In this podcast episode, I'm chatting with Adela Jamal, the General Partner & Co-Founder at Milemark Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focusing on diverse teams utilizing applied AI to transform existing business models. Adela shares insights into Milemark's investment thesis, emphasizing their commitment to startups leveraging applied AI. She discusses her decision to pursue an MBA at MIT and highlights the importance of normalizing non-linear career paths, especially for women. Adela offers advice for women aspiring to enter the VC space and shares her experiences as a leader advocating for women in business and tech. The episode concludes with Adela debunking the venture capital concept of "Limited Partner". Listeners can connect with Adela on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelajamal/ Find all things Brydge Club here: https://beacons.ai/ruffin

Melody Hahm leads community and platform at Harlem Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. There she is responsible for Harlem's content and partnerships strategy and works closely with the fund's portfolio companies to equip them with resources to succeed. Prior to joining the venture world, Melody was a business and financial reporter. Most recently she was Yahoo Finance's west coast correspondent, covering entrepreneurship and the startups.

Julia O'Mara is the Co-founder and COO of Pickle, the peer-to-peer rental marketplace making it easy and affordable to rent high-quality clothing and accessories within your community and beyond. In less than a year, Pickle introduced a new way to shop , brought 50,000+ items into circulation, and powered lucrative side hustle. Before founding Pickle, Julia served as Senior Product Manager at The Blackstone Group, where she led product analyses for the Investor Relations and Fundraising teams. Shop Pickle: https://shoponpickle.com/ Connect w/ Julia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-o-mara/

Julie Wroblewski, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Magnify Ventures, which debuted a $52M fund investing into the care economy. Before launching Magnify, Julie spent over a decade as an investor and advisor with institutional-scale family offices and mission-focused organizations, including Pivotal Ventures, led by Melinda French Gates. Julie is a Kauffman Fellow, member of All Raise, and a frequent speaker on purpose-driven venture capital, gender lens investing, and the care economy. https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliewroblewski/ https://www.magnify.vc/

Steph is the founder of PIN (Power in Numbers), a VC-backed company that enables communities of people (like people from Stanford, YC, and Coinbase) to invest in startups together. She's also writes the newsletter, "Demystifying VC", to help founders navigate the fundraising process and to teach new angels about early stage investing. Steph was formerly a VC at NEA where she helped invest over $150M. And she’s also a graduate of Stanford GSB. Find Steph & PIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephmui/ https://www.getpin.xyz/

Amber is a General Partner and full-time investor at The Council Fund, where she invests at Pre-seed stage in software built for legacy industries like Construction, Logistics, and Healthcare. Before transitioning to running her own venture firm full time, Amber worked at companies like Eli Lilly, Apple, Snap, and Cruise in various Operations leadership roles. She's worked at every stage from Seed to Fortune 500 and interfaced with many of the legacy industries she invests in today. In addition to The Council Fund, Amber runs The Council Angels, a community of over 100 operators turned angel investors. Members are able to invest in select deals alongside the fund and learn along the way. Apply to Join the Council Angels: https://www.thecouncil.co/angels Connect w/ Amber https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberillig/https://twitter.com/AmberIllig More from Brydge Club: https://beacons.ai/ruffin

Maggie Zheng is the Head of Fundraising at Wefunder, a YC company, where she works with early and growth stage startups. Before Wefunder, she was the sixth employee and Chief of Staff at Doorvest, building it from pre-seed to post Series A, working across many functions including product, marketing, operations, and strategy. Maggie is also an investor at Potluck VC, a venture firm focusing on AAPI founded growth stage companies. Connect with Maggie: LinkedIn TikTok All things Brydge Club: https://beacons.ai/ruffin

