Women & Investing: Lean into VC

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Happy Hump Day and welcome to the 25th edition of Weekly Olio - your weekly dose of giggles, wisdom, and a sprinkle of intrigue with our tantalizing thought piece (yes, we're talking about Publisher's Parmesan here). 🤭

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Today’s Publisher’s Parmesan features Chiratae Ventures’ significant conversation that they kickstarted around the broad theme of women and investing. The idea was to discuss women and wealth creation, independent decision making and portfolio diversification.

Exciting, right? 👏

Will come to that, but let’s first start with the curation.

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The Quote󠀢 💭

The Tweet 🐦

The conveyor belt system, which starts from childhood and progresses at the same speed regardless of a child's learning ability, has led to a scarcity of physical desire and a surplus of metaphysical desire. People driven by metaphysical desire believe that achieving high grades and getting a prestigious job will bring them complete satisfaction. However, the desire for status symbols and external validation leads to a lack of differentiation, which sows the seeds of violence, according to philosopher René Girard.

The pursuit of meaningless rewards and undifferentiated students who compete for the same scarce status symbols creates brutal rivalries. Furthermore, the common core curriculum, SATs, and the prestige of an Ivy League diploma lead students to apply to the same schools, compete for the same jobs, and follow the same career paths.

The Infographic 💹

With ChatGPT becoming smarter, here is a comprehensive report card of its performance on a set of exams across multiple levels - from high school advance placement to graduate entrance exams like the GRE.

The Short Read 📝

How to be successful? - by Sam Altman

Sam Altman is the OG founder - behind the success of Y Combinator and now leading the AI revolution with Open AI. When he has something to share about how to become successful, we better take note.

In this piece, Sam lays down 13 principles that can help someone become successful based on his observation of thousands of founders - both successful and unsuccessful. The sooner you can start off in that direction, the further you will be able to go.

The Long Read 📜

How China is winning the race for Africa’s lithium - by Financial Times

With EVs set to become mainstream over the next decade or so, countries have been scrambling to secure their sources of lithium - the most important raw material used in the production of batteries. China already dominates the processing of lithium for use in EV batteries and is now heavily investing in mines across China leaving the West scrambling.

While Lithium is present in abundance across the earth, the rapid uptake of electric vehicles is expected to drive a five-fold increase in demand for the metal by 2030. By investing early in mines and setting up transport infrastructure across Africa, China is leading the game. By some estimates, Africa could be supplying almost one-fifth of the world’s lithium by 2030. With China controlling almost 60% of the global refining capacity for Lithium, investing in mines across Africa could put them in the driver’s seat for the EV revolution.

Publisher’s Parmesan 🧀

Women & Investing: Lean into VC

Disclaimer: This article was originally published by Tanvi (from Chiratae Ventures), edited and republished here with the author’s permission.

Leveraging International Women’s Day, Chiratae Ventures kickstarted a significant conversation around the broad theme of women and investing. The idea was to discuss women and wealth creation, independent decision making and portfolio diversification.

To delve deeper into this topic, three experienced wealth managers and an investor came together and shared their insights on women’s attitudes towards financial decision-making, risk appetite, portfolio diversification, and the role of venture capital in achieving long-term financial goals. The outcome of their discussion is a thought-provoking conversation that sheds light on how to start with small steps to grow their portfolio and make financial decision-making less stressful.

Here are the key takeaways from this insightful discussion. We hope these insights empower women to take a proactive approach to investing and unlock the benefits of a well-diversified portfolio.

Take charge, make it personal

Data shows that women-managed portfolios lead to better returns, and women tend to have a long-term, goal-oriented view of their investments, resulting in better risk-adjusted returns. Women also tend to save more, leading to more wealth-building opportunities.

The conversation highlights the importance of women leaning into investing, starting with setting personal goals and emotionally investing in them. The experts pointed out the significance of women taking charge of their financial futures by embracing investing and setting personal goals. Speaking from her own experience, one of the panellists highlighted the need for women to manage their wealth since they could build their portfolios around their goals and needs.

Diversify, diversify, diversify

Diversification and asset allocation are critical tenets of portfolio construction that can help ensure a healthy, stable, and consistent return on investment.

It’s essential to spread your investments across various asset classes and within those classes to minimise risk and achieve long-term sustainable returns. Women tend to be more aligned with their life goals and values, leading to a more patient, less impulsive approach to investing that can result in a more consistent, long-term portfolio.

The conversation also delved into venture capital and its potential role in a diversified portfolio, highlighting how it can help women achieve their long-term financial objectives.

The experts quickly pointed out that diversification should be tailored to an individual’s risk tolerance and investment goals. Working with a financial advisor can help determine the appropriate level of diversification for your portfolio. When building diversity in an investment portfolio, several factors must be considered, such as asset allocation, sector diversification, investment style etc.

Assets range from equities to bonds and their multiple forms, such as ETFs, MFs, AIFs, etc. Ensuring that your portfolio aligns with your financial goals and risk tolerance is also essential.

Surveys on women’s portfolios and diverse investments show that many invest in real estate, gold, fixed deposits, stocks, and cryptocurrencies.

Why and how to lean into VC?

From the perspective of a Venture Capitalist, how does VC fit into the portfolio of women, what are some of the metrics to assess the fit, how to access a VC manager, and how does a VC fund’s risk/reward framework align with a woman’s long-term financial goals.

It’s crucial to limit allocation to VC and invest through a fund. Investing has traditionally been male-dominated, but women tend to save more and build more wealth, and they take a more long-term view of their investments, which plays a significant role in their higher returns.

it is important to limit the allocation to this asset class and invest through a fund because investing directly in businesses comes with their share of risk. The VC expert indicated that as long as an investor’s life cycle stage objective, goals, and ability to take risks are aligned with long-term investing, there is no reason why a portfolio should not include VC as an asset class.

In conclusion, investing in a diverse portfolio that includes venture capital can help women build wealth and achieve their long-term financial goals. Understanding the risk/return profile of different asset classes and working with a manager with a history of good returns and a stable team is essential. Women can achieve their financial goals and build a secure future with the right approach and a commitment to diversification.

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