Check out Marjorie Radlo-Zandi online!

• LinkedIn - Marjorie Radlo-Zandi

• Twitter - @marjoriezandi

Full Transcript:

Note: This is an original transcript–edited for sense, length, and clarity.  If you have any questions or concerns, please email our host, Doria Lavagnino, at doria@sheventurespodcast.com.

Intro: 

Doria Lavagnino: Fun fact, she was a Division 1 swimmer at the University of Vermont and started her career in sales. Her biggest achievement was growing a life science diagnostic company she led with angel funds, expanded it to more than 100 countries and sold it to a multi-billion-dollar publicly held firm. During that two and a half decade span, she started as director of marketing and rose to managing director of two separate businesses, obviously one acquired, where she oversaw a $300 million division. Today she is an entrepreneurial mentor, serves as an advisory board member, contributes to Fast Company and TechCrunch in her free time, and also angel invests. Here to tell us about her journey and leave us with some key takeaways is Marjorie Radlo-Zandi. Marjorie, welcome to SheVentures.

Marjorie Radlo-Zandi: Yeah, thank you for inviting me!

Growing Up Entrepreneurial

Doria: It is really cool to have someone with your degree of experience on the show. I wanted to start with something I learned about you, which is that you were raised in a family of entrepreneurs. I was wondering how that shaped you growing up?

Marjorie: I think that it was more usual to start your own business, expand into other businesses rather than joining a company rising through the ranks in corporate America. What was more usual is that you’d see a problem, see wide space in a market and go try to fix it by creating your own business or expanding the business that you had. So, that’s usual in our family, so that’s just a matter of course.

Doria: So, both your parents did that?

Marjorie: My father did that, and my mother was on the financial side of the business.

Job Offers in Santa Clara

Doria: You were in Silicon Valley from 1983 to 1992, and you went at the time for your husband’s work. But, within three weeks, you had landed 15 offers yourself. What skills did you have that were in such high demand?

Marjorie: The skills were in terms of business development and expansion of markets both domestically and internationally. I think the skills were in high demand, and it was a very, very hot time in Silicon Valley. The 15 offers surprised me as well.

Doria: I can imagine! Within 21 days, no less, right?

Marjorie: Yeah.

Doria: Unbelievable! And I tend to think of, I mean, I’m from the West Coast originally, not from California, but I always thought of Silicon Valley as like starting in the 90s, but obviously it was way before then. 

Marjorie: It absolutely was! A lot, really, starting with semiconductors and Fairchild initially and moving into Intel, and all the different software companies and Apple and hardware companies. So it was very, very hot back then.

Doria: It was very hot! Do you think that being in business development/sales at the beginning of your career helped you as an entrepreneur?

Marjorie: I do, because it really focused me and, obviously, the companies that I worked for and with, on the customer and the customer. Without customers, without sales, you really don’t have a business. So it was a hyper focus on that, and that’s always helped me.

Motherhood in the Business World

Doria: Amen to that! I think that sometimes that gets lost today in startups that focus on a lot of extraneous factors and not the customer. I think those are the ones that tend not to do quite as well. Another really interesting fact to me is that you were asked by Marc Andreessen to be employee number three at Mosaic, which was a precursor to Netscape. You were pregnant at the time and you intuitively knew that you just weren’t willing to put in those 80-hour weeks that the job would require. Does it ever bother you that, by virtue of being pregnant, you passed up the offer? Obviously, I know I’m a mother myself, so it’s not a question like, “Are you sorry that you had your child?” I know she’s your billion dollar baby. But I’m just wondering how that felt at the time?

Marjorie: Well at the time, I think, I didn’t know. First of all, I thought it was a great opportunity. I didn’t think it was a grandiose opportunity that it really was. Even knowing that now, I wouldn’t have made a different choice. I think throughout my career, no matter what part of it it was and even now, it’s balance. Balance is huge, and I think when you work 80 hours a week, there’s just no way to have balance. And whether that’s with a family or if you’re a marathon runner, it’s balance or just trying to keep a healthy lifestyle balance is just so key.

