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HypewomenThe Gender Investment Gap with Darya KamkalovaSend us a textDarya Kamkalova is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and ecosystem builder. She is the founder of Venturing Women, a platform for emerging and early-stage female founders as well as investors of all genders. After more than a decade in tech, she shifted her focus to increasing women’s representation in entrepreneurship and investment, unlocking untapped potential, and driving innovation.Through her podcast Venturing Women, she has amplified women’s voices, highlighted role models, and fostered conversations on breaking systemic barriers. Her work connects capital, mentorship, and opportunity—challenging outdated systems and advocating for a...2025-04-171h 13
AMPLIFY WOMENS'S VOICESDaring Visions: Darya Kamkalova: Amplifying women entrepreneurs, we co-create a better worldDarya Kamkalova is an entrepreneur, angel investor, and ecosystem builder. She is the founder of Venturing Women, a platform for emerging and early-stage female founders as well as investors of all genders. After more than a decade in tech (data products and marketplaces), she shifted her focus to increasing women’s representation in entrepreneurship and investment, unlocking untapped potential, and driving innovation.Through her podcast Venturing Women, she has amplified women’s voices, highlighted role models, and fostered conversations on breaking systemic barriers. Her work connects capital, mentorship, and opportunity challenging outdated systems and advocating for a future wher...2025-04-0210 min
On The Up & Up11: From Constraints to Creativity: Charting the Path from Corporate Employee to Entrepreneur | Darya KamkalovaStay in touch & up-to-date via our social: https://linkin.bio/ontheupandup-io
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Hey there Risers and Thrivers,
In this episode, Darya Kamkalova, the founder of the Venturing Woman Lab and Venturing Women Podcast, an incubator for women aspiring to delve into entrepreneurship. Darya, a tech enthusiast and angel investor, discusses her journey from feeling stuck in her corporate career to launching an initiative aimed at supporting women in tech entrepreneurship. The conversation covers:
The challenges and misconceptions surrounding women's roles in the entrepreneurial landscape,
Highlights the importance of self-belief, cl...2024-03-3148 min
Venturing Women#35: Growth mindset: don't just ride the waves, make them - Nadine MezherNadine Mezher was eager to spearhead change in habits and attitudes to handling money in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa). She wanted to democratise access to investing and make it available to not only the ultra rich. Nadine co-founded Sarwa, a platform for investment and personal finance. In 2022, Forbes recognised Nadine among 20 women behind Middle Eastern tech brands. A fashion professional and owner of her own design house in the past, Nadine unpacks the concept of growth mindset in business and private life.Topics we discuss:Anticipating shifts in...2023-07-1229 minVenturing Women#34: Out of natural habitat as a founder - Alina BassiHow do you launch an innovative business in uncharted territories? Alina Bassi realised she could apply principles of coffee waste management to recycle textiles into… plastics. A chemical engineer, she launched Kleiderly in a foreign country, with no language skills, and out of network. She masterfully addresses challenges of two industries simultaneously: cloth waste management and manufacturing plastics.Main topics:Is it a good idea to donate used clothes?Think like an engineer: use materials in an unconventional senseThe most beneficial thing to do for an out-of-natural-habitat founderFrom a fear of failure to ‘Wow...2023-06-2833 minVenturing Women#33: Gender investment gap: Its origin, impact and ways to bridge it - Lucy Chow, Vera Futorjanski, Medea Nocentini, Katie WachsbergerAll-women startup teams receive less than 3% of the venture capital globally whilst male-led startups collect 89% of it. And as if this statistics wasn’t depressing enough, the trend is negative. It’s getting worse every year.Venture capital investors share their views on the reasons behind such disparity. What are its consequences? What are we as a society missing out if this gap perpetuates? And how can we possibly bridge it?About guests:Lucy Chow is the General Partner at the World Business Angels Investment Forum and a me...2023-06-1425 minVenturing Women#32: Building a FemTech, don’t look too passionate about it - Fatoumata LyMany businesses start with the future