Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast Brydge Club by Ruffin Mitchener
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How One Honest LinkedIn Post Became Old Girls Club, a $500K+ ARR Community for Women | 02 Nov 2026 | 00:48:32 | |
Mallory Contois is the founder of Old Girls Club (OGC), a curated Slack community of more than 3,300 ambitious women, and she now builds community at Lovable. Her career has taken her from starting the product operations team at Pinterest, to LinkedIn, to serving as COO of a Series A gaming startup, to building community from the ground up at Mercury, Maven, and Lovable. She also recently launched her own talk show, Good Work. In this episode, Mallory talks about the hardest stretch of her time as a Series A COO. From the outside she was succeeding. Inside, she felt panicked and isolated. She explains how one honest LinkedIn post led to a free Slack group, and how that group grew into OGC. She describes why she designs virtual community the way she would host a dinner party, how building for introverts changes the experience, and why selling is banned everywhere except one dedicated channel. She also shares why she chose slow, sustainable growth over scale, why referral rate is the metric she trusts most, and the bold email that got her hired as Mercury’s head of community even though her resume didn’t fit the role. Mallory also explains how community as a product differs from community as a distribution strategy. She covers how to show the ROI of community without tying it to a sales number, and how she structures her days around a full-time role while running a portfolio of side projects. She closes with her advice for building a career in the age of AI, why being a “personality hire” is a strength, and what she hopes the next generation of women takes away: just keep moving. I hope you enjoy! More on Mallory Contois: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorycontois Old Girls Club: https://www.jointheogc.com/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: https://beacons.ai/ruffin About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| From Scaling Nasty Gal to $100M to Backing a $1B Exit | Deb Benton, Willow Growth | 02 Nov 2026 | 00:50:32 | |
Deborah Benton is the Founder and Managing Partner of Willow Growth Partners, a fund that writes $2 to $4 million checks as the first institutional capital in early consumer brands. Willow’s portfolio includes Coterie, the premium diaper brand that sold to Mammoth Brands for $1 billion, and Goodles, the better-for-you mac and cheese recently acquired by Barilla. Before investing, Deb spent years as an operator. She was COO of ShoeDazzle and President of Nasty Gal, where she helped scale the business from roughly $20 million to $100 million in revenue. In this episode, Deb explains why tech venture capital and consumer brands are a fundamental mismatch, and what she learned raising at sky-high valuations during the growth-at-all-costs era. She shares how six years of angel investing shaped Willow’s thesis, why she backed Coterie after tech VCs refused to fund a diaper brand, and how baggies of noodles and a long-awaited cheese sauce won her over on Goodles five months before launch. Deb also gets candid about the metrics she actually looks at, why there’s no magic LTV to CAC ratio, when celebrity partners help a brand and when they become a risk, and why a valuation is not what your business is worth. She closes with the impact she wants to have: more women building generational wealth. I hope you enjoy! More on Deborah Benton: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debenton Website: https://willowgrowth.com More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Why a $1B VC Fund Needs a $100B Exit | Elizabeth McCluskey, TruStage Ventures | 19 Oct 2026 | 00:49:10 | |
Elizabeth McCluskey invests in fintech for a living as Managing Director of the TruStage Ventures Discovery Fund, and backs early-stage founders with her own money as an angel investor. In this episode, she breaks down how venture capital and angel investing actually work, from SPVs and cap tables to the fund math that decides which companies a VC can back, and why a “no” from a mega fund often has nothing to do with your business. Elizabeth shares her path from investment banking at UBS to wealth management, business school and impact investing, and why, after a decade of pitching deals to investment committees, she decided to become an investment committee of one. She explains what she looks for in a founder’s inner circle, why she won’t invest in a 6 out of 10 founder, the partnership slide red flag that ends a deal for her, and how to read between the lines when a VC says “too early.” Plus, the story of how a single LinkedIn post about a decaf coffee brand turned into an oversubscribed Brydge Club deal. Connect with Elizabeth McCluskey: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethcmccluskey TruStage Ventures: https://www.trustage.com/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: https://beacons.ai/ruffin About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| From $3.5K to $21K a Month After One Video: How Natalie Barbu Saved Rella | 05 Oct 2026 | 00:53:50 | |
Natalie Barbu is the Co-Founder of Rella, the social media management platform that helps brands and social teams plan, approve, and publish content in one place. Natalie started her YouTube channel in 2011 at just 15 years old, studied industrial engineering at NC State, and quit her consulting job at Accenture after nine months to create full time. She has since earned over $1 million as a content creator and raised a $1 million pre-seed round for Rella from investors including Charge Ventures and Liquid 2 Ventures. In this episode, Natalie breaks down how creators actually make money, why a unique point of view matters more than follower count, and why creators with around 20K followers convert best for Rella as a brand. She gets candid about pitching over 200 VCs, waiting seven months for her first check, and watching the first version of Rella top out at roughly $5,000 a month. Natalie shares how the team scrapped the product, rebuilt it for businesses in two months, and still ended up telling investors they were shutting down with $25,000 left in the bank. Days later, a single skit took monthly revenue from $3,500 to $21,000 and put Rella on the path to profitability. She also covers founder-led content, why content is revenue, and her goal of reaching $50 million in revenue. I hope you enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation, whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to http://vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Natalie Barbu: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/nataliebarbu Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nataliebarbu LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliebarbu Website: https://getrella.com Use code BRYDGECLUB for 10% off Rella annual plans More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| From 1,000 No's to $27M Series A: How Victoria Thain Gioia Built Perelel Profitably | 28 Sep 2026 | 00:42:43 | |
