Gotham Gal

more on 24 hours in Los Angeles

My brother and I went out for lunch at Superba.  Great name, defines the food.   There is an enclosed outdoor porch and an indoor area with a big open kitchen.  Very LA vibe.  We split three things.  Not a lot of food but trust me I will be back for a full on dinner.

Started with a hibiscus iced tea with mint.  Really refreshing. 

We began with the crispy brussels sprouts.  They had fried up the brussel sprouts and then put them in a dashi broth and laid in a poached egg with chopped scallions over the top.  Unbelievable.  I am definitely attempting to make this at home.  The intensity of the broth mixed together with crispy brussels mixed made messy with an egg and the bite of scallions was over the top good.

This was clever too but not as wow.  Crab melt.  Crab salad over a toasted slab of brioche dressed with a old bay aioli and jarlsberg melted over the top.  Homemade pickles on the side that had a serious bite of vinegar.

This pasta was so rich that I dare someone to eat the whole thing.  Wakame based spaghetti so house made.  The spaghetti itself was dense.  The spaghetti is mixed with uni, crab, miso butter & pickled jalapenos.  It is the miso butter that really gels the dish.  Killer.

Then we went back to the house before I took off to go back to Utah for vacation.  Ruby, my niece, was having her birthday party that night.  The theme was Breakfast At Tiffanys.  The table was set in the Tiffany color with blue and white m & ms.  The girls were having a dinner party, catered by my brother and sister-in-law and their friend Lucy.  After dinner the girls would watch Breakfast at Tiffanys and have a slumber party.  Dress up was part of the event.  My niece looked the part.

Looking forward to spending a lot more time out in Los Angeles. 

 

Women Entrepreneurs and Investors at the Levin Institute

The SUNY Levin Institute was established after the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 by George Pataki in memory of Neil Levin who was the director of the Port Authority for New York and New Jersey.  The institute if part of the State University of New York (SUNY). 

This is their mission.  The SUNY Levin Institute promotes thoughtful engagement and an active response to “globalization” and its impact on New York State. The Levin Institute is anchored in the tradition of the urban land grant University: public universities dedicated to addressing challenges of the 21st century metropolis. The Levin Institute enhances public discourse, creates and disseminates knowledge, engages international, domestic and local partners, and develops and manages programs in support of New York’s and the nation’s economic growth, sustainability, and social vitality. The Levin Institute focuses on international engagement,
entrepreneurism, innovation, scholarship, and workforce development.

I was contacted by the Deputy Director of the Levin Institute about a programming they are launching this year called Women Entrepreneurs and Investors to be an advisor.  The focus is to bring together aspiring women entrepreneurs and investors to foster the growth of the womens entrepreneurial community.  They have partnered with Springboard and Golden Seeds. 

It is great to see an educational institute reaching out to the private community to create education for entrepreneurs, networking opportunities among women and investors and a place to inspire more women to jump into the entrepreneurial game. A win for the community.

The first event is March 28th.  I will not be at this one but am looking to other events in the future.  Information on the event is below.

Women Entrepreneurs and Investors

 

   Present:

When

Thursday March 28, 2013 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM EDT
Add to Calendar

Where

SUNY Global Center
116 East 55th Street
New York, NY 10022  


Driving Directions 

Contact:

WomenEntrepreneursInvestors

If I Knew Then, What I Know Now....

How To Navigate The NYC Funding Ecosystem

Register Now! 

Help us launch our new Women Entrepreneurs and Investors project!  Explore the vibrant NYC funding scene with an expert and diversified panel.   Learn from the expertise, experiences and lessons-learned of two successful women entrepreneurs.  Get an early look as up-and-coming women entrepreneurs take a swim in the Springboard Dolphin Tank, complete with constructive feedback from our panel and audience.  With lots of time for networking, engaging, learning, and celebrating Women Entrepreneurs and Investors.

AGENDA

Welcome:
Thomas Moebus, Deputy Director, SUNY Levin Institute

Moderator:
Vanessa Wilson, CFO, Golden Seeds

Expert Panel:
Amy Millman, President & Co-Founder, Springboard Enterprises

Peggy Wallace, Managing Partner, Golden Seeds

Jay Levy, Partner, Zelkova Ventures

Julia Pimsleur, CEO & Co-Founder, Little Pim

Adrienne Choma, Founder, Sr. VP & Chief Operating Officer, Saladax

Springboard's Dolphin Tank™: 

An interactive, fast-pitch session where the panel and the audience "swim alongside" the companies chosen to participate by giving supportive feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of their pitches.

 

Cost:  $25.00

Registration: 5:30

Program: 6:00 - 7:30

Networking: 7:30 - 8:30

Dining with Divas

I was invited to the annual lunch at the Apollo theater called Dining with Divas  There were many things about the event that just blew me away because it confirmed that New York City might be a small town but it is also a huge city. 

