Catch The Upswing

For years, investing in women was treated as the "nice" thing to do — rather than a serious market opportunity. But nice doesn't move capital. Opportunity does. In this Walk With Me , I share what happened when we set out to mobilize $3 billion into the women's economy through the 2X Challenge — and how that number ultimately grew to $34 billion, including through a moment when w...

“Oh, they’re not interested.” Most of us have thought it about someone. Very few of us stop to ask whether it’s actually true. In this episode of Walk With Me , I reflect on how quickly we turn stories into facts, and on a second level of this habit that reveals itself just when we think we've figured it out. I share a moment from just before Christmas, when I walked into one of the most important...

What do you do when you don't know what to do? Not in the abstract — in the moment. When the meeting is happening, the decision is due, and every option in front of you costs you something you actually value. Most advice assumes there's a right answer waiting to be found. Nikola Ilic has spent years working with people making difficult decisions in very different environments — from busine...

"That's just how it's done." I think it might be one of the most dangerous sentences in business. Not necessarily because of the words themselves — but because of what happens right after we hear them. In this episode of Walk With Me, I reflect on why questioning the way things have always been done matters — and what can happen when we stop. From building a global team to some o...

If you've ever wondered whether your work truly matters, this conversation is for you. Whether you're just starting your career, considering a transition, or simply questioning whether you're on the right path, Chintal Barot shares practical advice drawn from more than a decade of coaching professionals and MBA students at leading business schools. Together, we explore how to build a m...

What does it actually cost to walk away from a career everyone tells you not to leave? What does it take to build trust across an entire continent — when the thing you're building doesn't exist yet? And how do you hold onto hope when the geopolitical context keeps shifting beneath you? Carolina Suárez Visbal is the CEO of Latimpacto — the leading impact investing network in Latin America,...

What happens when you finally achieve the life you've been working towards... and something still feels missing? Build the career. Reach the goals. Tick every box. And still find yourself wondering why success doesn't feel the way you thought it would. How does that happen? And how do you know whether you're building a life that's truly yours — or simply becoming successful at some...

What becomes more valuable in the age of AI? Everyone is asking what AI will replace. But I think there's another question that's just as important: What becomes more valuable because of AI? In this first episode of Walk With Me , I reflect on why judgment — not information — may become one of our greatest competitive advantages in an AI-powered world. Drawing on an experience from a senio...

What if the moments of self-doubt you've been trying to overcome are actually a sign that you're leveling up? What if the gap between where you are and where you want to be is smaller than you think? And what if embracing your imperfections — rather than hiding them — is the thing that finally sets you free? Daniela Alfieri is known to hundreds of thousands of people around the world as No...

What does it actually mean to build something meaningful when the dominant story of entrepreneurship is: scale fast, raise capital, and exit? What if success isn't measured by valuation, but by the problems you solve? What if the businesses the world most needs aren't unicorns — but something more grounded, more regenerative, and ultimately more human? In this conversation, Jessica Espinoz...

How do you know if someone is genuinely trustworthy — before it costs you to find out? How do you spot manipulation before it's too late? How do you say no without guilt? How do you protect your energy without becoming closed off? Jessica Soto Vera has spent more than a decade finding answers to those questions. As the founder of Mujeres Líderes, one of Peru's most influential leadership n...

Have you ever walked out of an investor meeting thinking, "I answered every question... so why do I still feel like I lost ground?" It might not have been your answers. It might have been the questions. In this episode, I share a practical framework for assessing investor questions in real time — so you can decide when to answer, when to reframe, and when to push back. Drawing on practic...

Most financial education focuses on information and tools. But what if building a healthy relationship with money also requires understanding our emotions, habits and fears? And what if one of the biggest reasons so many women stay in situations that aren't good for them has less to do with love, and more to do with money? In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Ana...

What does it take to walk away from everything you built — and start again from nothing? And what happens when the financial system tells you that fifteen years of building a major business simply doesn't count? In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Magreth Gutiérrez — founder and CEO of AAvance, a fintech providing financial services to migrants and vulnerable pop...

¿Qué haces cuando la vida que construiste durante quince años deja de existir? ¿Y qué pasa cuando vuelves a tu país, después de haber construido una gran empresa, y el sistema financiero te trata como si no fueras nadie? En este episodio de Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza conversa con Magreth Gutiérrez, fundadora y CEO de AAvance, una fintech nacida en Colombia que está transformando el acceso...

What happens when the life you carefully built — the city, the career, the plan — gets taken away? And what if every redirection, every closed door, every forced departure turned out to be exactly what you needed? In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Julia Villaseñor. Julia has spent years working at the intersection of art, culture and communication, including at Kur...

Why do some communities thrive for years while others slowly disappear? In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Fabian Pfortmüller — entrepreneur, community weaver, and co-creator of the Community Canvas and Community Weaving Framework — about what actually makes communitieswork. From entrepreneurship and leadership to social impact and human connection, community has be...

Why do so many people wait to feel ready — before starting, before speaking up, before stepping into something new? And what if the question you're asking is the wrong one entirely? In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Servane Mouazan — coach, mentor, board member, and one of the most thoughtful voices in leadership and social impact. For more than two decades, Se...

Why do so many people trying to create positive change end up exhausted? And why do so many workplaces and “inclusive” spaces still make people feel unseen, unsupported, or forced to hide parts of themselves? In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Bonnie Chiu and Tara Sabre Collier about burnout, invisible labor, identity, caregiving, ambition, and the emotional cost of...

Why do some people spend years fighting for change — long before anyone notices the result? And what does it actually take to keep going when people dismiss your ideas, systems resist change, and success feels impossibly far away? In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Laura Coryton and Rachael Crook — two women who turned frustration, setbacks, and difficult personal e...

Why do we keep promoting the wrong people into leadership In this follow-on episode of Catch The Upswing , we continue the conversation with Marijn Wiersma — this time shaped by questions from our global community. After our first episode, which focused on her book SOS: A Navigation Guide for Women at Work , we invited listeners from around the world to share the questions they’re grappling with i...

Why do great founders still get rejected — even when they have strong ideas, traction, and experience? In this solo episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza unpacks one of the most persistent — and least visible — dynamics in venture capital: The hidden patterns that shape who gets funded, who gets overlooked, and why. Because what looks like a funding gap on the surface often starts much ea...

What happens when the people writing the checks start to change? In this episode of Catch the Upswing , Jessica Espinoza sits down with Marla Shapiro, Managing Partner of Hermesa, for a candid conversation about angel investing, founders, power, and the real mechanics of capital. This is a conversation about what gender-lens investing actually means in practice — not as a slogan, but as a question...

Why do so many capable people still feel like they’re not good enough? In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Marijn Wiersma — impact strategist, corporate anthropologist, and co-author of SOS: A Navigation Guide for Women at Work — about self-doubt, perfectionism, confidence, leadership, and the invisible pressures many people carry at work. From returning to work with...

What does it actually take to build something from nothing? Not in theory — but in reality. In this episode of Catch The Upswing , Jessica Espinoza speaks with Jana Degrott and Gosia Kramer about what it really means to take risks, move through doubt, and build something when there is no clear path — and no external validation. From navigating self-doubt and the fear of judgment to making bold dec...