Women raise just 2% of venture capital. Naseem is on a mission to move that number and she has some uncomfortable truths about why women keep losing the room before they've even pitched.
Naseem spent years at BCG Digital Ventures as one of just two female partners out of forty-five worldwide, sitting in boardrooms where capital flowed freely everywhere except towards women. She left to co-found Emmeline Ventures, a seed-stage fund backing female founders in health tech, financial services, and sustainability, and now works with female founders to fundraise and scale innovation.
We explore:
- Why women still get called "abrasive" while men get called "proactive", and the BCG experiment that proved the bias was real
- The pitching reframe that rewires your brain so you can tell the story investors need to hear: "Lead with money. Put the empathy in the appendix."
- Why picking up the coffee cups, taking the notes, and finishing sentences with an upward inflection is costing women deals, and promotions
- The IVF journey that reshaped Naseem's career, purpose, and view on health tech for women (female founders in healthcare knew more about her body than her doctor did)
- How to build investor relationships to fundraise successfully (how men raise $10M over a weekend, and why you aren't)
- Why "abundance" is a strategy, not a vibe
Chapters
00:00 The 2% problem: why women still aren't getting the capital
02:00 Inside BCG: politics, lobbying for promotions, and life as the lone female partner
05:00 The newborn moment that ended her consulting career
07:30 Job descriptions, performance reviews, and the experiments that actually moved the needle
10:30 Confidence, the cups, and the notebook trap
14:00 Why women don't talk about money — and the deconditioning we owe ourselves
16:30 "Lead with money. Put the empathy in the appendix."
22:00 IVF, female health, and the capital disparity she couldn't unsee
27:00 Building Emmeline Ventures and changing where capital flows
31:00 Building investor trust before you need it. Living in abundance.
Connect with Naseem:
Her Linkedin
Her Podcast "The Capital Flex Podcast"