Podcasts about american vc

On today's show Andrew and Bill are joined by Raja Krishnamoorthi, Democratic representative for the 8th District of Illinois, and the ranking member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. Topics include: The Select Committee's work to draft and pass legislation to force the divestiture of TikTok, investigations into American VC investments in PLA-linked PRC companies, how to tackle IP theft in tech, searching for fentanyl progress since the Biden-Xi visit in November, PRC behavior in the South China Sea, and more.

In today's episode we'll talk about the different forms of fundraising structures available to founders with Christian Stein, Partner at Riverside Acceleration Capital. Riverside Acceleration Capital is an American VC fund with offices in New York, San Francisco and Cologne. Unlike other VC funds, Riverside Acceleration Capital takes a flexible investment approach, offering both growth equity and growth loans, to equip founders with the right type of capital at the right timeThey also offer a proprietary growth program, and advice from experienced operators that can help businesses scale. They invest in B2B software companies and have recently started investing in Italy with a first investment in CyberGuru, a cyber security startup based in Rome.   When we think about raising money to grow our startup, we immediately think about raising equity from a venture capital fund. But is that really the only option? SPONSOR This episode has been sponsored by Riverside Acceleration Capital. Check out their website: https://riverside.ac/ SOCIAL MEDIA Se vi piace il podcast, il modo migliore per dircelo o per darci un feedback (e quello che ci aiuta di più a farlo diffondere) è semplicemente lasciare una recensione a 5 stelle o un commento su Spotify o l'app di Apple Podcast. Ci ha aiuta davvero tantissimo, quindi non esitate :) Se volete farci delle domande o seguirci, potete farlo qui: Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@madeit.podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@madeitpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Fundraising is an incredibly complex and nuanced topic to cover - but we have invited two great guests to try to untangle it from an investor and founder's viewpoint. Here with us are: Carlotta Siniscalco, a Partner at Emergence Capital based in San Francisco.  Emergence Capital is known for investing in early and growth-stage enterprise cloud companies, they invested in companies like Zoom, Box, and Salesforce and Carlotta is the first female Partner in the firm's 18-year history.  At Emergence, Carlotta invests in early stage enterprise software and fintech companies. She serves on the Board of Directors of Whistic, High Alpha, and Federato, and is a Board Observer at Talent Hack and Oyster. She is passionate about helping immigrants and other underrepresented founders build iconic technology companies. She is also a fierce advocate for women in the Venture Capital industry. Raffaele Terrone, an Italian entrepreneur and co-founder of Scalapay, a successful buy-now-pay later fintech company. Raffaele served as CFO of Scalapay from its founding in 2019 to August 2022, over his tenure Scalapay became a global success with 200+ employees, over $600 million raised from investors like Tencent, Willoughby Capital Holdings, Tiger Global Management and Fasanara Capital — and having achieved unicorn status ($1 billion+ valuation). Raffaele is a mentor and advisor to several startups in the fintech and e-commerce industries, helping them to navigate the challenges of scaling and fundraising. Both Carlotta and Raffaele bring an incredible baggage of experience having led investments in successful global startups and having raised capital from some of the world's leading VC firms. Both of them also share a similar perspective: they are both Italian but Carlotta is an American VC investor and Raffaelle primarily raised capital from international investors. So that will be our focus. SPONSOR This Masterclass was powered by BCG. Unlocking the potential of those who advance the world is crucial for BCG, and this purpose has been leading the firm for 60 years now. Over that time BCG has supported companies and organizations in their process of growth and strategic transformation. BCG supports start-ups with the same care , to help them develop sustainably and innovate. If you're a founder and are interested in working with them email: ⁠⁠⁠MILTheSeeds@bcg.com⁠⁠⁠ SOCIAL MEDIA Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@madeit.podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@madeitpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

Brennan Spellacy, Co-Founder, and CEO of carbon offset technology business Patch shares the story behind the company. I also learn how their technology enables customers to calculate their carbon footprint to identify and finance offset projects that capture the equivalent carbon dioxide emissions associated with that footprint. The company works with over 100 corporations and institutions, including the likes of Farfetch, Afterpay, Harvard University, and the University of Oxford. Its customer portfolio spans industries such as travel, fintech, crypto, and ecommerce. Patch is jointly headquartered in London and San Francisco, and its principal investor is American VC fund Andreessen Horowitz. We discuss how the software allows companies to choose which projects they'd like to finance to support the removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with projects ranging from reforestation and conservation projects to more high-tech, early-stage technologies like direct air capture and sequestration projects. Finally we explore the current macroeconomic landscape for climate technology founders in the UK and US right now and how Patch's technology works in practice and why it should not be viewed as an alternative to the decarbonisation of business. Tech Talks Daily Podcast Sponsor Check out Flippa, who is the show sponsor in December. Find out more information at https://flippa.com/tech-talks

Will Poole started Capria Fund as a fund-of-funds, with a network of more than 15 managers and a collective AUM of more than $1 billion and presence in the leading tech hotspots in Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and India. Capria's second fund is structured as a conventional venture fund, investing in individual early-growth startups selected from the 350-company portfolio of their partners across the global south. Will Poole first came to India in 2003, leading Microsoft's Windows global expansion. This experience opened his eyes to the potential of the Indian market as a startup ecosystem and tech hotspot. In 2009 he became an investor and co-chair of innovative education startup Vidyanext Learning, and helped them to establish dozens of Vidyanext learning centers in Bengaluru and Gurugram. Following this he established Unitus Ventures in Bengaluru in 2012 to support early-stage tech startups with India scale and global potential. Then in 2015 he founded Capria Ventures as a financial services innovator. Capria invests in and alongside leading emerging managers in emerging markets, and also manages Unitus Ventures. Unitus Ventures: https://unitus.vc/ Unitus Ventures Resources/Articles: https://unitus.vc/resources/ Capria Ventures: https://capria.vc/ Capria Ventures Resources/Updates: https://capria.vc/updates/ Media Handles: BwM: https://www.youtube.com/@BackstageWithMillionaires BwM Uncut: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpVR5rkBD9baBcrgaI5zJjA Twitter: https://twitter.com/bwmillionaires/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/backstagewithmillionaires/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backstagewithmillionaires/ Discord: https://discord.gg/XySGGhXKep Follow Backstage with Millionaires to remain updated with our latest developments.

