Coming to this week’s show is Carrie Colbert, Founding and General Partner of Curate Capital, a venture capital fund accelerating the success of female-founded consumer brands. You'll hear all about why she started Curate Capital, how she approaches different seasons of life, and the reason she always leads with her most authentic self.
Coming to this week’s show is Carrie Colbert, Founding and General Partner of Curate Capital, a venture capital fund accelerating the success of female-founded consumer brands. The idea of Curate was born following Carrie’s early “retirement” from the oil and gas industry, where Carrie amassed over 80k online followers and began investing in women-owned businesses she discovered online.
With their first fund closing in the summer of 2022, Carrie and her team exceeded their goal by over 50% with a $15 million dollar raise. Behind her success is a Prioritization score of 44% and an even split between Leverage and Execute, each at 28%.
Apollo explores why Carrie made the decision to leave the oil and gas industry, and how to cope with different seasons of life impacting your personal and professional lives. You’ll hear some pretty amazing statistics about the founders Carrie is investing in, and why you should always lead with your authentic self when moving to break barriers.
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Guest Bio
Growing up in a small town in the Texas panhandle, “venture capitalist” is probably not what Carrie Colbert would have answered if someone had asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Nonetheless the twists and turns of her career and life have led her to her current role as Founder and General Partner of Curate Capital, a fund that invests in businesses by women for women.
Graduating with her MBA and petroleum engineering degrees from the University of Texas, Carrie quickly rose in the ranks at Hilcorp, the largest privately owned oil and natural gas producer in the U.S. So quickly, in fact, that she was able to “retire” at age 38, right at the dawn of the influencer age, where she amassed an Instagram following of over 80,000 and experienced a flood of female founders in her inbox with brilliant business concepts just needing a savvy investor’s support.
When she saw 10x returns and more opportunity than she had personal capital, she launched Curate in 2021 and raised $15 million from primarily women, overshooting her goal by 50%. She’s been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, TechCrunch, PaperCity Magazine, and is a sought after speaker and podcast guest.
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Guest PLE Score
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Guest Quote
“I think it's important to remember that different seasons of life can look different. But it's important to remember that nothing is forever, right? We have the ability to morph and change and grow and adjust, as needed and as warranted by different seasons of life.” - Carrie Colbert
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Time Stamps
*(3:20) Parenting and Investing
*(8:02) Carrie's Achievement Index
*(12:28) How Carrie got to where she is today
*(18:12) Going from engineering to strategic planning
*(22:37) How Carrie first entered VC
*(25:05) Choosing your mission based on the tools you already possess
*(30:11) Carrie's advice for staying authentic
*(35:40) Finding your ecosystem
*(42:40) Apollo’s Takeaways
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Links
[00:00:00] Apollo Emeka: Improving your leadership skills will help you in every area of your life. But it's tough to know where to get started, and that's why we created the Achievement Index Assessment. You can take the assessment at theachievementindex.com. It takes about five minutes and it's gonna generate a personalized report that breaks down how you prioritize, leverage and execute.
[00:00:20] Apollo Emeka: Go to theachievementindex.com or find the link in the show notes.
[00:00:25] Carrie Colbert: It's fun to come in and say, do we really have to do things that way? How can we challenge that? How can we challenge the status quo and build something better and have more fun while we're doing it? I raise $0 from the East coast or West Coast, all of our capital.
[00:00:40] Carrie Colbert: All $15 million came from middle America. Furthermore, 80% of that capital came from women and almost half of it came from a key group of influencers. And so all that to say like, I don't conform very well.
[00:00:54] Apollo Emeka: Welcome to The Achievement Index, a podcast designed to help you understand and accelerate the ways you perform.
[00:01:02] Apollo Emeka: I'm Dr. Apollo Emeka I created The Achievement Index based on my experience in the F B I US Army Special Forces. And business according to The Achievement Index. Vibrant success is the result of doing well in three areas, or as we like to call them, orientations, prioritize, leverage, and execute. On this podcast, I'll be getting inside the minds of noteworthy leaders to explore how their unique orientations inform the successes and challenges they've navigated throughout their lives and careers.
[00:01:40] Apollo Emeka: Today I am joined by an absolutely amazing guest, Carrie Colbert. Growing up in the Texas Panhandle venture capitalist is probably not what Carrie Colbert would have answered if someone had asked. What do you wanna be when you grow up? Nonetheless, the twists and turns of her career and her life led her to her current role as founder and general partner of Curate Capital, a fund that invests in businesses by women for women graduating with her M B A and petroleum engineering degrees from the University of Texas.
[00:02:14] Apollo Emeka: Carrie quickly rose in the ranks at Hillcorp. The largest privately owned oil and natural gas producer in the US so quickly, in fact, that she was able to retire at age 38. Okay. 38, right at the dawn of the influencer age where she amassed an Instagram following. Of over 80,000 and experienced a flood of female founders in her inbox with brilliant business concepts, just needing a savvy investor's support when she saw 10 X returns and more opportunity than she had personal capital.
[00:02:47] Apollo Emeka: She launched Curate in 2021 and raised $15 million primarily from women overshooting her goal by 50. Percent. She's been featured in Forbes Fast Company, TechCrunch Paper City Magazine, and is a sought after speaker and podcast guest. That's why she's here.
[00:03:16] Apollo Emeka: Carrie, how are you doing today?
[00:03:20] Carrie Colbert: I'm great. Uh, that five-year-old daughter is actually turning six in a few days, so we tried to do some family photos this morning, so that's what my morning has been. And then straight into some meetings and now this. But no, things are good. I had, uh, kids later in life and I joke that they're either going to keep me young or completely wear me out.
[00:03:37] Carrie Colbert: I'm not sure, and it varies from day to day, but I. They definitely are a bundle of energy and take a lot of energy for sure. But things are good.
[00:03:45] Apollo Emeka: Tell me about, thank you. About Yes. Yeah, I, uh, so she's about to turn six.
[00:03:49] Carrie Colbert: Yes. So we just wrapped up kindergarten and, you know, I was one of those people that, for a myriad of reasons, I won't bore with, didn't necessarily think that kids were in the cards for me.
