On November 7, 2024, Lowenstein Sandler partners Ed Zimmerman and Meredith Beuchaw moderated a panel discussion at Lowenstein’s most recent VentureCrushFG event in New York (and via web simulcast), which featured these distinguished guest speakers:

  • Erica Duignan Minnihan, Founder and General Partner at Reign Ventures
  • Sheena S. Iyengar, Ph.D., a critically acclaimed author, an expert on human choice and innovation, and currently the S.T. Lee Professor of Business at Columbia Business School.

For those who may have missed it, partner John Wayne Horton and law clerk Christina Erickson, both from Lowenstein’s Palo Alto office, offer several highlights from the thought-provoking discussions. The session, which touched on innovation, valuation, workforce culture, inclusion, and leadership (among other topics), left a lasting impression on VentureCrushFG attendees.

Math as a Universal Language
Through personal experience, Minnihan offered her personal counterpoint to an assertion that venture capital valuations are largely an exercise in creativity, optimism, and gambling (rather than real-world financial and mathematical analysis). At a time when the finance industry was overwhelmingly male dominated, Minnihan’s Wall Street investment banking experience and instinctive numerical focus allowed her to spot a material error in the forecasts used in modeling the valuation of a prospective portfolio company. Her discovery spared the parties from likely embarrassment, and her story reinforces the practical implications and importance of critical numerical analysis in venture investing.

Commitment Culture
Iyengar shared findings from a Stanford University study that spotlighted the unifying significance of a “commitment culture” at the most successful Silicon Valley emerging growth companies. A commitment culture generally indicates fundamental alignment on collective long-term goals within an organization, creating a sense of purpose and meaning for its employees and fosters a sense of shared ownership and a commitment to achieving collective success.

Breaking the Local Maximum
The achievement of peak performance for a business operating within a particular framework can be referred to as the “local maximum.” To achieve additional growth or broader success, and for the opportunity to achieve greater success, business leaders need to be willing to consider certain risks to disrupt the stability of an established comfort zone. For example, hiring new talent generally involves up-front costs and short-term setbacks in the productivity of a business. However, a shift in strategy or prior framework, to break the local maximum, may ultimately lead to greater (and possibly unforeseen) benefits and overall success.

Remote Workforce Trends
As remote working has become more commonplace, companies face challenges in balancing the resulting flexibility and efficiencies with the established benefits of in-person collaboration. Minnihan highlighted the advantages of an in-office dynamic, such as spontaneous idea-sharing, which often leads to faster team alignment and maximized productivity. A remote workforce also raises questions about accumulated social debt, the loss of company culture, and the professional development of junior employees who may miss out on crucial hands-on learning opportunities early in their careers. Companies will likely need to innovate and adapt in order to battle the disadvantages associated with remote work arrangements.

Building Inclusivity
Iyengar, who has been blind since grade school, shared a thought-provoking and inspiring revelation related to implicit bias and inclusion. While acknowledging that a lack of vision can be a disadvantage at times (for instance, she expressed feeling embarrassment over mistaking someone’s gender or failing to readily recognize a prior acquaintance) Iyengar described one positive consequence of her own blindness—a perspective that most people do not experience. Because she does not receive visual impressions of others, she feels that she has been naturally blessed with a filter from certain implicit biases based on visual traits (such as skin color, ethnicity, age, or fashion). She observed that when we dispose of implicit bias, we foster a culture rich in diversity and inclusion, which has been proven to result in greater organizational success and achievement. If this approach can be encouraged and addressed early in a company’s life cycle–by, for example, appointing qualified women and minorities as board members and in management positions–an inclusion culture is established and can grow with the business. Iyengar said, “It’s easier to turn a small boat around.”

The panel offered one departing request of the audience: “This week, help one woman take a step closer to her dreams. Share her work. Make an intro. Speak her name in the room. Small actions add up; let’s be the momentum.”

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