Having made significant strides down the road, women today are changing the face of every industry. With an unparalleled dedication towards their work, many women are not only leading the game in every industry but are also redefining the way business is done. One such dynamic leader is Yasmin Moaven, Vice President, Marketing & Communications at Pipe.
We caught up with Yasmin to know more about her work and how she has made her mark in the industry.
Aspioneer (A): Please brief our readers about your company and how it works.
Yasmin Moaven (Y): “Pipe is a trading platform that enables entrepreneurs to grow their businesses on their terms. By treating recurring revenue streams as an asset, Pipe allows companies to transform their recurring revenue into up-front capital, instantly. Pipe’s two-sided trading platform provides direct access to the capital markets for companies of all sizes, ranging from early-stage all the way to publicly listed companies. Pipe lets companies turn their recurring revenue streams into up-front capital, without loans or dilution, which has never been done before. Pipe was launched in Beta in Feb 2020 and publicly launched in June 2020. We’re a remote and globally distributed team with an HQ in Miami. We have ‘micro hubs’ (or clusters of team members) in NYC, LA, Atlanta, San Francisco, Europe, and London.”
(A): When Pipe was built, what was the prime purpose? How does it enable entrepreneurs?
(Y): “Pipe was built with the entrepreneur in mind. Pipe gives founders and business owners the power to grow their companies on their terms by giving them access to capital when they want without dilution or restrictive debt. We help founders and early investors capitalize on the fruits of their labor without forfeiting ownership. As we know in the current financing landscape, not everyone has access to capital. But Pipe has taken the most valuable assets of any recurring revenue company and created an asset class that democratizes access to capital for all. We’re leveraging technology to make growth attainable in a more efficient, less biased, and more founder- and employee-friendly way, so companies can build and accomplish amazing things.”
(A): Tell us about your journey as a business leader up to your current position at Pipe.
(Y): “I am the first daughter of two immigrant parents. I’m a first-generation American and find myself to be very fortunate and privileged to have the opportunities I have been afforded in my professional career. Coming out of college I found myself lucky that my parents were supportive of my “off-the-beaten-path” ambitions, for lack of a better term—I didn’t want to be a lawyer or physician! I thought I wanted to live a Devil Wears Prada life, where creativity meets deal flow meets glamour in the Big Apple. But when I entered the magazine world in 2010, it was going through an overhaul driven by the digital revolution, and print was quickly losing value. I also realized that access to cool events got me free mascara and blow dryers—but didn’t pay the bills. So, I moved back to California and took a job with the City of Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board where I ran Strategic Alliances and Partnerships. I worked with a lot of traditional and emerging brands, including a little startup at the time called Uber, which is where I was first bitten by the tech bug.
My family was severely impacted by the 2008-9 recession, so I think of myself as a recession baby. And I had to keep thinking outside the box to get where I wanted to be. I discovered the tech industry could allow me opportunities beyond what the school books teach—and it could give me the opportunity to truly change and control my life and choose my own destiny.
Around the same time, one of my friends started working at TrueCar and introduced me to them, and I worked in the marketing department for then-CEO, Scott Painter. Within a year, Scott retired from the company and I left and joined Sotheby’s, the auction house, to run marketing and communications for their North and South America divisions. Less than six months into the new gig I got a call from Scott, who had started a car subscription app called Fair. The opportunity and challenges at a start-up like Fair as the 20th employee were something I couldn’t resist. I started as Fair’s Director of Marketing and, by about a year later, was heading up the entire Investor Relations and Communications function. In less than 18 months, the company became a unicorn, and I helped raise over two billion dollars of equity and debt financing from some of the most prolific investors and institutions around the world.”
Pipe is a trading platform that enables entrepreneurs to grow their businesses on their terms. By treating recurring revenue streams as an asset, Pipe allows companies to transform their recurring revenue into up-front capital, instantly.
(A): What motivated you to join Pipe?
(Y): “When I joined Pipe in 2020, I was fascinated by what the co-founders, Josh Mangel, Zain Allarakhia, and Harry Hurst, were building and I was really inspired by what they set out to do: help founders grow on their terms. Consequently, I made my decision to join Pipe based on its culture, and it was clear that I had the opportunity to make a great co-pilot to the company’s founding team, who were looking to disrupt how companies get funded and needed a go-to- market executor. I think many of the challenges facing business today are systemic. When it comes to fintech specifically, the system is fundamentally broken for founders and companies that don’t hit certain criteria or don’t already have access or an “in” to the private or capital markets. I believe there will be a fundamental shift from biased and manual decision-making when it comes to financial products to automated, technology-driven decision-making. That’s how we will make the deployment of capital more equitable and make capital more accessible to all founders than it has ever been before.”
(A): Fintech is a male-dominated industry as well. How are you attempting to level the playing field for other women?
(Y): “I’ve worked in three of the most male-dominated industries in the world: auto, finance, and tech. It can be really intimidating, for sure, but it’s also an incredible opportunity to bring a new perspective to those industries and open doors for future women to achieve something they didn’t think was possible. Women traditionally haven’t been taught to communicate what they want in their career, especially monetarily. I have spent my whole career so far earning a seat at the table so I can change the dynamic in the room and empower more women to ask for more. More exposure, more responsibility, more empowerment – just more. By inviting not only more women but also people from different schools of thought, people of color, and those from less advantageous socio-economic backgrounds I hope I can provide them more access and knowledge – two things that I believe can fundamentally change a person’s life. It’s important to note I am a huge believer that women shouldn’t have to change the dynamic ‘in the room’ alone. Men who uplift, fight, and empower women – they’re MVPs too, and we need more of them.”
(A): How did Pipe keep itself going amidst the Covid-19 pandemic? What are your future goals for Pipe?
(Y): “Having launched in 2020, Pipe was born into the COVID-19 crisis. While a lot of companies were scrambling to adapt; we were already operating with a fully remote team and serving online businesses that were booming as more commerce and business than ever moved online. In that way, we were really lucky. But right now, Pipe is in build mode. I’m focused on building out a lean but mean team that can lay the groundwork to help educate both sides of our trading platform (companies and investors). That includes some big/exciting partnerships, content creation, and funnel optimization as we grow and expand our offering. As things go back to “normal” we’ll continue to expand Pipe’s platform to more and more industries and will continue to build our team remotely. We don’t see the need for flexible, remote teams and accessible capital going away any time soon—we’re ready for it and welcome the challenge!”