Victoria Thain Gioia is the Co-Founder and CEO of Perelel Health, the doctor-formulated supplement brand that supports women at every stage, from conception and pregnancy through postpartum and perimenopause. Her daughter was born with a cleft lip linked to a folic acid deficiency, and that sent Victoria deep into prenatal nutrition. She found a category where the word "prenatal" isn't regulated, most formulas were one-size-fits-all, and nearly everything was built around the baby rather than the mom. She launched Perelel in September 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. Since then it has become one of the fastest-growing companies in women's health, approaching $100m in revenue for a 90% subscription business, 20 supplements, and a recent $27 million growth round led by Prelude Ventures. In this episode, Victoria explains how her path through J.Crew, investment banking, private equity, and Harvard Business School prepared her to build Perelel, and why bringing on an OB-GYN as medical co-founder shaped every product. She describes how Perelel third-party tests every lot and runs clinical studies. She also shares how answering every customer service ticket herself for two years led to pregnancy-safe greens, hydration, and protein powders, and how longtime customer Mandy Moore became a brand partner. Victoria talks openly about raising through a thousand no's with a personal loan and angel checks, why she first said no to the $27 million round, and the business school advice to raise as little as possible at as low a valuation as possible. She also covers building a profitable consumer brand and Perelel's $10 million pledge to close the women's health research gap. I hope you enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation, whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to http://vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Victoria Thain Gioia: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-thain-gioia/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vat26/?hl=en Website: https://perelelhealth.com/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How Vanta Won 600 Customers Without a Website and Grew to $300M ARR | 21 Sep 2026 | 00:13:53 | |
Christina Cacioppo never fit Silicon Valley's picture of a tech founder. She didn't grow up coding, spent two years in venture capital before teaching herself to program, and sold her first startup for $20,000 after none of its products found a market. Today she is the co-founder and CEO of Vanta, the compliance automation company that raised a $150 million Series D at a $4.15 billion valuation and, as of April 2026, has passed $300 million in ARR. Vanta now serves more than 16,000 organizations, including Snowflake, Duolingo, Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, with just 1,000 employees across five offices. In this episode, Ruffin traces Christina's path from running a Beanie Baby business on eBay at age 11, to meeting hundreds of founders at Union Square Ventures, to learning how real product teams work as a PM at Dropbox. The episode walks through the ideas that didn't work, including a voice assistant for lab biologists with a market "the size of my thumb," and the customer discovery rule that finally led Christina to Vanta: no code until you truly understand the problem. You'll also hear how Vanta started as a SOC 2 consultancy run out of a spreadsheet, won its first 600 customers without a real website, and waited until $10 million in ARR, ten times the usual benchmark, to raise its Series A from Sequoia. It's a story about resilience with discernment: staying committed to the ambition without getting attached to the wrong idea. I hope you enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Get $1,000 off at https://vanta.com/ruffin More on Christina Cacioppo: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ccacioppo X: https://x.com/christinacaci More on Vanta: Website: https://www.vanta.com More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: https://beacons.ai/ruffin About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How Stanford grad raised $11 million to build Clair Health: a hormone lab for your wrist | 14 Sep 2026 | 00:38:19 | |
Jenny Duan is the CEO and Co-Founder of Clair Health, the world's first wearable for continuous hormone monitoring. She started Clair as a junior at Stanford after a class on the women's health ecosystem showed her how little data women actually have about their own bodies. While studying abroad at Oxford, she worked nights and flew to the US three times in ten weeks to pitch investors and build out the team. Clair has since raised an $11 million seed round led by Khosla Ventures with participation from a16z speedrun and Brydge Club, built a waitlist of 25,000 women, taken 6,000 preorders, and signed early B2B contracts with fertility clinics. In this episode, Jenny explains how Clair infers hormone levels from the wrist using ten novel sensors and machine learning models trained on female physiology, and why blood draws and daily urine tests leave such a big gap. She breaks down why most wearables filter out female body data as noise, what Clair is already seeing in its own data around perimenopause and cycle phases, and what goes into the Harmony clinical study and the path to FDA clearance. She also shares how the team is protecting sensitive women's health data, what the Mayo Clinic partnership unlocks for their research, how they created early demand almost entirely through community and word of mouth, and why she believes all of healthcare is women's health. I hope you enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation, whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to http://vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Jenny Duan: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennysduan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennysduan Website: https://wearclair.com/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Payal Burned $500K on a Product Nobody Used, Then Built a $1B Company | 30 Aug 2026 | 00:10:03 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I'm going solo to break down one of the most misunderstood startup stories of the last decade: how Payal Kadakia built ClassPass. Fewer than 1% of funded startups reach $1 billion. Only 7% of unicorn founders are women, and women of color lead even fewer. Payal is one of them. But the ClassPass we know today, with 100 million hours of workouts booked across 30,000 partners in 28 countries, is not the company she set out to build. In this episode, I trace the full arc: from an MIT grad and lifelong dancer who couldn't find a single ballet class in New York, to spending $500,000 on a booking product that generated about ten reservations a month. I get into why the "OpenTable for fitness" thesis was built on a false parallel, the five distinct business models ClassPass cycled through, the $99 unlimited era that grew 50x while quietly bleeding money, and the decision to kill it in 2016 and lose 10% of the user base overnight. I also dig into the part of the story that matters most to me: the rooms full of male VCs who sat in silence after every pitch, the fellow South Asian woman who wrote the first meaningful check and told her to bet on herself, and what that representation gap actually costs when you measure it in billions. I hope you enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation, whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to http://vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: https://beacons.ai/ruffin About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How Alinea Invest went from a college business plan to raising $10 Million | 24 Aug 2026 | 00:33:05 | |
