Brown Girls, Money Moves

Bhargavi Varma
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Updated Biweekly

Brown Girls, Money Moves features the world’s most inspiring South Asian founders and the investors who fund them. Bhargavi Varma is the founder of Brown Girl Angels, a global angel and VC collective of South Asian women mobilizing their capital and investing in South Asian female led startups. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter (Brown Girls, Money Moves) and our global dinner series (Brown Girls, Desi Dinners) and stay connected.

  1. Jul 1

    10 Years in the Making: Lisa Mattam & Manica Blain on Sahajan's Sephora Moment

    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 — 💌 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.

    10 Years in the Making: Lisa Mattam & Manica Blain on Sahajan's Sephora Moment

  2. Jun 17

    From Covid (& Tariffs) to Cross-Border Commerce: Building a Global Shipping Platform with Rathna Sharad & Mahati Sridhar

    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 — 💌 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.

    From Covid (& Tariffs) to Cross-Border Commerce: Building a Global Shipping Platform with Rathna Sharad & Mahati Sridhar

  3. Jun 11

    Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud with Priyanka Jain & Nisha Dua: Evvy & the Business of Women's Health

    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 — 💌 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.

    Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud with Priyanka Jain & Nisha Dua: Evvy & the Business of Women's Health

  4. May 27

    "I Don't Want Mentoring, I Want Cash": How Eshita Kabra-Davies Turned a Cold LinkedIn DM into Funding, with Triin Linamagi

    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 — 💌 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.

    "I Don't Want Mentoring, I Want Cash": How Eshita Kabra-Davies Turned a Cold LinkedIn DM into Funding, with Triin Linamagi

  5. May 20

    Record-Breaking Pre-Seed Round, Capital-Efficient Growth: How Thalia Pillay & Nivesh Pather Are Reshaping African Fintech

    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. — 💌 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.

    Record-Breaking Pre-Seed Round, Capital-Efficient Growth: How Thalia Pillay & Nivesh Pather Are Reshaping African Fintech

  6. May 13

    Ashi Agrawal Interviewed 1,000 Banking Pros Before Launching Her Fintech Company—Backed by Ali Rowghani

    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 — 💌 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.

    Ashi Agrawal Interviewed 1,000 Banking Pros Before Launching Her Fintech Company—Backed by Ali Rowghani

  7. May 6

    Anyone Can Be an Investor: Why Democratizing Access is Key for Nitya Subramanian & Maya Bakhai

    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 — 💌 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.

    Anyone Can Be an Investor: Why Democratizing Access is Key for Nitya Subramanian & Maya Bakhai

  8. 11/11/2025

    Stage 4 Cancer survivor to clean tech CEO—Nivatha Balendra (Dispersa) on scaling impact, why every “no” matters and choosing the right investor in Olga Cruz (Good & Well, BDC)

    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

    Stage 4 Cancer survivor to clean tech CEO—Nivatha Balendra (Dispersa) on scaling impact, why every “no” matters and choosing the right investor in Olga Cruz (Good & Well, BDC)
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About

Brown Girls, Money Moves features the world’s most inspiring South Asian founders and the investors who fund them. Bhargavi Varma is the founder of Brown Girl Angels, a global angel and VC collective of South Asian women mobilizing their capital and investing in South Asian female led startups. Be sure to sign up for our newsletter (Brown Girls, Money Moves) and our global dinner series (Brown Girls, Desi Dinners) and stay connected.

Information

  • Creator
    Bhargavi Varma
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    13
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Bhargavi Varma
  • Show Website
    Brown Girls, Money Moves