Starter Girlz Podcast

How She Built a Venture Capital Career with Zero Connections

• Jennifer Loehding • Season 7 • Episode 83

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What does it take to break into the world of venture capital when you’re starting from scratch? In this inspiring episode of the Starter Girlz Podcast, host Jennifer Loehding sits down with Maggie Vo, Managing General Partner at Fuel Venture Capital, to explore how she built a thriving VC career without money, networks, or shortcuts.

From leaving Vietnam alone at 17 to becoming a leader in the U.S. financial sector, Maggie’s story is one of grit, strategy, and bold vision. She shares how mindset and adaptability helped her rise in one of the most competitive industries in the world.

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, investor, or career changer, this conversation is packed with real, actionable insights on building success from the ground up.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • How to get into venture capital with no connections
  • Key investor mindsets and what VC firms look for
  • Why diversity and inclusion drive stronger teams
  • Maggie’s shift from survival to leadership legacy
  • Practical tips for partnerships, performance, and career growth

Learn more about Maggie’s firm:
🌐 fuelventurecapital.com

Explore more at: startergirlz.com

Maggie vo:

I do think I share my story with a lot of people, because I came to the US by myself. For the past I'm going to say 15 years I've always kind of viewed myself as a survivor, because you don't work with your family, you don't really have anyone to fall back on if you fail.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Maggie vo:

That's made me very resilient. That's made me do whatever it takes to win. Even when you talk to me, you're like you know Maggie giving the vibe that you know if you're on her team you're going to win. That's called survival. I love it. That's what I'm standing.

Jennifer Loehding:

Welcome to the Starter Girlz podcast, your ultimate source of inspiration and empowerment. We're here to help women succeed in every area of their lives career, money, relationships, and health and well-being while celebrating the remarkable journeys of individuals from all walks of life who've achieved amazing things. Whether you're looking to supercharge your career, build financial independence, nurture meaningful relationships or enhance your overall well-being, the Starter Girlz podcast is here to guide you. Join us as we explore the journeys of those who dare to dream big and achieve greatness. I'm your host, jennifer Loehding, and welcome to this episode. Welcome to another episode of the Starter Gilz podcast. I'm your host, Jennifer Loehding and wherever you are tuning in today, we are so glad to have you All right, so let's open this episode up today. What does it take to lead in a space where the stakes are high, the pace is fast and the future is constantly being rewritten? Here at Starter Girlz, we love exploring the stories of women who are not only stepping into these spaces but owning them, and today we're going to be peeling back the curtain on the world of venture capital and innovation, where strategy meets vision and bold choices can shape entire industries, and I believe my guest is going to be the one. We're going to talk to about this today. So you guys are going to get to hear from her in just a few minutes, but before we do that, we do need to do a quick shout out for our sponsor.

Jennifer Loehding:

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Jennifer Loehding:

And with that we do want to also make a mention to head on over to startergirlz. com. And why do you want to go over there? I tell you guys this every week because you can catch up on any episodes that you have missed. You can keep in the know so that you won't never miss another episode, but also if you are an entrepreneur, aspiring entrepreneur, or maybe you're already rocking the scene and you want to find out what your number one success block is that may be hindering your success. Well, guess what? We've got a quiz over there for you to take, and it's fun. It's a two minute quiz that will tell you what may be impacting your business right now. So be sure you head over to startergirlz. com and take that quiz and keep up with us, and you can sign up for our community newsletter. If you want to do that as well, all right, we're ready.

Jennifer Loehding:

So my guest today Maggie Vo, a seasoned finance expert with over a decade of experience in the public markets as the Managing General Partner and Chief Investment Officer of Fuel Venture Capital. Gain access to the companies building the future and making space for bold, visionary leadership in finance. So, maggie, welcome to Starter Girls. I am so excited to have you here and chat with you today, hi.

Maggie vo:

Jennifer, thank you for inviting me to join the Starter Girls podcast. It's the best way to start the week on Monday, best way to, you know, inspire people.

Jennifer Loehding:

I think it's setting my week for a real success here say, the objective when we do these episodes is two things. Obviously, we want to inspire, you know, and encourage people out that are listening to do great things right. But I always have kind of a personal goal and my goal is always to make sure that the guest has a great time when they come on the show, because I know what it's like to be on the receiving end or, you know, on the other side of going on, and it's always great when you can walk and say you know what that was like a really fun conversation. So my goal today is to hope, you know is for you to also have a great experience and, yeah, who knows where this is going to go? We're just going to have a great time and chat today.

Maggie vo:

Agreed.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yes, all right, so you are rocking it, girl. I, you know, went and did a little bit of research on you and you know we we kind of talked a little bit before you jumped on the actual video here about how our mission is about inspiring women. But of course we've got people from both sides male and females listening to this show because we bring on so many great rock stars and so you are definitely embodying that, you know, as one of our many amazing people that have come on this show. But I want to back this up. I want to talk about how you got into these leading roles. Like, take us back to the beginning, how this happened for you.