Doria: I love hearing you say that, because I do remember I was a teenager in the 80s, and I remember that the media really focused on the “Super Woman,” right? Like she did it all. She not only could work 80 hours a week, she could have kids, and she was happy and healthy and like we all know that is just really difficult to accomplish without help. I was just curious, what was your experience like being a woman in the 80s in Silicon Valley?

Marjorie: I think what helped being a woman in Silicon Valley is that there were so many opportunities out there. The fact that I got 15 job offers — there was a real need for skills out there. It was different. There were some managers that asked me to take pictures of my kids off my desk. And it wasn’t the same type of generous, maternity and paternity leave policies of today. I remember one company I worked for, it was with my second child, and they said, “Well, Marjorie, informally you can have this promotion, but just want to let you know that it’s contingent upon you coming back within three weeks, at least on a part-time basis.”

Doria: Wow!

Marjorie: That would never happen today. It just wouldn’t happen at all today. And both, also paternity! Even like back then, a week was generous with paternity. Never mind, it’s totally different.

Doria: Totally different! I remember, my daughter is 18, and I remember my husband at the time, taking a week and that was it. It wasn’t even a question. That was 18 years ago.

Marjorie: Right. Yeah, that’s right.

Doria: You’re one of the pioneers, I feel like, that paved the way for many of us to follow.

Marjorie: By showing that you could both balance it. I think the labor market, I mean, I think there’s progressive policies, but I think it’s also driven by the labor market too, and the need for skills out there. I think that the demand of both women and men — I think there’s a different conception today in terms of both partners equally participating, which hopefully is not the reality for all couples. I know sometimes the man does more than the woman or vice versa. I think that that demand has really paved the way, and it’s a much healthier environment now.

Marjorie on Angel Investing and Venture Capitals

Doria: I agree, and I hope that for our children, right? Knowing that only 2.3 percent of venture capital went to female tech entrepreneurs, what do you attribute to that in 2023? That’s a very paltry amount. Is it a pipeline issue? Is it a bias issue?

Marjorie: I mean, I think that in the angel [investing] world, it’s much more than that. I don’t know the exact figures of that, but it’s way more than that. I really think a first step to this is getting more angels and VCs [venture capitals] who are women.

One of the angel groups I belong to, the two heads of the group are women: the Branch Venture Group. And the other Angel Investment group, Launchpad Venture Group, there’s a good percentage of women in the group. One of the heads of the group told me that one of the reasons why we want to have women is obviously the diversity of skill sets. But, also, when women entrepreneurs present, or diverse entrepreneurs present, we want our entrepreneurs to feel as comfortable as possible, and we want a diverse set of entrepreneurs. We want there to be a large swath of companies to look at and be able to invest. It’s regardless of the sex, race, religion, and just to have a whole diverse community pool to actually get the best type of investments in our portfolio.

Doria: It’s a great point that angel investing is different than venture capital. To go back even further, typically one starts with a friends and family round. I did have two women of color on my podcast, I’ve been following them every year. It’s the second year. They did raise venture capital; they had an oversubscribed round. They came back this year as well. They raised more capital. One of the things that they said, and I understand this is, for them: a friends and family round doesn’t exist. They don’t have friends and family that have $10,000 or $5,000 or $500 even, to invest. To me, it just reminded me that there is a very uneven playing field.

Marjorie: Yeah, I would agree with that. I think it’s missing. I would say it exists a lot for diverse founders that may not be from a school that has a program for that, because there’s a lot of grants that exist. But [she] doesn’t have and wouldn’t necessarily have all the connections. That, I think, exists for a lot of diverse entrepreneurs, because they just don’t have that base. I think that’s a big hole that’s out there because not everyone has the access to those family and friends rounds. That is an opportunity for improvement. 

I do think that there are different programs that are starting. Universities have this and recognize that and are putting together programs for that. For example, I’m part of the Northeastern University Venture Mentoring Network. They also have ideas, and there’s grants that go along the way. There’s some grants just for women. They have prizes every year. I think we’re trying to address it in different ways. I think the government could step in — whether that’s state, local, federal government — to have this available. It’s only going to be for the good. Everyone has to be able to participate so we can get many terrific innovations that are needed.

