On March 7, the day before International Women’s Day, asset manager Franklin Templeton hosted a webinar, A Conversation with Women Changemakers in the Fintech Industry, to discuss creating a more inclusive environment.

The panel was moderated by Sandy Kaul, senior vice president, digital assets and industry advisory services at Franklin Templeton, whose team thinks about how disruptive technologies and innovation are changing the wealth and the asset management industry.

Kaul said: ”I’m excited to showcase women’s voices in fintech because innovation needs multiple points of view, and to get that diversity of viewpoints has been a tremendous boon.”

Meet the women creating a more inclusive environment in the world of FinTech as we celebrate #InternationalWomensDay. Register to hear how these panelists are #EmbracingEquity & striving to build a workplace where women can excel. Register now: https://t.co/rUGqgePcqw #IWD2023 pic.twitter.com/yOTSLwDNN1

— Franklin Templeton (@FTI_Global) March 6, 2023

The panel began with discussing the definition of changemaker. Sarah Wendell Sherrill, co-founder and co-chief executive at Lobus,  said  it embodies this concept of  women who are bringing original ideas to table. Lotus is a technology platform for enabling art ownership through tokenization with the artist as a central stakeholder which she described as transforming culture into an investable asset class.

“You are thinking about how all the players interact, what the ecosystem looks like, what are the levers needed for transformation, and that’s where I think women are uniquely positioned to step into this space,” she added.

Wendell Sherrill started her career at Christie’s auction house in August 2008, just before the financial crisis, where she met Lori Hotz, her co-founder and co-chief executive at Lobus.

“She had a career in asset management and finance before Christie’s so we have this incredible relationship where I learn from her every day,” she said. “Being an entrepreneur side by side with somebody that you deeply respect and looks at the space in a similar way is an incredibly rewarding experience and I think this is this is what changemaking looks like.”

Swati Chaturvedi, co-founder and chief executive of Propel(x), said change makers should  change the world for a better outcome.

“There is disparity in wealth, and the wealthiest people have access to different kinds of investments, which makes their wealth grow faster,” she added. “We are here to democratize access to wealth and  lessen that disparity.

Propel(x) is an alternatives investment platform that opens up  investment in startups and hedge funds to ordinary accredited investors around the world, asset classes that previously had limited access points.

Taking risks

Margaret King, vice president, fintech partnerships and corporate venture capital at Franklin Templeton, said entrepreneurs create change by paving the way to new ideas, and taking the risk of thinking about entire ecosystems and industries very differently. King leads the incubator program which looks for disruptive technologies to accelerate Franklin Templeton’s business, particularly in asset management.

“Our incubator program takes on some of those risks in a  calculated way to help drive growth in a different direction,” she added.

King said she learnt to take risks by working at a variety of startups, including some who failed, which was a great way to learn about her strengths and where she needed to improve. She added: “The challenges I encountered early in my career taught me about great leadership styles and empathy.’.

She continued that it is very important to never stop learning, always stay agile and to listen.

“Active listening is very important because sometimes when you get a little bit too confident, your voice tends to overshadow others, and you are not really listening to whoever is speaking to you,” King added.

Chaturvedi grew up in India and moved to  the US on her own for her graduate studies. As she had little money she had to take on many jobs which she said taught her to be resourceful and how to survive. She then moved into venture capital completing her MBA which made her comfortable with the idea of startups taking risks.

She describes herself as passionate about finance and science and technology and finding companies that have the potential to become the next Tesla. Propel(x) was launched as a way to connect tech startups with investors and over time, has  expanded to become a platform to connect issuers with investors.

“I had the good fortune to succeed in some small ways, which led to greater confidence,” added  Chaturvedi . “Tying something new is the single most important thing thatI have done. You have to try and if you don’t succeed, you will learn something.”

Wendell Sherrill said the biggest lesson the founders of Lobus have learnt is to play by their own rulebook. Christie’s was a 250 year old company making billions in sales but they still saw an enormous whitespace to transform and bring new sources of capital into the art world.

‘We had deep financial expertise, deep subject matter expertise and knew how luxury markets worked but we weren’t product technologists,’ she added .”We learned really early on to play by our own rules.”

Kaul added that one of her greatest lessons is that the more senior you become, the more you draw on your network to stimulate success. She said: “People underestimate how many opportunities come to you through your network.”

Chaturvedi agreed and said her MBA helped build her network and open doors. She also advised that it is very important to get comfortable with being in the public eye and building your brand, including on social media.

“To be honest, I am a very private person but I took all the opportunities I had to meet with people,” she added, “I love talking to people one-on-one, but I’m not that person that works the room. But each time I went to an event I came back with a very valuable connection.”

Wendell Sherrill said one thing that really stands out in terms of a network is the tendency to always say yes to an opportunity to the detriment of her schedule, so this needs to be balanced. She added; “But 99% of the time, it comes back to me in a way that I would never expect.”

Other things that are important are confidentiality and using her relationships to build relationships for others.

Female founders only get about 2% of total venture capital funding and the panel said the power of connecting different networks will open up more opportunities. King said a key aspect of her role is helping to build a network inside Franklin Templeton, as well as the opportunity for women founders to deploy and take a product to market.

“For example, I can introduce them to  investors for women who are in consumer tech or a different fintech vertical,” she added. “You can have access to a network, but there also has to be that effort to build the relationship, which takes time.”

Advice to their younger selves

King continued that her advice to her younger self would be to not be afraid of being more authentic and take a little bit more risk.

Chaturvedi would tell herself to follow her passion and to not be afraid.

Wendell Sherrill continued that the female tendency is to bring people along and build consensus, which can turn into people pleasing.

“Starting something new and changing the status quo is diametrically opposed to those qualities in some ways,” she added.  “So my advice is to  really trust your instincts.”

Kaul’s advice would be to keep your eyes open as opportunities come from very unexpected quarters at  unexpected times.

“Some of the best opportunities in my career have come when I wasn’t looking for them,” she said. “On one occasion somebody had to tell me three times they were trying to offer me something before I realized where those conversations were coming from.”