Empowering Women in Web3: Breaking Barriers to Investing – Essential Do’s and Don’ts

• 1 Women entrepreneurs often get a very small share of the entire VC fund in the industry.
• 2 Women, Wealth & Web3 is a subject that begs everyone’s attention as women frequently stand at a disadvantage in the corporate world.
• 3 ¥€$ 3.0 Abundance & Wealth podcast, hosted by Brandi Veil, discusses the importance of women’s equality in accessing Web3 benefits.

Women, wealth, and Web3 is an aspect that begs attention because of the state of female entrepreneurs in the corporate world, in general, and the Web3 and DeFi space in specific. The emergence of Web3 and DeFi has opened a whole new definition of wealth and its distribution. Players who participated in the decentralized iteration of finance, saw overnight filling of their bags. It brought about a reinvention of the economic system.

But the segment that is regularly at a disadvantage in many societal regards, stood the same position for the DeFi wealth as well. That segment, representing half the population, is– women. Henceforth, it’s high time they received their fair share in this changing economy, and we get them on the Web3 path right from the beginning. This formed the major point of discussion in one of the recent episodes of Brandi Veil’s Web3 Podcast– ¥€$ 3.0 Abundance & Wealth.

Brandi Veil is an American entrepreneur and educationist. She is a Web3 enthusiast and a spokeswoman for financial literacy, currently presiding over the investment fund and consultancy– Being Investments, and is the CMO of Avisa Games Guild.

Challenges Women’s Initiatives Face When Seeking Funding

Present among the guests was Adryenn Ashley, an award-winning filmmaker, author, TV host, and venture capitalist. A Managing Partner for Slay Ventures, a Web3 startup VC fund, she is a long-time blockchain influencer.

She quotes certain figures regarding the inequality of women entrepreneurs in the industry— “We still get like 1.7%-ish of the entire (VC funding available in the market). And for women of color, it’s even less.”

Her self-help channel for crypto enthusiasts, CryptoVixens, regularly hosts events on educating women on Web3, cryptocurrencies, investing, etc., and a forum for innovative ideas. She says, “The CryptoVixens idea was to inspire women to join founding teams as advisors or co-founders, regardless of technical expertise.”

Joe Rey has been a commercial and music video director for over 25 years and is the founder of a mass media education and production platform– Popology. He has worked with Hollywood A-listers and big brands like Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, Lean Rhymes, Fidelity Investments, Chase Manhattan, and many more.

Rey goes on to give the example of his mother— “My mother was one of the first dancers of American Bandstand on television. Unfortunately, she lost her popularity at an early age, getting into marriage… I saw her in regret, for not achieving the things that she was so fiercely set to do.”

Another challenge for successful women, and a challenge in the Web3 industry, at this moment, is that they’re not allowed to fail and be vulnerable. It’s, as Ashley mentioned, “private pain in a public life”.

Sharing his opinion on vulnerability, Doug Gordon says, “Vulnerability is actually very important, I think, as a true leader, because it creates authenticity and trust. And I think in the past, we’ve had a command-and-control style of leadership within businesses. And now slowly, people are trying to move across to the inspire-and-trust type. If you can inspire people to a sense of trust and purpose, it can really be a massive game changer within businesses.”

Relevance of Technical Literacy

Veil explains the lack of educational outreach in tech, and that it’s not a far cry, rather everybody is a part of it already. She says, “Everybody’s in tech right now. whether they know it or not. Like you don’t know how email works. You still use it every day. Then why say no to an opportunity in Web3, just because you think it might be too technical for you.”

Some learning curves need to be fetched for everyone. Often it is seen that even media literacy advocates don’t necessarily know about technical domain things, for example, algorithms, consensus of data, etc.

For all the newbies, one of the first and foremost things venturing into crypto is wallet control, and understanding what’s the difference between custodial and non-custodial wallets.

The risk comes for mainstream consumers who don’t understand technology, can’t trace their money, and don’t have the tools to monitor the blockchain. According to Ashley, “We as OGs, our responsibility is really to educate the public on how to evaluate investments.”

Unlocking Abundance and Wealth for Diversity, via Web3

Stressing the importance of diversity, Ashley says, “We need diversity in founding teams. Otherwise, we’re literally just going to get homogenous little widgets that don’t serve a vast number of people, and we need to drive mainstream consumer adoption.”

Rey shares an example of the blockchain-AI project Popology is working on— “There’s approximately 68 billion dollars tied up in the SEO industry. But the search engine optimization, ad revenue, etc., that’s going away because of AI. That means all that SEO business has got to go somewhere. And (one of the) ideas built upon blockchain-of-services is what I call ‘user-placed advertising’.

In the Popology platform, the users pick the ads that they like, from the brands, as a consensus of popularity, the measure we agree on, the sort of focus-group idea. So the brands are going directly to the influencers, and the creators, for their ad revenue, retention and conversion.”

Alan Teitel, is a commercial photographer and cinematographer, who has received the prestigious Emmy award twice. He also has experience working in tech as the founder of UltraSlo Studios, a video making tool for advanced assistance in media and VR-AR. He is also an NFT creator for UltraSlo, combining art, tech and mathematics.

Teitel reminds that challenges in the Web3 world are not limited to one gender. These challenges affect all genders. This emphasizes the need for collective action and cooperation to overcome these challenges, and create a more inclusive and equitable space.

Tips to Avoid Pitfalls and Frauds in Investing

White Paper: The awareness of the technicalities of things you’re investing in is paramount. Carefully go through every detail of the white paper. Refer to other companies’ white papers as well.

Open Source and IP: Open source software is an excellent model, but it can also be a medium to carry out fraud, due to its open-ended nature. Always look for innovative intellectual property in it. IP not only signifies innovation and relevance but also pins down an identity to be attached to a guarantee and warranty.

