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On this podcast, I sit down with venture capital funds to learn how they support their founders after writing them the check. This show is brought to you by HireCMO.io, where fractional CMOs grow your VC-backed portfolio startups.
Again, I mentioned it, but it's learning by doing. Like, don't be afraid to jump right into tasks or tools. For example, tools in our work is quite important. And if you've never used any tool, mentioning whatever, notion error table, something, just just explore it. Just click the button.
Eugenia (guest):Just click, check. Okay. This didn't work. I can use this for this, that for that. So kind of this piece to, yeah, learning it by yourself, and it's gonna work, perfectly.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Now this guest is an interesting one. She's what I call a global platform lead because she's a Ukrainian girl living in Mexico City working for a fund based out of Washington DC. Her fund's name is Axion Venture Lab, which is an early stage investment fund focused on inclusive Fintech startups. My guest's name today is Eugenia, also called Eugenia, I believe, if I recall. And she's cool because she has these superpowers that we dive into during the actual episode.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Never met anyone like her but hey, don't take my word for it. Let's dive in. You've arrived at your destination. Eugenia, super, super excited to have you on. I know we have spoken before, and I've had the opportunity to learn a lot about what you're doing.
Mash (HireCMO.io):But I felt like bringing you on a podcast to let more people know what you guys are doing at Axion and, honestly, your super unique background would be super fun. So I'm very happy to have you on today.
Eugenia (guest):Thank you so much, Mash. It's really cool to be here. Happy to share everything I know.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Well, lucky listeners. So maybe to get the audience as excited to have you on as I am, why don't you give us a brief intro about who you are and what you're up to these days?
Eugenia (guest):Yeah. I'm Eugenia or Eugenia here in Mexico City where I'm based. So I'm Ukrainian. I work for the, US based company called Axion and specifically for the fund that is Axion BunchLab. I live in Mexico City for, like, 2 years now.
Eugenia (guest):It's been a great experience. Really love it here. And then for my job, I'm a head of community currently, at Accion VentureLab. I used to work in a start up ecosystem for, like, 7 years right now, really enjoying it. Before, I had, like, different backgrounds and working for the foundation for historic historical memorial center.
Eugenia (guest):And before that, I was studying. So I lived my almost whole life in Ukraine and, currently, Mexico City for me.
Mash (HireCMO.io):That's super diverse. And I remember when we were talking initially, the way you described essentially how you got into venture capital from a very interesting background and having the passion to work with startup founders. You know, I'm I've I've been speaking to a lot of VC professionals such as yourself, and I'm noticing there's a lot of women in VC platform specifically who do a great job. And their backgrounds are very nontraditional, which is again super exciting for me as well because I also do not have a venture capital background. So for yourself, Eugenia or Eugenia, why venture capital?
Mash (HireCMO.io):Like, what made you join the venture capital space specifically?
Eugenia (guest):Well, I think you're touching on 2 main points, like why there are a lot of women and why I joined VC. I think, why people have different backgrounds and then switch to that. I think in in the VC world and startup ecosystem, one of the main things is execution. So if you can execute really well and you have a different background, I think you can work in the business. That's how I treated.
Eugenia (guest):That's how I started it. Because, again, I studied international relations and Spanish translation. I did, work for 2 years in the Holocaust Memorial Center, in the foundation to build the museum. And then out of nowhere, I'm like, okay. Let's do VC and start up competitions for a Swiss company called Seedstars.
Eugenia (guest):So it was my first step into this world. Again, I did not have a background. The start. Because and and one other thing is, like, learning by doing. This is what, VC world requires because you cannot embrace everything, like starting from, like, mentoring startups, doing events, doing, investment analysis, all of those pieces.
Eugenia (guest):And we, as a head of platform or head of community, we need to to know and to do a little bit of everything. And, this is actually again, getting back
Mash (HireCMO.io):That's a lot of gems right there. You you have a lot of my respect for, saying that, you know, learn by doing. It's something I've had to also pick up in my personal life and in my professional life. I think there's a lot that you can learn from books or talking to experts and mentors, etcetera. But in my personal experience, a lot of the things that actually move the needle, you need to pick up as you're working through the more critical and the more difficult items.