Doria: Do you think the Small Business Administration is doing enough, or do you think more could be done? That’s the only real government entity that I think of in terms of starting businesses.

Marjorie: I guess I really don’t know. There were some entrepreneurs I know that have gotten the small business grants that are available, but that’s a smaller amount. 

I think, actually, through the pandemic, there’s a lot in the media about how funds were distributed to businesses that didn’t need it, but I also know a lot of businesses that did need it and they were able to take advantage of them [to] continue on. I think that helped quite a bit.

Marjorie’s Advice on Maintaining Teamwork Within a Relationship

Doria: How I understand your story then, is that there was another pivot, right? You’re in Silicon Valley, and then your family moved to Boston for a job that you got. Presumably, it was kind of your turn. That intrigued me. There’s like a professional give-and-take in your relationship. That’s something that’s intimidating for a lot of young couples. How did you guys manage that? Was it easy?I linked up with a private tutoring agency located in New York City, and wonderfully enough, it was owned by a woman. I was fascinated by the fact that this was owned by a woman, because it’s a whole other world to think about businesses that were owned by women, especially where I was at. In 2010, I wasn’t rubbing elbows with other women-owned businesses. I had no idea about that.

Marjorie: I don’t know if it was easy, but it was fair. I put it that way. I moved to California for his job, and then it was my job in terms of the opportunity and my career, and so he did the same. Fortunately, it really worked out well for both of us. I think it’s always the trailing spouse who needs to find an equal opportunity. I think the key to that is when you decide to make that transition. Make sure that whatever area you’re going into, there’s a lot of opportunities for your spouse. I think it can be successful for both.

Doria: That answers my follow-up question, which is [do] you have any tips for dual career couples, who want to raise children and are also considering these moves because it’s become necessary? It really depends on what the person is doing as to whether or not they will have a lot of opportunity in the same geography. But that’s the ideal, is what you’re saying?

Marjorie: It is the ideal. and that should be part of your decision process as well, because you’re going to an area, that really, the chance of finding an equivalent opportunity is really low. I think the decision is to not move because it’s important that both are satisfied. That’s just not going to occur. 

International Networking and Cultural Awareness

Doria: You’re a founding member of a food diagnostic startup that, in my understanding, is providing tests for mycotoxins, which you scaled to more than a 100 countries. I wondered what was the most challenging and the most rewarding part of scaling internationally?

Marjorie: In terms of scaling internationally, the most rewarding was meeting incredible people that worked with you as a team to build the business. I think the challenging part was finding those individuals as part of your team to build the network. There’s a lot of filtering that goes on and it’s so important that you choose the right individuals and all the various locals around the world.

Then the flip side of it is, it’s rewarding when you do and you can choose individuals who have a depth of knowledge in that area and depth of connections in that area that can grow the innovation with you. In our case, there was a lot of education needed about mycotoxins in food. In a lot of cases, what we did is we worked with our partners to influence some regulations, because you can’t have a regulation unless you have an ability to test for a particular contaminant. We worked with those individuals in terms of the governments and the countries, to make sure that we worked in a partnership capacity, knowing that the governments knew that it could be tested.

Doria: It reminds me [of] today. It’s just kind of a shallow example, but I was thinking of how everyone talks today digitally about lead funnels and how the first thing is education. It kind of holds true even back then, education. What is the problem that you’re addressing getting involved with governments? It sounds also, though, like it probably was a long sales cycle.

Marjorie: I’ll put it this way. Once regulations [are] in place. It goes fairly quickly, but it’s getting that regulation, which will influence the sales cycles going forward. You do have to be patient to put all the groundwork in place. Both have your distribution partners, partners as part of your team, and also the other part is, once you have the regulation in place, making sure there’s culturally sensitive messaging throughout. Having to portray different images, you have to have a standard image, you know, with [the] Web throughout the world, but there’s also specialized content that is very culturally [on] par. Quite frankly, we have different crops in India. There’s a lot of spices. We have a lot of spice in the targeted advertising there, too. In California, there’s lots of almonds. It’s very much for the tree nut industry. It’s both based on the cultural aspects of it, but also the crop aspects of it, in terms of what is being tested.

