Venturing Deep

Welcome to the “Venturing Deep” Podcast!  I want you to meet Antoine Woods Jr.!  Antoine is a tech entrepreneur, advisor, and investor at BRONZE. In short, he started as a programmer, became an entrepreneur, grew into venture capital, and now leverages social capital for others.

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I want you to meet Imani Ross!  Imani Ross is a born and raised Philly native and currently works as a Senior Consultant at a Big 4 Firm. She is an author, a public speaker with a background in Tech Sales, Business advisory, and a graduate of The George Washington University with a B.A in Political Science. While it all may feel seemingly unrelated, her background and experience in corporate and start-up spaces, student activism, and consulting led her to the creation of Peerhood Development, a mentorship community elevating Black Professionals' careers across the nation.

We got into a range of topics: her childhood, college life, consulting, and the Peerhood organization. This was a good one Y'all!

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Mitchella “Mitch” Gilbert is an inclusive product designer. She was a former elite athlete and Nike employee, so she is obsessed with women’s health and sportswear apparel. She attended the UCLA Anderson School of Management after earning a full scholarship to build her startup Oya Femtech Apparel. She is one of the first 200 black women to raise over $1M in venture capital and she graduated from the University of Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy. Also, Oya is not Mitch’s first dance with entrepreneurship, but Oya Femtech Apparel is Mitch’s fourth company!

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 Ezra is the founder and managing attorney at Ezra Law. Ezra Law is a mission-driven law firm created and geared toward supporting Black & Brown-owned startups/businesses throughout their entire life cycle, we are talking corporate formation and governance, investment and contractual agreements, to even litigation.

We talked about everything, from his upbringing, to where he went to college, why he chose law, and his love for puff puff (an African pastry). This was such a great episode!

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Our next guest is Rachel Wilson! Rachel has over a decade of global experience working across various industries including Food & Beverage, Automotive, Tech, Healthcare, Music, Fashion, and Media. As Principal and Head of Operations for Collab Capital (a VC Firm headquartered in Atlanta, GA) , Rachel runs the VC ops and fund governance processes of the fund. This includes investor relations, fund reporting oversight, impact metrics strategy, and all governance including legal and HR. She has been a long-time advocate for mental wellness and has been the Chair of the Board for her family's behavioral health treatment center, Omnis Health Life Wellness Center, for over 7 years.

She has a B.A. in Economics & Business from Agnes Scott College and M.S. in Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is also on the board of Black Women in Venture Capital (BWiVC), a nonprofit dedicated to supporting careers across the spectrum of venture capital and capital access networks for Black women and she is a Margaret Atwood Practical Utopias Fellow.

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Haley is a Principal at Hustle Fund VC. Prior to joining Hustle Fund, Haley worked for Apple, worked with bootstrapped and venture-backed tech startups and scaled the b2b SaaS content marketing agency Animalz as COO. Additionally, Haley started angel investing in 2020 to support founders from or supporting underrepresented communities and has invested in over 50 companies to date! Tune into this page to hear about Haley's amazing journey to Venture Capital and supporting phenomenal entrepreneurs!

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 A Bermudian native, Isis is also a business owner & serial entrepreneur. She is a graduate of the #1 HBCU, Spelman College (some notable alumni are Stacey Abrams and Rosalind Brewer). Currently, she is the co-owner of House of Isis, a brand that she runs with her mother Gina. A Plant-based product line that provides health-conscious black women with access to non-toxic hair & skin care. Isis and her mother have grown House of Isis into a 6-figure company. House of Isis has been recognized as Forward Founders by retail giant Target [Pause] and has been featured in many news outlets including Voyage ATL & the Bermuda broadcasting network. And y’all that is not even it, but we got to get the show...Y’all I know that this is going to be a good one!... Okay Isis, are you ready???

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Garry is an award-winning startup founder and nationally recognized ecosystem builder working to build a more inclusive and equitable innovation economy. Garry is the Founder & Executive Director of First Founders Inc., a nonprofit organization on a mission to lower barriers to entry and increase the likelihood of success in the innovation ecosystem. Additionally, he serves as the Founder & CEO of Bison Venture Partners, a company on a mission to empower a new generation of angel investors. He is also the author of “The Ghetto VC: How to Invest Like a Venture Capitalist”.

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Thank you for joining me for this episode of Venturing Deep! In this episode, we will be talking to Mitch Brooks. Mitch is the Co-General Partner of High Street Equity Partners where he invests in pre-seed and seed stage startups alongside his fellow General Partner, Tristan Wilkerson. High Street Equity Partners defines itself as a next-generation investment company that operates at the intersection of purpose and profit in the 21st-century economy. Mitch and his partner Tristan bring a fresh, new outlook on investing that is warranted in the startup world and beyond!

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Thank you for joining me for this episode of Venturing Deep!

In this episode, we will be talking to Anthony Obi. Anthony was once a founder who knew very early in his entrepreneurial journey that he wanted to be on the other side of the table. Now, he is an Investment Associate at  Virginia Venture Partners investing in pre seed/ seed stage startups! It means so much that you stopped by to listen and now let’s get deep!

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