Eve Halimi and her co-founder Anam wrote a 100-page business plan on Saturdays while working full-time on Wall Street. Today, Alinea Invest, the AI-powered investing app they built, is used by roughly 1% of the U.S. population. In between: a Y Combinator acceptance won on founder-market fit alone, two years of iteration before anything worked, a $10 million Series A led by Play Ventures, and a $20 million cohort-financing facility that fuels their growth without touching equity. In this episode, Eve breaks down the onboarding rewrite that took Alinea from near-zero to $80K in a single month, and the founder-led TikTok strategy that turned one 60-second story video into 50,000 downloads in a day. She gets specific on the mechanics of debt financing for consumer apps, why they waited far too long to charge for the product, how "Gen Z messaging" ended up converting 40-year-old construction workers, and what an AI investing companion that "thinks and acts for you" actually looks like. I hope you enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation, whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to http://vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Eve Halimi: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eve-halimi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/genuine.jew/?hl=en Website: https://www.alinea-invest.com/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How Bobbie scaled to $100 Million in Revenue and 1 Million Babies Fed with Laura Modi | 16 Aug 2026 | 00:44:48 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I'm joined by Laura Modi, Co-Founder and CEO of Bobbie, the infant formula company she started after a moment of shame in a pharmacy aisle. Laura built her career at Google and Airbnb before leaving tech to take on one of the most highly regulated, capital-intensive industries in America. Bobbie has since raised nearly $150 million, surpassed $160 million in revenue, and bought its own manufacturing facility in Ohio. In this episode, Laura talks about the emotional reality behind Bobbie's founding story, what she learned about sugar and formulation by cold-emailing 20-30 experts a night, and the FDA labeling issue that pulled her product off shelves for 18 months when she had only 100 customers. She explains why she turned off new customer growth during the 2022 national formula shortage against investor advice, how she convinced her board she'd been wrong about owning manufacturing, and what responsibility every formula brand carries when a recall hits the industry. Laura also shares how the Molly Baz Times Square billboard came together, why she hires the atypical candidate, the work Bobbie for Change is doing on federal paid leave and the Black maternal mortality crisis, and the moment with her daughter that finally loosened her grip on mom guilt. I hope you enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation, whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to http://vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Laura Modi: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraclairemodi/ Website: https://www.hibobbie.com/ Bobbie for Change: https://www.bobbieforchange.org/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| From Top Secret Group at Apple to $4 Billion Consumer Venture Capital Fund | 09 Aug 2026 | 00:41:48 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I'm joined by Amy Moussavi, angel investor and advisor at Malo Partners. Amy took an unconventional path into venture. After studying cognitive neuroscience, with no background in finance, she was early at Snapchat, spent years inside a top-secret product group at Apple, and became an investor at a multi-billion-dollar VC fund before building her own portfolio of nearly 20 personal angel investments. In this episode, Amy breaks down how she wrote her very first angel check (and the one category Apple would let her invest in), how she developed a thesis around "building for humanity of the future," and how she evaluates founders from pre-seed to Series A. She shares why she passed on Liquid Death, the speed and precision she looks for in breakout founders, how she works backwards from exit math on market sizing, and the categories she's most excited about now: women's health, longevity, AI hardware, live shopping, and Gen Alpha. Amy also gets candid about why fundraising can feel like "asking for charity" for women founders, the gotchas of stacked SPVs in today's AI-hyped market, and the advice she ignored for a decade: that in venture, relationships are everything. I hope you enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation, whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to http://vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Amy Moussavi: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-moussavi/ Pitch her: amy@malopartners.com More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: https://beacons.ai/ruffin About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| She sold Primal Kitchen to Heinz for $200M after just 3.5 years | 02 Aug 2026 | 00:40:48 | |
Morgan Zanotti built Primal Kitchen from a scrappy, bootstrapped mayonnaise brand into a $50 million business, then sold it to Kraft Heinz for $200 million just three and a half years after launch, signing the deal weeks after having her first baby at 32 weeks pregnant. After five years running the brand inside a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, she walked away to start again, this time as a solo founder building Waay, a clear whey protein isolate beverage created for women who are tired of choking down chalky shakes. In this conversation, Morgan traces her winding path from accountant to waitress to yoga instructor to CPG operator, and unpacks why she and Mark Sisson kept 95% of Primal Kitchen by refusing outside capital. She breaks down the mechanics of actually selling a company, from the banker "bake off" to the four-day management presentations, and explains why the second time around she raised venture capital from Kate McAndrew at Baukunst instead of mortgaging her own peace of mind. Along the way she gets candid about lifelong imposter syndrome, building all-female teams, the unsexy grind behind a nine-figure exit, and why she believes being a woman in business is a superpower, not a setback. This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation, whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to http://vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Morgan Zanotti: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/morgan-buehler-zanotti-31989620/ Website: https://drinkwaay.com/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How they built Hims & Hers from Zero to $1.6 Billion | What they're Building Now! | 26 Jul 2026 | 01:06:06 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I'm joined by Hilary Coles and Emily Boschwitz, the powerhouse duo behind POCA, a better-for-you coffee syrup that lets people enjoy their favorite café drinks without the sugar crash. Before POCA, Hilary and Emily were on the founding team at Hims & Hers, which they helped scale to a $1.6 billion valuation in just three years and take public. In this episode, Hilary and Emily trace their unlikely paths, from Hilary starting out as an admin and being turned down by nearly every "dream" company, to Emily learning to read in seventh grade and turning dyslexia into a marketing superpower. They break down the early days of Hims & Hers: why they launched with stigmatized products, how men dancing in showers with shampoo bottles became an accidental growth engine, and the channel-diversification strategy that fueled explosive scale. Then they get into POCA, the consumer insight that coffee is "the last allowable vice," how they ran a paint-the-door test before building anything, the food science behind a syrup that actually dissolves in iced coffee, and why brand matters more than ever in the age of AI slop. Along the way, they share hard-won lessons on curiosity as a career strategy, growth marketing, and the AI stack every founder should be using today. This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation, whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to http://vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Hilary Coles & Emily Boschwitz: POCA: https://pickpoca.com/ Gossamer World: https://gossamer.world/ Hilary Coles: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilary-coles-11803b187 Emily Boschwitz: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilyboschwitz More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: https://beacons.ai/ruffin About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How Figs went from $200 Million Lawsuit to $4.5 Billion IPO | 19 Jul 2026 | 00:08:12 | |
