

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:12

about. I like that you called the metaverse, the spatial

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:14

internet, I think that's an easy way to define it without getting

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:18

lost in the hype. So it's just a new way of interacting with the

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:22

digital world. We actually talked about NF T's which I

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:25

wasn't necessarily expecting to come up, but they are the

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:28

buzzword of the moment. But I don't think that you use it in a

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:30

buzzword II type way. Because what you were teaching me about

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:34

is that have to show that people do value digital ownership and

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:38

assets and valuing. And they also value fully owning that

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:42

asset or thing anywhere in the metaverse so not just a single

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:46

platform item. we pivoted into discussion on funding and

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:51

building a company. You had said that you started by networking,

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:54

building relationships over time, which can be difficult for

Lindsay Poss: 00:43:58

women and minorities who don't traditionally kind of, there's

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:01

some people who kind of start off with that network just in

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:03

their circle. And some people have to work a little bit more

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:06

to get that network. And so you mentioned that you were a person

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:10

who had to work a little more to get that work. But that you

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:13

started with mentorship. You started with coffee dates, you

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:16

started with cold emails to even Mark Cuban. And any recommended

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:20

venture deals as a resource for folks looking for funding. When

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:25

it comes to how we might be able to improve the funding space.

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:29

One thing that you said that was really concrete was keeping

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:32

evaluations, companies and founders consistent across the

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:34

board, which can help bring more people into the room and remove

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:38

some of the barriers for women and minorities, which I think is

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:41

just a overall problem, not just funding society. valuations were

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:50

consistent for everybody. Definitely. And we ended with

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:54

recruiting and keeping women in STEM. You shared a great story

Lindsay Poss: 00:44:57

about how you grew up and became interested and shout out to Your

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:00

third grade science teacher for letting you do extra

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:01

experiments. But how it is important to nurture young woman

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:05

who showed interest in math and science, colleges are doing a

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:08

lot better to recruit and maintain diverse students. This

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:12

is not necessarily every college, but I know that a lot

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:15

of places are working really hard to make this top of mind,

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:18

which means that the pipeline problem can no longer be stated

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:21

on the business and hiring. And then there is a pipeline, you

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:24

have to go out and find the candidates. But one thing that

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:27

can help is by creating a path from entry level up and training

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:30

programs for those who are interested in actually moving up

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:33

that path. So actually having a vision for folks that start

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:37

working with the company and figuring out a way to move them

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:39

forward if they would like to do so is one of the best ways to

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:42

attract and maintain employees. And then we also discussed the

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:47

interview process and how making sure that the interviewers

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:49

diverse, are diverse means that you can help ensure that you get

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:53

more diversity within your candidates. So that was a wide

Lindsay Poss: 00:45:56

ranging discussion. But I like to end every podcast with what I

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:00

call the moment of reflection. And this is just a chance for

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:03

you to look back on your career. And the thing that I asked you

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:07

to answer is what is the one thing you would like to tell

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:10

your younger self about getting into the tech industry and being

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:13

successful?

Unknown: 00:46:16

Oh, man, I don't want to celebrate the wins. I think

Unknown: 00:46:23

as you as you grow, you know,

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:27

you're I have

Unknown: 00:46:28

so many I think any entrepreneurs like this, you're

Unknown: 00:46:30

always looking for that next thing that next level you want

Unknown: 00:46:34

to get to and sometimes you forget to celebrate the wins

Unknown: 00:46:38

along the way, and you don't realize how far you've come. And

Unknown: 00:46:43

so

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:44

that would be my advice.

Unknown: 00:46:47

I really liked

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:48

that I haven't had anyone give that sort of advice.

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:51

But yeah, I think that women should brag more. You can still

Lindsay Poss: 00:46:56

be humble and brag a little bit it's fine.

Unknown: 00:46:59

It's possible even just for your own self like enjoy way

Unknown: 00:47:03

the the winds when they happen and don't blow past and think

Unknown: 00:47:07

about the next thing you know too fast. So yeah,

Lindsay Poss: 00:47:11

take a second I get it. Thank you so much for

Lindsay Poss: 00:47:14

coming on. Where can people find you follow you read what you're

Lindsay Poss: 00:47:18

thinking about? Find Ventana contacting for sales.

Unknown: 00:47:25

I'm on LinkedIn, love LinkedIn. So just Ashley

Unknown: 00:47:27

Crowder, you can find me there. You can follow Ventana on

Unknown: 00:47:30

LinkedIn as well. Or go to our website. It's just the n t a n

Unknown: 00:47:35

a.com. So it's like window and Spanish and sauna without the so

Lindsay Poss: 00:47:43

I actually didn't put that together until you said

Lindsay Poss: 00:47:45

that. But that's great. For all the listeners out there. Be sure

Lindsay Poss: 00:47:50

to leave those five star ratings and reviews. Check out other

Lindsay Poss: 00:47:52

holodeck media podcasts, including metal business for all

Lindsay Poss: 00:47:55

the metaverse finance stories you could ever want. Business of

Lindsay Poss: 00:47:58

esports for interviews with industry leaders. I'm on

Lindsay Poss: 00:48:01

Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn and Lindsey pass and you can

Lindsay Poss: 00:48:03

catch me once you Nate's on the business of esports live after

Lindsay Poss: 00:48:06

show. You can catch this podcast and your feed every week. We'll

Lindsay Poss: 00:48:09

see you next week.

Unknown: 00:48:10

Thanks for joining us here on meta woman. Make sure to

Unknown: 00:48:13

subscribe to this podcast everywhere you get your

Unknown: 00:48:15

podcasts, leave a five star review and tell your friends,

Unknown: 00:48:18

family and colleagues all about us. Also, make sure to follow

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Unknown: 00:48:25

content anywhere. Tune in every week for another episode of