founders trying to solve an issue they face personally. FemTech startups (female technology) are no exception. Here, however, many areas are emotionally loaded and wrapped into layers of taboos.Fatoumata Ly shares how her own story of trying to conceive evolved into addressing the centuries-old issue countless women face. Fatoumata is now building Ninti, a company that provides digital solutions for personalised care around sexual and reproductive health.Topics we discuss:Raising awareness around reproductive health and breaking taboos in the workplace. Are employers ready? And...2023-05-3126 minVenturing Women#31: What is your weapon of choice to drive change? - Jacqueline van den Ende‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ sounds like a fulfilling life motto. But how do you put it into practice? How do you leave a positive mark in the world and enjoy the ride along the way? Ultimately, we all have just one life to experiment with.Jacqueline van den Ende aims to unlock 1 billion dollars of capital to help power climate solutions. That’s a big dent in the world to make! Jacqueline is a founder turned investor turned founder, twice over. A true adventurer, she moved to the Philippines to launch a star...2023-05-1730 minVenturing Women#30: Will ChatGPT be your next career coach? - Darja GutnickCan you become a better leader in 2 min a day? Yes according to Darja Gutnick, Co-Founder & CEO of Bunch, an AI leadership coach. Darja also shares her own story of how losing key people on her team and going through a split-up with her co-founder made her better leader.Topics we discuss:How can data help you to answer the deepest question about yourself?How technology and AI tools specifically can and cannot support our growth and career development. Micro-learning.Can you rely on ChatGPT and similar tools while creating content?Is it good for a...2023-05-0332 minVenturing Women#29: Are you building just a perk or a sticky product? - Leonie Ellerbrock, Viktoria LindnerMental health and marketplaces - both are hot topics! Isn’t it a great idea to build a marketplace for mental health services? Viktoria Lindner and Leonie Ellerbrock, co-founders of Mindsurance, share a story of launching such a marketplace and then walking away from this model.Topics we discuss:What’s the difference between building a perk (a nice-to-have) and a sticky product that delivers true valueWeaknesses of marketplaces as a business modelHow investors can make a difference in your startup journey and what to look out for while choosing yoursFounder mindset necessary to b...2023-04-1924 minVenturing Women#28: Build an ideal team of investors and treat this as an alliance - Sonia WeymullerCan FOMO (fear of missing out) be a market opportunity? Sonia Weymuller realised many people were seeking ways to invest into tech startups and be a part of the startup buzz. Yet, there was no platform in the MENA region to do so.Sonia Weymuller is a Co-Founder and General Partner of VentureSouq (VSQ), a MENA-based venture capital firm, and Partner Lead for the VSQ Conscious Collective, its global impact-focused investment and educational platform.Topics we cover:building a venture capital firm like a startup,why relationships between investors and founders are...2023-04-0529 minVenturing Women#27: Hardware business: building products and teams that survive any storm (or flood) - Polina MikhaylovaPolina Mikhaylova co-founded KNOT, a micromobility company, in 2015, long before shared scooters came into vogue. Terms like ‘free-floating’ or ‘swappable batteries’ didn’t exist yet. Polina is a true enthusiast of docking stations. Can they be the future of shared micromobility?Topics:Users in big cities are spoiled with easy access to shared scooters and bikes which comes at a cost of safety and environmental impact. How can mobility companies and cities change user behaviour in favour of docking stations?Why outsourcing can be totally disastrous for a hardware company.How to validate ideas and build...2023-03-2224 minVenturing Women#26: One year of podcasting, or how giving up on a designer bag can help female founders - Katia Yakovleva, Bettine SchmitzThis is a joint episode with the Female Business Angel Podcast hosted by Katia Yakovleva and Bettine Schmitz. We launched our shows more or less at the same time, one year ago. Darya, Bettine and Katia talk about one year of podcasting, their learnings, angel investing and the outlook for female founders.About Katia YakovlevaKatia is a Berlin-based entrepreneur currently working on her next venture. Previously, she had spent more than a decade at Spotify and co-founded a web3 analytics startup. She is an active angel investor and - a mentor...2023-02-0129 min
