This is this week’s ForbesWomen newsletter, which every Thursday brings news about the world’s top female entrepreneurs, leaders and investors straight to your inbox. Click here to get on the newsletter list!
This week marked the release of the 23rd annual Midas List, Forbes’ definitive ranking of the world’s best venture capitalists. In a reflection of the broader VC industry-–wherein women make up roughly 11% of all investing partners at venture firms—female investors account for just 13 of the 100 investors on this year’s list.
The women on the list include Annabelle Yu Long, a China-based newcomer at BAI Capital, Sequoia partner Luciana Lixandru and Annie Lamont, cofounder of the $5.3 billion-in-assets Oak HC/FT.
Lamont also happens to be Connecticut’s First Lady, but well before her husband Ned became the state’s governor in 2019, Lamont was making bets on health tech that were reaping big returns. She told Forbes that the secret to her success has been an ability to spot and embrace new tech cycles, even if they force her to turn her attention away from a currently lucrative path. With the advent of the internet, for example, she switched her focus from life sciences to digital health.
“It is not about being a one hit wonder in venture. It is about reinventing yourself across different cycles,” Lamont says. You can read more about those different cycles (which span four decades!) in this new profile, here.
Cheers!
Maggie McGrath
Exclusive Forbes Profile: How One Former Public School Teacher Built A $400 Million Fortune From Her Side Hustle
buzzballz
In the 14 years since former public school teacher Merrilee Kick founded ready-to-drink cocktail brand BuzzBallz, Kick has built the brand into an alcohol industry powerhouse. In addition to distribution across the United States, the brand is now sold in 29 countries with annual revenue that Forbes estimates is roughly $500 million. “I’ve been living in the American Dream,” she says “We’ve built a legacy. We’ve become a contender in a space where women never went.”
ICYMI: News Of The Week
PARIS, FRANCE - FEBRUARY 27: Francoise Bettencourt Meyers on February 27, 2020 in Paris, France. (Photo by Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images For Institut de l'Audition)
Getty Images For Institut de l'AuditionThere’s an elite group at the top of Forbes’ billionaires list: the $100 billion club. It’s been an all-male fraternity of billionaires worth $100 billion or more, until Wednesday. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the vice chair of French cosmetics giant L’Oréal, is now worth $100.1 billion, per Forbes’ calculations, making her the first woman worth $100 billion or more.
Rihanna—the pop star-turned-beauty mogul—is launching a new hair care product line, she announced Tuesday, the latest expansion to the beauty brand that made Rihanna a billionaire.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit this week halted the Fearless Fund, a female-founded and Black-owned venture capital firm, from awarding grants solely to Black female entrepreneurs. The court ruled that this practice likely violates Title 42 of the U.S. Code, which ensures equal rights and prohibits racial discrimination in awarding and enforcing contracts. For more background on this ongoing legal fight, check out our past coverage here.
Claudia Sheinbaum made history Sunday when she was elected as Mexico's president. She is the first woman and first Jewish person to hold the role. She captured close to 60% of the vote, the highest vote percentage in the history of Mexico's democracy, just 71 years after Mexican women first received the right to vote. For more on what Sheinbaum’s election means for history and for U.S.-Mexico relations, check out my conversation with Council on Foreign Relations fellow Will Freeman.
Female CEOs are outearning their male counterparts, according to a new study by Equilar and the Associated Press that found that women’s median pay exceeded their male chief executive counterparts by more than 8%. For female CEOs, the median compensation was $17.6 million, whereas for male CEOs, the median was $16.3 million. This result is surprising because women still generally take home only about 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man.
The Checklist
1. Hire slowly, fire fast. Sheila Johnson, the founder of Salamander Hotel & Resorts and cofounder of BET, has had to overcome many obstacles to become one of America’s few Black female billionaires. She recently sat down with us to share her blueprint for success—and what she’s learned about building a strong team at any company.
2. See your primary care physician. Long-serving Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee announced this week that she is being treated for pancreatic cancer. With this news in mind, I spoke to Dr. Sanjay Reddy, a surgical oncologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center, about the signs and symptoms of the disease that people should be aware of—and also, how to prevent it.
3. Fight back against rising anti-feminism. Studies show that when men feel they have limited power, they rate female job applicants as less desirable candidates and recommend lower pay. They also become more tolerant of gender and gender identity discrimination and inequalities. Here’s what you can do as a corporate leader to fight these attitudes.
The Quiz
Known for her roles in Training Day and Hitch, actress Eva Mendes put her Hollywood career on pause a decade ago to focus on her family—but she didn’t stop working. In 2022, Mendes became co-owner of a brand specializing in products she saw as a “risk.” What does her brand Skura Style produce?
A. Children’s diapers
B. Cleaning supplies
C. Organic baby food
D. Maternity apparel
Check your answer.Liked what you read? Click here to get on the newsletter list!