Fran Hauser: From Media Executive to Venture Capital
Partner, Rothenberg Ventures
http://www.franhauser.com
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franhauser
Twitter: @fran_hauser
Bio:
Before diving into the world of venture capital, Hauser spent 15 years in media, most recently as the President of Digital for Time Inc.’s Style & Entertainment Group. In 2011, she developed a passion for angel investing/advising (70% of the companies in her portfolio are female-founded). She joined Rothenberg Ventures in June as a partner where she continues to support female founders. A passionate advocate of women and children around the globe, Hauser is a funder of the PBS documentary Half the Sky, Board Chair of GlobalGiving and an advisory board member of Helpusadopt.
Innovating in Field of Work:
During her 15 years in digital media (at Moviefone, AOL and Time Inc.), Fran spent a considerable amount of time meeting with startups to discuss potential partnership, strategic investment or acquisition. This gave Fran incredible access to the startup world in both NYC and Silicon Valley. She became interested in the space and started to invest personally in startups. She also made the bold decision to invest largely in female founders given the existing challenges around women getting funded.
Impact:
Fran joined Rothenberg Ventures in June as a partner and is continuing to support female founders. Only 11% of new business ventures are female founded, which is “unacceptable” to Fran. She is also the Board Chair for GlobalGiving, the world’s first crowd funding platform, which has raised over $100 million dollars in donations for grassroots projects around the world. She has challenged the GlobalGiving management team to get to $1 billion in the next 5 years and is working closely with the team on a capital raise that would enable this.
Role Model:
Fran is a LevoLeague mentor and enjoys answering questions from young women on the Levo platform. She has been a speaker at conferences targeted at young women (such as HerCampus), spent countless hours (and coffees!) with women one-on-one, and promoted many women during her years at Time Inc. She also actively mentors female entrepreneurs including Caroline Ghosn and Soraya Darabi. In the boardroom, she recruited two female board members over the last year to join an all male board (with the exception of her) at GlobalGiving.
Reinvention / Risk / Momentum:
Just a few months ago, Fran decided to leave the digital media world and go all-in on investing. She has bravely moved from a very senior corporate position to a relatively small, albeit up-and-coming VC firm, run by millennials. Female founders are majorly underrepresented in the venture capital world. She is fiercely committed to changing that and continuing to empower female founders.
“Only 11% of new business ventures are female founded, which is unacceptable. I would like to do my part to change that.”