[Top Women Leaders] Empowering Women Investors and Founders With Robbie Hardy of xElle Ventures

Robbie Hardy is an accomplished entrepreneur, author, and the Founder and Chair Emeritus of xElle Ventures, a unique investment fund focusing on empowering female investors and supporting female-founded startups through debt financing. With a wealth of experience in both the startup ecosystem and corporate strategies, she has made significant contributions to the business world, including mentoring roles at Duke University and developing strategic solutions for Fortune 500 companies. Beyond her professional achievements, Robbie has authored books such as Upsetting the Table and Fed Up to Startup, sharing her insights and experiences to inspire and guide aspiring entrepreneurs toward success. Robbie’s innovative approach to investing and her commitment to fostering female entrepreneurship highlight her dedication to creating more inclusive opportunities in business.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:49] Robbie’s unique experience of negotiating the sale of her company with an eight ball
• [11:35] Robbie’s impetus for starting her own company
• [14:25] Sacrifices and decisions that come when bootstrapping a business
• [20:19] The story behind writing her books and empowering women through literature
• [23:41] The inception and impact of xElle Ventures on female founders and investors
• [32:22] Robbie’s criteria for angel investing
• [34:30] Robbie’s prestigious role at Duke University and its synergy with her work

In this episode…

Have you ever taken a leap of faith to follow your passion, even if it meant stepping away from security and into the unknown? Imagine building a company from the ground up, facing the trials of entrepreneurship head-on, and even resorting to unconventional methods to close the deal of a lifetime. What can drive someone to make such bold moves?

Robbie Hardy, a seasoned entrepreneur, author, and investor, shares her unique story, highlighting a pivotal moment in her career that underscored the power of unconventional thinking. Having spent a considerable portion of her career in corporate America, Robbie transitioned to entrepreneurship, founding her first company and later engaging in angel investing focused on empowering female founders. Her tale of using an eight-ball during critical sale negotiations not only demonstrates her creative approach to business challenges, but also underscores the importance of agility and innovation in entrepreneurship. 

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz hosts Robbie Hardy to talk about her transition from corporate America to entrepreneurship and her commitment to supporting female founders. They delve into the significance of mentorship, the courage to take leaps of faith, and the impact of thinking differently. Robbie’s experiences offer valuable lessons on resilience, strategic innovation, and the importance of community and mentorship in achieving success. Through her books Upsetting the Table and Fed Up to Startup and her work with xElle Ventures, Robbie continues to inspire and support the next generation of women leaders and innovators.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Robbie Hardy LinkedIn | Website
• xElle Ventures
• Upsetting the Table: Women Mentoring Women by Robbie Hardy
• Fed Up to Start Up: A Story of Strength and the Value of Your Connections by Robbie Hardy
• Let It Go: My Extraordinary Story – From Refugee to Entrepreneur to Philanthropist by Stephanie Shirley CH

Special Mention(s):

• Ann Miller on LinkedIn

Related episode(s):

• Breaking the Glass Ceiling & Paving the Way for Women Entrepreneurs with Dame Stephanie Shirley Founder of The Shirley Foundation on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• Girl Scouts of America: Presidential Medal of Freedom & Top Leadership- with Frances Hesselbein [Big Lessons] on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments(s):

• “Sometimes thinking outside the box and trying to do things a little differently that work for you can make all the difference.”
• “The worst thing that can happen is, you know, just go back to doing what you were doing before.”
• “You just can’t predict what’s going to happen, and sometimes you have to do almost anything to make it happen.”
• “Cash flow is like oxygen for your business; without it, you can’t survive, you can’t grow.”
• “Investing in women is not just good business, it’s imperative for the economy and society as a whole.”

