Venture:F Podcast

Venture:F where the future is female.

Join host Laura Nix Gerson as she delves into conversations with financial experts, female founders, and funders discovering solutions for creating greater opportunity, gender equity, and wealth for women. 

Learn more about each episode and expert below.

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EP 39: NYAKIO GRIECO

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-commerce destination, Thirteen Lune, launched with cofounder Patrick Herning in 2020. In this episode we discuss Nykaio's founder journey, the mission of Thirteen Lune as a destination for inclusive beauty, community among founders, mentorship, and more.

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EP 38: DR. NIKKI LANIER

Dr. Nikki Lanier, is the CEO of Harper Slade and Founder of the RAARE Woman Collective. Harper Slade is one of the fastest-growing and most highly recognized race, inclusion, equity, & diversity advisory firms in the country, helping organizations cultivate environments where black and brown talent can thrive. Nikki also founded the RAARE Women Collective, a global coaching program for “inclined” white women who want to become better racial equity advocates in their homes, workplaces, and communities. In this episode we discuss racial inequity in the workplace, entrepreneurialism and the path to generational wealth, and the RAARE Women’s Collective helping women have difficult conversations to impact positive change.

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EP 37: LAURA RIPPY

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 the #1 Most Active US Venture Firm and #3 Globally with over $1.25B+ raised & more than 1,300 portfolio companies since 2014. 

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EP 36: JENNY JUST

Jenny Just, co-founder of PEAK6, is a visionary powerhouse, and one of the few self-made female billionaires in the United States. From the days of cutting her teeth on the trading floor in Chicago to now running a fintech empire, she has started and/or turned around more than fifteen companies. With a true knack for unearthing talent and opportunities, Jenny looks for underfunded and underappreciated sectors to transform into high-growth businesses. Her passion specifically lies in finding opportunities for women to succeed at every table — from the classroom, to the conference room, to the poker room, to the boardroom.This passion led her to launch Poker Power in 2020 with her daughter Juliette, a woman-led company that teaches poker to all who identify as female, and by extension, teaches women strategic thinking, capital allocation, and decision-making skills.

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EP 35: LINNEA ROBERTS

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 often overlooked and undervalued by investors.

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EP 34: NICOLE VALENTINE

Nicole Valentine is the 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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EP 33: Allyson Eman

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 conference has helped emerging technology companies raise over $7.7B to facilitate growth to date and $17 billion in successful exits including Kabbage, Cloud Sherpas, Roadie, ParkMobile, and SalesLoft.

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EP 32: Sylvia kwan

Sylvia Kwan, CFA, CAIA, is the Chief Investment Officer for Ellevest, with more than 30 years of industry experience. Before Ellevest, she founded SimplySmart Asset Management and held senior portfolio management positions at Financial Engines and Charles Schwab.

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.

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EP 31: FLOSSIE HALL

Flossie Hall, CEO of the Stella Foundation, serving 10K women founders and investors globally and managing a portfolio of companies and teams across CPG, Marketing and EdTech. 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. 

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EP 30: JILL FAHERTY LLOYD

Jill Faherty Lloyd is a Partner with the Shantz-Mantione Group, Private Wealth Management at UBS Financial Services. With decades of experience in the financial services industry she is a leader in the women’s wealth space dedicated to helping women build a strong relationship with their wealth.

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

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EP 29: SHIVANI SIROYA

Shivani Siroya is the founder and CEO of Tala, the first financial platform for the Global Majority with customers in Kenya, Mexico, India, and the Philippines. The company has been named to the Fortune Impact 20 list, CNBC’s Disruptor 50 five years in a row, and Forbes’ Fintech 50 list for eight years running. 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 built a much-lauded corporate culture that spans multiple contents, and why she’s focused on creating credit solutions for the global majority.

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EP 28: LIZ ELTING

Liz Elting, is the Founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation and was the Co-Founder and Co-CEO of TransPerfect, the world's largest language solutions company, with over $1.2 billion in revenue and offices in more than 100 cities worldwide. Liz’s story is one of grit, determination and inspiration for women entrepreneurs. Like she says “dream big and (you will) win.”

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EP 27: SARA HAPP

Sara Happ, founder and CEO of Sara Happ Inc invented the first-ever Lip Scrub in her kitchen in 2005. She launched her company as a side hustle with $10,000 in savings and thanks to an incredible product and market demand built a highly successful business over the past 18 years. Learn about bootstrapping a business, why you need founder friends, and when to take capital in this conversation.

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EP 26: TRACY CHADWELL

Tracy Chadwell is the Founding Partner of 1843 Capital, a venture capital fund focused on early-stage technology companies and AgeTech. She launched her fund in 2016. Notable investments include Beautycounter (Exited: $1B), Tempo Automation (Exited Nasdaq:TMPO), and May Mobility. In this episode we talk about Tracy Chadwell’s path to venture, launching a fund, her focus on investing in the AgeTech & Longevity revolution, diverse investing, and some of her biggest portfolio investments and exits.

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EP 25: VIDHI DATA & SHALINI SARDANA

Vidhi Data and Shalini Sardana, are Co-founders and Co-CEO’s of She Raises Capital, an AI powered global funding platform for female founders with education, community and capital connections to help them stay the course to build successful businesses. In this episode we discuss Vidhi and Shalini’s path to partnership, and the community and platform they built to connect founders to investors.

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EP 24: Jill OSUR

Jill Osur, President & CEO of Teneral Cellars a disruptive, woman-owned and run wine business. She is a 2023 Tory Burch Foundation Fellows and a member of the Governor's 2022 Entrepreneurship & Economic Mobility Task Force for California. In this episode we discuss Jill’s founder journey and her “why” in building a community-focused wine business.

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EP 23: MARA SMITH

Mara Smith is Founder & CEO of Inspiro Tequila. Mara began her legal career at a large law firm in Chicago before joining the corporate strategy team at a Fortune 500 Company. In this episode we discuss what it takes to build a women-focused tequila business from the ground up and how to give back in the process.

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EP 22: LAUREL MINTZ

Laurel Mintz is the Founder of Fabric VC, a venture fund backing underrepresented founders at the earliest stage. She is also the founder of Elevate My Brand an award-winning agency that serves both startups and blue chip global brands. In this episode we talk about what it takes to launch and raise capital for a venture fund and why investing in diverse founders is a smart strategy.

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EP 21: MICHELLE JACOBS

Michelle Jacobs the Co-Founder and COO at Womaness. A strategic development leader with a sweet spot in brand building, leading sales (e-commerce and traditional), branding, partnerships, licensing, logistics, inventory planning and financial management she provides keen insight into what it takes to build and launch and consumer brand. In this episode we discuss Michelle’s founder journey, her partnership with co-founder Sally Mueller, why women’s health and menopause solutions have become such a hot topic.

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EP 20: JESSE DRAPER

Jesse Draper was the first women GP to launch a fund in Los Angeles, paving the way for the growing female fund manager community. She has invested in 70+ female led companies and is focused on the Future of Care.

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