Who Gets the Money? Seven Women on Raising Capital, Returning It, and Building Our Own Fund

Episode 1000. Almost a decade ago I started Wings of Inspired Business to change the power dynamic for female founders, who to this day receive less than 2% of venture capital while delivering 2.5 times the returns. So, for the thousandth episode I gathered seven women who have lived it: Rajia Abdelaziz (invisaWear), Lindsey Mignano (Mignano Law Group), Clare Baukham (The Billionaire Woman), Ungenita Prevost (Ungenita Beauty), Trixy Castro (TRX Capital) and Deborah Sass (SpaceVrse), bookended by venture investor Naseem Sayani (GCWC Capital). The subject: money. Who gets it, why, what to say when an investor hesitates, and how women could put $55 billion into venture without asking anyone's permission.

🔑Key Takeaways🔑

💰 📈 The Numbers Don't Lie: Women-founded companies deliver 2.5x the returns, generate 78 cents of revenue per dollar invested against 31 cents for men, burn 15% less capital, exit six months faster, and made up 24.3% of US venture exits in 2024 on less than 2% of the funding. As Naseem puts it, "that's not the takeaway." Imagine how much bigger these businesses would be if they were funded.

🎯 🤝 Qualify Your Investor as Hard as They Qualify You: After 99 no's, Rajia flipped the pitch: "I'm going to be as selective about you as you are about me." Lindsey on why a term sheet is a long-term marriage, "all collaborative until it's not," and the five questions to ask before you take the money.

🗣️ 💡 Rewrite the Pitch: How Rajia went from safety statistics to "that could be your daughter, your granddaughter, or your wife," and sold a quarter of a million dollars in two minutes on Good Morning America. Plus, Clare's reverse-psychology close: "Don't put them on a pedestal. It's not for everyone," and my enterprise-sales version, "can you see any reason why you wouldn't want to do this?"

🚪 🛤️ Venture Isn't the Only Door: Lindsey on founder haircuts of 20% at seed and 16 to 17% at each round, why "an incredibly great, incredibly lucrative business" may not be right for VC, and the alternatives her clients use: crowdfunding, SBA loans, non-dilutive credit lines and revenue-based financing. Her own girlfriends' fund: 30 accredited women who pooled their money and got into a $300 million fund.

💪 🦋 Resilience, $52.27 and the Fearless Girl: Ungenita on the day she was down to $52.27 (she still has the bank slip), Trixy crying in front of the Fearless Girl statue on Wall Street and vowing to be that girl for everyone behind her, Deborah on why she will "always, always support other women in any freaking way I can," and Clare's butterfly: "that's not me anymore."

🏟️ 💵 The $55 Billion Stadium: Naseem's math: 100,000 accredited women, $50,000 each, is $55 billion into venture, "a sports stadium of people." From treasurer to co-CFO of your household, to an annual investing allocation, to female fund managers walking in together instead of as the exception. And why investing in women "is not charity. I'm here to make money."

🎙️Subscribe to Wings and get the full Show Notes at https://bit.ly/Wings1000

More about the guests: invisaWear · Mignano Law Group · Ungenita Beauty · TRX Capital · SpaceVrse · GCWC Capital · Clear Art Reserve