The First Close

We close out season three with a conversation between Carta's director of product marketing, Seif Salama, and Jessica Straus Fuchs, the COO of Poppy Flowers. The podcast's listeners know Jessica as the host of the first three seasons of The First Close. Jessica recently joined Poppy Flowers as its first chief operations officer. In this interview, Jessica answers all our questions about her next chapter as she takes on a new operator role; we also discuss where she sees venture capital going in the years to come. Press play to hear more from Jessica Straus Fuchs on next chapters and new beginnings.Learn more about Poppy Flowers ›

Lolita Taub is General Partner at Ganas Ventures, where she invests in early-stage community-driven companies in the US and Latin America. Her focus is currently on raising her $10M traditional 506c fund and exploring the hottest startup hubs in Latin America. In this episode, Lolita sits down with Carta's Product Marketing Director, Seif Salama, to explore becoming a check writer with a non-traditional background, making the start-up and VC world more inclusive, and what it means to “build your own table”. Click here to learn more about Lolita's journey and her newest fund Ganas Ventures.Learn more about Ganas Ventures ›

Tracy Chadwell, Founding Partner of 1843 Capital, sat down with Carta's Director of Product Marketing, Seif Salama, to talk about her experience in venture capital and launching her first fund. In this interview, Tracy discusses what led her to start her own fund, why she is passionate about investing in silver tech, and how the most rewarding work can occur in the second chapter of your career.After earning a J.D. from Loyola University of Chicago, Tracy spent the first part of her career as a lawyer and vice president at Robertson Stephens, a traditional investment firm. She noticed that only 2% of venture capital dollars went to women-founded companies. Initially, she founded 1843 Capital to address this funding disparity. The firm has since expanded to fund cybersecurity startups, as well as silver-tech companies, which focus on the needs of aging consumers.Recently, Tracy was named to Entrepreneur‘s list of 100 powerful women and the Forbes 50 Over 50 list. We discussed Tracy's approach to building her fund, her commitment to investing in technology geared towards improving the lives of people over the age of 50, and her belief that some of your greatest work can come from the “second chapter” of your career.Press play to hear more about Tracy's journey and 1843 Capital.Learn more about 1843 Capital ›

On this episode of The First Close we interview Noramay Cadena and Shayna Harris, co-founders and Managing Partners of Supply Change Capital. Supply Change Capital invests in early stage companies at the intersection of food, culture, and technology and focuses on three verticals, (1) food and ag tech, (2) ingredient tech, and (3) culturally appealing brands. They have invested in CulinaryFlo, Zero Grocery, Aqua Cultured Foods, Whetstone Media, AYO Foods and Agua Bonita.Supply Change Capital believes in a future of food that is sustainability mindful, supply chain efficient, better for you, and culture rich.Noramay and Shayna met in 2009 at MIT while getting their MBA and in 2020, came together to form Supply Change Capital. Noramay and Shayna combine food domain expertise with tech and investing experience. Noramay is an aerospace engineer turned investor. She previously launched an early stage fund that invested in over 20 manufacturing and supply chain companies.Shayna Harris brings an insider's eye to the industry, from architecting the 21st-century chocolate supply chain at Mars to building the groundbreaking food tech company Farmer's Fridge. She advises Fortune 100 companies and startups on navigating the fast-changing food terrain, and writes for Forbes.In our conversation, we discuss their approach to changing the food system through the lens of sustainability, health, and diversity, how they leverage data and proprietary frameworks to constantly improve operations within the firm and their approach to building community and professional networks.Learn more about Supply Change Capital ›