Episode #58 of Fireside with a VC discussing early stage VC in sub-Saharan Africa with Marsha Wulff, cofounder of LoftyInc Capital Management as a guest speaker at Chapman University talking to Professor Andrew Romans and his students at his class on VC. *Starting a VC fund to invest in sub-Saharan African early stage tech startups. *Overcoming challenges in raising LP capital for a "Top 3" VC fund investing in African startups. *Opportunities and challenges facing African entrepreneurs, VCs and LPs as well as the evolving high value angel scene in Africa. *Advice for African founders on how to raise angel and VC funding. Feel free to get in touch to learn more about investing in African or American VC funds. Video on Spotify and YouTube: https://youtu.be/EPgmMjJDmG8. Subscribe to Fireside with a VC on YouTube, Spotify and all podcast platforms: https://anchor.fm/FiresideVC. Join the 7BC Venture Capital Syndicate to co-invest with our VC fund (https://angel.co/s/sevenbc/ZZAgQ) or invest in our 506c VC fund which co-invests with our main VC fund and join a powerful network of investors actively backing and supporting our portfolio companies. Andrew@7bc.vc --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/firesidevc/message

Angel investor is a high-net-worth individual who provides financial backing for small startups or entrepreneurs, in exchange for equity. In this episode, we take a look at Top 20 Angel Investors in India. #20 Sandeep Tandon: Sandeep co-founded one of India's first mobile payment platforms, Freecharge. He began his journey as an angel in 2015, and his portfolio includes Spinny, Dukaan, Unacademy, and Indiagold. #19 Arihant Patni: Arihant is a Mumbai-based entrepreneur, financial advisor, and angel investor whose father founded Patni Computer Systems. His portfolio as an angel includes companies like Lido Learning, TheMathCompany, White Owl Brewery, BabyChakra, and Fitternity. #18 Alok Mittal: Alok is a founding board member of Indian Angel Network and so far he's made 30 angel investments, including companies like M2P Fintech and Pando. #17 T.V. Mohandas Pai: Mohandas Pai as an angel investor has 30 portfolio companies under his belt, including Zoomcar, YourStory, and Licious. #16 Rajesh Sawhney: Rajesh started his journey as an angel with a 2010 Series A investment into American streaming service Viki, which was later acquired by Rakuten. He has since made 34 other personal investments. #15 Gaurav Munjal: Gaurav is the co-founder and CEO of India's second most valuable edtech startup, Unacademy and he has more than 35 companies in his portfolio as an angel investor. #14 Sujeet Kumar: Sujeet, is the co-founder of Bengaluru-based B2B trade platform, Udaan and he has invested in 38 companies as an angel. His portfolio includes companies like Euler Motors, Newton School, Unacademy, and OneCode. #13 Amrish Rau: Amrish is the co-founder of Citrus Pay, and his investments include fintech company Open, which recently became a unicorn, B2B fish and seafood supplier Captain Fresh, CRED, and KhataBook. #12 Girish Mathrubootham: Girish is the co-founder and CEO of Freshworks, and as an angel investor he has 39 companies including Pepul, traveltech startup PickYourTrail, logistics platform Pando, and social recommendation app Fril. #11 Vijay Shekhar Sharma: Vijay is the founder and CEO of Paytm and he began his journey as an angel in 2010 with a seed-stage investment into Indian crowdfunding platform Milaap, and has since made investments into 40 other companies including Evenflow, GOQii, Unacademy, FloBiz, and Hiver. #10 Ratan Tata: Ratan Tata began his journey as an angel investor in 2014 as a lead investor in Snapdeal and has since added another 39 companies to his portfolio, including GOQii, CarDekho, YourStory, Ola, Paytm, Urban Company. #9 Anand Chandrasekaran: Anand is a partner at American VC firm General Catalyst, and his journey as an angel started around 2014. He has invested in Indian startups like Mudrex, Pesto Tech, Evenflow, SuperK and Oye Rickshaw. #8 Jitendra Gupta: Jitendra is founder and CEO of Jupiter, and he began his investing journey in 2015 and he's added 45 other companies to his portfolio including Open, FarMart, Captain Fresh, and Dukaan. #7 Binny Bansal: Binny started xto10x Technologies to mentor young entrepreneurs and help them scale their startups. His investments include Acko, Curefoods, SigTuple, Unacademy, NIRAMAI, Superplum, Magnifi, and more. #6 Rohit Bansal: Rohit is one of the co-founders of Snapdeal, and he now has 56 companies in his own personal portfolio. It includes companies like Mamaearth, Nat Habit, Bira91, Open Secret, Bewakoof, and Flyrobe. #5 Ramakant Sharma: He began his entrepreneurial journey back in 2012 when he co-founded Zing Ecommerce, and he's invested in 61 companies so far, including Toothsi, Convin, Captain Fresh, Trell, Rupifi, and Wiz Freight. #4 Kunal Bahl #3 Anupam Mittal #2 Rajan Anandan #1 Kunal Shah

In this video, we take a look at India's journey to 100 unicorns, from it's first ever startup unicorn in 2011, in the form of inMobi, to neobanking startup Open becoming 100th unicorn in 2022. The term 'unicorn' was created by American VC and entrepreneur Aileen Lee in 2013, she took all of the U.S.-based software companies that were started in or before 2003 and had achieved a valuation of $1 billion through public or private market investors, and put them in a club: the Unicorn Club. In India's case, it's unicorn journey started in 2011, when InMobi, a company that was founded in 2007, became a unicorn. Following this, Flipkart became a unicorn in 2012, Mu Sigma in 2014 and then Ola in 2014. Snapdeal also became a unicorn in 2014, but they have since exited from this club due to their valuation falling below $1 Billion. Companies like Quikr, Hike and Shopclues also fall in this category. Then we have companies who have been since acquired and also bags the question that should they be counted as unicorn today? Flipkart is an example here, which was acquired by Walmart. Then you have startups like Billdesk, which was bought by PayU, PhonePe getting acquired by Flipkart and BigBasket, which became a unicorn in 2019 and were acquired by Tata Digital in 2021. All this while, India's unicorn growth was pretty slow but steady till 2017, when Jio launched its 4G services, and this brought a mobile internet revolution in the country. From 1 unicorn in 2017, India saw 10 unicorns in 2018: B2C unicorns included Swiggy, OYO, BYJU'S, Policybazaar, Paytm Mall, and Phonepe, and B2B unicorns included Rivigo, Freshworks, Billdesk, and Udaan, which was the fastest company to become a unicorn at the time - it took them just 26 months. Then, in 2019, things slowed down a bit, with just 7 unicorns that year: in the B2C category were Ola Electric, Lenskart, Dream11, Delhivery, and BigBasket, and in the B2B category were Incertis and Druva. In 2020, COVID increased people's reliance upon the internet, and host of Indian e-commerce startups like Firstcry, Cars24, and Nykaa became unicorns. Facilitating these online payments resulted in fintech companies like Razorpay and Pine Labs also achieving unicorn status. B2C startups like Verse Innovation (Dailyhunt), ed-tech startup Unacademy, fintech startup Zerodha, and SaaS startup like Zenoti and Postman also became unicorn in the same year. 2020, was followed by an even bigger year in terms of unicorns in 2021, when 44 Indian companies became unicorns. This year saw 11 E-commerce startups (Spinny, OfBusiness, Moglix, Mensa, Meesho, Mamaearth, Licious, Infra.Market, Good Glam Group, GlobalBees, Droom), 11 Fintech startups (Zeta, Slice, Mobikwik, Groww, Digit, CRED, Coinswitch Kuber, CoinDCX, Chargebee, BharatPe and Acko) becoming unicorns. Then we have 5 enterprisetech and SaaS startups (Mindtickle, MapmyIndia, Gupshup, BrowserStack, Apna), 4 health startups (Cure.fit, Innovaccer, Pharmeasy, Pristyn Care), 4 consumer service startups (Blinkit, CarDekho, Rebel Foods, Urban Company), and 3 edtech startups (Eruditus, Vedantu and Upgrad) also becoming unicorns. Other 2021 unicorn categories include Media and Entertainment startups MPL and sharechat, Logistics startup Blackbuck, Traveltech startup Easemytrip , Real Estate startup Nobroker, and Manufacturing startup Zetwork. Talking about where where these startups coming from, they were all from tier 1 cities. Bangalore is leading this list with 39 unicorns, NCR region with 32 unicorns, mumbai with 16, Pune with 6, Chennai with 5 and Hyderabad with 2. Now we are halfway in 2022 and we have already produced and now it seems that by 2025, India will have upwards of 250 unicorns. So that will be exciting to watch and we will continue to track all of this in our upcoming episodes.

