Women Who Disrupt
The Future is Female: Adryenn Ashley’s new Slay Ventures Empowers Women-Led Blockchain Startups

In the expansive landscape of venture capitalism, Adryenn Ashley is not just another name. Instead, she represents a dynamic blend of innovation, foresight, and strategic acumen, making her an emerging manager with the potential to redefine the blockchain arena. Emerging managers, such as Ashley, are crucial to investors’ portfolios, adding diversification in deal size and industry specialization, which consistently contributes to outsized returns. According to Hamilton Lane, these emerging managers outperform private and public markets on a 10-year asset class risk-adjusted performance basis.
Ashley’s first fund, Slay Ventures, is specifically aimed at backing female-founded blockchain-based startups driving mainstream consumer adoption at the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage, preparing them for swift scaling. Her investment strategy is practical and designed to minimize risk. A staggering 90%+ of ideas fail before reaching the MVP stage. By investing at this juncture, Ashley can effectively vet the product-market fit, ensuring that her investments have a potentially viral solution consumers will love. Given that women make up 80% of the buying decisions, products created by women are more likely to appeal to this significant market segment.
Her decades-long track record in growth hacking and media, coupled with her impressive early-stage deal flow pipeline, gives Ashley a substantial advantage. She possesses an early view into what’s next before it even becomes a blip on the radar, putting her at a uniquely advantageous position in the investment landscape.
Ashley’s early predictions have a consistent track record of coming to fruition. A decade ago, she did the keynote on #SocialTV at NABShow for three consecutive years, at a time when the industry was not quite ready to invest outside of broadcast and traditional theatrical distribution. Now they’re playing catch up… Ashley also developed the concept of a blockchain based digital ID, the SmartIID, for her blockchain-based dating app, aimed at eliminating predators, scammers, bots, and ghosts – a concept investors are scrambling to invest in today.
Ashley’s deep reach into the global startup ecosystem stems from her role as a speaker at major blockchain conferences and her participation in elite family office events. Her upcoming globally broadcast talk show, Minting the Future, is aimed at mainstream consumers and the crypto curious, promising to provide unique insights into blockchain technology and its future prospects, highlighting her ability to stay ahead of the curve.
What sets Ashley apart is her determination to change the current landscape of venture capitalism, which often overlooks women-led startups. She writes the first checks and does the due diligence, paving the way for other investors to follow. Statistics show that female founders generally yield more profitable outcomes and fail less often than their male counterparts. Yet, they receive only 1.7% of venture funding. Ashley’s mission is to change this narrative, drawing attention to worthy startups, proving the model, and generating attractive returns for investors.
Adryenn Ashley is an emerging manager whose vision, strategies, and execution demonstrate her potential to generate substantial profits for investors. Backed by her wealth of experience and proven track record, Ashley represents a new era in venture capitalism – an era where risks are intelligently mitigated, opportunities are meticulously spotted, and profits are impressively maximized. For investors willing to partake in this exciting journey, the future is female for the next generation of trailblazing startups.
By Adrienne Greenwood
Adrienne Greenwood often writes about PR and business trends, mostly recently for Young Upstarts and Women On Business. She has enjoyed a diverse and varied sales and marketing career starting with cosmetic brands like Estée Lauder and Bobby Brown to luxury resort real estate before founding her own public relations & digital marketing agency.
