How do you build something meaningful without losing yourself in the process?
In this episode, David talks with Betsy Fore, Co-Founder and former CEO of Tiny Organics and Founding Partner of Velveteen Ventures. Betsy shares her remarkable journey from toy inventor to serial entrepreneur and impact investor, becoming the first Native American woman to raise a Series A along the way.
She opens up about co-creating Tiny Organics alongside 100 founding families, facing setbacks like her unaired Shark Tank appearance, and learning to redefine success through purpose and presence. Betsy also reflects on the lessons that shaped her new book, Built on Purpose, blending practical entrepreneurship with spiritual grounding and a values-driven approach to leadership.
Now, through her venture fund and nonprofit, Betsy is focused on investing in solutions that uplift communities, children, and the planet, showing that business can be both profitable and deeply purposeful.
Takeaways:
Unforgettable Beginnings and Tiny Organics’ Success: Betsy’s tale begins with her concept of engaging 100 founding families, transforming them into co-creators of Tiny Organics and fostering community-driven innovation.
Embracing Challenges and the Road Less Traveled: Betsy’s first entrepreneurial venture, a Fitbit-like product for dogs, taught her the significance of understanding consumer behavior and product-market fit.
A Unique Shark Tank Experience and Fundraising Insights: Navigating numerous challenges, including a memorable Shark Tank experience, Betsy shares insights into the traditional venture fundraising path and the nuances of raising capital, particularly as a Native American woman.
Discovering Purpose Beyond Business: Betsy’s inspiration for her debut book, Built On Purpose, stemmed from a desire to demystify the practice of manifestation and align it with business creation.
Melding Investment with Impact: Through Velveteen Ventures, Betsy shifts her focus towards using her skills to benefit her community and the broader planet. Her investments in healthcare, climate, and solutions for children.
Quote of the Show:
“The most important relationship a founder can have isn’t with investors or customers. It’s with themselves.” - Betsy Fore
Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/betsyfore/
Website: https://www.tinyorganics.com/
Ways to Tune In:
Substack:
Spotify:
Apple Podcasts:
Transistor: https://podcast.notanotherceo.com/
#NotAnotherCEO #BusinessSuccess #TinyOrganics #VelveteenVentures
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:26 Building Tiny Organics with Founding Families
07:47 From Tiny Organics to National Recognition
08:34 Lessons from a Previous Venture
13:51 Shark Tank Experience
19:18 Navigating the Venture Capital Landscape
25:07 Securing Initial Funding and Building a Strong Advisory Board
26:15 Realizing the Importance of Giving Back
27:55 Founding Natives Rising and Healing Through NLP
29:20 Investing in Underrepresented Founders
31:39 Writing ‘Built on Purpose’ and the Power of Manifestation
35:38 Inspiring Stories from Native American Founders
38:21 Launching a Venture Fund with a Purpose
41:26 From Rural Illinois to International Success
49:35 The Importance of Self-Compassion for Founders
50:35 Outro
Transcript:
Betsy: [00:00:00] We just catapulted in terms of our sales in the earliest days, and it was around this time when we were approached by Shark Tank. We decided, okay, let’s give it a go.
David: Today’s guest is Betsy four. Betsy is a serial entrepreneur and impact investor. She started a number of companies and nonprofits. She’s the co-founder and former CEO of Tiny Organics, a venture-backed company creating whole food meals for babies and toddlers. Notably, Betsy became the first native American woman to raise a series a round of funding.
She now leads Velvete Ventures as founding partner and managing director, a firm [00:01:00] investing in solutions for children and the planet. Betsy is also releasing her debut book Built On Purpose. Discover your deep inner Why and manifest the business of your Dreams Set to publish one week from today on November 11th.
Please join me in welcoming Betsy. Four
Betsy: Thank you, David.
David: I.
Betsy: Excited to be here.
David: Thank you for doing this with me, uh, early in the morning for you on the West Coast. So thank you for doing this. Uh, let’s jump in. First question, what is the one thing that you did at Tiny Organics, big or small, that had the biggest impact? And you do, again, if you’re CEO of another company in the future?
Betsy: Our 101st believers, or as I called them, our 100 founding families. So we built the entire company with them. I was actually a new mom at the time myself, and it was pre pandemic in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I sent one, uh, email out to the Park Slope parent group. We got hundreds of inbound, um, in the first few hours.
We then had to cap it, um, to [00:02:00] try to deliver the food to these. Families. But what we did through that journey was meet the, um, meet the mom or the dad where they were, right. Um, so we went into the home. We, uh, tried 12 different recipes of each, um, one of our, um, hero products that we launched with, and we essentially built tiny organics with. Our hundred founding families. Um, and that’s, I talk about it a lot in my book, which you mentioned as well, David. Um, that was the secret sauce, right? We were meeting the parent where they were, um, when they needed us the most.
David: So, just to be clear, you’re saying you went into some group, sent out a message to the local parents, and what, what did you say? Like you said, we’re starting a company or we’re trying, like what, what did you say to, to everyone?
Betsy: Um, BA Baby Food Company seeking founding families, um, essentially as co-founders, right? And, I did, was able to say VC-backed, right? Because we were already building with an adventure studio in New York. I built [00:03:00] my. That company completely different than my first, which I’m sure we’ll get into where I built it solely with, um, angels.
And so I did exactly the opposite with, um, tiny and, um, we did have that bandwidth to be able to say, we’re gonna learn, right? For, the first year on, making sure these products are what baby needs during each phase of development. But, just getting to know these families by name. doing all the surveys with.
Them going into their homes. I mean, babies are the best beta testers, right? Because they can’t lie. It’s like, you know Exactly if they love it or if they’re consuming it. and so, yeah, for us it was, really, yeah, this idea that the, first 100. were so obsessed, right?
