Meet “The Most Powerful Women In Startups”
Ann Miura-Ko on this episode of the Legends & Losers Podcast.
Entrepreneurship is a fine line between being a visionary and having visions. How does the idea of who you want to be turn into reality when it feels like the odds are against you? How can seemingly meaningless tasks lead to legendary opportunities? What is innovation democracy and why is it such a powerful insight?
On this episode, Ann Miura-Ko shares her story and how she embraced her failures and found success as a cofounder of Floodgate Capital.
Takeaways
- When we put ourselves in uncomfortable situations that feel beyond our reach, we are forced to figure out how far we can reach.
- If you don’t really love something the negative voices will overtake you.
- How you do anything is how you do everything.
- Venture capital is as much the entrepreneur betting on the company as it is the company betting on the entrepreneur.
At the start of the show Ann shared on the lessons she learned from her grandmother and how she actually might have been Batman. She also shared how she went from believing she wasn’t smart to becoming legendary. Ann also told us how determination turned her into one of the best debaters in the country. She went onto share how she co-found Floodgate with Mike Maples, Jr. , taking a leap of faith on a new category of venture capital firm and risking it all while expecting her second child.
She also shared on venture capital, entrepreneurship and making sure you’re betting on the right side of the line between being visionary and having visions.
Ann also shared insights on:
- How small things can turn into legendary opportunities
- The importance of seeing greatness in yourself before other people do
- The power of having an advocate who introduces you to opportunities
- The democracy of innovation
- What it’s like to see an insight before other people do
For an entrepreneur, the big insight and the big idea is usually only obvious to them. Getting everyone else to see it, is what makes them legendary. It’s about having the competitive edge that comes from loving what you do. Being legendary isn’t something that just happens to you, it’s something you choose by applying greatness to everything you do. If you’re waiting for luck, it’s never gonna happen. Shake the tree, grab the opportunities and run in the direction of your dreams. Personal belief, hard work and love will get you to your destination.
Guest Bio
Ann Miura-Ko has been called “the most powerful woman in startups” by Forbes and is a lecturer in entrepreneurship at Stanford. The child of a rocket scientist at NASA, Ann is a Palo Alto native and has been steeped in technology startups from when she was a teenager. Prior to co-founding FLOODGATE, she worked at Charles River Ventures and McKinsey and Company. Some of Ann’s investments include Lyft, Ayasdi, Xamarin, Refinery29, Chloe and Isabel, Maker Media, Wanelo, TaskRabbit, and Modcloth. Go to http://floodgate.com/ for more information or follow Ann on Twitter @annimaniac.
