When you listen to Olga Duka, Managing Partner from Improve Ventures, you cannot help but hear her passion for all things funding great founders in emerging markets, and supporting emerging Fund Managers to help diversify the startup funding landscape.  This episode will appeal to both investors and founders alike, as Olga explains and explores the challenges and opportunities for both 'emerging' sides of the funding table. Once thing's for sure, you'll walk away full of a new found understanding of both topics and assured she's going to leave a mark on this industry. Enjoy!

About our Guest:
1x founder, 2x co-founder, raised a total of $5M, Investment Funds with AUM up to $60M. 
Experience in Talent Development, Investment Funds, EdTech, HR Tech, Fintech, Arts, Creative Industries, and launching new market niches. That's her official bio. Her unofficial bio is, insatiably curious, always learning and applying meta thinking and news ways of looking at things to different industries. Passionate about the worlds of business, music, funding and culture and now Managing partner of new fund Improve Ventures to help fund pre-seed and seed round founders from emerging markets. Also passionate about training the next round of emerging fund managers, and in particular women fund managers.

Learn more about Olga here:

Did you know there is currently only one VC fund in Mexico set up by a woman vc to invest in women and diverse founders? And that special lady is Anna Raptis, Founder & Managing Partner of Amplifica Capital. She is truly on a mission to help close the funding gap for women entrepreneurs in Mexico and to influence same across Latin America. In this episode, she shares many insights into what's going on regarding funding women entrepreneurs in the region, why she cares so much about making change and lots of practical advice for all the women entrepreneurs in Mexico thinking of looking for funding. You'll really enjoy this engaging chat with Anna!

About our Guest:

Anna Raptis leads the first female-focused fund in Mexico. They make investments to generate excellent returns and positive impact on the lives of women in order to increase their opportunities and participation in the economy. They invest in early stages where technology is an enabler to drive sustainable growth in Mexico and Latin America. Anna is also a founding member and President of Mujeres Invirtiendo, an organization that aims to support and increase the participation of women in private capital in Mexico.

Learn more about Anna here:

Did you ever wonder where venture capital funds get the money they invest from? Or how fund managers actually learn to become fund managers? Or why having more diverse fund managers is more important now more than every before? In this exciting episode, Sara Zulkosky from Recast Capital deftly sheds a light on all of this topics and explains why they invest in diverse funds and created their own training programme called the 'Enablement Program' to help train more diverse emerging fund managers. Enjoy!

About our Guest:
Sara is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Recast Capital, a 100% women-owned platform supporting and investing in emerging managers in venture, with a focus on diverse partnerships.
Sara Zulkosky has over 15 years of experience in the venture ecosystem, including both investing in venture capital funds and directly in underlying portfolio companies, and as an operator of a venture-backed company. Prior to co-founding Recast Capital, Sara was a Venture Partner at Greenspring Associates where she led and supported venture fund evaluation teams, among other responsibilities. Before Greenspring, Sara was a Principal at CNF Investments, an affiliate of Clark Enterprises, a private family office, where she invested in venture and private equity funds, and companies. Prior to that, Sara participated in Foundation Capital's Young Entrepreneurs Program, where she helped identify promising investment opportunities in the Washington, DC area. Earlier in her career, Sara was Director of Product Management for a venture-backed company serving the US Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. She was with the business for over seven years beginning at its inception, also supporting it as a Project Engineer, Project Manager, and its Director of Engineering.
Sara received a M.B.A from Georgetown University, and a M.S. in Engineering Management and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from The George Washington University. Sara is also a Kauffman Fellow.
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Learn more about Sara here:

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Never has this podcast episode been more timely than now. The Black Lives Matter movement is finally getting the recognition it deserves and I really wanted to showcase 2 incredible investors, who are on a mission to truly change funding for Black diverse founders. In this episode you'll hear from Ed Dugger III and Julianne Zimmerman, Managing Directors at Reinventure Capital, about the 3rd Reconstruction, what it means for all of us, and how their new fund is building on over 30 years of incredible financial results from Ed Dugger III, from investing in black founders. The time is now. Let's all help make the change happen, that America and the world needs, to heal and grow together. You'll get great resources in the shownotes below too. So Listen up, and please leave a Review on Apple or Spotify, so others can learn about us! We'd really appreciate it.