On this episode of The First Close we interview Katie Shea, co-founder of Divergent Capital alongside her partner Lucy Wang.Katie and Lucy started angel investing together in 2019 while Katie was a partner at K50 Ventures/Kairos after a career as a founder, operator and growth marketer, and Lucy was with 11.2 Capital after roles with Greycroft and Bridgewater, and getting her masters in machine learning. With Divergent Capital, Katie and Lucy leverage their respective areas of expertise to support seed-stage founders. Lucy is the deep tech expert, having been the CTO & COO at AI and blockchain startups, and Katie is the go-to-market expert, having spent her career launching and scaling companies from zero to $30M in revenue.Together, they write first checks into pre-seed companies that are commercializing unique technological and scientific innovations. In this episode, we will discuss how Katie and Lucy combine their divergent perspectives and skillsets to help them to better support founders, their approach to prototyping their fund through an LLC, and their view on how to help pre-seed founders build companies with defensible business models and technologies.Learn more about Divergent Capital ›

Our guests on this episode of The First Close are Jenna Bryant and Jordan Noone, co-founding partners of Embedded Ventures based in Malibu, California. Launched in 2020, Embedded Ventures invests in pre-seed and seed stage focused in space operations, digital engineering, and advanced manufacturing. To date, Embedded Ventures has announced investments in Chromatic 3D Materials, Inversion, KittyCAD and Skyryse. Embedded Ventures has also built a first-of-its-kind partnership with the United States Space Force.Jenna moved to Los Angeles from Alabama to complete her BS degree in Apparel Design. Post-graduation, she took a job that was originally meant to be temporary, specializing in recruiting “hard to fill” engineering roles for early-stage startups in L.A. This led to an unexpected permanent shift for Jenna, who has now spent the last decade first as a tech recruiter, then as a Venture Capitalist. Jenna has invested in and helped build some of the most notable early-stage startups in the country from the ground up.Jordan has had a lifelong interest in aerospace and began designing and building spaceflight hardware at the University of Southern California. Jordan led USC's Rocket Propulsion Lab and became the first student and youngest individual in the world to receive Federal Aviation Administration clearance to fly a rocket into space. After graduating, Jordan worked at SpaceX and later co-founded and was the CTO of 3D-printing rocket startup Relativity Space. In addition to his General Partner role at Embedded, he also serves as CEO of portfolio company KittyCAD.In our conversation, we discuss their approach to bridging the gap between government and innovation, how Jenna and Jordan combine their expertise in recruiting and engineering to serve founders, and their focus on space, advanced manufacturing, and digital engineering.Learn more about Embedded Ventures ›

Our guests on this episode of The First Close are Ivan Alo and LaDante McMillon, co-founding general partners of New Age Capital. New Age Capital is a thesis-driven seed-stage venture capital firm investing in technology and tech-enabled companies founded and led by Black and Latinx entrepreneurs.Ivan and LaDante met as students at Boston College, where they formed their friendship and discovered a shared passion for entrepreneurship. In 2014, they founded their first company, Lionshare, and from there they also started supporting other first-time startup founders. At that time, they saw—and experienced—a severe lack of capital going to Black and Latinx founders at the earliest, most critical stages.In 2016, Ivan and LaDante decided to do something about the inequity they saw and started New Age Capital to invest in these founders. While they each had a wealth of experience, they had no investment track record. They began by methodically building a network of established, top-tier investors and developed a close relationship with Lightspeed Venture Partners, who tapped them to be investment scouts for the LSVP Scout Program. As scouts, Ivan and LaDante not only grew their investment track record, but also built the foundation of their first fund.In this episode, we discuss how they have built a firm that has both a strong institutional foundation and a strong brand, their approach to growing their networks of founders, VCs and LPs investment track record, and their view on the value of building long-term relationships in VC.Learn more about New Age Capital ›