Kristine Locker is the Founder and CEO of Locker, the social commerce platform supporting shoppers at every step of their consumer journey, from initial discovery until purchase. Locker enables users to save any product they want while browsing online into one, organized place. As an avid online shopper, Kristine found herself constantly taking screenshots of products or keeping dozens of tabs open, but there wasn't a platform that provided the utility or social aspect she craved as an "everyday" consumer and non-influencer. Kristine's story of becoming a founder is unconventional. She spent her first two years out of school as a real estate analyst at Goldman Sachs, then worked alongside her dad as a commercial real estate broker. But, something in her gut told her that Locker was worth risking it all. She stepped away from a lucrative and stable career in 2020 and invested every penny she had into building Locker - so she could provide the solution to the problem that she and millions of other shoppers face. Connect with Kristine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinelocker/ Download Locker! https://www.wantlocker.com/ More from Brydge Club: https://beacons.ai/ruffin

This week on the podcast we’re chatting with Dulma Altan. If you dont already know her, she’s a creator on TikTok and host of the Due Dilligence Podcast where she’s interviewed guests including Sophia Amoruso founder of Nasty Gal and creator of GirlBoss. Before TikTok, Dulma started her career with Google before jumping into the world of startups and venture capital. Dulma has been such an inspiration for me and my journey into the world of content, SO i was beyond excited to get her on the show. Find Dulma: https://www.dulma.co/ TikTok for Startups: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7EmrsIJVFDyiEVLDKxi0Gt?si=39f46b77a76c4ba7

This week on the show I’m joined by Madeline Darcy, the founder & GP of Kaya Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm building a healthier, happier, and more connected future. Previous investments include Ellevest, Sanzo, Brightland, and Republic. Prior to launching Kaya Ventures, Madeline was a VP at Visible Ventures, Harvard Business school graduate, and consultant. Connect with Madeline https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelinedarcy/ Finda Kaya Ventures https://www.kaya.ventures/ Join Brydge Club on Slack https://beacons.ai/joinbrydgeclub

Audrey Micay Wisch dropped out of Stanford University to build her ed-tech startup Curious Cardinals, which did $600K ARR its first year of business. This year, Audrey was named Forbes #30under30 at just 20 years old. Audrey was in her first year of Stanford, when she started tutoring a 7th grader on criminal justice, gender equality & more. Since then, Audrey Micay Wisch and her co-founder Alec Katz have built Curious Cardinals to be a network of over 200+ college students, who have mentored more than 3,000 high-school and middle students on topics like bitcoin, venture capital, skincare and more. Audrey Micay Wisch is making big changes to the outdated education model. So much so, that a parent asked if to withdrawal his son from school and enroll full-time into Curious Cardinals. That parent/customer has so much conviction in the ed-tech startup that he angel invested into the business. The Curious Cardinals team has also raised $6.8M in seed capital from top investors including Anthos Capital and Audacious Ventures. https://www.curiouscardinals.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-wisch/

Nichole Wischoff is the solo-founder & GP of Wischoff Ventures where she’s investing into pre-seed & Seed stage unsexy businesses out of a $20M fund II. Before venture, Nichole started her career working at 2 successful fintech companies, one that was acquired by Walmart. In this episode we chat about everything from, tips for having a successful startup career, how she got started angel investing, and how she’s built such a break-through career in venture. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholewischoff/ https://twitter.com/NWischoff https://www.wischoff.com/

Nicole DeTommaso is an investor with Harlem Capital, a seed stage fund investing into diverse founders. She is a former Investment Banker and Forbes 30 Under 30. Today, Nicole dedicates her free time to providing investor education and helping others break into venture capital. If you don’t already follow her on LinkedIn and Twitter, it’s a must!Nicole DeTommaso shares weekly job openings in venture, tips like 10 questions to prepare for your VC interview, and examples of VC exit models. In this week's episode of Brydge Club, we get into many of those topics plus more of Nicole's story! Connect w/ Nicole: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicoledetommaso/https://twitter.com/nic_detommaso Harlem Capital: https://harlem.capital/ Harlem Capital Intern Syllabus: https://harlem.capital/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/HCP-External-Syllabus-October-2022-vF.pdf?utm_source=brydgeclub.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=let-s-play-brydge

