Spain
Juliana Garaizar
Episode 29: About the Funding Gap in Venture Capital and Ways to Address it
Meet Juliana Garaizar, an experienced investor whose career has evolved into one focused on supporting inventors from minority groups, including women. Juliana has lived in multiple countries. She was born in Bilbao, Spain, and lived in France where she obtained an Erasmus scholarship to complete her last year of university studies. She also lived in Singapore while working for the Spanish Trade Commission, and now lives in Houston, Texas, where she serves as the head of Houston incubator Greentown Labs. Juliana explains to us the funding gap in venture capital and some of the factors that help perpetuate the problem. She encourages us to cultivate our network, and to aim to diversify our sources of income, so that when our values don’t align with our jobs, we have an easier time doing something about it. Juliana also offered a different perspective about the imposter syndrome, and explains how microaggressions can put us down without us even recognizing them, leading to us losing confidence that can be mistaken as the imposter syndrome. Lastly, Juliana encourages us to learn more about investing, so that even if we don’t have large amounts of money, we can still support inventors looking to develop ideas that can solve problems experienced by women and minorities.
Some of the opprtunites mentioned during this episode:
Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Scholarships: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/opportunities/individuals/students/erasmus-mundus-joint-masters-scholarships
Investment resources: https://www.portfolia.co/
Angel Capital Association - https://www.angelcapitalassociation.org/
Diversity Fund Houston - http://thediversityfund.com/
Netflix Documentary: This Changes Everything
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliana-garaizar-8443b7/