Mash (HireCMO.io):And speaking about execution, when I was on your LinkedIn, Eugenia, I noticed that you've had a you have you come from a very what's the word? A very strong management background and execution background when it comes to events. You've literally organized events, if you close my mind, across several continents with 100 and maybe sometimes a 1000 plus attendees, right? Just kind of taking a quick detour into that space. Like how does one, when you're leading community, when you're leading activities that bring founders, startups, and all these together, if there was one tip that you have for how you can execute event management to that perfection, like, what would that be?
Eugenia (guest):One advice. So first of all, I think why am I let's say good. I don't know. People say good at doing that. Mhmm.
Eugenia (guest):It's because I have a good imagination. This is number 1. I mean, you can develop it. It's not like someone has a bad imagination. But this is so helpful into understanding in your mind how the event is gonna be structured, who is gonna be there, how it's gonna be happening in another country.
Eugenia (guest):Again, I'm, based out of Mexico City, and I organize events in Indonesia, Singapore, Argentina, Netherlands. So kind of imagining how it's gonna be, the full flow from a to z, like, from the start and even, like, when the attendees are getting to know about the event until the feedback forms. So you kind of need to have the this whole picture in your head from the start. And then the next step is actually, again, planning and execution and timelines. Like, you really, like, you don't need to use fancy tools or like event management tools.
Eugenia (guest):You can do it on a, I don't know, Google Doc or spreadsheet.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Sure.
Eugenia (guest):And just like really create the whole picture for yourself. Okay. This I need to do by this date. This team member needs to do by visit and delegate as well. Because sometimes we're taking it all on us, and I'm like as an event manager, I love seeing how it's going on and and con I'm gonna take controlling and doing it myself, but, like, delegation piece as well.
Eugenia (guest):But you need to control what you've delegated. Right? And explain. Sometimes, it's also hard for event managers to kind of explain the whole picture. But, like, to make people involved and love what you are doing and how the event is gonna look like, it's, again, our job.
Eugenia (guest):And by, again, creating this whole picture and whole plan, I think that's you can do it in different countries because, in essence, events, they have, like, specific steps. Of course, they differ from event to event. But, like, I would say, like, around 10 steps that you need to take. And, again, if you have this plan, just replicate in other countries and continents and universes.
Mash (HireCMO.io):You make it sound very easy, but, I've tried to organize a cottage trip once for my friends. We were in Toronto. And I had the hardest time because everybody had their own plans. They had their own preferences. They had their own budgets.
Mash (HireCMO.io):That took me 2 weeks. And for you to organize events across waters of multiples of people, delegate, and then also putting your trust. Because you can't So I came to Canada 18 years ago from Bangladesh and sometimes I can tell you because of the cultural differences, the amount of trust that you have to put into someone overseas so that they execute well in their hyper localized environment. You you personally can only do so far because you don't know what you don't know. So, again, very respectable chops there for organizing events, which I think will is a perfect segue to talking about what Axion does.
Mash (HireCMO.io):So maybe tell us a little bit about the company in general because I know you guys have a rich history. I'm kind of open to learning about who Axion is, what the company or organization is known for, and then maybe we can then pivot into your role within the company.
Eugenia (guest):Yeah. Absolutely. So Axion was founded in 1961. So it's a long history company, as you mentioned. They were first pioneers in microfinancing around the world.
Eugenia (guest):It was founded in Colombia. Mhmm. And, when again, getting to, my team, which is Axion VentureLab, and we have venture capital fund within a nonprofit because Axion is a nonprofit itself. So in 2012, when the startups were kind of booming and interesting sector to be in, there was appointed, let's say, one person who wanted to explore to invest in this, high risk solutions called startups. They allocated amount of the budget, for that and, decided to try it out.
Eugenia (guest):It went really well, so we got some good returns. And then finally, we decided, like, to start, being, like, as a as a normal VC fund, meaning having LPs on board and, like, operate with a, like, management team for the fund, etcetera. So this is kind of in the nutshell how it started. It because the organization was global Mhmm. We also invested globally, started to invest globally.
Eugenia (guest):By now, we have more than 65 investments around the world, meaning, we invest in emerging markets, Fintech, and impact. So these three components, the company should have, so we kind of look and and probably invest in it. And in terms of the regions, yeah, we're investing Africa, Latin America, Asia, and, US as well. So, yeah, this is kind of it worked out. It worked out really well.
