The Fourth Floor: A Platform for Founders and Funders

Breen Sullivan, founder and CEO of The Fourth Ground, shares her journey from a serial startup general counsel to leader of a system that is breaking ceilings and encouraging women-led startups gain accessibility to funding and important advisors.

CCBJ: Remember to share a small bit of your track record with us.

Breen Sullivan: My track record is as a normal counsel for tech startups. For two, I was the initially legal seek the services of and designed out the lawful capabilities. At the 3rd I was the Chief Administrative Officer, CHRO and Standard Counsel. As a generalist for tech startups, I started to realize one thing: in all a few organizations, male colleagues were angel investing and serving on advisory and governing boards of startups (and finding promoted!) and woman colleagues weren’t. When I tried out to discover similar ‘under-the-radar’ board and expenditure chances for myself, there was no evident spot to go. As a tech lawyer, I also knew quite a few startups never just take comprehensive benefit of advisory boards or fill all of their open board or observer seats, which means less prospects than there want to be.

We often listen to about deficiency of access for girls to community and huge firm boards but we under no circumstances seem to listen to about absence of accessibility for girls to the fewer sexy, less significant profile chances, like advisory board positions or more compact firm company board roles, etc., that extra generally than not lay the foundation for the form of networking and professional development (and for-financial gain board expertise!) that women of all ages have to have to attain obtain to more substantial, additional-sought-soon after prospects down the street. Access to these ‘feeder’ board chances, however, are controlled virtually totally by an invisible and informal network that girls commonly are not a part of.

Then when I fulfilled Katrin de Haën, a serial entrepreneur, I realized females business people face comparable obtain issues when it arrives to funding and growth prospects, and really don’t generally have the applications, resources or network to choose edge of the benefit that advisory board or impartial directors could carry to their startups. It grew to become obvious that bringing these two groups of gals jointly who don’t regularly meet every single other would generate a mutually valuable market that could crack open that monopoly.

This insight (and irritation!) led me to generate The Fourth Floor to be this new form of put exactly where gals can hack the program, initiate and progress their for-income board careers, get paid fairness, and get started investing. Proper absent, we started off serving to females-led startups obtain advisors and funding which led us to combination gals-led startup board options into a board seat trade available to experienced women of all ages.

In 2021 we recognized two a lot more points: 1). We experienced designed a marketplace for below the radar board and investment opportunities and they have been slowly and gradually but definitely transforming the demographics of the pipeline of ‘board-completely ready candidates’ by having females on to the boards and cap tables of women-led startups, and 2). It was not sufficient. We desired to do a lot more.

Females need to have to be on boards, but they also need to have funding, and they require to be creating checks. So The Fourth Ground produced a ‘Back Room’ for founders, ladies-led money, angels and minimal associates to encourage girls to spend in every single other and open up up their boards and cap tables as a way to more stage the participating in area.

When you very first conceived of founding The Fourth Ground, what was your basic eyesight and how has that developed as you have worked with more candidates, traders and founders?

Good query. At the beginning, the value proposition that we were centered on was quite very clear: the price that women of all ages (particularly attorneys!) could bring to advisory boards and governing boards of early-stage, females-led startups and the mutual benefits that could be reaped by the trade.

Nevertheless, we normally understood that we essential to do additional and our mission was more substantial. We want to shut the gender prosperity and funding hole by diversifying boards and cap tables. We want to get extra girls on boards, far more females funded and extra women producing checks. So how do we renovate the price development circle we built with ladies founders, candidates and buyers into a marketplace resolution?

We knew there was likely to travel systemic improve on a a lot larger scale and make a dent in the gender wealth and funding gap if we could incentivize the overall enterprise community- male-led corporations involved- to dedicate to tangible actions that would make diversity at the board amount a actuality and make certain a constant stream of board alternatives and competent candidates, so that is what drove us to come up with the Pay out It Ahead Initiative.

Recent moves by NASDAQ (diversify or delist), the Securities and Trade Commission and players like Goldman Sachs, not to point out the legislation in California demanding board diversity, all propose we have to have an productive, transparent ‘Market Network’ for varied board candidates quicker fairly than later. The Fourth Floor thinks it can be that source and help to accelerate the modify that is already in the air.

