How could buying a pair of shoes in Paris lead to launching a global fashion technology business? Olga Vidisheva, founder of Shoptiques, a YC graduate and former Goldman Sachs analyst, did this very thing. Vidisheva, an immigrant from the Soviet Union, did not set out to be an entrepreneur but got the bit in her mouth after discovering a big gap in…

Can taking outside capital kill your startup? Christina Wallace, is the VP of Growth at Bionic, a company that brings startup and VC experience to enterprise. Previously she was founding director of BridgeUp: STEM, an educational initiative to captivate, inspire, and propel girls and minorities into computer science. Erica Duignan Minnihan and Chri…

Liz Wessel is the cofounder of WayUp, an app that helps college students find jobs and internships. After graduating from Penn, she worked at Google, first in Mountain View on the Partnerships and Grants team and then in India to lead brand initiatives. After her tour of duty in India, Wessel returned to the U.S. and cofounded WayUp. Season 3 Host …

Gina Bianchini is the Founder and CEO of Mightybell, a platform that enables you to build a community and a business on your own branded mobile apps. She is also the co-founder of Sheryl Sandberg’s leanin.org, an online community dedicated to supporting women’s career development. Bianchini has been featured as one of Fortune Magazine’s “40 under 4…

Alicia Thomas is the founder and CEO of Dibs, a B2B digital platform that gives studios quick and easy access to real-time pricing for the boutique fitness classes their clients want. A former developer and director of data strategy at Citigroup, Thomas chose to start a company in the fitness industry because she knew she would have a competitive a…

Even the Pope is talking about it, but what exactly is impact investing? Meet Fran Seegull, Executive Director of the U.S Impact Investing Alliance, a project of the Ford Foundation and Omidyar Network. Fran is also an Adjunct Professor at the Lloyd Greif Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and Senior Fellow at the Brittingham Social Enterprise Lab,…

Aileen Gemma Smith recognized opportunity as she watched her community recover in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. She believed in her business idea so strongly that she sold her house in order to fund it. Smith is cofounder and CEO of Vizalytics, and creator of Mind My Business, an app now helping over 3,000 local business owners get critical dat…

What does a venture investor with operating experience look for in the entrepreneurs she funds? Kara Nortman, a VC partner at LA-based Upfront Ventures, shares some inside baseball with BroadMic host, Kelly Hoey. Nortman, a former co-founder of Seedling, a family activities startup, claims her previous experience as a founder has improved her abili…

Venture capitalist Jeanne Sullivan is taking the cannabis industry by storm. Formerly, a co-founder of StarVest Partners, Sullivan is an advocate for cannabis legalization and adviser to investors in this new high growth industry. Jeanne tells host, Kelly Hoey, why cannabis presents such a massive business opportunity for women. Notes Starvest Part…

As an early stage entrepreneur, how do you balance having a big vision with staying narrowly focused on a product’s proof of concept? Meet Seattle-based nanotechnologist, Christina Lomasney, whose startup uses electrochemistry to “grow” metals. Listen to Lomasney’s conversation with Kelly Hoey for advice to female founders about the importance of f…

Erin Bagwell, first time director, and co-producer of Dream, Girl, didn’t start out in movies. Bagwell got the courage to quit her corporate job and pursue her dream of becoming a filmmaker from discovering a community of young women entrepreneurs who were pursuing their big dreams. Inspired by her peers, Bagwell “leveled up” and began to believe i…

Three hundred billion dollars. That’s the global financing gap between male-owned and female-owned businesses. When Anne Ravanona heard this appalling statistic she sprang into action and founded Global Invest Her, an online platform dedicated to funding women entrepreneurs. This week we spoke with Anne about closing the confidence gap and perfecti…

A feminist and behavioral scientist, Matt Wallaert believes that using data to build products is the key to effecting real change, such as the gender pay gap, which explains why he created GetRaised, a tool that helps women ask for raises. He is currently Director of Microsoft Startups, where he uses psychology to build products that enable people …

How do we get more funding for communities of color? Finney is founder and Managing Director of digitalundivided, and Co-Author/Research Lead on #ProjectDiane, a proprietary data project about the state of Black women in tech entrepreneurship in the United States. Leading with data, Finney is fundamentally changing the discussion about diversity in…

Are you considering raising capital? Meet Stephanie Newby. As founder of NY-based Golden Seeds, an investment firm providing early stage capital to women-led tech companies, and as CEO of a big data startup raising outside capital, Stephanie has been on both sides of the table. Stephanie weighs in on the value of taking risk, how to find the right …

How do you build great company culture right from the start (hint: Tina’s answer involved a Chief Happiness Officer)? How do you decide which of the million business ideas you’ve considered is most worthwhile to pursue? What are creative examples of corporate sponsorships? This week on BroadMic Bonus Cuts, Tina Roth Eisenberg answers all of these a…

What does it take to become the first woman in the history of Goldman Sachs to be promoted into sales management? That accomplishment was just the beginning of Janet Hanson’s career. Kelly Hoey and Janet talk about how her early career at Goldman prompted her to strike out on her own as founder/CEO of Milestone Capital and 85 Broads, the global bus…

Yuli Ziv was so passionate about her startup idea that she initially used her 401K to bootstrap it. Yuli is the Founder & CEO of Style Coalition, a first-to-market platform helping brands connect with top online lifestyle influencers. Yuli and Kelly talk about Style Coalition, being a bootstrapping solo founder, how being an immigrant inspired her …

Why is it smart business to invest in founding teams that include women? Should all female founders seek angel or venture capital? Adam Quinton and Kelly Hoey chat about Adam’s outspoken and unwavering support for female entrepreneurs, his calling out the bias that exists among Silicon Valley VCs, and his advice for female founders. Adam is Founder…

