Episode Summary:
Pocket Sun is the Founding Partner at SoGal Ventures, the first female-led, millennial VC firm investing in the future of living, working, and staying healthy. In this episode, she shares how she made her first angel investment at just 24, and how her early bets like Everly Health and Lovevery reflected a conviction in underrepresented founders well before it was a trend. Cheryl and Maxine explore how Pocket launched SoGal’s debut fund, built a deal pipeline through global pitch comps and community, and mastered the art of getting onto oversubscribed cap tables. They also unpack her consumer investing thesis, how she’s navigating fund two with more geographic focus, and what it means to lead recaps and board restructures when the power law turns brutal. For anyone curious about building a fund from scratch, going global with limited resources, or backing change-makers the market misses, this episode is packed with both tactics and courage.
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Chapters:
00:00 – Pocket’s first angel check: $1K into an AI startup
05:30 – Angel investing isn’t just for the ultra-wealthy
09:45 – From building a global pitch comp to proving LP credibility
14:20 – Early wins: Everly Health, Lovevery, and chasing allocation
23:35 – “Land and expand”: getting on cap tables and earning super pro-rata
27:10 – Leading recaps and fighting for underestimated founders
35:00 – SoGal’s thesis: The future of living, working, and staying healthy
40:30 – Entering new verticals without prior expertise
46:00 – Pocket’s take on the Vancouver vs. Toronto startup ecosystems
53:00 – Betting on design-led, intentional consumer businesses
59:10 – Why consumer startups often graduate into enterprise giants
01:03:00 – Pocket’s Big Cojones moment: moving solo to the U.S. at 18
