Meet Silicon Valley's Female Venture Capitalist Power Players

Female venture capitalists are taking over the world—and lifting up their communities—in Silicon Valley and beyond.

Deena Shakir, Partner, Lux Capital

Deena Shakir

”I have spent the better part of my adult life seeking an avenue for impact—and have tried my hand at effecting social, economic and humanitarian change through a number of very different platforms,” says Deena Shakir, partner at Lux Capital. Shakir has followed a nontraditional career path before landing at her current role. After paying for college herself through merit scholarships—and delivering the commencement speech at Harvard— she pursued a journalism career (landing an internship with the BBC’s Washington bureau), joined the Obama administration, led social impact partnerships at Google and more. “After five years of working on earlystage products at Google, it became clear that the real innovation—the real impact—was not happening from within big tech but from smaller earlystage startups,” says Shakir, who joined Google Ventures as a partner in 2017 and Lux Capital in 2019, where she has led a number of investments in digital health and more. “I have the incredible privilege of spending all day every day meeting with the inventors of the future.”

Katie Jacobs Stanton, Founder and General Partner, Moxxie Ventures

Katie Jacobs Stanton

“My early career was a series of trial and errors,” says Katie Jacobs Stanton, founder and general partner at Moxxie Ventures. “I had jobs in government, nonprofit and banking, and it wasn’t until I moved to California to work at Yahoo in 1999 that I discovered it was possible to love your job.” As product manager for Yahoo Finance, Jacobs Stanton enjoyed building a service that people could use for making better investment decisions. From there, her career led to jobs at Google, Twitter, the Obama White House and more before starting at Moxie Ventures, where she spends her time investing in early-state companies. “Each day is different, which makes this job so fun,” she shares. The brands she works with (Clubhouse, Blueprint, August Health and more) are bringing positive change to the world, a quality Jacobs Stanton hopes will garner a legacy of “being helpful, kind and good on Twitter,” she says. “Along the way, I’ve learned that surrounding yourself with great people who are solving important problems that make a positive impact in the world is the best career path.”

Elizabeth B. Weil, Founder and Managing Partner, Scribble Ventures

Elizabeth B. Weil

Portola Valley-based Elizabeth B. Weil has worn many hats. She launched two startups before graduating from Stanford with a BA in economics and a master’s in engineering, and has taught classes at her alma mater’s engineering and design schools. She was partner at Andreessen Horowitz, an executive at Twitter during a time of hypergrowth and has invested in more than 100 companies, including Slack, Coinbase, SpaceX and more. She’s also a mom of three, a competitive ultramarathon runner and even runs Paperwheel, her letterpress and design side passion. Now, as the founder and managing partner of Scribble Ventures, she’s focused on early-stage investing. “The thing I love most about my job is the amazing people and founders and investors I get to spend time with each day, plus the ever-changing variety and learning opportunities,” she says. “Building Scribble Ventures into the VC firm I always wanted to work with has been absolutely invigorating and fulfilling as well. [I] want to bring energy, enthusiasm and a learning spirit to everything I touch and everything I do.”

Sarah Kunst, Managing Director, Cleo Capital

Sarah Kunst

Before her current position as managing director of Cleo Capital, Sarah Kunst worked in marketing for brands like Apple and Chanel; for Cameron Winklevoss’ Guest of a Guest; at Mohr Davidow Ventures as an investor; at Marie Claire as an editor; and more. Those varied experiences led to what she does today: run Cleo Capital, a preseed-focused venture fund that invests in startups. With typical days full of meetings, founder calls and media appearances, the job is not only rewarding and fun but also instrumental in promoting diversity and making important change in the world. “I really love helping bring the future to life,” says Kunst. “We’ve been lucky to invest in an incredibly diverse group of founders from all over the country who are truly doing world-changing work in criminal justice, women’s health and income generation,” she continues. “I want the world to be more fair and equal for people of all races, genders, abilities and nationalities. I fund companies that make that dream a reality, and it’s an honor to spend my personal and professional time and money to help build a more inclusive, just world.”

Hayley Barna, Partner, First Round Capital

Hayley Barna

“Today I started my day catching up with a founder talking about their PR strategy for launch, met two new potential investments and brainstormed with my partners about a potential new program for helping early founders with consumer insights,” says Hayley Barna. “In between I answered a lot of emails.” Barna currently serves as partner at First Round Capital, the company that happened to lead seed funding for Birchbox—the company she co-founded years ago. Since joining First Round in 2016, she’s led investments across a variety of industries and business models, including healthcare, consumer, tech-enabled hardware and marketplaces. “First Round invests early, typically being the first money invested in a company,” she explains. “That position puts us at the headwaters of the venture industry and gives us the privilege of helping founders enter the venture ecosystem. I love being able to make the phone call to let a founder know that ‘we’re in,’ that we believe in them and their vision and are committed to funding them and working alongside them to make it a success.”