If you aren’t familiar with Ingrid Vanderveldt, her red hair and big smile are the first clues that she’s a high-energy, get things done, kind of woman. While she’s a spitfire who skydives and rides Harley’s, she sparkles with even more energy when she talks about helping technology companies grow and “Empowering a Billion Women by 2020.”
With a Masters in Architecture and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin, Ingrid Vanderveldt has carved out an impressive career. Until a few months ago, Ingrid was Dell Computer’s first “Entrepreneur-in-Residence,” and founder of the Dell $100M Innovators Credit Fund, a global entrepreneurial initiative.
“WITH A GOAL OF EMPOWERING A BILLION WOMEN BY 2020, THERE ARE MANY NIGHTS I WAKE UP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT GOING, ‘OH MY GOD! WHAT THE HELL WAS I THINKING? THIS IS CRAZY!’”
By providing funding, mentoring and technical expertise, the Fund helps established startups, with a technology focus, grow and scale quickly. Since it’s inception in 2011, under Ingrid’s leadership the initiative has grown beyond the U.S. borders to include the UK and Ireland.
“Ninety percent of my time was spent on the road, speaking at conferences, panels around the world and 80 cities in the U.S. My schedule and appearances, including outfits and shoes, was planned down to 15-minute segments.”
Early in Ingrid’s career she was told she didn’t look, act or talk like a CEO investors were used to funding. “I was pretty much out of cash, so I cut off all my hair, manned up, tried to be like a dude. Bought glasses, but not attractive ones. Stopped wearing makeup. Bought dark blue. It was the worst and best move ever. I completely lost my confidence, and looked terrible, but I realized the only way I was going to be successful was being completely me and just bringing all I’ve got to the table. If people like it, wonderful, and if they didn’t, it wasn’t meant to be.”
This summer Ingrid passed the Dell baton to someone else, but “rest break” is not in her vocabulary. To date, everything Ingrid Vanderveldt has done has been a catalyst for not only her future, but the future of a billion women.
“I start every day in meditation, asking big questions like ‘What does this all mean?’ ‘What am I supposed to do next?’ This one particular day, I’d made an agreement with myself, before I went into meditation, that whatever I understood the answer to be, I wouldn’t question it. I would, one hundred percent, go into service of it. Right away I heard I was called to do “Empowering a Billion Women by 2020.” I pretty much freaked out. I was like ‘Why me?’ ‘Why God?’ ‘What’s this about?’”
While details of Ingrid’s “Empowering a Billion Women by 2020” mission are still under wraps, smartphones and financial literacy are part of the plan. “I want to provide women around the world with tools, technology and resources to be successful leaders and entrepreneurs. Once I make up my mind, I’m going to get something done. Sometimes it will be a complete tornado behind me, but I’ll get it done.”
1 thought on “Ingrid Vanderveldt”
I love this piece. Super inspiring! 20 BILLION? as in BILLION? NICE!
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