Simone: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Simone Tarantino managing partner at impact mentors, and I'm here with my business partner and co-founder Donald Pollard. In today's podcast, we're talking with Karim Fugel, Chief Business Development Officer for several startups, angel investor, and mentor at the ERA accelerator in New York, as a guest in our series about accelerating the success of minority-funded companies in the US. Karim, thank you so much for being with us.

Karim: It's my pleasure, Simone. 

S: Let's just jump right in, you've been part of the startup ecosystem for a while, you work in New York, you’ve worked in LA, how have you seen it evolve in this time?

K: I have seen many changes, as far as the emphasis on supporting underrepresented founders. And so there are, and the needle is moving slowly, towards more investment in female-founded businesses, in more investment in minority founded businesses. Not enough progress. But there the discussion is being had on several platforms. And so it's encouraging, but we all need to do a bit more.

S: I think you touched a very important point about underrepresented founders, minority founders, and how the global ecosystem not just in the US, and the global ecosystem, has to react and has to react fast, is doing something we saw data about investment in female-led companies, growing in, minority-led companies growing, it's still a number of sort of very low.  So the action is needed to go faster. And we need to do way more in that direction. What what's your take on that? 

K: I agree, 100%. And if we do see the growth of VCs, certain funds that are focused on those particular areas, Female Founders Fund, I mean, there are many that we could mention, she loves tech, which is a great organization that provides the opportunity for women-founded startups to pitch and be part of this global equal ecosystem. And so it those are positive strides. And as the investment comes from those types of VCs or investors, that also provides the kind of viewpoint for the founders to have something to strive towards, and to someone to connect with that is of like, minded to them and like being, culturally. And I think that helps. And it actually also just opens up the minds of all the millions of people in the world who have wonderful ideas, and don't know how to carve that path towards trying to start a new business. So there, again, progress and these great VCs and businesses that are built to support this ecosystem. So it is great to see that but obviously more progress and more room to for others to enter, and start to motivate and just keep that wheel turning. 

Donald: So Karim, you work with She1k, a female lead organization that supports each future female leader. You know, can you tell us a little bit about how they help the overall female entrepreneurial ecosystem? 

K: Absolutely. It's a very unique organization. So the founder, Christina is from Singapore. And she just had a mission to kind of really get involved in the startup world and make a difference after her success, and just shows you the power of one woman to have a mission. Just kind of fearlessly dip our toe into this world and see what would happen. And that's exactly what she did. And the most interesting story is we connected over LinkedIn, her content was very motivating to me and I felt very aligned with her. And she came to New York, and I said to her via LinkedIn, hey, if you ever come to New York, I would love to support you and help you. And so we connected that way she pre COVID it was putting on these events called Women changemakers. And that content just was so aligned with so many women. That's just kind of putting it out organically, she attracted a credible number of women. And she comes from the corporate world. And so she really wanted to support women in corporate to grow. So that's one piece of what she created. And then the other piece of She1K is, is an investment arm is, she calls it labeled it a shark tank. So it's a pitching event, and how they've, they're in, I've done several rounds now and are investing in all types of founders, but with a focus on helping women who grew up in corporate, and never even thought of being part of the startup ecosystem, that, that they never thought they could utilize their savings and their income, to be involved in this world to have exposure to all of the newness and ingenuity that's coming up through the startup world. You know, it's kind of like, I'm in the corporate bubble. This is what I do, you know, and thought, Well, what do you do if your savings you in maybe invest in real estate or travel or whatnot. And so she's opened their eyes to this whole other world that they were never exposed to, and has brought them in to be part of having the ability to invest in these startups.