In this episode, I'm breaking down one of the most remarkable stories in modern consumer business: how FIGS went from selling scrubs in hospital parking lots to becoming the first company led by two female co-founders and co-CEOs to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. In 2012, Heather Hasson noticed a nurse friend stuck wearing shapeless, uncomfortable scrubs and saw an opportunity everyone else had ignored. Meanwhile, Trina Spear spotted the same gap from Wall Street, eventually quitting her job at Blackstone and liquidating her 401(k) to bet on it. Together they drove to hospital parking lots at 7 a.m. shift changes, coffee in hand, selling scrubs out of a car and listening relentlessly to the healthcare workers they served. I unpack exactly what it took to build a multibillion dollar business: developing proprietary performance fabric designed for grueling shifts, going direct-to-consumer from day one, and engineering a word-of-mouth marketing machine so powerful their customer acquisition costs actually dropped as they scaled. I also dig into the hundreds of no's they heard before landing a $50 million check, the $200 million lawsuit from a legacy scrub giant they fought and won, and the way they brought 60 healthcare professionals to ring the opening bell and opened pre-IPO access to everyday investors. It's a masterclass in product, distribution, community, and staying close to the people you serve. I hope you enjoy! This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation—whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Sunday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How Kate McAndrew Built a $100M Venture Capital Fund (Without a Harvard Business School Degree) | 12 Jul 2026 | 00:50:26 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I'm joined by Kate McAndrew, Co-Founder and General Partner at Baukunst, a $100 million venture capital fund backing exceptional founders at the intersection of technology and design. Writing first checks of $500K to $2M at pre-seed, Kate was the first institutional investor in Bobbie, the first clean infant formula in the U.S. since the 1980s, and has spent over a decade backing founders long before anyone else believed. Kate is an "accidental VC" who broke into the industry without an MBA, management consulting, or a finance pedigree. She got her first taste of investing while volunteering at a Habitat for Humanity job site. In this episode, she shares what she really looks for at pre-seed (hint: the team beats the idea every time), why she describes her job to her five-year-old as being a "professional fairy godmother," and the anti-portfolio deal that still haunts her, passing on Mirror before its $500M sale to Lululemon. Kate also opens up about building her fund in public after a year of PR got her nowhere, how short-form video became her secret weapon for deal flow and LP relationships, her take on the "SaaS is dead" and hardware hype cycles, and why she's moving her own workflow toward more values-aligned tools. We close with rapid fire on killing imposter syndrome, the visioning exercise that changed how she shows up, and the legacy she wants to leave for the next generation of women. This episode is brought to you by Vanta. Vanta's Agentic Trust Platform takes the manual work out of your security and compliance process and replaces it with continuous automation—whether you’re pursuing your first framework or managing a complex program. Go to vanta.com/ruffin for $1,000 off Vanta today!! More on Kate McAndrew: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateprestonmcandrew Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kate__mcandrew TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kate_mcandrew Baukunst: https://baukunst.co/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How Perelel is redefining women’s health with over 48 million capsules sold | 13 Nov 2024 | 00:44:58 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I’m your host, Ruffin, and today I’m thrilled to be joined by Alex Taylor, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Perelel, the first OB-GYN-founded vitamin brand for women offering tailored nutrition for each stage of the hormonal journey. Since its inception, Perelel has made an impressive mark, selling over 48 million capsules in the last year and raising $12 million from investors like Willow Growth. Alex, named a Forbes 30 under 30, has a career built with companies like Vogue, L’Oreal, and Google, and is passionate about creating brands that make a meaningful difference. In this episode, Alex dives into her journey from working with major brands to co-founding Perelel and why they focused on prenatal vitamins. She discusses the complexities of the vitamin industry, including regulation, the importance of transparency, and how Perelel sets itself apart with doctor-led formulations. Alex also shares insights into Perelel's early marketing strategy, their growth despite minimal resources, and key lessons learned in fundraising. I hope you enjoy! More on Alex Taylor: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-taylor-18b19b12/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/its_alextaylor/?hl=en Website: https://perelelhealth.com/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Sued by VCs, Sharon Gillenwater Bootstrapped a $25M Startup Sale | 30 Oct 2024 | 01:02:41 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I’m thrilled to sit down with Sharon Gillenwater, author of Scaling with Soul and a resilient entrepreneur. Sharon’s journey has been nothing short of extraordinary—she raised $3 million in venture capital for her first business before pivoting to bootstrap her second business, Boardroom Insiders, to a $25 million exit. Now a viral voice on TikTok, she demystifies entrepreneurship for a wide audience. In this episode, we dive into Sharon’s story of navigating venture capital, including her decision to raise funding and the challenges that followed. She shares insights on the venture capital versus bootstrapping paths and offers advice for founders considering both. We also discuss her experience in consulting, building strategic relationships, and selling to large institutions. Finally, Sharon shares key lessons from her M&A journey and tips on managing personal finances while scaling a business. More on Sharon Gillenwater: Buy her book: https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-Soul-Million-Company-Without/dp/1964377013 Website: https://www.sharonkgillenwater.com/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Erin Levine Raised $6.5 Million to Save People 90% on Divorce Fees | 16 Oct 2024 | 00:45:16 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I’m your host, Ruffin, and today I’m joined by Erin Levine, Co-Founder and CEO of Hello Divorce, a platform that revolutionizes the divorce process. Hello Divorce combines self-service software and expert services to make divorce less stressful and more affordable. Erin’s 15 years of legal experience have led her to create a service that costs a tenth of the typical divorce and resolves cases in a third of the time. In this episode, Erin shares her journey to Hello Divorce, insights into the common challenges of divorce, and how the platform supports users through different phases. We also discuss topics like prenuptial agreements, expanding into new states, her experiences raising $6.5 million in venture capital, and her advice on navigating funding and entrepreneurship. I hope you enjoy it! More on Erin Levine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinlevine/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Why Valentina quit investment banking, launched a startup, then pivoted into venture capital | 02 Oct 2024 | 00:40:15 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I’m thrilled to be joined by Valentina Rodriguez, investor at Wonder Ventures, an early-stage venture fund based in Los Angeles. Valentina has been involved in investments such as Clutter, Tala, Honey, Whatnot, Coinbase, and Bird. Before entering venture, she began her career at Morgan Stanley and founded Cannaves Oliva, a functional foods company that introduced organic hemp-infused olive oil. In this episode, Valentina dives into her entrepreneurial journey, starting with the creation of Cannaves