That that’s what we were focused on that they were so in love or what I call the product market love, fit, and journey, that they then told 10 of their friends, who told 10 of their friends, right? And it just grew from there to where I built the company to over 13 million in [00:04:00] revenue, on direct sales alone.
in the first 24 months and then went on, as you mentioned, to be the first Native American to ever raise a series a round. of Funding, I think. so much of that was because of this exponential growth we saw meeting, you know, our consumer where they were, really making them a co-founder in the company and building with us.
David: And so, uh, I want to get super tactical because this is actually something that I talk to founders about all the time, where I say. That first set of customers that you work with in the tech world, you know, you would say the design partners, you know, the, the or the beta testers or whatever it is, they can have such a lasting impact, good or bad, by the way, depending on the experience that they have and you spending that time with them.
M it, it compounds like the value that, that they can bring to your company and the impact that they can have. How did you keep [00:05:00] them? Uh, let’s say abreast of what was happening in the company or the things that were coming out, like, did you have an email list of just those hundred that stayed with just those hundred the whole time that you were building the company?
Was it just in those early, I I, again, I want to get rid this, this, to me, I love when you first told it to me, I, I was like, I love, I love this. I, how, how did you keep that group engaged?
Betsy: Yes. So initially it was through sending these emails for them to come and meet us in, um, at Prospect Park. Uh, and I had, I lived around the corner, so these moms were my neighbors, right. And I, uh, was very heavily pregnant with my first at the time. I then gave birth and brought my brand new baby boy, um, to, to meet everyone.
So there was this level, it was pre pandemic, there was a level of trust there, um, as a new mom, right? But also I think the, um. You know, it, it put more confidence in these founding families because they knew we were building out of, um, a VC firm, uh, in, in the, in [00:06:00] Manhattan. But also we were able to just, we were really like the moms doing the thing right?
And feeding this to our kids. And so the cadence. Which we did, it was every other week initially where we would meet the families in the park. Um, we would then
David: Hmm.
Betsy: Them the, the hero products. Right. They would bring it home and try, they would fill out the surveys. We did have drop off of course, um, as you would expect.
So I think we actually wound up with like 1 25 families that we started out with, right. And then it sort of ca came down to the a hundred, um, where we knew their kids by name. And eventually with this type of business, you do age out so. Many of them did have another child and we were able to join them in that journey.
Actually, all three of my children have, um, eaten tiny, growing up and have, um, they really do love vegetables and I believe because of this. Um, and so I, I think, um, you know, we were able to, yeah, just meet them where they were and, uh, continue that cadence until the pandemic hit. Actually we were able to, um, kind of. Continue to meet with them, continue to test with [00:07:00] them, and then it became, uh, instead of physically meeting in the park, just shipping them. Right. Uh, these,
David: wow.
Betsy: We were, we were making it, um. In Harlem at a little, uh, at at Hot Bread Kitchen. Um, that was our very first manufacturing site. Um, and then, and then we eventually moved into the Roberta’s Pizza, uh,
David: Oh yeah.
Betsy: Brooklyn. Like that, that space where they had this massive brick oven. I mean, it was so cool. Um, that’s when I knew we’d made it right, if we were like working out of their, um, Face, but we, uh, yeah, that whole journey in the earliest days never had a co-man. So we were doing all the, everything, the quality control and of course for babies. Um, this meant partnering with, um, folks like that I had brought on from day one, which was like Dush Ma Safari at Tufts. Um, ensuring that this was, um. Exactly what baby needed when during each phase of development. Right? We then caught the attention of the former First Lady, Michelle Obama, um, who was about to launch her veggies early and often, uh, campaign since founding it in the White House a decade prior. And we were the perfect fit for her program and to be a [00:08:00] founding board member of that ‘cause that was our exact stance on what we were trying to deliver here, to rewire the gut health of a generation to prefer vegetables, um, over sweets essentially. Um, or the way that I think. Grown up. Right. Um, and so I think we, we had so many key insights, but there were all these hypothesis that we were trying to test out.
And we did that with the founding families.
David: Love it. I
Betsy: they
David: love it.
Betsy: They got a certificate saying they were a founding family. And we never, we never dished out equity, but we didn’t need to because they had such a love for the product, um, given the love for their baby. And there was a deep need there that we were meeting.
David: So let’s compare this. You mentioned to your first company, um, can you talk a little bit about how you did it differently and what didn’t work with that first company, you know, in this particular area?
Betsy: Yeah, and that company was actually a hardware company that I’d built for my first baby, my dog whiskey. Um, it was the first Fitbit. For dogs on the market. This was early 2000 tens, uh, whistle and I launched around the same time my product was Wonder Wolf. I thought [00:09:00] we were living the dream because I launched us in every major retailer had millions of dollars in pos from Petco launching the pet tech category across all the us. I initially launched in Herods in London, where I was based at the time. Went down to Collette for. For Paris Fashion Week, uh, we went to Manhattan to go to story, um, Bloomingdale’s, and then was doing the things that kind of do not scale right during that time with these sort of, uh, one-off retailers. But then I hit every Best Buy in North America, uh, with the product in a massive point of sale display, and I thought.
This is it, right? I actually took my dog in the car with me driving around, uh, Canada to the different Best Buys to meet with the sales rep. I mean, totally doing things that do not scale here, right? And saying, this dog inspired it. Right? And so I had the belief of these B2B customers, um, to the point, as I mentioned, millions of dollars in, in purchase orders, um, these massive displays.
They were putting marketing budget behind it and everything else. Um, but what I hadn’t done yet, and as a first time founder at the time, had not realized [00:10:00] was that. I actually wasn’t meeting the consumer where they needed us or where they were at, right? Because we were a first of a kind and, um, pet tech people were just getting used to wearing a Fitbit for themselves. Um, and they couldn’t quite translate, what does this actually do for my dog, right? Yes, it counts as steps, but we were getting to a point where we could track if they were sleep, sleeping, or even dreaming. Um, and then, you know, had the dog walker taken them, where did they go? Uh, and there were all these different key insights based on, on your dog’s, um, makeup, right?