Maggie vo:

Yeah, I love to share my story a little bit because I can guarantee you that it's very different, different from you know story of black people. So, starting about 20 years ago, I left my country, vietnam, where I was born and raised. It's just one day, you know, I told my parents that you know, I want to leave, I want to go to the US. I think that that's where I want to go to school when I want to learn and build my career. And with that I left home when I was 17. And I came to the US as an exchange student. I went to high school in New York and in one year I have to do what people do in four years in high school, just so that I can have, you know, my high school degree and also just so that I can get a full scholarship going to college, because I know that my parents will not be able to afford me, because I know that my parents will not be able to afford me. So imagine that, you know, when you came to the US, when your friends around you was more like 17 years old, you were like one years old, right? Because you don't speak the same language, you don't understand the culture. You had to make friends, so you start everything from scratch. So I'm not going to say that it's easy. It's quite challenging, but I think that it's built me for what I'm doing today. And you know so.

Maggie vo:

I got a full scholarship at Central College in Kentucky, which you can never believe that. You know. I'm from a city in Vietnam, you know, like 19 million people, and moving to Kentucky, I remember when I called my mom, I was like mom, even the taxi drivers here are white, so I'm really stand out with my accent and everything. They give me full scholarship. I pursue a double major in math and finance there. I always know that I like numbers. I like you know economics and finance investment. So after I graduate from college, I know that I want to build my career in, you know, be the fund management business. So that's where I started I worked in. You know the financial industry managing. You know public equities, you know real estate and hedge fund. That's right. Before, you know, I joined Field Venture Capital. That was about 2017.

Maggie vo:

Noticing that, a lot of money moving away from the public market to the private markets, which I can go, you know, deep into that later. But as a portfolio manager, you have to track where the money go, because that's what you manage right and also with my skill set. I operate with a CFA designation which is called Charter Financial Analyst. For the people who works in the financial business, I know that I can add significant value to the founders if I stay in the public markets. If you pick up the phone and call any public companies, the farthest you can go is the investor relation person. You don't get to work with the founders. You can have a great idea, but people will be like thank you very much, maggie.

Maggie vo:

So I want to go where I can create the most impact On the other side, with investors. You know when technology really democratize everything. You can buy Apple, you know, at Morgan Stanley or you can buy Apple at Chippy Morgan. You know the skill set that I have. I no longer think that I add significant value to my investor. But they want me to leave the public market, go into the private market and go early so that I can help them to be invited to the table to find the tomorrows of Uber, tomorrows of Google and allowing them to participate in the value creation process. But that's prompted me to leave. You know my career in the public market and kind of expanding into the private market. And, as I explained, when I'm here today at Fuel Venture Capital, I started as an analyst but as of today, I'm the managing directors, general partners and also chief investment officer of Fuel Venture Capital, which is a global venture fund. We invest global. We have office in Miami and Silicon Valley. We serve OJ High Network family office and institutional investors.

Jennifer Loehding:

Oh, wow, what a story. Okay, I want to just back up to your story and I'm going to have you talk about it because I have told you before I came on here and I'm honest about my knowledge, like I don't. When we talk private and public, I mean, I get the idea about that, but I don't know anything about that. Here's the funny thing. You know, like when you talk about math and finance, it's so funny because on that level, like the college, I wanted to be an accountant and so, because my mother had had an accounting business when I was growing up, they were both my parents were entrepreneurs and they had an accounting company and they had an executive suite.

Jennifer Loehding:

So I thought I was going to go in to be a CPA and then, oddly enough, I got into the tax law part of it and I was like so freaking bored that I was like, oh my gosh, I got to do something different. And the irony of that, I laugh now because clearly you're doing like you. You figured your thing out and like you know, like I had no idea and had to like you. Obviously, you see, I'm doing podcasting now, like I'm a coach. I do completely different than what I studied. When I went in I had to switch mid-year, you know mid-year or mid-term Like you did it in a year. I did not do that, but during the middle of that I had to switch and go into marketing. So I want to say I admire you. I want to back up to that story because you did all this very, very quickly and you were obviously excelling early on. This wasn't like you made you know, like you were kind of coasting and then all of a sudden you just started excelling.

Maggie vo:

No, you came here and, from the very beginning, had your eyes set and just moved very quickly. I'm so, I'm just impressed. Well, can we just say something? Yes, that you share your background, because you'll be surprised by telling you that my family background is actually in art and music performance, which's opposite to your situation. Right? So we kind of like trade.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, we did. We traded off, didn't we? Oh gosh.

Maggie vo:

And you know, I was just like back in the day my mom put me in, you know, something like a performance program, so that since starting three years old, I always go and perform in different cities, different countries, dancing and singing for like 15 years.

Jennifer Loehding:

Really.