Today we're hyped to be introducing you to Sean Seton-Rogers, Partner and co-founder of PROfounders Capital. PROfounders invests 500k to 2M$ tickets into young digital startups that fix broken customer experiences. They've supported and invested in [Made.com](http://made.com/), GetYourGuide, Unity/Applifier, Small Giant Games, and others. Sean also happens to be a recurring name on the Forbes Midas list, so if you need more than our validation that he's worth taking cues from, there you go. In this episode you'll learn: - How Sean has built pro-founders as a pan-European fund from day-1 and it's impact on their operations- How Sean thinks about the entry of the bigger American VC firms in Europe- What's the thinking, strategy and tactics behind PROfounders PROmoter strategy to source and win deals across Europe- Sean's take on different scout models and learnings from himself as well as the market.

Eszter Tanczos Olver & Trudi Haemmerli have backgrounds steeped in entrepreneurship, academia, big pharma and angel investing.  Both women are part of SNGLR, a venture capital fund investing in exponential tech, focusing particularly on longevity, smart mobility and smart cities. In this episode, Eszter and Trudi explain how they got into business angel investing, the importance of networking-especially as a woman, what they think are some of the most disruptive opportunities in the future and how the both VR and the Metaverse will help people improve precision healthcare and recovery! Eszter talks about how European VC has actually outperformed American VC in every time period over the last two decades! Wow, even I did not know that! We talk about the importance of increased funding for women's health, femtech and agetech!  We have a brief discussion about MRNA technology as well, given Trudi's deep background in the pharma industry. ***************************************** For a more detailed write up on this podcast visit: https://the-wealth-alchemist.com/podcast/ If you liked this podcast, please consider writing a review on Apple ITunes at Shot Caller Podcast: A Podcast by Shannon Sagawe Stay on top of the most insightful topics regarding Yourself, Your Wealth and Your Planet, by signing up for our monthly ALCHEMY ON SUNDAYS bulletin.  (5 minute read, 1x a month for you) Join a Wealth Alchemist Investment literacy course.  We just launched a new Web 3.0 course that will help you navigate this exponential new world.  Web 3.0 Course (NFTs and DeFi) Follow Shannon On: Instagram: Wealth_Alchemist_shannonsagawe Facebook: The Wealth Alchemist YouTube: The Wealth Alchemist- Shannon Sagawe LinkedIn: shannonsagawe Twitter: twitter.com/shannonsagawe Other relevant guests to this topic on the show: Evelyn Pflugi, CEO The Singularity Group    .  .  .   

In this episode, I interview my friend Kate Kiewel, an American VC who started the CDMX Acroyoga community and was an OG member in my groups. This week we talk about community, releasing identities, art, tacos, cheese, tech, innovation, accessibility, and Mexico City's magic. Follow the show on Instagram @CDMX.Expats. https://instagram.com/cdmx.expats • If you're interested in being interviewed for the show, send me a DM. We always need new guests! Please subscribe, rate, and review the show to support! Thanks for listening! ____ Check out haabproject.com for a cool social scene, coworking space, and podcast studio.

Thank you Marc Nathan for the intro to our guest today Max Niederhofer. Max is a Partner at Heartcore Capital. Heartcore Capital is europe's consumer tech VC focusing on investing in happiness investing in seed and Series A. Some of his investments include Italic, LastFM, and One Fine Stay. Previously Max was an investor at Accel and founded MyBlog. In this episode, we focus on investing in communities, the meaning of consumer, and some of the differences when investing in Europe vs. U.S. Without further ado, here's Max.Sponsor: This episode is brought to you by Gorgias. Gorgias combines all your communication channels including email, SMS, social media, livechat, and phone, into one platform and gives you an organized view of all tickets. Sign up here and mention the Consumer VC podcast for two months free.Click Here to sign up.And there you have it. It was pleasure having Max on the show, highly recommend following him on Twitter @maxniederhofer.Some of the questions I ask Max:What was your initial attraction to startups and innovation?Internet in 98 became part of your life?Interested in sub communitiesWhat are some of your learnings since when you founded Myblog and Qwerly?What does consumer investing mean to you and why did you choose to focus on it?What are some of the regions punch above their weightExcellent talent in Europe, it is raw.Way you build talent organicallyAfter you sold your companies, why did you decide to become an investor?Why do you enjoy investing at the early stages vs. growth stages?How do you analyze foundersFor American investors who want to invest in Europe - especially consumer focused companies - what have been some of the biggest misconceptions?How has the European startup ecosystem evolved since you began investing?Are there certain regions that have grown faster than others?What are some of the hurdles when investing in European consumer focused companies?How should European based companies think about growth expanding to other parts of the continent?What makes Europe complex?There's been alot of influx from American VC money into Europe. Do you think there's going to be a rise of more domestic based funds.Has Brexit changed anything so far related to the startup landscape?What are categories and markets that you think are big opportunities in technology that haven't come online?When you think about trends, do you think about what is exciting and interesting in other parts of the world that could be translated and work for Europe?What's your approach to analyzing consumer behavior and habits?How do you analyze founders?What's one thing you would change about venture capital?What's the best piece of advice you have for founders?What is next in consumer, what are you excited about

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here and myself here — and be sure to check out our riff on whether SoftBank has another 20 DoorDashes waiting in the wings.This morning was a more relaxed Monday than I can recall in months, thanks to a holiday in many parts of the world. But that didn't stop us from parsing the news: The Weekend: This investigation into Clubhouse's data security is getting results, while over the weekend Dispo got huge in a hurry, and the Apple-Facebook dynamic got a better explaining. Increasingly the tech giant world feels like ad engines (Facebook, Alphabet) in opposition to software-and-hardware shops (Microsoft, Apple). This morning: GM has new electric cars, TechCrunch reports. VW isn't worried about Apple. And every EV company in the world is going public via a SPAC. Who will win? You can place your own bets. And India is loosening some tech regulation. The American stock market is closed. Funding Rounds: We chatted about the recent Libeo round, and the latest on Nymbus, both of which are more than cool.And, finally, read this if you want feel let down by American VCs. (American media, to be clear, has similar issues.)

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here and myself here — and be sure to check out our riff on whether SoftBank has another 20 DoorDashes waiting in the wings.This morning was a more relaxed Monday than I can recall in months, thanks to a holiday in many parts of the world. But that didn't stop us from parsing the news: The Weekend: This investigation into Clubhouse's data security is getting results, while over the weekend Dispo got huge in a hurry, and the Apple-Facebook dynamic got a better explaining. Increasingly the tech giant world feels like ad engines (Facebook, Alphabet) in opposition to software-and-hardware shops (Microsoft, Apple). This morning: GM has new electric cars, TechCrunch reports. VW isn't worried about Apple. And every EV company in the world is going public via a SPAC. Who will win? You can place your own bets. And India is loosening some tech regulation. The American stock market is closed. Funding Rounds: We chatted about the recent Libeo round, and the latest on Nymbus, both of which are more than cool.And, finally, read this if you want feel let down by American VCs. (American media, to be clear, has similar issues.)