Majora Carter, an urban revitalization strategy consultant and agent of change, founded StartUp Box, a social enterprise in the South Bronx generating entry level jobs in the tech industry. Kelly Hoey and Majora chat about the massive opportunity behind StartUp Box, how Majora is rolling it out in other cities, and her philosophy about not letting …

Tina Roth Eisenberg is a New York based, Swiss born and raised graphic designer. Over the past nine years, Tina (aka design blogger @swissmiss) has started numerous side projects that have organically turned into businesses: a collaborative co-working space called FRIENDS, a global, monthly lecture series called CreativeMornings, a simple to-do app…

Kelly Peeler, founder/CEO of NextGenVest, is tackling the $2.9Bn problem of unclaimed financial aid in a trillion dollar student loan market one text message at a time. NextGenVest is a free, on-demand, text message service that helps students navigate the complex financial aid and student loan process, NextGenVest is quickly becoming a trusted col…

How do you know when the time is right to pitch your startup to investors? Is crowdfunding right for your business? In her interview with Kelly Hoey, Alicia Syrett, angel investor, founder of Pantegrion Capital, and a CNBC PowerPitch panelist, answers these questions and gives tips on what every founder should have in their pitch deck. Notes New Yo…

Miki Agrawal is disrupting not just one but three taboo industries. Pee, periods, and poop are uncomfortable topics for some, but these billion dollar industries are ripe for change. Miki, an entrepreneur who thinks big, is the CEO and co-founder of THINX, a high-tech, beautiful underwear solution for women to wear during their periods. Listen to h…

How does diversity help startups build great products? This week on BroadMic Bonus Cuts, listen to Tami Reiss, Nikki Kuritsky, and Allessandra McGinnis on… Why diverse hiring is important to building a world class team and product Their practical tips on managing diverse teams The core engineering hires you need for your startup What agile means in…

Is the startup unicorn over? What is blockchain? This week on BroadMic Bonus Cuts, listen to Joanne Wilson & Jalak Jobanputra answer these questions and more… Joanne Wilson on Unicorns in today’s funding environment A cautionary story about investors and cram downs Convertible notes versus equity Jalak Jobanputra on Why blockchain is the next ‘inte…

Does unconscious bias affect the language we use when talking about startups and founders? This week on BroadMic Bonus Cuts, listen to Heidi Messer & Susan Lyne about… Their fascinating (and different!) takes on Reid Hoffman’s quote about what he looks for in an entrepreneur: “I look to see if someone has a marine strategy, for taking the beach; an…

What’s every entrepreneur’s dream? To build a big business, successfully exit and lead a life of autonomy with choice. Our guest today needs no introduction: Carley Roney co-founded The Knot in 1996. Think about where the internet was then. It was AOL chatrooms, dial up modems, and a single photo took five minutes to load. Carley takes us through t…

Our guest today has a “golden” resume, notably for the ease with which she crossed the Internet 2.0 digital divide, while at the helm of some of the largest brands in media, commerce and consumer products – Disney, ABC, Gilt and AOL. Susan Lyne is now founder and president of Built by Girls Ventures, aka BBG Ventures, a corporate VC fund investing …

Have you ever been guilty of the following crimes: thinking that you could start a company if only you could find a developer? Hiring a developer—your aunt’s cousin’s son—because he’s cheap? Taking a ‘hands off’ approach to managing your developer team? Then you need to listen to today’s guest, Nelly Yusupova, the CTO for Webgrrls and founder of Te…

What makes a world class venture capitalist tick? How does she develop the confidence to invest in the future now? Meet Jalak Jobanputra, the General Partner of Future\Perfect Ventures. Jalak Jobanputra is a global technology veteran and powerhouse with a 20-year track record of investing in cutting edge technologies. While running her own micro-VC…

What’s the stereotype of a VC? It’s someone with a computer science degree, an MBA, who ran a startup. The door seems closed to anyone who doesn’t meet those requirements. Meet wunderkind Jessica Peltz-Zatulove, the exception to the rule. Jessica, a Madison Avenue veteran turned venture capitalist at kbs+ Ventures, a corporate VC fund, invests in t…

When angel investor Joanne Wilson was recently asked “how do female entrepreneurs find you”, she replied “i don’t know, they find me; i guess i’m kinda out there.” Joanne’s larger-than-life reputation precedes her… for going to bat for her female founders, and for speaking the truth even if it comes at the expense of her own pocketbook. Joanne took…

“Agile…lean startup…fail early…fail fast…fail cheap…”. These terms are tossed around but what the heck do they mean? More specifically…what do they mean when you’re building a product and running a business? Today I’m speaking with a panel of product experts who will explain these terms and how they apply to every business. If you’re about to build…

Want to build a big, disruptive business that improves lives and make a lot of money in the process? Meet Heidi Messer, an extraordinary NYC entrepreneur who sold LinkShare, a decade ago for $425 million, but when she was pitching the buisness to investors in the mid-90s, she had to have a slide in her investor pitch deck, “what is the internet and…

“We can’t move forward with only 50% of the population.” In the past 3 years, only 4% of female founders have received venture capital funding. It is 2016, well past the time to change this. Women are a powerful entrepreneurial force—not just a large consumer market to be tapped or “binders full of women” to be hired. Listen to host Kelly Hoey high…

How many times have you seen or listened to an entrepreneur profiled in the media as a “white-male, hoodie-wearing, unicorn-hunting, Stanford engineer”? Hungry for substantive advice from accomplished entrepreneurs, investors and industry leaders who look and sound like you? Welcome to BroadMic where we are breaking the mold about what it means to …