[00:03:59] Carrie Colbert: You know, I was just kind of career focused and relationship-wise, it just hadn't happened. And so I thought, oh, that's just not gonna happen. And then I had two surprises in my forties and so they are the biggest, uh, blessings. I, I never knew I needed for sure. I mean, it certainly teaches me so much on a day-to-day basis about how to be a better human and, and better.
[00:04:19] Carrie Colbert: Business person and just better all around? I think so.
[00:04:23] Apollo Emeka: Oh man. It's a good thing, man. This just became a parenting podcast
[00:04:28] Carrie Colbert: and I claim no expert, uh, perspectives on that, but I have a lot of lived, uh, experiences
[00:04:34] Apollo Emeka: for sure. Yeah. Well, as a child of parents who were in their forties when I was born, I can tell you that your kids are gonna turn out to be awesome.
[00:04:43] Apollo Emeka: Okay. Aw, that's great to hear. You know, I had parents who were in their forties when they had me, uh, and I have a. Four year old turning five in a couple of weeks and a one year old turning two next month. So, ah, I'm right there with you on the. Yeah, this is either gonna keep me young or it's gonna send me to an early grave.
[00:05:04] Apollo Emeka: Um, exactly.
[00:05:05] Carrie Colbert: We're in the thick of it together, it sounds like.
[00:05:07] Apollo Emeka: Absolutely. I'm probably gonna come back to that parenting thing because it's so clutch and it seems like looking at the composition of, of your business and the businesses that you invest in, I'm sure that parenting is a central theme that emerges quite often for you.
[00:05:23] Carrie Colbert: Absolutely. You know, as we invest in businesses, we're primarily focused on consumer brands and we say, you know, kind of buy women for women. And the idea there is that the stats show that women control about 85% of household spending. And so our belief is that, you know, women know what other women want and need.
[00:05:39] Carrie Colbert: Mm-hmm. And so they're developing the, the products and solutions that women want. And when I talk about what women want and need, that of course includes their families and children and yeah, absolutely. Spouses and everything as well, you know, the whole ecosystem there. But, uh, yeah, kids are definitely a, a part of that when we are evaluating, uh, potential investments.
[00:05:58] Carrie Colbert: It's also a, a topic that I talk about a lot with our founders, you know, the founders and CEOs we work with. Many of them I. I would say most of them are, are on the younger side of things, although a few are, are older than I am. Mm-hmm. But most are, you know, late twenties, early thirties. And it's a real struggle for them as they see a lot of their friends and you know, in some cases, coworkers, colleagues, whatever, you know, having kids and families.
[00:06:22] Carrie Colbert: But for them, you know, their business is kind of their child at this point and you know, it's a real, um, yeah. You know, scary proposition for them. Like, Hey, am I gonna miss the boat by not having a family? And, you know, my, my feedback is always that, not to sound too trite, but I think in many ways life kind of works out the way it's supposed to, right?
[00:06:38] Carrie Colbert: Mm-hmm. Like, you can't sweat about the timing because there is no prescribed timeline, you know, for, for everyone, you know, a universal timeline. And so, you know, for me, I didn't have kids until later and I'm very thankful for that. I certainly had some maturing to do and. I worked a very intense corporate job, you know, that required me to be at my desk for many hours or traveling for many days at a time.
[00:07:00] Carrie Colbert: And, you know, that certainly wouldn't have been conducive to being a mother. And so while I still work a lot, I at least have the flexibility, you know, to some extent of kind of crafting how that looks vis-a-vis the children and their activities and all that. So, you know, I think it's, it's a real pain point for women and.
[00:07:16] Carrie Colbert: And just kind of knowing how to navigate that and, you know, when's the right time and how is that gonna impact my business and my career? And a lot of conversations happening kind of behind the scenes about parenting and, and when it happens and the, you know, how that impacts, um, the business.
[00:07:31] Apollo Emeka: I'm sure there's a ton to unpack there and mm-hmm.
[00:07:34] Apollo Emeka: I, I definitely want to because it's at the center of your mission and it's also, there's that mismatch that you talk about where. We know that, what is it, something less than 2% of capital goes to women founders, right? But right. If they're making 80% of the purchasing decisions in the household, then there's that obvious kind of mismatch and, and an opportunity there.
[00:07:55] Apollo Emeka: And I wanna, I. I want to unpack everything that this means from the business sense and from the human sense and from your journey. But first I want to dive into, um, so you took the achievement index, the assessment. So you came back as 44% prioritize, 28% leverage, and 28% execute. So you tied on leverage and execute.
[00:08:17] Apollo Emeka: And I'm not sure if you had a chance to look over it, but how did it strike you?
[00:08:21] Carrie Colbert: You know, it's interesting that we're talking about this on the heels of the parenting discussion because if I would've taken this about 10 years or or so ago, I probably would've been. More all in on. Yeah. You know, one aspect, but I think, I think I've had to let go of some things, you know, some of the perfectionist tendencies or some of the certain aspects of, of my, kind of the way I performed before.
[00:08:42] Carrie Colbert: Yeah. It's probably a more balanced approach. So I, I actually wasn't surprised to see that I, I wasn't like I. You know, all one thing or another because I, I definitely have had to, to kind of learn to let go of some things, learn to delegate some things, and learn to really focus on prioritizing, you know, what can be the best use of my time, where can I make the biggest impact?
[00:09:01] Carrie Colbert: Yeah. And let go of some things that I probably wouldn't have let go, go of. Prior to this, if that makes sense.
[00:09:06] Apollo Emeka: Yeah, no, that makes total sense. And so, you know, you mentioned the prioritizing piece and that is the way that we look at things is through this lens of that. It really takes three things to be successful, right?
[00:09:16] Apollo Emeka: You have to prioritize. Meaning like knowing what must be done, what mountain are you gonna climb, where's the flag on top of the mountain leveraging, which is building out that base camp and making the climb easy. And then execution is, you know, charting the path and making it happen, and actually walking the path.
[00:09:31] Apollo Emeka: Right? And it's not like every one person has to do each of these things equally, but these are the things that are required for anything to be wildly successful. Right. And so you, you say that you're shifting. It sounds like you, you in the past would've been less prioritized, and now you're more prioritized because you are, are feeling more the realities of trade-offs, and is that, is that what you're saying
[00:09:55] Carrie Colbert: that's accurate?