Maggie vo:

So I think that you know, I would never think that I go and get a career in, you know, in math, finance, venture capital, and I would think that even today, those skillset was not really beneficial. But I actually was wrong, because the fact that I went performing and living in a community is allowing me to train my independence, right Team building and especially with the ability to perform on stage. It's really helping with my fundraising skill, because at the end of the day, you have to sit on stage, you have to tell your story, you have to fundraise. So you never know. You're always being able to learn and pick up things here and there. So I'm sure that you feel the same way too. Maybe you don't the same thing your family doing, but somewhere, um, you know, you're thinking that your mom's your family in accounting helping you to run a better business oh yes, even running a podcast. So I just want to make a highlight on that. We never know, but that's how you know life is a surprise and we just have to take whatever throwing at us.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, no, that's good, and I'm glad that you shared that, because you are so right when you talk about the skills that you learned in the performing and being on stage, because here's the thing I think so often and anybody listening to this, they will look at somebody and say, look at Maggie Vo. Maggie Vo is doing an incredible job in this leadership space, you know, in finance and in this area, right. But, as you said, you know, things are not linear in our lives, right, like we don't have this linear progression. But if you look at all these pieces in the puzzle, you can extract all these things and you'll see how there's a piece in each of the layers that overlaps each other, right, and so I often talk about this. You know, like I see all those years I was in Mary Kay, like, think about Mary Kay like I had no. Let me say this I don't know, in all the years that I was in Mary Kay, I was ever in it because of the makeup. Let me just say that, like, I wear makeup, but I have never been a big person. That's like, oh my gosh, I got to have this mascara or this lipstick. I will tell you now, in my 50s, I do have certain things that I like. I do have a mascara, I do have a moisturizer, you know what I mean. Like I have certain things, but let's just say I'm now in my 50s, before I got to that point. Here's the thing, you know, going back, I look at this all the skills that I learned in that company like you, I had to get up and do presentations, I had to tell my story. I had to learn how to book, I had to learn how to sell, I had to learn how to coach, I had to learn how to recruit people right. All of those skills have transferred into the work that I do today.

Jennifer Loehding:

So, funny thing people ask me all the time they're like, how do you get guests on your show? Like Maggie, I'm not going to lie. Like I have a waiting list. Right now my show's booked through August. Right now it's already booked and that those shows will run us through December. That's recording. That's. I will have enough to get us through December.

Jennifer Loehding:

I never run out of people to book on my show. It very seldom ever happens, and if it does, it's because I just quit responding Like I just decided I'm not going to respond because there is always a list going and people are like how do you do that? And I'm like I don't know All those booking skills I learned in Mary Kay because I learned how to overbook myself. I learned how to make sure one, how to make sure I have enough people in the pipeline right, but also how to get them booked but also to make sure that they're layered, like I know that if I have three people scheduled and somebody moves, I still got two going through right, and so all these little things you're talking about are so important because they help you in what you're doing. And it may just be that one thing you learned over here that you carried over, so I had no idea about that, but I think that's so awesome that you did all those things.

Maggie vo:

Thank you, and I'm honored to be on. You know your podcast, knowing that you have booked people for the last 10 years already.

Jennifer Loehding:

I didn't mean to do that to make you but, I was trying to make a point about the booking skills. Right, like I've never had to worry about that because that's one really good skill I learned in all those 22 years I was in Mary Kay. You know, and like I have no fear of being like hey, you know, like what are we going to do to get you? You know, like I have no fear of the booking process. It's funny how life is right. So tell us a little bit about you. Kind of mentioned a little bit about venture capital, but again, you know somebody listening to this there are going to be people coming in and know exactly what you're talking about.

Jennifer Loehding:

Ms Jennifer, here it's kind of like the day I brought my tech guy on and I was honest. I said, listen, I know nothing about tech other than I can do a few things. You know, when I was growing up I had a little TI computer and I did a little programming stuff on there, but other than that I knew nothing. So maybe share with our audience, because somebody listening to this may know exactly what you're talking about, what they need to know from you as far as what your company can do, what you guys represent. Maybe just kind of reiterate that for us.

Maggie vo:

Yeah. So I'm going to start with the most basic you know explanation and then go a little bit deeper so that we can cater to you know our audience. It's funny you ask that right either to you know our audience. It's funny you ask that right. Because this morning not this morning, sorry over the weekend I asked my daughter, who's nine years old do you know what mommy is doing? Because I think remember, like the model test, meaning that I can explain in one sentence or in one paragraph for your mom or your kid what you are doing. That means you're successful, right? So my nine years old basically saying that, well, mommy, take money from an investor, from one person, and then she go and she find the companies who, like you know, just like Google or Airbnb or you know Robinhood, but at the very, very early nobody know how successful they are because when they're very early it's hard for them to go and borrow from the bank. They don't have anything to go and borrow money. So most of those companies were built in a garage, in a dorm or in a company and they're funded by venture capitalists who are money, right. And we had to identify those companies because we believe in their technology, they believe in the quality of the founders, in everything they did in the past and making a bet on them and working with them as the partners and building the companies together. And at the end of the day, right, you cannot do that forever. She knows that at the end of the day, I have to figure out how to sell the companies, because that's called monetization. I have to develop the exit plan for those companies, because that's when mommy can make the money for the investor and then, you know, investor will take a bigger chunk and giving mommy the carry. So I'm really proud of the fact that my 90s own daughters really understand what I'm doing.

