Gotham Gal

Suyeon Khim, All Tuition changing college loans, Woman Entrepreneur

The stories of first generation Americans are always interesting.  How they got here, what were their parents thinking, why did they come, etc.  Sue's business, Alltuition came out of her own personal frustration in finding inexpensive students loans for her and her brother.  It wasn't they weren't out here but finding them proved to be really difficult.  Her technical expertise allowed her to build something that would crawl the web to find those loans....and a business was born.

Sue spent some of her earlier years in Chicago because her father was getting his Phd at University of Chicago.  He then got a job managing all the Asian investments for Hyundai and they found themselves moving to New Jersey and eventually back to Korea.  When her father returned to Korea her mother stayed in the US with the kids because of the education.  That ended up being a six year separation which was hard on everyone.  They would see each other in the summer and holidays but that was it and it was hard on everyone and so after six years of this the whole famiily moved back to Korea. 

Sue's first language is Korean, second English which she didn't even begin to learn until pre-school.  Her parents only spoke Korean in the house, had Korean playdates and went to a Korean church. Her brother was born in the US but Sue was not.  For her brother, he could go to an American school but for Sue she had to go to a Korean speaking school  It was a rote memorization type school.  After leaving basically an all-black school in Chicago and then going to a Korean speaking traditional school wasn't easy.  Her parents realized that she should go to boarding school back in the US.  They chose an all girls school; Madeira in VA.  When it was time for her brother to go to school they had already learned which school made the most sense.  Alas, the oldest is always the guinea pig.

After graduating Madeira Sue decided to go to Africa for a year to teach English to understand different cultures and continents.  The tsunami hit and her parents said said no way are you going to Africa so instead she returned to Korea.  She got a job doing secretarial work at an electronic trading company and after a few months moved quickly into programming. 

She took school very seriously but her carpal tunnel syndrome was impeding her life.  Sue was going to take off some time in high school because of her carpel tunnel syndrome as over time it was getting worse.  At this point she had been to a variety of doctors and had tried a variety of things.  Her parents had a connection to a famous accunpunturist in Korea.  This guy was so good that he would continually move after he retired because he would get up in the morning and there would be 30 people sitting at his door.  Sue went to see him and after two treatments she was fixed.  Her had retired and because Sue was planning on being a doctor she begged him to let her learn from him but he said no.  She called him Grandfather. 

Sue left Korea and began at University of Chicago as a pre-med student.  Two quarters in and the acupuncturist, Grandfather, finds out he is very sick and tells Sue if she wants she can come back to Korea and learn his ways. She put school on hold and spent the next 8 months learning acunpunture. She also programmed study guides for her to review his techniques. She worked doing electronic programming of what he was doing.  Unfortunately he died and she returned ot the University of Chicago to continue her medical studies.  During school she also worked in a hospital and a bio-chemistry lab.  She was working the entire time she was in college because her parents both became unemployed and she was supporting them as well as putting herself through college.

She had one year left and her brother was going to be in college that year too and financially things began to spiral.  How could they find the money to get them both through college including just the day to day expensives and leave with as little debt as possible.  If it was a mortgage you would look everywhere you could to find the best price but for some reason she found it frustrating that only a few options were put in front of you.  It was then that Sue thought about building an application to troll the web for the best loans possible.   

She knew she had a business there and went to the Kaufman Foundation and other non-profits to ask for funding.  She knew she could build something big and needed a partner.  Originally started by building a website focused on helping consumers compare student loans.  They pivoted by essentially expanding to help consumers manage the entire financial aid process.  They were unable to raise capital as a non-profit and changed the business model to a for-profit business and begun to raise money from angel and venture investors.

How did she go about finding her partners?  Sue started using her social network, Craigs List and Linkedin.  She was still coming up dry.  On Valentines Day she put her name on OKCupid thinking maybe through that she would find a business partner.  That was how she found Sam.  They had been talking and finally got together to finally meet face to face about three hours before meeting with the CEO of OKCupid who happened to be involved with the Excelerate program.  Her and Sam had never really prepped for this.   She was talking about the concept for about 25 minutes and the CEO of OKCupid turns to Sam, who has the title of CTO, and asks what would it take for you to come on full time.  Sam responds that in order to quit his day job they would need cash.  The CEO of OKCupid asked Sam, "if I write you a check for $15k right now on the behalf of Excelerate, would you give two weeks notice?"  Sam had literally just met Sue three hours ago.  He paused and said, "yes".  They were both immediately excpted to Excelerate.