[00:09:56] Carrie Colbert: Yeah. That, that is absolutely accurate. And I think during this season, even from a, a. Kinda a personal wellness perspective. I've had to say, look, these are my personal priorities, and at it's most basic, it's taking care of myself, taking care of my family, and building my business. And so if anything doesn't filter through those priorities as as a yes, then it kind of gets sidelined.
[00:10:16] Carrie Colbert: And so, you know, I, I think it's important to remember that like different seasons of life can look different. Um, and there have been times that I've said yes to every opportunity, yes to every. Social invitation. Yes. To every charity or cause. Yeah. But that's not this season. That doesn't mean it's gone forever.
[00:10:33] Carrie Colbert: Um, you know, another thing I was just talking to a friend about, we had a lunch meeting today and she, she was talking about travel and, you know, I used to travel a ton. I. Well, travel looks and feels a little different when you've got two young kids. And you know, I try not to get too down about that because it'll come back, but it's like, yeah, yeah, okay.
[00:10:50] Carrie Colbert: It's not a vacation anymore, it's like a trip. Right? Like I have to just adjust my expectations. And some things are, are, you know, you're adjusting your expectations up during a certain season and then certain times they go down, right? Like, but I just think it's important to remember that nothing is forever.
[00:11:05] Carrie Colbert: Right? Yeah. Like we. We have the ability to morph and change and grow and adjust as needed and as warranted by different seasons of life. So that's where I'm right now.
[00:11:18] Apollo Emeka: I love it. I love carrie's self-awareness and this call out that different phases of life require you to adjust to sometimes be more prioritized, more leverage, or more execute.
[00:11:32] Apollo Emeka: She said that if she had taken this. 10 years ago that it would've been super execute dominant, but that's probably why she's so good at doing what she does, because she's been in the trenches, but she didn't get stuck there, and she's recognizing that in this season she needs to shift to be more.
[00:11:51] Apollo Emeka: Prioritize. If you want to find out where you are, you can go to www.theachievementindex.com to take the achievement index and get your own score back. Alright, now let's get back to Carrie's journey. Looking at your background, you've got an M B A, right? And this is where you get like a really broad general set of skills on how to be an executive and run a business, right?
[00:12:16] Apollo Emeka: And yeah. Uh, contribute to a larger machine. And then you've got this really specific, it seems like technical skillset as well on the engineering side. Is that accurate?
[00:12:27] Carrie Colbert: Yes, that's correct. And, and a little background on how we got there. So I was from a really small town, um, in the Texas panhandle. That's the part of Texas.
[00:12:34] Carrie Colbert: That's as far north as you could go and still be in Texas. Okay. So we were closer to say Colorado and Kansas and Oklahoma than we were Houston. So middle of nowhere. So not only small, but very isolated, middle of nowhere. Got it. Um, And so no one in my family had ever gone to college. I was top of my class and thankfully had a, a really great school counselor who said, well, you should study engineering.
[00:12:53] Carrie Colbert: And I said, great. What's that? You know? Mm-hmm. There was one engineer in my small town and he agreed to meet with me. And you know, I remember this very clearly sitting across this desk at his, his big fancy office in our small town, and he said, well, you should be a petroleum engineer. That's what I was, and he kind of slid a brochure.
[00:13:09] Carrie Colbert: Brochure across the table for the University of Texas Petroleum Engineering. And he said, I've never recommended anyone for admittance to this program, but I'd be, you know, honored to do that for you. And said, okay, that's great. It turned out that's where I got a full ride scholarship and so I moved to Austin, um, which may sound close because it's all Texas, but that was 600 miles from home and I didn't know anyone else there.
[00:13:32] Carrie Colbert: And so I studied petroleum engineering and happened to, um, graduate at the top of my class with the. 3.98. I had a one
[00:13:38] Apollo Emeka: B the first semester. Oh, you, oh, you happen to, you happen to you just, you just accidentally graduated of the top class. Stumbled into that. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, yeah,
[00:13:46] Carrie Colbert: yeah. All that to say that all of my early decisions were just very practical and pragmatic in nature.
[00:13:50] Carrie Colbert: I mean, I didn't have any safety net or any privilege to speak of. I mean, I understand there were certain degrees, but I mean, in terms of financial means. Yeah. Or legacy connections at school or anything. I was kinda out there on my own and needed to prove myself, and I knew that. Education would be a great equalizer, so to speak, and provide opportunities that wouldn't be open otherwise.
[00:14:08] Carrie Colbert: And so I was very focused on studying and making good grades and getting a good job. And so obviously that education then led me to a career in Houston. And here's the the kicker. I was never passionate about the energy industry. I had colleagues and friends who really did get. Really jazzed up about, you know, the oil and gas business and, you know, the work we were doing.
[00:14:30] Carrie Colbert: That wasn't me. But the real turning point for me was that the vast majority of that, it was almost a 20 year career in that industry. The vast majority of that was spent working for a company that's privately held. And I had the opportunity to work for the founder who's now a billionaire, and worked directly for him.
[00:14:48] Carrie Colbert: And even though I wasn't passionate about the business in terms of the industry, I became passionate about being an entrepreneur because he ran the company in such an entrepreneurial way, and he really was so forward thinking in how he structured things and really created an environment where we all succeeded together.
[00:15:07] Carrie Colbert: And that was by crafting the incentives so that everyone was motivated to move towards the same goals. See, and it was truly a beautiful thing to see. For instance, we had one program where, um, you know, I, I was actually in charge of the strategic plan to figure out like, okay, how much can we grow over the next five years?
[00:15:23] Carrie Colbert: And we did a very detailed technical study and all this and said, well, you know, this is going to be hard. It would be kind of a BHAG goal, you know, one of those big, hairy, audacious goals. Mm-hmm. But we think we could double the size of the company over the next five years. And he's okay. And then so he rolled out this incentive program to the company and we called it Double Drive.