Action step(s):

1. Consider non-traditional ways to break the ice during high-pressure situations: Demonstrate creativity and personal flair in negotiations.
2. Reflect and act on your career fulfillment: Understand the importance of finding work that resonates on a deeper level.
3. Develop a keen understanding of financials during bootstrapping: Keep close tabs on finances to avoid potentially crippling setbacks.
4. Build and leverage your community network: Having a supportive network can provide guidance, support, and unique opportunities for growth.
5. Embrace roles that combine personal expertise with a broader impact: Professionals can leverage their background to mentor others and contribute to a larger community.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:01

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Jeremy Weisz 0:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, founder of InspiredInsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different, I have Robbie Hardy. Robbie Hardy, I’m excited to introduce her formally before I introduce you, Robbie, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. This is part of the Top Women Leaders series and also the Author Series. But there’s a really interesting interview with Dame Stephanie Shirley. And this reminds me of your story a bit Robbie, which is, she went by Steve for a long time, because she didn’t want the bias of being a female trying to get business. But she started, I think, one of the early on software companies in the UK. And it’s really remarkable. She ended up taking it on the London Stock Exchange. She employed 8500 people at one point. And she’s given away over 600 million pounds of her personal wealth to different projects from all the success she had. A remarkable story. She also wrote the book, Let It Go. So that was a really fun one. Another one that was interesting is Frances Hesselbein. Frances Hesselbein was the girls President and CEO of the Girl Scouts of America. And so she ended up winning, I think, or getting awarded some Presidential Medal. It’s just like an amazing story of leadership from her and there’s so many more. But those are a couple of my favorites that remind me a bit of your story. 

Robbie Hardy 2:09

Thank you for that. Yeah, it is an honor. 

Jeremy Weisz 2:14

We’ll dig into your books and what you’re working on. 

But first, this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25 we help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. How do we do that? We do that by helping you run your podcast. We’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the accountability, the strategy and the full execution. So Robbie, we call ourselves the magic elves that run in the background to make it look easy for the host so they can just develop amazing relationships and most importantly, run their business. You know, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships. And I found no better way over the past decade to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you’ve thought about podcasting you should. If you have questions, go to Rise25.com or email us at [email protected] to learn more. 

Robbie Hardy is an author, investor, entrepreneur with extensive startup and board experience. She developed corporate strategies for Fortune 500 companies, worked as a strategic consultant with the Kauffman Foundation. She’s an executive mentor in residence at Duke University. She’s a founder of xElle Ventures, an Angel fund for women investors, investing in female founders. Also has coaching clients, also as just numerous other activities. She wrote two books, Upsetting the Table and Fed Up to Start Up. And Robbie, thanks for joining me. 

Robbie Hardy 3:40

Thank you for having me.

Jeremy Weisz 3:42

I want to hear some of the lessons you know, you were 25 years in corporate America. But I’m going to fast forward to when you started your first company. And one of my favorite stories from the book is with the eight ball. So with the eight ball, tell us the story around what was going on at the time.