Entrepreneurial Tips for Women Making an Exit

Doria: You grew the company with your team. Then, once you grew it, you led an M&A [mergers and acquisitions] effort, which I don’t know [of] many women who have done that, and sold the company to a multi-billion-dollar publicly held firm, right? What tips would you give entrepreneurs who are contemplating making an exit, having done it yourself?

Marjorie: First, hire a real specialist, my preference is a boutique investment banking firm. A large one often doesn’t have — sometimes it does — the specialized expertise in the industry that you want. Also, we were part of a middle market, not a $1 billion player. That’s two totally different investment firms. I specialized in life science, new diagnostics, and also was middle market. That’s number one. 

I would make sure that you communicate to your entire team what’s going on, that you’re looking for the right type of partner to exit to. Price is important, but also I communicated that it needed to be a cultural fit. I think that’s really important because they’re members of your team. The last thing an acquirer wants is that they buy the business and everyone quits a month later.

It works on both sides — to make sure that’s part of it. You have, also, the acquiring company. You choose one that will be transparent. It’s not just, you receive the check on the next day and all is happy. It’s what’s going to go on for the next few years. That both helps the employees of the company that was acquired and also helps the investors of the company. Often there’s an escrow that you don’t get your payment when it closes. There’s like 20, 30, 40, it depends on the percent that’s taken. It’s released every year, so you want to make sure that the buyer gets a fair value and that the investor in the company, also, that in the prior company that was sold, gets a fair shake. The way you do that is with a cultural match. That always doesn’t happen, but I think that’s got to be part of the equation as well as the price.

Doria: I love this theme throughout our conversation — these softer skills that you’re bringing up that are so important. That matters to the day-to-day of business. That I feel are often not addressed. That is really nice to hear. So, when the M&A happened, as the head of the company, were you then required to stay on for a certain amount of time? What they call golden handcuffs?

Marjorie: I mean the contract. It was a contract that I signed that I would stay on. I think it was for two or three years. It was important for me also, in terms of all the players on our team [that] are important. Often [the] acquirer will say there’s some key players as well. It was important that those key players also had the incentives to stay on, in the business, too.

Doria: In retrospect, do you think, — I mean one can always second-guess oneself, — you chose the right time to exit?

Marjorie: I think we did. Yes, it would have been nice to grow the business a little more [and] keep it independent a little longer. 

Now, I have my angel investor cap on. It’s important for the investors in the company to realize an exit, too. You have to be fair to your team, and part of that team is also your investors as well, so I do think so. Could we have waited, and got a little bit more? Maybe. It was also, from an investors point of view, the right time to sell in terms of where they thought their exit should be.

Adapting to Cultures

Doria: It’s quite a balancing act. When you were talking about company cultures, what were some of the ways in which you were able to merge two companies’ cultures?

Marjorie: I think there was a lot of communication. FWhat I tried to do — and I was pretty successful at it — was keep the existing team in place and communicate to the acquirer how important it was. All businesses are different. Some businesses are bought for products and it’s immediately integrated for us. I specifically chose a partner that would keep us as a business unit and had other business units. That was important in the selection criteria, and that way we were able to keep a lot of our company culture that made a successful work. I had to communicate that constantly with the parent company, because that’s always for companies that have their own culture. It’s not always apparent that there’s another entrepreneurial different culture that exists. That was, at times, 50 percent of my job — making sure that was done. If that wasn’t done, there would be problems ahead.

Doria: What were some of the cultural differences that you needed to really be mindful of to make sure that the acquirer understood?

Marjorie: The biggest thing is that there’s a lot of processes that exist in large organizations. Sometimes it can be a little on the bureaucratic side. There’s stage gate processes, which may be very appropriate for large companies. For small entrepreneurial companies, it just interferes with the progress and the actual money that’s going to be made, if excessive. There needs to be, definitely, stages but it’s a lighter touch. That was important that I communicate that and make sure that happened. Otherwise, they were not going to get the top line and bottom line results that they wanted and they needed for their P&L. I had to communicate that on a regular basis.

