Lauren Washington's entrepreneurial spirit did not take long to incubate.
She earned her first dollar at age 11 when she started sourcing tomatoes from her neighbor's gardens to sell at a stand in front of her family's home. Around the same time, she started babysitting on the side and also worked at a candy store owned by a neighbor.
A couple decades later, Washington is still a founder — only now her energy is more focused on tech startups, venture capital and making both of those industries more diverse and inclusive. Her vehicle: a startup called Fundr.
"My parents have always instilled the importance of earning your own money so that you value it," she said. "And so, since then, I've always had a number of different things going on in order to bring income in. It's just in my blood."
Washington sees a lot of room for improvement in the early-stage venture capital ecosystem. She said many people assume it's a meritocracy where the best ideas and most capable founders ultimately rise to the top, land funding deals and have a shot at building a successful company.
"In my experience over the last few years, that's not true," she said. "I think it's about access. I think it's about luck a lot of the times, and I think the system itself is not necessarily built to be a meritocracy because it's so subjective. I think people have the best intentions to make it that way."
Now, she's focused on ensuring such change.
What's the biggest thing to happen in your life in the past year? Obviously, there have been a lot of lifestyle changes that have happened. I have always actually worked remote. But it's just on a different level this year. I will say that the biggest thing that has happened for me is launching Fundr — it is something that I have had in my mind for about five years. And so to be able to see this come to fruition finally is really exciting for me. And to see the type of response we're getting and the excitement we're getting around it is even more exciting. So it's a silver lining to a tough year.
What's the biggest misconception people have about your company? I think the biggest misconception for my company is that we are a crowdfunding platform, and we are not. So we are actually using the power of the crowd to help pull money into these startups. But we are actually not a regulation crowdfunding platform, we are only working with accredited investors at the moment. And everyone who puts money into these portfolios will get a convertible note that directly invests into each of those companies.
What's the toughest part of your job? I think riding the emotional roller coasters ... is the toughest part of being a founder. There is so much up and down, and you can be at the top and think that you are changing the world one day and then the next day you get devastating news that you have to figure out how to navigate and get around. I've been an entrepreneur now for six years, so I'm better at it. I'm better at understanding that things come and go. And you really have to look at your long-term progress. It's not really about the day-to-day. But it's still tough making sure that you can balance the emotional side of it that I don't know a lot of founders openly talk about.
The best part of your job? Seeing something that is in my head come out into the world and have people actually use it ... I want the products and the businesses that I have make a difference. And so when you see it actually making a difference, there's there's definitely no feeling like that.
What's your favorite way to communicate these days during the pandemic? I don't know if it's my favorite way, but it's definitely the standard way in Zoom. And I think I've adapted to it. In the beginning, it was a little tough to have Zoom calls all day, every day. It was kind of draining. But now that this is obviously the standard and the pandemic is continuing, and it's probably not going away anytime soon, it's nice to be able to see people's faces.
Social media these days — how do you interact with it? I am mostly on LinkedIn these days. I tend to be a more private person, so I'm not really on too many social media channels.
What's on your playlist? I've been really into Ariana Grande's new album. Also, Linda Diaz — she was one of the winners for NPR's Tiny Desk, and I discovered her through that.
Do you listen to music at work, or just mostly on your own personal time? I listen to music usually while I work. Yeah, it kind of keeps me focused. It keeps me energized throughout the day.
Favorite place to eat in Austin or platform to get it delivered these days? I would have to say it's still probably Suerte —that's my go-to even with delivery. They have a really great suadero meal kit, which is so good. And you can kind of make them at home yourself.
Any hobbies? I make kombucha — so I've been doing that for a couple of years now, mostly just for myself and for friends. I garden, so I have a lot of plants in my place. So doing a lot of, you know, in-pot gardening. I do yoga probably a few times a week, as well. So I think those are probably my biggest consistent hobbies. Oh, and baking.
If you could time travel, where in time would you go? And who would you want to meet? I would definitely go into the future. I would be really interested in seeing where we end up, maybe 100 years down the line. And I guess I would probably see one of my descendants just to see, have I made any kind of lasting impact on my family?
What's been your biggest accomplishment so far? I would say, generally, being able to stay employed as an entrepreneur for six years because it is a tough journey. And not a lot of people make it, and I recognize that.
On the flip side of that, what do you feel is your biggest failure so far? Oh, gosh. That's a good question. I would say, I mean, my first company failed, and that was a pretty big failure. That was tough to get through, but I see now that it was useful. I don't think that I would be where I am if that didn't happen. But going through it at the time was was incredibly difficult. I don't think that a lot of people recognize how much that just impacts you emotionally.
What's the most influential book that you've read? So, from this year, I would say Arlan Hamilton's book, "It's About Damn Time" — that was really incredible. I read a lot. And I tend to read a lot of business books, but they're very rarely business books that I'm looking for, written by Black women who have a similar experience to what I've been through.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be an entrepreneur. So I had a couple of different ideas. In terms of industry, I thought about running my own magazine, and I ended up going into magazines. Eventually, to kind of test that out, I worked at InStyle and TV Guide. I thought about doing fashion, and I worked a little bit in fashion, as well. I even thought that I would be a doctor at some point. But it was always about running my own practice. So whatever the end goal of whatever I was interested in, it was about ownership. It was about me doing it myself.
You mentioned you have a cat. What's she like? Her name is Amber. She's 18 years old. So she's an old lady. But I've had her for 14 years. I got her as a rescue. And she's just she's super sweet. It's been so nice having pets during the pandemic. Especially since I live alone, just having that company and having, you know, another living thing in your home. It has been really helpful and really incredible.
What's something that not many people know about you? I used to be a dancer. I come from a line of dancers, actually. So I danced for about eight years. And my mother and my aunt were prima ballerinas in the Dance Theatre of Harlem. So that is always inside of me — from an early age, just understanding art and having an appreciation for art in various different forms.
Titles: CEO and founder of Fundr; co-founder of Black Women Talk Tech; board member at Beam
Age: 37
Hometown: New York
Family: Cat named Amber
Education: Bachelor's degree from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, MBA from Northwestern Kellogg School of Management
Contact: lauren@fundr.ai
