Auctions and Women Entrepreneurs

Last week I was one of the many busy volunteers who helped pull-off the once-a-year Forum for Women Entrepreneurs auction and fundraising dinner in Palo Alto. I was in charge of the "for the family" items - things like hand-knit afghans, photography sessions, and crafts projects. Got a lot of VCs and lawyers I know to "bid up" - I wasn't satisfied until I got at least double the "suggested list price". More fun than a term sheet, since there isn't any triple liquidation preference on a scrapbook - or maybe they just haven't thought of that yet.

Susan Hailey, FWE CEO, is a real kick - fun, sharp, and quick-witted. I met her at a Buck's lunch in Woodside, and was impressed at how she'd taken a pretty much bankrupt organization that had lost direction after the bubble burst and suffused it with purpose and cash. You've got to have a lot of confidence to inspire confidence in others, and she has all that and more.

So, what were the real neat items that the VCs bought?

Yahoo! had donated a basket of memorabilia that got ignored until I started directing everyone to it, with a "collectables" spiel. Ding. Sold high. El Fornaio, the trendy Italian restaurant, had a basket with a cookbook - but most of these "high flyers" don't cook and told me so in no uncertain terms. So I pointed out what a great "gift" this would make for any client at the restaurant to close a deal. Ding. Sold high.

Things like photo and spa sessions were no brainer sells, since everyone likes personal services. But crafts were a bit more of a hard sell - until I described how well an afghan would fit over an antique rocking chair, or how beautiful the Girls Middle School of Mountain View basket of hand-made crafts would fit any office.

Treats like cookies and candies sold easily, but it took a bit of work to sell the baskets of DVDs and children's books. Fortunately, I've seen Branagh's version of Henry the V by William Shakespeare, along with a number of other "classic" DVDs and pitched them all. Watch the bid start at $40 and zing up to $180 - a whopping 4.5 multiple for a half hour's work! What VC wouldn't be pleased with that. Ding Ding Ding. Sold real high - everyone loves movies!

Well, not everyone loves children's books, but I had also read a lot of those as a kid. So I went on about much I loved The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare when I was a girl, so I emphasized how important it is to cultivate a young mind with substantial and excellent reading even if they aren't your own children. Bid started at $20 and zoomed up to $150 - an incredible 7.5 multiple. Ding Ding Ding. Sold higher - my best percentage of the evening (though not the costliest products - the spa days and photo sessions were a lot more expensive, but not 7.5 times more). Maybe I ought to be a VC!

OK, you may ask - what was hard to sell. Well, the "suggested list price" item that wasn't bid up was the wireless access point product for home. It did sell for the minimum, so the FWE got the money that Fry's would have otherwise gotten. But is a WAP "for the family" or is it "for the techie"?

Maybe they put it on my tables because I am a technologist? Food for thought (or not, since I didn't get to enjoy the special dinner that guests enjoyed - we ate in a room down the hall).

Susan asked me at our first meeting "Why are you interested in FWE?" My quick answer - "I work in technology mostly with men, and I thought it would be nice to work with women for once". And after telling guys to clean up their messy cat5, all I can say is that FWE is sure different from those all-guy datacenters, right?