Robbie Hardy 4:07

So this was when I was selling my first company. But I wasn’t looking to sell it. You know, I was still in the growing stages. I had just raised angel money. And I was looking to raise venture capital. And I was at a trade show. And I got a call afterwards that I thought was a prank. And I didn’t return it. And finally, they called a colleague of mine, which is why having a community and a network is a good idea. And they’re like she won’t call me back. So long story short. I was introduced to this company, they were a hardware company. It was actually Seagate, the hardware drive company and they didn’t like how the world was treating hardware companies and they wanted that most software multiple. So I had a scheduling product that uses PCs during the day, etcetera at night. So they wanted that to add to their portfolio. And I had been back and forth to California a few times to talk with them, et cetera. But it was time to come to finally talk price. Because this is a long process to sell your company, it may seem like, easy, quick fix, but there’s no easy button here. And I was trying to save money because I was still bootstrapping and trying to do everything, you know, as cheaply as I could. So I worked with my board, came up with a walkaway price. And off, I went to California with my CTO, who was going to be meeting with their CTO, and I was going to be in the room by myself. And I didn’t really think about it until I was on the plane. And I, you know, had my corporate training that said, pausing in negotiations is really important. And I was trying to figure out how I was going to pause because I didn’t bring my lawyer. So there was a lesson there. Always have your lawyer with you. And so I don’t know how this can happen. I was thinking, What can I do? What can I use? I was, you know, imagining, and so I came up with, I shouldn’t buy a Ouija board. I’d never used a Ouija board. But in my mind, that was the right answer. So the next morning, I go to Toys R Us. It was still open then. And they’re like, No, maam, we don’t have Ouija boards, but we have eight balls. Now I’m running out of time. So I’m like, Great, I’ll take it, get in the car and rip the stuff off, throw the eight ball in my briefcase, no clue how I’m going to use it. And we started talking about price and back and forth. And we’re at the point where I know that we’re too far apart, and I’m trying to figure out what to do. So I reached down and pulled out my and I said, pull this eight ball out actually have it here. And so to say, well, let’s see what she has to say. And the other people I was, of course, the only woman, you know, calm hands on the table, like, Oh, my God, and the CEO grabs my hand, takes me into his office and shows me this, it’s like a Buddha. It’s a fancy eight ball with an eight ball on it. And we bring it back. And he wants to have an eight ball contest. And I’m like, Oh, this is a bad idea. Anyway, long story short, there was a lot. We got to the price without the eight balls, although we did try them out after we had agreed on a price. And I think, you know, they said anybody who you know, is willing to, you know, put it out there in a very different way than we have ever negotiated any kind of deal in all of our years. And so I’m not recommending it, but it does at all. I mean, I don’t want anyone to take this as a lesson and go buy an eight ball to sell your company because it’s not a good idea. However, what the lesson is, is, you know, sometimes thinking outside the box, and trying to, you know, do things a little bit differently that work for you. So, yes, and that ended up being our deal symbol, and all the investors guide and all the employees and so yes, it is, it lives in infamy. 

Jeremy Weisz 7:55

And so if someone’s not familiar with it, it’s not the pool eight ball, we’re talking about the ones. Oh, go ahead, she’s getting it.

Robbie Hardy 8:07

Hang on, I should have brought it out of here. I don’t think about it, sorry.

Jeremy Weisz 8:09

You shake it.

Robbie Hardy 8:12

Yeah it’s the eight ball that you shake and it says, you know, Will I be rich? And it says, you know, I don’t think so. So there it is, and it’s got the deal material on it. And here’s where normally they see how there’s that. Yeah. So it was one of these, you know, $3 eight balls.

Jeremy Weisz 8:29

So when you pulled it out, did you say we’re too far apart, let me see what the eight ball says?

Robbie Hardy 8:34

I just said, Well, I’m not sure that I can live with that. And I pulled it out and said, Well, let’s see what she has to say. No, yeah, this was yeah, this was I was in the right place. It’s like when selling the company, being in the right place at the right time and recognizing it. Somehow I felt okay, I guess I had felt like I had nothing else to lose because I didn’t know what else to do.

Jeremy Weisz 8:56

I’m glad they didn’t have an Ouiji board, because they may have just kicked you out.

Robbie Hardy 9:03

Yeah and I didn’t know how to use it. So yeah.

Jeremy Weisz 9:07

You talked about, you know, bootstrapping. At what point from bootstrapping, did you decide I need to raise money? 

Robbie Hardy 9:19

Cash Flow. I was selling into enterprise customers software, and that sales cycle is long and expensive. It’s, you know, it’s still long. This is a long time ago. But it’s long and cash flow is you know his death. And so, we did consulting, the company that I left to go into entrepreneurship. They were my first client and so we did work for them, you know, by day and built the product nights and weekends and I raised some angel money. And then I knew that I needed more money and I was going after venture money. Now I was a woman CEO of a technology company and you know the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina in 1995. So this was, you know, pretty weird. But I had the corporate experience. And so I just didn’t know enough to sort of not be bold and go for it. And so, yeah.

Jeremy Weisz 10:12

The company you started was the need and it was born out of some of the stuff you were seeing in the corporate arena? 