The room was filled with successful women from one end of the city to the other.  Each have made their own impact in NYC. I can honestly say that there were maybe two people in the room that I knew.  It was primarily an African American community celebrating the Apollo theater and the outreach that they have done for the community. 

Jonelle Procope, who has taken the lead of the Apollo board for the last 10 years has transformed the community.  She rebuilt the board, she rebuilt the structure, she created community outreach, she started evening events such as amateur night and she created TV shows promoting music that use the Apollo as the back drop for those performances.  An incredible woman who gets shit done.  Her husband gave a speech about her that did not leave a dry eye in the house. 

The events theme was about mentorship. What was the most impressive Carla Harris who is literally on ever top list in the country. She spoke about what it mean to be a mentor, an advisor and a sponsor and how you speak to each one.  She spoke about how important our journey is as woman to not make it all about us but remember it is important that we make our mark to open the door for women coming behind us.  I could not agree more. 

Here is what she said.  Advisors are people who give you advice about your business, your life or whatever it is.  They advise you and sometimes the best advisers are your peers.  Mentors are people who help you navigate your path by being honest about everything.  Giving advice that is sometimes difficult to hear and sometimes rewarding to hear.  A sponsor is someone who you only talk to about positive things because they are the people who are going to be your advocate. 

Really an inspiring day hearing women talk about other women role models and trust me there were some serious role models in that room who have broken every glass ceiling they have ever seen. 

Womens Entrepreneur Festival wrap-up video

ITP's 3rd Annual Women Entrepreneurs Festival from ITP Events on Vimeo.

Womens Entrepreneur Festival 2013

I have not had time to write a post reflecting on the event but will.  I need a few days to reflect.  I do know that there is nothing else like it. 

If you were not able to attend please watch the live stream.  There is some great content in the conversations that took place all day and on the panels.  Liz Neumarks opening remarks are moving and really insightful for any entrepreneur.  Nancy Hechinger (my co-founder of the festival) also gave a great talk on Tuesday night.

Here is my opening remarks that in many ways set the tone for the day. 

 

 

 

Fourth Annual Latke Festival

The Fourth Annual Latke Festival took place last night at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music).  A great venue.  People were standing in line for the door to open at 630.  The smell of latkes was overwhelming from the minute you walked in the door.  There is someting to be said about the smell.  I love it once a year.  The event it put on by my dear friend Liz Neumark who is the force behind Great Performances.

When you check in you get two forks, raffle tickets and a map.  Below is a pretty good wrap-up.

There are two floors.  We went upstairs first.  How can you not gasp at this display of jelly donuts from Dough,  Sufganiyot donuts.

Always a fan of Hot Bread Kitchen.  These bialys are a fave.  

Yucca and sweet potato latkes with an apple plaintain sorbet, queso fresco, pickled onion, cilatnro and spicy green hot sauce from Micah Fredman

Potato apple and daikon latke with seasoned ricotta and smoked crab from Fatty Cue.

Potato latke with fontina, apples and truffles from A Voce.

Potato yam and carrot latke with honey, preserved lemons and yogurt sauce from Balaboosta.

Potato pancakes with vanilla applesauce and schmaltzy onions from Blue Ribbon Brooklyn

Classic potato latke with house smoked salmon, salmon roe and chive creme fraiche from Clinton St Baking Company.

Latkes with sauces from The Sussman Brothers.

Spud Macabee with pickled fennel jam, butternut squash and creme fraiche from The Farm on Adderley.  Love the name.  

Everyone from the press wore red graters around their necks.

Here is some of the judges with the small pans around their neck.

More goodies downstairs.  Ganz Gut Lakte with goose confit and roasted squash apples from Berlyn.

Potato Latkes with juniper-spiced venison and fuji apple-huckleberry jam from the Plaza

Potato and Mountain Yam Latke with beef short ribs, brussel sprouts, apple caraway kimchi and sour cream from The Vanderbilt

Short rib latke from Stone Park Cafe

Duo of potato latke with balsamic lemon creme fraiche, fresh shaved black truffles & micro green salad from Velselka Bakery

Laid back latke with deviled egg and red onion, parlsey and black olive relish from Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola.

A serious group of chefs making an array of creative latkes.  It was a very cool event.  People were standing in line, voting for their favorite latke and thoroughly enjoying Hanukkah.

First Growth Panel

Lowenstein Sandler (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ed Zimmerman chairs the legal tech group at Lowenstein Sandler.  Ed not only legally represents many companies in the tech industry he also does a little angel investing on the side, has a passion for wine and brings entrepreneurs together to learn, greet and network.  I was delighted to be part of a panel this past week about "how to build a brand". 

The panel was all women.  Aslaud Magnusdottir, Co-Founder of Moda Operandi, Christine Beauchamp, former Brand President of Ann Taylor and President/CEO of Victoria's Secret Beauty and is currently a guest Professor at NYU, Katherine Barr who is a General Partner of Mohr David Ventures and Deirdre Bolton, anchor of Bloomberg TV's Money Moves.  An amazing group of smart women who gave sound advice. I was honored to be part of this group. 