[00:15:41] Carrie Colbert: And the idea was, If we doubled the size of the company in the next five years, then everyone in the company would get a new car. And so we actually did that, and I know him well enough to know that if we would not have met those specific metrics, he would not have granted the award. I mean, he would always say, these are not pennies from heaven.
[00:15:58] Carrie Colbert: These are rewards for achieving goals. And so it was really a cool thing. We had this moment, uh, kind of an open
[00:16:04] Apollo Emeka: moment. And so wait, was everybody in the company?
[00:16:06] Carrie Colbert: Yeah, from top to bottom. And so at the time, I think we gave out about 320 cars. Oh my goodness. Yeah. But you know, if you look, we took the company's value from, you know, maybe several hundred million to north of a billion.
[00:16:20] Carrie Colbert: So whatever financial cost there was for the reward was definitely worth it because his company and his net worth. Crew, but it was really powerful to see how when you align incentives within an organization, you really can see some powerful results. And you know, I, I tell this one silly example, but it's so true.
[00:16:38] Carrie Colbert: I had the guy who managed the mail room was so attentive to me and he'd stopped by, you know, Mr. Carrie, you know, Carrie, how are you doing today? Can I help you with anything? Do you have any packages that need return? Can I, you know, do any errands for you? Can I do whatever? Because he knew the more time I could focus on my value adding work, the more reward he would get.
[00:16:55] Carrie Colbert: Right? Because we were all incentivized the same
[00:16:57] Apollo Emeka: way. That's so amazing. You know, so the way that I look at this is that, you know, in that strategic planning process, that was the flag planting, right? Like that was the prioritizing, right? And then you moved into leverage by saying, okay, well how do we mobilize our people around this?
[00:17:12] Apollo Emeka: And how do we mobilize them in a way that doesn't get them just fired up and like, ready to put in 12 hour days and just burn the midnight oil for no reason, no pun intended. Um, but to align people in a way that's gonna get them charging up. Up that mountain, right? Yes, exactly. So now also, can I just say that I have not spent a lot of time in Texas.
[00:17:34] Apollo Emeka: I did this coast to coast drive from the North Carolina coast back to California one time, and I swear 75% of that drive was in Texas. Yes. So I've, I've been to Texas a little bit, but there are some things that are just highly stereotypically Texas about your story. Like petroleum engineering is oil and gas is the most The oil.
[00:17:50] Apollo Emeka: Yep. And that's the most Texas engineering degree I think that you could get. I know. And then I, the incentive being cars as well. Like that's just not fancy vacations. Not no uhuh, it's cars. Okay. Yeah. So, you know, we hear this story about you sitting in front of this petroleum engineer and at his big fancy desk, and he says, you should go do this, and then you do.
[00:18:09] Apollo Emeka: And then the next thing that we hear is that you're doing strategic planning. What happened in the in-between time and how did you cultivate that? I guess that kind of entrepreneurial or that prioritizer spirit, because you could have been very, very execute, right? Like you could have been just figuring out how to do all the things that gets the oil outta the ground,
[00:18:27] Carrie Colbert: right?
[00:18:28] Carrie Colbert: Right. And I had some of my technical friends and colleagues who they got really jazzed up by that. There's a, a thing when you're drilling a new oil. Well they, you do, after you drill it to see if it's gonna be successful or not, you get what's called a log. And these, these guys that I worked with, they would get very excited when we get a new, well log in the office to see how much oil and gas we possibly found on.
[00:18:48] Carrie Colbert: I was kind of bored outta my mind. By that I mean mm-hmm. Yes, I, I would appreciate it if it was good news because that, but that just didn't really jazz me. The technical aspects. I was thinking more like, okay, how can we expand? How can we be bigger? What more can we do? And so, yeah, the technical details of that job never really motivated me.
[00:19:08] Apollo Emeka: Never really motivated her, really. But I mean, isn't that what she's supposed to be motivated by? Didn't she go to school for years learning how to. Read these technical samples and understand dense engineering data. And didn't that well-known engineer in her town recommend her for this engineering program?
[00:19:27] Apollo Emeka: And now this thing is not really motivating her. This is what happens, right? And careers and journeys is that the things that we are trained to do, we kind of maybe just aren't even that interested in. And some people choose to double down. And they choose to dive deeper into the things that don't really motivate them, that aren't really interesting.
[00:19:49] Apollo Emeka: But, hey, I've been trained. People are expecting me to know this stuff, to do this stuff, but she was not bound by that. She instead moved into the areas that did motivate her, that did light her up. Let's hear how she did that.
[00:20:12] Carrie Colbert: And so I was recruited there to run the engineering side of the business, and then I got my M B A while I was working there. So after that is when I transferred over to, you know, more like strategic planning and finance. Gotcha. And investor relations and all that. But, You know, really what that did was just light a fire within me.
[00:20:29] Carrie Colbert: I, I loved the entrepreneurial way that he ran the company, and I got to see and do and be a part of so many cool things. Don't get me wrong. I mean, it wasn't a bad experience just because I wasn't passionate about the industry. I think a lot of times these days, I, I hear anyway. Young people stressing, trying to figure out their passions from so early on and figure out what they're meant to do.
[00:20:48] Carrie Colbert: And that's great. More power, you know, to you in many cases. But sometimes those things can only be learned by just doing work. Yeah. And it doesn't even have to be work that you're necessarily passionate about, but that's how you learn what you like, what you don't like, what you're good at, what you're not good at.
[00:21:03] Carrie Colbert: And all those things are just stepping stones, right? Like I don't think any experiences is lost on us, even though I don't actively practice as an engineer. I'm still so grateful for that education because it taught me a way of thinking and processing data. Similarly, even though I'm not in the energy industry anymore, the, the connections I made there, the lessons I learned, I'm sure the experiences I had all led me to where I am today.
[00:21:27] Carrie Colbert: So, you know, I, I think it's easy to get caught up in the trap of like having it all figured out from such an early age. And, you know, I'm. Proof that you can not have kids until your forties, and also not even necessarily being your, your dream career role until your forties. So that, that's kind of my story is that, you know, there's still time to figure it out.
[00:21:46] Carrie Colbert: You're never too old. You're never too late. As long as you're actively being curious and learning and seeing what you can take away from every experience, nothing is lost.
