Entrepreneur and investor Cindy Padnos reveals the unique advantages and disadvantages of being female in the world of Silicon Valley. Padnos also articulates the need to develop larger groups of women connected through an affinity for technology entrepreneurship.

Illuminate Ventures Managing Partner Cindy Padnos shares how relationship formation and development plays a critical, and cyclical, role in the work of entrepreneurs and investors. In conversation with Stanford Consulting Professor Tom Kosnik, Padnos also explains why it is more difficult to raise money for a venture firm than it is for a startup.

"We won't predict where the future is, the entrepreneurs will," says Cindy Padnos, founder and managing partner of Illuminate Ventures. Here Padnos deconstructs how her firm identifies new opportunities by leveraging advisor relationships and completing due diligence on new spaces.

Investor Cindy Padnos describes the ways in which she built the trust of investment partners when she founded Illuminate Ventures. In conversation with Stanford Consulting Professor Tom Kosnik, Padnos explains how she initially utilized her own funding as a proof of concept on her ability to achieve returns and solid exits.

Investor Cindy Padnos explains why she chose to found Illuminate Ventures in 2009, based on trends she saw in how business processes were being altered due to major shifts in technology. "I am still an entrepreneur at heart," says Padnos, "and when you see an opportunity, you take advantage of it and create something new."

Enterprise business buyers fundamentally demand choice, says Cindy Padnos, managing partner of Illuminate Ventures. According to Padnos, this insight, along with thorough data, support her firm's passion for focusing on investments in enterprise software and cloud computing, instead of in the consumer internet space.