Changing the Dialogue around Women and Business with Tasneem Dohadwala

American Muslim Project

As a first-generation American Muslim businesswoman, Tasneem Dohadwala has lived a life of being a threefold minority: in race, gender, and career. She experienced a traditional South Asian Muslim upbringing, short one pivotal detail—her mom worked, and loved it. Tasneem speaks to being a woman in the world of investments on this episode of AMP.

Currently Founding Partner at global investment firm Excelestar Ventures and a Managing Director at early-stage investment firm Golden Seeds, which focuses on women-led businesses, Tasneem has come a long way. Her ambition likely stems from her mother instilling a sense of pride (rather than guilt) in work and her family’s belief that there is no glass ceiling. She credits her success to their support, especially throughout business school when she was one of only nine mothers out of 1800 students.

Tasneem defines what any investor does in layman’s terms and outlines the less-defined roles of a good one—guiding, understanding, and being a sounding board for your CEO. We ask her to enlighten us on how investment differs from the picture painted on Shark Tank. She likens her entrepreneurship approach to reading a thriller, learning new players and plot points with every page.

She shares anecdotes from her early career: about the support of bosses on the trading floor for both her work and family; about a male VP’s unseemly comment regarding women that stuck with her and how, as her kids say, that’s clearly a him problem, not a me problem; about how even she had to come to the realization that ignoring color is dismissive of people’s varied experiences, which can make society and companies richer. Not until business school did she start to own her differences rather than suppressing them.

We chat about how the world has changed (or has it?). Asad cites some depressing investment stats from 2020; Tasneem adds her own. Nonetheless, it’s becoming more universally accepted that racially- and gender-diverse teams produce a better return on equity, among other benefits. This past year CEOs have started demanding that their companies and cap tables be inclusive, but still need to make it a mandate. Values and actions may finally be catching up with each other, but there is far less access to resources for women, despite the capital existing. And if the framework doesn’t change, and firms are only willing to invest in serial entrepreneurs, then the pattern of investing in men doesn’t change. Women have been showing up, and we’re hopeful this is finally the decade when their constraint is no longer perpetuated.

American Muslim Project is a production of Rifelion, LLC.

Writer and Researcher: Lindsy Gamble

Show Edited by Mark Annotto and Asad Butt

Music by Simon Hutchinson

Hosted by Asad Butt

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices