Rebel Girls Awesome Entrepreneurs: 25 Tales of Women Building Business

Rebel Girls Awesome Entrepreneurs: 25 Tales of Women Building Business — page 9
ANN MIURA-KO FOUNDER AND INVESTOR lease please please Ann begged She was just two years old and she knew that more than anything she wanted to take violin lessons Ann was different than the rest of the kids she knew In third grade she explored her native language by creating Japanese letters for her computer And in fifth grade she signed up for an adult business class In her twenties Ann couldn't figure out what she wanted to be A farmer A doctor A lawyer Nothing sounded quite right that is until she took a simple job filing papers at Yale University and met an important CEO This CEO invited her to shadow or follow him around his workplace at a giant technology company Ann said yes Afterwards the CEO sent her two photos in the mail One was of her sitting in a huge white chair facing him and the other was of the famous software developer and philanthropist Bill Gates sitting in the exact same chair facing the same CEO Suddenly everything seemed possible Why can't I run a big company too Ann thought It was rare to see a woman or an Asian American at the head of a venture capital firm but Ann didn't let that slow her down She did her research cofounded her own venture capital company called Floodgate invested in many new businesses and became known as the most powerful woman in startups While male venture capitalists usually invested money in technology firms Ann took chances on businesses they often ignored like clothing companies She couldn't be exactly like all the men around her so she decided to do what she did best be different And it worked BORN NOVEMBER 27 1976 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 10