#112: Female angel investors, how to start investing, and why the new changes to the Financial Promotion Exemptions will disproportionately impact women with Roxane Sanguinetti and Marla Shapiro
Roxane Sanguinetti is an experienced investor, Head of Strategy at the quant fund GHCO and co-lead of Alma Angels, an inclusive community of investors actively supporting ambitious women founders. She is a trader by background but passionate about tech and entrepreneurship, Roxane previously held positions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and an early stage fintech called HUBX. Roxane is a fierce advocate for diversity & inclusion, Roxane also co-heads the London Chapter of Women in ETFs, a global community of 10,000 professionals. Marla Shapiro is the Founder of the HERmesa angel syndicate. Marla launched the group in early 2020 with two distinct missions: a) to give more women a seat at the table as angel investors and b) to invest more money in women co-founded startups. She has grown the syndicate from 5 women to nearly 200 members and they have collectively invested in 29 rounds of financing in women led startups. Prior to launching HERmesa, Marla worked for nearly 20 years for media & technology companies in operational roles as a strategist, business development director, sales lead and COO. The companies ranged from large multi -nationals, such as the Financial Times & Zee TV, to small media tech start-ups in the UK and Europe (companies ranged from pre-seed to Series A). Marla spent the early years of her career working on Wall Street & the City at firms, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and NatWest in structured finance roles. We cover the following in the conversation: Angel investing: how Roxane and Marla got started Why invest in female founders The difference between an angel syndicate and an angel network The changes to the Financial Promotion Exemptions How these changes will disproportionately impact women and ethnic minorities How can we encourage more women to invest in the startup ecosystem and back female founders? *** *This podcast was recorded before the changes to the Financial Promotion Exemptions were introduced, ie before 31 January 2024.