SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR; “EMPOWERING A BILLION WOMEN BY 2020;” FORMER DELL ENTREPRENEUR-IN-RESIDENCE; MEMBER OF THE 2013 UNITED NATION’S GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP COUNCIL; FORMER CEO OF GREEN GIRL ENERGY; CREATOR & HOST, CNBC’S PRIMETIME SERIES, AMERICAN MADE; INVESTOR
By photographer
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.”
Helping other women be successful is very much a calling. It’s the number one priority in my life above everything else.
with Ingrid
MOST IMPORTANT SURVIVAL SKILL
Every day that I go out into the world, working on a global basis and with large corporations and women worldwide, it’s really easy to get overwhelmed. To feel like I’m not quite sure how I’m going to get all these things done. The thing that keeps me grounded, keeps me humble, is daily meditation. I don’t start any day without doing that.
ON SUNDAYS I LIKE TO
Meditate, have coffee, spend time with my husband; really enjoy being at our house. I journal. I look at design magazines. This summer I’ve picked up golf.
WHAT EMPOWERS YOU
My spiritual belief of being in total service to others. That allows me to stay focused on what my calling is. It also continues to remind me that as fortunate and as lucky as this life is, that I get to live, it has absolutely nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with being in service to other people.
THROWS YOU OFF YOUR GAME
When we work really hard to have a business deal come through, and it doesn’t happen… It throws me off my course. Could I have done something better? I try to use that opportunity to learn from it.
MOST DARING
Being an entrepreneur. I would love to say things like skydiving or motorcycle riding, but at the end of the day, the most daring thing a person can do is fully believe in themselves. That they can create a life and a living doing what it is that they fundamentally are called to do, …that feeds their soul and fuels their passion. To jump off that cliff, not sure how they’re going to make it happen, and just believe they’re going to grow their wings on the way down. That’s the most daring thing any person… and is certainly anything, I’ve ever done.
GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENT
Living a life as an entrepreneur. Living a life, creating everything else around me. Living this life and really knowing that I did this. I’m doing it in the way I want to do it.
WHAT SCARES YOU
When I question myself. That happens a lot. 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!” I just have to, again, remind myself to go into that meditative place. Remind myself that I’m truly living my calling and just to move forward.
MOST TREASURED POSSESSION
Outside of my spirituality, first, everything is about family, then friends, and then business.
WHAT ARE YOU READING
I’m a voracious reader. The one I am reading just came out, and I’m featured in it, which is really neat. Think and Grow Rich for Women, by Sharon Lector.
GUILTY PLEASURE
Chocolate and wine. If I could just give those things up, I’d probably be ripped up. I love to work out and train, but those are definitely my guilty pleasures.
HIGH OR LOW-MAINTENANCE
My husband would say I’m high maintenance, when it comes to business and money. When it comes to my lifestyle and how I look and how I dress, I’m very low-maintenance, which is why I need stylists.
STYLE NOW VS 20 YEARS AGO
My mind is so totally active on the businesses and the entrepreneur women I’m working to support, so when it comes to my fashion, I wear things that are very simple and elegant and easy.
FLATS OR HIGH HEELS
For sure!
FAVORITE DESIGNERS
I love Louboutin shoes. My favorite pant suits in the world are Kenneth Cole. Calvin Klein is amazing. I love the lifestyle, the look and the quality of everything Louis Vuitton.
MISSING FROM YOUR CLOSET
A day-to-day style expert. I really would love somebody to do my hair and my clothes every day! Show up at my house! To just get everything styled. The most stressful thing for me being on the road, as much as I am, is picking outfits. What goes together?
DEFINITION OF LUXURY
Time to meditate and time to be with my husband and my family.
GO-TO OUTFIT
A very simple dress I can put some jewelry on, throw a jacket over, and wear it during the day or evening. I’m most comfortable in really high heels, really tight jeans, a dark jacket and a T-shirt that says “Entrepreneurs are sexy” on the front.
FAVORITE INDULGENCE
My indulgence is just taking a deep breath and being able to just sit with my husband and my family. Just being fully present with them.
LIPSTICK OR EYELINER
Lipstick, for sure.
CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT BEAUTY PRODUCT
Lipliner
1 Comment
I love this piece. Super inspiring! 20 BILLION? as in BILLION? NICE!