Venture F: The Podcast

Dulari Amin,  entrepreneur, investor, and growth strategist with 20+ years of experience scaling companies from early-stage to post-IPO across consumer, technology, and healthcare. She is the co-founder of Sidelines, a growth advisory platform that connects strategic capital and support services to founders reimagining their industries. Sidelines focuses on companies Series A and beyond, coll...

Courtney McCrea is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Recast Capital, an investment platform established to invest in and support emerging managers in venture capital, with a preference for diverse partnerships.   Prior to co-founding Recast, Courtney was a Managing Director of Weathergage Capital, a boutique fund of funds that provided its clients with access to premier venture capi...

Liz Faircloth is the co-founder of The Real Estate InvestHER® community, a platform to empower women to live a financially free and balanced life through over 25 Meetups across the US and Canada and an on-line community and membership that offers accountability and mentorship for women to take their business to the next level! She is the co-host of the “The Real Estate InvestHER Show,” a podcast p...

Hi everyone. I’m Laura Nix Gerson host of the Venture:F podcast. I launched this podcast and platform two years ago for a multitude of reasons. As I entered my 50’s I realized I didn’t know enough about growing my wealth and investing. And I am not alone - so many women my age feel like they need to learn more but don’t know where to begin. Additionally, I have been advising and working with start...

Anna Mason, Managing Partner of Ingeborg Investments, a venture-investment fund within the Family Office of Olivia Walton. Ingeborg focuses on investing in female founders and other female fund managers. They invest in innovation that is built with women in mind. Anna previously was a Managing Partner at Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, where she worked from 2016-2022. While there, Anna he...

Haley Kwait Zollo is a Partner at Starting Line and was the first full-time addition to the team in July, 2019. Starting Line is an early stage venture capital fund that invests in consumer technology companies. Haley assists with everything from deal sourcing and diligence to portfolio and fund operational support.    Prior to joining Starting Line, Haley spent over half a decade leading venture-...

Chermaine Hu, is the co-founder and CFO of Episode Six (E6), a leading global provider of enterprise-grade card issuing and ledger infrastructure. After a 14-year career in M&A banking at Morgan Stanley in London and New York, she co-founded E6 in 2015 with John Mitchell and Futeh Kao to modernize how banks, fintechs, and brands design and deliver payments solutions. Today, she oversees the compan...

Jessie is Principal and Head of Strategic Initiatives at Gratitude Railroad. She leads the firm’s Inclusive Capital strategy to catalyze investments to diverse-led and emerging impact funds. She also oversees Gratitude’s growing community of active investors and members. Prior to Gratitude Jessie worked at the intersection of finance, tech, and impact in New York City. She led corporate fundraisin...

Emma Pratt, the co-founder of Girl Math Capital, a rapidly growing community designed to expand women’s access to alternative investing across angel, real estate, and crypto. She leads education, deal flow, and community strategy while actively investing in better-for-you consumer brands such as Ghia, Vacation, and Realm. Prior to building Girl Math Capital full-time, Emma worked in M&A and Strate...

Katie Quilligan an investor at BankTech Ventures, where she helps shape the future of fintech for community banking. She focuses on identifying and backing high-impact, bank-enabling fintechs, working closely with both startups and BankTech’s 100+ bank limited partners to drive scalable innovation tailored to local institutions. Katie brings a unique blend of investing and operating experience, ha...

Maggie Switek, PhD, an economist and a senior director on the research team at the Milken Institute. She heads all projects related to economic growth and opportunities across regions and communities in the US and abroad. Before joining the Institute, Switek worked in academia and consulting, developing a broad range of expertise in economic competition, labor, public policy, and well-being. Her e...

Zibby Owens, is the founder and CEO of Zibby Media and Zibby Publishing House, host of the award-winning podcast Totally Booked with Zibby , owner of Zibby’s Bookshop in Santa Monica, CA, and author/editor of the USA Today bestselling anthology On Being Jewish Now: Reflections from Authors and Advocates , as well as five other books. Zibby hosts retreats, a book club, and frequent events for bookl...

Janine Firpo is the Co-founder of Invest for Better and author of Activate Your Money: Invest to Grow Your Wealth and Build a Better World.  From the early years of Apple Computer to senior positions with Hewlett-Packard, the World Bank, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Janine has always found herself making an impact. In 2017 she left a successful 35+ year career in technology and interna...