[00:21:56] Apollo Emeka: That's such an important thing to hear. And I think it's not just for, for young folks, but I think it's also for. People who might be later in their careers or their entrepreneurial journey as well is, you know, there's on the front end that anxiety around what am I gonna do and how am I gonna make it big?
[00:22:12] Apollo Emeka: And what am I gonna be the best at? But then as you get more mature in your career, it becomes like, I. Questions of sunk cost, right? That's right. It's like, oh man, I've already been doing this for so long that like, if I keep, if I, I know how to play this game and I know that if I, you know, I, I do the next thing, then I go up to the next rung and I do the next thing.
[00:22:32] Apollo Emeka: I go up to the next rung. And if I want to do something else, like, I don't know how those rungs work over there. Yes,
[00:22:37] Carrie Colbert: so I was at Hillcorp Energy, the company where I spent the most of my career for 12, almost 13 years. And the company is still great, but I was just personally kind of burned out, a lack of, you know, kind of passion for the, the industry.
[00:22:50] Carrie Colbert: And, and so I decided to step away and I didn't know what was next. And I happened to kind of be on Instagram in the early days when it was easy to. You know, post a pretty picture and get a lot of followers and likes. And I mentioned that only because it was very fortuitous. That actually is how I started connecting with brands that I just liked.
[00:23:07] Carrie Colbert: Whether we were working together on an influencer campaign, or I just liked them or they liked me, and I just started asking women. I'm like, well, I really like you and your company. If you're ever looking for investors, I've got some money to invest. Like totally didn't know what I was doing, but I learned on my own dime.
[00:23:21] Carrie Colbert: And so over a period of about five years, basically redeployed a. A big chunk of, you know, what I had made in one career into this whole other industry and type of business, and three important things happened. One, I was having great fun and I would not have used the word fun to describe my career before it was.
[00:23:37] Carrie Colbert: Mm-hmm. It was a good career, but mm-hmm. Fun was not aware. Mm-hmm. I was like, this is really fun. So I was having great fun. Two, I was having great results. There were turns I was seeing were incredible and so by just injecting a little capital and also some, you know, maybe mentorship or advisement or whatever you wanna call it, I saw the growth that these companies were experiencing, and that was exciting.
[00:23:57] Carrie Colbert: And then three, and most importantly, for kind of my next step was I saw the great opportunity set. And what I mean by that, you touched on it a little bit of it earlier, but women founded businesses are underfunded. Mm-hmm. So even in, you know, this day and age, the stat is 1.9% women received 1.9% of venture capital dollars in the United States last year.
[00:24:18] Carrie Colbert: Yeah. So abysmally low, but the flip side of that is there's. Study after study that has shown that they are actually overperforming. Yeah, so just to quote one example, Boston Consulting Group came up with a study a few years ago that showed for every dollar of investment, women deliver 78 cents of revenue, whereas all male teams deliver 31 cents of revenue.
[00:24:39] Carrie Colbert: So it's not even close. It's like double the results. And then there are other studies that kind of back that up. And after, you know, five plus years in the space, I had a lot of relevant relationships that kind of give us an inside track. So for me, it kind of created this. Arbitrage opportunity, if you will.
[00:24:53] Carrie Colbert: Right. These businesses are underfunded. Yeah. Yet overperforming and we have a bit of an inside track. Well, let's go to work and do more of this. So that was really when the idea for starting a venture capital fund was born.
[00:25:05] Apollo Emeka: Yeah. That's so interesting that you also found this. Opportunity in the influencer space.
[00:25:13] Apollo Emeka: Right. And yes. You know it's funny though, sometimes the way we look at strategy is sometimes you can go top down and you can say, Hey, which mountain do I wanna climb? Now I gotta assemble a team and the resources, and then we gotta execute and climb that mountain. And then there's this kind of what we call middle up version of doing strategy where you're like, what do I have?
[00:25:29] Apollo Emeka: What do I have with me? And now, If I put all these things together, what mountains can this help me kind of take down? And it looks like you absolutely kind of had a middle up strategy development here where you're like, wait a minute, I have these female influencers and they're underinvested, they have great product offerings.
[00:25:46] Apollo Emeka: Or you know, like, but is that, is that what kind of happened is you looked around and you were like, oh shoot. And it sounds like there was some demand as well from them. Yeah.
[00:25:54] Carrie Colbert: Well, and, and through my kind of angel investing experience over that five years, I realized that there was a gap in the market because I would meet with founders and they had perhaps never pitched to an, uh, to a female investor, right?
[00:26:06] Carrie Colbert: And so they would pitch to, to men and um, who maybe didn't understand their business, their product, their service, you know, because it wasn't a pain point they had experienced. And so we are not exclusionary in any way, but it's just in some cases, you know, there, there. Is a bias where we gravitate towards what we know and understand and are familiar with.
[00:26:25] Carrie Colbert: And so the privilege of being able to meet with a founder who maybe hasn't gotten to visit with an investor who gets her business is a real honor in a unique situation. So, Yeah. And so having an outsider approach has been really fun to have in the venture capital space. Right. So I had, you know, run finance and, you know, yeah.
[00:26:44] Carrie Colbert: Worked with a, you know, private equity a lot, but I wasn't entrenched per se in the venture capital industry. That's not the industry I came up in. Certainly. I had a lot to learn, and there's conventional wisdom and, you know, yeah. Rules and things that are in place for a reason, and we will certainly adopt that, where it's needed and where it's necessary.
[00:27:01] Carrie Colbert: Yeah. And where it's applicable. But it's fun to come in and say, Do we really have to do things that way? How can we challenge that? How can we challenge the status quo and build something better and have more fun while we're doing it? Right? And so that's kind of the, the perspective I I took with this.
[00:27:16] Carrie Colbert: And so when we were fundraising for our first fund, at first I was going out to some kind of traditional LPs and our branding and our kind of tone. I've got very bright colors and bold fonts and all this. So, you know, I walk in with my hot pink outfit on and my hot pink pitch deck and everything. And I.
[00:27:32] Carrie Colbert: Probably raised a few eyebrows from the traditional perspective, but what ultimately happened was probably better in that we found our people, we found the people that get our message that, you know, resonate with me. They resonate with our kind of bold branding and our bold, you know, kind of voice and tone in the market, and they like that we're doing things different.