Avni Barman is the founder & CEO of GenShe, a community of 16K+women in startups, with a mission to connect 1 billion GenZ women to opportunities in tech. She first got started after working in CS with big tech and realizing how few women break into the space. Avni started hosting make-athons, the first at Snap Chat headquarters, which attracted women from accross the country. Avni bootstrapped the business for several years, and recently completed her first fundraise. P.S. she is currently hiring across marketing & engineering, so make sure to check out the opportunity to work with her and her amazing team. https://www.generationshe.co/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/avnibarman/

This week, I'm chatting with Miray Tayfun, the co-founder of Vivoo, an at-home health & wellness tracking startup that helps you monitor your hydration, magnesium, vitamin c, and more. Since launch in 2017, Miray and her team have scaled to 50K users in over 100 different countries and attracted over $7M in venture capital funding from Techstars, Draper Associates, and Halogen Ventures. Try Vivoohttps://store.vivoo.io/

This week on the Play Brydge podcast, we welcomed Sam Safer Valentine, Co-founder & COO of Norby. Norby is an AI-powered communications platform that helps creators and entrepreneurs amplify their work through a lightweight website, event hosting, texting and email campaigns, lead collection, and so much more. Before Norby, Sam pursued a career in marketing and worked at organizations including the MET. During this episode, Sam and I chatted about everything from her career pivot, marketing to tech founder, and her team’s $8M fundraise from investors including BBG and Gradient Ventures. Connect with Sam 👋 https://www.linkedin.com/in/samanthasafer/ Try Norby with 50% off the Growth Plan for your first two months! https://join.nor.by/?cid=7nf

During this week’s episode, I spoke with Zehra all about her experience building founder community at Republic and with the Z list, her community of 12K investors and founders in NYC. Zehra first started learning about venture capital investing while studying at Columbia. After graduation, she accepted an offer with the Republic venture team. Since then, Zehra has focused her work on democratizing access to venture capital investing and education. In this episode, she shares tips and thoughts from her own angel investments and so much more! Subscribe to the Z-List: https://thezlist-irl.beehiiv.com/subscribe Connect with Zehra: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zehranaqvinyc/ https://twitter.com/zehranaqvi_

Amy Molk is the founder & CEO of Beanstalk, the future of kids’ entertainment, combining AI , real-time animation, and educational expertise to create engaging experiences for children. Prior founding Beanstalk, Amy built a career in Hollywood with big name companies including CAA and A&E Networks. Since then, she has led her startup Beanstalk through Techstars and a $1M pre-seed fundraise. Beanstalk all started with a zoom room offering live, interactive shows for kids. During COVID, the business exploded globally across the US, the UK, Brazil, and more. Now, Beanstalk is innovating with AI to provided interactive animation for kids! Try Beanstalk: https://www.beanstalkai.com/ Connect with Amy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amymolk/ Subscribe to the Brydge Club newsletter! https://brydgeclub.beehiiv.com/

Tiffany Faith Demers is the CEO & founder of Upkeep, the trusted way to book your botox, facial, & other MedSpa needs. Tiffany was working in skincare, when she started to notice millennials and gen z consumers shift spending from beauty products to medical aesthetics. In fact, the Global Medical Aesthetics Market Size is expected to surpass $30 billion by 2030 💅 Upkeep Beauty is backed by notable investors including MrBeast's venture arm Night Ventures, Anthemis Group, and 1517 Fund. In this episode, we discussed everything from new trends in the beauty space like Morpheus 8 to how Tiffany successfully broke into med-tech without a Harvard or Stanford degree. Special shoutout & thank you to Emily Herrera for the introduction 💫 Find UpKeep: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/upkeep-medspa-treatments-now/id1573485456 https://www.instagram.com/upkeepbeauty/?hl=en https://www.upkeepbeauty.com

