Investing in women
She was 33 when she made her first investment, but Tanya Rolfe believes that wealth-building can start at any age – you just have to take that first step.
After nearly two decades working in some of the world’s biggest law firms – her last role as a business manager saw her hire, fire and appraise lawyers and work on deals – Tanya Rolfe relocated from London to Singapore in 2017.
Keen to start something new, she founded the Ladies Investment Club (LIC) that same year. An all-female angel investment network of investors, LIC supports female entrepreneurs across South-east Asia. It is a for-profit company that has invested in femtech businesses such as Dame Products and Maude in New York, skincare company Luxe Botanics, and Gifts Less Ordinary, a gifting company in Singapore.
Tanya says that venture capitalism was something that “just happened” for her. Not long after starting LIC, she realised that she needed to raise more capital. So in 2020, she launched Her Capital, a seed fund in Singapore investing in female-founded, scalable businesses across South-east Asia. So far, Her Capital has supported HR tech companies such as Neufast.
The following year, she founded a financial literacy platform for women called Sophia. She later set up Harriet, for female founders to help them raise capital and grow their business.
Tanya is passionate about empowering more women with the confidence they need to start taking control of their money. She also hopes to share her investment knowledge and experience with more women, so that they can make better decisions for themselves as they work towards a life of financial freedom.
Here, Tanya talks about how she got started on her own investment journey, the best investment advice she’s ever received, and why she wants women to know that building wealth isn’t as hard as it seems.
Why did you switch from the legal profession to investment and financial education, and why the focus on women?
Initially, I wanted to invest in entrepreneurs, but once I noticed the distinct lack of women investors, I decided to focus on women. I already had fire in my belly for gender equality after working in the legal sector, and witnessing some rather obvious biases.
For instance, I witnessed one top-performing female lawyer, who was among our best talent in the department, suddenly deemed an underperformer by the firm’s partners (who were mostly male) after she returned from maternity leave. Her sole requirement was to leave the office at 6pm each day so that she could relieve her nanny, and then she would return to work after the children were put to bed. This seemingly reasonable request was all it took to turn this star lawyer into an associate nobody wanted to work with.
I also remember giving a presentation to a group of male partners about the issues we had in the department on gender equality, and one particularly obtuse partner pretended to be asleep to show me how he felt about them.
So, naturally, when I spotted a gender gap in the investment space, this fire was reignited.
What were your reasons for starting LIC?
I was shocked at how little women were represented at formal pitch events that I was attending. This was likely due to several reasons, including the fact that such events were often male-centric, and women were either not invited, or didn’t feel welcome at them.
When I dug deeper into the data, I also discovered that women entrepreneurs receive less than 3 per cent of all venture capitalist dollars. Why would women put themselves through such a rigorous pitching process if their chances were so dire? I really wanted to change that.
Unfortunately, women face a plethora of challenges when it comes to wealth building and management. For one, the lack of financial education for both sexes hits women harder. Women tend to shy away from the money conversation because we’ve often been overlooked in money conversations with parents. Society tells us that we are bad with money management and spend too much. This outdated narrative still rings true today – look at the latest #girlmath trend. Even if it’s meant as a joke, so much harm can come out of these trending campaigns.
Second, the financial ecosystem is largely male, so it’s easy for women to self-exclude and deem it “not for them”, because they can’t see people who look like them. We need greater representation in wealth management and financial adviser roles.
And finally, we don’t talk about investing so who do we turn to, to find out more or to learn from? Break this norm and start talking about money with a friend – set a date each month and learn and invest together.
How did your younger years shape your views about making money and investing?
Two very early experiences come to mind: the first was when I got my first job. I was 13 and earning £10 ($16.70) a day sweeping up hair in a hair salon. After deducting my bus fare, I was left with around £8.50 ($14.35). I used to have to save for several weeks in order to buy anything of real value. From that experience, I learnt how to be patient. Then at 17, I worked in a raspberry packing factory during the summer, before starting university. I worked long hours and made what seemed to me a significant amount at the time. By the end of that job, I had enough money to buy my first car. That experience taught me the importance of hard work and perseverance.
