One health care startup at a time, this venture capitalist wants to harness the investing power of women
WOODSIDE, Calif. — There’s a house situated on a wooded hillside in this wealthy Bay Area town, its entryway shaded by a pergola covered in vines, the mountains framed by wood-trimmed windows, stones paving a sweeping garden.
But it isn’t your typical multimillion-dollar Bay Area home. Instead of a couch and a television, the living room is dotted with desks. Instead of T-ball trophies and family photos, the gallery wall in the hallway is plastered with prints about startups working on men’s fertility tests, subscription plans for egg freezing, and catheters for chemotherapy. (The kitchen, however, is still stocked with snacks.)
The home is the headquarters of Portfolia, an investing platform built from the ground up with the goal of getting more women and underrepresented groups involved in investing. To Trish Costello, a venture capitalist who founded the platform in 2014, doing so is the key to changing the kinds of companies that draw venture capital dollars, such as women’s health startups.
“If women want specific companies in the world that address their needs, the only way to do that is for women to become the investors,” said Costello.
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