Robbie Hardy 10:23

Right. Well, you know, we were developing it was a consulting firm that I had worked on. And in almost every solution that we proposed and built for these large companies, you know, it was Mobil Oil and the GlaxoSmithKline, and it was big business. And there would be some of the same elements in it. And I was frustrated because the only way we were rewarding employees was by how many hours they billed, which is never a good thing, in my opinion. And so I suggested several times, um, why don’t we build some software that kind of the core pieces and then we can, you know, you build it once and sell it many times. But the business model was a publicly traded company. The business model was hours, hours, hours, not product. So I just, you know, that was one of the things the Aspen’s told me. So it’s like, stop talking. It’s like, you know, a lot of things I’ve learned. Stop talking about it. Look in the mirror and start doing it.

Jeremy Weisz 11:21

What pushed you over the edge to start your own company? Because when I look at it, you were doing it for 25 years, successful at it. You could have just kept doing it. What was that impetus to actually start your own? 

Robbie Hardy 11:36

Success is measured in many ways. So it had all the, you know, the LinkedIn kind of success, the right title, the right salary, the right, perks, all that kind of stuff. But I was not fulfilled, I always felt like a round peg in a square hole. I had this vision of a culture, I wanted to be able to develop for my team. So the way I dealt with it, before I left was to offer up that I would, you know, of those new project or new division, I would take it, I’d have to go into different space, I can sort of, you know, do my own thing. And so it was that. So that propelled me to, you know, go off and think about it. And then actually doing it just made sense to me. And I just decided to do it and put everything I had into it.

Jeremy Weisz 12:31

It’s a big leap. I guess at least at the time, maybe looking back, it doesn’t look like it now.

Robbie Hardy 12:33

Oh no, I remember it well. It’s a big leap.

Jeremy Weisz 12:35

Yeah, talk about that decision, and what you went through to actually get to that place, because maybe there’s someone listening and they’re at that point where maybe they feel unfulfilled. Maybe they’re like, it’s nerve wracking to think about.

Robbie Hardy 12:52

It is because you know, you don’t know what you don’t know. So that was the first thing that I realized as I started thinking, but it was easy to get excited about what I could build. And maybe where I could find people to, you know, to be because I’m not technical, I’m the management side of things. I know enough technical to be dangerous, but that’s where it ends. And so it’s hard to know what you don’t know. And so you’re trying to explore and this was pre you know, Google, I couldn’t look everything up to see what I needed. Now you can do a lot of research online and learn a lot that I didn’t have. But it is that what’s the worst thing that can happen? I had learned that from you know, somebody sort of when we are going through things, what’s the worst thing that can happen? And so I just say the worst thing that can happen is it would bomb. And I’d go back to consulting, you know, I wasn’t any different. Those were the daytime conversations. The nighttime conversations were very different. What you, you know, nightmare about, but you’re thinking about what’s the worst thing that’s going to happen and what could be the best thing. And I don’t think anybody takes the leap thinking about how much money they’re going to make. They take the leap, I certainly did, to see how I could change how I what I was doing, and how I could, you know, change it for those who are going to work with me, you know, we always you know, the entrepreneur and you always think there’s a better way and that you have the answer. 

Jeremy Weisz 14:15

What were some of the sacrifices when you look back with starting your own company?

Robbie Hardy 14:20

Well, I mean, since it was we’re bootstrapping it and so cash flow was always a nightmare. And so I would pay myself last or not pay myself at all. And so when I was married, I had children. And so it was the personal sacrifices, clearly, were big, but also professional sacrifices where, you know, if you wanted to go to do something, you know, meet somebody or whatever, I was always, you know, driving along way to get a cheaper flight and, you know, always looking, and in hindsight, the experience was great. I wished I’d had it before my corporate one because the lack of money made me very agile. It didn’t feel like that then but it certainly does. And I looked back and thought, why would I have done that, but it’s how we got through. Now sometimes the agility of saving money is over thought, you know, is not the right thing. I should have brought my lawyer with me to my deal meeting, but it is, you know, it’s that agility. So yes, the highs are high and the lows are low.

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