Her Story
About Lia
I started my career right out of college working at the Robinhood Foundation for a small team of theirs called Blue Ridge Labs, a social impact tech incubator where we incubated social impact tech startups. That's when I first dipped my toes into venture capital and startups. I wanted to be more on the side of the investor, and so I landed the role at Hearst Lab, leading their community of over 80-plus female-founded companies. The special thing about Hearst Lab is that it's incredibly mission-driven. We aim to close the gender gap in venture capital funding by only investing in women-led tech startups. Currently, only 2% of venture funding goes towards women-led startups, so our goal is to change that. In my role at Hearst Lab, I work really closely with the female founders on all things programming, from pitch competitions and demo days to CEO summits and Executive Roundtables, with the goal of adding to their business development and their growth of their company. I currently manage all the programming that we do for our community sectors, including monthly workshops for the companies in our portfolio. I also manage a community of over 200 executive women who volunteer time with the lab to help with the growth of our companies as well. Along with that, I've been working on partnerships too, working closely with big names who want to sponsor our events. My favorite thing that I work on is the CEO Summit, which I pioneered about 3 years ago. It's the one time a year that we bring all of the CEOs from our portfolio together. Hearst Lab invests in companies all over the world, including Japan and in Europe. I'm in the business of people and bringing people together, and I have a personal goal of always rooting for underdogs. That's a personal mission that has carried me through all the experiences that I've had.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lia
01What do you attribute your success to?
I've had great mentors in my life. I've had to learn to be adaptable from a really early age. I think it's also my relationship-driven mission. I just relate to people, and that's always been something that I'd like to do. So I think that's what keeps fueling me to keep working in this industry, is that I do get to work with incredible people who are mission-aligned, and I want to support them.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
I went to a talk by somebody here at Hearst, and she said that no is just the beginning of a yes. I like that idea because it makes me feel like if you're really passionate about something, you should just keep pushing and keep trying and stay true to yourself. It's about being adaptable, right? And being able to pivot. I think that's something that I've done a lot throughout my career and also in my personal life, and it's a good skill to have, because if you get stuck on thinking that things are gonna go exactly how you want them to be, then when you come face-to-face with the reality, you might be in shock. But if you are adaptable, you can just keep pivoting and find your way.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Network. Network is everything. Talk to everybody about everything. Don't be afraid to ask questions. It's a male-dominated industry, on both ends, in funding and on the operator side as well. So I would say take up space.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think exactly what Hearst Lab is combating is the biggest challenge, which is that so little funding goes towards women-led innovation. We're slowly but surely trying to close that gap through our work, but there's lots of work to be done on both ends. We need more female investors, more female operators, and more female founders who are getting funding. So the work continues.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I'm extremely relationship-driven, but I'm outcomes-focused, and so that's my North Star. I'm in the business of people, and I'm unapologetically human. I'm here to build relationships, to understand people's needs, to be a good listener, and to do my best to get them to the right people and provide the right resources that could lead to their growth.
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