Finclusive

Garry Cooper is the CEO of Rheaply, a Series-A Climate Tech company in Chicago, and one of six GPs at Longjump VC, a first-check, founder-led fund investing in the next generation of Chicagoland founders. Garry shares his fundraising journey for Rheaply and for Longjump, and ideation process behind the two ventures. LongJump VC had been an idea for Garry and his network of Chicago founders, until George Floyd's death last summer solidified the formation of the fund. The GPs successfully raised over $4 million by the time the fund was announced in March 2021. 

As a Black founder, Garry constantly asks himself, "What more can I do for Black, brown and underserved communities?" He draws parallels between Rheaply's mission of advancing the Circular Economy and LongJump's mission of giving voice to underfunded and unconnected founders. Garry shares his goals for the next ten years, and how he strives to broaden the economy to let more people in. 

Fion is the co-founder and COO of Fairly AI, an AI Governance, Risk, and Control (GRC) solution that keeps organizations' AI responsible and regulated. She discusses her career as a technical and business leader at ATG before, during, and after its Oracle acquisition, her experience with late-stage investing, followed by her interest in early-stage venture investing. She joined Founder Institute, where she met her co-founder and together they launched Fairly AI in April 2020. Fion shares how Fairly AI closes the gap between technical data scientists and non-technical decision makers, and reduces high-velocity financial and ethical AI risk. 

A C-suite executive connector and facilitator, Nicole Ward is the National Director of Sales at Moss Adams LLP, and Podcast host of Watermark Women of the C-Suite. In her conversation with Kelly, she shares her journey in angel investing, her appetite for risk, and the joy she finds in supporting those building something they are passionate about. She shares her journey of making one of her first investments in Porfolia, where women can learn about venture investing from other women. Nicole appreciates the American philanthropic culture and enjoys sharing her time and network with entrepreneurs and new investors. She's also very interested in biohacking and cites her endless energy as one of her sources of power. 

Plentina is the buy now pay later fintech startup building a new digital-first experience for financial services leveraging artificial intelligence. Earl is an aerospace engineer by training, and Kevin was a computer vision researcher at NASA Ames. The two met as graduate students at Stanford, where they bonded over dinner discussions on how to best serve their shared Filipino community. Realizing that credit card penetration in most Southeast countries (except Singapore) fell below ten percent, the two decided to use machine learning and data science to unlock financial services for emerging markets. Kevin recalls doing research on the ground by approaching street merchants in Manilla and accessing their financial challenges and aspirations. Plentina has launched an initial partnership with 7-Eleven in the Philippines, where they leverage loyalty programs and co-marketing strategies with merchants to increase sales and generate credit scores for their customers. Plentina has raised an initial seed funding of $2.2M and is actively hiring. Check out their open roles here. 

We share an inspiring conversation with Carmelle Cadet, Founder and CEO of EMTECH, a Fintech company on a mission to create financial inclusion for all, especially those who are underbanked, unbanked and deemed "unbankable." She shares her personal story of growing up in Haiti, gaining access to financial services when her family moved to the US, and going on to have a 10-year career at IBM working in blockchain technology. She describes her lightbulb moment of deciding to quit her 6-figure salary job to work on an issue that was deeply personal to her. Carmelle walks us through the grueling process of raising her first million, pitching to central banks and investors such as a16z, and all the lessons she's learned along the way. 

A conversation with Manan Mehta, Founding Partner at Unshackled Ventures. Unshackled Ventures was founded in 2014 with the mission to help immigrant founders succeed. The firm invests in immigrant entrepreneurs at the ideation stage (60% of commits made before incorporation), sponsors visas, and provides full immigration support for immigrant founders who often do not have the support network of native-born founders. Unshackled has made 55 investments to date, backing founders from 6 different continents. Manan shares his experience building a company with an immigrant founder and learning the pain points of visa issues facing immigrant entrepreneurs. He highlights that the main challenge facing immigrant founders is not what they know, but who they know. Manan discusses how Unshackled has found its niche market in the VC space through its expansive access to a fast-growing network of immigrant entrepreneurs.


In May 2020, Hamilton released her first book from Penguin Random House entitled "It's About Damn Time", which is based on her personal journey into entrepreneurship and venture capital. 

Listen to our interview with Arlan Hamilton by Lauren Nham and Kelly Lei on how Arlan spot founders and people that she would want to work with. 

• What she defined as underestimated and overlooked
• Does she think she's overhyped? 
• How she's scaling Backstage Capital
• How she invests now and trends that she sees
• How she plans to make a difference
• What would she would be doing if she was 
• She even shared her email address with us. 

Arlan Hamilton is the Founder and Managing Partner of Backstage Capital, a venture capital firm dedicated to minimizing funding disparities in tech by investing in high-potential founders who are people of color, women, and/or LGBT. Started from scratch in 2015, Backstage has now raised more than $15 million and invested in more than 175 startup companies led by underestimated founders. In 2018, they launched a four-city accelerator program in Los Angeles, Detroit, Philadelphia, and London. Arlan has been featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine as the first Black woman non-celebrity to do so, and is the author of “It’s About Damn Time” and host of the weekly podcast “Your First Million”. Arlan and her mother, Mrs. Earline Butler-Sims, announced their scholarship program which kicked-off with scholarships for Black students at Oxford University and HBCU Dillard University.

Founder and investor Elizabeth Yin shares how Hustle Fund is democratizing wealth through entrepreneurship. Elizabeth shares strategies behind how Hustle Fund is able to write the earliest checks for new startups based on thoughtful evaluations of the founding team and the existence of “market pull.” For new VC firms, Elizabeth offers advice on portfolio construction. She highlights the importance of building a unique brand and leveraging other investors in the ecosystem. Through Hustle Fund and her personal investments, Elizabeth hopes to generate a vibrant startup ecosystem by creating more programs and funds for founders, as well as opportunities for new funders.