What did we talk about?  The difference between a professional brand, a product brand, the interplay between both including how to launch a brand.  Each vertical is different.  I loved the presentation Deirdre Bolton gave on "Are you ready for TV". 

We broke into breakout sessions afterward with some other amazing women leading the charge; Dayna Grayson partner at NEA, Ellie Wheeler at Greycroft Partners, Kathy Leake, President and co-Founder of Local Response and Stacey Burr, VP Adidas Wearable Sport Electronic, former founder-CEO of Textronics which was acquired by Adidas.

I have to applaud Ed for putting together a group of women leaders who all come from a different place.  I got to meet a bunch of entrepreneurs and catch up with some people I have not seen for awhile.  A solid agenda with the ability to do what we do best in the tech industry....share information, give guidance and try to help everyone succeed. 

 

 

AWE, Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs

I was invited down to Philadelphia to speak at the Alliance of Women Entrepreneurs annual gala.  I took the train down to begin the day at lunch.  I met with Jane Hollingsworth, the President of AWE and Barbara Schilberg, CEO of BioAdvance who was being honored that night and a handful of other impressive women.  We sat around and discussed our businesses and AWE. 

In the afternoon I got to sit down with the group of women entrepreneurs who are the 2012 fellows that AWE has chosen including the fellows from last year.  Each are doing something completely different so the only constant is that they are all women entrepreneurs.  Life Science is very strong in Philadelphia so there was a bent towards that.  Yet there is always a constant in regards to how women tend to operate. 

One woman spoke of her company, a non-profit.  She had spent four months getting a meeting with a guy who ran an incubator as a volunteer and got him to merge with her.  Changed the name of the company, started getting investors but after all that leadership found herself not being the person who was the face of the organization but the guy who merged into her company.  Through AWE she is going to get support and advice on how to lead going forward and that is a very good thing.

That evening there was a dinner and speeches.  I am pretty comfortable on the stage but need to get much better at just talking off a few bullet points.  I am not there yet.  What I wanted to talk about is not really what I ended up talking about. The past few weeks have been super tough being displaced and so I am a little out of sorts.  Lesson learned for me and I will get better at the speech giving going forward. It is mostly about confidence that I won't go off on a tangent and babble. 

Bottom line AWE is awesome.  Such an impressive group of women who have built companies, are building companies and more important a community that is supporting each other.  The next step is getting some of these women to start investing in each other.  I felt incredibly to be honored that I was asked to speak to this group. 

 

Windowfarms at the Natural History Museum

New York's American Museum of Natural History just opened their current exhibit called Our Global Kitchen.  It educates everyone who will see it about how we grow food, transport food, the future of food and even the issues that are facing us now with global warming and more.  A really great exhibit.

Windowfarms is the center of all of it.  I highly recommend you walk into the museum at the entrance on 79th and Columbus.  You will see a 100 foot by 100 foot window containing over 70 vertical windowfarms.  They are growing lettuce, herbs and other products.  They are all using organic soil with eight pots per column, hoses to keep the water circulating and LED grow lights ....and they are beautiful. 

There is also a group of windowfarms in the center of the exhibit upstairs.  I am a huge fan of Windowfarms and I am also an investor.  You can buy a windowfarm including a subscription to plants that will be delivered to your door.  There is a pretty active community online that talks about the food that they are growing.  At the museum there is a kale that I had never had before which was delicious.

If you are visiting NYC with your kids over the holidays or live in NYC with young kids, I highly recommend getting over to the American Museum of Natural History and seeing the exhibit...and of course check out the Windowfarms. 

3rd Annual Womens Entrepreneur Festival is ready for applications!

I am thrilled to announce the 3rd annual Womens Entrepreneur Festival.  It will take place on January 22 and 23rd.  A huge thanks to the Huffington Post for sponsoring this event so we can have Live Stream live stream. 

In the last two years many businesses have started after this festival because people have found their business partners, mentors at all stages and the support system to just do it.

Here is the landing page:

We are happy to announce ITP’s third annual Women Entrepreneurs Festival.

WE3: Getting Down To Business

Tuesday, January 22 and Wednesday, January 23, 2013!
Hosted by ITP, NYU.

No matter what stage your business is in – just starting, recently launched, ready to scale – this year’s festival is designed for you. There is nothing more important to an entrepreneur than good information, sound advice, a supportive and generous community of peers, and great conversation. This year we focus on the nuts and bolts: what you need to know to make your business a success from people who have been where you are now.

The goal of the WE Festival remains the same. We hope to sow the seeds for a community of women entrepreneurs; to expose women who have not yet taken the entrepreneurial leap, the pre-entrepreneurs, to women who have.

Come ready to work! Attendance is limited to 300 participants. Find the application here. You will be notified if you have been accepted. Applications will be reviewed and acceptances made on a rolling basis. However, we recommend applying by November 20, 2012. Apply early – last year we had twice the number of qualified applicants than we could accept.