5 Women to Watch in Venture - Winter 2025
In this Winter's edition of Women to Watch in Venture, I'm thrilled to showcase five women in Venture who are making significant strides in the industry and beyond. Their successes and visions inspire me deeply as they reshape venture capital with their innovative investment strategies, passion, and dedication to impact.
These remarkable women come from varied backgrounds, enriching their funds and the industry with unique insights. Unified by their drive to challenge the norm, creative approach to problem-solving, and unwavering support for founders and colleagues, they truly stand out.
Let's celebrate their inspiring accomplishments and ambitious goals this season.
Emily Hyde
Emily Hyde is an Associate at Cypress Growth Capital. Cypress Growth Capital offers entrepreneur-friendly, non-dilutive growth capital to B2B software and tech-enabled service companies.
Emily had aspirations of becoming a doctor, initially planning to pursue a career in medicine. But everything changed during her college years when her inventive nature led her to develop an underwater autonomous vehicle designed to collect microplastics. During undergrad and graduate school, this project exposed her to the world of engineering, entrepreneurship, and, ultimately, venture capital.
After college, she joined o9 Solutions in a business development role, where she gained valuable experience in complex sales. From there, she moved to HG Partners, an underwater technology startup. While at HG Partners, she was once again exposed to venture capital as they sought fundraising, and she decided to explore VC as a career path.
Emily contacted first and second-degree connections in her network, having coffee with anyone willing to share information and facilitate introductions to people in the ecosystem. And eventually, she landed a role at Venture Dallas and later transitioned to join the Cypress Growth team.
“I try to keep an open mind when I’m sourcing deals. We only have so much information online, so you have to learn to read between the lines. If you make too many assumptions you could accidentally miss a company that could be something amazing. And when I’m speaking with founders, there are a few traits that I look out for - persistence, practicality, and willingness to learn.”
Emily hopes to impact the industry in two primary ways 1) impact companies and founders by emphasizing sustainable growth and operational efficiency, and 2) create more space in VC for women to feel empowered to thrive, learn, and see themselves as an integral part of the industry.
Emily’s hot take? When a group of women comes together, there is a unique openness and vulnerability that emerges. We need more ‘all women’ spaces that allow for this deeper and more authentic connection.
Emily’s Career Advice
- You have to genuinely believe that you can do anything because there will be so many signs that tell you that you can’t do it. Do it scared, but do it—and learn from the experience. Life on the other side of fear is so amazing.
- Pay it forward - help others along the way. All the successful people we know got where they are because somebody believed in them.
Deb Goldstein
Deb Goldstein is the Head of Marketing and Platform at Bonfire Ventures, a seed-stage investment firm based in Los Angeles focused on B2B SaaS. Bonfire takes a unique approach by intentionally writing fewer checks each year to ensure they can provide an incredibly hands-on partnership for each startup in their portfolio.
Deb was Bonfire’s first platform hire and has built the marketing and platform function from the ground up. Her role involves leading PR, communications, marketing, events, and community-building initiatives. She acts as a connector, aligning Bonfire’s partners, founders, and external resources to drive innovation and growth.
Deb’s journey started with a degree in Bachelors of Arts specializing in Communications and Media which laid the foundation for her early career in marketing. She spent over a decade as the marketing leader for multiple early-stage startups, often working directly with CEOs to create and execute go-to-market strategies. After eight years in New York, Deb moved to Australia, where she joined pre-seed startup. One of the investors had a platform leader who was extremely helpful to Deb as a portfolio company and really cemented her desire to work in a similar role at a fund.
“I just love working with founders. Most of them do not have a head of marketing when we invest, and every single founder that I work with needs something different. For some founders, I help interview their heads of marketing, and for others,, I review their messaging or brand, and give them an outside opinion. One of my favorite sayings is - ‘it’s hard to read the label from inside the bottle’ - which is so true in marketing. I’m grateful I can be there to give them an objective opinion.”
Deb hopes to impact the industry by being extremely helpful to founders. She deeply values the vulnerability founders need to show at the seed stage. Her goal is to create more spaces where founders feel supported and comfortable being vulnerable.
Deb’s hot take? “Drops of God” was the best show of 2023 and the most underrated one.
Deb’s Career Advice
Build your network! In an investor or platform role, you need to be a connector, and your success will rely on your ability to come up with a wealth of resources that can effectively support both the fund and the founders.
Anna Consani
Anna Consani is the Head of Community at Goodwater Capital, the largest VC fund focused exclusively on consumer tech. The fund’s mission is simple - to empower entrepreneurs to change the world for good. Anna’s role ensures that the mission thrives by leading the portfolio services team, which includes overseeing post-investment support, community building, marketing, and branding.
Anna’s path into venture began with her passion for storytelling. Initially inspired to pursue filmmaking and create documentaries, she pivoted to political science, focusing on international relations. This shift took her to Washington, D.C., where she worked to get more women into public office, supporting them in running for office and winning.