Eugenia (guest):We have, like, good exits, good companies by now that we invested in. And last year, there was a need for a head of community, and I was the first one who was taking this role, like kind of also pioneering in the fund with the, head of community platform, everything it entails, and because before, they just did not have this person. So this is kind of a cool part of the ownership that I have and a little bit of more, creativity that I can bring because nobody else did it before.
Mash (HireCMO.io):That's really cool. And I love how you naturally segued the conversation into your role because that's that was gonna be my next question. And before we actually dive into it, I wanna make an observation. So as I've been reaching out and speaking with professionals in the VC space, and I told you, as I mentioned, most of them are women, I'm I'm noticing a lot of their titles, much like yourself, are head of community. But then when I speak with them, it's obvious that it's not just community.
Mash (HireCMO.io):It's also platform and supporting these founders. Right? So the question I have for you, Eugenia, is, like, how come? Like, what's the difference between head of platform and head of community? And are these roles intertwined?
Mash (HireCMO.io):That's my question. And then how are you guys approaching community? Sorry, platform at, Axion Ventures or Axion?
Eugenia (guest):Axion Venture Lab, you can say.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Axion Venture Lab. There we go.
Eugenia (guest):Love it. So, yeah, it's a bit complex. And, you know, VC platforms did a really good research and kind of, like, head of platforms, head of communities. And I think just every fund defines it for themselves according to their needs, and then they call it like that. So I think if there is a little bit more of, like, marketing, social media, events, being, in touch with the stakeholders, probably, it's kind ahead of community.
Eugenia (guest):But when it has a component of, taking care of founders, working with them directly, being, like, with founders as a first point of contact, then I would call it a head of platform. So being more of a support to founders. For Mhmm. It's it's how I define it in my head. But for us, it's a little bit different.
Eugenia (guest):For our fund, we do not have a head of platform. We have only head of community, who you are listening to. And we kind of structure it in 2 ways. Mhmm. 1 is industry engagement, meaning what I mentioned, social media, events, content coordination, podcast, Fintech for the people that I'm editing.
Eugenia (guest):So this is kind of one part of thought leadership, and it's around the marketing and thought leadership of our fund and of our team members.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Mhmm. And
Eugenia (guest):then the second part, what I'm doing, it's called portfolio benefits. And this is for, like, working with our founders, but more on a soft skills. So meaning coaching, perks, like discounts on the tools, helping them with PR, boosting their visibility. And in case they have these questions, they come to me. And one other piece of it is, community, like, peer to peer events that we create only for our portfolio companies to kind of support them with knowledge sharing as we do CEO forum when we invite, like, 40.
Eugenia (guest):Oh, like, last year, it was 40. Now it's gonna be more, posture, more investment. So, inviting to another, country to kind of have these forums and chats online or offline to kind of bring in this, knowledge sharing in between, founders from other countries. So this is too. But this is, again, a head of community role.
Eugenia (guest):It's how we defined it because we have a very strong piece to portfolio engagement. And that's why for us, it's like portfolio engagement and platform. My role, head of community platform. But portfolio engagement, we have a dedicated team to that, and this is what we support our founders with in terms of business, fundraising. So just a quick note on this portfolio engagement.
Eugenia (guest):After investment, after we do an investment in this specific company, our team goes on-site, like, to the country where this company is based and doing, like, 100% oh my god. And doing a 100 days project with them, to, yeah, just open up the business and see all the gaps they have. And then within a week on-site, they work with the whole team, to, again, identify, bring something new and work solely on like business and and fundraising, people operations, etcetera, which is more, let's say, heavy lift of our support. And that's why it's called portfolio engagement. My side, I always say, like, I'm not doing investments.
Eugenia (guest):I do the fun part for the fund and for our portfolio companies. Yeah. This is how how we define. Yeah. A bit complex, but this is how it works for our fund.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Looking at the founder ecosystem, what you're doing at Axiom, what you've done at Seedstars, how are you seeing the VC platform function evolve in the last 3, 2 years? And, you know, how are founders looking at it? How are LPs looking at it? Just kind of curious to hear your thoughts on the whole function as a as an entirety.