Maggie vo:

But that's exactly venture capitalists. We go out, we scourge the earth. We, you know, we have global funds, so we look at companies on the East Coast, on the West Coast going down to Latin America, because we have an office in Miami. So that's give us, you know, competitive advantage from Vietnam. So I corroborate the Southeast Asia or Asia. So we source deals over there too. And we have, you know, our people in Europe. So we look at deals in Europe as well. But we identify companies in certain sectors that we like, like you know, fintech, marketplace, enterprise, saas, and obviously everybody nowadays heard about the AI-driven innovation, so we like to look at companies that leverage the AI technology to make themselves more efficient, doing things that we were not able to do before. We invest from early stage and, all the way, helping the company to exit. That's pretty much.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, yeah, I love that your daughter can explain that. I think that's awesome, and I do know about the mother test, that one of the tech guy that I was just talking about had referenced that in his episode as well, and so thank you for bringing that up again. It's so funny. I'd never heard I don't know why, maybe because I haven't been in the startup space or whatever but I never heard that until he brought it up, and then his episode went out a few weeks ago and then you brought it up again. So clearly that is a topic that comes up in the, you know, in that space, and so I love what you're doing and I love that you mentioned your daughter, because I do think that's important and you know, a lot of times it's funny because I don't even know that you brought that up. I feel like I should. My kids are all grown now, they're all adults, but I feel like I should go ask them, like, what does mom do? And I have a feeling what they're going to do is they're going to say she talks all the time on podcasts. I think that's. I have a feeling that's what they're going to say. I do more than that, maggie, but I have a feeling that's what they're going to be like. That's what my mom does. She sits behind a microphone and talks on the podcast, you know. So I think it's great.

Jennifer Loehding:

I want to talk a little bit more about you because I feel, like so many people that are listening to this, really they love what you guys do. But you know the power of stories and I think that when people hear like the stories, they really resonate, and so I love that. You shared that in the beginning. But I want to talk about you a little bit more. I'd love to know from your perspective like what do you feel like has made let's talk about venture capital first what do you feel like has made let's talk about venture capital first. What do you feel like has made the company successful? Like, what do you feel like you guys are doing really well that has made y'all stand out in this space?

Maggie vo:

You mean us or you mean the company we invest?

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I would say the company, like what you're doing, your company is the one you're working for.

Maggie vo:

Like what you're doing, your company itself, the one you're working for, well, I think the number ones that we're looking for before we're running any check. You're surprised, but it's the quality of the founders I mentioned earlier. And you look at my story. People don't just wake up one day and become good, right, they have a track record of success, they have a track record of resilience. They have a track record of success. They have a track record of resilience, they have a track record of growth mindset. So I always say, when you look at the resume of a person, you can assess that, you can see that that person you know they're moving out in whatever they do. It doesn't have to be just academics, it can be in sport too, but it's a growth mindset driving behind that person, making them feel resilient. Because I'm going to say, entrepreneurship is tough, it's not easy, right, starting from scratch with an idea, and then you have to go and sell that idea to everyone not just customer who you're selling the product.

Maggie vo:

You have to sell it to your investor. Who's going to back you. Why am I looking at you instead of somebody else? Right, do you have the mission, the vision that you're going to achieve? And the most important thing, as you know by now, is people. If they want to go fast, they go by themselves. If they want to go far, they have to have a team. So the one you have to sell it are your team members.

Maggie vo:

And if you want to tell it I mean talented people they're not going to quit a very cushy job in Google in order to go enjoy you unless you inspire them, unless you make them believe in your story. So you have to, you know, have that skill set right and not to mention, beside the whole skill set, which is very hard, fundraising, you have to run the business. You have to understand marketing and then, if you're in the tech industry, you have to understand the tech a little bit. So you want to have people compliment you, but you still have to know a little bit Because the company at a very early stage. There's no way I would message someone and ask a question. You'll be like, oh, I don't know anything, just go and ask my CFO you need to know your company inside out.

Maggie vo:

So that is something we're looking for.

Maggie vo:

The first thing we can understand this you can have not so good idea, you can have not so good product, but if you have the right person, that person understand the opportunity, will pivot fast enough and will thrive and will be able to turn the company around. If you have a good idea and you have a good product, but if you don't have the person behind that the team, the founding team you can drive the company in the direction that's wrong, right. So that is something I'm going to tell you that we always go and talk to founders before we even invest. We hang out, we become friends, because another thing, venture capital investment is an 8 to 10 years relationship.

