Ten years ago, Lisa Mattam started ⁠Sahajan⁠ with a simple bet: that the Ayurvedic rituals her parents brought from Kerala could stand beside any clinical skincare brand on the market. This episode, recorded live in Toronto, lands on the exact week that bet pays off, with Sahajan rolling out to Sephora's Next Big Thing wall.

Joining Lisa is Manica Blain of ⁠Top Knot Ventures⁠, an early-stage consumer investor. Manica and Lisa's relationship goes back years, but it was a deep dive into Sahajan's repeat-purchase data that turned Manica from a believer in the brand into one of its most active backers.

We talked about what happens when an investor tells you "not yet" and how to actually hear it, why live selling became one of Sahajan's most powerful community tools, the real math behind customer loyalty and lifetime value, and why founders who pace their growth deliberately are often the ones built for longterm success.

Brown Girls, Money Moves is hosted by Bhargavi Varma. Henah Velez is Executive Producer, with video support from Amanda Wan. Theme music from Indo Warehouse.

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/sAcyrtES-zI

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💌 Want more about angel investing, South Asian female founder stories, and belonging to a community that builds and funds Brown girl businesses? Find us on all social platforms @browngirlangels.

First with Covid and again with global tariffs, cross-border shipping went from an industry footnote to a global issue overnight. Rathna Sharad saw it as a problem to solve, and she set out to do so with FlavorCloud—and Rathna sits down with us to share her journey.

Joining Rathna is Mahati Sridhar from Revolution's Rise of the Rest fund, which backed FlavorCloud back at the pre-seed stage. Revolution has built its entire thesis around finding founders in the cities everyone else overlooks.

We talked about what it means to be "married to the problem" long before you have a business plan, why place can be a founder's unfair advantage instead of a limitation, how to actually build trust with investors when the world is on fire around you, and what separates founders who are just along for the ride from the ones who turn a moment of chaos into their moment.

Brown Girls, Money Moves is hosted by Bhargavi Varma. Henah Velez is Executive Producer, with video support from Amanda Wan. Theme music from Indo Warehouse.

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/uIgATng2Eow

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💌 Want more about angel investing, South Asian female founder stories, and belonging to a community that builds and funds Brown girl businesses? Find us on all social platforms @browngirlangels.

The gap holding back women’s health may have been hiding in plain sight all along—and the person to find it wasn’t a doctor, but a 26-year-old entrepreneur with a background in machine learning and unanswered questions about her own body.

I’m talking about Priyanka Jain, founder of Evvy—the company building the first and largest database of the vaginal microbiome, and the team behind Evvy AI, the first AI advisor for vaginal health. We're also joined by Nisha Dua of BBG Ventures, one of Evvy's earliest investors and the co-founder of one of the first funds to put a real stake in the ground for women and underrepresented founders—back in 2014, before it was much of a talking point. 

We got into why leading with the opportunity is the smartest thing an unconventional founder can do, what it actually looks like to build in a category that barely existed when you started, and how these two women ended up at the forefront of one of the most underfunded and overlooked spaces in healthcare.

Brown Girls, Money Moves is hosted by Bhargavi Varma. Henah Velez is Executive Producer, with video support from Amanda Wan. Theme music from Indo Warehouse.

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/tEIsvY3HrNM

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💌 Want more about angel investing, South Asian female founder stories, and belonging to a community that builds and funds Brown girl businesses? Find us on all social platforms @browngirlangels.

What if the things you've been obsessed with since you were nine years old turned out to be the basis for a $1M business idea?

That's what happened for Zehra Naqvi, founder of Lore—the AI-powered fandom search platform that already has hundreds of thousands of people on its waitlist. We're also joined by Marina Girgis of Precursor Ventures, one of their earliest believers and a pre-seed investor.

We got into why obsession is an underrated investment thesis, what it actually takes to pitch a VC when you have nothing but an idea and a really good memo, and how two women with unconventional paths found their way to the cutting edge of consumer AI.

Brown Girls, Money Moves is hosted by Bhargavi Varma. Henah Velez is Executive Producer, with video support from Amanda Wan. Theme music from Indo Warehouse.

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/GrxrEwl2VTY

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💌 Want more about angel investing, South Asian female founder stories, and belonging to a community that builds and funds Brown girl businesses? Find us on all social platforms @browngirlangels.

Building a peer-to-peer startup from scratch is hard—but doing it sustainably, profitably, and on your own terms? That's a different level entirely. Fresh off of winning Retail Entrepreneur of the Year, Eshita Kabra-Davies, founder of By Rotation, joins us today along with her investor, Triin Linamagi of Sie Ventures, to discuss this milestone, balancing authenticity and community with the risk of seeming cringe, and how to turn a cold connection into a funding relationship.

Brown Girls, Money Moves is hosted by Bhargavi Varma. Henah Velez is Executive Producer, with video support from Amanda Wan. Theme music from Indo Warehouse.

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/IUmkBJ2MLHk

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💌 Want more about angel investing, South Asian female founder stories, and belonging to a community that builds and funds Brown girl businesses? Find us on all social platforms @browngirlangels.

Risk, venture capital, and the fintech landscape look fundamentally different in Silicon Valley than in South Africa, and Africa's tech ecosystem is rapidly growing. So let's learn from the pros: Thalia Pillay, alongside co-founder Carla Wilby, launched Orca to fight against emerging market fraud, and their pre-seed round for an all-women team was the largest across the continent. One of their backers was Norsken22, a tech growth fund backed by more than 30 unicorn partners.

Today, Bhargavi sits down with Thalia Pillay of Orca and Nivesh Pather of Norsken22 to discuss the importance of being capital-efficient (and how valuable that is for investors, too), the advice to just "stay in it" as a woman entrepreneur, and a primer on the VC and tech landscapes in the African ecosystem.