Like their, um. What they might need, uh, for exercise. And it was really to get my dog down to his goal weight. And I just thought by putting that story out there, that people would get it or understand, or it might click, but, um, we weren’t, we weren’t, um, sort of meeting them with something that they already understood in a way that we could, uh, for instance, I’ll give you an example.
Um, new moms are used to reaching into the freezer, um, where they. Store their breast milk right to, to warm that for baby. Um, that’s, that’s a behavior that we then [00:11:00] just leaned into it tiny because we got a lot of pushback. Wait a minute, you’re, you’re. Food is frozen. And then we were able to say, that’s even more fresh, right?
Because you’ve
David: Hmm.
Betsy: Like the milk, been able to capture it at the source, at the very, the very start. And so we were leaning into behavior that the mom was already doing. Um, by reaching in to get that for baby. We weren’t leaning into a behavior that made sense, right? With dogs at the time. It was a little bow tie device that attached to their collar. Um, and so it, it was like too big of a leap, uh, for people. There was like this educational piece that was missing. We were almost a little too early. Um, and because of that didn’t have great sell through right at the, um, you know, at, at the retail level. And, um, at the time I had, I had launched D two C, it was very early days for d.
And consumer at the time. Um, and so I thought I need to do both, right? There were so many learnings, um, that I had as a first time sole founder, CEO at that company. Um, we actually did go on to get Oprah’s favorite things list. She was using the bow tie with her dogs, [00:12:00] um, which was like a dream to get to, to, to see.
Um, and I was able to get Forbes 30 under 30 for manufacturing. Still have no idea how that happened, um, but they, you know, had heard of, of, of me, and you’ll hear more as you. Um, as we dive into this, David, with my background here, um, why this? Is kind of so, uh, amazing that I was able to even. Sell in these large retailers.
I started my entire journey with a 50 K grant. Um, and so that was another thing I did so differently from Tiny, where I actually wound up raising from angel investors only, like exclusively for that company. Um, and what it meant was for a hardware company that requires. Quite a bit of overhead, right? To manufacture these devices.
And we built everything in-house. At the time, you couldn’t even buy anything off the shelf.
David: Hmm.
Betsy: Um, do it yourself. So the firmware and the, um, iOS and Android apps and everything. So, uh, we were, yeah, pretty big team across three continents. And trying to scale that without being VC backed at the time was near impossible.
Right. So I was also, [00:13:00] I, I didn’t understand or what I was learning through that journey as well. Um, where the funding source should come from, and that if you exclusively raise from individuals, it’s very hard to then validate your valuation, right.
David: Hmm,
Betsy: investor down the line.
David: Interesting. And the, and the, and the lesson there about. You got the retailers excited and you did all those things, but you hadn’t yet figured out that product market fit with the the end buyer, that end consumer. And that was really the and, and, and I, I can fully get that idea that. In tiny Organics, once you get that product market fit and you have, you know, that this is something the consumer wants, it becomes even easier to go, not only to the retailers, but even to drive the sell through and everything else there.
Um, so I wanted to, you, mentioned fundraising a couple times. I wanted to talk a little bit about the fundraising path that you took. one of the things that, we had talked about and I think you may [00:14:00] be the second person that I’ve had on the show that, had some experience with Shark Tank.
But your Shark Tank experience definitely, is unique. I would say And so maybe you can share a little bit about where that was in the journey, you know, just timeline wise and where it was in the worlds, you know, what was happening in the world and, kind of how that happened.
And then we’ll get to how you actually ended up raising. But, I would love to hear that story.
Betsy: Yes, absolutely. And when we launched, Tiny Organics, it was January, 2020, so we were ready to go, right? We met Mom where she needed us. When she needed us most. with the pandemic hitting in March, we were actually supposed to be on stage with Michelle Obama in March, 2020 in Chicago to kick off our partnership.
Of course, that had to be all virtual at that point, right? but it meant that because we were delivering frozen, because mom didn’t have to go to the grocery store, we just. Catapulted In terms of our, sales in [00:15:00] the earliest days, and it was around this time when we were approached by Shark Tank, we decided, okay, let’s give it a go.
And so that summer before we’d figured out any sort of vaccines yet or anything, and my, son was still, I had never really left him yet at the time I had to quarantine. I drove cross country to Vegas. That’s where they relocated us, to. do this one, for that season. And I was quarantined for over two weeks, where I didn’t see anyone in a hotel, right?
and then they, when they bring you into the tank, they wanted to know that you, you know, hadn’t been exposed to anything. and you wore a mask until you were like entering the tank. But when I got there, I realized, All of the details, that we had given for thawing our food, the, tiny organics food itself, had not been followed and it was still frozen.
and we were like, how are the sharks gonna eat this food if it’s like a solid, you know, rock of, ice? and I, you know, you, that [00:16:00] moment you’re sort of thinking, it was right before I was walking into the tank, you know, I was removing the mask and all I could do at that point was my box breath was coming back to my breath and trying to, stabilize my nervous system, right. to be able to walk in there and do the thing. We actually, I can say this because we were on the introduction of the season itself, where they showed my COO and I walking into the tank with, Tiny Organics there and like the brand, but they actually didn’t. Air us. So even though, we, were, the sharks were vying for a deal with us, I was able to negotiate really well, and we were thrilled with the outcome, to the point where the shark was jumping up and down on their chair.
Like it was incredible. They still did not air us. So I think, you know, that whole experience, I mean, now I guess, the, thing that I’ve learned in life and, what I’ve always tried to do is the reframe, right? So it’s like, okay. There’s still lessons and learnings from that experience, and one of them was, this, you know, fight or flight [00:17:00] mode that founders often get into where they’re just putting out fires and trying to build as fast as they can.