Doria: What would you say are some of the soft skills that helped you most in your career?

Marjorie: I would say that I have a pretty high EQ [emotional intelligence], I think that was very important and that really extended both to team members, understanding other cultures, and really making sure you listened, learned, understood the drivers in other cultures. Also, the different processes and other cultures. Something that would not be important to us, really, in the States, was very important in Asia.

Doria: Could you give an example of that? I’m curious!

Marjorie: In some ways, it’s funny. Before you trust, and you’re ready for the contract, the relationship needs to be in place. If the relationship is not so much, okay, we’ll meet for dinner, we get to know each other for a few hours and then [do] business. The relationship is a lot of visits and being comfortable. [Sometimes] it’s months before that trust was established and we could really work well together. It really paid just enormous dividends. It was great in itself to have the relationship, but it was that trust that allowed us to go forward to build a market together and that was just so very very important.

Doria: Hearing you say that is so different than what I think is the stereotypical American approach to business, which is, do it our way. You really had the sensitivity to cultural nuances, and [that] probably is more true today. I would imagine.

Marjorie: I think so, but I think it’s probably more. There’s more attention to that paid in the States right now. From what I see, it was the case, always internationally because you had to. It wasn’t us adopting, them adapting to us; we had to adapt to their culture in order to be successful.

The Many Hats of Marjorie

Doria: Two and a half decades from one company, the M&A, and then another company. Eventually, you decided to, you had done what you needed to do there. Today you wear several hats as a mentor. I noticed a lot of mentorship, a board member, and angel investor. If you were to think of your time like in a pie chart, how much would you say you allocate to each?

Marjorie: I mean, mentor, board member about 25 percent; in terms of the writing, another 25 percent; and the rest would be part of the angel world. Looking at scouting for deals, looking at deals, participating in scouting events, participating in discussions about whether we should invest or not. That’s kind of how I would divide it out.

Doria: You wrote an article in 2022 about work/life balance. That’s something you’ve always really advocated for. How does that present itself in your life today?

Marjorie: I was a competitive swimmer. Now, I’m a swimmer and I have my standard poodle next to me and she gets me out walking every day. I think it’s important and certainly we knew about this in the pandemic. There were a lot of things closed, so we really got to know the outdoors and were able to walk. There was a time where swimming pools were closed, so I incorporated both walking and swimming into my everyday routine. That’s what I do on a regular basis that keeps me in balance and healthy.

Doria: I couldn’t agree more. After a good workout, I feel like one’s mindset is completely changed, sometimes. Things that might stress me out, after a workout, don’t really quite bother me as much. It’s interesting how that happens.

Marjorie: Absolutely! That’s also why, when I could, I structured some exercise in the middle of the day. It’s exactly to your point. Things sometimes reach a crescendo. Whether sometimes that was at 11, 12, 1 [o’clock]. It was flexible, in terms of where my schedule was. I tried to incorporate that every day and then everything was good. I was able to go back, concentrate better, and be more productive.

Doria: That is so true. I think you had raised this point in the article. Really, by having work/life balance, employers are also getting much more productive employees, so it’s a win-win.

Marjorie: It’s totally a win-win. Much more productive and healthier employees, so, it affects health costs. 

Grit Will Get You Far

Doria: What are three things that you would tell a female entrepreneur today that you wish you had known at the start of your career?

Marjorie: I would say how important grit is. Grit is huge and you’ve got to be able to realize that there’s going to be some valleys ahead. It’s going to be hills and valleys throughout, so keep going. Don’t be discouraged if there’s a challenge ahead. You will get through it. I would say, focus. It’s something that I did just intuitively. Focus on your product, your service, your differentiator in the market. Bigger concentration on how large your market could be. 