Oliva and how it shaped her transition into venture capital. She shares insights into Wonder Ventures’ investment thesis, her approach to navigating different industries as a generalist investor, and the lessons she’s drawn from her banking and founder experiences. Valentina also discusses trends she’s excited about in consumer tech and enterprise, the importance of relationships in fundraising, and tips for founders on achieving product-market fit. Plus, she offers advice for those looking to break into VC and a behind-the-scenes look at raising Wonder Ventures' latest $57 million fund. I hope you enjoy! More on Valentina Rodriguez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/valentinaro/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Selling Teachable for $250M, raising from Codie Sanchez, tax strategies, + more | Jess Catorc, Carry | 25 Sep 2024 | 00:42:47 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I’m excited to be joined by Jess Catorc, co-founder of Carry, the all-in-one platform for tax-advantaged accounts, investments, and strategy designed for business owners and high-earning professionals. Jess is an award-winning brand strategist who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs and startups scale their reach and revenue online. Prior to founding Carry, Jess led creator partnerships at Teachable, which sold for $250 million. In just two years, Jess and her team have grown Carry to $1 million in ARR, with backing from notable investors like Sophia Amoruso and Codie Sanchez. In this episode, Jess shares her journey from leading creator partnerships at Teachable to co-founding Carry. We dive into her experiences working at a high-growth startup and the lessons she’s brought into building her own company. Jess also discusses the challenges of understanding the tax code as a business owner, the inspiration behind starting Carry, and how they are empowering entrepreneurs to save money and grow their businesses. We also talk about the different tax strategies available, how Carry has grown its customer base, and the exciting future ahead for the company. I hope you enjoy! More on Jess Catorc and Carry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-catorc-0635ba4b/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Lessons from Stanford GSB Founder: Raising $9 Million, pivoting, and more | Miri Buckland, Zeen | 18 Sep 2024 | 00:29:50 | |
Welcome to The Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I’m excited to be joined by Miri Buckland, COO and co-founder of Landing, soon to be rebranded as Zeen. Miri co-founded Landing alongside her Stanford Business School classmate, Ellie, and together they’ve scaled the product to nearly 1 million downloads and raised over $9 million in venture capital from investors like Cowboy Ventures and Defy Ventures. In this episode, Miri dives into the journey of building a high-growth tech startup, shares key lessons on knowing when to pivot, and offers practical advice for those applying to business school. She also reveals insider strategies for running a successful fundraising round. I hope you enjoy! More on Miri Buckland: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-biernacki-71b1b24a/ https://www.bbgventures.com/about-us More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Play Brydge: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Why Claire Biernacki, Principal at BBG Ventures, is investing $50 Million into female founders | 11 Sep 2024 | 00:37:25 | |
Welcome to the Brydge Club podcast! I'm your host, Ruffin, and today I’m excited to be joined by Claire Biernacki, Principal Investor at BBG Ventures. BBG Ventures is known for being one of the most active investors in women and underrepresented founders across the U.S. Claire has been involved in investments such as Zola, Spring Health, and Blueland. Before joining BBG, she earned her MBA from Columbia Business School and began her career in investment banking and private equity. Claire shares her inspiration for pursuing a career in finance before transitioning into venture capital. She discusses the decision to pursue an MBA and how it shaped her path in VC, as well as her strategies for breaking into the industry and landing key opportunities. Claire also provides valuable insights into how she supports founders after investing, the key metrics companies should focus on at the Series A level, and advice for founders on asking the right questions during investor meetings. I hope you enjoy! More on Claire Biernacki: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-biernacki-71b1b24a/ https://www.bbgventures.com/about-us More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Play Brydge: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Emily Persky, founder of I Have This Friend, wants to help you host your next dinner party with a Michelin star chef! | 28 Aug 2024 | 00:36:08 | |
Welcome back to the Brydge Club Podcast! Today we welcome Emily Persky, Co-Founder of ‘I Have This Friend’, A curated directory of lifestyle services that allows you to book private chefs, interior designers, photographers, and more. They collaborate with top emerging talent to make these curated services accessible. Before co-founding 'I Have This Friend' with her childhood best friend Ingrid, Emily pursued a career in big tech, working at Instagram. Emily discusses her decision to pursue a career at Instagram in 'big tech' before launching her entrepreneurial journey. She shares her transition from Instagram to founding 'I Have This Friend,' how the platform was brought to life, the most popular services and talents booked, their strategies for expanding the marketplace, and much more! More on Emily Persky and I Have This Friend: https://www.ihavethisfriend.co/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-persky-961793105/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Play Brydge: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How Cheryl Kellond is building an angel investment portfolio without millions, and you can too! | 21 Aug 2024 | 00:47:56 | |
In this episode of Brydge Club, we sit down with Cheryl Kellond, the founder and CEO of Play Money, a groundbreaking investment platform designed to help everyday investors build a diversified startup portfolio without committing to full-time angel investing. Cheryl shares her entrepreneurial journey and insights into the startups she has founded, including Bia Sport, Apostrophe, and Play Money. We dive deep into angel investing with a masterclass on the significant impact Play Money is making in this space. Cheryl also offers invaluable advice for first-time fundraisers, shares tips for avoiding common pitfalls in angel investing, and reflects on her experiences with the acquisition process and more! More on Cheryl Kellond & Play Money: https://www.linkedin.com/in/c2kprofile/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Play Brydge: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| $3.5M backed by Jessica Alba!? Joan Nguyen on why she’s building Bümo, the first marketplace for drop-in childcare | 14 Aug 2024 | 00:39:35 | |
In this episode of Brydge Club we welcome Co-Founder and CEO of Bümo, Joan Nguyen! Joan shares a glimpse of her entrepreneurial journey thus far, highlighting her path to Bümo, offering solutions to the US childcare crisis in 2024, her experience as a childcare provider, pivoting from brick and mortar to starting Bümo, navigating VC for the first time, plans to expand Bümo across the US and much more! More on Joan Nguyen & Bümo: Joan Nguyen is the founder of Bümo, the best way for families to book on-demand childcare at daycare, preschools, and drop-in camps for school-age children. Bumo is backed by venture capital investors and celebrity advisors including Jessica Alba. And has been featured in the Today Show, Forbes, Techcrunch and more. Prior to Bümo, Joan previously built a Global test prep and educational consulting company. https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannguyen/ More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Play Brydge: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| 92% of Venture Dollars are Controlled by White Men, Tanvi’s Building VC Unleashed to Change That | 07 Aug 2024 | 00:43:57 | |