“If there’s no intellectual property to protect. I don’t want to invest in that. And I certainly don’t want to recommend it,” says Ashley.

Technical feasibility: Make sure whatever is presented is compatible and in sync with standard technologies out there. If an idea sounds too rogue to be compliant with authorities as well as the standard tech models, it opens the door for scamming.

Ashley says, “I’m technologically savvy enough to know we can’t do something without (for example) Google and their Quantum Sycamore. So that’s not really possible right now. Their timelines and their runway are not mapped out correctly.”

Blockchain monitoring and Tokenomics: Keep monitoring the corresponding blockchain for transactions, and tracking these funds. Tokenomics is another important factor to analyze.

Ashley explains, “You have these scammy websites that pop up, and they’re promising 3.6% compounding interest every day with a multi-level marketing play… None of that is actually legitimate. And when you look at these projects, the first thing you should look at is, can you actually see the transactions on the blockchain?”

KYC and AML: Your due diligence before going in on a deal, including KYC and AML, is crucial. Ashley advises— “If you don’t have background checks on the founders, or you don’t have independently verified KYC, or the proof of funds, just don’t do it. It’s 99.9% not real.”

Verification Resources: She also suggests some resources that can be used for cross-checks and verification— “Check their LinkedIn. Look up Edgar— edgar.sec.gov has all of the public filings. If they’re doing anything of significance, regardless if they’re using a Registered ID, or any other kind of exemption, they’re still going to have to file. Continuum (an investment management firm) launches their data aggregation that allows you to actually deep dive into every potential investment.”

Networking with experts: A consortium of people who know the business and the industry must be networked or reached out to before getting in on a deal. They can vouch for authenticity and their market reputation, and help the investor make a wise, informed decision.

Every investor is different; they have different investment strategies, risk tolerances, and risk profiles. The litmus test is the threshold for loss. It’s different for a builder, a DeFi pump-and-dump, an arbitrage, and some other trader. So you have to know who you are first. A trader’s or a whale’s risk tolerance could be much higher than a builder’s.

Rey suggests embracing the trends— “A sort of investment tip for the bigger picture, if I may say, and I’m not giving bank advice, I’m giving a trend story. Everybody knows AI is hitting hard. And they’re inventing AI to do all kinds of stuff. Hence, in an investment capacity, look towards projects that are building innovations that are actually embracing, not opposing AI, or working with AI,”.

Ashley concludes— “When you think about it, we have to do failures to win. So don’t beat yourself up if you do have bad investments; learn from it, understand that it’s part of the process, and embrace it.”

Paving the Way for Female Entrepreneurs in Web3

Among the most esteemed speakers present was Nuala Naughton, a multi-award-winning journalist, and the senior broadcast journalist for The Coin Republic. She is also a publicist for US Presidential candidate Sid McNairy, and has her own popular show VoiceOverGlasgow.”

Speaking playfully about the possibility of hosting a show in the metaverse, she says, “I would love to see a reality show on Web3 called Real Housewives of the Metaverse.” To that, Ashley wittingly responds— “I can totally do that. One of our projects is to use AI-driven avatars, and you can train all of them to be super hot mess housewives, and release them to have brunch every week,”.

Lianna Adams, an impactful crypto influencer, is a consultant and strategist for startup enterprises. Introducing herself, she highlights the importance of blockchain, crypto, and Web3 technology, “I work at the intersection of art, culture, technology and social impact. Over the past years, my journey has been connecting the dots to drive growth and innovation for nonprofits, NGOs, DAOs, Web3, NFT projects, creators, and platforms.”

Jodeen Bergstrom is an influencer, who helps artists, entrepreneurs, and businesses grow with mindset training. She is a leadership coach, who has found a passion in Web3, and is popularly known as the “NFT Godmother.” According to her, one of the solutions for a mass Web3 adoption is “Deep connections and building that resilience to attract higher caliber clients is really what we need to be looking at.”

Transforming Mindsets for AI, Web 3, and Crypto Investingin Brandi’s YE$ Masterclass and Whatsapp Group 

Jodeen is part of Brandi’s executive mindset mastermind group helping entrepreneurs think more like investors. She is an advocate supporting the YE$ 3.0 mindset community. She adds, “Everybody come on over to our YE$ Mindset Mastery WhatsApp group. It’s our home. That’s what I call it. It’s the home. Essentially, we get to uncover true wealth together. In vulnerability and transparency, some of us are playing the wealth game and have gained and lost a lot of our money, including myself, learning how crypto markets work. Women, you are not alone and there is support while you grow as an investor.”

YE$ Mindset Masters isn’t just a group; it’s a way of thinking and embracing new technologies. To venture into emerging markets like AI, Web3, and crypto investing, a fresh mindset, adaptability, and a willingness to explore new technologies are essential. Brandi initiated this group to bridge the transition from Web 2.0 to 3.0, fostering an “open mindset” towards investing and embracing Web3 adoption with innovative tools. The goal is to ensure that both women and men are empowered in their wealth-building journey, leaving no one behind.

In her weekly Abundance and Wealth social audio podcast, Brandi explores the unprecedented opportunities available for women. She emphasizes the need to shift from traditional approaches to embrace new ways, especially in the realms of Web3 and decentralized finance (DeFi). 

The podcast aims to champion inclusivity and diversity in the Web3 space, ensuring that women claim their rightful share of opportunities and wealth in today’s evolving economic landscape.

Disclaimer: The article is a transcription of the weekly podcast hosted by Brandi Veil. No statement or comment in the article is a direct or indirect portrayal of the writer’s views or opinions. The interview does not intend to promote, demote or demean any organization or community. It also does not intend to give the readers any financial or investment advice.