Maggie vo:

It's like a man, can you even get along? Yeah, be coachable enough to listening to the thing that I think I add to the table. But also I have to respect your freedom for you to build your companies, because at the end of the day, we are venture capitalists. We're not going to take over your job so that operate the company for you. So this is a very mutual respect relationship as well.

Jennifer Loehding:

I like this and so my takeaways from listening to you. You said so many things, but I'm hearing a lot about making sure that the team is right and making sure that it's a fit, and you, like the owner, I mean I'm hearing which I think is really honestly, maggie should be right in everything we do. Right, like I feel like you know back this up to my podcast right, it's the same thing. I mean, I have to make sure that everybody that I bring on, I feel is a fit for what I'm trying to represent. Right, because, like you, you're representing this client, you're bringing them, you're trying to help them get their product where it needs to be. Right. I think I feel like whatever we're doing, it should be all across in every industry that we're doing right, because whomever we're working with is really a representation of who we are and what we want, and we want them to succeed as well, because when they succeed, we are and what we want and we want them to succeed as well, because when they succeed, we succeed Right. So I love, I love that you're saying all of those things, because I think they're so important and it's so funny.

Jennifer Loehding:

While you were talking, I kept thinking of Zappos, because when I was building out this course you know, having come from Mary Kay, I talk a lot about culture and I kept thinking about Zappos. One of the owners said you know, if I could sit down and have a beer with you, then this is somebody we think we could have working for us, right? Because they were thinking long-term. Like we have to like this person, and if we can sit down and we can have a conversation with this person and we feel comfortable with them, then this is somebody that we would potentially think, hey, we want to bring them on, you know.

Maggie vo:

So it's funny you saying earlier about the model test. I'm going to share with you another test. It's called an airport test. Okay, so if you running, if you imagine that you're stuck in the airport I think I heard this from someone and you're stuck in the airport because your plane is canceled or something like that, and then you run into this person, do you think you can have a conversation with him in the next hours before you get on the screen? If you don't think you can do that, don't get on the partnership, because they will bore you, they will disagree with you. You don't want to spend time with them, so don't even share. You know, if it's something that you're going to be with them for.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, no, that's good and I agree with you Absolutely Because it will make your environment awful if you cannot work. You know, you know right away. There's a great book you probably read and I love. It's called the five dysfunctions of a team. I read it when I was working in this organization and it talks about a little different than what you're saying, but it talks about like when you have organizations and you have that one person in the organization that's really a great worker, but they're kind of a cancer within the group and they're sort of it's like you're weighing out do I keep this person Because they're really they're important, like you need, like they can do a lot of skills and a lot of things within the company, but they're really bringing down team morale and causing a lot of chaos and energy. I'm like, no, they need to go. I don't care how great they are.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know, I feel like you can train people. You need smarts, right, you need people to come in that are smart. But I feel like you can train people, but you can't fix bad attitudes. You can't. It's really hard to fix people that don't fit. You know what I mean. You can't change values and stuff. It's just too much work. I'm all about finding the right group of people to work with, so I love that you're talking about that and I think you know, from a leadership perspective right, Everybody likes to hire a superstar, you know, like a smart person.

Maggie vo:

But I'm going to tell you, if you have 10 superstars, say 10 smart people, in the room, you're not going to get things done.

Jennifer Loehding:

No yeah.

Maggie vo:

Because they're all so smart, right and fighting each other. So I think that in the team I always look at things more like I like to work with people complimenting my skill set, because everything from the value and perspective that's this venture capital right, it's value creation. So if I'm good at numbers, I pay attention to numbers. You tell me your name and tell me your numbers, I pay attention to numbers. If you tell me your name and tell me a number, let's just say a month later we'll see each other. I probably remember the numbers Right, right, when I go and partner or find my college or my team members, I like to have someone that will, you know, like pushing very hard on the brain on the color of the website, because that's what I don't pay attention much. Yes, that makes the team stronger because you know that thing's not falling under the cracks. Everybody will pay attention to different things. And that's going back to diversify, yeah, to build a diversified team.