[00:27:52] Carrie Colbert: And so whether that's investors or. Founders. The point is like in both cases we found our people who get who we are, right? Yeah. And so we didn't go the traditional route for fundraising. I raised $0 from the east coast or west coast, all of our capital. All $15 million came from middle America. Mm-hmm.
[00:28:09] Carrie Colbert: Furthermore, 80% of that capital came from women and almost half of it came from a key group of influencers. And so all that to say like, I don't conform very well. And so, you know, I'm even. Part of some VC groups, and I hear like they want your pitch deck to look a certain way and say certain things.
[00:28:25] Carrie Colbert: Yeah. But for me, I, I don't really pay attention to that because my investors are not the traditional limited partner investors in venture capital. My investors are high net worth individuals, not corporations, not pensions. They're just high net worth people who are looking for someplace to put their money.
[00:28:41] Carrie Colbert: Something that they wanna have fun doing. They wanna enjoy the businesses, they wanna find a way to, to influence their investments. So that's why influencers are so keen to invest with us. So we do, we do all the hard work in the background to vet the investments and make sure that it's a, you know, a sound, you know, yeah.
[00:28:57] Carrie Colbert: Investment from a financial standpoint. But then they can pick to kind of amplify those brands by sharing on social media, by converting these women convert really well, right. And drive a lot of. Sales to our portfolio company. So it's really a win-win equation. But someone who is really ingrained in the, you know, traditional VC industry, might not have seen that opportunity just because they're just not thinking that way.
[00:29:19] Carrie Colbert: Yeah. Yeah. And so it's been fun to just kind of build a firm in a, in a different way from anyone else.
[00:29:24] Apollo Emeka: It's incredible, and you hit on so many, so many things that there's, there's these little threads popping out now that I want to pull on, but I, I guess, you know, looking at, so less than 2%. Goes to women and mm-hmm.
[00:29:37] Apollo Emeka: Some, you know, I've seen, I've seen various stats, but. If you just take black women, for instance, it's like a third of a percent or something like that, right? It's
[00:29:45] Carrie Colbert: like 0.01% or something. Okay. Wow. Insanely low. I mean, yeah, it's
[00:29:50] Apollo Emeka: abhorrent. And so what are some lessons that you think that you have learned?
[00:29:53] Apollo Emeka: And I, I mean, that's why I feel like you just touched on a lot of it, of bringing this authentic brand and matching that brand with both the companies and the investors that resonate with what you're bringing. Right. And if you hid the hot pink. From them, then they wouldn't be able to see you. Right. Yeah.
[00:30:08] Apollo Emeka: They wouldn't be able to recognize you and be like, oh, that's my jam. But, you know. Are there other lessons that you think that can be learned for folks who are listening, who are like, man, oh yeah, I wanna break out like that. And I'm part of an overlooked group as well. What do you think are some of the, the keys to, you know, overlooked people?
[00:30:25] Apollo Emeka: Um, yeah, getting seen.
[00:30:28] Carrie Colbert: Yeah, I'll tell two stories, one anecdotal, kind of lighthearted, and then we can get into the, the more serious meat of it. So even me who's sitting here is telling you how, oh, bold. I am. I know who I am, I'm colorful, I'm, you know, whatever. Yeah. I recently, within the last, uh, few weeks joined the advisory board for a, a bank here in town, and this is a really cool opportunity, but, The rest of the board is pretty much a bunch of old white guys.
[00:30:52] Carrie Colbert: Nothing against that demographic, but I knew what the room I was walking into. So we had our first board meeting a couple weeks ago and, you know, I pulled out a, a pink dress or, you know, something. I was like, yeah, no, I better tone it down a little for, for this bank board meeting. So I go in with, for me, a relatively neutral outfit, you know, um, still had a few pops of color, but, but relatively toned down for me.
[00:31:12] Carrie Colbert: I walk into the, the boardroom and the first two people that greeted me said, I wore pink for you today. Why are you wearing black? You know, she's like, I wore color. And then this other guy said, I expected you to show up in a rainbow dress. Why did you let me down? So it was funny because they had done their research and they had this, they already knew how I was gonna show up and little, you know?
[00:31:32] Carrie Colbert: And did I know that? And I had kind of tried, tried to tone myself down so I wouldn't be too outta place. And so it was a good reminder for me, just show up as your authentic self. Like people will gravitate to your authenticity. More than if you try to hide it. So I said, you know, don't worry. Next month I will indeed show up in, you know, a hot pink or rainbow colored dress, one or the other.
[00:31:50] Carrie Colbert: So that's the funny story.
[00:31:54] Apollo Emeka: Holy smokes. I can relate to this. When I first started Apollo Strategy Group, I said, oh, you know, I'm a consultant now, so I need to have some consultant photos and I need to dress like a consultant. So I dusted off my suits from when I was in the F B I and, uh, went down to the mall and I took some head shots on an all white background with my arms crossed, and I said, This is what a consultant looks like.
[00:32:19] Apollo Emeka: But it's so funny that in a space where everybody is talking about innovation, building a unique competitive advantage, and then we all strive to look like each other. So I have switched things up. You could probably almost hear my sneakers in the background. Right now they are bright, neon, orange and yellow, and now that's just part of my uniform.
[00:32:42] Apollo Emeka: So when I walk into a room, just like her pink dress, People have come to expect that I'm gonna show up looking and acting just like myself. And every single time that I do that, it encourages other people to look and act and show up just like themselves. Plus it's just way more comfortable wearing sneakers.
[00:33:05] Apollo Emeka: But that traditional way of dressing, talking and acting gets you into the traditional rooms. But is that where you really wanna be?
[00:33:16] Carrie Colbert: So when I started out fundraising, I started going to kind of traditional LPs. Then I thought, you know, a lot of my investors might come from my oil and gas network, and some of those certainly did.
[00:33:24] Carrie Colbert: But really the turning point was when I just started talking about it on Instagram, you know, or to my friends, whether in person or online, just talking about it. And the people that resonated with it will be attracted to that, right? Like, yeah, there are certain rules in this country about how you can, um, kinda solicit investors.
