Her Story
About Candace
I started my professional journey as a middle and high school science educator after being pre-med in undergrad and getting into medical school. One day, when a professor was late and asked me to quickly cover a topic for 15 minutes, it became a 2-hour lesson that I really enjoyed, which inspired me to go into education. I earned a master's degree in education through the New York City Teaching Fellows program. I thought I was only going to teach for 2 years before going to medical school, but I truly fell in love with the profession and did it for 6 years. During that time, I created a finance club, which opened my eyes to the lack of accessibility for students in inner-city schools and sparked my own interest in finance. I decided to pivot in 2020 and only applied to Columbia Business School because it was my number one choice, and I was lucky enough to get accepted. I earned my MBA in 2022, and during business school, I interned at Goldman Sachs and later worked as a mergers and acquisition consultant at McKinsey. At McKinsey, I realized I wanted to double down on investing because I really enjoyed that type of work. My interests in media and entertainment led me to my current role at Live Nation Entertainment, where I've been doing venture capital for about a year and 6 months. I focus on B2B companies and expanding them across the Live Nation ecosystem. My day varies - I spend time doing industry research, chatting with founders, chatting internally to determine how companies could potentially fit within the Live Nation ecosystem, and the funnest part of my job is going to festivals, concerts, and events to scope out different companies and see what they look like live. My focus is more on the infrastructure and companies that bring the concert and event to life.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Candace
01What do you attribute your success to?
Honestly, for some reason, I think of myself as a lucky person, and so whenever I decide to do something, my mindset is, why wouldn't it work out for me? For example, when I only applied to one business school in the last round, I'm like, I have this opportunity, why wouldn't it work out for me? In terms of applying to internships, full-time positions, I think it's gonna happen for me, and usually, the places I land are exactly where I belong. I think having a positive mindset has helped me throughout my career and life in general. Oftentimes, we wake up when we're not where we want to be just yet, and we focus on where we are in the moment, and that, I think, can be a bit distracting. So, focusing on your goals, where you want to be, and making a plan to actively reach them are also super important.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I'd say the best career advice I've received actually has been recently. I went to this event by the Black Women's Investing Network, and one of the women on the panel said that we truly just need to take up space and be confident in who we are. I know that's like a very rinse-and-repeat piece of advice, but in practice, it requires you to be a bit strategic around how you want to present in the work environment. Thinking about personal branding at work has been something that I find to be really interesting, especially nowadays with the rise of influencer culture and how that is trickling down into the corporate environment. Being yourself and determining who you want to be known as in the working environment is super important.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
First thing, network incessantly, like, non-stop. Whatever it is. For example, when I first applied to Live Nation, I reached out to 10 people across the company on LinkedIn. They were working across functions, across different parts of the company, and I think just learning through them has allowed me to feel confident during the interview process. Networking, I'd say, is super important, and networking with intention. You don't necessarily just want to reach out to random folks. I think being able to provide some sort of service to them, especially if you're asking for a favor, could be really helpful, and so trying to find people that are aligned with your mission is super important.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I check in on this every quarter, actually. Right now, my values are exploration in terms of my personal life - exploring different hobbies, meeting new people, just putting myself out there. As I mentioned, I consider myself an introvert, and so determining where I want to be in the world and the type of people I want to be around requires a bit of exploration. My second major value right now is perhaps determination. Again, this aligns with me determining what it is that I want my life's outcome to be at the end of the year, at the next 5 years, and being determined enough to make it happen. I'd say those are the two I call out.
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