58 | FORBES ASIA APRIL 2018
ing Cowboy Ventures in 2012. Cowboy
had only recently broken into the top tier
of venture capital and was in the midst of
investing its second fund of $60 million.
Leading an activist movement could be a
business risk. But she decided that if she
didn’t speak up then, she never would.
She hit “send” just ater 11 p.m. on
July 3 1. hirty minutes later, the irst re-sponse appeared in her inbox, from Se-
quoia Capital’s Jess Lee, who’d become
a partner in that blue-chip irm nine
months before. “In. Let’s do it,” she re-
plied. “hank you for leading the charge,
Aileen. I’m happy to help organize/host/
be your logistics slave.” One by one, 20
other women on the email followed suit.
Tech investing is among the mostmale-dominated industries in America.
he number of female partners in ven-
ture actually declined following the dot-
com bust, falling from 10% in 1999 to
6 % in 2014, according to a Babson Col-
lege survey. hat number has rebound-
ed to about 9% today, but at 74% of U.S.
venture funds there are no women deci-
sion makers; at 53% of the largest funds,Aileen Lee, 48
MIDAS LIST NO. 97
FOUNDER, Cowboy Ventures
ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT: $100 million
NOTABLE DEALS: Bloom Energy, Dollar Shave Club,
Rent the RunwayWorried that she wouldn’t be taken seriously, Ai-
leen Lee wore her MIT class ring and eyeglasses she
didn’t need for her first decade as a venture capital-
ist. “In the beginning, I had this feeling like I am not
worthy, that I should just do work and try to not get
fired,” she says. Now she’s looking to build a move-
ment that “creates more than tweets,” namely, long-
term change: “It shouldn’t feel like you’re walking into
Mad Men when you walk into a VC firm.”INNOVATION FACTORIESAnn Miura-Ko, 41
MIDAS LIST NO. 55
COFOUNDER, Floodgate
ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT: $500 million
NOTABLE DEALS: Lyft, Refinery29, XamarinWhen Ann Miura-Ko joined Floodgate, a prominent founder who became
a Stanford professor told her to finish her Ph.D. “It will give you the credi-
bility that you may not think you need,” she remembers hearing. Now Mi-
ura-Ko coaches women who are interviewing for jobs at venture firms.
“What I never wanted to be was a great female investor,” she says. “Does
that mean I invest in things I have a unique perspective on? Yes. Do I take
on female causes? Yes. Does it mean I want to be defined by that? No.
There’s a subtle dierence.”