Eugenia (guest):Yeah. It's a very good question because as you know, and it's in my case, at Seedstars and Axion, I was, like, the first one getting into this role and kind of figuring out myself. So now, the more and more funds onboard head of platforms, head of communities. I'm And they onboard head of platforms, head of communities. I think, first of all, I'm sure it's gonna be growing because as soon as the fund invest in the company, we're in the same boat, and we really wanna figure out how to make this business successful because we have the same goal, both of us.
Eugenia (guest):Mhmm. So, yeah, answering your question, number 1, yes, of course, it's gonna be growing. The second piece to it is kind of institutionalizing it a little bit. I think we see platform again, getting back to, the team, Josh, and others. They're doing a great job of institutionalizing, like, some metrics, some, advice.
Eugenia (guest):Like, really, it's becoming more as an industry itself as university for head of platform, head of community roles, and how to, again, manage it at best. So I'm I'm very much positive about the the future of that. And, again, it's also very important for LPs and, managers of funds to understand that this role is quite crucial because it it's, like, helps in all fronts with, as I mentioned, marketing and, like, just bringing people together that can be helpful further, down the road and saying, like, having this person who helps founders as a point of contact in anything. I think this is very important to have this, like, human, part to it as well. Because as I see again from my previous experience with Seedstars and and Accion, I really love working with founders and kind of Mhmm.
Eugenia (guest):Have this sort of trust in between each other. And just to have, again, a point of contact because from my experience in CPARS and UCM Metrolab, like, it's sometimes founders just wanna share problems that they have, and they don't wanna start with managing partners or investment officer that actually made an investment. So they wanna have this person who will understand them, will support them with any issue they have. So, again, it was a quite a long answer, but I think this role is super important, and I'm positive about it growing and being more and more important within the
Mash (HireCMO.io):feeds. I I really like the last part you you mentioned, Eugenia. Having not I'm just paraphrasing, but you said having someone to talk to who is not the managing partner, who is not the LPs, and who's basically someone you can almost confide in to really share the problems that you can't really share with the grand new crowd. It's like having a sibling. You know?
Mash (HireCMO.io):Telling your brothers and sisters. You can't tell your parents everything. Right?
Eugenia (guest):Exactly. Because we will understand everything. But at the same time, yeah, we'll be also happy to provide some recommendation that we
Mash (HireCMO.io):Yeah. And I had, you know, the the previous, person who was on the pod, Abby, she mentioned that she heard of the another firm actually had a therapist as part of their platform services, which is so crucial. Because, you know, in some especially with you guys, like, you're investing globally. And in some countries, I know in Bangladesh, for example, mental health is still a taboo. You're if you talk about it, people think there's something fundamentally wrong with you.
Mash (HireCMO.io):And so people hide it. But then, when it really is a necessity, then it's almost too late to go and seek that support. So with you guys as you're investing globally, you know, imagine if you had, you know, a centralized, mental health infrastructure or support, and it's really just part of your platform function. This is not me telling you how your platform should evolve. It's just me sharing my my little thought process here.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Very valuable service for founders to be able to talk to a therapist. So if you could give some advice to your 25 year old self or 20 year old self about what you could do about getting into platform, What would you tell that younger version of yourself? Because I think this is something a lot of to be VC professionals always think of because they're scared to maybe approach the venture capital space. They think they're not cut out for it because they don't have that MBA from Harvard, but they have a very deep want and desire to work in the space. So what advice would you give to your younger self to get into the VC platform space, you think?
Eugenia (guest):Yeah. I think maybe 3 important things here. Mhmm. Number 1, that I mentioned in the beginning, execution. You know, just made what you are asked to do.
Eugenia (guest):Like, really don't procrastinate me. Just, like, have a specific deadline for execute. Number 2 is being curious. I think if you don't know anything about this sector, like, it takes, not that much of a time to be actually curious in something and just learn, read. There are tons of information, and there are tons of communities or thought leadership newsletters that you can grasp this information from and be a little bit more knowledgeable and Right.
Eugenia (guest):And, number 3 is, again, I mentioned it, but it's learning by doing. Like, don't be afraid to jump right into tasks or tools. For example, tools in our work is quite important. And if you've never used any tool, mentioning whatever, notion error table, something, just just explore it. Just click the button.