On this episode of The First Close, we interview Anna Raptis, founder of Amplifica Capital, an early stage fund based in Mexico investing in women-led companies across Latin America. Anna is originally from Australia and she has always been focused on purpose-driven work.Anna is a chartered financial analyst and spent much of her career in the energy sector. In 2013, she started angel investing in fintech companies in Mexico. She soon noticed that very few women were involved. In 2018, she attended an Angel Capital Association meeting, where she met dozens of women in investing. That was when she realized that it was possible to change the venture landscape in Mexico to be more inclusive.Anna is laser-focused on advancing women in venture capital and investing in women-led companies. She is not only the founder of Amplifica, she has also been a force for building the new infrastructure of a more inclusive VC ecosystem. She is the co-founder of Mujeres Invirtiendo en Capital Privado, a community of 200+ women investing in private markets, which has created space for women investors across asset classes to connect, trade opportunities and collaborate.In this episode, we discuss why Anna believes venture capital is a powerful force for creating a more inclusive world, the opportunity she sees to invest in women-led companies in Latin America, and how her investments as an LP into funds have made her a better GP.Learn more about Amplifica Capital ›

In this episode, we interview Ariana Thacker, founding general partner of Conscience VC, a pre-seed fund investing in companies operating at the intersection of science and consumer. With Conscience VC, Ariana has made it her mission to fund B2C companies driving scientific breakthroughs. The first in her family to graduate from college, Ariana graduated from UCLA with a degree in chemical engineering and spent her early career in oil and gas. Then, inspired to join the fast-paced startup landscape, she joined the founding team of an academic startup, and then later became an investor with Rhapsody Venture Partners, a firm focused on hard science startups. Across her experiences, Ariana noticed a confluence of factors including shifting consumer behaviors, scientific breakthroughs, and new business models, and observed that science-driven consumer companies weren't often the focus of VC firms. Ariana launched the proof of concept fund for Conscience VC and then formed her first fund in October of 2020. In our conversation, we discuss Ariana's relentless and diligent approach to building her fund, her focus on helping technical founders find product/market fit, and her belief that customer discovery is among the most critical tools founders have. Learn more about the Conscience VC ›

In this episode, we interview Tom Seo and Ryan Sells, co-founding partners of Dash Fund, a seed stage fintech fund partnering with companies across the fintech landscape.Tom and Ryan met when they were on opposite sides of the table, at that time Tom was an investor with CitiVentures and Ryan was head of business development for Second Measure. CitiVentures invested in SecondMeasure.From their roles as VC and operator, they started collaborating and eventually started angel investing together. In the Spring of 2020, they decided to launch Dash Fund, and started out by raising a $3.3 million microfund.In our conversation, we talk about what led them to launch Dash Fund, their strategic approach to building their LP base, how they help founders think through growth, and why they chose to specialize in fintech.Learn more about Dash Fund ›

Now that we have wrapped up the second season of The First Close, we would like to thank all of our listeners who have tuned in since the release of our very first episode back in January of 2021. Over the course of these eight months, we have featured twenty-one guests all representing the future of venture across our eighteen episodes.  We will be returning with even more voices from funds driving the future of innovation. In the meantime, be sure to listen to How to Raise a Round, a new podcast also produced by Carta which spotlights one of the most unique elements of every founder's journey, raising money. Listen to How to Raise a Round ›

Elizabeth Yin is redefining venture capital by democratizing wealth through startups.On this week's episode of The First Close, we hear from Elizabeth Yin, the Co-Founder and General Partner of Hustle Fund, a pre-seed fund focused on democratizing venture capital.Elizabeth started her career at Google. Eventually, she decided to start her own company, and ultimately, Elizabeth founded a company Launchbit, an advertising platform, which she sold in 2014. From there, Elizabeth started angel investing, she became a partner at 500 Startups, and then co-founded Hustle Fund. Elizabeth and the team have built Hustle Fund on three pillars: capital, knowledge, networks. The way the firm delivers on these value propositions looks a lot like how a tech company operates. Accessibility, especially at the pre-seed stage is a huge competitive advantage. Hustle Fund is investing in the riskiest part of the entire venture asset class. Many companies form, but few get funded, and even fewer succeed. The vast majority of venture capital goes to companies that have traction. Hustle Fund has designed their firm to ensure they see as much of the pre-seed ecosystem as they can. Their team has worked to remove all barriers to entry, so that they have the best possible chance of finding and funding the companies that will be successful. As Elizabeth tells her founders, the most important elements of any business are customer acquisition and unit economics. Uniquely, they are a VC firm that has figured out how to deliver on both.Learn more about Hustle Fund VC ›

