This week, I’m excited to share my conversation with the fantastic co-founders of Élastique Athletics, Emeline Kuhner-Stout and Caitlyn Wooldridge, who bring with them an interesting mix of start-up experience and corporate brand storytelling.

Emeline grew up in the French Alps near the Swiss border. She spent her youth watching her grandmere fit people for compression garments in the local pharmacy. It wasn't until later in her adulthood that she would foray into the same space of compression garments. After law school, stints with the UN and OECD, a couple of...

Leart Zogjani is a talented graphic designer, teacher, and serial entrepreneur. He's worked in design since the age of 14 and first had his work published worldwide when he was only 17. Leart's first startup was an open-world game for iOS, which won second place out of 118 companies at Techstars Global Startup Battle.

He then founded Skins Agency, a brand strategy and development agency that specializes in global brands and successful investment pitches. Leart's latest venture, Symbolt, is a creative design space for marketing teams that struggle with lengthy document revisions, allowing...

Leslie Goldman is the Co-Founder & Principal, The Artemis Fund, a female-founded, female-focused venture capital fund that invests in tech-enabled seed and series A companies.

Leslie is also an active Angel Investor, Board Member of The Houston Angel Network, Investment Committee Member of Blue Ivy Ventures, and Strategic Advisor for Rebel Fund among other advisory and board positions.

Leslie is also a frequent speaker on venture capital, diversity in startups, unconscious bias, and angel investing. Before founding Artemis, Leslie practiced law and worked to recruit legal and...

Mark Moeremans is the Senior Vice President for Entrepreneurship and Venture Development at the Arizona Commerce Authority, a public-private agency focused on economic development across Arizona. 

In this role, Mark runs the Arizona Innovation Challenge, one of the largest pitch competitions in the country, as well as the Venture Ready Accelerator Program. He has long been interested in the intersection of the private-public and social sectors, and throughout his career, he has looked at entrepreneurship, technology and business as a way to drive economic development.

Mark has...

Stephanie Sims is a Capital Strategist and the Founder of Finance-Ability, a boutique consulting firm focused on helping entrepreneurs get the funding they need to grow their business.

Stephanie founded Finance-Ability after more than 20 years of working on both Wall Street and Main Street. Now she teaches entrepreneurs to paint a picture with numbers that helps them make confident decisions and captivate people with money to say yes.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• Speed round with Andrea Guthrie

• Andrea shares...

Stephanie Sims is a Capital Strategist and the Founder of Finance-Ability, a boutique consulting firm focused on helping entrepreneurs get the funding they need to grow their business.

Stephanie founded Finance-Ability after more than 20 years of working on both Wall Street and Main Street. Now she teaches entrepreneurs to paint a picture with numbers that helps them make confident decisions and captivate people with money to say yes. 

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• Stephanie Sims talks about the one mistake...

Sonny Patel is the Founder and CEO of Insurmi, an AI-based engagement platform for insurance carriers. He started the company just three years ago at the age of 21 while working as a Sales Director and Financial Advisor for a top life insurance company. During that time, he realized the process of buying and selling insurance was unnecessarily cumbersome and outdated. 

Determined to change the process, Sonny worked to develop a solution that would simplify the task and take the guesswork out of insurance buying. That solution would eventually become Insurmi. Now, Insurmi is being used...

Keith Ippel is an ecosystem builder, keynote speaker, and advisor to incubators, accelerators, donors, and governments. With over 20 years of experience as a leader in technology and impact businesses, Keith has helped accelerate the growth of small and large companies alike and has raised over 30 million in angel investment and venture capital. Moreover, his background has given him an unparalleled ability to collaborate with entrepreneurs, employees, and investors to grow businesses and change the world. 

Keith now leads Spring, a global incubator and accelerator that empowers...

Leslie Goldman is the General Partner and Co-Founder of The Artemis Fund, a female-founded, female-focused venture capital fund that invests in tech-enabled seed and series A companies. 

Leslie is also an active Angel Investor, Board Member of The Houston Angel Network, Investment Committee Member of Blue Ivy Ventures, and Strategic Advisor for Rebel Fund among other advisory and board positions. 

Leslie is also a frequent speaker on venture capital, diversity in startups, unconscious bias, and angel investing. Before founding Artemis, Leslie practiced law and worked to recruit...

Eric Smith has over ten years of experience in Technology Commercialization and a passion for entrepreneurship. Eric came to the University of Arizona Center for Innovation after serving as the Commercialization Network Manager for Tech Launch Arizona (TLA), the University of Arizona's office responsible for moving UA research and technological innovation into the marketplace. 

While Eric was at TLA, he focused on building and leveraging a network of domain experts and business leaders who consult on university technologies to help reveal their commercial relevance. He also managed...