The Breads Interviews Anna Whiteman

We talk to the super smart Forbes 30-Under-30 in Venture Capital

This is the interview series from The Breads entitled “Cool People. Heck Yes!” where I interview people that I think are interesting (and hopefully you will too) about what they do (which makes them interesting) but also ask them whatever random shit I’m feeling at the moment to help paint a picture of who they are. As always, you can and should sign up for the newsletter here.

This week we have Anna Whiteman. Anna is a Vice President at Coefficient Capital, which is, according to her, “a fund backing consumer businesses that use technology to create competitive advantage.” She’s been in the investment game for a while and has worked on some pretty big names in the CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) space like Drunk Elephant and Spindrift among many other. This year she was freaking named to Forbes 30 under 30 list for Venture Capital. Also (jeez this shit just keeps going) Entrepreneur named Anna among its 100 Powerful Women of 2020, and Business Insider has named Anna a 30 and Under: Rising Star in Venture. She’s also the founder of Rad Ladies, a network of top female founders. Basically a big tuna in the investment game. So, of course I wanted to talk to her to see how I, myself and by association all you, can become as successful as her. Here goes the interview.

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Professional Stuff

First question is always a softball: Tell us who you are, where you're from and what you do?
I’m Anna! I’m proudly from Philadelphia. I’m an investor at Coefficient Capital, a massive music enthusiast, and the third of my awesome parents’ four kids.

I know there is a technical definition but VC can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. What does it mean to you?
I actually came into the VC game with a bit of an outsider perspective - to me the principal role of a VC has always been to be the greatest supporter of brands and founders to help them achieve their goals. Sometimes this comes in the form of capital, but most of the time it comes in the form of late night phone calls talking through key new hires or budget reforecasts or whatever is keeping your founders up at night. I have so much respect for the entrepreneurial process and it brings me huge satisfaction to support founders in what I know is a grueling and often lonely journey. Ultimately I hope my involvement creates outsized value over the course of an investment and that payoff always accretes to those deserving of it.

How did you get in to your current job and role? 
I guess there’s a macro and a micro way to answer this. Macro, I’ve always been interested in consumer behavior and I love how financial markets help make sense of seemingly qualitative aspects of this behavior. So I think I was always meant to work in this intersection, which led me to consumer investing. Micro, the power of network led me to Coefficient - when you’re so acutely focused on a specific category and stage of investing, the people who tend to share this obsession naturally gravitate towards each other. So when the Partners at Coefficient were concepting the fund early on, I jumped at the chance to share my thoughts and ideas with them, which led to me coming on board in the earliest days.

You're pretty successful at this point and obviously very talented, but what is something you've had to work at professionally in order to do your job better or advance in your career? And why?
Negotiations and difficult conversations are tough for me. Getting to terms on a deal that feel fair to everyone involved typically entails a lot of debate and compromise. Over the course of an investment hold, a lot of things are going to go off-script and hard decisions have to be made. I’ve had to work on managing turbulence with objectivity, grace and poise. I try to remember to see the hard conversations in the spirit in which they’re intended, which is to make businesses and people stronger. I want to be an impactful investor, so while I’m a supporter first and foremost, I also continually remind myself it’s my job to be honest and challenging where necessary, to bring out the best in people and their businesses. 

Ok you deal with lots of people who have started businesses. What is a big something most people who start a business don't think about at the beginning, then down the road they are like "damn I wish I had thought about that shit at the beginning!"
Profitability! Just kidding, kind of. I would say adaptability is challenging for lots of founders. When you create a business plan and put all the parts in place to execute around it, you can become pretty tunnel-vision around perfect execution. But that doesn’t really matter if the world is busy moving right on past your business plan. I’m incredibly proud of our portfolio company Hydrant, for example, for innovating into backyard compostable mailers recently. While sustainability has always been at the core of the brand, an exciting new technology emerged that would allow them to be even more eco-friendly, at the non-trivial cost of re-engineering an entire supply chain (in the middle of a pandemic no less). Adopting the new technology was certainly the more resource-intensive and challenging road to go down, but ultimately the brand will scale with an improved product and a cleaner footprint, which is hugely valuable. I can’t overstate the importance of not being married to one outcome and being adaptable to new pathways that emerge on the journey.

Again, you've worked with a lot of founders, what are some of the characteristics successful founders have in common that are important for running and guiding a company successfully?
Adaptability of course, grit, humility, high EQ (people management), balance, tireless determination (I don’t mean exhaustive work ethic, but more the ability to continually endure setbacks and stay true to a unique vision), and focus.

How does it feel to be a 30 under 30? Was it a goal of yours?
It’s cool! It wasn’t explicitly a goal of mine but I love to make my parents proud after all the time and love and energy that they poured into me. It has led to some wonderful reconnections, for example my high school history teacher somehow caught wind of it and we were able to Zoom recently and catch up on the last ten years. I think it’ll be a powerful community to plug into to amplify the initiatives that I’m working on to empower female founders and emerging female future fund managers.

Where do you want to go next with your career?
I want to be a leader in the investment community and empower a generation of emerging female fund managers. I want to keep building my track record as an impactful investor into the best founders and companies out there. I want to spend the next however many years with my head down, solving hard problems, and developing a unique perspective on value creation.

Personal Stuff

Ok this is a staple for this series: You only get to eat three cuisines the rest of your life. What are they?
Mexican, Italian, and Philadelphian (I mean the street, homespun versions of all of these vs. elevated cuisine)

Do you fuck with board games? If so please elaborate on which ones and why? If not, why do you have no soul?
Kind of… I’m more of a pub trivia kind of person and I play Jeopardy! and Family Feud every single night on TV. I had a huge Game Show Network phase as a kid and as a result ended up studying Game Theory pretty intensively in college. I can hang with Scattegories if that counts as a board game.

Is there anything, during quarantine, that you came to realize you like doing now that you didn't before? For example I've recently found that doing the dishes is actually kind of therapeutic for me.
Being alone. I considered myself a pretty extreme extrovert usually but I think I’ve flipped entirely where I take huge comfort in solitude. I’m sure I’ll eat those words when I’m back in a big city and/or old and lonely, but for now I’m leaning into it.

Who is a celebrity that is not regarded as a "hot" celeb but you find particularly attractive?
Paul Rudd

Tell us about the first concert you ever went to.
Oh dear here we go - The Indigo Girls because I made my parents get me tickets and then take me when I was like seven or eight. They’re actually incredible performers though and seeing live music is still one of my favorite activities ever.

What is a brand you like that is embarrassing but you don't care and still like them?
Salonpas for pain relief. And Labatt Blue also for pain relief. I like Walmart cream soda. The Eagles are pretty embarrassing too I guess.

If you could interview (or have a conversation) with anyone, who would it be?
David Foster Wallace and/or Joel Embiid.

Finally this is a platform for you, so give me a bit about literally anything you want people to know about. It can be personal, it can be relevant to the politics of the world, it can be an argument for why you think we live in the Matrix. Anything you want.
This month marked one year since the passage of one of the brightest lights I’ve ever come across, my dear friend Anisha Atluri. Anisha lived a life that was colorful, spirited and giving. In her memory, I’d love for anyone who felt so inclined to contribute to two of the causes that she gave so much of her own soul to: Matènwa Community Learning Center and Venice Family Clinic.

You can connect with Anna on LinkedIn here or follow her on Spotify here where she tells me she makes very good playlists and shamelessly wants more followers.

As always if you know some ballers who you think would be good for this series holler at me.

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