Charmel Maynard is redefining venture capital by increasing diversity within the asset class through allocating with intention and accountability.In this episode of The First Close, we sit down with Charmel Maynard, chief investment officer of the University of Miami, a private university in Coral Gables, Florida. Charmel has worked there since 2016, and he leads the University's efforts to invest assets, including endowment and pension funds. Charmel is also responsible for the University's capital structure, including liquidity and debt issuances, treasury, and cash management.Charmel has built the University's private equity and venture capital portfolios from the ground up. He shared that the team's “extreme long-term view” means that they want to ensure they have access and exposure to various asset classes and stages. His job is to make sure the University of Miami endowment and pension have diverse and balanced portfolios.For Charmel and his team, diversification not only means having a balanced portfolio, but also investing in diverse managers. The University has set a target to reach 13% manager diversity by May 2022 and to more than double their investments in African-American owned firms to reach 50%. Under Charmel's leadership, the University of Miami is taking important steps not just to acknowledge diversity as a competitive advantage—the University is doing the more important work, as Charmel said, of putting numbers and targets on paper.Learn more about the University of Miami ›

Brian Hollins is redefining venture capital by unlocking the back door for those who unfairly get stopped at the front.Brian Hollins, Founder and General Partner of Collide Capital, a seed-stage enterprise and consumer services fund, is not your typical VC. A current student at Harvard Business School, Brian has proven that sometimes the most impactful path into venture capital is an atypical one. While Collide Capital is Brian's first fund, it isn't the first organization he's founded: he is also a founding board member for BLK VC, an organization created to support Black founders, and he is the Founder and CEO of Takeoff Institute, a nonprofit supporting Black undergraduates as they transition from college to their careers. Now, with Collide Capital building its first fund, Brian is ready to iterate on this style of leadership as an emerging manager.With first-time funds only accounting for 5% of the capital raised by VC funds every year, Brian knew that he needed to find a way to make Collide stand out. That's why he and his team came up with the idea for what they call Fund Zero, a million-dollar proof-of-concept fund that they deployed over 28 investments. Fund Zero's purpose was to prove to future LPs that Collide Capital's thesis—opening doors and creating value for founders—could succeed. Now, six months in, Brian has proven that emerging managers can do more than hold their own in VC: they're changing the way funds are run.Learn more about Collide Capital ›

Monique Woodard is redefining venture capital by investing in companies that meet the needs of a changing population of internet users and backing the uniquely qualified entrepreneurs who understand them.Monique Woodard, Founder and Managing Partner at Cake Ventures, a seed-stage fund based in San Francisco, was inspired to start her own fund when she noticed a puzzling pattern in venture capital: the demographics of internet users were shifting, but investment trends weren't shifting along with them.Monique's own research revealed the populations that investors were failing to target—especially aging populations, people of color, and women—could actually turn out to be the most lucrative market for internet technologies in the near future. Perhaps most notably, her research busted the common VC myth that people over 55 are difficult to reach online.That, as Monique described it, is one layer of the cake at Cake Ventures: the other two layers—the demographic groups that Monique knew needed to be catered to more heavily in VC—are women and what Monique calls “the rise of a new majority.” In the near future, Asian, Latino, and Afro-American populations will become the majority of the US population—and the internet user base will change with them.Cake Ventures invests in startup founders who cater to this evolving user base. As an experienced Venture Partner and three-time startup founder, Monique has drawn upon her previous experiences in tech to create a fund that truly embodies Cake Ventures's tagline: “Investing in where we are going, not where we came from.”Learn more about Cake Ventures ›

