Catch The Upswing

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...

What if we’ve been thinking about the economy the wrong way around? Most investment models are built to maximize returns. But what happens when the system itself is no longer aligned with the world we’re trying to build? In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Jodi Smith — founder & fund manager of Matanataki — about rethinking capital from the ground up, and what it...

When things don’t go as planned, most people stop. But what does it actually take to keep going — when the path is uncertain, the pressure is real, and the outcome isn’t guaranteed? Resilience is not about never failing. It’s about what you do next. In this episode of Catch The Upswing, Jessica Espinoza speaks with Angie Madara — entrepreneur, mentor and investor — about what it really means to bu...

You don’t see this — but it shapes how you think, what you believe, and how you see the world. In this episode of Catch the Upswing, Jessica Espinoza sits down with Luba Kassova — researcher, journalist and co-founder of the audience-strategy consultancy AKAS, and author of the Missing Perspectives Series — to explore how the stories we see (and don’t see) shape our understanding of the world. Fro...

What does it take to lead when the stakes are global — and failure is not an option? Former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres joins Jessica Espinoza on Catch the Upswing to reflect on the leadership behind the Paris Agreement — and what it demands from us in the defining decade ahead. We are not running out of solutions — we are running out of time. This conversation goes beyond climate policy....

Catch The Upswing — Official Podcast Trailer Catch The Upswing is a business and leadership podcast featuring candid conversations with global leaders, entrepreneurs, and emerging voices shaping today’s economy. Hosted by global finance leader Jessica Espinoza, the show explores how people build, lead, and navigate complexity in a rapidly changing world. The podcast launches March 25, 2026, with o...