Loved having an honest conversation, with Claudia Laurie, all about her journey co-founding Prive, the revenue platform for commerce enabling subscriptions & more. Claudia is also a podcast co-host of The Room Podcast, which is ranked top 5% globally. Fun fact, Claudia first met her Prive investor, Jesse Draper of Halogen Ventures, while recording an episode for her show 💥 In this episode of the Future is Female, we talk all about Claudia's journey from Harvard University to her experience working at Uber to launching her business. Connect with Claudia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claudia-laurie-5ba47bb4/ Try Prive: https://www.tryprive.com/ Listen to the Room Podcast: https://www.theroompodcast.com/

Isabella Mandis is a freshman at Harvard University and founder of Girls Who VC, the first organization dedicated to bringing young women in to the field of venture capital. 🔥 Isabella is the first undergrad student to be accepted into The MBA Fund. 💻 Prior to Harvard, she learned to code with Girls Who Code and worked with a number of startups 🤩 She's most inspired by Audrey Micay Wisch the founder of Curious Cardinals, an edtech company committed to empowering K-12 students Connect w/ Isabella: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isabellamandis/ Sign-up for Girls Who VC: https://www.girlswhovc.com/

Today welcome Dana Le. Founder of Wander Health. A medical concierge startup that connects travelers to vetted local healthcare services while abroad. Dana is a graduate of UT Austin. She holds her Master's in Health Administration from Columbia university. She's a former TEDx speaker and Forbes 30 under 30. Most recently her startup was accepted into both the Primary Ventures fellowship. As well as the Antler accelerator program. And those are just the highlights. I'm so excited to share my conversation with Dana! Sign-up for Wander: https://www.wander.health/ Connect w/ Dana https://www.linkedin.com/in/hddanale/ Connect w/ me! https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruffin-mitchener/

Meet Juliette Richert 👋 She's an investor at The Artemis Fund -- a seed stage VC firm investing in female founders building businesses that modernize wealth. Their portfolio includes Hello Divorce, UNest, Reel, Green Room + more! The fund was co-founded by two women, Leslie Goldman Tepper & Diana Murakhovskaya, who are on a mission to diversify wealth. During this episode, Juliette and I chatted all about she got started in venture capital, the Artemis investment process, + more. I always end the show with this question: 💜 Can you share a female founder, investor, or leader that inspires you...and a little bit about why? 💜 Special shoutout to Anna Barber for being a standout investor & educator! Connect w/ Juliette: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliette-richert/ Find the Artemis Fund: https://www.theartemisfund.com/

Tech entrepreneur Jessica Chang is the CEO and Co-Founder of WeeCare, the largest childcare network in America. A committed early childhood education advocate and mom of two, she is set on solving the childcare crisis. Prior to co-founding WeeCare, Jessica was COO of Affinity China, a principal investor at Macquarie Capital, and VP of Marketplace at Radpad. A graduate of UC Berkeley, she is a preschool owner herself and resides in Los Angeles with her husband, Witt, and two kids, Teddy and Maddie. Jessica is WeeCare’s resident wine expert and exclusively follows food photographers on Instagram. WeeCare makes affordable, quality childcare accessible to all families. We are a childcare innovator company that uses technology to empower parents, employers, and the government to solve the childcare crisis. WeeCare partners with government entities to better facilitate sponsored care, helps employers of all sizes offer their employees childcare benefits, and supports home daycare providers in operating sustainable businesses. WeeCare's largest U.S. network of in-home daycares, nannies, and babysitters is conveniently located in neighborhoods, allowing parents to balance their work and family responsibilities more easily. Our childcare providers provide safe, nurturing environments — all while educating children in fun and engaging ways. Determined to reduce the day-to-day stress of childcare, we offer comprehensive employer-sponsored childcare benefits that are affordable for employers and employees. (The average cost of tuition through WeeCare ranges from $650 to $850 per month before employer subsidies, which is about 40% less than the average monthly cost.) Our childcare options — including tuition subsidies, backup care, and search assistance — are designed to be customized to the unique requirements of each family, meaning employers are able to better attract and retain qualified talent. Our work with governments is designed to support the supply and sustainability of childcare providers, as well as to improve the financial security and stability of families in need of care. WeeCare was founded to solve the childcare challenges facing millions of families, and we remain dedicated to helping parents and guardians secure a better future for their children. Follow WeeCare on Social: https://www.linkedin.com/company/weecare-inc/ https://twitter.com/WeeCareCo Connect w/ Jessica: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-chang-1010402/ https://twitter.com/jessicajchang

