Below is an excerpt from my book, "Lighthouse: Women Leading the Way in Finance," that is coming out in April. To me, a lighthouse guides boats in the sea. Its light provides warning of potential hazards along with the comfort of not feeling alone in the vast ocean. My new book is a compilation of female lighthouses in finance: their education, career paths, and struggles. The variety of experience and expertise provides each reader with one or more lighthouses to guide their journey and make them not feel so alone. I am grateful to them for sharing their stories.
In 2015, Vicki Saunders founded SheEO, a global initiative to change the ways we support female entrepreneurs and create connections between advisors and innovators: “Our SheEO Community is based on being radically generous with ourselves and others. If we show up with that practice every day, I believe we will transform ourselves and the world.” SheEO has around 4,000 women, called Activators, that contribute $1,100 annually to be pooled and loaned at a low-interest rate to five ventures that are voted on by the Activators. The loans are paid back over five years and then loaned out to other Ventures which creates an ongoing fund.
Lighthouses in Vicki’s Words
“I have many lighthouses. I am struck by wisdom and truth-telling so when I hear someone say something that wakes me up I collect it and add it to my list. I'm a synthesizer. I feel like I've been following the breadcrumbs one by one and someday it will all be clear. There is no one thing. It's a series of books, articles, conversations, relationships, tuning into subtle energies, paying attention to what moves me and what doesn't. It's a very personal path. There is no right answer for everyone. The path is to find your truth. I could list a whole bunch of things and what you really need to know is to hone your own intuition and find your own path. Keep moving, every day.”
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In 2015, Vicki Saunders founded SheEO, a global initiative to change the ways we support female entrepreneurs and create connections between advisors and innovators: “Our SheEO Community is based on being radically generous with ourselves and others. If we show up with that practice every day, I believe we will transform ourselves and the world.” SheEO has around 4,000 women, called Activators, that contribute $1,100 annually to be pooled and loaned at a low-interest rate to five ventures that are voted on by the Activators. The loans are paid back over five years and then loaned out to other Ventures which creates an ongoing fund.
SheEO's mission is to radically redesign the ecosystem that supports, finances and celebrates female innovators. The proof is in the portfolio of companies that SheEO helped launch and grow is a testament to the creative power in the thousands of women entrepreneurs who built the businesses. The SheEO family of companies runs the gamut from healthcare to tech to consumer products to social ventures and more.
Through 2019, the impact of SheEO has been substantial for many women and woman-run businesses. During our interview, Vick told me that the 4,000 Activators have loaned over $4M to fifty-three business ventures in five countries. The ripple effects get wider from there, each business venture creates around three jobs on average per year, and many are growing, too. Through her work, Vicki found a way to make real change in the world.
However, Vicki is not satisfied. Her goals are for SheEO to continue growing, to get to one million Activators supporting over $1 Billion in loans to 10,000 business ventures with tens of thousands of jobs created.
Throughout Vicki’s experiences as an innovator, she has observed that the environment dictates how individuals and companies thrive in the existing conditions. The mindset of “anything is possible” she was surrounded by in Prague was empowering for Vicki, but when she returned to Canada a few years later to develop her startup, she encountered a lot of people telling her that she thinks too big and to start small with a pilot. However, when she went to Silicon Valley, later on, they encouraged her to go twice the speed with two times as much money.
Each experience Vicki Saunders has had as an innovator has been different, and they have come with individual hardships and joyous moments. Deep down, Vicki knows this is the only path for her and she has tried every day to make a change: “I was born unemployable by anyone else. I need space to experiment, to try new things, to follow the energy, to change my mind four times a day, to iterate and make a mess, and then reflect on what feels right and what doesn't. The journey to this point has been a very winding path full of learning and failure and struggle and a few little successes along the way but/and I'm nowhere near where I want to be as a person, a leader, a partner. I have so much work to do. And, if today was my last day on the planet I'd be ok with that too. I'm not done but I've given everything I've got every day.”
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