Female Business Angels PodcastIt's a wrap - 1 year of podcasting with Darya Kamkalova Dear podcast listeners! It's a wrap! As originally planned the year of podcasting is over!Our podcast community will live on this Telegram group, feel free to join and contribute. We would love to have you there 2023-01-2733 minVenturing Women#25: How technology helps investors in search of startups - Penny SchifferImagine you are invited to give a talk at Stanford about your work as an investor. Excited, you board a plane to cross the Atlantic. And a conversation with a seat neighbour on that flight changes your whole life trajectory. You are now adamant about building your own business.That’s exactly what happened to Penny Schiffer, CEO & Co-Founder of Raized.ai. After 10 years in venture capital, Penny decided to launch a startup to make this industry more intelligent. A psychology major, she had to ‘go back to the roots’ and re-discover her technical background.Topics...2022-12-2126 minVenturing Women#24: Should founders sacrifice their private life and relationships? - Jenny HolmströmIf you launch your own business, just forget about having a life. It’s only work, no play. And your friends and family will need to accept it. This notion is particularly popular in the startup world but how much truth is in it?We asked Jenny Holmström, CEO and Co-Founder of Coupleness, an app helping couples to develop healthy habits for happy relationships.Jenny and Darya examinewhy maintaining healthy relationships is a key success factor for entrepreneurs,how couples can navigate the challenges of early-stage venture building: what can go wrong and...2022-12-0719 minVenturing Women#23: Train the change muscle - Karen K. BurnsHer first job was as a saxophone player. Later, she worked on producing Star Wars and Fast & Furious in the Abu Dhabi desert - and absolutely hated it. Now an established IT professional, Karen Burns is the CEO & Co-Founder at Fyma, a computer vision company enabling data-driven urban planning.Karen knows best what change is, on personal and professional levels. She and her co-founder launched Fyma right before the pandemic hit, only to see cities deserted.We discuss how change starts deep inside us, why it is important to embrace and steer it and how...2022-11-2330 minVenturing Women#22: Business angels’ wings and money for startups - Rita Vilas-Boas9 out of 10 startups die, and the first years of any startup existence are the most challenging to navigate. This is where business angels can offer invaluable support to founders along with so much needed capital.Rita Vilas-Boas is a marketing professional, entrepreneur and angel investor focusing on consumer-centric startups. She is particularly interested in impact and women-led startups. In the last 20 years, she held top-tier roles at major global brands like Procter & Gamble and Coca-Cola as well as family businesses. Rita shares a moving story of fear, flight and growth that brought her to work and live i...2022-11-0926 minVenturing Women#21: New habits for a new life chapter - Vanessa WestphalWhat do you do if after 10 years of a successful corporate career, you feel the need for a big change? Can you make a career pivot, start in a new area and still be credible? Your track record may have helped you to get that new job or a promotion. And the same track record may hold you back from making a leap of faith into building your own business or starting anything new.Vanessa Westphal is COO and Co-Founder of Choosy, a personalised meal planning and grocery shopping assistant that makes forming healthy and sustainable eating...2022-10-2629 minVenturing Women#20: Be a leader worth working for - Kate HofmanHow do you build an indoor farming company to produce delicious salads at scale and make the food system more sustainable? You may need to start with a greenhouse on top of a shipping container as an MVP. Then raise >100mln of euros of external funding. But most importantly, you’ll need to create a company culture based on values that aren't just some words on your website.Kate Hofman is Founder and Brand Director of GrowUp Farms, an indoor farming company helping to build a more sustainable food system in the UK.Kate and I...2022-10-1230 minVenturing Women#19: Building a launchpad for women of colour founders - Stephanie von BehrLess than 0.5% of venture capital goes to women of colour founders. Is it a pipeline problem rooted in a lack of such founders? Perhaps, women of colour simply do not dare to build high-growth businesses?Stephanie von Behr, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Founderland, debunks