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Welcome to our latest LIVE PODCAST, where you, the listeners, get to ask your questions live to our podcast guest and enjoy listening back later! As part of our series of resources to help founders on the fundraise during the Covid-19 crisis, we are delighted to have special guest, Bedy Yang, Managing Partner, Global Operator from 500 Global, to share her take on the impact the pandemic is having on fundraising now, and how 500 Startups is helping, for the past 10 years. Get a great list of resources at the end of these shownotes too. Listen up, and please leave a Review on Apple or Spotify, so others can learn about us!

About our Guest:
Bedy Yang is a Managing Partner at 500 Global. She oversees 500’s ecosystem development programs including investor education courses (in partnership with top institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley and INSEAD), has helped launch strategic partnerships and accelerator programs across the globe, and leads 500’s corporate startup innovation and consultancy.
Bedy joined 500 Startups in 2011 to pilot international investments before expanding her role to Managing Partner and ecosystems development.
Previously, she founded +INNOVATORS, an organization that has become the epicenter and resource for Brazilian tech founders with a network of over 10,000 people. Prior to starting her career in tech, she worked with income generation for women in tribes in Brazil and Southwest China and consulted for global companies on go-to-market strategies for Brazil.
Bedy obtained her BA at Fundação Getúlio Vargas and holds an MLA from the University of Pennsylvania. She is a member of Class 17 of the Kauffman Fellowship Program and fluent in four languages: Portuguese, English, Spanish and Mandarin Chinese

Learn more about Bedy here and Read her Blog here
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Welcome to our very first LIVE PODCAST, where you, the listeners, get to ask your questions live to our podcast guest and enjoy listening back later! As part of our series of resources to help founders on the fundraise during the Covid-19 crisis, we are delighted to be joined by Laura Connell, Principal at Europe's Leading Tech VC - Balderton Capital - to share her take on the impact the pandemic is having on fundraising now, and what founders can do to keep going and navigate this black swan event. Seize the opportunities available to you now! Learn more from Laura in this episode and if you like what you hear, please leave a review here!

About our Guest:
Laura joined Balderton's investment team in 2018. She spent the previous three years advising early stage technology startups across sectors on topics ranging from fundraising to product launch strategies. She was also CFO of a D2C womenswear brand. Prior to this, Laura was an Assistant Researcher at Imperial College undertaking neuroscience research in the Brain Sciences Department of Imperial College's Faculty of Medicine. She started her career at Goldman Sachs for five years, first in the Investment Management Division and subsequently the Financial Institutions Group in M&A. She was a Fulbright Scholar and gained her MBA from Harvard, and she studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at the University of Oxford. She speaks fluent English and French.

Learn more about Laura here and Read her Medium Blog

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How to raise capital in the U.S. during the Covid-19 Crisis? What are the key current trends coming out of New York when it comes to Angel and Venture Capital investing?  What do entrepreneurs need to know, to navigate these uncertain times in how they should approach investors? 

​You will learn all of this and more, from our first male investor guest, Ed Zimmerman who is a Partner/Chair of the Tech Group at the law firm Lowenstein Sandler LLP, an angel investor in roughly 130 startups, LP in dozens of venture funds, and for the last 15 years, also an Adjunct Professor of Venture Capital at Columbia Business School. Get ready for some great advice and tips!

Learn more about Ed Zimmerman Here

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In 2018, Shelly Porges successfully created a global consortium to build the Billion Dollar Fund for Women - getting investors to pledge over $1 Billion of investment in female founders. Now she's going even further, with her new initiative - Beyond the Billion. In this episode, you'll learn why and how Shelly created Beyond the Billion as a movement and a new way to mobilise key funding stakeholders to truly shift the funding landscape for women entrepreneurs. Get ready to be inspired by this 7 time women entrepreneur, who as a former Senior Advisor, set up the Global Entrepreneurship Program (GEP) at the U.S. State Department, a program she expanded to almost 150 countries, under Secretary Hillary Clinton. Get ready to be inspired!

Learn more about our guest Shelly Porges here.

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In this episode, Anne talks to Anya Navidski, Founder and CEO of Europe’s first VC fund focused on investing in female entrepreneurs - Voulez Capital. Anya share’s why she became a VC, how she created Voulez, what needs to change in the funding industry and how she’s working to bring about that change.