Profile

VAST Equity is an investment fund created, owned, and managed by women. 

We focus on creating investment opportunities in women owned and women run businesses.

Right now, a lot of my job as the Managing Director involves meeting with people and getting them to invest in our fund.

I also look at companies and see which ones we want to invest in.  We are looking at businesses that have been around 3-5 years, doing a couple of million dollars in revenue, and who need some equity and expertise to grow to the next level.  We have yet to invest in a business but we have looked at a lot of them.

My partners and I work in independent, small offices.  I work from home.  We get together every few weeks in Park City in a conference room.

I work with a lot of men in investment capital—learning this business and trying to raise money.

I also work with women entrepreneurs in areas as diverse as quilt making and low level nuclear waste storage.  Women are doing amazing things. I get to meet with many of them and look at their businesses.

Most of my day is on e-mail and researching businesses.  A typical day would be 2-3 hours of e-mail and doing due diligence on businesses.  I look at whether the information we have been given about a company is true or false.  We are responsible for the money we have been given to invest.

The other part of my day is meeting with individuals and business that have money to invest and convincing them to invest in our fund.  It’s a sales job.

The most important thing I have learned over the years in owning my own business and working for corporate America is the ability to assess businesses and bring to the table operational experience that can help them to become more.  I have built a $20 million dollar company.  I have the expertise to help a company that is currently making $3-4 million dollars grow to the next level.  I can help them increase their revenue, decrease their costs and make them more efficient.  

Strategy and operation skills are also important.

I work about 30 hours a week.

I’m on the road 4-5 days a month going to conferences.  That is where I meet the people who have funds that can invest money and meet business owners.  

I love working with women entrepreneurs and mentoring them.  It’s fun and different every day. The businesses that I am looking at are completely different from what I did.  The women have great stories.

The necessary evil is raising money. That’s not the fun part but if you own your own business you have to do that and get creative.

Hearing entrepreneur’s stories.  I love hearing why women started a business and how they started it.

My father. My Dad was the manager of a trucking company. I would go to work with him on Saturday.  I remember as a little girl, sitting behind his desk and saying, “One day, I’m going to manage this whole thing.”  My Dad said, “You know you can if you want to.”  I said, “I’m going to Dad. You watch.”  He always encouraged me and told me that I could do whatever I wanted to.  And he was right!

To start my own business. 

One time I was talked into investing in a professional indoor football team. I lost a lot of money in that deal.

First, find things that you love to do and get into those businesses.

Get out there and try lots of different jobs.  Look for what you enjoy doing and find out how to make a career out of it.  Talk to people who have made it their career. Find out what it takes education wise and experience wise.

Even if you are not going to a have what you think is a career in business, consider getting a business degree or taking business classes.  I have a son who has a degree in exercise physiology.  Now that he has his own training company, he says that he wishes he had taken some business classes.

I’m a sports fanatic. I love tennis, snow skiing, water skiing, and cycling. 

I used to do triathlons. 

I have 8 grandkids. I love being a Grandma. 

I’m a passionate reader.

Together with my husband, we have 7 kids.  He had four and I had three. 

I owned my own business for many of the years when I was raising my children.  I worked my schedule around my children.

A few years ago I won an award for Entrepreneur of the Year. When I gave my acceptance speech I said, “I really want to thank my children. They have sacrificed the most for me to be here.”

On the drive home, my boys said, “Gosh. Do you think we’ve sacrificed?”

They had a conversation, which they shared with me later.  They said, “We’ve had all kinds of advantages because of the businesses you were involved in and because you owned your own business.  We always knew that you were there for the important things in our lives.  We don’t feel like we’ve sacrificed.”  I thought it was interesting coming from them.  I’d felt like they had really sacrificed but they didn’t feel that way.  

I made good use of the limited time that I had. I packed a lot in small spaces of time and was effective.  I made sure that I was there for the times that mattered most to them like their science fair, softball games or football games.  Sometimes I would work late at night or get up early in the morning to do my work so I could be there for my kids when it was important.

What I wish I would have done that I didn’t do well enough in my first marriage is put more time into my marriage. I put a lot of time into my kids.  I was traveling a lot. When I came home I was really focused on my kids.  The best thing I could have done for my kids was focus on my marriage.  

Since I’ve been divorced and gotten remarried, I look at things differently.  My advice is that the best thing you can do for your kids is work at your marriage.  Make it always good and find ways to make it better. Even though you are busy with a career and children, find ways to make your marriage really good.

I started managing restaurants when I was 17.

I went to college and got a business degree and went back to managing restaurants.  I loved it. I loved finding ways to motivate people. It was perfect for me.

Later I worked for several companies including Mrs. Fields Cookies.

I was also VP of Operations for Morris Air.  I had a great job. I loved it. I had the best job in the company as far as I was concerned. I was over all of the operations, reservations, flight attendants, gate personnel.  

When Morris Air sold to Southwest Airlines, I was devastated.  I lost the best job in the world. I had a severance package and stock options but I couldn’t figure out what I was going to do.

At Morris Air, I had developed the ability for agents to work from home and take airline reservations. I guy who worked with me said, “You should take that idea and start your own business.”  I thought, “Yea, right. I don’t know anything about owning a telemarketing company.”  He said, “You do it all here.”  I managed 800 agents.  I thought it couldn’t be that much different.  That conversation planted the seed.

The thought to start my own business would not leave. It haunted me day and night.  

I accomplished things I never thought I could do. I started a telemarketing company, O’Currance Teleservices.  I raised venture capital money the first month I opened my company.  When you find mentors and people who encourage and inspire you, you can do amazing things.

The mission and vision for my company was to employ people from home. I saw it as a great need.  This was in 1993 when people were not working at home.  We employed thousands of people to work at home.

When I sold my company, we were at $22 million dollars in revenue and had 600 employees.

I sold my business in March 2007.  I was mentoring some women entrepreneurs. I was trying to help them do what I’ve done. I’d raised venture capital money. I’d sold to a private equity fund.  

Greg Warnock of Mercato Partners approached me and said, “If you really want to help these women, you should raise a fund and invest in them. Put your money in them and really help them. You should sit on their Boards.

I said, “There is no way that I can do that.”  Greg said, “Sure you can. I will help you.”  It got me thinking and I started VAST Equity to help women entrepreneurs.

If you own your own company, you have a list a mile long of amazing challenges that you have had to overcome.

It’s important to find a way around a problem to a solution.