these myths. She is focused on increasing visibility, creating community, and getting more women of colour founders funded.We talk about what allyship truly means and why it matters, how disadvantages can become opportunities and what it takes to create a robust and flourishing community. Stephanie tells the story of...2022-09-2826 minVenturing Women#18: What founders can learn from an outsider-turned-investor - Maria Dramalioti-TaylorFounders and investors alike should be excellent signal processors. But what if you are navigating an environment that your ‘sensors’ are not attuned to? You can adjust those sensors and blaze a trail. You can transform your drawbacks into unfair competitive advantages.A woman, a foreigner, and an engineer, Maria Dramalioti-Taylor shares her story of breaking into the venture capital industry. Maria is the founding partner of Beacon Capital, a London venture capital firm.About Maria Dramalioti-Taylor:Maria has led numerous investment rounds syndicating with angels, micro funds and large VCs acro...2022-09-1428 minVenturing Women#17: Who should or should not raise venture capital? And how? - Gesa MiczaikaDespite the glamorous image of venture capital, it’s not a funding source that fits all. Who should and who absolutely should not raise venture capital to finance their business? How can you make the fundraising process less painful? And finally, is there a way for an outsider to break into the VC industry? Dr. Gesa Miczaika offers straight-forward and deep answers to these questions.Gesa is the founding partner at Auxxo Female Catalyst Fund, a venture capital firm co-investing in startups with at least one female founder in Europe.People and organisations mentioned in...2022-08-3129 minVenturing Women#16: Profit vs Mission: Can you truly pursue both? - Adriana Luna-Diaz‘I am on a mission to make organic food mainstream, accessible to everyone regardless of their income level.’ While doing so, Adriana Luna-Diaz is building a profitable bootstrapped business based on the principles of holacracy (decentralised management model).Adriana is co-founder and director of Tierra de Monte, a Mexico-based AgriTech company. Forbes Magazine named Adriana among the 100 most powerful women in Mexico in 2021.Tierra de Monte creates products that improve soil fertility, protect crops and foster biodiversity. With a team of 9 and a large network of partners, the company has been operating in Mexico, Guatemala, Peru...2022-08-1729 minVenturing Women#15: The music industry, selling the company to SoundCloud, and the unflashy side of the CEO role - Hazel SavageThe way we listen to and create music has been undergoing a massive change with the rise of technology.To discuss this change and what it feels like to build and sell a business, I invited Hazel Savage. A music industry veteran, she co-founded Musiio, a music technology company, in 2018 in Singapore. In spring 2022, Hazel and her co-founder Aron Pettersson sold Musiio to SoundCloud. Prior to that, Hazel was an early Shazam employee and worked at major music companies like Pandora and HMV (British music retailer). With 15 years experience in the music industry, Hazel is a true...2022-08-0333 minVenturing Women#14: Dresses for real women, fast and slow fashion, Turkish bazaars - Ani Bagdasaryan‘Retail is dead’ proclaimed many media during the pandemic. We were all locked up in our homes and in terms of clothing, mostly needed sweatpants and pajamas. Yet, Ani Bagdasaryan opened a brick-and-mortar store in Berlin in 2021 to build up on the online success of her fashion brand.Some of the topics we explore:Career pivot: from a marketeer to a fashion brand owner. A mixture of analysis, passion, and values.Fashion design process: getting inspired by real women and their needs.Adventurous search for manufacturing facilities in Armenia and for fabrics in Turkey.The...2022-07-2031 minVenturing WomenBonus episode - 1000 downloadsWe are celebrating a great milestone - the first 1000 downloads in 51 countries. Talk to us! Let us know what do you like the most about Venturing Women. What are your favourite episodes? Why are you following our podcast? What would you like to hear in the future?I’m dying to learn more about you. Drop us a line on Instagram or on LinkedIn or reach out to me personally. In this episodes, you can hear voices of my team, too. Leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts...2022-07-1303 minVenturing Women#13: Investing in African women, detrimental copy-and-paste approach, curl classification - Lelemba PhiriWhat is Africa’s biggest treasure? Many believe it's the continent's natural