While searching for organizations aligned with her mission, Anna found Springboard Enterprises, a nonprofit accelerator supporting women entrepreneurs. The role bridged her interest in advocacy and entrepreneurship. Over seven years, she worked closely with founders and venture capitalists, forming partnerships and building a deep understanding of startups and funding—experience that now informs her work at Goodwater.
“I've adopted my mom's mindset that we are all more alike than different. Creating a culture of community and kindness are two key drivers of a successful and sustainable company.”
Anna wants to impact the industry by showcasing that the community should be an essential part of any VC firm. While VC is undoubtedly a numbers-driven game, it’s equally rooted in relationships. She believes that having someone who is community-minded can help balance and lead the fund's efforts in building and maintaining their most important relationships - prospective investments, your current portfolio, LPs, etc. She hopes to inspire others to value this role and skill set in the same way that Goodwater has.
Anna’s hot take? All women should learn the ins and outs of football. It unlocks so many conversations and helps build relationships with so many people.
Anna’s Career Advice
- Always continue to build relationships, Never take any relationship for granted, and be thoughtful about how you treat people.
- Spend the time to understand the different roles within a fund (investor vs platform vs community etc) and the different types of funds (their unique investment thesis). Identify the roles and funds that are most aligned with your interests and skill set and pursue it!
Maggie Rodney
Maggie Rodney is a Principal at Massive Capital Partners. Massive Capital Partners is a multi-stage firm, investing across early series A to later stage growth, focusing on industries that they believe will have the biggest impact and growth in the next 20 years. As such, they are primarily focused on deep tech, climate tech, and enterprise software.
Maggie’s role includes sourcing investments, managing investor relationships, conducting due diligence, and overseeing operations.
Her career began in litigation consulting, where she worked as a financial analyst with law firms. After two years, she joined the U.S. Peace Corps in Rwanda, teaching English and financial literacy. Upon returning to the U.S., Maggie became employee number 30 at a Colorado-based startup specializing in custom software for private equity and venture capital firms. There, she gained exposure to both sides of the investment industry. Wearing many hats, she led the support team, worked as a product owner, and took on sales engineering responsibilities, improving her understanding of startups and the challenges they face.
To break into VC, Maggie earned her MBA from the University of Colorado Boulder while working at Workit and TechStars.
“Any investor who has worked in startups has a bit more empathy for the process and ability to see multiple ways to success. It is a different mentality when you have been on the operating side. Both of Massive's founding partners are also longtime entrepreneurs, having built and exited five companies between them. So it's an important part of the Massive ethos that we have that experience and I expect we'll continue to bring in folks with operating experience.”
Maggie wants to impact the industry by investing in climate tech, contributing to its overall success as a vertical.
Maggie’s hot take? The comfort crisis is real. We have everything at our fingerprints, and too many things have become so easy that we have actually lost a lot of our critical thinking ability. If you aren’t someone who can manage through ambiguity - venture isn’t the right career path for you.
Maggie’s Career Advice
If you know something that you are obsessive about and want to focus on that - do it! Focus on that. And it can become your area of genius. I’ve always been interested in climate tech and knew I wanted to focus on it - I almost let people talk me out of it, and I’m so glad I didn’t.
Kate Cory
Kate Cory is Senior Director of Brand and Community at Redesign Health, a global venture builder that empowers founders to launch and scale transformative healthcare companies. Redesign was purpose-built to help founders navigate the inherently complex aspects of building a business in healthcare, including regulations, opaque value chains, and long sales cycles.
Kate’s role at Redesign Health as Head of Brand and Community revolves around three main pillars: overseeing strategic communications for both Redesign and its portfolio companies, leading digital presence and brand strategy, and building a vibrant community of healthcare innovators.
Kate's foundation in psychology, with a specialization in marketing and communication, has informed her approach to brand building — fueled by her fascination with how language and strategic messaging can drive behavioral change. Over the past 10 years, she has held various roles in communications, from corporate communications to crisis management, consistently gravitating toward fast-growing tech companies that are rethinking the ways things are done. This passion led her to work at companies like Wayfair, Lyft, and Sonder, which are some of the biggest pioneers in shaping significant consumer behavior shifts.
“Within branding, communications, and community - there is so much untapped opportunity across the venture industry. A select group of firms, like ours, focus on these areas intentionally, but there are so many that haven’t yet. When brand and communications are done well and strategically, they can be a very powerful organic channel that yields high rewards for very minimal relative investment. It can truly be a superpower.”
Kate hopes to impact the venture industry by helping more funds appreciate brand, communications, and community as strategic value drivers and catalysts for growth.
Kate’s hot take? So many venture firms are sitting on their most valuable asset without realizing it, which is their community. It's not about the size of your network; it's about the depth and relevance of the connections - that’s what a good community strategy creates.
Kate's Career Advice
Building your network is the most important thing you can do to break into the VC world. Attend conferences, join communities, and practice thoughtful cold outreach to connect with people at the companies and industries you aspire to be part of.
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