Women in VC: Shayna Harris of Supply Change Capital

Women in the venture capital world continue to lack the support, space, and attention they deserve. In the US alone, less than 6 percent of VC firms are led by women, according to Women in VC. In other countries, this number is smaller. 

At The Conscious Investor, this hits hard. This publication is founded by a female VC and entirely run by women. But rather than dwell on the paltry numbers we choose to celebrate the immense talent that is changing the landscape of venture capital—and, in turn, the world-at-large. In this series, Women in VC, we highlight women at the helm of venture funds across the globe. Their words, efforts, and honest takes are fuel for us all to take part in bringing real equity and inclusion into the VC fold.

By Stacey Lindsay

It began in the kitchen. As a young girl, Shayna Harris would watch her grandmother cook. Her elder would take care to use “every single part of the chicken,” Harris remembers. The vegetables were always fresh. Even the dill that went into her grandmother’s legendary pickles was from the garden. “My family would always clamor for who got to open the first jar,” says Harris.

For many of us lucky to have similar experiences, those moments would last as fond memories or wisdom carried into our cooking. For Harris, they were the seed that grew into her career in the global food system. For two decades, Harris has developed sustainable food strategies around the world, allowing her “acute awareness” of food and the impact it has on people’s lives to guide her. 

In her work, Harris focuses on how food is about more than sustenance. What we eat is about justice, equity, health—and ultimately how we live. As an undergraduate student, Harris remembers learning about how a vast number of farmers in the world live in agricultural regions yet cannot feed themselves a nutritious balanced diet. “That just struck a deep chord,” she says, particularly because she was raised hearing the “folklore” of her own grandfather having to emigrate from his native Germany because he and his family couldn’t make it on their farm.

Harris has traversed continents and engaged in countless cultures in her work. She worked in the coffee supply chain, a role that brought her to the coffee lands of southern Mexico, El Salvador, and Ethiopia. She created the sustainable cocoa program for Mars, and she was the Chief Growth Officer of Farmer’s Fridge where she developed the business for a network of automated smart fridges that vend chef-curated meals. Looking through a lens of sustainability and inclusion, she has also advised brand giants like Unilever and Starbucks.

Today Harris bridges her empathy and inclusive eye with a keen understanding of the opportunity that exists in the food space. She is the co-founder and co-managing partner of Supply Change Capital, a venture fund focused on the evolving face of food and its intersection with technology and culture. She and Noramay Cadena started Supply Change after witnessing the immense shifts happening along the lines of technology, food entrepreneurship, and demand. “We noticed that the diversity of America and the changing demographics of America were not being mirrored by who was getting funded in the food space,” she says.

This mismatch is serious. By 2045 more than 50 percent of the US population will be non-white, Harris points out, yet most of the venture funding in the food space continues to go to white males. Harris and Cadena are opening the gates to the diverse food founders who are being overlooked, which, in turn, is emboldening the founders and companies making and distributing the diverse foods people want. Take the online grocer, Weee! Founded several years ago to have a focus on Asian and Asian American foods and flavors, Weee! has recently expanded to products for the LatinX community. “I spoke to one of the investors and a lot of the feedback that they'd gotten early on is why isn't this such a narrow category?” Harris says of Weee!. “Fast forward a couple of years and Weee! just raised $315 million to fuel the growth.” They’re being valued at “unicorn status,” she continues.

She and Cadena believe that culture is the gateway to healthier, more sustainable eating. The 'plant based' way of eating has been around for many millennia, and it was only with industrialization that we began to wreak havoc on the environment at scale with what we eat and how we consume, she says. “The opportunities for technological investments in food, agriculture, and ingredients are not only experiencing historic rates of investment and valuations but they are critical to continue to produce food sustainably in our changing planet.”  

After all, everything that goes into what we eat, from the spices to the techniques to the customs, keeps cultures alive. The memories and learnings surrounding food are fodder for ideas that evolve the world—and Harris is an incredible proof of concept.

SHAYNA'S WORDS…

On investing in diverse food companies in the US…

“The Asian diaspora population is one of the fastest growing communities in the United States. So this is not niche. When we're out fundraising, there are many folks who really understand the focus. We're getting a lot of traction as we are building our firms. But sometimes we get head scratched by folks in the space who were saying that we’re investing in “ethnic food”—and I put that in quotes. The answer to that is there's an incredible diversity of ethnicities and food and flavors that are being created that we think is important to support. This is not about niche food. This is about the future of food and the future of the way that America eats.``

On the role of technology… 

“We know that there is mainstream appeal for the products, food, and flavors. And it’s not just about the brands or the products that are being consumed, but like the example of Weee!, it's about the technology that's fueling this, too. That is allowing us to transform diverse foods and flavors and to serve these markets in new ways and really not to neglect the needs that they have.”

On supporting other women in the venture space…

“My co-founder and I are part of a couple of different groups that support women in VC and or diverse emerging fund managers in venture. And while it is still by far the vast minority of females who are allocating capital, there is certainly a movement growing around this. We are part of a group called Transact Global, which is an active community with weekly calls of women investment space supporting one another. We also have an incredibly active WhatsApp group and people are vulnerable, asking questions, sharing, deal flow. It is really, really encouraging and exciting to see.”

On the challenges of being a woman in venture and diversifying the space… 

“I would absolutely say that yes there is an upswell of diverse individuals that are interested in getting into the venture space. I would also say it is very hard to break in. It’s hard to get the upstart funds to start a fund. You're going to be bootstrapping it from scratch. You have to come up with tens of thousands of dollars for legal fees, formation fees, et cetera, to get your fund going and to be able to then raise the money around a thesis. What I have started to see in our conversations are groups, one is called VC Include and another called Oper8tr, that aim to support emerging fund managers in helping them overcome some of those early hurdles, such as: How do I form my fund? What does fund admin look like? What are the legal documents I need? What does due diligence look like? This goes beyond the thesis of the investment area, there's a whole backend, too. For the right reasons, there are hurdles on the administrative side and start-up funds required to starting an investment firm—that ends up being really one of the challenges to diversify the space.”

“There’s also kind of a quiet conversation happening—which I hope gets louder—about what financial support looks like to have more diverse fund managers. Many of the women I know in this space have families. They're breadwinners and responsible for contributing to their family. Just as we are early-stage investors that come from diverse backgrounds, we're very passionate about supporting diverse entrepreneurs. So I definitely see a dialogue happening around that although, as I mentioned, still in the vast minority in terms of who's allocating money. But I am really hopeful of the dialogue and the movement that is emerging.”

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