[00:33:40] Carrie Colbert: Yeah. Mm-hmm. And so I wasn't even trying to get investors. I was just like, oh gosh, you know, I'm so excited about this new company we invested in. And women would, would reach out and be like, Oh, I've been a customer of that company forever. So you're saying that if I invest with you, I could be a part of that, or you know?
[00:33:54] Carrie Colbert: Mm-hmm. Maybe a company that was solving a pain point that they had experienced, like, oh my gosh, I've had that problem. I wanna be a part of the solution. And so I wasn't even having to be outwardly salesy, per se. Right. I was just talking about what was going on and people were drawn to that. And so, you know, I think never underestimate, you know, your personal perspective, your person personality.
[00:34:17] Carrie Colbert: Your personal story, all those things, you know, will attract the right people to you. And so, you know, I'd love to say it was a beautiful, um, masterful plan of mine that, hey, I wanted 80% women as our investors. I frankly didn't think that was possible, but as it turned out, mm-hmm. I mean, it's created this really great ecosystem of, of women supporting women and not just as a cheesy tagline in a very tangible way, women are supporting women and we're seeing incredible results from it.
[00:34:44] Carrie Colbert: So, you know, I, I think. That's my biggest lesson and, and, and I'm telling myself these lessons, you know, day after day because we're contemplating launching our second fund later this year, and mm-hmm. The, the kind of group think in the VC space right now is, it's a challenging fundraising environment. I don't know.
[00:35:00] Carrie Colbert: LPs are holding onto their money. No one's investing right now. But I think my people are still investing. I still think they, they want another fund. They're asking me when we're gonna launch the next one. I'm getting inbound interest every day. And, and again it goes back to that I'm not drawing from the same, you know, investor pool that everyone else is.
[00:35:18] Carrie Colbert: I've drawn from a demographic that's so different. They're not subject to that group. Think they're not subject to listening to, you know, kind of the collective wisdom in that world right now. 'cause they're just not in that world. Yeah, they're just, they've got some extra cash on hand. They're looking for a place to park it where they can, you know, have fun, do good, and make good returns
[00:35:39] Apollo Emeka: along the way.
[00:35:40] Apollo Emeka: I've been thinking a lot in terms of ecosystems, right? Mm-hmm. Like you have to have all of these ingredients within your ecosystem in order to be successful, right? So you have to have the investor side, you have to have the, uh, the, the companies and the founders, and then you have to have the consumers, right?
[00:35:56] Apollo Emeka: Yes. And you have to have all of the, the people and, and that are, that, that fill in the gaps between those groups, right? Absolutely. Yep. And you have, you have to have that ecosystem. Um, otherwise, Uh, it's gonna be, if you don't have one of those ingredients, it's gonna be really tough. Right. Um, so in these groups where, uh, where you, you were thinking, right, like, oh man, I, how, how am I gonna get predominantly, I.
[00:36:20] Apollo Emeka: Women investors, I don't think I'm gonna be able to do it. When you start talking about even more specific, um, kind of layered identities, whether it's, you know, black women or, uh, folks from the L G B T Q community or um, disabled folks, or, you know, when you start thinking about those ecosystems and like you said, just those earlier in our conversation, those preferences and those kind of different comforts, those are the things that shake shape ecosystems, right?
[00:36:48] Apollo Emeka: That's right. So like mm-hmm. Are you, it feels like, it feels like you have not, you're not feeling the edges of your ecosystem right now. It feels like you're still in this space where you're like, oh, man, actually this ecosystem is big and I can be a, a, a bigger connector. Is that, is that fair to say?
[00:37:08] Carrie Colbert: Absolutely. I feel like we just kind of dipped our toes in the water with this, this first fund. And I was talking to, uh, some of our strategic partners yesterday and who one has a, an influencer agency and so they reached out at the tail end of our, our fundraising for fund one, and so we got kind of the top part of their roster in.
[00:37:26] Carrie Colbert: They're so excited. They're like, Curie, there's so much more we can do together. There's so much more. And so they're, you know, all in on our next fund and, and looking forward to, to bigger things. But I think that's exactly right. So, you know, I, I think of it as concentric circles and you talked about Mm mm-hmm.
[00:37:39] Carrie Colbert: You know, that that first, um, symbiotic cycle is kind of our, uh, Me, our investors, the founders we invest in, the influencers who invested in, but then you look at the influencers who have 10 plus million followers, you know, in their community. And so as the ecosystem expands, you know, it, it only benefits everyone.
[00:37:58] Carrie Colbert: Right. There's no downside to it. Yeah. It's, it's only positive. It's only upside. And so, you know, from brand awareness, from converting to sales, Just, you know, spreading the word, like all those things are happening and it doesn't all have to to be me driving all that. Right? So it's all about creating a wonderful community where others can help spread the word and others can help grow.
[00:38:19] Carrie Colbert: Yeah. Um, you know, the mission and, and the cause, so to
[00:38:22] Apollo Emeka: speak. I love it. I wanna ask you more specifically about leadership and about how you approach things specifically in your company. You've got this balance of prioritize, leverage, and execute. So you can kind of go to the toolbox for whichever of those that you need.
[00:38:37] Apollo Emeka: But are there times where you feel like irritated or agitated, you know, where you're like, oh man, like I'm in the wrong world. I should not be. I should not be looking at the log sample or whatever the, the core. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. I shouldn't be looking at these drilling results, you know? Are there times that you feel that now or that you felt that recently where you're like, oh man, I'm in the wrong world.
[00:38:57] Apollo Emeka: I need to, I need to zoom out. I need to step back and look at the mountain range and, and plant the flag, or I need to invest in the base camp and build out our resources, or I need to actually get in and execute. Like, are there times that where you felt out of place? Yeah,
[00:39:10] Carrie Colbert: absolutely. I'll say that I, it's actually quite common that I feel that way.
[00:39:14] Carrie Colbert: I still definitely know that I'm in my sweet spot professionally and like I'm doing what I'm supposed to be. But I'll say that starting something like this is very challenging from an economic perspective. Mm. And without boring you with too many specifics about it, the traditional VC fund economic model is challenging when you're just starting out.