Episode 4 runs contrary to what the European VC stands for and features an American VC from the Valley. However, the focus is on looking from the outside in, as well as carving out lessons learned from decades of collaboration across the Atlantic. Shomit Ghose is a seasoned VC with multiple IPOs under his belt - both as an investor and an entrepreneur.**In this episode you will learn**- How the European and American VC landscapes differ and what we can learn from both.- How to increase your presence and establish collaborations with VCs in the US.- How to approach building a country-agnostic fund and the roles of VCs, LPs and Institutions.

Here are the top cryptocurrency news headlines from India this week:India considering regulation of cryptocurrencies: https://www.bloombergquint.com/law-and-policy/india-crypto-news-india-may-consider-regulation-of-cryptocurrencies ;Indian lawmakers investigate fraud by crypto exchanges: https://news.bitcoin.com/indian-government-bitcoin-businesses/ ;American VC investor Tim Draper keen to invest in Indian crypto startups: https://inc42.com/features/keen-to-invest-in-crypto-startups-in-india-tim-draper/ ;Binance and WazirX launches $50 million dollar ‘Blockchain for India’ Fund: https://medium.com/wazirx/introducing-blockchain-for-india-50-million-fund-backed-by-wazirx-binance-d4009f432a5d ;Zebpay launches new INR trading pairs; Bitbns’ BNS Pre-Public Token Sale second phase begins on March 23rd; Reading suggestion for the week:India can use YES Bank debacle to push cryptocurrency: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/india-can-use-yes-bank-debacle-to-push-cryptocurrency-814072.htmlWatch our YouTube videos:Indian government may regulate cryptocurrencies, SEBI likely to regulate crypto exchanges: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiOgk--RCaY&t=6sBitbns' Pre Public BNS Token Sale Goes Live: Phase 1 Over in 18 Seconds, Phase 2 to begin soon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmnD2sUQ834

What factors are RMB investors considering that USD investors are not? What can the difference between Chinese VC firms and American VC firms tell us about the innovation and entrepreneurship lanscape in these countries? As venture capital funding slows down in China, how is this affecting entrepreneurs?Today we are lucky to have the perfect person to answer these questions: Victor Chao, Partner of the RMB fund at SAIF, a leading private equity firm in China. Victor has lived and worked all over the world, and so he has a great perspective on how understanding VCs can help us understand the state of innovation in a country.[1:20] Introducing Victor Chao and his journey to the VC world[6:40] SAIF Partners history and growth[8:11] Difference between private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investment strategies[10:20] Difference between American and Chinese PE/VC investment[14:20] What makes the China market unique: speed, mobility, and more[16:55] Who are the investors for USD and RMB funds, and how do they impact investment strategies[22:30] How exits and investing stages differ for USD and RMB funds[25:15] How do different fund types influence what industries investors are looking at[27:14] The RMB investment cooldown in China and how it is impacting investment strategies[30:00] For a PE/VC firm, does size or performance matter more?[32:10] How should entrepreneurs navigate today's investment landscape[35:40] How can entrepreneurs stand out for investment firms like SAIFMany thanks to our host Oscar Ramos; our guest Victor Chao; editors David and Geep; producers Eva Shi and Matthew Wu; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.comIf you like us, please give us a review and share with your friends!Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/Email us: team@chinastartuppulse.com

What factors are RMB investors considering that USD investors are not? What can the difference between Chinese VC firms and American VC firms tell us about the innovation and entrepreneurship lanscape in these countries? As venture capital funding slows down in China, how is this affecting entrepreneurs?Today we are lucky to have the perfect person to answer these questions: Victor Chao, Partner of the RMB fund at SAIF, a leading private equity firm in China. Victor has lived and worked all over the world, and so he has a great perspective on how understanding VCs can help us understand the state of innovation in a country.[1:20] Introducing Victor Chao and his journey to the VC world[6:40] SAIF Partners history and growth[8:11] Difference between private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investment strategies[10:20] Difference between American and Chinese PE/VC investment[14:20] What makes the China market unique: speed, mobility, and more[16:55] Who are the investors for USD and RMB funds, and how do they impact investment strategies[22:30] How exits and investing stages differ for USD and RMB funds[25:15] How do different fund types influence what industries investors are looking at[27:14] The RMB investment cooldown in China and how it is impacting investment strategies[30:00] For a PE/VC firm, does size or performance matter more?[32:10] How should entrepreneurs navigate today's investment landscape[35:40] How can entrepreneurs stand out for investment firms like SAIFMany thanks to our host Oscar Ramos; our guest Victor Chao; editors David and Geep; producers Eva Shi and Matthew Wu; organizer Chinaccelerator; and sponsors People Squared and Himalaya. Be sure to check out our website www.chinaccelerator.comShare, subscribe, review, enjoy!Follow us on Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-china-startup-pulse/Email us: team@chinastartuppulse.com

This week on Ep72 of #OTPBD, we’re diving deep into seed investing with the founding team of Tidal Ventures. Founded by Grant McCarthy, Andrea Kowalski, and Wendell Keuneman, Tidal Ventures is a new institutional seed-focused VC firm hitting the Australian market, aiming to fill the void between Angel and Series A funding. The team has incredible collective experience working and investing in tech, with resume highlights of the founders including Yahoo, Bailador Capital, and Atlassian. Grant, Andrea, and Wendell use their respective commercial, investment, and product expertise to take the companies they invest in on the journey from seed to Series A funding.This impressive trio share key insights about seed phase investments, as well as how they evaluate investment opportunities, and what they look for in a founder. Furthermore, the co-founders divulged their own team dynamics, preparing businesses for international expansion, differences between the Australian and American VC markets, and the venture platform they’re building to deliver value-adding services to founders.The success of the venture industry has allowed VC firms to invest larger amounts of capital at later stages of companies. While we're seeing an increase in the number of tech startups, with roughly 5,000 early-stage companies operating in Australia, we're also seeing a decrease in the volume of capital being deployed at the seed stage. Tidal Ventures is filling this gap in the ecosystem, developing the companies they invest in to become investable by large VC firms at the next stage.Tune in for an enriching talk with the Tidal team to learn a lot about seed phase investment and how VCs can deliver value to their founders.

Searchie, Arabnet's Startup Battle Dubai winner, raised $2M to continue changing the face of recruitment and the way companies retain and develop their talent ; Mashkor, a new app that is now trending in Kuwait and transforming the way local shopping and local courier happens in the region ; Toronto-based direct-to-consumer fine jewelry startup Mejuri, founded by a Jordanian entrepreneur, has raised $23 million in Series B led by New Enterprise Associates, one of the leading and oldest American VC firm ; Ex-Careem GM has raised seed funding for his Saudi-based Sary, an on-demand wholesale grocery platform, to disrupt wholesale market ; Samsung's vertical Sero TV brings Insta Stories to a big screen!! Samsung has unveiled "The Sero," a 43-inch quantum-dot QLED TV with an attention-grabbing gimmick. It can be flipped around 90 degrees, letting you watch Instagram, Snap and other smartphone videos in their native vertical configurations ; The latest trailer for Men in Black: International is almost exclusively moments of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson goofing around with sci-fi tech. And to keep the movie from (somehow) getting too serious, it seems that a tiny alien voiced by Kumail Nanjiani will be following them around pretty much the entire journey. The film comes out on June 14th. Watch the full episode and join the conversation at startupminute.co.

