Interview with MSIV’s First EIR
Wednesday, January 13, 2021 from Corte Madera, CA
We are very excited today to announce that Carolyn McGourty Supple, Co-Founder & Executive Director of The Press Forward, is joining Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures as our first Entrepreneur-in-Residence for the 2021 calendar year.
Carolyn is a national leader in the movement to advance the culture in America’s newsrooms and elevate women in the workplace through training, education and research. She'll be leveraging her entrepreneurial background in media, business training as a management consultant and experience with the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem to explore scalable solutions to some of our greatest challenges with the support of the MSIV network.
We're thrilled to be partnering with Carolyn in her efforts to build the next great North Bay company. We sat down with Carolyn to go deeper on her upcoming collaboration with MSIV.
ZK: We're all very excited to collaborate with you. With all that is going on in our world right now, what is motivating you to pursue a startup in the year ahead?
CMS: This incredible moment in history brings us to an inflection point for the future of learning, work and media. We’re in the middle of systems change, as we reevaluate how to work and where, how we should receive information and interact with each other, and the importance of lifelong learning to adapt professionally during disruption. Even though there are some companies and workers leaving the state, Northern California remains the epicenter for technology and entrepreneurship. I’m excited to be here at such a time. I’m invested in the North Bay because of the talent, its natural beauty, and it’s a great place to raise a family.
ZK: Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind the founding of The Press Forward?
CMS: In 2017, there was a national reckoning over workplace behavior, including harassment, especially in journalism. As a former broadcast journalist who left the news in part because of the culture, I brought together other silence breakers to find positive, lasting solutions to build safe, fair and dignified work environments. The Press Forward is rooted in the belief that knowledge is power, and we work to foster systemic change by providing training and resources to newsrooms, disseminating industry research, and convening professionals at all levels of the journalism industry to be a part of the solution.
Healthy newsrooms mean a healthy democracy and we need both now more than ever.
ZK: I couldn’t agree more, and the impact you’re having on the media could not be coming at a more critical time for our country.
As a seasoned management consultant and strategist, you also helped to formalize a tech scouting practice in Silicon Valley. What were your biggest takeaways in working with so many startup companies?
CMS: I loved management consulting and working with technical teams because it’s all about problem-solving and behind every problem is a good story, which is important to define well. As the former head of NASA said, “let’s work the problem people, let’s not make things worse by guessing!” In my experience, some very smart engineers and scientists work on an innovative technology or unique company concept first, and their customer next (or not at all).
I helped my clients - primarily the U.S. government - better define the problems they were trying to solve, and ways that technology (such as AI, data and cyber) could help them. I would evaluate and then connect them to companies who could prototype solutions, in turn helping startups navigate working with the public sector.
It’s a critical time for our nation’s future, as events earlier this month demonstrated. Citizens are feeling left behind or disconnected from our government, and digital technologies offer the best hope to connect them to the services that matter. Yet the government, including the military, has a lot of work and investment to do to modernize its software, approach to data and ability to be more user-centered or customer-centric. The relationship between Silicon Valley and the U.S. government has also broken down, despite the historic partnerships that led to breakthrough innovations. The vast majority of the technologies in our phones, for example, came first from the military and were then commercialized.
I also researched startups and their founders for years. Nearly 90 percent of startups fail, and 65 percent of the time it’s due to team dynamics and cofounder conflict. The cultural, interpersonal and people side of things are just as important as the technology, product and business model for an early stage venture. Leadership training and building inclusive cultures are a lynchpin for success.
ZK: That certainly our echoes our view of the importance of people and team to startups – it’s what we look at first and place the most importance on when evaluating the viability of early stage companies.
You grew up in Mendocino county and now call Marin county home. What about building a startup in the North Bay are you most excited about?
CMS: I’m a fourth-generation Californian and the spirit of the state is in my DNA. I’m the descendant of pioneers who literally traveled across country in covered wagons, prospectors who rushed for gold and strong women who advocated for equality and education. My grandfather was an Irish emigrant who taught himself calculus and engineering and became an entrepreneur and pioneer in dot-matrix printers. After spending a decade on the East Coast, which provided a deep appreciation for our institutions, I was called back to the West!
I share the vision of MSIV that there is incredible talent and opportunity across Marin + Sonoma, and that startups can play a unique role in positively shaping a prosperous future for the area. I’m excited to be in close proximity to important industry sectors while being able to live in a naturally stunning geography, close to family and in a great community.
ZK: Lots of people we talk to mistake our movement as working to build a “Silicon Valley North,” when the reality is we are building an entrepreneurial ecosystem that is unique in makeup and character to Marin + Sonoma. What does it mean to you to be a Marin entrepreneur? What type of culture are you looking to build in your local enterprise?
CMS: Growing up in Northern California, a lasting value imparted to me was sustainability and the triple bottom line - that our companies should take care of the environment, people and profit. From a very young age the importance of inclusivity and respectful work environments were also instilled. I embraced these concepts but sometimes felt out of place when I tried to talk about them earlier in my career, especially in larger corporate environments. I didn’t really have a way to fully articulate these values and how they’re realized in business until I was connected to the “Conscious Capitalism” community – this is a movement started by John Mackey, cofounder of Whole Foods, and a few others, who advocate that business can elevate humanity. I was fortunate enough to be invited to speak about The Press Forward at their annual CEO Summit.
I’m excited to bring these values and skills to explore new ideas this year and ultimately work toward building the next great North Bay company!
ZK: Thank you, Carolyn. Yes, it’s such an incredible opportunity that each local founder can help shape the North Bay startup ecosystem to be consistent not just with your own values but also our shared values as a community. We’re so looking forward to working with you in 2021 and beyond!
Zachary Kushel is Founder & Managing Partner of Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures.
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