They have a great group of investors from SF, Chicago and NYC.  They have created a variety of products including one that helps people manage their monthly payments based on what they borrowed and that part is a paid model.  Suppose you get into 5 schools and you want a place to consolidate all of your financial aid in one place and be able to connect with the financial aid officers of each school.  Alltuition makes that happen.  Loans should be a last resort and Alltuition makes it easy from soup to nuts so people can concentrate on what really matters....focusing on their education. 

Cacao Prietro

Cacao Prietro might be one of the most interesting investments that I have ever made.  Cacao Prietro is the brainchild of Daniel Preston.  This is Daniels third entrepreneurial endeavor the others being lightbulbs and jet packs for the armed forces.  That alone has to pique your interest. 

Daniel has family in the Dominican Republic and through his travels there he became interested in the cacao plant.  Daniel has an incredibly curious as well as analytical mind and he began to drill down on the properties of the cacao plant.  Fast forward, he is producing chocolate ( which is exceptionally delicious ) from the beans that the company owns.  What is interesting about this is most of the new chocolate companies that are on the market have to buy their beans in order to produce their product.  We own the beans and make our own chocolate as well as sell beans.  Nice business but that is only one part of this business.

Making Mash from fredwilson on Vimeo.

 

The other part of the business is rum and eventually whiskey.  Believe me there is much more to this because between the chocolate and the liquor business there is also other new food and medical products lurking in the wings. 

When I first met Daniel and he took me through his business and his vision it took about 2.5 hours and in the back to my head I was thinking you have to get this down to 20 minutes dude.  Fred was seriously skeptical and although he rarely expresses an opinion on what I am investing in I thought he should come out and see Daniel.  After another 2.5 hours he was just as blown away as I was.  Then the process began of getting other people excited too. 

Fast forward, Daniel has in his hands the first permit in 87 years to distill in Brooklyn, his chocolate business is growing and so damn good and the food/medical product business is just beginning to percolate.  All of this off the cacao plant. 

Last night was the party to kick off the company.  Located in Red Hook, Brooklyn the neighbors came and so did many friends.  It was fantastic.  I have said this before and will continue to say that I am so lucky to have the opportunity to meet and work with an incredible group of entrepreneurs.  Help them execute on their dream and watch them grow.  At every turn Daniel has impressed me and just when I think he can't possibly impress me anymore he does. He continues to blow me away at every turn. 

Pay attention to Cacao Prietro...more will be coming your way. 

Loving the High Line

On Wednesday night I went to an event for the High Line that was held at Jeff Koons studio.  I had been there a few years ago and was just as wowed this week as I was in 2009. 

The event was a memorable one.  First of all Fred was stuck in Canada due to weather and thankfully my dear friend Mo said yes at 530 to be my date for a 630 event.  That night Mayor Bloomberg announced that Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg were giving another $20 million to the High Line after kicking off the High Lines fundraising efforts at the very beginning with a donation of $15 million.  Pretty damn amazing. 

I was speaking about this with a few people earlier in the week who are just starting to do some great work as philanthropists.  They are in their early 30's.  They are a little overcome that this money wouldn't go to something like saving lives.  I get what they are saying but as you get older understanding the value of what the High Line has given to NYC as an cultural institution as well as a park that will be enjoyed and part of the NYC landscape for basically ever is an incredible gift not only to NYers but to people who visit it across the globe.  You can't put a price tag on that. 

Fred and I are delighted to be donors to the High Line and I joined the board last spring.  I feel amazing every time I walk it.  Are we still giving money to help save lives. Donors Choose is doing that and quite frankly so is MOUSE and Hot Bread Kitchen.  Perhaps not saving lives but making a difference in peoples lives.  The High Line is making a difference in peoples lives too if you really think about it. 

Bravo to both Barry Diller and Diane Von Furstenberg for leading the charge in making sure that the High Line will get completed from the beginning on Gansevoort Street right up to 34th Street.  They are making their mark on the city and leaving a legacy behind that hopefully next generations will continue to repeat and learn from. 

Lessons to My Younger Self

Kathyrn Minshew of TheDailyMuse asked me to write a blog post around the series they are doing called Lessons to My Younger Self.  I was happy to do it.  The lessons that I have learned are lessons that I am happy to pass on.  It goes under the heading called mentoring.  If my generation can help the next generation learn from lessons we learned then hopefully they will do the favor to the next generation.   BTW, picture of my younger self. 

So here is the post:

I had lunch this past week with a very old friend of mine.   We met right after college at the Macys Kings Plaza store in Brooklyn.  She ran accessories and I ran cosmetics.  Our birthdays are one day apart.  We both turned 50 this month. 