The mission of Faces of digital health podcast is to share insights to multiply ideas for worldwide healthcare improvement. For this purpose I like to choose my guests based on where they come from, to present various cultures, quality of life around the world and various healthcare systems. Many countries are presented in past episodes. This short recording offers a snippet of thoughts about China, Japan, Germany, Dubai, Israel, Japan, and Bolivia. Speakers: - Shafi Ahmed, a futuristic surgeon from England, currently helping set up a futuristic hospital in Bolivia,- Kyoko Watanabe, a US-based VC from Defta partners, - Brian de Francesca, an American with 20 years of experience working in Thailand and now running his telemedicine company from Dubai,- Levi Shapiro - connector, VC and entrepreneur from Israel, - Bay McLaughlin, an American VC, entrepreneur, and speaker based in China, who among other thing writes a weekly column in Forbes titled "This Week in China Tech",- Klaus Stoeckemann, VC from Peppermint Venture Partners. Explore healthcare systems through these episodes: F027 Can Malta be a gateway to the European market?https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f027-can-malta-be-a-gateway-to-the-european-market-da08d91190f8 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/f027-can-malta-be-gateway-to-european-market-stefan/id1194284040?i=1000426903261 F028 From Australia: Anaesthesiology and the challenge of change management in hospitals (Chris Johnson, anaesthetist)https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f028-anaesthesiology-and-the-challenge-of-change-management-in-hospitals-chris-johnson-a3db1f1231fb iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/f028-anaesthesiology-challenge-change-management-in/id1194284040?i=1000427733013 F018 Can Bolivia become the global digital health role model? https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f018-can-bolivia-become-the-global-digital-health-role-model-shafi-ahmed-f600e656fce0iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/f018-can-bolivia-become-global-digital-health-role/id1194284040?i=1000420000966 F012 How advanced is China in digital health? (Miranda Gottlieb, Bay McLaughlin)https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f02-how-advanced-is-china-in-digital-health-d7260ed4130d iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/f012-how-advanced-is-china-in-digital-health-bay-mclaughlin/id1194284040?i=1000412477016 F003 What is the state of digital health adoption in Africa? https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/f-003-what-is-the-state-of-digital-health-adoption-in-africa-501105eb0dfdiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/f003-what-is-state-digital-health-adoption-in-africa/id1194284040?i=1000401661858 024 Japan: Where Robots Are Friends Of The Elderlyhttps://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/024-japan-where-robots-are-friends-of-the-elderly-5f4978a86aahttps://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/024-japan-where-robots-are-friends-elderly-kyoko-watanabe/id1194284040?i=1000398583819 Ep. 21: Is Dubai Going To Become The Global Capital of Digital Health?https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/ep-21-is-dubai-going-to-become-the-global-capital-of-digital-health-173006ac929iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/021-is-dubai-going-to-become-global-capital-digital/id1194284040?i=1000394748424 Ep.17: Why Is Israel Called the Second Silicon Valley?https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/ep-17-why-is-israel-called-the-second-silicon-valley-1ec2664f366f iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/017-why-is-israel-called-second-silicon-valley-levi/id1194284040?i=1000392439492 Ep. 10 and 11: Tackling the German Healthcare Systemhttps://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/ep-10-what-are-the-latest-trends-in-biotech-and-digital-health-funding-and-why-is-germany-still-d26d6b25bc1 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/012-rethinking-business-models-in-healthcare-patients/id1194284040?i=1000385997647 Ep. 7: Is India the mHealth Paradise and How Much Improvement Can Digital Health Bring To The Country?https://medium.com/faces-of-digital-health/ep-7-is-india-the-mhealth-paradise-and-how-much-improvement-can-digital-health-bring-to-the-ae81ef6cc5e9 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/si/podcast/007-is-india-mhealth-paradise-how-much-improvement/id1194284040?i=1000382898495