resources. But what if it's Africans themselves? Specifically, African women. The backbone of the African economy, African women are the most entrepreneurial in the world. It’s statistically proven. In this episode, I am speaking with Lelemba Phiri, gender-lens angel investor and operating partner for Enygma Ventures Fund, based in Cape Town, South Africa. Lelemba shares her unconventional path to the venture capital world as well as her thoughts on possibilities to unleash the potential of African women.Some of the top...2022-07-0632 minVenturing Women#12: Equity, portfolio careers, quotas for VCs - Naïma CamaraEquity and company shares are usually far off the radar of the general public. Equity seems to be a term from the glamorous world of the startup founders and investment managers in ties and Bentley cars.Yet, things are changing.I sat down with Naïma Camara, CEO & Founder of Ownership, to discuss the evolving role of equity.Dynamic equity not only allows founders to attract talent even when capital is scarce. It can also help employees and contributors to build a portfolio of assets. Moreover, dynamic equity may also bring remarkable and mu...2022-06-2228 minVenturing Women#11: AI tackling sexual harassment in the workplace - Eleanor ManleyDespite the advancements of the #MeToo movement, we are still far away from eradicating sexual harassment. Dependent on the type of incident recorded, half of women in the EU have experienced at least one form of sexual harassment. In the US, about 80% of women and 40% of men have faced it in their lifetime. Only around 10% of incidents get reported which indicates, targets do not feel safe to do so.In this episode, I’m talking to Eleanor Manley, co-founder of Metta Space, a B2B tech solution for workplace misconduct reporting and resolution.Some of...2022-06-0829 minVenturing Women#10: Remote work, employees’ happiness and forsaking a venture round - Sarah HawleyThe pandemic seemed to have made remote work a common place. It even felt like the world would never be the same again. Yet, some companies including tech giants like Google announced returning their workforce back to offices. Others introduce a hybrid mode that requires presence in the office a few days a week. Remote work, inevitable for many in times of crisis, turned out to be hard to embrace when this crisis dissipated. Why? And how can we truly reap its benefits?I discuss this topic with Sarah Hawley, CEO and Founder of Growmotely, a platform...2022-05-2531 minVenturing Women#9: Fighting misinformation and quitting jobs in the pandemic to build a company - Jenny RomanoOur decision making heavily depends on the information we consume. Should I get vaccinated or not? Is climate change real or a hoax? Is quinoa as healthy as advertised (seriously, is it)?With time, our worldview crystallises and it seems nearly impossible to break free from our personal echo chambers that often offer so much comfort.Jenny Romano, co-founder and CEO of The Newsrooms, elaborates how AI can help to fight misinformation, promote plurality and bring people of polar opinions to a common ground. Jenny is on a mission to build a community of news...2022-05-1131 minVenturing Women#8: Steaks derived from wood, competition with the petrochemical industry, CEO turned CTO - Florence GschwendCan we go cold turkey and move away from the crude oil dependence? Will we one day start making food from non-food grade sources like cellulose? How about pasta with a wood-derived Bolognese sauce? Yucky or yummy?Together with Florence Gschwend, co-founder and CTO of Lixea, I’m looking into how biochemistry may help solve the problems of food scarcity and accelerate transition of our civilisation to zero waste.Topics we explore:Why is it so hard to develop new sustainable technologies competing with the petrochemical industry? What makes it difficult to mo...2022-04-2727 minVenturing Women#7: Wastewater, climate change and funding the unfundable - Orianna BretschgerWorldwide, 80% of wastewater receives minimal to no treatment before being discharged to the environment. This practice has a ruinous impact on the environment as well as on public health.Wastewater treatment is also a energy-intensive process. It can account for up to 5% of the country’s annual electricity load being a significant driver of climate change.In this episode, we will hear from Orianna Bretschger, the CEO and Co-Founder of Aquacycl, a company that provides technologies for safe, reliable and cost-effective wastewater treatment coupled with energy recovery.Topics we explore:...2022-04-1329 minVenturing Women#6: Not just a hobby: Podcasting as a business - Jillian