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ranchandcoast.com 44 MAY 2024 RANCH & COAST MAGAZINE PHOTO BY NIKKIE ACHARTZ Empowering Innovators Meet the North County woman paving the way for female entrepreneurs and investors B Y ANY MEASURE, CARMEL VALLEY resident Silvia Mah is nothing less than a force. Her background, accomplishments, and curriculum vitae are so jam-packed that it's nearly impossible to sum up who she is and what she does in any nutshell. Mah earned a PhD in biochemistry and followed it up with an MBA from Rady School of Management at UC San Diego. She is an entrepreneur, a founder, an angel investor, and an educator. She is a wife and mother of three. She is an immigrant, born in Venezuela to an Italian father and an American mother, who came to the United States as an international student. Her transition from being a student pursuing a PhD in the labs of UC San Diego to what she is now — a powerhouse in the startup world and a champion for female entrepreneurs — wasn't intentional. Rather, it is a wonderfully delicate thread connecting pure drive, a bit of chance, and great mentorship. With a young family including a child with special needs, the natural post-PhD progression (earning a post-doctorate degree, taking a faculty position) wasn't possible. Instead, she found a job to keep her in San Diego and close to Rady Children's Hospital. at job, again at UC San Diego in the School of Engineering, exposed her to the discoveries and innovations of everyone from undergrads to faculty that led Mah to wonder how it could be commercialized. "I was really in that space of: How do you take an idea to market? How do I sell it?" at curiosity was the spark that has since ignited multiple companies of her own and paved the way for the dreams of countless others to come true. When the loss of her father presented Mah with an inheritance just as she was completing her MBA, she put that money to work. She realized, she says, "'I can invest in startups that I feel need to be in the world.' I saw that there was a dearth in the number of women getting funded. So I'm like, 'Okay, I need to invest with these women entrepreneurs because they are going after new markets, they have new opportunities, and they see things differently. And I know that I can make an impact in the space by investing in them.'" e companies she has since founded include Stella Impact Capital, Ad Astra Ventures, Stella Foundation, and Stella Labs — and that's the abbreviated list. All are funds, investment groups, or accelerators specifically focused on female investors, entrepreneurs, and business owners. A sampling of Mah's various titles ranges from chairwoman and founder to managing partner to president. In roughly a dozen years, her work has put San Diego on the map in the startup world and helped to move the needle for more women to get funding as well as bring more women investors to the table. "I love making an impact," she says. "And I didn't see it as risk. I just said, 'Well, if nobody's gonna do it, I'm gonna do it.'" For all her fearlessness, it's an intrinsic feminine nurturing that Mah credits for her ability to drive the success of others. "I've gone through so much, right? And I've worn so many different hats. at's my strength and my power," she says. "Because [when] you can listen, you can understand, you can empathize with entrepreneurs. And that's how we rise up." Silvia Mah Focus business BY DEANNA MURPHY