In this episode of Brydge Club, we welcome Tanvi Lal, an investor at Intuit Ventures and the founder of VC Unleashed. Tanvi shares her inspiring journey from consulting to venture capital (VC). Learn about the glaring statistics on the lack of diversity in VC and how VC Unleashed is providing real opportunities for people of color to break into the industry. Key topics discussed:
More on Tanvi Lal: Tanvi Lal is an Investor at Intuit Ventures focused on Series A-C fintech, commerce, and enabling tech. She is also the founder of VC Unleashed, a non-profit dedicated to increasing racial representation within VC investors. Prior to her role in venture, Tanvi earned her MBA at Berkeley and built a career in consulting with Deloitte. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlal/ Tanvi’s Guide to VC Recruiting: https://tlal.medium.com/tanvis-guide-to-vc-recruiting-part-1-set-the-groundwork-37b11b9ff58 More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Play Brydge: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| $3.2M from YC to build Adyn, the first birth control test | 31 Jul 2024 | 00:32:24 | |
On this episode of Brydge Club we are joined by Founder & CEO of Aydn, Elizabeth Russo. We discuss Elizabeth’s journey to founding Adyn, modern issues in prescribing birth control, her personal battle with birth control side effects, her career in genetics, why she became an entrepreneur and much more! More on Elizabeth Ruzzo, PhD and Aydn: Adyn is the first and only test designed to prevent birth control side effects like blood clots, depression, acne, weight gain. Elizabeth received her PhD in Genetics and Genomics from Duke University and launched Adyn after her own experience with life-threatening birth control side effects. Elizabeth has raised $3.25M in VC funding from investors including M13, YC, Anne Wojcicki - the founder of 23&me. More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Play Brydge: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| Meet Ronit and Vida, the co-founders of WeNatal, building prenatal vitamins for her and HIM | 24 Jul 2024 | 00:44:38 | |
On this episode of the Play Brydge podcast, we sit down with Ronit Menashe and Vida Delrahim, founders of ingenious his and hers prenatal supplement company, WeNatal. We discuss the modern fertility crisis, the conceptualization, launch and operations of WeNatal, Ronit and Vida’s personal journeys with prenatal supplements, tips on increasing your chances of a successful pregnancy and more! Purchase WeNatal Supplements More on Ronit, Vida and WeNatal: Ronit Menashe and Vida Delrahim are the founders of WeNatal, a prenatal supplement company that is transforming the fertility space with the first prenatal supplement optimized for her AND him. WeNatal’s mission to change the narrative surrounding fertility and reproductive health is personal; after suffering miscarriages a week apart Ronit and Vida were given little direction on what to do differently. More importantly, the health of Ronit & Vida’s partners (including the health of their sperm) was missing from their fertility dialogue completely with doctors… something had to change. WeNatal shifts the fertility journey from "me" to "we” and is backed by industry leading Functional Medicine doctors, nutritionists, and fertility experts, including Dr. Mark Hyman and Kelly LeVeque. With 24 key clean, bioavailable nutrients, WeNatal steps up where other supplements fall short for all things preconception to postpartum for both parents and baby. WeNatal is transforming the fertility space with the first prenatal supplement optimized for her AND him. In just 3 pills a day, WeNatal provides 24 key nutrients that are clean, bioavailable and third party tested for label claims, heavy metals and toxins. Where most other supplements fall short, WeNatal stepped up including nutrients like iron, choline and methylated B vitamins; essential for all things preconception to postpartum. By prioritizing the right nutrients WeNatal gives couples a path forward and are backed by industry leading Functional Medicine doctors, nutritionists, and fertility experts, including Dr. Mark Hyman and Kelly LeVeque. More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: About Brydge Club: Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, the Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. | |||
| How Alexandra Mysoor raised $5.5 Million Venture Capital funding led by Initialized Capital | 17 Jul 2024 | 00:44:41 | |
For over 20 years, Alexandra has been a trailblazer in business innovation. She’s launched and scaled over a half dozen successful, multi-channel consumer brands. Now, as CEO of Alix, she oversees rapid growth while ensuring that each Alix family receives the world-class care they deserve. Alexandra is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2021, she has served on the Board of Directors for Security National Financial Corporation (SNFCA). In this episode:
Resources: About: They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer!
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| Investing in the Bobbie Baby Pre-Seed and raising a $100M Venture Capital Fund with Kate McAndrew | 18 Jun 2024 | 00:50:33 | |
Kate McAndrew is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Baukunst, a collective of creative technologists advancing the art of building companies. She is leading pre-seed rounds in companies at the frontiers of technology and design from Baukunst’s inaugural $100M VC fund. Kate has invested in over 70 companies at the concept stage, helping founding teams build businesses from scratch. Prior to starting Baukunst, Kate was a Partner at Bolt for eight years where she gained experience as a first-round lead investor & board member with a focus on companies that are evolving the cultural conversation. Kate is the founder of Women in Hardware, the premiere community for women and non-binary people building at the intersection of the digital and physical. She is the co-author of the forthcoming book, The Goddess Guide to Branding. Kate graduated from McGill University in Montreal with a degree in Cultural Studies/Critical Theory and Analysis. She resides in San Francisco. In this episode:
Resources: The Goddess Guide to Branding.
About: They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! | |||
| Duke graduate and ex-big tech, Mallory Contois is building the Old Girls Club | 12 Jun 2024 | 00:49:25 | |
Mallory Contois leads Community at Mercury and founded The Old Girls Club, a virtual community for women in the second and third stages of their careers in male-dominated fields. She is also an angel investor & advisor to early-stage founders, focusing on those building in the consumer social, art & creativity, women's health, and marketplaces. Mallory previously spent time on the early teams at Pinterest & Cameo focusing on product-led growth and as the COO of Metafy, a marketplace for gamers to find community and master their skills. In this episode:
Resources: About: They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! | |||
| How Natalie Barbu gained 300K+ followers on Youtube and Raised $1M for her Startup Rella | 04 Jun 2024 | 00:38:13 | |
Natalie Barbu is a content creator turned entrepreneur. She began her social media career in 2011 on YouTube as a beauty creator. Since then she has grown her following to over 380,000 across platforms. She is also the host of The Real Reel Podcast, a show where she speaks to entrepreneurs, business leaders, and creators to talk about the real reel - not the highlight reel. Natalie is also the CEO and founder of Rella, a venture-backed software startup building the back office for creators. In this episode:
Resources: About: They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer!