How old were you when you first started investing and what did you invest in?
I was 33 years old – a late bloomer! I invested in a Singapore-based, female-founded company called Gifts Less Ordinary. They wanted to launch a side gifting company, Lovingly Signed, and I later invested again as they wanted to build their own technology for their platform. Once the technology was built, the company pivoted and started to sell this technology to the hospitality industry (under the company Techsembly) as a SaaS (software as a service) product. Just this year, after five years, Techsembly was acquired, so we had our first exit.
Has your investment strategy changed over time?
Yes, it’s changed over time and with experience. I’ve had both wins and losses, and discovered that the trick is to learn from your losses, and use those lessons to make informed decisions on future investments.
When I started investing, I used to put in too much cash into a single investment. But after one investment loss, I learnt that diversification is key to protecting yourself. I also realised that industry knowledge is essential.
When I first started, I invested in one business in the F&B sector that I didn’t know anything about, and I invested too much. Not only was I over exposed, I didn’t have any knowledge of the F&B industry. Plus, I was a new investor. Suffice to say, it didn’t end well. From that experience, I learnt to go carefully and slowly, and to invest in what I know, unless I want to invest in something new.
What does wealth mean to you? Independence and freedom. Having the freedom to make choices in your life, independent of financial restrictions. That’s pretty powerful.
What’s been your biggest investment win?
So far, it’s the sale of Techsembly. Another win to come out of this investment is that I stepped in and bought the gifting company, Lovingly Signed, from Gifts Less Ordinary earlier this year. That is now my side hustle. We should all have side hustles (they can be small). I love running Lovingly Signed as it’s so different to the gender investing work that I do most days. It brings joy and happiness to new parents in the region. Plus, I’m able to use my B2B skills at Sophia to sell Lovingly Signed to corporates who want to gift their employees when they become new parents.
“Women tend to shy away from the money conversation because we’ve often been overlooked in money conversations with parents. Society tells us that we are bad with money management and spend too much. This outdated narrative still rings true today – look at the latest #girlmath trend.”
What’s been your biggest investment risk?
The biggest risk I’ve taken is with my own business. The finances and time I’ve invested is huge. I’ve learnt that being an entrepreneur is crazy, and life can feel like being on a roller coaster as you work tirelessly to make it all worth it.
But there’s really nothing like running your own business. While I’m still managing Sophia – and it’s doing well, given that it’s only one-and-a-half years old, and boasts clients such as J.P. Morgan, HSBC and Shopee – it has taught me the most I’ve ever learnt in my career about business.
The hard work has certainly paid off, though, in terms of lessons, growth and personal development, and hopefully the financial pay-off will follow soon.
Have you ever made financial or investment mistakes?
I have definitely lost money on investments, and if most investors answered you honestly, you would see that almost all investors have. I wish people would talk more about the losses, because women are great at blaming themselves for not knowing something, or not doing enough research or understanding something well enough, rather than accepting loss as part and parcel of investing. When people are not talking about their losses, it’s easy to think that you’re the only one, and that you are the problem.
What’s the best advice you have received about investing?
A more seasoned investor said to me, to just do it. She did not mean to risk your house and all its contents on one investment, but to take small, actionable steps to gain experience and confidence. I now use this same advice when I talk to others. It’s good advice, because women need encouragement to take that first step.
What are the top things you’d like women to know about investing and building wealth?
One, it’s not as hard as we’ve been made to believe, and the jargon is mostly unnecessary. Two, women outperform men as investors, so we make great investors because we are patient, and don’t respond to fluctuating markets as swiftly as men do. Three, women live longer than men and retire with 25 per cent less, so it’s imperative that we plan, plan, plan.
What are the top three myths about investing that you’d like to debunk?
The first myth is that you need to be rich to start investing. This is not true – you can start investing with very small amounts. Another one is that investing is about math, but it has nothing to do with math. And finally, that everyone knows something that you don’t – this is often not true, because we all lack the financial literacy skills that should be taught in schools.