Eugenia (guest):Just click, check. Okay. This didn't work. I can use this for this, that for that. So kind of this piece to, yeah, learning it by yourself, And it's gonna work, perfectly.
Eugenia (guest):So I think these three main things, like learning by doing, executing, and being curious in the sector that you wanna be in.
Mash (HireCMO.io):You're reminding me of also what investors look for in founders. Right? Like, self driven individuals who have a very per they have a personal reason to do what they're doing as they're building out these companies because they want to see something get created. And that's what it reminds me of. I feel like eve as you're supporting these founders, much like yourself, if you're also in the same mental state where, hey, if I don't know something, I'll go out and figure it out.
Mash (HireCMO.io):It's up to me to figure out what the next version of what I'm doing looks like and how I can improve my team's efforts, how I can improve my own efforts. I feel like those qualities almost splash into the founders because then they feel inspired having you by their side and knowing, hey, I can call her up if I need some help. If she believes in me, why can't I, as a founder, go out and build. Right? And I think We're great.
Mash (HireCMO.io):That kind of psychological and emotional support and also alignment, in my opinion, is very rare. So I'm really, really excited to see what you guys are doing at Axion VentureLab. And thinking back to your specific role, maybe give the audience and myself a bit of a walk through. I'm really curious about this one. You know, what does your day to day look like?
Mash (HireCMO.io):You know, and you know, what are some examples of maybe the kinds of things that your Fintech founders call you up for at in the middle of the night? I'm very curious to see what that role looks like for yourself.
Eugenia (guest):Oh, my God. You don't really wanna know my day because it's a little bit hectic. As you know, again, I work globally.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Oh, true.
Eugenia (guest):Globally meaning being in Mexico City. Now currently, my day to day is organizing a regional meetup in Singapore, giving 12 hours, difference. So I wake up in Singapore, and I go to sleep with Singapore. So I Shilarious. Catch up catch up before, they they, like, no.
Eugenia (guest):Before I go to sleep and they woke up and I'm so good. So this is what a car could do because we need to do, like, logistic there and the content and investor day. It's a it's a big thing. Another piece to my day is social media because I run LinkedIn and Twitter page. And also, I wanna catch the audience of India and Asia.
Eugenia (guest):So I need to do it as early as possible in the morning. And it's kind of 9 AM DC time, which is 7 AM for me. So this is how my day starts. I need to create a post and post it on our social media platforms. Mhmm.
Eugenia (guest):And then the rest of the day, yes, I'm flowing with, a lot of things. PR, for example, is one of them. Because sometimes, of course, like, the startups on early stages, they do not have a strong PR team, and this is what we wanna support them as well. We do have communications team, a solid team of Aksion, and I'm kind of a liaison with it. So I need to connect, let's say, founders with the communications team to review the press release, pitch press release to the media, and then do some blog posts about, like, why we invested.
Eugenia (guest):We normally write the blog why we invested to this company to kind of also get everyone excited about that. So this is, another piece to my, to my work. And then, currently, we are also doing, a pilot project for the coaches, for our founders. We wanna see how they, like, receptive to that to work with a platform, Like, a separate platform we, partnered with for the coaches. And then lastly, again, talking about these events, it's not just an event in Singapore.
Eugenia (guest):This is like a regional meetup where we bring our Asia, based companies to Singapore, Singapore Fintech Festival, and create a separate engagements apart from the festival to that forum, like investor day, and I need to take care of and write in investors and matching them on 1 on 1 with our founders. So kind of having it's like an event, but at the same time, it has a lot of, like, content piece to it or a lot of thought, through piece to it.
Mash (HireCMO.io):I hear you. And one thing I wanted to ask you, Eugenia, is, you know, you're you're seeing the space evolve. You're seeing it formalize. Let's take a step back and just talk about, giving advice to other platform functions, right? Let's say there is there's a listener on on this pod now who is figuring out their platform functions.
Mash (HireCMO.io):They don't really know what to offer, when to offer, what depth to offer, etcetera. If they're figuring things out, what are two pieces of unintuitive advice that you wanna give them?
