Pemo: Founder at EZebis
“My aim is to to support female investors & entrepreneurs and other diverse groups in the Bay Area.”
Message to entrepreneurs: “It is important to make time to develop relationships both personal & professional…I see so many people fall through the cracks & in this culture, nothing is going to save you, unless you have friends or people that care what happens to you.”
An entrepreneur has to be willing to take risks. I like to learn and try new stuff, even if I fail. I’ve worn many hats in my life, in terms of work, as I moved across countries—Australia, Ireland, England, Canada & the U.S. I’ve founded a venture now that works for me.
EZebis is a livestreaming, video, and professional photography service for venture capital and startup events. It leverages my strengths. I love the satisfaction of partnering with people for an event and creating something beautiful that has everyone buzzing & learning —that’s where my creative energy really comes out.
Childhood: “I’ve Always Loved Adventure”
When I was a small child in Australia—maybe around nine years old—I used to call all the embassies to find out about other countries. I felt that I’d been born in the wrong country. Generally my mum thought I was crazy. We lived in the upper middle class northern suburbs of Sydney. Mum would say to me, “You’re not allowed to ride your bike down that section because it’s all bush & dangerous blah blah….” Of course, I went down there. I’ve always loved adventure. I remember one time I skidded and hit a rock—I fell and got gravel embedded in my leg. My mother had to pick out all the gravel when I was in the bath. She asked me what happened. Of course, I totally lied.
My dad was a Qantas pilot. He taught me how to maintain my car, and he encouraged me to paint furniture, mow the lawn – in those days do things that boys would normally do. I also could do feminine things if I wanted. That was good for my spirit, because I enjoy exploring things. My father was interested in visual media, and he was an incredible wordsmith—he used to write a lot of poetry. His family was from Ireland. My dad and I, we definitely have those Irish genes—the love of the word, the love of communication, good sense of humor & a spirit of fun (called craic in Ireland).
When I graduated from high school, I received a scholarship to Sydney University for teaching maths. I turned it down—I just wanted to go out & explore the world. It was a good decision for me, because I learnt the most on my own and through my travels.
Career: “Searching For Where I Belong”
My maternal grandmother was English and she had a lot of English magazines which I used to read whenever I visited. So I thought maybe that’s what I am longing for—England. But then I went there when I was 21 and thought no, this definitely isn’t my scene. My grandmother and I toured around Somerset and Devon, where her and my grandfather came from. It was nice, but it wasn’t what I had been longing for. My life has been a search for where I belong, rather than what I had to do. Perhaps that’s why it’s been so changeable.
I went back to Australia and tried different jobs. Eventually, I became a Jungian therapist, after studying with a U.S. Jungian analyst. I love working with dreams, symbols and imagery, and I wanted to help people make sense of their inner lives. During this time, I raised three kids by myself. I always encouraged them to feel free to be who they wanted to be and to follow their own star.
After raising my children, my sense of adventure took me to Ireland where I knew no one. I applied for a business visa from the Irish government. They approved my business plan & so I had a business in Ireland for many years as a business/corporate coach. While in Ireland, I contributed to the community as well, becoming the founding president for the Irish chapter of the International Coach Federation to support benchmarking in coaching. I am a workaholic, so not having any family there, all I did was work until I would collapse from exhaustion. I found Ireland to be rather insular. It was a battle for newcomers to develop good relationships with people born there. I knew I had to leave Ireland: I just had to work out what to do.
At the time, I was doing a lot of radio and television in Ireland. One of the last things that I did was a radio promotion on 98FM, Two Strangers and a Wedding. Basically, the radio station chose a couple who weren’t allowed to meet each other—they got married at the altar, but they couldn’t even look at each other. They had this radio wedding in a castle in Dublin. The couple were given three months cooling off to see if they legally wanted to marry, and I coached them. But 98FM pulled funding right after the radio wedding, claiming they had no more money (despite making a tonne of money with the promotion). I had accepted the gig with the understanding that the radio station would support the couple with coaching after the radio wedding—I couldn’t just leave them like that. I felt compassion for the couple who were struggling under the media glare and the pressure to break them up. So I continued to coach them. On TV talk shows, the couple mentioned that a coach had gotten them together and was helping them.
A Northern Irish tech guy contacted me with an idea about an internet dating site. He had seen the television interviews in which the couple had described how I had gotten them together and helped them. Given that I was a relationship expert with leverage in Ireland, he saw me as a useful partner. I love technical stuff, computer software, so I agreed to do it. Over a period of five years, I moved back and forth from Ireland to London, developing a matching algorithm and trying to get funding for my startup. In those days, the online dating companies were run by a lot of men. I would meet them at conferences. They really had no interest in matching people for long term relationships because they felt that it would mean that people would go off their site and they’d lose money. I’d been helping people with relationships for most of my life, so I had a different motivation. Unfortunately, the business failed in 2009 after the global financial crisis hit. I wasn’t able to get funding. I lost everything, I hit the wall. It was a pretty bad time in London.
