Kat Garcia, Democratizing Finance & Investing via Social
September 7th, 2021
Kat Garcia is a founder of Cheres, a TechStars-backed social investing startup democratizing finance for all. Prior to founding Cheres, Kat was an actress, consultant, and a growth architect at BCG Digital Ventures.
In this feature, Kat shares her key learnings from her early career, her many passions, why she started Cheres, and how you can get involved. Read along to soak up her incredible career advice for ambitious women, such as yourself.
Cheres has partnered up with Aspire to Her ❤️ The community will be given early access in Cheres’ Private Baeta. Members can sign up here!
Cheres
This summer, you joined TechStars 2021 to build Cheres - ‘A place where you can see what your friends are investing in and get financially fit together.’ What inspired this venture concept and what are you hoping to accomplish with Cheres?
There are so many inspirations for the inception of Cheres, and while I am sometimes surprised I ended up at the intersection of community and capital, as I connect the dots of my past, it’s quite clear I am where I’m supposed to be.
I created the Corporate Diary with the intention of giving young professionals an insight into my life, while amplifying the voices of women in male dominated fields. Whether it’s been my journey in being a creator and corporate startup founder spanning fintech, I realized women don’t have access to capital markets in the same way others do. We’ve focused so much on having women manage their money rather than invest it, and they’re asking for change.
Cheres in many ways is democratizing finance for all. While anyone can open a Robinhood account today, the system in which we gather and apply information is not conducive to healthy nor welcoming investing behaviors. Women want investing communities - as does a whole new generation of retail investors. This also means not having to put up with adapting to a WallStreetBets-like culture but an inclusive and exciting way of sharing investing information across friends.
While you’ve co-founded companies before through BCGDV, now you’re a founder building Cheres from the ground up. What are the most rewarding and most challenging parts of being an entrepreneur?
The beauty of venture studios and corporate entrepreneurship is you have so many resources at your fingertips. There are structures in place you can ground yourself to, in order to make sound decisions. Things like ‘culture’ and an entire environment has been set up for you to operate in.
As a startup founder, I have the autonomy to work on my passions everyday - all towards a greater vision that I had a greater part in creating. I’m one of three co-founders and so building something we believe can impact the lives of others is rewarding because we come at it from diverse perspectives. From a support perspective, it’s wonderful to be a Techstars-backed company given their ecosystem embraces a give-first mentality. We experience it everyday from our mentors to the LA cohort family.
The most challenging part in being a startup founder? I believe a combination of childlike wonder, adaptability and strong execution is what makes a great founder. I’ve realized it’s really hard to exhibit all three at the same time...
How can the Aspire to Her community get involved in Cheres?
Our team is so community-centric and we’ve been building alongside a very specific group of users who tell us what they’re experiencing, how Cheres is or isn’t addressing their concerns.
We’re creators first and foremost and want our Private Baeta - especially Aspire to Her members - to co-create the future of investing with us.
Early Career
You started your career as a television and film actress. Why did you initially pursue acting, and how did it set the foundation for your career?
I’ve always loved creating, storytelling and performing. Acting was ‘play’ for me. Imagine creating a world different from your own. I was fascinated with the ability to change the ‘chemicals in a room’, while understanding the human condition and practicing empathy.
I’ve always been a high energy, highly ambitious person - even when I was fourteen...Earlier on, I didn’t think of acting on television and film as a ‘job’, but more so an opportunity to play on a bigger stage.
It absolutely set the foundation for my business career. I have so many lessons from contract negotiations, emotional intelligence to community building. I’m very lucky I was an actress during early YouTube days. I got the chance to connect with my fanbase and build a purposeful community; intersecting traditional media with new media. We didn’t call ourselves creators then. I love that the world keeps embracing the creative class.
Following your career as an actress, you went into management consulting at Accenture. What prompted this career switch and how were you able to use the skills learned in acting to succeed as a consultant?
The career switch was quite natural. My acting career did serve as a platform, in many ways. I always wanted to pursue business in parallel and have my own company. When I got to university, I pursued a Bachelor’s of Commerce with a triple concentration in Finance, Marketing and Information Systems at McGill University, with the purpose to be well versed across business functions. I believed to be a good entrepreneur, I needed finance, technology and product market management. Accenture was a great opportunity to put my more functional skills to the test and learn from Fortune 100s.
In addition to your full-time jobs, you’ve also always had side hustles. From being a contributing writer at Forbes to managing your own online media brand, Kat Garcia, you’ve kept yourself quite busy. How were/are you able to manage these roles in addition to your full-time job?
Interestingly, my hobbies have always helped me get to the next phase of my life and career. I got into YouTube as a way to connect with an audience and build community, not to create a side project. I created The Corporate Diary because I didn’t see myself reflected in the corporate world I was about to enter and wanted to understand how other women - like myself - were navigating. It wasn’t as a way to create a startup years later. What I’m trying to say is, lead with passion and from a place of love. You’ll never see it as work and actually find time, simply because it’s what you love to do.
After 3 years at Accenture, you moved over to BCG Digital Ventures (BCGDV) - the corporate innovation and digital business-building arm of Boston Consulting Group. At BCGDV, you co-founded several digital companies. What were the biggest challenges and lessons learned from these experiences?
BCGDV has given me the tools necessary to build a startup. To throw out the rulebook when founding a startup, you need to know the rules first to play the game. I learned how to work with some of the most ambitious and talented people around the world who are at their core specialists in their crafts. I learned the ins and outs of being a Growth Architect and I’m very thankful for that. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is articulating your knowledge as a specialist while also having everyone and their mother understand it. It’s so important in startup land.
Career Advice
What do you wish you knew when you were first starting your career?
“What have you done for yourself, today?”
If you can get an early start in loving yourself and knowing that your career is just one aspect of your life, you’ll be better positioned to enjoy the ride.
Who is one woman you aspire to be like?
My mom. I literally cannot go through one day without calling her. I mean besides the fact she’ll call me if I don’t, she’s an architect and entrepreneur herself and doesn’t take anything too seriously or personally. I’ve always been in awe of her charisma, openness and ability to adapt to really difficult situations...and wear high heels while developing entire neighborhoods.