Nasir Qadree is redefining venture capital by rethinking how they source, invest, and scale, early-stage companies that are rethinking the building blocks of wealth. From education to employment, through financial wellness via their inclusive investing strategy.Nasir started his career as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, then moved onto work as a Senior Associate at State Street. While balancing his work in finance, Nasir decided to invest in a coffee shop and coworking space called The Bee's Knees Baking Company, which became a hub of entrepreneurial activity, which sparked his interest in innovation.From there, Nasir went on to become special assistant to the commissioner of education for the Connecticut State Department of Education and working for then-Senate candidate Cory Booker, whom he advised on the future of education.He pivoted to venture capital to support founders solving the problems he observed while in the public sector and public market, holding investment roles as director of social investments at AT&T and head of education at Village Capital. With this foundation, Nasir launched Zeal Capital Partners to focus on financial inclusion and the future of work. Nasir and his team created a firm that has built a rigorous approach to leveraging its unique competitive advantages of being based in D.C., its networks in growing tech hubs, in order to partner with diverse founding teams at the earliest stages of development.In Zeal Capital Partners's very first newsletter, Nasir wrote, “It was important we led with inclusion, not diversity, so that we could be even more proactive and intentional about widening our lens. This approach begins with our team and extends to include the makeup of our companies, geographic regions we proactively invest in, aligned LPs, and measuring social impact outcomes via our proprietary impact framework.”Learn more about Zeal Capital Partners ›

Michael Lints is redefining venture capital by not only focusing on the outcome of their investments but also focusing on mental health and social impact.Justin Hall is redefining venture capital by spotlighting founders and companies unique to Southeast Asia and proving that billion-dollar companies can scale from emerging markets.On this episode of The First Close, we interview Justin Hall and Michael Lints, partners at Golden Gate Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Singapore. Founded in 2011, Golden Gate Ventures invests in seed-stage and Series A companies across Southeast Asia—and now, with the steady rise of unicorns in the region, Golden Gate Ventures is in the perfect position to contribute to this growing startup ecosystem. Together, Justin and Michael have made 65 investments at Golden Gate Ventures since they joined the team in 2012 and 2013, respectively, and they assert that the key to the firm's success lies in its consistency within the team and its focus on founders who are addressing hyperlocal problems.Learn more about Golden Gate Ventures ›

Jenny Yip is redefining venture capital by building a firm that strives to combine the best of business and investing, with the best of philanthropy, while making no compromises on either.Jenny Yip's experience as an investment officer at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation heavily influenced her work as a managing partner at Adjuvant Capital, where she focuses her investments on global health. A life sciences investment firm that focuses on medicine and health technology in low- to middle-income countries, Adjuvant closed its first fund of 300 million dollars in 2020 and uses its large pool of capital to invest in startups that are making leaps in medical access worldwide.Learn more about Adjuvant Capital ›

Soraya Darabi is redefining venture capital by investing in undervalued, nonobvious founders who have something to prove and will make the world a better place because of it.Virginie Raphael is redefining venture capital by capitalizing on an emerging trend in fund structure innovation to better align founders and investors.Heather Hartnett is redefining venture capital by building a firm that resonates with a new wave of exceptional entrepreneurs.Learn more about Transact Global ›When Soraya Darabi, Virginie Raphael, and Heather Hartnett first met each other in 2018, they connected over their shared experiences of raising first-time funds as women in an industry that has long been dominated by men. All three women were emerging managers at their own respective funds: Soraya is a co-founder and general partner of TMV, an early-stage venture fund; Virginie is founder and managing partner of FullCircle, a preseed and seed-stage fund; and Heather is CEO and general partner of Human Ventures, a venture studio and fund.Alongside Alexia Bonatsos, founder of venture fund Dream Machine, and Marina Hadjipateras, Soraya's partner at TMV, the women began conducting weekly calls together that they jokingly referred to as “Transact” because of how transactional these meetings felt. They suspected that other women who were trying to raise their first funds would benefit from calls like these, and they soon formalized the conversations to include others who were interested.And just like that, Transact Global was born. Today, Transact is nearly 200 members strong and growing, with emerging managers from over 15 countries meeting together on a bi-weekly basis to share best practices, discover which LPs are allocating capital, and help each other move further and faster together. The women of Transact stay connected through a weekly newsletter, a Slack channel, a Whatsapp group chat, and fundraising pods.Learn more about TMV ›Learn more about FullCircle ›Learn more about Human Ventures ›

