Women in Venture Capital

In this episode, Siya joins us to talk about her engineering background and the unique perspective it has lent to her career in VC. She expounds her article on choosing a college major along with a book she published. She also sheds light on her interest in taking education online and democratizing it. Siya closes with insights on the role of gender in both engineering and VC workplaces.

In this fun episode with Neha, Gina, and Lucy from Stanford’s GSB Impact Team, we discuss the vastly different areas of interests that launched these women into the common space of impact investing—from increasing access to opportunities, to the environment and improving education. The team touches on the fund's triple bottom line (educating students about impact investing, creating a social...

In this episode, Chloe talks to us about her career—from investment banking at Goldman Sachs to venture capital at Renegade Partners, and key incentives in making the jump between industries. She describes her interest in TMT and dives into the differences between early and late stage investing. She also gives shares about her experience as an angel investor and the diversity-driven motives that l...

In this episode, we talk to Mar about her journey from co-founding three startups in the mobile/e-commerce, enterprise software and semiconductor industries to co-founding and managing Pear VC. Mar talks to us about Pear's "0 to 1" thesis focused on attractive yet realistic hypotheses and founding teams with demonstrated capacity to execute. Lastly, Mar talks to us about her frustra...

This week we had the pleasure of talking to Anne Dwane, founding partner at Village Global. In this episode, Anne talks to us about her experience founding and managing Military.com during tough times. She touches upon her interest in education, and the founder-driven investment thesis at Village Global. Lastly, she addresses the tricky questions that female founders have been facing while fundrai...

Natalia Gonzalez, Investment Manager at Clout Capital, joins us to talk about her path from consulting to Venture Capital and the focus on Latin American markets that has been central to her career. Natalia provides compelling statistics for investing in LatAm and expresses her own excitement that such an influx can serve as a catalyst for socio-economic change in the region. She identifies import...

This week, we talked to Arushi Jindal. She talked to us about her transition from banking to VC, emphasizing the ability to see how businesses evolve in VC as a deciding factor. She tells us about why she started Headway Circuit and what she hopes it will accomplish, with the overarching objective of providing mentorship for women in the industry. Arushi also imparts advice for breaking into VC al...

In this episode, Sam talks about her path from political science to management consulting, to venture capital. She underlines impact and complexity as key components she looks for in a job and it was through this pursuit that she ended up at Innovation Endeavors. Sam reveals the unique ways she keeps up with machine learning technology and concludes with some advice on how to increase diversity an...

In this episode, we talk to Joanna about the various opportunities she pursued that led her to business school. Joanna has an impressive amount of experience under her belt, starting off in marketing at RBI where she negotiated with franchises in South America to make the region more data driven and afterwards joining the smaller company Earshot where she was director of marketing.  She became int...

In this episode, Anna talks to us about her 10 year journey in Venture Capital, starting at Bessemer Ventures, where she found the unique opportunity of a venture firm willing to take a chance on a young woman, to CRV ventures where she currently works. She also gives details about her own firm LaunchX Ventures, a firm oriented towards teaching women how to fundraise, democratizing the tips and tr...

In this episode, Iynna talks to us about her unconventional path to VC and the underlying passions that drove her there. Iynna worked at the UN early on in her career and switched tracks to pursue impact work that was more directed. Having grown up in a family that emphasized the importance of education, she became aware of the contrast between her path and those of many others she grew up with, a...

In this episode, Tony talks about the role that race, gender, social class and other divides play in access to opportunities in the U.S. He highlights the key takeaways from his latest work, "Race, Work and Leadership", notably how women and people of color are more likely to get visible job assignments but less likely to get global assignments, significant line management experience and...

In this episode, Ashley Aydin talks to us about her interest in the consumer space and passion for impact investing. She also highlights the importance of engaging with younger women and providing them with the resources to learn more and get involved early as a means to tackle gender disparity in the industry. Her advice for breaking into VC: build relationships with founders early, be proactive...