We speak with Black Girl Ventures founder Shelly Bell about the lack of diversity and inclusion within the venture capital space and the ways we can work to combat the issue.Find out more about Black Girl Ventures: https://www.blackgirlventures.org/Learn about Bumble Bizz here: https://bumble.com/bizzConnect with us: https://linktr.ee/livingcorporateTRANSCRIPTAde: "The fact that African-American founders have limited access to investment has been well-documented, but you might not know that that problem is replicated in the venture capital world too. In recent years, several black-owned or directed VC funds and firms have opened their doors with a focus on minority and women-owned businesses, but as it turns out, many VCs are hitting the same obstacles as the founders they're trying to invest in - access to capital. According to PitchBook, American VC funds raised approximately $40.6 billion in 2016, with this year on course to make 2017 the fourth consecutive year with more than $40 billion raised. But with less than 3% of VC funds employing black [inaudible] investment professionals, only a small fraction of that sum will find its way to businesses owned or run by people of color." This excerpt is from Barry A. Williams' article "One Reason Black Founders Don't Get Enough Funding - Black VCs Don't Either." It explains the methods that entrepreneurs of color employ to support their startups, none of them nearly as effective as their white counterparts. The data doesn't lie. Less than 3% of all VC funding goes to entrepreneurs of color. In a world that is more empowered now than ever before to pursue entrepreneurial ventures, what can people of color do to garner the financial support they need? My name is Ade, and this is Living Corporate.Zach: [singing] Money, money, money... money! Ade: Child, what? [laughs] What are you talking about?Zach: [laughing] What? Listen, today is all about the lack of diversity in venture capital, specifically the reality that there's a huge disparity in the distribution of funds between white and brown and black entrepreneurs. So it comes down to...Ade: Oh, right. Money. Okay, all right. Capital. I'm with you now. Well, you're right. I mean, we live in a capitalistic society. We need money to do anything, so money is the life of startups.Zach: Yep, and you know what? I have an excerpt from an article I want to share. This is from Megan Rose Dickey of TechCrunch called "Venture Capital's Diversity Disaster." Here we go. Quote, "Just 1% of venture capitalists are Latinx. Only 3% are black. White people, unsurprisingly, make up 70% of the venture capital industry, according to a recent analysis by Richard Kerby, a partner at Equal Ventures. Compared to Kerby's 2016 analysis, women now make up 18% of the VC industry versus just 11% back then. At an intersectional level, black and Latinx women make zero percent of the venture capital industry," end quote. So this is talking about the industry, whereas your initial commentary was about VC recipients. But I would contend that the lack of diversity within the industry supports the disparate funding between white and ethnic minorities, especially women of color. Ade: Right. And to be clear, minorities are out here. Like, we are out here pursuing entrepreneurship, and we do seek funding for our startups. I know we've been sharing articles throughout the show, but I have another one. This excerpt is from a Forbes article written by Daniel Applewhite called "Founders in Venture Capital: Racism Is Costing Us Billions." So it says, "In 2016, the Center for Global Policy Solutions reported that, due to discriminatory financing practices and a bias towards companies primarily operated by white males, America is losing out on over 1.1 million minority-owned businesses, and as a result forgoing over 9 million potential jobs and $300 billion in collective national income. Less than 1% of American venture capital-backed founders are black, and the percentage of blacks in decision-making roles within venture capital isn't much better. Pattern recognition has enabled VCs to mitigate risks, but has also limited their profit potential and created an inherent funding bias. This bias stems from barriers to early stage capital, a lack of representation in the investing space, and is perpetuated by systems of racism that destroy opportunities within communities of color." So having read all that, wouldn't it be great if we could get someone, maybe a person of color--a woman of color, even, who has created a non-profit organization specifically built to acquire VC for ethnic minority-owned businesses? That's very, very specific, but, I mean, if we can get J Prince on here, if we can get DeRay Mckesson on here, I feel like, you know, big things poppin'. We can be a little picky. What you feel?Zach: I feel you, and I think you mean our guest, owner of Black Girl Ventures, Shelly Bell. Ade and Zach: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?Zach: [imitating air horns] Sound Man, come on. Drop 'em on in there. Let's go.[Sound Man complies]Ade: [laughing] All right, all right. Still extra. Next up, we're gonna get into our interview with our guest Shelly Bell. Hope y'all enjoy.Zach: And we're back. And as we said before the break, we have Shelly Bell, founder of Black Girl Ventures. Shelly, welcome to the show. How are you?Shelly: Hi, thank you. I'm good. How are you?Zach: I'm doing really good. So look, I feel as if you have one of the most straight-forward organization names out there, but talk to us about how Black Girl Ventures came about and what was the inspiration behind it.Shelly: So with Black Girl Ventures, we work to create access to capital for black and brown women entrepreneurs. It started because I'm an entrepreneur myself. I have a couple of my own ventures. My mom invested in me, and I really hit the ground running in building my t-shirt line called Made By A Black Woman, which fed into me actually starting my own print shop called Misprint USA, and I was grinding so hard at that, but I realized that during the process of me being on my grind I didn't have a community. And so I'm an artist. I've done performance poetry, and so through that I had done a lot of community building. So I'm like, "Hey, you know what? I know how to build community. I know how to bring people together. Why don't we just throw everybody together and give the money away?" 'Cause at this time, a lot of the news was coming out about women not having access to capital. And I'm like, "All right. This is a simple solution." So when I started it, it was really just a matter of bringing people together, everybody throwing some money into the pot, and then us creating, you know, some capital for women entrepreneurs. The first one, I barely even marketed it. We had about 30 women in a house in southeast D.C. We got together. I cooked all the food myself, which I will never do again. [laughs] Yeah, we had about four women pitch. We voted with, like, marbles and coffee cups. Like, I put each person's, like, name in a coffee cup, and then after they did their pitch, we had everybody in the audience ask questions and then vote by using their marble. So we just gave the money right back out in cash at that time. Like, I wasn't even thinking that it would be as huge as it's become. Now here we are two years later, over 20,000 people in our audience. We're in three states - D.C., Philly, and Balt--I'm sorry, in three--in three--yeah, three states, but three cities - D.C., Baltimore, and Philly. We're about to do--in the fall we have Chicago, Atlanta, and then another D.C., and we're in conversation with a lot of the small- to mid-sized cities about coming there next year. We're talking to people in Kansas City. We're talking to people in Durham, in Memphis, New Orleans, Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, because the larger cities we found are some really great, like, validators to say, "Oh, we did New York, we did Chicago, we did D.C., we did Atlanta," but really we're looking at, like, where do people have the most need with the least, like, activity that is culturally censored for them?Zach: That's amazing, and again, I'm just so excited that you're here. You know, I'm curious, what are some of the common misconceptions about venture capital that Black Girl Ventures seeks to clarify?Shelly: Yeah. So common misconceptions about venture capital. Huh. I'm not--like, I'm not exactly sure that I would say there's common misconceptions about venture capital per se. Maybe that it's, like--venture capital has become very sexy, and I think that people just don't understand who should get it, why they give it. Like, venture capitalists want to make money. Like, that's it. Like, the center of the day, the center of the round, how can your thing bring return? And if you are not so hardcore about that on your business, then you're gonna have a long road to go with venture capital. It's not grant capital. It's not a loan. Well, I mean, there's different kinds of deals that can be what you call a convertible note, which is basically a loan and [inaudible] and some other investment jargon, but ultimately you should just know that it's about the returns. Like, can you give return on investment? And fairly quick, you know? But quick in this sense means, you know, five years, three to five years. Like, it's a long game too, but the people want to see that the potential for returns are there. Zach: So in building out Black Girl Ventures, at what point did you realize, like, "Wow, this is a--this is really significant." Like, "This has some serious traction to it?"Shelly: Probably I would say at the beginning of 2017. I had a volunteer team of seven people where we decided to do it quarterly, and the first one we did, it was in March of 2017, and we started getting in applications at that time, and so we got a nice amount of applications with a low amount of marketing. 'Cause again, like, I'm just kind of throwing it out there, my network and the word of mouth being spread. Over the course of the year, just seeing it move and grow and grow and grow and then winning Entrepreneur of the Year for 2017 for [inaudible] D.C. and the people who voted for that. I mean, just like, I think the reaction from the women we serve is really what was caused me to be like, "Wow." Like, "We're really doing something." Like, our Baltimore winner from October of 2017, when she won, she cried. We did South by Southwest, and the girl who won, she cried for, like, 5 minutes, and they're--and the things that they're saying to me is that sometimes this is maybe their first win, is coming into a place where a group of people are supporting you, and, like, a group of people are just there to support you, a space that is created [inaudible] and then an audience of people who are there to support you. So I think, like, as the--as the audience has grown and as our traction has grown and the feedback that we're getting back, I'm just like, "Wow, okay. So we're not stopping this." Like, we're gonna keep going. Yeah, just seeing the reaction from the audience, seeing the reaction from the people that are pitching has been the thing.Zach: So how important--how important would you say resilience is for those who are seeking venture capital and really seeking to engage that space? People who are seeking to gain capital.Shelly: It's everything. I mean, resilience is it. Like, there's nothing else. [laughs] Because you've got to keep pushing. You want to keep refining your idea or your business to get to know where those returns are coming back, and venture capital is not for everybody. So, you know, you could be the person that needs to crowdfund. You could be the person who needs a loan. You could be the person that needs to focus on customer acquisition. Venture capital may or may not be the thing for you. I think it's--again, it's become sexy now because you can get a large amount of money at once, but at the same time, you know, you're building a relationship where you have to--you have to make sure that you're getting ret--that the returns are coming back. So, I mean, the resilience comes when you get a no, you know? Like, a "No, that's not gonna work for me," or a "No, I don't think that idea is gonna bring returns, or "No--" Nos are kind of hard to get when you're in need. So when you're, like, really wanting, needing the money to get to a certain place and you feel like you just can't get it, when you're focused on venture capital in particular, it can be hard, and especially because, like, there's a lot of translation work that needs to be done. There's a lot of cultural misunderstanding between, like, VCs and entrepreneurs. There's still a lot of work to be done on, like, you know, women getting invested in and women of color getting invested in and, like, diversity and inclusion when it comes to people's portfolios, because the pattern that has been consistently matched is white male who can sleep on couches for months and, you know, not eat to build a business, and so people, you know, venture capitalists have traditionally said, "Okay, this is the model for who builds successful companies." I think we're seeing that shift a little bit with the rise in investment in the beauty industry for black women in particular. I think we're gonna see a shift more as more people start pushing out that, like, "Hey, these industries," and even black and brown folks that own tech companies can also be invested in and show returns and that, like, the only pattern--I think we're gonna start seeing or showcasing a new pattern to match. This is one of the things that we at Black Girl Ventures are passionate about, is saying like, "Hey, yes, the white guy that sleeps on couches for months, goes home and just doesn't eat and builds a major tech company, yes, that's one pattern and that has worked, but also it's the, you know, black woman straight out of college who has been working on her idea the entire time. Also it's the, you know, woman of color in general who has, you know, pulled together as much money as she can