Soona Amhaz is redefining venture capital by investing in the backbone of the new financial system, crypto, and the companies that will bring crypto to the next billion users.In 2020, Soona Amhaz founded Volt Capital, a private equity fund dedicated to investing in crypto startups. Soona believes that crypto is making meaningful advancements, especially over the past year. Volt is capitalizing on this movement by investing in diverse, innovative founders who recognize the future value of crypto around the globe. Soona has been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30, has spoken on the SXSW State of Crypto Panel, and has had her accomplishments featured in TechCrunch, Coindesk, and Bloomberg.Learn more about Volt Capital ›

Alexa von Tobel is redefining venture capital by building the venture capital firm that she wishes existed when she was a founder.Over a decade before she launched Inspired, Alexa von Tobel was a founder herself—and at the heart of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Alexa did what most founders would never dream of doing: she raised funds for a brand new startup when the economy was facing a sharp decline. Alexa was confident that her novel idea for a company that helped the average person manage their finances at an affordable rate would be well worth the risk. Up until then, financial services were only available to those who had already amassed a great deal of capital; as Alexa pointed out, this was like making doctors available only to those who were already healthy.Alexa's risky bet did indeed end up paying off—her startup, LearnVest, sold to Northwestern Mutual for $375M in 2015. Alexa's personal experience as a founder built the groundwork for Inspired Capital, which she founded in 2019. Inspired is that VC firm that Alexa wished she had access to when she was at LearnVest: the partners at Inspired prioritize planning, communication, and transparency in order to help their founders succeed. As a generalist firm, Inspired's portfolio spans a wide range of industries, all of which are connected in their common goal of defining the next generation of innovation.Learn more about Inspired Capital ›

Mac Conwell is redefining venture capital by breaking all of the rules.In September of 2020, Mac founded RareBreed Ventures, a seed-stage fund that invests in founders outside of the US's major tech hubs. Before starting his own fund, Mac worked as a software engineer and DOD contractor. He founded two companies before stepping into the investment world through TEDCO without any prior investing experience. Now, Mac has created his own iteration of a 506(c) fund structure that allows him to be transparent about his investments over social media and effectively grow his network.Learn more about RareBreed Ventures ›

Candice Matthews Brackeen is redefining venture capital by investing in underrepresented founders. Learn more about Lightship Capital ›

Chinedu Enekwe is redefining venture capital by investing in borderless technologies that will define the future of commerce. Learn more about Aux21 ›

Sonia Weymuller is redefining venture capital by nurturing the next generation of mission driven investors in the Middle East. Learn more about VentureSouq ›

Manu Kumar is redefining venture by focusing on building. Learn more about K9 Ventures ›

Marcus Stroud wants to redefine venture capital by creating a new archetype for what a VC firm should be. Learn more about TXV Partners ›

Nate Leung wants to redefine venture capital by increasing transparency in the ecosystem. Learn more about Sapphire Partners ›

Kate Beardsley wants to redefine venture capital by creating a data-informed community. Learn more about Hannah Grey ›This podcast is presented by eShares Inc., doing business as Carta, Inc., (“Carta”), Carta Ventures. The opinions of the guests and host are their own and do not reflect the view of eShares Inc., doing business as Carta, Inc. (“Carta”), Carta Ventures. Listeners should not treat any opinion or comments as investment, financial, legal, accounting, or tax advice.  The content of the podcast is not legal, financial or tax advice, and is not meant to recommend or offer the purchase or sale of a security. This podcast is informational only.

The First Close is Carta's latest podcast about the new voices of venture. The series premieres in early 2021.