Eugenia (guest):I think number 1 is, to understand, like, what your platform offers and what it does not. Because this part of what we do not offer is very important because sometimes you wanna help founders with everything you can, but you just don't have this specific feature, like, in house or a specific team to work on that. Just be transparent upon that that this is not a part of the support that you're offering. Because founders also have a lot of investors, that participate in their rounds, and they can ask other founders. It's not embarrassing.
Eugenia (guest):It's not bad. You just really need to know what you're good at and what you cannot support founders with. And we sometimes, we forget, but I think this is also crucial to identify. And number 2, I would say, if it's helpful, and I think it was helpful for us and and before when I worked in in a previous organization, is to kind of serve founders and ask them what is the most helpful for them. Because, right, we like, founders who are based out of US US might have different needs than founders bay based out of emerging markets or even emerging market, like, out of Africa or Latin America.
Eugenia (guest):They might have different needs. And, like, to tailor a little bit those needs and to understand, what they actually need and build out of the needs of your portfolio companies, I think it's the right move to do. And the needs are also changing. And this here is important to also understand that something that founders needed when you invested in versus what they need a year or 2 years after, it can be different. So here comes, like, check-in calls, maybe, again, what makes sense for you monthly or quarterly to understand how the needs of the founder evolve and where you can step in.
Eugenia (guest):And if you're unable to cover this need, you can always introduce the founder. Sometimes we forget about these network introductions. But if you know that a fund is doing a great job and they, again, our ecosystem and our community, our venture capitalists, it's very open. And we are always gonna be happy to to support even partners if we haven't been I would be. So that's if someone needs any help, I'm happy to to support for with what I can if I am, again, strong in this, piece of advice.
Mash (HireCMO.io):And and I I can see the value in that. And the way you said because remember, just for the audience here, you guys invested globally. Right? And you've seen founders from different countries have varying sets of needs, Which quite frankly, if a fund that only invests in a specific country or region, they don't have that additional pair of eyes that you have. And for you to remind us that one, people's needs change from time of investment to a quarter or 2 quarters later, they will probably not need the same thing.
Mash (HireCMO.io):And also, as we mentioned earlier, investing in regions all over the world, some of their needs and requirements might be hyperlocalized and or very different from what you're supporting, maybe the same type of Fintech founder, but in another region of the world. Right? So keeping your eyes and ears extra attentive to their needs and being able to offer that when they need it. And I think that's a great, great point that you brought up, Eugenia. Definitely taking notes on my side.
Mash (HireCMO.io):That's amazing. So I've learned so much. I think it's you know, we've spoken before, but I think, you know, I'm still learning a lot from how you conduct yourself within the fun, but also from your experiences organizing so many things in the last, 7 to 8 years of your, career. So there's a magic question. How would you like to close-up the podcast?
Mash (HireCMO.io):What's you know, the floor is yours. Tell us tell us what you want.
Eugenia (guest):Oh, wow. You know, when when there is no question that I could do whatever, it's normally like, I don't know what to say. But I would say, so, yeah, everyone who listens, who need advice on the platform, function, or just in general, reach out on LinkedIn. I'm quite active there, Eugenia Shevchenko. I know it's hard.
Eugenia (guest):But, also, as I'm based in Mexico City, I have my mini blog of, coffee shops and galleries and bars in, in Instagram. So in case you wanna also explore Mexico City, also DM me, and I will share with you some places. It's ug_topamax5. In case you're interested,
Mash (HireCMO.io):Yeah. And I I think anyone who would listen to the podcast would totally agree with your last statement. Your excitement is very evident in how you speak about your role. And I'll put your contact information, the Instagram account as well as the LinkedIn, in the details below if anyone wants to reach out. And thank you so much for your time, Eugenia.
Eugenia (guest):Thank you.
Mash (HireCMO.io):Definitely a lot of gems in this podcast, and I'm very happy we did this together.
Eugenia (guest):Likewise. Thank you so much for inviting, and, yeah, happy to collaborate further.
Mash (HireCMO.io):What did I tell you? This episode did not disappoint. If you wanna see Eugenie in action on our video, head on over to YouTube and type in higher CMO pod, as in podcast, and look out for episode number 2 where she was our guest. See you on the next one.