Right. I think I was able to really, understand that I had to, Come back to, myself and to the mindfulness practices, That I knew and honestly, the values driven approach that, I, was raised with and, wanted to, gift to others, because I understood, kind of this deep meaning behind it. as a Native American person, right? I’m Turtle Mountain Chippewa. And so our laws as we call them, are our seven grandfather teachings of the Anishinaabe, which are things like truth. Love, humility, bravery. we, really try to live by these things and I thought, okay, there’s these moments where, in your founder journey where it feels like failure almost every day, right? How can we as founders actually sustain ourselves, through that and drive forward with a purpose, [00:18:00] and a sense of, Your responsibility, you’re doing something greater than yourself. and, essentially trying to have a fulfilled life. I think there’s been so many points in my journey that from the outside, looks like, okay, how could that not be a failure?
Right? But you can actually use it for your greatest good. and I think that’s, you know, everything I talk about in the book that I know we’ll get into in a bit as well.
David: Yeah, I mean. I would be so angry if that happened, like if I went and quarantined for two weeks and got in there and pitched which I’m sure was nerve, racking I mean, I can’t even, I would be so nervous. I mean, I would be so angry. because of course, again obviously I haven’t done that, but I’ve had some things where I’ve been featured in, you know, the New York Times, for example, and it’s like I did the interview.
Six months before the article came out, and the whole time is it gonna be this week? Is it gonna be this week it never came? You know [00:19:00]
And I can only imagine because the impact that, that would have on the business. Obviously the business did well and scaled, but the impact that that would’ve had would’ve been,
I mean, crazy.
Betsy: And to work with that shark
that we actually did The deal with. Right. Because you don’t do that if you don’t air
so,
David: Right.
Um, so, but you, so you did, you did raise, uh, series A and you raised a good amount of money and, and can you talk about what that fundraising process, the more, let’s call it kind of traditional, you know, venture fundraising process? Because I, I, um, I have raised a lot of money, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in my career, and I don’t think that.
I know that my experience is probably very different from the experience that you face for a whole host of, of reasons. And, and I’ve had a couple of women on the show who’ve talked about how hard fundraising has been and some of the stuff that they, some of the stuff they told me, some of the stuff they told me on the show and sometimes they told me after the show, but [00:20:00] some of the stuff that they’ve experienced is cra is honestly crazy.
Like, I can’t imagine what, so can you talk about maybe what that experience. Like, was that, um, how did you get in front of these VCs? Was it, was it, did you get the first offer, the first person you pitched? How many nos did you get? Can you share a little bit about that experience?
Betsy: Yeah, absolutely. And it did start with, um, that 50 K grant for my first company. So even though prior to that, I had built with the founder of Comm, the meditation app. His previous
David: I.
Betsy: Mine Candy in London to Wild Success. We were the darlings of Silicon Roundabout in London at the time, um, where we had built Mahi monsters.
Um, I grew it with him to over, um, 80 million registered users online. We then were the number one toy brand in all of UK for six years on, and it was like. So incredible beating even Lego at Star Wars. I was a toy mentor, uh, right after university, and so that’s kind of how I was able to fly out there and, and convince him that we need to do this and build a physical franchise around his, like up and coming [00:21:00] digital brand. Um, but this has now been like two decades on that he’s been a mentor and seeing him, uh, build and raise a venture funding and, um, as a sole founder at the time, I thought maybe I could do this. Too. And I had the idea for my dog to help him lose weight. Right? I just wanted to build it for him originally. Um, and then it wound up that I thought, okay, I’m gonna try to give this a go. Right? And as he was leaving to build Calm, I then left to build my, my company, wonder Minto, uh, which our first product was Wonder Whaf. Um, we, um. Yeah, in so many ways, in, in terms of being a first time founder, CEO, I felt, um, this, this is, this must be success, right?
This is what it looks like. Like you’re getting all this sell through all this momentum. But where I didn’t know what to do or where to start was with the funding. Um, so I’d seen Michael raise, um, funding as mentioned, but I had never done that myself at all. I, when I was growing up, I, um. The entrepreneur that I saw was my Uncle Stewart on our reservation.
He, um, owns Azure’s Auto Body and I thought, okay, he’s [00:22:00] started a course for his life, right? Built this, um, business that’s still going today. Um, and, you know, maybe I could do that too. So I did have these entrepreneurs in my family where I thought, okay, that’s super inspiring. Um, but we didn’t have a kind of friends and family around or even know that someone could pay you to build an idea right?
Um, or anything like that. So I thought, okay, I’m gonna try, um. For grants. ‘cause I, ‘cause I didn’t, you know, I was trying to network in the London scene at the time, but hardware was just so new and especially in the pet space, there was no one yet. And so, um, it was very difficult to raise. And when I went to the US I applied for something called an arch grant in St.
Louis. and I got it, the 50 K grant. But on that, those judges were actually Maxine Clark, CEO, and founder of Build A Bear, which as a former toy inventor, I was like, oh my goodness, this is phenomenal. Um, and then Jim McKelvy, who was the co-founder of Square, which Jack Dorsey. And so when they were my judges and decided to, [00:23:00] um, you know, come in through the grant, they actually, uh, invested themselves and, and then, and then opened up their networks, right?
So I found that if you’re a first time founder. That, you know, trying to have that sort of snowball effect of, um, the introduction from one investor to another is how I got there. And I sort of pieced it together, as I mentioned, where I was able to piece it together enough to get these massive pos in the deliver on them and, you know, update the hardware and, um, the apps and everything else.
But, um, once we got to a certain scale, I then couldn. I couldn’t get there as mentioned without the venture capital. So, um, e even though we, we technically exited that company, right? Um, and I was able to remain on the board of, um, of another pet company, uh, that the, that the data went with the product itself does not, you know, exist today.
Um, and I think. When I, when I was then deciding, okay, what do, what’s next? Um, I was pregnant at the time with my first as mentioned, and I thought, what’s the greatest gift I could give? Um, my, my son outside of my love? It’s probably a love of vegetables from the [00:24:00] very first bites, considering how I was raised on kind of like a sugar rollercoaster of sorts. Um, and I found that, um, that really resonated with people. I mean, there’s, uh, when it comes to investors, you do wanna be able to, to connect with them on a level, right? Where they feel like they’re providing a lot of value too. But I think, you know, even if we don’t have children, everyone’s been a child.