[00:39:31] Carrie Colbert: I can see why. Mm-hmm. People don't start funds unless you're, you know, Uber wealthy independently, because as it stands, you know, there's kinda a management fee. Well, that's not very much to build from, you know, it's not a very big budget to build a team from. So I really can't build out a team with just this first fund.
[00:39:46] Carrie Colbert: We've got a few strategic partners, but that's exactly what I've had to do, is get creative about how I leverage the skills and expertise of others until, you know, we launch a second fund and whatever and have some, you know, exits and all that sort of thing, where then I can afford to kind of build out a team internally.
[00:40:03] Carrie Colbert: But in the meantime, I've had to get creative about leveraging the skills and, and talents and expertise of others because there's not enough of me to go around. Yeah. But yet there's not enough budget to really build out a team. So it's been challenging for that perspective. I've definitely had to be in the weeds more than I would like to be, um, just by default.
[00:40:21] Carrie Colbert: And so I'm looking forward to a time where I can get back to a bit more elevated perspective because I think that's where I really
[00:40:27] Apollo Emeka: thrive. I love it. Well, this has just been an amazing conversation. And, uh, oh, thank you. Yeah, we, we ran the gambit from children to exits, so, yes. Uh, I really, really appreciate
[00:40:41] Carrie Colbert: it.
[00:40:42] Carrie Colbert: Oh, thanks for having me. And I, I just thought of something, if you'll indulge me for a second, I can tell a really quick story to kind of bring it full circle. And this wasn't planned, but since I mentioned the engineer from my small town. Yeah. Um, I'll, I'll bring it back to that. So small town I grew up in, I don't go back.
[00:40:56] Carrie Colbert: My family's not there any longer, so I haven't been back since I graduated from high school in like 1995. I'll age myself here. Wow. Well, just a couple short years ago, I was in Austin and I'm on the, um, executive advisory board for the College of Engineering there. And so we were having a groundbreaking ceremony for a new building and I was visiting with the dean and there was this man standing there kind of, you know, eyeing me was a little awkward.
[00:41:19] Carrie Colbert: I'm trying to converse with the dean and we finally got to a stopping point in the conversation. This man looked me up and down, he said, You don't recognize me, do you? Oh, wow. I felt awful. I'm like, you look vaguely familiar, but eh, wrong, you know, kind of wrong place, wrong time. Like I can't quite place you sort of deal.
[00:41:35] Carrie Colbert: And I said, no, I'm sorry, I don't. He said, well, Kerry, it's Mike Riley from Perrington. He said, I know I haven't seen you since you graduated from high school in 1995, but you're the only person I've ever recommended for the petroleum engineering department. Wow. And he said, I've kept up with you. All the time I followed your career and I just wanna tell you how very proud you've made me.
[00:41:56] Carrie Colbert: And so it was a very full circle moment for me. Incredible. And so now he's Inactually Inactually lives in Austin, and so we get to keep in touch now. But it was, it was very nice because, you know, I don't work as a petroleum engineer and you know, he could have been disappointed in that. I was like, I followed you from afar.
[00:42:10] Carrie Colbert: I followed every step of your career journey and personal journey, and I just want you to know that his wife was there. He said, Lynn and I are very proud of you, so Oh
[00:42:18] Apollo Emeka: my goodness. How many of us get to kind of close loops like that in our lives? That's a gift right there. I know. That's amazing.
[00:42:26] Carrie Colbert: Well, thank you for letting me share.
[00:42:28] Apollo Emeka: Yeah, thank you so much for all of your openness and your insights. It's been an amazing conversation and I, I really appreciate you coming on the show. Thank you,
[00:42:37] Carrie Colbert: Apollo. It's been my
[00:42:38] Apollo Emeka: pleasure. Thank you so much, Carrie Colbert, for an amazing conversation and so much perspective. Now let's dive right into our takeaways from a prioritized perspective.
[00:42:50] Apollo Emeka: Carrie says to know what motivates you? What is it that lights you up? If it's engineering this season, cool, but then when it's not, go do something else. She was able to walk away from this amazing incentives program at her company because she knew what she wanted to do, which brings us to the second prioritized point is know what season you're in, so that way you can know what skills and which mindsets are gonna be required.
[00:43:16] Apollo Emeka: For that season. She talked about seasons from parenting to entry level positions, to management, to entrepreneurship. So it's really important to understand what season you're in so you can bring the skills and the mindset that match that season. And last for prioritize. Carrie stresses the power of having a brand, have a brand.
[00:43:39] Apollo Emeka: The brand might show up in your clothing, in the way you talk, in the way that you do business, in the way that you connect with people. Whatever it is, have a brand from the leverage perspective. Carrie used social media platforms to build a following, and then she was able to leverage that following in other areas of her life and business.
[00:44:02] Apollo Emeka: She developed this kind of middle up leverage strategy of saying, Hey, I know all of these influencers and they want to invest. Let's build a vehicle around this. And then connected to the prioritized point I. Of having a brand is actually using that brand. Remember the story that Carrie told where she didn't use her brand?
[00:44:22] Apollo Emeka: She had a brand and people knew of her brand, but she didn't use it. She walked into the room and just kind of blended in and looked like everybody else, and people were disappointed. So if you have a brand. Actually use it. And finally, from the execute perspective, Carrie understands the value of having a technical skill.
[00:44:44] Apollo Emeka: For her, it was engineering. Whatever it is for you. Just get good at something. And then when things have to get done, even if you're an executive, And you're the only one to do 'em, do 'em. Just don't stay in a position where you have to keep executing as an executive. Woo, that was just an amazing conversation and I want to thank Carrie one more time for joining us, and thank you for listening.
[00:45:14] Apollo Emeka: I'll see you on the mountain. Remember you. Can find out what your achievement index is by going to www.theachievementindex.com. Take the assessment, takes about 15, 20 minutes. Make sure you're in a nice, calm state of mind and a quiet place, and you can find out your own achievement index and figure out how you match up.
[00:45:37] Apollo Emeka: Against our guests. I'm Dr. Apollo Emeka if you like the podcast, please rate us on whatever platform you're listening and remember to share it with your friends. Thanks. See you next time.