This female-founder and tech leader landed on Wall Street 30-years ago, and since then has been breaking glass ceilings for women of color, and actively working towards financial inclusion in the investments space. Juliette-Marie Somerset sat down with us and discussed her career journey, the challenges she’s overcome, and filled us in on her busy schedule during a historic inauguration week.
“Overcoming the challenges of working on Wall Street, landing investment deals in Silicon Valley, and advising Fintech startups has consistently raised the bar of expectations as a professional woman of color.”
Juliette-Marie is adept in the world of investments, having formerly worked as a Credit Suisse
investment executive in NYC, and eventually becoming an investment company founder. In
2000, she established Klosters Corporation, where she managed a portfolio of Canadian
pension funds and tech companies, as well as international central banks, specifically in the
FX/Forex global market.
Juliette-Marie now lives and works in Silicon Valley, and has been CEO and Managing Partner
at her very own firm, Somerset Capital, for the past 10 years. In this role, she mentors, advises
and invests in early-stage global startups. She describes Somerset Capital as “a hybrid startup
investment company, mentoring and advisory consultancy.”
Juliette-Marie also sits on the Board of Directors and Board of Advisors of several technology
companies, including Norrsken Impact Accelerator in Stockholm, Sweden; Inovexus Accelerator
(launched by Credit Agricole Group) in Paris, France; UniRock Partners in Brisbane,
Queensland. She is also a lead mentor for the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center Milestone
Makers and Blockchain Technology entrepreneurs at CV Labs and a guest lecturer at ESCP
Business School in Berlin.
Throughout her impacts as a female-founder, and on multiple boards, Juliette-Marie is impacting
the Fintech ecosystem by mentoring, advising and investing in early-stage startups - ultimately
building companies to solve the problem of financial inclusion.
“These tend to be entrepreneurs who are passionate about transforming and empowering
broken and inefficient financial institutions and business models.”
As far as Juliette-Marie’s career success goes, she accredits having found mentors early on to
where she has gotten today.
“Mentors have changed the trajectory of my career since I first arrived on Wall Street 30 years
ago. A female executive volunteered to onboard me at Credit Suisse. She taught me that
women can be fearless on Wall Street and yet honor our womanhood and motherhood. If we
were intentional we could have both a great career and loving family together.”
She has overcome her fair share of challenges throughout her career.
“Overcoming the challenges of working on Wall Street, landing investment deals in Silicon
Valley, and advising Fintech startups has consistently raised the bar of expectations as a
professional woman of color.”
Juliette-Marie recalls when Michelle Obama came to the San Francisco Bay area on her
Becoming book tour, and how she boldly dispelled the myth that women should lean in.
“Leaning in does not work for all women. As women of color continue breaking glass ceilings, and becoming trailblazers and pioneers, we have to continue to be our authentic selves. Rather than lean in we can also own our superpowers that allow us to rise and thrive. Empowered women empower other women.”
