Venture F: The Podcast

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, and Sydecar’s solutions for founde...

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 Formation Officer at Techstars, where she l...

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% and as a result she received the M...

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, where the managers have established t...

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 in 2002, and inclusive beauty e-com...

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 global coaching program for “inclined”...

Laura Rippy, is a Managing Partner and Board Member at Alumni Ventures. She runs the Women's Fund, the Harvard-focused fund (The Yard Ventures), and the Dartmouth-focused fund (Green D Ventures) which she grew to be the largest fund at Alumni Ventures. 

Alumni Ventures is America's Largest Venture Firm for Individuals with more than 10,000 individual accredited investors investing in their funds and is considered by PitchBook to be ...

Jenny co-founded PEAK6 in 1997 with $1.6M in seed capital as a proprietary options trading firm and since then has grown it into a multibillion-dollar financial services and technology giant housing the next generation of products & service brands including PEAK6 Capital Management, PEAK6 Strategic Capital, Apex Fintech Solutions, PEAK6 InsurTech, and Zogo.

With a true knack for unearthing talent and opportunities, Jenny looks for u...

Linnea Roberts is the Founder & CEO, GingerBread Capital a venture fund launched in 2016 to build and invest in women’s entrepreneurial success and support the growing ecosystem of emerging funders who share a vision of a more equitable and inclusive landscape for female and diverse founders.

Linnea, believes that women-led businesses are changing the world for the better and that they are also really smart investments that are too ...

Nicole Valentine is FinTech Director at the Milken Institute with over a decade of financial services, international mergers and acquisitions, technology, and innovation experience. In this episode we explore The Milken Institute's leadership in convening conversations and education around fintech, how fintech impacts our everyday lives, and how AI and diverse voices lend to the growing opportunities in fintech.

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This week's episode features Allyson Eman, CEO of the Venture Atlanta Conference, connecting founders and funders through one of the nation’s largest venture capital conferences and communities. 17 years ago the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Technology Association of Georgia, the Atlanta CEO Council came together to launch Venture Atlanta. 

This is the story of the growth the Venture Atlanta Summit and the venture ecosystem in Atlanta. The...

Sylvia Kwan, CFA, CAIA, is the Chief Investment Officer for Ellevest, the experts in building and managing women’s wealth. In this episode we discuss Ellevest and the groundbreaking work they have been doing for over a decade to help thousands of women grow their wealth.

A few key takeaways

🔸 The data shows that women are underinvested compared to men - which is one of the many reason Ellevest focuses on women.

🔸 Women are not set u...

In this episode we discuss how she figured out how to launch not one but multiple businesses and teach others along the way. Why she joined the Stella Foundation and how she is continuing to help thousands of women launch and scale businesses through Stella and the Women’s Venture Summit.

🔸 Being an Entrepreneur is an ideal solution for military spouses who need to create income

🔸 Building an online business allows you to take you...

Jill shares with us this week on the podcast how she is helping women realize their potential and plan for success. We also delve into the UBS Own Your Worth report on women as breadwinners.

Here are some key takeaways:

🔸 Back in 2015 Jill wrote a business plan about the great wealth transfer and pitched numerous banks about hiring her to launch a division specifically focused on women’s wealth - it took a few years - but UBS took n...

Shivani Siroya, is the founder and CEO of Tala, the first financial platform for the Global Majority. 

In this week’s episode we discuss Shivani’s founder journey, how she raised nearly half a billion dollars in investments and debt, how she created a much-lauded corporate culture that spans multiple contents, and why she’s focused on creating credit solutions for the global majority.

Some takeaways:

🔸 The global majority represents ...

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Liz’s story is one of grit, determination, and inspiration for women entrepreneurs. Like she says “dream big and (you will) win.”

Some key takeaways from today’s conversation

🔸 Entrepreneurialism requires grit

🔸 It’s important to set goals and have objectives to work against

🔸 Quality service leads to repeat business and referrals

🔸 Customer service is everything - know your customers

🔸 Show u...