In this episode we talk to Maria Salamanca about her journey into politics and investing, her views on diversity at the funding and portfolio level, innovation trends that excite her the most and the women who inspire her. Maria is a Principal at Unshackled Ventures, a fund that fills a unique space in the entrepreneurial ecosystem, funding teams with immigrant founders at pre-seed stage. During h...

In this episode, Geeta Vemuri talks to us about her journey into healthcare focused venture capital and applying science to business. She also addresses how the current environment has prompted her team to look into opportunities that are opening up in the form supply chain  disruptions and her philosophy that there is no right time to start a company. Geeta is a founder and managing partner at Ag...

In this episode, we hear from Julia about her transition into venture capital, and early stage VC fellowship experience. Julia is a vice president at March Capital Partners, a Santa Monica-based technology investment firm. Julia graduated from Harvard Business School in 2020. While at HBS she worked as a venture fellow for Pear VC, an early stage venture fund with a large focus on student entrepre...

In this episode, we talk to Mary D'Onofrio about cloud software and  her experience at Bessemer Ventures including her involvement in the creation of the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index and Bessemer’s Cash Conversion Score. She addresses the importance of building meaningful relationships  and betting on yourself in venture capital especially as a woman. Mary is a VP at Bessemer Venture Partn...

In this episode, we talk to Grace about her experience recruiting for venture capital, her passion for coaching and mentoring and her insights on the industry wide efforts in progress / required to bridge the gender gap in investing.  Grace is a second year MBA student at Harvard Business School. She started her career in asset management at JPMorgan and has experience as an investment associate a...

In this episode, we hear from Cassie about the role of an Operating Partner at VCs. These roles are relatively new, and are valued by portfolio companies for getting VC support over and above just the capital. Cassie is an Operating Partner at Primary Ventures and works closely with founders and portfolio companies to help them build, scale and optimize their sales, marketing, and customer operati...

In this episode, we talk to investor-founder Shruti Gandhi about her journey from being an engineer to founding her own company, Penseev and eventually, deep tech fosued fund, Array Ventures. Shruti also addresses the importance of having decision makers without bias in the industry and focusing on the give and take in networking. Shruti is the founder of Array Ventures, a fund focused on enterpri...

Hear Priscilla's story of pure hustle and passion, breaking into the VC industry and continuing to follow her heart to create impact.  Priscilla is currently a Senior Associate at True Ventures, SF. She was the first Priya Haji Fellow with the fund, where she worked with a True portfolio company Ginger.io, a wellness platform for on-demand coaching and therapy. Priscilla is actively involved...

In this episode we talk to Kriti about her experience in venture capital across three continents, trends in Edtech as seen at Owl amid the pandemic and her take on diversity in the industry. Kriti is currently a Principal at Owl Ventures, an early-mid stage fund focusing on Edtech and future of work. She has also worked with the Softbank Vision Fund in London doing growth equity investing and was...

In this episode, Angela shares her experiences with the Dorm Room Fund, Summit Partners and Norwest Ventures and gives some actionable, helpful words of advice for aspiring women investors. Angela is a managing partner at the Boston chapter of Dorm Room Fund, a national, student-run venture fund, backed by First Round. She spent this past summer working as an investor at Summit Partners and in ope...

In this episode, Madeline talks to us about her community and impact driven initiatives at HBS and in Boston in the investing space. She speaks about the need for diversity to be at top of mind rather than an afterthought given its positive impact on business instead of / in addition to a moral imperative and the disproportionate impact of COVID on women. Madeline is an investor at Victress Capita...

In this episode, we hear from Dhanasree about her diverse experience in investing across different markets and her advice for folks, especially women, looking to break into this ecosystem. Dhanasree is a second year student at Chicago Booth School of Business and has deep experiences in the investing world - in India, China and now USA. She is currently working with the investment team at Menlo Ve...