Beytin, Julia JoubertHow many podcasts and podcast episodes do you think are available globally?1 million podcasts and 30 million episodes!For many podcast producers, it is nothing else but an unusual hobby coupled with an improvised 'recording studio' in the closet. Yet, the global podcasting market was valued at slightly above 12 billion euros in 2021. It’s serious money, baby! Or maybe not?To examine the business side of podcasting, I invited Jill Beytin and Julia Joubert, co-founders of a Bear Radio, a Berlin-based podcasting network, production house, and school. Although we spoke about podcasting, many of...2022-03-3029 minVenturing Women#5: Social entrepreneurship, self-discovery, and measuring impact - Alexandra PastollniggThe story of Alexandra Pastollnigg sounds like a movie plot. An established banking and wealth management professional, she went on holiday to Africa to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and write a book. This trip marked the beginning of her journey to social entrepreneurship. Topics we discuss: Abandoning an ambition to build a unicorn, re-connecting with personal mission and pivoting to make a real impact. 'I am the biggest problem': Self-discovery as a necessity for founder’s growth (and sanity). Time off and the myth 'the more we do, the bigger the output'. Challenges of assessing impact...2022-03-1629 minVenturing Women#4: Vulnerability, online learning and building an EdTech company - Rotem CarmelyEducational technology has been on the rise for the last 15 years. Yet, completion rates of online courses range between 5% and 15%. Online learning seems to lack powerful engagement mechanisms and impact in students' lives. EdTech companies also receive a very modest portion of the global venture capital pie compared to startups in other market segments. For a deep-dive into the world of online learning, I invited Rotem Carmely. Rotem is an EdTech founder with a passion for building engaging communities. Topics we explore: Vulnerability and success porn: Why is it hard to learn fro...2022-03-0229 minVenturing Women#3: Debunking the elitist image of startup investment - Svenja LassenThe world of startup investment may look mysterious and impenetrable, accessible only to the ultra-wealthy individuals seeking x10 returns. It is not for ordinary people who should rather stick with other asset classes. Or is it? To demystify startup investment, I invited Svenja Lassen, managing director of primeCROWD Germany, a venture capital and private equity firm, and founder of Female Investors Network. Topics we cover: Why are female startup investors so rare? Typical startup investors: who are they? First steps to startup investment: Where do I begin? How much money do I...2022-02-1525 minVenturing Women#2: AI in the coffee industry, fears, and emotional amplitude – Darina OnoprienkoEnjoining our morning coffee, we rarely think about the journey that coffee beans make to end up in our cup. Even more rarely do we associate coffee and the energy boost that it brings with artificial intelligence. My guest in this episode is Darina Onoprienko, the founder and CEO of Agrivero.ai. It's a technology company that develops solutions for quality control and traceability of green coffee and other agricultural products. Topics we discuss: Quality control in the coffee industry, its importance, bottle necks and the role of computer vision in this area. Darina's fou...2022-02-0127 minVenturing Women#1: Money, founder's superpower and first steps to investing – Leitha MatzMany women diligently save money but never take that next step into investment. If women do not invest in companies, they gain no power to direct projects and co-create the future. Money is closely connected with power, and power brings opportunities and choices.In this episode, I talk to Leitha Matz, an entrepreneur, an advocate of financial independence for women, and a startup mentor. Topics we explore: Why we should talk more openly about money.How a great community helps to make the first steps in the investment world.Why quitting a jo...2022-01-1630 minVenturing WomenTrailerFemale founders, investors and ecosystem enablers share their stories, knowledge, fears and failures, moments of growth and pieces of advice. With these conversations, we want to inspire more women to build their own businesses and invest as well as support them on this journey. Why should you care about this matter? Why should anyone care about it? Find the answer in the trailer. About the host: Darya Kamkalova is a co-founder of Manifest Taproom, a craft beer bar in Berlin, an investor, and a data industry professional. 2021-12-3001 min