Same with dogs. Even if you don’t have one, you, you understand what that feeling is, right? And that connection. And so those were things that really served me in, in the journey, right? To be able to find that human connection with, with investors. And the way I did it, um, on my second, uh, company and tenure organics was to become an EIR and entrepreneur and residence.
So I definitely went about it a different way where I, um, interviewed many firms throughout, uh, New York, um, and then. Decided to move forward with human ventures. Um, I think you’re also Yeah. Friends with there, David in, in New York. Um, and I, um, you know, from there was able to have that sort of almost year long process of really discovering and meeting that deep [00:25:00] need within the a hundred founding families.
Right? Because I had kind of launch pad for myself having founded something prior, right? Like being able to come in and say, okay, I’m gonna do this again. But from a different perspective with the, um. You know, with the VC dollars. And then, um, my, my first outside funding that I was able to bring in was, um, uh, will from Elizabeth Street Ventures, and he’s actually still, um, he’s on my advisory board for my fund to this day. Um, and, uh, it was on my board and everything. He, um, it was a game changer, right? Because in consumer he’s made some of the best bets, had the biggest exit. So I think when you are able to, um, align yourself with. People who really like, deeply understand and have seen success within your industry, um, from the get, from the, like from the very jump, uh, then that can make all the difference for validating it for other venture capitalists down the line, right?
So again, it was kind of this snowball effect that of course once we had done the, you know, in the first 24 months, 13 million in revenue, um, [00:26:00] it was much easier because the metrics spoke for themselves right at the series A level that I was able to raise. Um, eventually in combined, um, venture dollars, over 20 million. Um, and I think, you know, b before I even left the company, I did another round, um, just prior. Um, because, you know, that kind of brings us up to the point where I realized, wait a minute. In my legacy work, in this work that I do in life, um, for how I’m gonna be able to give back to my community, um, and really, and really use these skills that I’ve learned, right?
For the good of Indian country in many ways. And, and, and, you know, um, and with my Native American relatives and, and community, um. I wanted to start a nonprofit, and so I thought maybe I could remain on the board of Tiny and then be able to still do this thing where I can feel like I’m making a huge impact.
Right. Because I think as a founder, and we kind of touched on this, David, I know we’ve chatted about it previously as well. You, you feel like you identify yourself with your company. Um, and then I think when you. Once you sort of built [00:27:00] so many companies, you realize, or even once you actually have babies for yourself, you’re like, well, that wasn’t really my baby, right?
Like, that wasn’t really, um, and, and when you can start to view your companies as, um, as a work of art, right? Like it’s a, it’s a canvas that you’ve. Painted. Um, but it’s not you. It’s a, it’s an expression, it’s a symbol, right? It’s something out there that’s meant to be helpful or someone can learn from and, and, and, and project on or even feel like, you know, it’s part of them as well. Um, as soon as you can, can do that. And I’m a very visual person, so for me it like was very helpful to, um, when my executive coach kind of took me through this years ago, right, to make me really understand like, I am not tiny organics. I’m not Wonder Wolf. I am not. You know, it, it, it’s, it’s, it’s, um. Then that’s when I had this kind of aha moment of, okay, I’m going to figure out how to give back, how to build for community, um, how to create the greatest ripple in this one precious life. Um, and, and I did that through founding, um, a nonprofit called Natives Rising, [00:28:00] where we’re now the largest community of native founders and technologists with our members representing over 100 tribes. Um, my co-founder is Pomo, so her homelands are literally sf, um, in, in Silicon Valley where I am now. Um, she, um. Built, uh, at Facebook at the time as one of the first product designers. Um. There, um, to build the indigenous community and then it, it, um, and then went over to the, the top other tech firms to do so and replicate that model. I then joined forces with her because she was a bit of a legend, right? We met an MIT Indigenous Women in STEM event. Um, I joined forces with her to then launch this, um, together after we did Powwow together one year. Um, and it was. Such an awakening because through this work I actually became an NLP practitioner neurolinguistics programming, which literally helps you rewire your brain through science, right? And through these processes and practices, uh, to, to. Get out of the negative loop or the fight or flight or what we talked about kind of putting out the fires as [00:29:00] a founder and into the positive mode and the reframe right around your life, but ultimately showing yourself compassion. And I think because Danielle and I, my co-founder had healed ourselves in this work, we were then able to help and heal others as well through that. Um, so we hold healing retreats and it’s just been such a labor of love. And, and I’m now on the board of that. Um. Of that nonprofit, um, because I’d been investing for the past six to seven years now out of two different funds into women and underrepresented founders. One is X-Factor Ventures where we’ve backed over a hundred female led, uh, uh, seed rounds in the nation. Um, and that’s been, yeah, incredible. We’re on our third fund. Um, 23 of US partners for are all series and beyond founders ourselves. And then when I moved from New York to, uh, Chicago, I joined a firm called Long Jump, um, that has written the most. Pre-seed checks to underrepresented Chicago founders. Um, so we’ve done, um, almost 50 deals now, um, and I was able to build a track record to then launch my venture capital firm,
David: Hmm.
Betsy: [00:30:00] Gonna get
David: Yeah.
So I wanna, I one of the things that you said there that I, I want to focus on, I, I never actually heard someone describe building. I’ve always said the company’s kind of like your child. You know? That’s, that’s what I feel, and it is so much of who you are and. My strong opinion is I’m not sure that founders can go from zero to something without the company being everything in their life.