Women make up more than half of the U.S. population, and control or influence 85% of consumer spending. Yet, female founded companies receive just 2% of venture capital funding. To Amrita Bhasin's point, we need more women creating the products and services we want and need, and more women in investment positions to fund them. In this week's episode of the Future is Female, I interviewed Amrita Bhasin, co-founder of Sotira, a Saas startup building financial tools to help e-commerce businesses thrive. Her and her co-founder, Gary Kwong were students University of California, Berkeley when they first founded the business. Today, they've completed the Envision Accelerator and received funding from Soma Capital. Connect with Amrita Bhasin: www.linkedin.com/in/amrita-bhasin/ Check out Sotira: www.sotira.co/ Find TFIF Community: www.thefutureisfemale.io/

Meet Meera Clark, she's an investor at Redpoint Ventures, former investment banker, Forbes 30 Under 30, & Kauffman Fellow ✨   In this episode of the Future is Female, Meera and I talked all about:  ⚡ Pivoting careers from investment banking to early stage investing   👼 How she made her first angel investments & tips for others looking to get started!  🎗 Her favorite investment themes + how to evaluate startup opportunities + so much more!   Special shoutout Charlotte Country Day School for making this episode possible 💚    Connect with Meera: https://twitter.com/itsmeeraclark?s=20

2% of venture capital funding is allocated to women, and of that, roughly 0.05% to Black women. Mitchella Gilbert, MBA is 1 of 200 black women who have raised over $1M in venture capital. Her advice: ignore the stats.    As a college athlete, Mitchella Gilbert, MBA learned that the leggings she wore daily make women 2X more likely to develop health issues. After realizing millions of women deal with the same problem, she developed Oya Femtech Apparel: the first functional athletic wear with women's health in mind.    Mitchella Gilbert, MBA has been such an inspiration since our time together as classmates at UCLA Anderson School of Management! So, I'm especially excited to share her episode on the Future is Female 💜   Check out Oya here: https://wearoya.com/ Find Mitch here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitchellagilbert/ 

Why are there so many dating apps to help us find love, but so little to help us keep it?  At Stanford, Ali Maggioncalda studied Human Behavioral Biology and researched how to improve relationships.   During grad school, Ali launched Lovewick: Relationship App: a new couples app that helps you learn about each other and share new experiences.   To celebrate Valentine's day, I'm sharing my conversation with Ali, founder of Lovewick: Relationship App...and here's a sneak peak!    💜 The common needs of couples + the Triangular Theory of Love   🔥 Boot-strapping to over 300K registered users (~ 90% from her own TikTok!!)  💰 Raising over $1M In pre-seed funding led by Sam Yagan (co-founder OkCupid)     Download Lovewick: https://www.lovewick.com/ Follow Ali on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@withlovewick

After graduating from Harvard, Sophie Randolph launched a music agency side-hustle, while leading strategy for a high-growth tech startup.    Today, Sophie is the founder of Green Room, a business management tool for live entertainers.    To pursue her business, Sophie attended Rice Business - Jones Graduate School of Business as a Forte Fellow.  Green Room was selected for grant prize funding and was accepted into the Techstars Music program.   Sophie recently closed a $1.1M pre-seed round of funding to grow her business. Investors included The Artemis Fund and Mercury 🚀   Check out Green Room: https://www.greenroom.app/