I couldn’t help but ask her if she every thought about what her life would be at 50 and if she did, did it meet up to her expectations.   Her answer is that she has always enjoyed the moment, never really looking ahead so much but being happy at each point where she was.  My answer is that I have always been one with a desire to successfully move forward without having any road map.  My career has reflected that. 

What I mean by moving forward is that when I was in high school, I wanted to get to college.  When I was in college, I wanted to graduate and start my career.  When I was 14, I wanted to be 16 so I could drive.  Always moving forward but not really with a clear expectation of what I wanted when I got there.  Even at Macys when I began in a three- month training program, I was ready to get out to the first job as soon as possible and then ready to get promoted as soon as possible.  I have always been competitive and driven to financially succeed in a way that I would be able to take care of myself in a way that I wanted to live.  Of course at each turn I wanted more because that goes back to the desire to move forward and my competitive nature. 

When I opened up the first Women’s Entrepreneur Festival in January 2010 I spoke about my career choices and as I got older many of them had to do with children.  There was a point where I looked in the mirror and felt like I had somehow let my young ambitious self down.   When I spoke those words I saw people in the audience nodding their heads up and down.  Those words hit home to a lot of people who felt that somehow they had lost their identity with some of the choices they had made.  I know that I felt that way for a very long time. 

Perhaps it is my generation or perhaps it is just life as many women find themselves in the exact same position as I did even now.  They took time off, they took a different track that wasn’t as time consuming at work, or continued moving forward at a frantic pace and felt guilty about leaving their kids in the dust.  Need I go on?

So what is my advice to my younger self?  Do what feels right at each step of the way.  You can always pivot, you can always do something different but you can never recapture the time you spend with your kids and your family.  Julia Child didn’t start her career until she was way into her 40’s and look at the mark she made on the world.   Do what makes you happy and everything else will fall into place.  Don’t be so concerned with what’s next and do what my friend has managed to do which is enjoy each moment.  Life is short.  Take time out to smell the roses, carpe diem, give back, move forward but do it under your own terms. 

Some new products and pumpkin seeds brittle

I always love the gift of new food items.  Here are a few winners that have entered our house this past week. 

These are beans from CPOrganics and Cesare Casella aka Republic of Beans.  I love that a new breed of companies are not only making chocolates but also producing beans.  I am planning on making something good with these.  The Meadow is creating salts of all flavors.  A little bit of a flavored salt on top of a dish changes the entire composition.  I am a huge fan of truffle salt...only a tiny dash is needed. 

This mixture of sweets is from Liddabit of Brooklyn.  Incredible caramels with unique flavors; beer and pretzel, dark chocolate sea salt and ricotta orange honey.  The candy bars are dense and unique too.  I have to say I am particularly partial to chocolate covered candy corn.  That and brittle is one of my faves.

Gradys Cold Brew.  My friends are obsessed with the cold brew coffee.  This is just amazing.  So smooth and intense.  Best mixed with a little milk for iced coffee.  It almost needs to be cut or you might be up for a few days straight.

Now for the pumpkin seed brittle.  I forgot to take pics but this recipe is a sure winner.  It is all about using a timer. 

2 cups sugar

1 stick unsalted butter

1/3 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 tbsp. kosher salt

1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds

Spray a cookie sheet with a cooking spray.

Combine the sugar, butter, corn syrup and 1/2 cup water in a large saucepan.  Stir together until completely mixed.  Cook this over a high heat.  Don't stir it.  Set the timer for 10 minutes and just let it do its thing.  It should turn a dark caramel color.  Take a peek around 9 minutes in to make sure it doesn't turn to an amber color too early and if does remove from the heat and move to the next step.

Remove from the heat.  Whisk in the baking soda first and then the salt.  The mixture will rise up.  Pour in the pumpkin seeds and mix quickly until totally combined. 

Pour into the cookie sheet and push down until about 1/2" thickness.  Let cool.  Once this is cool break it up into pieces.  Really delicious.

You could add about 1/4 tsp. of chili powder to spice it up.

 

An Autumn Salad.

I was traveling for so long that on Sunday I spent the day in the kitchen.  I concocted this salad for lunch which was semi-time consuming but really good.  I came to the conclusion there is a reason that restaurants serve stuff like this because there are a variety of sous chefs in the kitchen.  Worth the time if you are so inspired.

The ingredients can change or you can substitute or add different ingredients in or put in less or more of something. 

2 bunches of black kale

4 cups chopped brussel sprouts

2 acorn squash cut and sliced into moons (skin stays on)

2 bunches of small golden beets

2 bunches of small red beets

soft goat cheese

pumpkin oil

red wine vinegar

kosher salt

Wrap the beets in tin foil and pour just a little olive oil and red wine vinegar in it and close.  Roast at 400 until soft. 