You know, and, and in your example, right, when you’re having your first child and you’re starting Tiny organics and you’re literally going to the park and meeting the families and going to their houses and do, it’s, it’s every, I’m sure it was everything. In your, in your life at that moment, you know, leaving your child to go to Shark Tank and, and, and like, it’s everything to you and it’s your whole personality, but no one’s ever described it to me actually as something, you know, the canvas that you’re painting on that you’re, that’s a, that’s an interesting way of, [00:31:00] of, of thinking about it.
And it’s a expression, you know, of. I don’t, I, I still don’t know how you could separate in the early days, I don’t know how you could separate, but as you start to. Transition out. I’ve talked to, I’ve had, I dunno, 30 founders on here that are former CEOs and have now left their companies or sold their companies or whatever, and so many of them talk about how hard it is.
To make that transition. But this is actually an interesting way of, of looking at it, um, through, through kind of a different light. So I wanna, I want to, we have a lot to cover. We don’t have so much time. I, the one thing I I want to talk about here for a second is, is can you talk a little bit about.
Built on purpose and, and talk a little bit about the book and why you have so much going on between all the various companies and the investing and, and, and I, I have written a book, not, um, mine was about how to manage SaaS applications, you know, so not but it, but it was, you know, a couple hundred pages and it was, it was, uh,
Betsy: Yeah.
David: Wrote two different books and, and anyway, it’s a lot of [00:32:00] work to, to do that.
And I’m curious like, what, what drove you to write the book and what is the book? Um. I think most of the stuff we’ve been talking about is probably in there, but what, can you talk a little bit more about that?
Betsy: Yes, definitely. Um, and you’re absolutely right, it took over five years to write this book.
David: Oh, yeah.
Betsy: I, the first time I had the idea for it, I was sitting, um, in a London cafe with, with Michael, with the, the founder of com, ex-boss. And I said to him, what you’ve done for meditation by making it less woo and more accessible to people I wanna do for manifestation because I believe that we all have a creator spirit in us that’s just waiting and willing to be unleashed.
And that actually founders are the ultimate manifesters, right? Create something out of nothing. Like our deck is our vision board, right? Um, and we believe it. We believe it to a fault, right? That this thing is already realized, like it’s gonna happen. That can be replicated. These things can be learned, right?
And I, and I believe that anyone can tap into that. And so it was trying to bring this access to others who maybe haven’t had that [00:33:00] opportunity previously or even known. Where do I start? Like what is my purpose? And so, um, you mentioned it earlier, but the subtitle is discovery or Deepen, or Why and Manifest. The business of your dreams. So I really take the reader through discovering your deep inner why from a values driven approach. So I include the, um, grandfather teachings from my tribe, but also 40 other value sets, um, within the book where you go through these exercises to discover what are my top five? Um, and then truly embodying those feelings, um, within yourself. And so. Through the neurolinguistics programming work that I’ve done. Um, I weave these spiritual practices into the nuts and bolts of building a business, and I do it through my, my own journey. And then I interview 26 other founders. Some have iPod, some are double unicorns, but over half are women and a third are Native American.
So I’m really excited to bring these perspectives to market. And the biggest learning in my journey that I wanted to give as the gift here is the. The idea that we can have a calm, [00:34:00] nervous system as founders, that we can come from a place of, really peace and fulfillment that’s sustainable success, right?
And ultimately, everything ends Change is the only constant in life. So if you can, find your home and your peace within yourself, no one can can take that away from you, right? So I think, trying to help founders understand this idea of the canvas like we talked about, David, this idea that, you know, it’s something outside of you, and yet you can pour all of your love and energy and attention into this.
Thing, and especially during a period of your life, right? it’s just like a, and, you referenced it too, just like a child, eventually one day you have to just like set them free, right? and so I, think that, you know, I, talk about this in the book and, there’s four different sections and the last one really speaks to this is how do you live? sustainably, in, a way that really honors who you [00:35:00] are, right? And that the most important relationship you’ll ever have with the founder is actually not with your co-founder. It’s with yourself, right? And if you can dig into, um, that and the knowingness of where you stand on your, on the values of, you know, spectrum and how you’re, um, incorporating those into your decisions, um, and then using these tools that I teach throughout the book to kind of get you there and bring you back home to that.
Place. Um, I think that’s where we can really see people thriving from this space of abundance, um, right, and, and, and coming out of that fight or flight or scarcity mode, um, into a place that truly serves and honors who they are.
David: Hmm. Uh, I know this is gonna be a hard question to answer, but. Of those interviews that you did, ‘cause I can only imagine probably some very impressive people on that list. What, what was your favorite interview? What was the, what was the conversation that maybe someone said something the most surprising, you know, that that really opened you, your mind to [00:36:00] something.
Um, ‘cause ‘cause you probably had some pretty, you probably had some amazing people, so, um.
Betsy: I don’t even have to think about this one. David. I told her when we had the interview as well, that Bobby Ray set the founder of Virtual Gurus, who, um, was the first, uh, native woman to raise, um, a series B actually round of funding, right? So she went beyond the A as well. Um, but she came from a community.
Um, I was just in actually up in Canada, um, yesterday, where. Uh, she was, you know, just like me first in her family to, to go to college, right. But she, um, she created something based on her, on her value set. Um, and that, and, and I don’t, and, and I won’t give too much away ‘cause it’s all in the book there, but, um, where you would never have expected her, um, to kind.
Build this thing, right? That she did it out of a, a deep, um, need and alignment within herself. Um, she, she had so many incredible insights from scaling a company to this size. Um, [00:37:00] but, um, what, like, I’m, I’m just trying to think of a couple that I could pull out right now for you, but, um, I would definitely say her interview was one that was like, so, so incredibly inspiring and just. Um, like against all odds right? To, to get there. Um, of course I absolutely loved interviewing my former boss, Michael, right? And his, his, his, his story is weaved in through the whole book because, you know, he, um, when I’d first seen a YouTube video of him before I’d ever even been to London, um, and, you know, decided to fly out there, he was building something called Perplex City. Um, and I thought whatever this guy is selling, like he’s the next Branson, like it’s gonna go to the moon. Right? Um, and it wasn’t actually that one that, that. That that made it, um, he had to pivot that company into mine candy into mahi monsters, into what we wound up building together after that. Um, and in many ways, you could say Mahi was like a massive success, right?