Brown Girls, Money Moves is hosted by Bhargavi Varma. Henah Velez is Executive Producer, with video support from Amanda Wan. Theme music from Indo Warehouse.

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiLUW4n3X6Y.

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💌 Want more about angel investing, South Asian female founder stories, and belonging to a community that builds and funds Brown girl businesses? Find us on all social platforms @browngirlangels.

Would you interview 1,000 prospective customers about their pain points and ideas, before launching your business?

That's exactly what Kobalt Labs co-founders, Ashi Agrawal and Kalyani Ramagurdam, did. Less than two years later, they closed a $11m round, led by the former Managing Partner at YC Continuity and founder of First Harmonic, Ali Rowghani.

Today, host Bhargavi Varma is joined by both Ashi Agrawal and Ali Rowghani to discuss the power of pivoting, knowing your target market's pain points, investing in your partner over an idea—and how to grow a startup beyond the sapling stage to avoid "where death lurks."

Brown Girls, Money Moves is hosted by Bhargavi Varma. Henah Velez is Executive Producer, with video support from Amanda Wan. Theme music from Indo Warehouse.

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/uJAtv3DyAc8

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💌 Want more about angel investing, South Asian female founder stories, and belonging to a community that builds and funds Brown girl businesses? Find us on all social platforms @browngirlangels.

Welcome back to Season 2 of Brown Girls, Money Moves with Bhargavi Varma!

Today, we're talking to Nitya Subramanian, the founder behind blockchain leader Para, and her investor Maya Bakhai of Spice Capital, who's also backed by the likes of Marc Andreessen and Alexis Ohanian.

We're covering everything from how anyone can become an angel investor, to why democratizing access isn't just good ethics—it's good business.

Brown Girls, Money Moves is hosted by Bhargavi Varma. Henah Velez is Executive Producer, with video support from Amanda Wan. Theme music from Indo Warehouse.

Watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/iY6y_ZMPjPs

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💌 Want more about angel investing, South Asian female founder stories, and belonging to a community that builds and funds Brown girl businesses? Find us on all social platforms @browngirlangels.

If you believe business is about more than the bottom line—or if you need fresh faith that purpose-driven founders can commercialize real innovation—this is your new playbook.  

In this truly inspiring episode, host Bhargavi Varma sits down with Founder Nivatha Balendra (Dispersa), and Investor Olga Cruz (BDC) to talk about resilience, science-driven innovation, and the power of value-aligned investing.Nivatha shares the remarkable journey of launching Dispersa, a cleantech startup which converts food waste into eco-friendly biosurfactants. Olga reflects on her path as an Investor (from Good & Well to BDC Thrive Lab) and the importance of intuition, seva, and supporting women founders.

Together, they unpack what it takes to commercialize sustainability solutions, navigate fundraising, and stay grounded through meditation, community, and resilience.

About The Founder:Nivatha Balendra, (Forbes 30 Under 30 Science) founded Dispersa, a biotechnology company that transforms food waste into sustainable, biodegradable surfactants for the cleaning and personal care industries. After the 2013 Lac-Mégantic oil spill, she began researching oil-degrading bacteria at the age of 17 and has since been recognised for her innovative approach to environmental sustainability.

About The Investor: Olga Cruz, is a Director at BDC Capital’s Thrive Lab, where she leads a $50 million investment fund focused on early-stage, women-led, impact-driven businesses across Canada. In addition to her investment work, Olga is a certified breathwork and meditation teacher with the Art of Living Foundation, emphasizing the importance of clarity, presence, and emotional intelligence in leadership.

🔗 Mentioned in this episode:

Dispersa

PuraSurf (by Dispersa)BDC

BDC Thrive Lab for Women Good & Well

Hyve

For Nivatha's Mom

 In this episode, Shaherose Charania(Women 2.0, Unshackled, Nike) and Ishveen Jolly (OpenSponsorship) join host Bhargavi Varma for a conversation that embodies the core values of Brown Girl Angels: The power of paying it forward. They dive into how Sevā and giving to others influences their work and creates pathways to capital, while also sharing insight into the practices that make a strategic angel and if there’s a right time to raise funds.

Together they discuss the growing presence of South Asian women in business and sports, and what it’s like to be supported by someone like Serena Williams. From a serendipitous first meeting to nurturing a business that’s creating powerful changes in sports sponsorship- they have set the bar for Investor/Founder relationships. Grab your chai, join us! 

About The Founder:

Ishveen Jolly is the founder and CEO of OpenSponsorship, the largest two-sided marketplace for sports sponsorship, connecting tens of thousands of brands and athletes globally. Notably, Brandin Cooks’ Levis x Dicks Sporting Goods campaign and Jamal Adams’ Quorn campaign.

About The Investor:

Shaherose Charania is the CEO and Co-Founder of Women 2.0, a Partner at Unshackled Ventures, and the host of the podcast First Funders. Coming from a background in Strategy, Advisory and Investments with Nike, Shaherose has since expanded her vast portfolio to include angel investing, her own VC firm and advisory of others. 

🔗 Mentioned in this episode:

OpenSponsorship 

Women 2.0

Unshackled Ventures

First Funders Podcast

Serena Ventures

Oregon Sports Angels

All Raise

Brown Girls, Bold Moves is hosted by Bhargavi Varma. Find out more about Brown Girl Angels here. The show is made by editaudio. It’s edited, mixed and produced by Megan Hayward. Our Production Manager is Kathleen Speckert. Our Associate Producer is Kam Grewal. Theme music for Brown Girls, Bold Moves is by Kunal Merchant, Prateeksha Srivastava, and 6091 from Indo Warehouse.

Get involved with Brown Girl Angels below:

• Follow us on social @browngirlangels 
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