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| From Kellogg Business School to launching Beni, the secondhand search engine | 29 May 2024 | 00:46:50 | |
Kate Sanner is an entrepreneur and marketing expert with a passion for sustainability and consumer behavior. With over eight years of experience at Anheuser-Busch, Kate honed her skills in brand development, notably contributing to iconic campaigns such as Bud Light's "Dilly Dilly" era. Co-founding Beni during her time at Kellogg School of Management, Kate spearheaded the mission to revolutionize secondhand shopping by making secondhand shopping as effortless as purchasing new items. Since filming this episode, Kate has stepped into a new role as CEO of Beni. Kate continues to inspire as a female founder, embodying resilience, innovation, and a dedication to driving positive change in the retail industry. In this episode:
Resources: Kate Sanner (LinkedIn) Kate Sanner (TikTok) About: They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! | |||
| From Harvard to raising $10.5M to build Arise, Eating Disorder Virtual Care | 15 May 2024 | 00:42:39 | |
Joan is the co-founder and CEO of Arise, whose vision is to create a world where everyone, everywhere has the freedom to heal from eating disorders and disordered eating. Joan brings her own lived experience with eating disorders and mental health conditions alongside a deep empathy for the diversity of the mental health journeys of so many others to drive her work as a product leader in the mental health tech space. Most recently, Joan was a product leader at Headspace Health where she led initiatives that empowered members to get into clinical care faster than ever before and led personalization initiatives with the AI/ML teams. Before Headspace, Joan led product at Click Therapeutics where she launched their first clinical trial product, a novel digital treatment for major depressive disorder that was recently approved by the FDA. Before her work at mental health tech startups, Joan started her career in management consulting at Deloitte where she led projects to implement robotics process automation at a top global pharmaceutical company and EHR systems for a state-wide development disability service provider. Joan holds a B.A. cum laude in Psychology with a minor in Computer Science from Harvard College, where she conducted fMRI research to understand how stress impacts our ability to utilize cognitive reappraisal and also published a book on the mental health experiences of Asian American students at Harvard. Joan lives in Houston, TX with her partner (Eric) and their endlessly entertaining puppy (Ari) and perpetually grumpy cat (Charlie). Since moving to Houston from NYC during the pandemic, Joan has been focusing on spending more time with family and building an intentional community. In this episode, Joan talks about:
Resources: About: They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! | |||
| Scaling Casper to a billion dollar valuation and launching Nelle Atelier, denim for women under 5'4" | 08 May 2024 | 00:43:27 | |
Madeleine Cohen is the founder of Nelle Atelier, a premium off-the-rack denim brand for women under 5’4”. Madeleine has built a career in brand building and start-ups - most recently at Bala, Casper, and Estee Lauder. Her story is simple: She had a closet full of jeans but nothing to wear. At 5'1", she always had to stand on her toes and imagine what her new jeans would look like hemmed—then spend $50 at the tailor to get them to fit. She isn't alone: Half of women, like her, are under 5'4"–and they need jeans, too. Today she is here to discuss her journey from startup operator to founder. How she’s landed her many opportunities including being featured in Vogue…twice. Madeleine shares more on her background and how that influenced her to launch Nelle Atelier. In this episode:
Resources:
About: Join Ruffin Mitchener to learn from the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Tune in every Wednesday for a new interview packed with startup secrets and investor insights for business success.
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| Raising $5.4 Million Seed led by Google Ventures: Julia Haber, CEO of Home From College | 17 Apr 2024 | 00:40:15 | |
In this episode, we’re chatting with Julia Haber, founder and CEO of Home From College. Julia quit her job at Snap to build Home From College, the professional development platform built specifically for career starters and young professionals.
In this episode:
Resources: About: They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! | |||
| Natalie left Media to work in Venture Capital: from Forbes to Bullish | 03 Apr 2024 | 00:44:26 | |
Natalie Sportelli, Director at Bullish, a consumer venture capital firm and creative agency based in New York, joins us to discuss consumer investing and her journey from Forbes to Venture Capital. Natalie previously joined Thingtesting, a B2B platform for brands, as employee number four and has worked across journalism as an Associate Editor at Forbes and served as a Director at venture capital firm Lerer Hippeau. In this episode, we also discuss cultivating genuine, community-focused brands and the shifts in consumer behavior.
In this episode:
Resources:
About: They dared to dream, and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! | |||
| From Teach for America to CEO of All Raise: Paige Hendrix Buckner on diversity in Venture Capital | 20 Mar 2024 | 00:40:28 | |
Paige Hendrix Buckner is the CEO of All Raise, a community and mission to accelerate the success of female and non-binary founders and funders to build a more prosperous and suitable future. Female representation at the partner level across fund sizes is consistently low, and All Raise is grounded in reality and measurable outcomes. Prior to All Raise, Paige has founded ClientJoy, a modern business gifting solution that transforms the way professionals show gratitude. Find out more about All Raise here: https://www.allraise.org/ Connect with Paige here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigehendrixbuckner/ | |||
| Why YC alumni, Anna Berger, is reinventing construction payroll | 08 Mar 2024 | 00:38:54 | |
Anna is the co-founder and CEO of Trayd, a construction payroll platform designed for same-day pay, replacing multiple outdated solutions with an all-in-one platform designed with payments at its core. Trayd is backed by Y Combinator and the team is based in New York City. Prior to founding Trayd, Anna worked on the global marketing team at Marriott and was the co-founder of Curtn, a video dating app backed by Sam Altman and Joel Simkhai, the founder of Grindr. Connect w/ Anna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annajberger/ Connect w/ Ruffin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruffin-mitchener/ All things Brydge Club: https://beacons.ai/ruffin | |||
| Adela Jamal of Milemark Capital on investing in Applied AI, diversity in VC, and women in business | 21 Feb 2024 | 00:33:56 | |
In this podcast episode, I'm chatting with Adela Jamal, the General Partner & Co-Founder at Milemark Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focusing on diverse teams utilizing applied AI to transform existing business models. Adela shares insights into Milemark's investment thesis, emphasizing their commitment to startups leveraging applied AI. She discusses her decision to pursue an MBA at MIT and highlights the importance of normalizing non-linear career paths, especially for women. Adela offers advice for women aspiring to enter the VC space and shares her experiences as a leader advocating for women in business and tech. The episode concludes with Adela debunking the venture capital concept of "Limited Partner". Listeners can connect with Adela on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adelajamal/ Find all things Brydge Club here: | |||
| From journalism to VC, why Melody is investing in 1K diverse founders at Harlem Capital | 09 Jan 2024 | 00:40:33 | |
