Girls Into VC Podcast Girls Into VC

Welcome back! Today’s episode highlights Corinne Bortniker, Principal at Radiate Capital and Director at Cohen Circle. She began her career in investment banking at Cowen Inc. and Wells Fargo Securities with a focus on healthcare, tech, media, and telecommunications. Now, she invests in health and financial services businesses that provide solutions to critical global issues alongside compelling financial returns at Radiate Capital alongside a women-led team. Recently, Corinne was also recognized as one of the Venture Capital Journal’s 40 under 40 Rising Stars for 2024. 

We loved hearing from Corinne about her experience at Cohen Circle and working along some of the pioneers in the fintech world on the women-led team at Radiate Capital. Her work in social impact investing and helping startups implement impact KPIs shows us the power startups have to make a difference in people’s lives. Corinne inspires us by sharing her journey from being one of the few women in investment banking to now working on a women-led team at Radiate Capital.

Thank you for listening to this week’s episode, and be sure to tune into our next episode highlighting a new guest in the field!Find us on https://www.girlsintovc.com and follow us on Instagram @girlsintovc 

A new month brings a new podcast guest! On this episode, we host Sara Barek, founding team member of Oceans. Founded in 2018, Oceans is a venture capital firm based in New York and invests in pre-seed & seed stage companies with tech at the core and a focus on future of work. They are especially focused on helping founders create a great team to bring their game-changing ideas to life. 



Prior to joining Oceans in 2018, Sara spent 17 years at various tech start-ups serving in client-facing, operational and strategic roles and 9 years at ClearForest, a natural language processing software company acquired by Thomson Reuters. 



Sara’s excitement and passion for supporting founders as they build their companies is crystal clear throughout the entire episode. We loved hearing Sara’s stories about her experiences at Oceans, the people she is surrounded by, and the opportunities that helped her build her career. As always, Sara also shares advice for young women interested in venture capital.



Thank you for listening to this week’s episode, and be sure to tune into our next episode highlighting a new guest in the field!Find us on https://www.girlsintovc.com and follow us on Instagram @girlsintovc 

As we continue celebrating Women’s History Month, we welcome Dr. Risa Stack on the Girls Into VC podcast! Dr. Stack is a Partner at The Production Board, leading their life sciences initiatives, incubating, investing, and partnering with proven founders to build businesses leveraging new technologies in healthcare. Her impressive background ranges from holding a PhD in Immunology at the University of Chicago to trading derivatives on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, joining Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and co-founding multiple life-sciences companies, such as global diagnostics pioneer Veracyte and electronic switchmaker Menlo Micro.



We loved hearing Dr. Stack share how her career path unfolded as she pursued her interests and learned more about the finance and life sciences industries. It is clear that working in two different industries, and excelling in both, gave Dr. Stack a unique advantage in her future roles. Dr. Stack also shares her valuable insight on the life sciences industry and advice for young women to navigate impostor syndrome while working in male-dominated industries.



Thank you for listening to this week’s episode, and be sure to tune into our next episode highlighting a new guest in the field!



Find us on https://www.girlsintovc.com and follow us on Instagram @girlsintovc

Happy Women's History Month! Before introducing this week's guest, we want to take a moment to honor all the women before us and today who have improved our society and lives. We would not be where we are today without them! We begin our celebrations by welcoming Zoe Brewer on the Girls Into VC podcast! 



Zoe is an investor at Stripes, a VC/Growth Equity Firm based in New York City investing in companies like Monday.com, A24, Dataiku, On Running, and more. Prior to investing, she served as a 0-to-1 product manager at two mission-driven startups: Clair, a neo-bank combatting payday loans, and Vial, a biotech enabling next-generation clinical trials. She graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in Government, focusing on emerging technology regulation.



We enjoyed hearing Zoe share her story of how she explored finance and venture capital in college after coming in with little background about the fields from high school. Her story reassures us that it is never too late to start pursuing our interests, no matter how unique they are! She also shares advice for young women facing impostor syndrome and those who are unsure about their future career paths.



Thank you for listening to this week’s episode, and be sure to tune into our next episode highlighting a new guest in the field!

Find us on https://www.girlsintovc.com and follow us on Instagram @girlsintovc

As February comes to an end, we welcome Ellonda L. Williams on the Girls Into VC podcast! Ellonda started her career in early education before moving to Drexel University, where she served several roles pushing diversity initiatives among faculty and students. Now, she is the Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (JEDI) at B Lab, a non-profit organization that has a global vision of an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economic system for all people and the planet. She works collaboratively to create a healthy, inclusive, antiracist culture for all employees, oversees the JEDI-related organizational operations strategies, and supports the B Corp Network & Board on JEDI growth. In 2022, Ellonda was nominated as a Diversity and Inclusion Inspiration Leader and LGBTQ+ Top 40 Leader Under 40 by Business Equality Network.

We loved hearing Ellonda speak on issues like promoting diversity in higher education, creating inclusive standards for businesses across the globe to become B Corp certified, and the time, effort, hard work, and due diligence required to do both. She also shares valuable advice for founders to incorporate JEDI initiatives when building their companies and for marginalized communities in spaces lacking representation. Her deep passion for JEDI is very inspiring, and we wish her all the best with her future endeavors!

Thank you for listening to this week’s episode, and be sure to tune into our next episode highlighting a new guest in the field!

Find us on https://www.girlsintovc.com and follow us on Instagram @girlsintovc

Season 2, Episode 4

Happy Valentine’s Day! We hope you are able to celebrate your love with your special ones today 3

Our fourth episode features Taylor Jean-Jacques, investment professional on the technology investment team at General Atlantic. Prior to joining General Atlantic, she was a technology investment banker at J.P. Morgan and software engineer at Facebook and Instagram. She is a graduate of Princeton University.

It was interesting to hear Taylor share her journey of breaking into finance after switching from her career in technology, especially since she interned for technology giants Instagram and Meta. Taylor shares how she overcame the steep learning curve in her finance roles and advice for anyone looking to change their career path.

Thank you for listening to this week’s episode, and be sure to tune into our next episode highlighting a new guest in the field!

Find us on https://www.girlsintovc.com and follow us on Instagram @girlsintovc