And, I say, the importance of getting the right team and team members. I think earlier in my career, I was not as good as I am today. I mean you learned things along the way, and at the end of my career, I think I had about 90 percent batting average in terms of people I brought on the team earlier. It was a matter of just a learning curve in terms of selecting the right people, because that’s so very important. If it takes a little longer, it takes a little longer. Keep the position open until you find the right person.

Doria: On that note, what are some of the lessons that you learned about how you were approaching people early in your career versus later?

Marjorie: Before it was very much, it was more skill set. Skill set is so very important to have, and I still look for [a] skill set. What’s equally, or more important, is that the person is the right fit for the position. If a person has to learn a few skills along the way, that’s fine. Maybe you get 70 percent [of] what you want in [a] skill set, versus 90 percent. The right hire is the one — [from] what I’ve seen from my experience — with 70 percent of the skill set, but  100 percent the right person for the position versus vice versa.

Doria: And to your point that you also then have something to aspire to and grow into, right?

Marjorie: Oh, absolutely, that’s right!

Exciting Life Science Progress Unfolds in 2023

Doria: That would be very motivating. I want to end it with, I know you’re in life sciences and in health. You focus a lot in those areas. What is exciting you in 2023? What are you seeing?

Marjorie: I think there’s a lot out there in life science, but I think I’ll focus on the diagnostics and the innovation in diagnostics that’s out there. I am a board member of QSM Diagnostics. I love animals, and so the fact that one can do [pet] diagnostics at home is pretty cool. It’s amazing! Also, immunotherapy is just incredible. Gene therapy — that’s going to change into one of the companies I invested in, [which is] Torigen. [They] help dogs who have cancer and it’s doing extremely well. It’s based on immunotherapy, and it basically boosts the survival rate of dogs with cancer at a third of the price. This is just incredible. We don’t have to go to a specialist to get that. It’s incredible, but the same that’s for dogs. This is happening in the human clinical area as well, with various immunotherapies and gene therapies. I mean, it’s just an exciting time in life science.

Doria: You mentioned they cost a third less, and I think that that is a huge issue with healthcare right now that so many people that need it can’t really afford it. Do you think that there is going to be more of an awareness of that overtime? I mean, I know that you’re one person [out] of many, but I just see a lot of dissatisfaction with the healthcare industry in general, which I realized is different than what we were talking about before.

Marjorie: I think it’s got to be reckoned with with time. I also think what needs to be reckoned with also, is the expense. I mean, there’s exciting immunotherapies and gene therapy. I’m talking about the human clinical area, not the veterinary technology area, but who’s going to pay for it? It’s an exciting innovation that may cost a few million dollars a year and it can cure someone. How is this all going to work out from a payment side? 

Doria: It’s so interesting that you say that and then we will end with you letting listeners know where to find you. But I worked with a Ph.D. in pharmacology very early in my career, and she had worked for a pharma company. I spoke to her about [how] I was troubled by the expense of medications, and she said to me, what you don’t realize is that what you’re paying for are the nine drugs that were very expensive that had to go through trials that didn’t see the light of day because they didn’t work out. I don’t know if that is a justification or not, but it was an interesting perspective that I hadn’t thought of before.

Marjorie: I think that that is true. It takes a long while to develop that. In Boston, Vertex is developing some amazing things. Again, where is the price tag — who is going to pay for that? I agree that it does take a while, but I also think [that] the U.S. bears too much of a burden for that. There’s not a reason why the expense of drugs should be so much more in this country versus other countries. I think we’ve got to do a better job. Still keep the innovation going, maybe have some innovation paid for. Have [the] government participate in that, just like they did with vaccines. As far as the overall cost, there shouldn’t be that much of a differential between the cost of what we get in here versus Italy or Germany or Spain. It’s a big differential.

Doria: Yes, absolutely. It has been so nice speaking with you, Marjorie. Where can our listeners, if they want to, if they have a science, life science company that they would like to pitch you, or ask you a question about their company, where can they reach you?

Marjorie: Send me an invite on LinkedIn. I’m happy and very open to speak to people about their innovation.

Doria: Thank you so much for coming on SheVentures.

Marjorie: Thank you for having me.

Doria: Absolutely.

Jen: Thank you so much for having me