Melody Hahm leads community and platform at Harlem Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. There she is responsible for Harlem's content and partnerships strategy and works closely with the fund's portfolio companies to equip them with resources to succeed. Prior to joining the venture world, Melody was a business and financial reporter. Most recently she was Yahoo Finance's west coast correspondent, covering entrepreneurship and the startups. | |||
| Julia quit Product Management at Blackstone to build Pickle: peer to peer clothing rental | 13 Dec 2023 | 00:37:47 | |
Julia O'Mara is the Co-founder and COO of Pickle, the peer-to-peer rental marketplace making it easy and affordable to rent high-quality clothing and accessories within your community and beyond. In less than a year, Pickle introduced a new way to shop , brought 50,000+ items into circulation, and powered lucrative side hustle. Before founding Pickle, Julia served as Senior Product Manager at The Blackstone Group, where she led product analyses for the Investor Relations and Fundraising teams. Shop Pickle: https://shoponpickle.com/ Connect w/ Julia: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julia-o-mara/ | |||
| Julie built the venture arm for Pivotal, now she's building Magnify Ventures, a $52M debut VC fund | 06 Dec 2023 | 00:36:05 | |
Julie Wroblewski, the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Magnify Ventures, which debuted a $52M fund investing into the care economy. Before launching Magnify, Julie spent over a decade as an investor and advisor with institutional-scale family offices and mission-focused organizations, including Pivotal Ventures, led by Melinda French Gates. Julie is a Kauffman Fellow, member of All Raise, and a frequent speaker on purpose-driven venture capital, gender lens investing, and the care economy. https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliewroblewski/ https://www.magnify.vc/ | |||
| Stanford GSB grad and ex-VC investor, Steph Mui is building PIN: a new way to invest into startups | 29 Nov 2023 | 00:32:45 | |
Steph is the founder of PIN (Power in Numbers), a VC-backed company that enables communities of people (like people from Stanford, YC, and Coinbase) to invest in startups together. She's also writes the newsletter, "Demystifying VC", to help founders navigate the fundraising process and to teach new angels about early stage investing. Steph was formerly a VC at NEA where she helped invest over $150M. And she’s also a graduate of Stanford GSB. Find Steph & PIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephmui/ | |||
| Amber Illig awarded $100K from Recast backed by Melinda Gates to launch The Council Venture Arm | 15 Nov 2023 | 00:41:20 | |
Amber is a General Partner and full-time investor at The Council Fund, where she invests at Pre-seed stage in software built for legacy industries like Construction, Logistics, and Healthcare. Before transitioning to running her own venture firm full time, Amber worked at companies like Eli Lilly, Apple, Snap, and Cruise in various Operations leadership roles. She's worked at every stage from Seed to Fortune 500 and interfaced with many of the legacy industries she invests in today. In addition to The Council Fund, Amber runs The Council Angels, a community of over 100 operators turned angel investors. Members are able to invest in select deals alongside the fund and learn along the way. Apply to Join the Council Angels: https://www.thecouncil.co/angels Connect w/ Amber https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberillig/https://twitter.com/AmberIllig More from Brydge Club: https://beacons.ai/ruffin | |||
| Maggie Zheng pivoted from pre-med to early stage startups, now she's Director of Fundraising at WeFunder | 08 Nov 2023 | 00:45:15 | |
Maggie Zheng is the Head of Fundraising at Wefunder, a YC company, where she works with early and growth stage startups. Before Wefunder, she was the sixth employee and Chief of Staff at Doorvest, building it from pre-seed to post Series A, working across many functions including product, marketing, operations, and strategy. Maggie is also an investor at Potluck VC, a venture firm focusing on AAPI founded growth stage companies. Connect with Maggie: All things Brydge Club: https://beacons.ai/ruffin | |||
| Kristine raised $1M from a power user to build Locker, the fastest way to save and organize products while online | 01 Nov 2023 | 00:38:26 | |
Kristine Locker is the Founder and CEO of Locker, the social commerce platform supporting shoppers at every step of their consumer journey, from initial discovery until purchase. Locker enables users to save any product they want while browsing online into one, organized place. As an avid online shopper, Kristine found herself constantly taking screenshots of products or keeping dozens of tabs open, but there wasn't a platform that provided the utility or social aspect she craved as an "everyday" consumer and non-influencer. Kristine's story of becoming a founder is unconventional. She spent her first two years out of school as a real estate analyst at Goldman Sachs, then worked alongside her dad as a commercial real estate broker. But, something in her gut told her that Locker was worth risking it all. She stepped away from a lucrative and stable career in 2020 and invested every penny she had into building Locker - so she could provide the solution to the problem that she and millions of other shoppers face. Connect with Kristine: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinelocker/ Download Locker! https://www.wantlocker.com/ More from Brydge Club: https://beacons.ai/ruffin | |||
| Dulma's TikTok B-School covers female-founded DTC, celebrity brands and tech startups for 100K women | 19 Jul 2023 | 00:35:16 | |
This week on the podcast we’re chatting with Dulma Altan. If you dont already know her, she’s a creator on TikTok and host of the Due Dilligence Podcast where she’s interviewed guests including Sophia Amoruso founder of Nasty Gal and creator of GirlBoss. Before TikTok, Dulma started her career with Google before jumping into the world of startups and venture capital. Dulma has been such an inspiration for me and my journey into the world of content, SO i was beyond excited to get her on the show. Find Dulma: https://www.dulma.co/ TikTok for Startups: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7EmrsIJVFDyiEVLDKxi0Gt?si=39f46b77a76c4ba7 | |||
| From Harvard Business School to founder & GP of Kaya Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm | 10 Jul 2023 | 00:37:35 | |
This week on the show I’m joined by Madeline Darcy, the founder & GP of Kaya Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm building a healthier, happier, and more connected future. Previous investments include Ellevest, Sanzo, Brightland, and Republic. Prior to launching Kaya Ventures, Madeline was a VP at Visible Ventures, Harvard Business school graduate, and consultant. Connect with Madeline https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelinedarcy/ Finda Kaya Ventures https://www.kaya.ventures/ Join Brydge Club on Slack https://beacons.ai/joinbrydgeclub | |||
| Audrey Wisch dropped out of Stanford to build Curious Cardinals, a network of college mentors | 10 Jul 2023 | 00:48:18 | |
Audrey Micay Wisch dropped out of Stanford University to build her ed-tech startup Curious Cardinals, which did $600K ARR its first year of business. This year, Audrey was named Forbes #30under30 at just 20 years old. Audrey was in her first year of Stanford, when she started tutoring a 7th grader on criminal justice, gender equality & more. Since then, Audrey Micay Wisch and her co-founder Alec Katz have built Curious Cardinals to be a network of over 200+ college students, who have mentored more than 3,000 high-school and middle students on topics like bitcoin, venture capital, skincare and more. Audrey Micay Wisch is making big changes to the outdated education model. So much so, that a parent asked if to withdrawal his son from school and enroll full-time into Curious Cardinals. That parent/customer has so much conviction in the ed-tech startup that he angel invested into the business. The Curious Cardinals team has also raised $6.8M in seed capital from top investors including Anthos Capital and Audacious Ventures. https://www.curiouscardinals.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-wisch/ | |||