Check Warner has the kind of optimism that feels both disarming and defiant.
It’s early on a sunny spring morning when I arrive at EggBreak, a bougie restaurant in the heart of Notting Hill in London, to find her wrapping up her first appointment of the day.
She’s been discussing “exciting things” with Meghan Stevenson-Krausz, the co-CEO of Diversity VC, who greets me warmly before leaving to rattle through her own day of meetings.
Diversity VC, which Warner cofounded, “paused” its funding in 2023 after a difficult stretch. The organisation had been a champion of data-driven diversity in venture capital; its retreat was seen as a signal of just how hostile the climate had become to DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives.
“Everyone knows it’s been a challenging time for this topic. To say it’s a hostile environment would be putting it extremely mildly,” she tells me. “I’m always optimistic about everything. I see it as a really positive opportunity to learn lessons.”
Warner’s had to be a fast learner these past five years. In early 2020, she and business partner Matt Penneycard launched Ada Ventures, named for the 19th century mathematician Ada Lovelace, with the aim of highlighting and investing in overlooked individuals and ideas, from climate tech to economic empowerment.
Half a decade in, the firm has raised over £100m across two funds and attracted LPs from the British Business Bank to the University of Edinburgh.
“I care deeply about the untapped potential from all these people who currently don’t feel welcomed, don’t feel included, don’t feel like they can understand finance and are therefore just shut off from it,” she says. “It really annoys me.”
Ada Ventures’ journey has unfolded against a turbulent backdrop: a pandemic, tech recession, war in Europe and — most pointedly for Warner — a “huge political backlash against inclusivity and a lot of the things we believe in.”
Middle child
Coffees ordered (a latte for me; americano for her), I quiz Warner on her journey from English literature graduate to tech investor. “I wanted to be an actor,” she says. “I’m a failed actor, is the truth.”
Her paternal grandfather, Philip Warner, was a major influence. A World War Two veteran who survived captivity as a prisoner of war in Japan, he went on to become a prolific military historian, authoring more than 50 books. “He was a complete hero,” says Warner.
Pursuing her own creative passions while studying at Cambridge, Warner directed plays — surrealist pieces like Milan Kundera’s Jacques and His Master, an existential tale of sexual betrayal, and the unnervingly absurdist The Bald Prima Donna by Eugène Ionesco.
Directing suited her better than acting. “You have to get funding, design the poster, cast everyone. It’s like being an entrepreneur — you come up with a concept and see what resonates with people.”
After university came a stint in advertising — “combining something creative and something commercial” — until a growing Twitter habit led her into the world of VC blogs. AVC, the online journal published by Union Square Ventures cofounder Fred Wilson, was a touchstone. “The idea of enabling, empowering, accelerating people’s ideas to global significance. I found that fascinating.”
She soon found a job in finance, but was disheartened by the “mostly white, mostly male” team of investors. Warner’s frustration was not borne of a desire for tokenism, but a sincere belief organisations perform better when people from different backgrounds, with different experiences, have a seat at the table. “Just logically, you’re not realising the full potential of the industry.”
Obsessed with fairness from an early age (“Maybe because I’m a middle child”), she started taking screenshots of VC firm websites, manually counting the faces. That became the seed of Diversity VC, later formalised with scraped data and reports.
The firm uncovered some disheartening, and previously unknown, stats about the UK’s venture scene. More than 70% of VC partners are privately educated (compared to 7% of the population); representation of women in the industry is fairly static at around 30%; and some ethnic minority groups remain disproportionately underrepresented.
“No one knew who actually worked in this industry. We just wanted to find out.”
Our food arrives. Warner tucks into her Mexican omelette, an assortment of chilli, feta cheese and avocado, while I burrow into a hearty bowl of shakshouka.
I ask how she’s found balancing objectives: supporting underserved and overlooked entrepreneurs while staying laser-focused on delivering the kind of returns high-risk investing demands. Presumably, there’s been some scepticism?
“When we were fundraising for the first time, I had people genuinely ask: ‘Can women make money?’” She laughs, with a hint of despair. “Every single person who’s ever tried to change the status quo has had to face people thinking it’s wrong.”
Pushback
Those who disagree with Warner’s ethos have only become more vocal in recent years. Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January heralded a nationwide clampdown on DEI initiatives, with wide-reaching consequences.
The US president has blamed “wokeness” for everything from a deadly plane crash to his country’s disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan. Some companies and countries have followed suit, embracing anti-DEI rhetoric and scrubbing previous commitments to fairness and equality.
Without indulging her opponents’ vitriol, Warner admits there have been missteps on her side of the aisle.
“We lost people. We didn’t bring people along the journey. Everyone in the movement needs to own that. If you take it back to: ‘Anyone should be able to access economic opportunity, whoever they are, wherever they come from,’ it’s hard to argue with. But somewhere along the way, the message got misunderstood.”
What frustrates her most is the timing. “It’s not like we’ve made enormous progress — with women all over boardrooms, with people from diverse backgrounds everywhere. We’ve only just started making the smallest changes. This is the worst time to go backwards.”
She adds: “If anything, I’m doubling down and I’m more committed.”
For Ada Ventures, the solution has been to widen the funnel: sourcing across the UK and Europe, making the most objective, fair investment decisions possible. The result? More than half of Ada’s portfolio companies (56%) have a woman founder, almost twice the industry average (28%) — though Warner insists “it’s not good enough yet.”
Outside, Notting Hill hums with the sounds of sightseers in the sun. I walk across the street with Warner, where she unlocks her bike.
She tells me about the exercise Penneycard gave her when they first started: Make a one-, three-, five- and ten-year plan.
“It’s so powerful, both for manifesting what you want and for deeply thinking about it,” she says, preparing to pedal off to her next rendezvous. “I’ve just redone it, 10 years in, and I came to the conclusion: I bloody love this. It’s so energising.
“I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
The top image accompanying this article was generated using ChatGPT.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/check-warner-brunch-ada-ventures/