But he believes that everything was building up to, to calm, um, to what he then, uh, wound up doing after. And so. [00:38:00] was all driven by that deepener why, and those values the same way it was in Bobby’s journey as well. And I think, uh, many, many surprising like twists and turns, uh, thrown in there too. Um, but just, yeah, some incredible learnings and, and I do get really tactical in the book around the nuts and bolts of actually building a company as
David: Hmm.
Betsy: Um, but doing it through this sort of purpose driven and spiritual lens.
David: And, uh, in terms of velvete, this now, this venture fund that you started? Another thing where, you know, uh, I think going from being an operator to being an investor is, uh,
Betsy: Hmm.
David: It’s pretty big, pretty big change, uh, in, in a lot of ways. And I. What inspired you? I know you mentioned X Factor and you mentioned the, uh, the other fund that you’re working with in Chicago.
Like what, what inspired you to start your own fund?
Betsy: Hmm. Yeah, it really got to a place I think like many [00:39:00] founders feel where. It was like, if it’s not me who, like, I,
David: Hmm.
Betsy: To do this
David: I.
Betsy: Right? Like, I, I, my, my soul longs to do this. Like, this is something where I, um, I. I partnered with one of the only other native women, um, to be an asset allocator throughout her whole career.
Actually, she grew up in rural Alaska. Her name’s Carla Braier, where she saw the permafrost melting firsthand. She then built seven climate funds most recently for Avanade of Patagonia, who had seen. Speak at New York Climate Week and said, Carla, I’m thinking of giving all my revenue from Patagonia, the clothing company to the earth. Uh, can you help me figure out what that looks like, how we do that together? So she built a Patagonia Purpose, trust, and then spun out the Home Planet Fund, which deploys all the revenue, um, to indigenous communities worldwide. I, uh, had started a group with her many years ago, uh, with Valerie Redhorse called Native Women Asset Managers.
And I’ll never forget [00:40:00] on a retreat, one year we were driving up the California coast. and she was at Patagonia at the time. I was still investing and working, um, at my nonprofit. And we said, you know, this idea that I had to build a, a venture fund based on my background in the children’s space, you know, what if her and I joined forces in this work and create, made an even greater impact together, bringing these new perspectives to the market that really haven’t been at the table.
Um. in people that experience the problem firsthand, right? That are solving for those problems and, and building the solutions. And the rest is kind of history where it was like fireworks. We were able to join forces in this way. We now invest in mainly healthcare and climate. Um, and also as it pertains.
To children, right. Within the consumer and community verticals, um, and mainly pediatric space as well. We are an ROI driven like proper venture funds, so we’re not an impact fund. However, the way that Carla and I weave impact into the foundation of the firm is that a portion of our carry goes [00:41:00] directly back to tribes. Um, and so we, We are planning to make a massive impact for our communities, um, and doing this in a way where it, it weaves in our values at the very core. Um, we’d never seen this done before. We got creative around how we were building the firm itself. And we plan on making, um, sure that we’re creating generational wealth, um, for the next seven generations for, for our communities.
David: Hmm. So, you know, let, let’s talk a little bit about your, uh, your background. You’ve mentioned it now a number of times and, and the story, but, um, where are you from originally?
Betsy: Yeah, so I am from a little village of less than a thousand people in very rural Illinois where I would make the 17 hour drive every year, multiple times to go visit my reservation in North Dakota on the Canadian border. I’m Turtle Mountain Chippewa and my family is still there. Um, we. You know, I, I grew up between these two worlds of, [00:42:00] uh, yeah, sheltered, essentially like this, this, um, country girl at heart.
The first, um, city I ever visited was Chicago at the age of 17, where I really like spent time there and then wound up going to university there as, as. As I mentioned, um, you know, sitting industrial design and becoming a toy inventor originally, um, I actually thought because I grew up in the garage, tinkering and building motorcycles with my dad, who’s a motocross racer, that I would, uh, build motorcycles for Harley Davidson.
That was like kind of the dream and mule at the time. Um, and you know, I I was like, uh, and it’s so interesting, David, because the dreams, you know, when you, when you go out there and start to live, it’s. Like they just get bigger and bigger. But that’s like the beauty of when you can, when you can live in the, the dream, realize, um, you, you realize that it’s beyond your wildest dreams actually.
What, what, what you’re living in. ‘cause I could never have fathomed where I am today. Right. Um, but when I, even when I became a toy mentor, I was. It doesn’t get better than this. Like I thought that during every point in my [00:43:00] journey, right, like that, I’m like, this is literally mean. I get to like play for a living, right?
And like never have to grow up. And I was able to invent toys from Mattel, for Hasbro, from Spin Master. Um, and I learned what it meant to like fail quickly and approach each new idea with that same enthusiasm. Like so many startup learnings from the earliest days there in the the toia mention world. And then that’s what gave me. The confidence of the Toy Ventura to then approach Michael, who I had never even, you know, nobody in my family had been abroad before. Um, and I flew out there not knowing anyone, um, and, and walked into our old, old offices in batter sea and said, I’m here to meet with Michael. I have my massive portfolio in hand with these foam core mockups that I’d made in my $400 a month garden apartment in Chicago at the time.
Right. Like. out with this, with this thing and said to him, you know, I wanna meet with Michael. I mean, it was when I finally got to meet with him, um, it was like the fifth time. And when I walked in, um, you know, I was able to chat with him for over two hours. He hired me on the spot. The rest is history like we’ve talked about here.
Right. It [00:44:00] really catapulted everything for me in terms of, um, yeah, that international experience, but. Startup experience, it gave me the wings to believe that I could, you know, also become a founder. Um, and now it’s going on two decades of friendship and, and mentorship. Um, after he had went on to, to build comm as well.