Emily Herrera dropped out of Northeastern, launched her own female-focused syndicate, and now she's an investor at Mr. Beast's venture fund 💥    In this episode, Emily and I talked all about:  👩‍🎨 The fusion of people of influence, venture capital, & startups at Night Ventures   🐥 The power of Em's own digital brand on twitter & how she's using it to accelerate her career   📚 Why she dropped out of college & why she believes the college-experience is dying + so much more    Follow Em on Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilyhxrrera Check out her work: https://www.emilyherrera.com/

See both sides of important issues— in 5 minutes a day.    The The Flip Side is a new kind of news source for liberals, moderates, independents, conservatives, and even the apolitical.   In this week's episode of the Future is Female, I chatted with Annafi Wahed, CFA all about:   👩‍💻 Her career pivot from finance to Hilary Clinton's campaign  ✍ Publishing an op-ed in the WSJ to gain 4.5K subscribers overnight  💰 Raising Seed capital from readers and the current WeFunder campaign  + so much more   Checkout the FlipSide here: https://www.theflipside.io/

Creator, investor, and #1 best selling author...all while studying computer science & English at Harvard University ✨    So excited to share my conversation with Catherine Yeo!    Here's a sneak-peak of our convo:  🎨 Growing an audience of 400K+, monetizing her passion, and how the creator economy has evolved since   📚 Launching a crowdfunding campaign to publish, The Creator Revolution, a #1 best selling book    📈 The intersection of creators, startups, and venture capital (Special shoutout to MrBeast + Night Ventures + Emily Herrera)   Learn more about Catherine and her book here: www.catherinehyeo.com/creator Connect with @catherinehyeo on Twitter and Instagram

Our very first Future is Female episode featuring an investor!! 🎙  Ashley Aydin is a principal at Vamos Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund backing diverse founders.   In this episode, Ashley and I dive into:   🖥 Her early career at Morgan Stanley & a YC startup  📚 Why she pursued her MBA at MIT Sloan (***and who the MBA might not be right for)  💥 Her drive to get more money in the hands of diverse founders  + so much more Check out Vamos Ventures here  Connect with Ashley here

What if Noom + Headspace + Betterment had a baby?   👶 Aura Finance is a mindful money management platform that helps you put your money to work and anxiety to rest.   In the first episode of 2023 🎇, I interviewed Kelsey Willock, my former WFU classmate (Go Deacs!) and co-founder of Aura.   We discuss everything from:  🏦 Her decision to leave Goldman Sachs  👋 Meeting her co-founder Courtney through OnDeck  🚀 Her team's acceptance into Techstars   + SO much more Want access to Aura? Aura is currently at capacity but we  secured 20 spots for priority onboarding. To claim your exclusive invite, sign up for a call here. Spots are limited, so this is first come, first serve. During this session, the founders will teach you how to use the app, answer any questions you might have, and help you make the most of the world’s first financial engagement platform and community. ️ BONUS: You will also unlock access to our Investing & Savings Optimizer coaching session (a $500 value). About Aura: Aura is a mindful money management platform that helps you put your money to work and anxiety to rest. You can think of us as your wealth manager meets money coach on a mission to heal your relationship with money, achieve your financial goals and align your investments with your values. We're like if Noom + Headspace + Betterment had a baby. Our mission is to empower individuals to live a life of abundance while growing passive wealth. To learn more, take our money personality quiz or visit us at Aurafinance.io.