Maggie vo:

When you look at a few venture capital websites, you will not see a typical fund like any venture fund, meaning that you know typical. See a typical fund like any venture fund, meaning that you know typical white male at a certain age you will see that we have a very diversified team. You have women at the table, you have people coming from different countries, different backgrounds, because I do think that you know, when we come to invest in the future you're talking about, you build a future. You only have one group of representatives. You're not going to build a future just for them. If you want to build a future for everyone, you need to have you know people very different so that they think they can voice their opinions, and that's what we tried to build. We selected, you know, the people who are joining our team.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, no, it's good, and I'm glad that you said that, because I do. I agree with you on having a diverse team, because you know it's like my point in here. You know, I was telling someone I don't know where I was telling I was having a conversation with somebody somewhere, probably, like you, I have so many of them, I forget who I was telling this to, but I talk have social media. I hate social media, maggie. I hate dealing with it, so right. So I finally broke down and I got somebody to help me with doing the YouTube, like the SEO part, the optimization, and then I got somebody to do help me with doing the starter girl social media, which, by the way, she's doing an amazing job, like she's conveying all the messaging that I wanted. That I would love to say and probably could say to you in words, but to put that in cute little Canva files and do verbiage on the social media, I hate it. So, yes, I do think there's an importance to picking up people that can compliment your skillset, because, going back to what you said a few minutes ago about the team, right, when you have a strong team and everybody can rely on each other and they work well together doesn't mean everything's perfect, but you work well together overall, you can advance and have sustainability, and so you do.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love that you said that, because I agree with you on that and I think that's what's making, or one of the things that's helping you do really well, is just understanding. You know the importance of having that diversification. You're doing it both in your numbers and in your team. Yes, I love it. I love it, okay. So I want to talk about you. I admit this earlier and then I got sidetracked, so I'm coming back to it because I want to talk about you again. So I want to know because somebody listening to this knows you you've worked really, really hard and you talked about getting all this stuff done and having to work hard because you knew you weren't going to have the funding. You know, in the beginning, when you're trying to get your education, going into this space and moving up in the position that you are, what do you feel like was one thing that you had to maybe learn to overcome, like as an individual and a leader, maybe something you had to work through to overcome to get to that next level.

Maggie vo:

Well, I think you know it's always changed right. That thing never can't fix it. I do think I share my story with a lot of people, because I came to the US by myself For the past I'm going to say 15 years. I've always kind of viewed myself as a survivor. Because you don't work with your family, you don't really have anyone to fall back on if you fail.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah.

Maggie vo:

That's made me very resilient. That's made me do whatever it takes to win. Even when you talk to me, you're like you know Maggie giving the vibe that you know if you're on her team you're going to win. That's called a survival moment.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love it.

Maggie vo:

That's what I'm standing, but she's starting, you know, building FuelVenture Capital. This is my firm. Now the teams, like I mentioned earlier, I, you know, handpicked them. This is no longer, you know, a firm that I worked for. This is the legacy I'm building and I even share with my partners.

Maggie vo:

Every time I go back to Vietnam, coming back here, I always feel like, you know, before fuel, I feel like you know you have to be careful, you have to always open your eyes, because you never know, you know, you never know Nobody there. But with fuel, I feel like, hey, if I close my eyes a little bit, somebody going to like doing the things that I need them to do and I can take the rest. I can take, you know, I can rest. She's a great feeling when you try to be survival for 15 years. So now, going to the next stage, I read a lot and I'm moving myself to the next stage in terms of no longer just a survival, but more like, hey, you work very hard, we try to get to where you are right now. Now you're at the position you can help people. What do you want to do? Because no longer can it just be about yourself. All the time you survive. You prove that you survive here. How can you lend a hand to a person that you know on the path that you was before? You understand that pain exactly and with that, you know on the path that you was before, you understand that pain exactly and with that.

Maggie vo:

So, for example, in my team I have my VP of operation. Her name is Olivia Goddry. I coach her, I train her since she started from like fresh out of college. So she's like the white paper I'm writing her all over her. She started from an e-terms. Now she become a VP of operation and a partner.

Maggie vo:

I recently just her all over. She started from an intern. Now she's become a VP of operation and a partner. I recently just added a general partner who is also a female as well, because I'm an advocate for the female power, the person who's coming from an unprivileged background, immigrants just like me. And recently I just recruited Anuj, who is, you know, from India. He works for Goldman Sachs. He also have a CFA, just like me, but he you know, he did not have the visa to stay in the US. So I'm doing all the things in my firm helping people that I understand that. I was in their position before, and I'm trying, you know, to learn those skills. You know the leadership, you know how learn those skills. You know the leadership, you know how to inspire people, how to unlock their power, and that's what I'm doing right now in my current stage.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love it. I love it. Well, I think that's all about the legacy part. I think that that's what's awesome here. So you get to a space where now you can kind of give back and mentor and help other people kind of raise into that. So I love that, I love, I love what you're doing. So I would love to know for you know, for somebody listening to this, because obviously you are very driven and I love that. You said winning and you had do you have? You have one daughter or two daughters?

Jennifer Loehding:

One daughter One daughter Okay, I bet she's going to be. She's going to be kind of got that winning mindset too. So I love that. I do want to say something else too. I love that you talked about you know the survivor and moving out of that into a different space, because I think you know, when you're really trying to grow, you almost have to be in that kind of mindset of you know this is a do or like in your mind. I don't want to say die, but like this is a no plan B, like it's a plan A. We're doing it, we're going to make it happen, because I firmly believe that you know to set anything unparalleled or out there, you really have to have the conviction. You just have to make the decision and decide this is what I'm going to do, right, like I'm just going to make it happen.