Mix the acorn squash with olive oil and kosher salt.  Put on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper.  Make sure the pieces are not touching.  Roast at 400 until browned.

In a deep large frying pan coat the bottom with olive oil.  Once the olive oil is hot add in the brussels sprouts and kale.  Saute until browned.  Add kosher salt for taste.

Once all these parts are done put in a large salad bowl.  Add a few pieces of goat cheese although I put a nice sized dollop on top when I served the salads individually.

Drizzle pumpkin oil over the top and a few splashes of red wine vinegar.  Taste.  If you need more, add more.  Salt too.

Serve.  A really delicious autumn salad. 

empowering women

I rarely speak to people on planes as it is the perfect time to just chill and at what point do you end your conversation and begin reading your book.  On my flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg a well dressed black woman who was my age sat down next to me and she struck up a conversation.  It is amazing how much information you can get from people on a plane.  She lived in Soweta which is a township in Johannesburg that houses 3 million people.  She had four children, one who had died.  She was the head of marketing for the largest insurance provider of health care in South Africa. She told me that only 16% of South Africans have health insurance.  Needless to say it makes our country look fantastic.  Her husband traveled often and was in mining and I got the feeling that he was also the head of something inside his organization.  Two upper middle class South Africans who are educated and have done quite well for themselves and their family.  Impressive considering she is my age and apartheid was only disbanded in 1994. 

We began to discuss womens roles.  She remarked on how women are jugglers.  It isn’t so much about balance but it is about juggling.  Juggling to get everything done, on time and efficiently.  Even if we are equal with our husbands or partners as we both have basically the same level job, the women ends up being the CEO of the household.  It is who women are and it is what we do and it is the same in every family across the globe.   Women get shit done.  Women make sure the trains run on time.  I love that she said, when you empower women, you empower a nation.  I told her that I might have to use that one.  

Perhaps the roles we play go back to the hunters and gatherers.  After all, if one man went out to get the meal for the community and he was killed, there was another one to take his place.  If the women went out in the fields and got killed there was no one to grow the community because bottom line, we can have the children and men just can’t.

We talked a little about the professional life that I have created for myself.   With the ability to work in a virtual world through remote access there is no reason that every woman can figure out the best juggling routine for themselves. She told me that her boss asked her to do something today and he didn't even realize she was in Cape Town but because of her phone she was able to get it done.  It is companies like hers, which she considers corporate, that need to figure out how to change because if they don’t create opportunities for women to do their jobs and raise a family at the same time the new start-ups will eventually take over their market share of being able to hire the best and brightest. 

These days, call me crazy, I do believe that women can figure out how to have it all if they are in a 21st century company that understands how productive anyone can be as long as you give someone a computer and a phone.  I totally believe that we need to support women entrepreneurs in their desire to build companies that will allow them, as well as the women inside their companies, to have the flexibility to be challenged, create their own identities and be mothers too. 

Lets go back to what she said; empower women you empower a nation.  Women are born doers and they take their jobs seriously.  Someone told me a story, a man, who runs one of the organizations that support start-ups companies in intense 3 month programs.  He said when they asked men to be mentors for the program, every one of them said sure without asking a question.  Every women they asked to participate as a mentor asked what was expected of them, how many hours would it take a week and how does it work.  All of the women thought about it before deciding to mentor in the program.  That story defines women. 

If I could do 500 start-ups that were only funding women entrepreneurs, and they don’t have to be in tech businesses they could be starting a bakery or a local retail store and create a group of advisors to work with each of these companies over a few years to insure their success, now that would empower a nation.  Of course I’d need a fund to support their second and third round because like it or not many women have built businesses that tend to fill voids in our lives and many of them are wonderful $10-50 million businesses not necessarily multi-billion dollars businesses. Sometimes and hopefully more often in the future as more women get funded that we will hit more out of the ballpark at billion dollar valuation but if we could help women build hundreds of businesses at the $10-50 million range we will have not only help fund an entire new economy, we will have empowered a nation. 

 

 

Ayah Bdeir, littleBits, Woman Entrepreneur

What struck me when I spoke with Ayah about her company littleBits is people like Ayah are makers.  To me makers are people who are making products that will hopefully transform our daily lives.  Products of old will be put to pasture as new cutting edge products take their place.  Just as new companies are transforming the way we do business others are making new products that are working on a different revolution.  Have I got your attention? 

Ayah grew up in Lebanon where she got a computer engineering degree.  She was accepted to the MIT media lab and off she went and has been here ever since.  After graduating from the media lab, Ayah spent some time working hedge funds and banks.  She went on to IBeam where she was working on smart design for consumer electronics.  Ayah also taught at Parson and NYU. 

