01 Trish Costello — The Genius of Focusing on the ‘Ick’ Factor

2 min readJan 25, 2021

A conversation with Trish Costello of Portfolia

To kick off the podcast, our first interview is with Trish Costello, founder and CEO of Portfolia, which focuses and supports the female investor community. In this inaugural episode, we learn of Trish’s humble beginnings, and about her first investment, which was actually in a daycare. Trish mentions the ‘ick’ factor as contributing to men’s avoidance to investing in fields that they can’t directly relate to, and why that’s a great open field opportunity for female VCs. She touches on the importance of avoiding the “shiny objects”, why it’s important to not have tunnel vision when you’re looking into niche markets, and why you should treat your portfolio as your children, giving your investments equal importance. A great start to the podcast!

Key Takeaways

02:10 — How Trish got started in angel investing
08:50 — Trish’s goals for Portfolia to disrupt the traditional investing model
15:35 — Using the “ick” factor as an advantage
18:20 — Writing that first check
25:15 — Trish’s investment thesis
28:55 — Trish’s take on niche markets
34:25 — Statistics on the success rate of women-led companies
38:15 — Strategies for performing the best exit
45:25 — Trish busts some myths related to how you should invest
49:35 — Rapid-fire four questions

Tweetables

“Women will write a $1M check to philanthropy, but afraid to write a $10K check to enable a company.”
“We let fear keep us from doing some of the things that could be most impactful.”
“Your expertise can be both your profession as well as your passion.”
“You have to have a market that’s large enough that you can make a mistake.”

01 Trish Costello — The Genius of Focusing on the ‘Ick’ Factor

Key Takeaways

Tweetables

Links Mentioned

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Written by Silvia Mah