Jennifer Loehding:

I joke about this.

Jennifer Loehding:

I shouldn't say joke, but I talk about this.

Jennifer Loehding:

You know, like there was one year when I was moving into leadership with Mary Kay, I think, in one month I recruited like 11 people in one month, which I'm sure there are other people that do that but I went from recruiting, you know, really nobody, maybe one a month, and then one month and then I think it was May of 2002, somewhere around there my middle child was little and I remember when I was like, on this whole thing, I was trying to win a car and I was trying to get into leadership and I just decided that month I was like I'm going to recruit 10 people. I just decided that month I was like I'm going to recruit 10 people. I just decided I was going to, I was going to get 10 people on my team, I was going to find them and I did it and it almost became this contest. My mom I'd call her to be like okay, we got number five this month she's like what are you doing? I'm like I don't know. I just made a decision. We're going to do it Because when you of that energy right, so your team and the people around you become stronger too.

Maggie vo:

Well, I actually heard this from an investor saying to me the other day Maggie, I don't know if you're right or wrong, can you talk about the future? But because you have such a high conviction and I know that you work so hard, so I know that you will turn that conviction into reality. They say you know you can have a conviction right or wrong, depending on how you prove it and the outcome. But if you show someone that you so strongly believe in something, that's one you show them the track record that everything you did in the past, you know you have no way you're being dropped in America. You have no way you're being dropped in America. You have no way you're being dropped in. You know you moved to South Florida and you go into venture capital and you make everything come into. You turn it into a success. So then look at the track records. They hear your conviction, they know your work ethic and how hustling you are. They're going to believe that you're going to turn your conviction into reality.

Jennifer Loehding:

And that's the bet they're going to make on you. Yeah, yeah, I agree with you on that. You got to make it happen. I love it. The passion I think passion is a huge part of all of it. Right, I really I obviously have to do the work, but I think you know, when you get convinced, it goes back to that conviction. You get fired up and passionate about something. It's that you know.

Jennifer Loehding:

When I used to, so I used to be a marathon runner. I don't run like that anymore. I still run, but not like that. But I tell this story and I don't know if I talked about it in my book, but my husband and I we would run. He was an endurance athlete, so we would go run these crazy races like almost every weekend, and then we would get up sometimes the next Sunday. So, say, saturday we might have done like a half marathon, or he might've went and done like a 50K or whatever.

Jennifer Loehding:

We'd get up the next Sunday and be like we're gonna go do a 5K, this is a day after we did a big race. And I would get up that morning and I would remember being like sometimes it didn't happen every time, but sometimes I would get up and I'd be like I can't do this 5K, like I can't, I can't do it. Physically I was not there. So I firmly believe it is a conviction thing, because I was trained to do the big and the small right. But if I got up that morning and I was not in that mindset of I could complete this or whatever, it was a struggle right. So I think passion is huge. You do got to do the work, but passion is definitely a big. The mindset is also important, right?

Maggie vo:

If you're telling yourself that I'm not going to win, yeah, you only look for excuses that, hey, I'm not good enough. So the mindset is always like I was trained, I was ready for this, I know how to do it. It's not like I just woke up yesterday and decided to do it. That's going back to you have a conviction, but you build a plan for it and the plan has to go with short-term, medium-term and long-term. You know, let's say you're in a well-being, right? If you want to lose 10 pounds in a month, you have to have a brain. You cannot just say that's what I want to do and that's just like the mindset, the branding and everything.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you. All right. So one final question I want to ask you before we find out how to reach you. I want to know, like, what's the one thing that you do in the morning when you get up and you're like this is my thing that I do, that sets my day, gets me going? Anything particular?

Maggie vo:

So I normally like to wake up early, because so I don't know how people, you know, train marathon, but I, you know like I'll train in, you know, to be in good fit, but to me, I train my brain muscle.

Jennifer Loehding:

I call it muscle, right, yeah.

Maggie vo:

And when you wake up, that's when you feel very fresh, you feel like you can handle any very sophisticated thing, versus when you go back home at night and you don't think you can breathe.

Maggie vo:

Like if you want to absorb everything, you have to listen to podcasts or doing something a little bit more passive, which is something that I have been practicing over the past 20 years, is how to absorb information in a different way, allowing you to absorb information let's say you sleep eight hours you will be able to absorb in 16 hours, but in different bite, because your brain cannot handle the same intensity every hour. So in the morning, when I wake up, I like to read things like in depth, I like to you know, understand about it, because when I read about it, read about the news, read about you know a certain thesis, I feel prepared, and feeling prepared to handle anything come to you during the week is something important, because we really invent your capital word, which is sometimes people say that it's a chaos word. So you need to be grounded, you need to feel like you have things under control, you know what you're doing. So that's what I do in the morning.