To get her point across about what she was teaching which was about the intersection between design and electronics, she came up with the idea of Little Bits.  The concept started to stick and this idea started to form into something.  littleBits is a construction kit that comes with pre-assembled circuit boards that snap together with magnets that allow you to program things automatically.  Think Legos for the next generation. 

The idea is that kids and adults can work together even though they have no expertise in electrical engineering to create anything from a doll house to a phone.  She has been working on the concept and assembly for a few years.  What is cool about this product that it is truly snap and play.  There is no learning curve. 

Ayah showed her product at the Maker Faire last year and what she noticed was interesting.  First of all, at her booth, the kids wouldn't leave.  Second of all, the girls would not put the bits down.  The girls would draw up their ideas and then put it together with the little bits.  The coolest thing that someone built out of six modules was a mock up mp3 player.  It was like a handmade iPod. 

The kit is composed of 10 components, 60 pieces and a set of directions.  There are ways to use the lights, temperature sensors, buzzers and so you can create pretty complex things quite quickly.  She launched the concept and immediately had 900 orders waiting for the product.  You can buy the product today. 

I am so impressed with Ayah's enthusiam for what she is doing that I made an investment in her comany.  Not surprising is that MIT Media Labs is leading the round.  I also love that girls were so drawn to this product.  The ability to use the technology available today for the next generation of engineers to play with is pretty damn cool.  Guaranteed that you will be hearing a lot more about Ayah and littleBits in the year to come...and btw, they are hiring. 

We Live Here, Zoe Kazan

This is the first play of the season we have seen.  It is also the first MTC production this year.   I was particularly interested in this play as the playwright is Zoe Kazan.  This is the second play she wrote and she has also acted in films and theater.  Zoe Kazan comes from a family of screenwriters including her grandfather Elia Kazan who is legendary.  After seeing her perform over the last few years and watching We Live Here, I guarantee that you will be seeing more from Zoe Kazan.

The play focuses on a family who has swept the loss of one of their children under the carpet.  Nothing can stay under the carpet for long.  On the eve of wedding of the surviving twin sister, the family comes home to get ready.  The younger sister arrives with a new boyfriend who has history with the family creating an even stranger atmosphere. 

As the play unfolds Kazan does a great job of cluing us slowly into each character and their connections.  There is always that elephant in the room of the sister they lost.  The mother is overwhelmingly passive aggressive and the father is dismissive to everything around him.  At one point the father begins to explain a book he is writing to the boyfriend and fiancee which is about a Greek tragic hero. That is the pivot in the play where everything begins to fall into place for the audience and the family begins to crumble. 

The play is far from upbeat yet I can't get it out of my mind.  All families have something in their closet from a selfish parent to a crazy relative to someone with depression.  For some people those stories can be swept under the carpet as they move through their lives while for others their sadness or anger seeps to the surface in every aspect of their life.  I am not sure who Kazan is writing about but We Live Here is an impressive play about family. 

last dinner in Cape Town, Codfather

When I last came to Cape Town in 2004 with the whole family we had dinner at Codfather and it was a memorable one.  Jessica decided to return for my last night in town.  The restaurant is located off the main road in Camps Bay.  It is all about fish there and the fish is absolutely fantastic.  

They offer a few things to start but most people go in the back room and choose something from the rotating circular sushi bar.  I would bet that every piece of fish there was pulled out of the water that day.  Just incredible.  

Sashimi yellowtail that melted in our mouth.

A large roll which I am not the biggest fan of but here the fish is so good it just takes over the rice.

This is a lightly fried shrimp on top of a roll of tuna and avocado dripping with a lightly spiced sauce.  The mixture of flavors and textures were beyond.  It was so damn good that I could have gone back for more but there was something about how perfect that one piece was that I let it stay at that.  

We had the calamari which was recommended for an appetizer.  Simply grilled with some spices.  Really plump.  

I didn't get oysters but here is where they are kept.  

Here is the fun part of this restaurant.  You go up to the fish counters and order what fish you want.  They just grill everything and serve it with vegetables, rice or fries.  You can push the veggies and starch to the side because it is all about the fish.  You are charged by the pound.  This is one of the cases.

Here is the other.  

We opted for tiger shrimps from Mozambique.  They are so huge and delicious.  We also had langoustines which are smaller and much sweeter than the tiger shrimp.  We threw a tiny piece of cob in there which is the local fish but honestly I would have just stuck with the shrimp variations as you don't get that kind of seafood in the states.  

Here is our cooked platter.  I really love this place.  When I come back to Cape Town I will absolutely come to Codfathers again.