The Fourth Floor’s Pay It Ahead Initiative will spearhead this transformation by enlisting countless numbers of companies in between now and 2025 to get a pledge to close the gender wealth and funding gap by diversifying boardrooms and cap tables. The Initiative kicked off March 29th of this calendar year and is concentrating on a objective to advance for-financial gain board occupations for 75k girls by the finish of 2025.

We figured out a way to incentivize businesses to consider in another way about their boards and revolutionize how they measure DE&I: Fork out It Ahead Associates get a seal (consider Very good Housekeeping) and credits for the amount of prospects they make (sort of like carbon off-sets). Pre-start partners already consist of CCBJ, NYSERDA, PEWIN, The Innovation Space and Stella Labs, Trulieve, Vibrant Energy, Archetype and Open Grants with a lot of far more lining up. The Initiative will formally start in May.

Spend It Ahead incentivizes all organizations to ‘pull much more chairs up to the desk,’ provide variety into their boardroom, and empower women of all ages executives to initiate or advance for-gain board careers all when preserving cash against the base line. Sorry for the shameless plug, but if you are a CEO, CHRO, board member or decision maker, now is the moment to not get remaining at the rear of! You can acquire the pledge and commence advancing board professions for gals correct now. If you are interested in nominating oneself for a life time Board Prospect Membership or nominating your employer to come to be a Pay out It Forward Associate, study far more on The Fourth Flooring site.

As for receiving far more ladies funded and more ladies crafting checks, that is the mission of our ‘back room’ expenditure club. There are a whole lot of factors why bringing together girls business people with girls-led cash and accredited trader Board Applicant members just would make sense. Females-led resources need to have a lot more income in their coffers, girls will need more entry to investment alternatives, and females-led startups require funding. Due to the fact women are extra very likely to devote in girls founders and they are much more likely to spend aligned with their values, these a few networks require to be linked. We have big options for The Again Space, but completely discovering its possible will very likely not transpire until eventually just after the Pay It Ahead Initiative is in full swing. So remain tuned!

What’s your suggestions to ladies looking to attain access to board support and/or money, and what issues have you witnessed rising stars make along the way?

Community, network, network—and comprehending that one’s qualified network is unique from a board community. You want to go exterior your ease and comfort zone, to choose risks, to fulfill groups of individuals who you would not usually satisfy. That is a truly significant element of attaining access to for-profit board provider and getting commenced in investing.

When it comes to boosting capital as a female founder, there is no simple path, but women-led money are 3 situations a lot more possible to make investments in girls-led ventures, so networking with women of all ages who are producing checks of any kind can be really helpful. To the extent you can tap into differentiated networks outdoors of your individual closed circle (especially ones that are united with a common mission or purpose linked to getting you funded or receiving you on a board), it will be exponentially valuable.

Girls also have a tendency to be much more risk adverse than adult males. It can really feel mind-boggling starting a board job or an expense portfolio and it is scary! But it is exceptionally essential we put ourselves out there, and that we take hazards. They can be smart hazards, educated threats, but we require to bounce in and get started. And element of becoming in a position to do that is reframing how we assume of ourselves. Best is the enemy of great. We’re never ever heading to be best but we require to believe that we’re fantastic adequate. There are 10 million board rooms in this country loaded with imperfect adult males- it’s time for some imperfect women to be a part of them at the table!

What are your membership standards and how does the method work?

At the particular person stage, we acknowledge the adhering to classes of users:

Startup Founders: We accept girls and females-pinpointing founders and co-founders of early-phase, scalable and advancement-oriented startups, thought phase by means of collection B. Founders qualify for a free membership if they checklist at minimum one option in our board seat trade and/or back room investment decision club.

Board Candidates: In order to join us as a Board Applicant Member, you have to have a requisite amount of specialist expertise, which we’ve identified to be at the very least 10 yrs, whilst we also search at the top quality of that professional knowledge and the level of seniority that that person has accomplished above the system of their career. You can possibly invest in a Board Candidate Membership straight from our platform or you can acquire a lifestyle-extended, free of charge membership as a Board Prospect Nominee as a result of our Shell out It Ahead Initiative. Eventually we hope to be in a position to offer cost-free, lifestyle-extended Board Prospect membership to all competent women. As the amount of Pay It Forward Partner companies raise, so will the pool of obtainable nominations to give out. In the interim, we really encourage all Board Applicant Customers to inform their employer about the Pay It Ahead Initiative.