from her family and her community to put into her idea and is now seeing, you know, 3X, 5X, 10X returns. Like, also it's the beauty business--the beauty industry, also it's the feminine care industry, also--you know, also it's the hair industry. Also it's the child care ind--you know, I think that as we--the health care industry. You know, I think that as we--as many people as we can push out into the open that are doing different kinds of businesses that also can show returns, that also can match up to what VCs are looking for, we can start to create a new pattern for people to match.Zach: So, you know, I wanted to ask this a little bit earlier, but I don't want to end this interview without asking now. So I--what really caught my eye about making sure that we wanted to have you on this show was a blog post that you wrote on Medium where someone reached out to you and said, "Okay, yeah. Black Girl Ventures. How would you feel if it was White Male Ventures?" Would you mind talking about the blog that you wrote in response to that? And I believe it got a ton of traction. Would you mind just talking a little bit more about that particular piece?Shelly: Yeah. So I was on Bumble, the dating app, looking for dates, and I swiped this white guy right, he swipes me right. On Bumble, you know, women have to do the initial greeting, so I greet him, and then he comes back and says, "Oh, well, if I started a company called White Male Ventures, you would go ape[shit?]," and my response to him was, "No, that would be venture capital. Have you seen who's getting it?" And he said some other rude things, but not before I could get it--he deleted the thread, but not before I could get a screenshot of the message. And so I was just--something was just, like, [inaudible] about it, so I did. I went to Medium, wrote the article, posted [inaudible], and then instead of having, like, an emotional response towards him or, like, racism or, you know, all of these kind of discrimination, diversity and inclusion type stuff, I decided to just use it to talk about what we are doing and the work that we do want to see in the world and the work that all of these amazing women's organizations are doing, and I listed the women's organizations in the article. And so I just--I pushed it to Twitter, you know, like any other Medium post that you write, and I didn't--I didn't think twice about it. So I noticed that people--you know, I was getting some traction on it, and Bumble actually tweeted me back, you know? But I'm thinking, "Oh, okay." You know how sometimes if you tweet things, people will say, like, "Oh, thank you," or, you know, "Thank you for your mention," or "We're sorry you went through that," or something like that, so I'm just thinking it's just a regular post. I didn't even look at it at first, and then something was just telling me to look at the post, so I looked at the post, and it is one of the content editors, and she's just like, "Oh, my gosh. I'm sorry you went through this, but we love what you're doing, you know? Send me an inbox message." So I DM'd her my email. We end up--she emails me and says, you know, "We don't stand for this kind of thing on our platform. We're sorry that you had to go through this. We're a woman-owned company, and we see that you're a woman-owned company, and we love what you're doing. We want to figure out how we can get involved with what you're doing. Can we sponsor a pitch competition? Can we see if we can offer mentors? Whatever you want. The ball is in your court." So from there, I'm just--I see the email and I'm almost in tears because I'm just like, "Oh, my God." Like, one, my journey as building this movement, like, I'm constantly figuring out and pressing for corporate sponsors, and, like, now I'm looking at engaging, like, employee resource groups as well because we learned that, through Black Girl Ventures being on internal calendars and being shared internally, that it's actually activating black and brown employees to be able to, like, feel like they can be a part of the community and what other community work they can do. So then I'm just like, "Oh, my God." Like, I've been really saying, like, if we could just start with one really great corporate sponsor, we could push into some different directions to improve some of the cases that we want. So we've been in conversation with them ever since then, and that was about three months ago. So now Bumble is actually--and this will be my first announcement of it, Bumble is our--one of our official sponsors right now for three pitch competitions. They're sponsoring us for the Chicago, Atlanta, and the next D.C. competition, which are all coming up in October. Atlanta is October 12th, Chicago is October 19th, and D.C. will be October 26th. Bumble has a Bumble Bizz side, so on Bumble you can look for people you want to date, you can look for people just for friends, and then you can look for professionals. And so we're being sponsored by Bumble Bizz, which is the professional side, and the awesome thing about it is we're gonna make it so that people can find each other at the event by using their proximity. So they can register for the Bumble Bizz app, and then you'll be able to actually connect with people in the room. It will be the official app for the [inaudible] pitch competitions and hopefully beyond because it's such a great tool, and you can find people that you want to hire, you can find people to mentor you, you can find people who are doing the work that you're doing just to ask questions of. So it's a powerful business, actual professional app on that side.Zach: That's incredible, and definitely shout out to Bumble Bizz. Air horns for that, and you know what? Also, Shelly, what's really incredible is that--what I'm hearing is the fact that you took the time to speak truth to power and not kind of shrink away from one, a frustrating and insulting moment, and you used it for a platform to speak to what you actually, to your point, are doing, so that's amazing. Where can people learn more about Black Girl Ventures?Shelly: Yeah. You can find us at BlackGirlVentures.org. You can also follow us on Instagram @BlackGirlVentures, you can follow us on Twitter @BGirlVentures, and on Facebook it's Facebook.com/BlackGirlVentures.Zach: Okay, that's great. So we're gonna make sure that we have all of that in the show notes as well as the Medium link to that amazing post, and we'll make sure to have the Bumble Bizz info in there as well. Before we let you go, do you have any shout outs? Any parting words?Shelly: Yeah. I wanted to just--I wanted to just mention a couple of our BGV alum who are killing it right now. We have Brittany Young, who has--the name of her company is B-360 Baltimore. B-360 works with kids who ride dirt bikes, 'cause dirt bikes are typically illegal to ride on the street, and she transforms them into engineers by helping them learn how to actually fix their dirt bikes and, like, actually, like, create 3D helmets and some really cool things. She is now an Echoing Green fellow and was just featured on the Afropunk stage for their solution session. We have Miracle Olatunji, who just--the name of her app is OpportuniME, and she's 18 years old. She placed third in our competition. Her web app helps students find opportunities for scholarships and internships, and she just made it into the Y Combinator virtual startup school, which is major. Y Combinator puts out--their incubator, that's where Twitter came from and a couple of others, like Airbnb. Like, your huge apps that are out right now. So I just wanted to mention them 'cause they are, like, doing such great work. And, I mean, there is a ton of other women that we work with and serve that I'm super proud of and rallying for, so shout out to all the BGV alum, and check us out. We'll be coming to a city near you soon.Zach: Shelly, this has been amazing. I just want to thank you again for taking the time to be on the show. We definitely consider you a friend of the pod, and we can't wait to have you back.Shelly: Thank you. This was great. Thank you so much for having me.Zach: No problem. I'll talk to you soon. Peace.Ade: And we're back. Wow, so shout out to Shelly and Black Girl Ventures. They're addressing such a need.Zach: Yeah, and she has so much going on. We really appreciated her being on the show. Like, make sure y'all check out the show notes to learn more about Shelly and everything happening over at Black Girl Ventures.Ade: Exactly. Well, look, up next we're gonna get into our Favorite Things. Join us.Zach: So my favorite thing right now has to be Jamaican food. Sheesh. Let me tell y'all, so good. Rice and beans. Like, just rice and beans. [laughing] Why is it so good? I did not know something so straight-forward could taste so delicious, but it does.Ade: So I have this theory. Stick with me here.Zach: Okay. All right.Ade: That, hands down, pound for pound, dollar for dollar, taste bud for taste bud, the Diaspora has the most flavorful food in the world. Like, the entire African Diaspora put together just, like, will punch you in your taste buds every single time.Zach: I just--I really agree with that, right? I mean, 'cause my two other favorite dishes are Thai food and Indian food. Now, I don't know where they land in the Diaspora, but I know they're brown, right? Ade: Bloop.Zach: Yeah, no, it's delicious, and so shout out to all my real Jamaicans. That's right, shout out to my Jamaicans. [laughs]Ade: [laughing] As opposed to fake ones? Zach: [laughing] As opposed to fake Jamaicans. Shout out to my real Jamaicans out there. Would it be offensive to add some air horns right here?Ade: I do not know. Let's, like, move on from the Rachel Dolezal section. [laughing] But I'm gonna go ahead and oblige your need for your air horns.Zach: Thank you. Sound Man, go ahead and drop some air horns specifically for jerked chicken, rice and beans, beef patties, salt fish. You know what? I'm 'bout to name the whole menu. Sound Man! Just drop the air horns.[Sound Man complies]Ade: [laughing] All right, okay. Just don't run off to Jamaica on me, because I will join you and never leave the beach. All right, so my favorite thing right now actually is a book called So Long A Letter by Mariama Ba. It is one of the very first novels written by a Senegalese woman in French, and it is a seminal work in African literature, particularly written by a woman. It is an account of one woman writing to another--they're both widows--written within the context of Muslim women in mourning, one writing to the other and trying to kind of talk her through this extremely patriarchal process of grief and trauma, and it is--it is a story of sisterhood, it is a story of anxiety, of motherhood, of grief, of independence, of women sustaining each other, and obviously this is something--maybe not obviously, but it's something that appeals to me as a feminist and as a woman who one day hopes to raise strong women and who hopes to, you know, hold my sisters up in the same way. So I'm gonna use the term woes, as much as I dislike the originator there, but I'm certainly gonna get a hard copy of So Long A Letter for all my woes. It is very much a book that lends itself to having a conversation about what it means to have a sisterhood. So that's my favorite thing. [laughing] You went from this high of "Let's eat, I'm 'bout it," and I was like, "Let me tell you about how solid we need to be right now."Zach: [laughing] No, but the juxtaposition is what makes us great. We're like the PB and jelly sandwich of podcasting. I don't want to say of all podcasts.Ade: Okay, but first--but first, I need to know - what kind of jelly are you? This will make or break our relationship. I want you to know this right now.Zach: #JellyBandit. I love jelly, but let's figure it out.Ade: Wow. You think you know someone. Goodness.Zach: [laughs] I love jelly. Jelly is great. Actually in Houston, there's a jalapeno jelly, jalapeno strawberry jelly, and it is amazing.Ade: [air horns going off] #StrawberryJelly. #StrawberryPreserves. #--you are just not [inaudible]. Like, I don't--I don't--Zach: So that is my--that is my favorite jelly though. Like, what is your favorite?Ade: I feel like I'm about to get kicked out the gang for this, but I like fig preserves. Now, hear me out.Zach: Fig preserves are good. I like fig preserves.Ade: Okay, and just like that, you saved our friendship. Okay.Zach: [laughs] That's very funny. Fig preserves are great.Ade: Fig preserves. I have--I made a cornbread once with goat cheese, rosemary and fig preserves, and I know somebody is going to say something along the lines of, "Die, you monster," and I want you to know that it was delicious and I'm willing to take that. I'm going to die on that particular hill. Great. Preserves are great.Zach: So anyway, I do feel as if--again, I feel as if it's this type of repertoire, right? This tit-for-tat, as it were, that makes us special, so I appreciate you.Ade: Oh, okay. [inaudible]. Appreciate you too.Zach: Anyway, [laughs] thank y'all for joining us on the Living Corporate podcast. Make sure to follow us on Instagram @LivingCorporate, Twitter @LivingCorp_Pod, and subscribe to our newsletter through living-corporate.com. If you have a question you'd like for us to answer and read on the show, make sure you email us at livingcorporatepodcast@gmail.com. Check us out--Ade: You're--Zach: [laughing] All right. Make sure to check us out on Patreon as well. Again, we're Living Corporate, so just pull us up anywhere and you'll find us. That does it for us on this show. This has been Zach.Ade: And I'm Ade.Zach and Ade: Peace.Kiara: Living Corporate is a podcast by Living Corporate, LLC. Our logo was designed by David Dawkins. Our theme music was produced by Ken Brown. Additional music production by Antoine Franklin from Musical Elevation. Post-production is handled by Jeremy Jackson. Got a topic suggestion? Email us at livingcorporatepodcast@gmail.com. You can find us online on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and living-corporate.com. Thanks for listening. Stay tuned.

