In this episode of Brydge Club we welcome Co-Founder and CEO of Bümo, Joan Nguyen! 

Joan shares a glimpse of her entrepreneurial journey thus far, highlighting her path to Bümo, offering solutions to the US childcare crisis in 2024, her experience as a childcare provider, pivoting from brick and mortar to starting Bümo, navigating VC for the first time, plans to expand Bümo across the US and much more!

More on Joan Nguyen & Bümo:

Joan Nguyen is the founder of Bümo, the best way for families to book on-demand childcare at daycare, preschools, and drop-in camps for school-age children. Bumo is backed by venture capital investors and celebrity advisors including Jessica Alba. And has been featured in the Today Show, Forbes, Techcrunch and more. Prior to Bümo, Joan previously built a Global test prep and educational consulting company. 

https://book.bumo.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joannguyen/

More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: 

https://beacons.ai/ruffin

About Play Brydge:

Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world.

In this episode of Brydge Club, we welcome Tanvi Lal, an investor at Intuit Ventures and the founder of VC Unleashed.

Tanvi shares her inspiring journey from consulting to venture capital (VC). Learn about the glaring statistics on the lack of diversity in VC and how VC Unleashed is providing real opportunities for people of color to break into the industry. 

Key topics discussed:

More on Tanvi Lal:

Tanvi Lal is an Investor at Intuit Ventures focused on Series A-C fintech, commerce, and enabling tech. She is also the founder of VC Unleashed, a non-profit dedicated to increasing racial representation within VC investors. Prior to her role in venture, Tanvi earned her MBA at Berkeley and built a career in consulting with Deloitte. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tlal/

Tanvi’s Guide to VC Recruiting: https://tlal.medium.com/tanvis-guide-to-vc-recruiting-part-1-set-the-groundwork-37b11b9ff58

More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: 

https://beacons.ai/ruffin

About Play Brydge:

Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. 

On this episode of Brydge Club we are joined by Founder & CEO of Aydn, Elizabeth Russo. We discuss Elizabeth’s journey to founding Adyn, modern issues in prescribing birth control, her personal battle with birth control side effects, her career in genetics, why she became an entrepreneur and much more!

More on Elizabeth Ruzzo, PhD and Aydn:

Adyn is the first and only test designed to prevent birth control side effects like blood clots, depression, acne, weight gain. Elizabeth received her PhD in Genetics and Genomics from Duke University and launched Adyn after her own experience with life-threatening birth control side effects. Elizabeth has raised $3.25M in VC funding from investors including M13, YC, Anne Wojcicki - the founder of 23&me. 

More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: 

https://beacons.ai/ruffin

About Play Brydge:

Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world. 

On this episode of the Play Brydge podcast, we sit down with Ronit Menashe and Vida Delrahim, founders of ingenious his and hers prenatal supplement company, WeNatal. We discuss the modern fertility crisis, the conceptualization, launch and operations of WeNatal, Ronit and Vida’s personal journeys with prenatal supplements, tips on increasing your chances of a successful pregnancy and more!

Purchase WeNatal Supplements

Ronit Menashe LinkedIn 

More on Ronit, Vida and WeNatal:

Ronit Menashe and Vida Delrahim are the founders of WeNatal, a prenatal supplement company that is transforming the fertility space with the first prenatal supplement optimized for her AND him. WeNatal’s mission to change the narrative surrounding fertility and reproductive health is personal; after suffering miscarriages a week apart Ronit and Vida were given little direction on what to do differently. More importantly, the health of Ronit & Vida’s partners (including the health of their sperm) was missing from their fertility dialogue completely with doctors… something had to change. WeNatal shifts the fertility journey from "me" to "we” and is backed by industry leading Functional Medicine doctors, nutritionists, and fertility experts, including Dr. Mark Hyman and Kelly LeVeque. With 24 key clean, bioavailable nutrients, WeNatal steps up where other supplements fall short for all things preconception to postpartum for both parents and baby.

WeNatal is transforming the fertility space with the first prenatal supplement optimized for her AND him. In just 3 pills a day, WeNatal provides 24 key nutrients that are clean, bioavailable and third party tested for label claims, heavy metals and toxins.  Where most other supplements fall short, WeNatal stepped up including nutrients like iron, choline and methylated B vitamins; essential for all things preconception to postpartum. By prioritizing the right nutrients WeNatal gives couples a path forward and are backed by industry leading Functional Medicine doctors, nutritionists, and fertility experts, including Dr. Mark Hyman and Kelly LeVeque.

More on Host Ruffin Mitchener: 

https://beacons.ai/ruffin

About Brydge Club:

Brydge Club, hosted by Ruffin Mitchener, aims to bridge the $1.7 trillion financing gap for female founders. Every Wednesday, the show features in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators, educating and empowering women in venture capital and entrepreneurship. Through insightful discussions, the Brydge Club seeks to inspire listeners to break barriers and achieve success in the business world.

For over 20 years, Alexandra has been a trailblazer in business innovation. She’s launched and scaled over a half dozen successful, multi-channel consumer brands. Now, as CEO of Alix, she oversees rapid growth while ensuring that each Alix family receives the world-class care they deserve. 

