Forbes Talks Forbes

Founder and CEO of FindMine Michelle Bacharach joins "Forbes Talks" to discuss her company, which uses AI in the retail space, and her thoughts on AI over the past decade.

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In 2023, female-owned venture capital firms received just 3% of the total $107 billion raised across venture firms worldwide, up from 2% in 2022. It is within this environment that Renata Quintini, cofounder and managing director of Renegade Partners, is announcing the close of a fresh $128 million in dry powder. The close of Fund II brings her firm’s total assets under management to $228 million, a size Quintini believes is a “Goldilocks” fit for the work she and cofounder Roseanne Wincek want to do.




“If you’re managing a billion dollars, the math works against you,” she said during a sitdown interview at the Forbes studio. “At our fund size, we can write checks for $10 million, or in some cases have single digit percentage ownership that makes sense for our fund math… I’d much rather own a bite of a watermelon than the whole grape. Let’s optimize for opportunities to say yes to great founders.” Quintini also dished on what aspiring founders—of companies and venture firms alike—need to know about operating in 2024.

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Hiring managers have long used the reputation of a new college graduate’s alma mater as an indicator of an applicant’s ability and expected job performance. Elite national consulting, banking and investment firms focused their recruiting on the Ivy League and a handful of the other most selective schools. Big companies looked more widely, but still often favored a limited number of highly ranked universities. Regional firms would tap graduates of schools with the best reputations in their geographic area.

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You’re not imagining things: The Ivy League is forfeiting its standing as America’s producer of great talent. Here are the schools producing the hard-working high achievers that employers crave.

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Rhino Onward International, or ROI as it called itself, launched in 2022 with some big promises. The renewables development firm claimed that its “proprietary process and technology” put it in position “to assume the leading role in Green Hydrogen production.” The company said it was building a green hydrogen plant in Arizona that would be worth about $530 million within 5 years, according to marketing materials it shared with investors.




ROI raised $31 million from over 200 investors but apparently only invested $200,000 in the business; the firm’s promoters Paul Croft and J.D. Frost diverted the rest of the investors’ money to themselves and entities they control, according to an investor lawsuit filed in Illinois last month, which cited bank records obtained through subpoenas. Beginning in 2021 until last year, Croft, a 42-year-old entrepreneur living in Chicago, and Frost, a 40-year-old accountant based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, raised approximately $46 million from a series of phony renewables investment schemes, which the pair used to live extravagantly, pay employees at their tax advisory business, pay down short-term loans and even lend money to embattled professional hockey player Robin Lehner, according to allegations in lawsuits, bankruptcy filings, former investors and ex-employees of Croft’s and Frost’s businesses who spoke with Forbes on the record, and others with knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak about sensitive information.




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YouTube creator and former Forbes Under 30 lister Sean McLoughlin "Jacksepticeye" spoke about why he's giving fans at least two more years on his channel before retiring. However, McLoughlin is already testing other business opportunities with his coffee company Top Of The Mornin' Coffee and his comic book series The ALTRVERSE.

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