Steph Wagner is a nationally recognized thought leader in women’s wealth and financial empowerment. Today, she serves as National Director of Women & Wealth at Northern Trust, where she leads the firm’s advisory practice for women and its Elevating Women platform—a national program focused on building financial literacy and helping women use their wealth to create meaningful impact in their famili...

Alicia Hanf, Head of Institutional Partnerships, Ecosystem Development. LG Nova where she leads efforts to forge strategic institutional partnerships and expand a dynamic ecosystem for innovation.  Prior to joining LG Nova, Alicia founded Dear Mama Ventures a platform dedicated to improving access to capital for underrepresented entrepreneurs. Dear Mama’s  industry-agnostic investment approach foc...

Kerry Rupp is a General Partner at True Wealth Ventures , an early-stage venture capital fund investing in women-led businesses that improve human and/or environmental health. She is a board director for True Wealth Ventures’ portfolio companies Partum Health , Rosy and RubyWell , and a board observer for Atlantic Sea Farms . She previously served as board director for BrainCheck , Flourish, reHar...

Today we welcome to the podcast Syama Bunten, transformational wealth leader, Co-Founder of the Wealth Catalyst Summit, host of the Getting Rich Together podcast, and creator of The Wealth Catalyst Substack . Through events in San Francisco, New York City, and nationwide salons, she empowers women to speak openly about money, take control of their financial futures, and bridge the money-confidence...

Annie Belanger, is the co-founder of the Abundance Collective a community that empowers women to participate in the flow of money and increase their investing acumen. Annie has lived many lives, from her tenure in the hedge fund world as a Female Founder and angel investor, to her most important role, the mother of 3 children. She previously worked in finance at Conquest Capital, a CTA hedge fund,...

This week we bring to you a special year-end wrap-up joint episode where I’m joined by my friend and fellow podcast host Marcia Dawood of the Angel Next Door Podcast. We had a great conversation reflecting on everything 2024 had to offer, the inspiring guests, the lessons learned, and the topics that resonated with our listeners. From game-changing conversations with leading experts, investors, fo...

Halle Kaplan-Allen is the Director of Growth at Sydecar an innovative platform that helps you start and run your investment vehicles — so you can focus on making deals, not spreadsheets. In this conversation we talk about Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVS), how to angel invest alongside other women, how SPVS help founders add more angels to the cap table while managing the investor relations aspects,...

  Kimberly Smith is the Chief Capital Formation Officer of Andalusian Credit Partners a solutions-oriented middle market direct lending platform. In this conversation we discuss private capital versus private equity, building opportunity and access to dealflow, women in private capital and finance, and why diverse leadership is important in finance. Kimberly was previously the Chief Capital Format...

Marisa Warren is the Founder & Managing Partner of ALIAVIA Ventures and Founder of ELEVACAO. Marisa invests in female-founded tech startups across the U.S. and Australia. Beginning her career in enterprise software sales in 2001, Marisa went on to build the Microsoft Partner Development Centre for Australia and Southeast Asia. Marisa's efforts resulted in customer acquisition targets exceeding 230...

Jennifer Pullen and Zain Pirani are the co-founders of Zenn Capital a strategic partner for growth companies, providing a suite of services designed to propel success in today's dynamic business landscape. Their expertise lies in private placements encompassing equity, debt, and hybrid financing solutions. They specialize in fundraising for founders and fund managers across distinct categories, wh...

Nyakio Grieco, Co-founder of Thirteen Lune and Founder of Relevant: Your Skin Seen is a beauty entrepreneur and advocate for clean, inclusive beauty that suits all skin types, tones, and needs. As a veteran beauty founder and trusted industry voice, Nyakio has launched two successful businesses: her award- winning brand nyakioTM, based on her family’s Kenyan roots and beauty secrets that launched...

Dr. Nikki Lanier, CEO of Harper Slade and Founder of the RAARE Woman Collective.  As CEO and founder of Harper Slade one of the fastest-growing and most highly recognized race, inclusion, equity, & diversity advisory firms in the country, Nikki’s work focuses on helping organizations cultivate environments where black and brown talent can thrive. Nikki alsofounded the RAARE Women Collective, a glo...