Alexandra is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. Since 2021, she has served on the Board of Directors for Security National Financial Corporation (SNFCA).  

In this episode: 

Resources: 

Alexandra Mysoor LinkedIn 

Alix 

Ruffin Mitchener LinkedIn 

About: 

They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! 

Kate McAndrew is a Co-Founder and General Partner at Baukunst, a collective of creative technologists advancing the art of building companies. She is leading pre-seed rounds in companies at the frontiers of technology and design from Baukunst’s inaugural $100M VC fund. 

Kate has invested in over 70 companies at the concept stage, helping founding teams build businesses from scratch. Prior to starting Baukunst, Kate was a Partner at Bolt for eight years where she gained experience as a first-round lead investor & board member with a focus on companies that are evolving the cultural conversation. Kate is the founder of Women in Hardware, the premiere community for women and non-binary people building at the intersection of the digital and physical. She is the co-author of the forthcoming book, The Goddess Guide to Branding. 

Kate graduated from McGill University in Montreal with a degree in Cultural Studies/Critical Theory and Analysis. She resides in San Francisco.  

In this episode: 

Resources: 

Kate McAndrew on LinkedIn 

Baukunst 

Kate McAndrew on TikTok 

The Goddess Guide to Branding. 

Ruffin Mitchener LinkedIn 

About: 

They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! 

Mallory Contois leads Community at Mercury and founded The Old Girls Club, a virtual community for women in the second and third stages of their careers in male-dominated fields. She is also an angel investor & advisor to early-stage founders, focusing on those building in the consumer social, art & creativity, women's health, and marketplaces. Mallory previously spent time on the early teams at Pinterest & Cameo focusing on product-led growth and as the COO of Metafy, a marketplace for gamers to find community and master their skills.  

In this episode: 

Resources: 

Mallory Contois on LinkedIn 

The Old Girls Club 

Ruffin Mitchener LinkedIn  

About: 

They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! 

Natalie Barbu is a content creator turned entrepreneur. She began her social media career in 2011 on YouTube as a beauty creator. Since then she has grown her following to over 380,000 across platforms. She is also the host of The Real Reel Podcast, a show where she speaks to entrepreneurs, business leaders, and creators to talk about the real reel - not the highlight reel. Natalie is also the CEO and founder of Rella, a venture-backed software startup building the back office for creators. 

In this episode: 

Resources: 

Natalie Barbu LinkedIn 

Natalie Barbu YouTube 

Ruffin Mitchener LinkedIn 

About: 

They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer! 

Kate Sanner is an entrepreneur and marketing expert with a passion for sustainability and consumer behavior. With over eight years of experience at Anheuser-Busch, Kate honed her skills in brand development, notably contributing to iconic campaigns such as Bud Light's "Dilly Dilly" era. Co-founding Beni during her time at Kellogg School of Management, Kate spearheaded the mission to revolutionize secondhand shopping by making secondhand shopping as effortless as purchasing new items. Since filming this episode, Kate has stepped into a new role as CEO of Beni. Kate continues to inspire as a female founder, embodying resilience, innovation, and a dedication to driving positive change in the retail industry.

In this episode:

Resources:

Kate Sanner (LinkedIn)

Kate Sanner (TikTok)

Beni

Ruffin Mitchener LinkedIn 

About:

They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer!

Joan is the co-founder and CEO of Arise, whose vision is to create a world where everyone, everywhere has the freedom to heal from eating disorders and disordered eating. Joan brings her own lived experience with eating disorders and mental health conditions alongside a deep empathy for the diversity of the mental health journeys of so many others to drive her work as a product leader in the mental health tech space.

Most recently, Joan was a product leader at Headspace Health where she led initiatives that empowered members to get into clinical care faster than ever before and led personalization initiatives with the AI/ML teams. Before Headspace, Joan led product at Click Therapeutics where she launched their first clinical trial product, a novel digital treatment for major depressive disorder that was recently approved by the FDA.

Before her work at mental health tech startups, Joan started her career in management consulting at Deloitte where she led projects to implement robotics process automation at a top global pharmaceutical company and EHR systems for a state-wide development disability service provider.

Joan holds a B.A. cum laude in Psychology with a minor in Computer Science from Harvard College, where she conducted fMRI research to understand how stress impacts our ability to utilize cognitive reappraisal and also published a book on the mental health experiences of Asian American students at Harvard.

Joan lives in Houston, TX with her partner (Eric) and their endlessly entertaining puppy (Ari) and perpetually grumpy cat (Charlie). Since moving to Houston from NYC during the pandemic, Joan has been focusing on spending more time with family and building an intentional community.

In this episode, Joan talks about:

Resources:

Joan Zhang

Arise

Arise on Instagram

Arise on Twitter/X

Arise on TikTok

Ruffin Mitchener LinkedIn 

About:

They dared to dream and built empires. Join host Ruffin Mitchener as she unveils the inspiring stories behind the most inspiring female founders and women in venture. Every other week, we publish a new interview packed with startup secrets and the blueprint for your business success. Tune in on Wednesdays to meet the next game-changer!