Sandy Lin has over 500K followers on TikTok, and now she's building a tech business around it. Her startup, Creobase, is the new HubSpot for creators. Making it easy for creators to find, manage and automate their brand partnerships. It's fascinating to watch creators like Sandy build brand and community around their tech businesses. In fact, Sandy has already had success partnering and angel investing into other early stage tech startups including Copy.ai and Beacons. In this episode, I chatted with Sandy about: 🐶 Starting her entrepreneurial journey w/ an e-commerce pet business 🤑  The ins and outs of what it actually takes to secure a lucrative brand deal 👼 Making her first angel investments as a creator 🤝 Officially signing with a talent agency to propel her creator business + so much more

Try clothes on at home for free, from brands like ZARA USA, Reformation, & more 🛍    Adla is a new at home shopping experience, handling all delivery and returns at no cost to the consumer.    In episode 6 of the Future is Female podcast, I met Holly Leslie, founder of Adla.    She shared her story:   👩‍🎓 Going viral on college campuses in NC (including my alma mater Wake Forest University)  💰 The unexpected upside of not raising a round at YC demo day   📩 Her email hacks to get connected with CEOs at top brands like  Princess Polly    Sign-up: www.adlacity.com Connect with us:  www.linkedin.com/in/holly-leslie-57a692162/ www.linkedin.com/in/ruffin-mitchener/ 

Imagine a new search engine using generative AI. Instead of links,  Andi gives you answers - like a smart friend.    The tool uses language models combined with live data to generate answers to questions, and to explain and summarize information combined from the best sources.   When Angela Hoover and her co-founder met in the Denver airport, they found a shared passion for creating a new search engine. Agreeing that search is broken by SEO, spam, ads, surveillance, and more.    Give their new search engine a try here!! 🔎  https://andisearch.com/    In this episode of the Future is Female pod, Angela shares her story:   🤝 Meeting her co-founder in the Denver airport  🍎 Dropping out of college to start YC  🧠 How Andi works plus plans an ads free engine   + so much more   Connect with us:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/angela-hoover/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruffin-mitchener/

While working as a PM for Visa, Vrinda Gupta was rejected by the credit card she helped launch.    That's when she discovered 70% of women's spend is on noncredit building products, like debit cards and credit cards in other people's names.   In 2019, Vrinda launched Sequin Financial, Inc. (YC S21) , the first debit card by and for women. It's first card teaching women about the financial system and providing exclusive discounts to women led brands.    The startup has closed $5.7 million in funding from top investors including Y Combinator, Matrix Partners, Scribble Ventures, IDEO, Thomvest, and Commerce VC.   In this episode, I chatted with Vrinda about:  👼 Receiving her first angel check while interning at IDEO  👭 Maintaining a cap table with 92% women investors   🚀 Going viral on medium and acquiring 10K+ signups at launch  + so much more    Tag a female founder or investor that I should interview next 🙏    Sign-up for the card here:   www.sequincard.com/   Connect with us here:   www.linkedin.com/in/vrindag/  www.linkedin.com/in/ruffin-mitchener/

In this episode, Ruffin Mitchener interviews Kristy Kim, founder of Tomo Credit.    We discuss everything from:  🎓 Dropping out of the MBA to disrupt the credit industry   💳 Reaching one million card-holders at Tomo  💥 Building a majority female executive team in fintech   + more     Get the card:  tomocredit.com Connect with us:  linkedin.com/in/kristykim7/  linkedin.com/in/ruffin-mitchener/

In this episode, Ruffin Mitchener interviews Aakruti Desai, founder of Puzzl.  We discuss everything from:  🚀 Raising $600K pre-seed  👩‍💻 People ops lessons from her lead investor  💰 Selling her prior startup Marketfly  + so much more   Sign-up for Puzzl: https://www.puzzlapps.com/  Connect with us:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/aakruti/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruffin-mitchener/

Download the Alinea app: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1554623825 Follow the Alinea Team on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alineainvest https://www.tiktok.com/@eveandanam Follow Ruffin on Social: https://www.tiktok.com/@ruffinventures?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruffin-mitchener/