Lee coined the often-used Silicon Valley term unicorn in a TechCrunch article "Welcome To The Unicorn Club: Learning from Billion-Dollar Startups" as profiled in The New York Times. A unicorn is generally defined as a privately held startup that has a $1 billion valuation or more – something rare (like a unicorn).[11]
Lee joined Kleiner Perkins (KPCB) in 1999 and was the founding CEO of RMG Networks, a company backed by KPCB. Lee worked at Kleiner Perkins for 13 years and left in 2012.[14]
In 2012, she left KPCB to start seed-stage venture firm Cowboy Ventures.[15] In 2017, Lee added Ted Wang to the firm as a general partner.[16]
Cowboy Ventures is one of the first female-led venture capital firms.[17] In its first six years, Cowboy Ventures has received three large funds, the latest reaching $95 million.[18][19]
Through Cowboy Ventures, Lee has made investments in many early-stage companies, including August,[20]Dollar Shave Club,[20] Textio,[21] Accompany[15] and Tally Technologies.[22][23][24] She is a public advocate of increasing the number of female founders and investors in the Silicon Valley.[25]
Philanthropy
In 2018, Lee co-founded All Raise, a nonprofit organization which seeks to increase the amount of funding that female investors receive.[19] The organization was founded as a collective by more than 30 venture capitalists who advocate for increasing the presence of women in venture capital.[2] Lee described the organization's importance in saying “We believe that by improving the success of women in the venture-backed tech ecosystem, we can build a more accessible community that reflects the diversity of the world around us.”[26]
Awards and recognition
Lee was invited to speak at the 2018 Code Conference put on by Recode and additionally at the 2018 GeekWire Summit.[27][28] She also spoke at the 2019 Silicon Slopes Tech Summit.[29] and is recognized as a speaker for the organization Lesbians Who Tech and the Female Founders Conference.[30][31]
^Jonathan Krim (March 1, 2015). "Working Their Way Around Male VC Dominance". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved March 27, 2015. "Can we give this to VC firms for free?" quipped Aileen Lee, a prominent venture capitalist who two years ago left her full time work at Kleiner Perkins to co-found her own VC firm, Cowboy Ventures.
^"College corner", The Item of Millburn and Short Hills, April 6, 1989. Accessed December 22, 2023, via Newspapers.com. "Aileen Lee, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Alan Lee of 91 Old Hollow Road, recently was elected president of the incoming sophomore class at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Aileen, who was the president of the 1988 Millburn High School senior class, is the current freshman class president at M.I.T."