A couple of weeks ago, a think piece by Andile Masuku entitled "We simply must not allow investor bias to persist" - featured in African Independent and Business Report - caused a bit of a stir on Twitter. The hubbub surrounded the article's tackling of the sensitive issue of investor bias that appears to be prevalent in Africa's startup finance scene. Cited in Andile's piece are research findings published in a recent Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded report by the American VC outfit, Village Capital. According to the report, more than 90% of the funding that's gone into East African fintech startups over the past year or two has benefitted firms with expatriate founders. This has lead to some local founders complaining that their ventures aren't being fairly appraised for investibility in terms of their potential and financial viability. In this episode of the African Tech Round-up, Andile Masuku and Musa Kalenga are joined by Tapsnapp founder and CEO, Vije Vijendranath, to unpack some of the impassioned response to the investor bias debate that's recently surfaced from certain quarters within our tech community and to chat about some possible solutions to the situation. Then, being that Tapsnapp is surfing the "Uberisation of everything" trend, and given the current push-back Uber is experiencing in South Africa from various stakeholders, Andile, Musa and Vije decided to try and answer the question: how enthusiastically should Africans embrace on-demand marketplace platforms? Music Credits: Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Music licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

Maya Horgan Famodu is a consummate eclectic who wears the beautiful complexity of her Nigerian-Swedish-American heritage with pride. Maya is the Founder and Managing Director of Ingressive, a firm dedicated to guiding global capital to African entrepreneurs through a 2,000 member angel database, and semi-annual investor tours. Alongside her serious commitment to promoting entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa, Maya takes time out to write for Inc., the Huffington Post, and several other leading publications, organise panels for the likes of SXSW, dance hip-hop and take long rides on her motorcycle. In this conversation, Maya shares the challenges of building a bullet-proof professional reputation within the American VC community, and chats about the risks and rewards of building bridges between Silicon Valley and various growth hubs within Africa’s tech ecosystem. Music Credits: All music by Brian Lupiya. Used with permission.

The Tech.eu podcast is a weekly show where Neil S W Murray and Roxanne Varza discuss the most interesting stories from the European technology scene. On this episode they discuss: - Qubit, the UK-based startup that raised $40 million last week - Nokia Growth Partners announcing a $350 million IOT fund - France’s NUMA teaming up with mVenturesBcn to launch a programme in Barcelona - Our Editor Robin had a chance to catch-up with Niklas Zennstrom and to give his thoughts on MWC - What you need to know if you’re a startup who wants to raise funds with an American VC because things may not be as easy as they seem For information regarding your data privacy, visit acast.com/privacy