Jennifer Loehding:

I love it. I love it. This is one of my favorite questions that I ask everybody, because we all have our things that we do. I have my little routine in the morning and I'm very, very insistent when I work with clients about you know, you don't have to do a lot of things, but just find that thing that you feel like is going to add value to you and set you up for the day for success. Because, as you kind of alluded in there, at the end of the day we have, you know, in the morning we wake up, we have all the deposits, we're ready to go right, and then all the debits start happening by the end of the day. You know we're just taxed and I always tell people it's funny, you know like when I come in like I'm a, there's a book called the Power of Win W-H-E-N.

Jennifer Loehding:

He might have read. He talks about circadian rhythms. I talk a lot about it, a lot with clients and on the show, but I'm obviously a lion. You sound like you're a lion. We get up in the morning early, we're ready to go. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day.

Jennifer Loehding:

I get my workout done in the morning, like I've already done my workout today I'm ready to go, like once I'm dressed, I'm dressed, I'm my best in the morning. But as the day goes on, right Like I just get more exhausted. So by the end of the day it's funny because that's when I usually get creative, because I'm off a task mode, now I'm off a thinking mode, strategized mode, now I can be in my creative zone. But it's also when I like to consume the dumbest material, like meaning, like that's when I'm going to be inclined to probably open TikTok and stare at cat videos, because I don't have to think in that moment, right, like I can turn it all off and just stare. I don't do that for very long, but that's when I'm probably going to do something less, you know, taxing on my brain, because by the end of the day, like you're talking, I am just, I am like done, like I don't want to have another conversation, I'm not signing a contract, I hear you.

Maggie vo:

I'm sure that we all feel that way. By the end of the day, you feel like you deserve it. You know I deserve to look at TikTok, to watch those movies, because my brain has been working so hard for the whole weeks.

Jennifer Loehding:

Yeah, I have a good friend that there are some people that are wolves, though, Maggie, they get charged up at late at night. I had a good friend we're still good friends. We worked together for a long time in the Mary Gay space and we used to have this kind of thing we would do where I would text her, you know, in the morning and she would wake up and get my texts and then I would wake up to her midnight texts. So we just kind of knew this was our communication style and it worked out so good stuff. All right, Maggie, so you have been amazing. I would love to know for our audience listening to this, because there may be somebody out there right now. That's like man. I want to catch up with this girl. I want to work with her, figure out how to bring my company to whatever it is in some capacity. Where would you like us to send them?

Maggie vo:

Yeah, so you know, going back to what we mentioned earlier, right, social media versus personal brand is very important to me, right? Because at the end of the day, in my job, I need to build a personal brand about you know where people can reach me, how investors can access to feel venture capital, how founders can find us, so that you know we can provide support. That is where we invested a lot. We were very active on our you know LinkedIn and Instagram, so I think that will be the best channel. If you just message me on LinkedIn, you know it may take a little bit longer for me, but I definitely looking at your, your message.

Jennifer Loehding:

Perfect, we'll make sure, too, that we get in there. What's the actual? I'm assuming you have a website, so what's the actual website you want us to put in there?

Maggie vo:

You mean our website? Yeah, the website Fuel Venture Capital.

Jennifer Loehding:

Okay, okay, we'll make sure. You might've said that and I might've missed it. We'll make sure we get it in the show notes so that that way, if anybody's reading the actual show notes, they show notes, they know where to go. Hopefully they're listening to all this, but I think sometimes people you know they go through and they scan show notes to a retranscript. So we'll make sure it's all in there. Well, maggie, you're amazing. I admire you and congratulations on all of your success. You're doing great things in the world. I'm sure you're raising an amazing little follower in your household right now and we'll keep in touch with you as well, but I do want to tell you thank you for your time today and for sharing your wisdom with our audience.

Maggie vo:

Well, thank you for what you're doing right now. I think that it's great to have, you know, a person like you doing, you know, sharing the story, so that we can inspire people just like us, because you know, believe me, when I have a problem, I would have to believe that there's a lot of people out there facing the same problem. So when we come together, it out there facing the same problem, so when we come together, it's no longer a stress, right, it's making us feel like that's just a part of the journey and we are there for each other.

Jennifer Loehding:

Absolutely. I agree with you. You are awesome. Thank you so much. Of course, to our audience, we want to say we appreciate you, thank you for tuning into this episode. We hope that you found it both inspiring and informative. And, of course, if you want to reach Maggie, please do that. And then, on our end, you know what to do. Do all the things. Hit the subscribe comment like share, so we can keep sharing all of this fabulous content with you and with everybody that comes in and listens. And, as I always say, in order to live the extraordinary, you must start, and every start begins with a decision. You guys, take care, be safe, be kind to one another and we will see you next time.

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