Aspiration Backers: We are about to get started giving a ‘Dream Backer Membership’ for girls intrigued in staying a section of The Again Home Investment decision Club only. This membership is for gals who are fascinated in angel, enterprise and/or other sorts of investing. To qualify, girls should be accredited buyers.

At the company degree, we settle for the next groups of users:

Pay It Forward Companions: Open up to all for income organizations

Higher Effects Associates: Open to innovation labs, accelerators, resources, B2B businesses, skilled support service provider organizations, NGOs, Communities, Federal government Organizations and Associations

Women of all ages-led Money: funds that are ‘women-led’ (50% or much more owned and operated by a lady).

What are some milestones that you have established for The Fourth Flooring?

The most significant and most essential milestone is the just one we gave ourselves for the shell out-it-forward initiative. We hope to advance 75,000 for-revenue board occupations for ladies by the end of 2025 and to realize that target we have to have to get roughly 15-20k firms to participate in the initiative. We think we can obtain this by forming better effect partnerships with businesses that can assist hook up us to hundreds and hundreds of prospective pay back-it-forward partners and also via amplification of this initiative.

The Pay It Forward Initiative is a market place option to a social trouble which we feel has prospective to drive much more systemic alter in the short term than a legislative alternative. Of system we require extra laws like the legal guidelines in California and extra actions like individuals taken by NASDAQ and the SEC, but we also need to have a sector approach that incentivizes corporations throughout this nation to choose a stage again and consider a little in different ways about their boards. If the Shell out It Forward framework can assistance companies see some savings against their base line, maximize range in their boardroom, spend in their government ladies talent and generate them extra enterprise or financial investment pounds, then they will take part, and by collaborating, they will assist us produce new board possibilities and combination current kinds into a board seat trade that will get started to shift board demographics in this country.

Membership expansion is a different milestone and a ton of this goes hand-in-hand with the fork out-it-ahead initiative. If we can hit that 75,000 selection, it will suggest a giant inflow of Board Applicant Associates at The Fourth Floor. The exact goes for the around 20,000 new board-linked prospects we have specific for our Board Seat Exchange. So these are some really huge plans.

We also plan to develop our founder and investor membership concurrently. As our again area expenditure club grows, we will be ready to provide a lot more funding opportunities for women-led ventures and far more investment decision possibilities for females hoping to take the plunge and commence investing with a ladies-led fund or a girls-led venture.

Lastly, there are our amplification and messaging milestones. We really want to get the phrase out there about what is achievable and why it’s so critical to push systemic modify when it will come to the gender wealth and funding hole in this country—and then around the globe.

On a minor bit far more of a particular observe, we would enjoy to know who and what has motivated you alongside your specialist path.

I was born and raised in Alaska so I have generally been a bit of an outsider, in particular on the east coast, which is exactly where I have put in substantially of my adult existence. My atypical background and expertise has assisted me understand there is the way most men and women do matters and then there are other approaches to do issues. There is constantly an outside-the-box tactic, a way to make that pie bigger.

I also realized early on that you can acquire control of your narrative and that can get you to a unique location. Also, most items are not as terrible as they seem to be and most factors are achievable if you seriously continue to be focused on that intention and you are open up to rolling with the punches and taking alternative routes to get there. I also had a few fascinating problems when I was finding begun skillfully – I was residing in Morocco when 9/11 happened and in New Orleans when Katrina hit. I finished up possessing an atypical entrée into the authorized occupation as a result. These activities taught me adaptability and not just accepting matters as they are.

I noticed many companies where by the owners and board customers ended up all white guys. You can either just take that or you can believe about it in different ways. Why not make an on ramp for gals to get on boards quickly? Why do we have to wait?

Four or five time in my lifestyle I was forced to obtain an alternate route to accomplish what I wanted. It was generally feasible then, so why just cannot the similar thing be true here?