She's the founder of SoGal—a cross-border venture capital firm that puts millennial women in the driving seat. We speak to Pocket Sun about how she's ending the marginalisation of female-led startups
I am Generation T is a series of quick-fire Q&As with some of the extraordinary individuals on the Generation T List.
When Pocket Sun met her future co-founder Elizabeth Galbut in a venture capital course at Stanford University, they immediately bonded. It is an uncontestable fact that the vast majority of funding decisions around the globe are made by men, who—data proves—tend to invest in other men. Sun and Galbut saw a gap in the market for a female-focused venture capital fund.
“The capital market is still very much controlled and dominated by men, which means the female way of thinking and perspective of the future are not as valued as they should be,” she says. "Women’s involvement and participation in business has gone up a lot, but the representation of women at important levels is still lacking."
That idea turned into SoGal Ventures, a multimillion-dollar, female-focused, millennial venture capital firm with investments in more than 50 companies.
"It all started because there was nowhere to find a network that I belong to,” she says."The reality is that funds started by women or that have at least one female partner are still a minority; the majority of the industry is still geared towards one way of thinking. We need to be looking forward, we need more female perspectives, more empathy, more collaboration and community. All of these things are not emphasised enough in our industry.”
Today, SoGal Ventures invests in everything from female-designed egames to toys created to promote baby development. At just 28 years old, she is helping to reshape the venture capital landscape. Here, Sun speaks to us about feminism, the future and why Wonder Woman remains her hero.