So I think, you know, for me it was, um, every, every point in my journey, I’ve had these incredible mentors and I’m really. Filled, just I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. Right. Um, that, that got me here. And so I think one of the very first things I do, or I coach my founders in, that I invest in is, um, to create a, a stacked advisory board from day one.
Um, yeah. And that’s something I did even with my, my, my firm, my velvet team ventures, my, um. I was able to, even before we brought on all our LPs and the institutional funding, um, I brought around, um, just this incredible group of, um, advisors and really earliest believers as well, right? But that fit within all the verticals that we’re investing in.
And I think for a founder, that means like looking at, okay, marketing. [00:45:00] Product social impact, right? Making sure that you have that sort of wishlist of
David: Yeah.
Betsy: For each of these categories stacked within your, uh, world. And that can happen, even pre-revenue that can happen, you know, pre-funding that you get these believers around you, um, to do the thing.
So let that be like an initial. Step. Once you have your idea,
David: Hmm.
Betsy: The passion. You’re cr, you’ve created the MVP, and you’re trying to, you know, um, kind of monitor and get some data out there. It’s like get, get other believers excited that are on your wishlist and dream super big, right? Because that’s what got me here. Um, it’s all of those folks that, that believed in me right
David: What, uh, what do your, what does your family think, um, about what you’ve been able to achieve?
Betsy: Yeah, I think I dedicate the book to my family. Um, I think that, you know, I. I write in the dedication for my ancestors to our wildest dreams, right? So I, I do believe, I do believe that it is, um, you know, an answer to their prayers, [00:46:00] right? That I, that, that what I’m doing today, that it’s a, it’s a responsibility and that I carry, uh, with me, right?
That it’s something, um, so much bigger than myself. And that’s, uh. Yeah. That I, for me, they know that everything I’ve built has been out of love. Um, right. And this love that I have for, for family. And so in that way it makes sense. But it’s, um, yeah, it’s, it’s every day it’s just like better than I could have imagined.
David: I mean, it’s, it’s amazing from, from one generation, you know, we talked about this when we first met, you know, I, I recently had took my family to Greece and saw where my father was born, grew up, you know, and, and, uh, kind of the, the amazing thing of what one generation, how much can change? In that, in that period, and I mean, from what you’ve told me about your family, even more, you know, there, there’s,
Betsy: Yes.
David: been able to do is, is really it’s, it is truly amazing.
Um.
Betsy: Thank you so much, David. Yeah. And I was so inspired to hear your story as [00:47:00] well and those humble beginnings. Um, it really resonated with me because I am literally the first generation to not go to residential school, which I think. Most Americans don’t even have a concept of what that entailed. Right? Um, and it, it meant being completely, um, completely stripped of every tradition that you held.
Um, even your hair was cut, right? You couldn’t be native. Um, and so I think, um, the fact. That, you know, I’m the first generation that can feel like we are claiming back our traditions. We are native and we are still here. Right. The idea that we were going to be annihilated or that there would be, um, you know, no, no more Native Americans left.
It’s like that is just not true. Right.
David: Yeah.
Betsy: Still here. We’re going to empower And, um, natives rising really embodies that, that spirit, um, of, of, yeah, the, the kind of, um, courage that I think it takes to say, uh. We, we will, we will not, um, kind of fall into the background anymore. We are actually going to, um, stand up for, for our [00:48:00] values and, um, and, and empower one another and, and try to be the example.
Right. And, um, I think that, yeah, in, in so many ways, uh, it’s, it’s, um. It, it’s just been amazing this to, to get, to experience the journey of seeing, um, natives thriving in, in this way, right. In my community. And I think, um, I think, yeah, it’s been the, probably the greatest, uh, one of the greatest joys of my life, definitely.
David: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think you’ve mentioned it now a couple different times with different examples, but I’ve heard this in countless interviews where founders can point to a person. That they saw do it, that made them believe that they could do it. And it sounds like you’ve had a couple, you know, from your uncles, you know, uh, uh, auto shop to, to your, to, to Michael and to Kam and, you know, it’s, and it’s, it’s, and I think for, I, I am gonna assume that there’s a whole.
Flu and generation of people who are gonna see this [00:49:00] and see your experience and read your book and all of that, that will feel that same way. And it’s, it is kind of amazing because that one person, you’ve said it again, I’ve had literally countless people say this to me. That one person was that catalyzing moment where they said, oh, if they can do it, then I can do it If I, you know, by, by watching them or by being with them, by working with them.
Like, so, um, it’s amazing. I, last, last question for you. Knowing. Everything you know today and all the experiences that you’ve had in your career, what is the one piece, only one piece of advice that you would go back and give yourself at the very beginning of your career?
Betsy: I believe it’s what I touched on earlier, David, where I had always thought, because relationships are everything, right? Um, when it comes to founding a company, when it comes to building a company or even selling your product, I think. The most important relationship you can have is with yourself and when you can truly understand that and spend the quiet time necessary [00:50:00] in the same way you would showing, you know, love or compassion to your founding team, right?
Showing that to yourself. That will take you so far because then you have abundance that overflows for others. Um, and I think it’s something that in such a noisy world where we’re told, okay, gotta do this, gotta do that, gotta be out. You know, and we are doers naturally as founders, right? We want to build the thing. But I, I think that when you can just sit quietly with yourself to be able to truly understand what is it that I want, what is, what is my purpose, um, that will, that will always serve you and you will live a fulfilled life.
David: Hmm. Betsy, thank you very much for doing this with me. I really enjoyed this conversation. It’s been, I can’t wait to read the book. I haven’t had a chance yet, but I will read it. It’s right there. Uh, it’s a beautiful cover. I’m gonna, I’m gonna read that book and I’m excited for it.
Betsy: Thank you so much, David.
David: Awesome. Well, for those of you listening, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, please share this out with your networks and we’ll see you for the next [00:51:00] episode, not another CEO podcast.
