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Recent Synergist News: 

Synergist is launching the Synergist Finance Fellowship this fall, a college mentorship program aimed to introduce females of underrepresented backgrounds to the finance industry, including investment banking, venture capital and private equity. We are looking for a few Synergist members to participate in fireside chats with the mentees and discuss your experience working in finance and investing. The format of these chats will be a Zoom call with 1 investment professional, 1 moderator and 4-6 mentees. If interested, please email Sofia (skarionova@vectorcapital.com) and Alice (ashang@tcv.com)

Upcoming Synergist Events:

Boston:
Synergist and Amity Search Partners Present: A Virtual Recruiting Conversation
September  17th (Thurs), 7pm ET / 4pm PT
(Open to everyone; Registration can be completed here and attendees are encouraged to bring questions)

Los Angeles:
Senior Women in Investing Series with Amanda Fields Schuler 
September 23rd (Wed), 6:00pm PT / 9:00pm ET
(Open to everyone; Please click here to join)

New York & Boston: 
Women in PE Recruiting Boot Camp hosted by Three Cairns Group
September 25th (Fri.) from 7:45-8:45am ET & September 26th  (Sat.) from 9am-12:45pm ET
(Open to everyone; Please click here to RSVP by Friday, September 18th)

Boston & San Francisco:
Principals & Vice Presidents Panel 
October 1st (Thurs), 5:00pm PT / 8:00pm ET
(Open to everyone; Please click here to RSVP)

New York: 
Fertility 101 w/ Dr. Pak Chung
October 22nd (Thurs), 3:30pm PT / 6:30pm ET 
(Open to everyone; RSVP details to come)

Synergist Senior Sound Bites - September 2020:
Lauren Seidman

Vice President, Stone Point Capital LLC
B.A. Columbia University, M.B.A. Stanford Graduate School of Business 
Background: 
Lauren Seidman is a Vice President on the Investment Team at Stone Point Capital LLC, a financial services-focused private equity firm based in Greenwich, CT. She joined the firm in 2015 and focuses on new investments as well as several of Stone Point’s current portfolio companies. Additionally, she serves as Co-Chair of Stone Point’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee and leads several of the firm’s recruiting initiatives. Previously, Lauren was an Associate in the Firmwide Strategy Group at Goldman Sachs, where she assisted in developing long-term strategy and acted as an investment banker on behalf of the Firm. Lauren holds a B.A. from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Tell us about your background: 
I joined Goldman Sachs after college – it was 2008, which made it a super interesting time to work on M&A opportunities and strategy for the Firm. I worked at Goldman for five years, and then I went to business school. When I thought about what I wanted to do after business school, I knew I wanted to keep investing – ideally in financial services given that’s what I knew – and working on deals (I love working on teams and the energy / cadence of a deal). Additionally, I wanted an entrepreneurial firm where I could have a lot of responsibility. Stone Point was a perfect fit.
 
If you weren’t doing your job, what would you be doing? 
That’s tricky – I love my job – and I can’t think of many things where I would get to use the same mix of quantitative and qualitative skills and have such senior access at companies. I also love to travel – which private equity offers a lot of in a non-COVID environment. If I had to pick something else, maybe I would be an economist – I enjoy economic research and think it would be interesting to work in academia (I was an economics major in college and interned at the Federal Reserve for two summers).
 
Most challenging thing about your role: 
Truly having conviction about a new investment – we do a lot of work on everything that could go wrong, and a lot of our job is saying “no”; knowing when to say “yes” is challenging.
 
Something you wish you knew at the beginning of your career? 
I was quiet at the beginning of my career. I would spend a lot of time thinking about what I was going to say / how it would sound, which led to me not speaking up much. Obviously, it depends on the culture of the firm, but I would recommend not being nervous to share your thoughts / ideas. They are likely interesting and additive; additionally, they show your colleagues that you are engaged and want to contribute.
 
Advice for younger women in their careers?  
I would say spend time reflecting on what you like / where your strengths are. In every job you have to do things you might not like, but as you get more senior knowing what you’re good at (which likely / hopefully corresponds with what you enjoy) is helpful for planning your career. I think it’s a constant exploration as you have new opportunities and challenges, but it is helpful to know what gives you the most satisfaction over time.
 
Thing you are most proud of: 
I would say I’m really proud, or maybe better said, feel very fortunate to have a healthy and loving family as well as a great job working with people I respect and learn from.
 
Mistakes on the job / tough lessons learned: 
I’ve made a lot of mistakes – errors in an analysis or saying / doing something I shouldn’t have – but I think my bigger mistake is how much time I have spent replaying and overthinking what happened. Everyone makes mistakes – own up to them, apologize, learn from them, and move on. Agonizing over what happened is likely not a good use of time, and it’s amazing how quickly others move on and forget.
 
Where do you feel the industry is in terms of female support at the top? 
I think the industry is trying to focus on recruiting, retaining and elevating women. At Stone Point, we started a Diversity & Inclusion Committee and have worked on further developing our recruiting, mentoring and retention efforts. Additionally, we have hosted a variety of events to bring women from the firm and our broader network (including portfolio companies) together. It will take time to have more role models at the top – and more firms founded / owned by women – but I think we’re on a good path to get there and the industry understands the importance of having diverse voices making investment decisions.
 
Best way to decompress while in quarantine? 
I can’t believe it’s been 6 months… I decompress by spending time with my husband, zoom catch-ups with friends, exercising, or taking walks. I’ve been less successful at cooking – but I can make a great salad!
 
Favorite book? Podcast? News sources? 
As far as the news, I read a lot of different sources, but find myself regularly reading Axios, WSJ and the NYTimes. I love reading and have a lot of favorite books, both fiction and non-fiction. I’m currently reading The Other Wes Moore, which has been an incredible perspective on some of the challenges many in our society face.
 
Anything we haven’t asked about that you’d like to share?

After spending three months in Michigan at the beginning of quarantine with my family, my husband and I came back to the east coast and moved from NYC where I had been for 16 years (except business school) to Greenwich, CT. We’re testing out the suburbs!

Thank you for your time, Lauren! To learn more about Stone Point Capital, click here.

 
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