Rachel Springate is the founding general partner of Muse Capital, an early-stage venture fund focused on overlooked sectors like women’s health, wellness, parenting, gaming, and sustainability.
In this episode, she shares her strategy for finding value where other investors aren’t looking, explains how Muse assesses early traction in non-traditional markets, and breaks down the persistent funding gap facing women founders.
We also discuss:
- How AI could transform women’s health
- Why traditional VCs struggle to spot these opportunities
- What needs to change to solve the “2% problem” in venture capital
Whether you're fundraising or building for an underserved market, this conversation offers tactical insights you can apply right now.
RUNTIME 49:49 EPISODE BREAKDOWN(1:57) How Rachel connected with Muse Capital Founding Partner Assia Grazioli-Venier
(3:43) Why “care, live and play” are the sectors they’re most interested in
(8:04) “ Entrepreneurs struggle in this space because typically the people that are building are female or diverse — building for their own.”
(11:45) Many investors still don’t recognize that women’s health is a “ massive market opportunity.”
(14:52) What are some of the signals that tell her a founder is ready to work with investors?
(17:06) When it comes to domain expertise, “ our bar is pretty high.”
(19:47) Muse Capital’s process for analyzing market opportunities and evaluating founders
(24:26) How seed-stage founders should prepare for their first VC meeting (27:10) “When a founder comes in and says, ‘nobody's doing what we're doing,’ I'm like, ‘red flag.’”
(29:33) When it comes to women’s health, “ there's really interesting things that can be done with AI around unique data or proprietary data sets.”
(34:44) How is the current political environment impacting innovation/investment in women’s health?
(37:44) Why less than 2% of venture capital goes to startups led by women
(42:52) “ I do think we are going in the right direction. It's just gonna take a lot.”
(44:45) How to get more women into the VC pipeline
(47:45) If you could snap your fingers today and change one thing about VC, what would it be?
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Thanks for listening!
– Walter.
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