Thank you Carina Cho for your leadership 👏💯! Also great startup and business advice 💡: "I’ve attended conferences, went to networking events, met founders (across all stages of success) and the word I hear a lot is “grit.” There are always going to be obstacles that you can’t control but the one trait you cannot lack is grit. Have passion for what you do and persevere." "Find your people. There is so much strength in unity and having a solid team will only contribute to more success. Once you find your team however, understanding what motivates them is key."
Executive Summary: Thanking Teammates and Fantastic Human Beings - Carina Cho 1/ At Context VC we have a number of initiatives/programs/projects we are working on and it increases every day. We have some projects we are working on that we think will be really valuable for the startup community that we’ll be able to share soon. The frequent line we use is that good work creates more work, or opportunity creates opportunity. This is a less fancy way of saying the flywheel effect whereby w small wins over time can create momentum that leads to sustained growth. 2/ Here are a few initiatives that we work on: ➡️ Investing and supporting great founders and startup teams. At Context Ventures, we primarily invest in military veteran founders at the preseed and seed stage (we also separately invest in fintech and consumer startups agnostic of founder background). More than 80% of our capital to date has gone into investing in military veteran founders. ➡️The Military Veteran Startup Conference (she helped organize the first one!) ➡️ DiverseVC Conference ➡️ Creator Conference (she’s helping to organize this with Helen as we speak) ➡️We attend at least an event a month (she’s attended a number of military veteran events as a civilian ally) if not an event a week and we host roughly one event a month too 3/ None of this is possible without the fantastic team at Context Ventures & Media Mobilize who help make this happen. Today I’d like to highlight one of these fantastic professionals and human beings: Carina Cho 💼 Role Title: Chief Operating Officer at Media Mobilize, Associate at Context VC 🏠 Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia 🎓Educational background: Associate degree at Georgia State University, Bachelor of Business Administration at Parsons School of Design - The New School 📚 Favorite Books: - Dracula by Bram Stoker - The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein 📽 Favorite Movies: - 21 Jump Street (2012) - Any musical (The Phantom of the Opera, Les Miserables, Grease) - The Pianist (2002) - Catch Me If You Can (2002). 🎹 🐕 ✈ Hobbies: Piano, Dog rescue volunteering, Traveling & trying new cuisines 🎵 Favorite Bands/Artists: Muse, Queen, ELO, Shania Twain, Stephen Sanchez 💡 What advice do you have about startups: “People buy from you when they feel understood, not when they understand you.” I’ve attended conferences, went to networking events, met founders (across all stages of success) and the word I hear a lot is “grit.” There are always going to be obstacles that you can’t control but the one trait you cannot lack is grit. Have passion for what you do and persevere. Find your people. There is so much strength in unity and having a solid team will only contribute to more success. Once you find your team however, understanding what motivates them is key.