Current Startup: “Finding the Place Where I Belong”
After my business failed in London, I moved to the U.S. I had fallen in love with the Bay Area decades earlier when I had traveled to Berkeley for a Humanistic Psychology conference.
For a couple weeks, I did volunteer office work in San Francisco at Astia, a non-profit that promotes women entrepreneurs. There was a book in the office, The Monk and the Riddle: The Art of Creating a Life While Making a Living by Randy Komisar, a VC on Sand Hill Road. The book was on the desk, and I asked if I could read it. I wanted to distract myself from what I was going through. They said, “Sure, take it.” I took it and read it every day, on the bus. After a couple days, I got this idea to email him and ask if I could interview him. I told him that I was volunteering at Astia. After the interview, he suggested a few of his partners for interviews. I was so enthusiastic about the interviews & what I was learning that I kept reaching out to both female entrepreneurs & investors to interview them about why women are funded less than men. I did all the networking, I did all the video interviewing and editing. I had done a six week online course in Ireland to learn how to shoot & edit. I also transcribed all the interviews.
I was just so in the creative flow that it didn’t even seem like work. I lived like a starving artist but it was one of the most wonderful years of my life. I only noticed later on when I saw a photo where I had moderated a panel on stage with some old sneakers that I had brought from Ireland. I think I was just carried away by the force of it. The cause was bigger than myself & I was passionate about learning myself & sharing that with others.
That was the year I was just one of the voices raising awareness about women & funding issues. I did Skype video interviews with international VCs and VCs in other US states. One of the Irish government agencies hooked me up with an Irish female VC. She said that she never did things like that, but because I was so persistent she consented. Her interview got so many hits on YouTube that she was chosen by Fortune to be one of the Top Five Women in Tech in Europe. She said that would never have happened if it weren’t for the interview with me, because she doesn’t usually put herself out there like that. I would just chase the VCs and chase them and chase them until they said yes.
At the end of that first year I realized I had a big VC network and was using my video camera at all the startup conferences. I am passionate about livestreaming because I was shut out in London and Ireland to the talent in the Bay Area. I wanted to share the great conversations here with the rest of the world. The internet has facilitated a global community with no borders. You can watch a talk in Silicon Valley from the comfort of your home, anywhere in the world.
I started partnering with videographers. Initially, it was tough & we did a lot of work for free as press. However I extended my networks until we started getting paid work. One videographer has been working with me for the last five years. I remember meeting him at a women’s conference where I had moderated an investor panel. He had a video camera & tripod and I said to him, “If you stick with me we will make money.” He’s still working with me and he has made some money from his equipment & his craft (which is usually very difficult to do for videographers). I source all the work for the videographers, do all the scheduling and organizing and checking logistics with venues and facilities—all the client-facing stuff. We have 6 live stream boxes now, and we’ve live streamed and photographed lots of events. EZebis provides media packages to the startup ecosystem at reduced rates. People who usually wouldn’t be able to afford visual media can access our services which is great.
Palo Alto: Gamble Gardens
Eventually, I settled in Palo Alto. I love Palo Alto & it is not as intense as a big city. There are not many high rise buildings & there are tonnes of trees. You can walk everywhere. I feel that I have finally found the place where I belong.
San Francisco, CA
Life Lessons: “Find a Place Where You Can Do What You Love”
My father and my maternal grandmother both loved & cared about me & that has helped me by who I am & live the life I love.
Don’t buy into the culture that chops you down for who and what you want to be.
You have to do what you love. If you are just doing it for money, it immediately decreases your happiness. Find where and how you belong to a place, ecosystem or group, and recognize that you need to be happy & accepted to belong.
From my life, I’ve learned that nothing is guaranteed. Sometimes you fail and sometimes you succeed. Just because you have a vision, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen. Also it is important to make time to develop relationships both personal & professional. I try not to be a workaholic now. Living in the U.S., there have been times that I came close to the financial edge, not knowing if I was going to eat next week. I had never experienced that in any other country in which I’ve lived. I see so many people fall through the cracks & in this culture, nothing is going to save you, unless you have friends or people that care what happens to you.
I have no regrets. I haven’t made millions but I have found where I belong. I feel that a guiding spirit has protected me from the worst that can happen & helped me turn setbacks into new opportunities.
I am really proud of my life, all the adventures, countries & people that I have met, known & loved.
