Support an Emerging Investor, Amplify Women Founders

Hi, I'm Darya Kamkalova, founder at Venturing Women. I am building a ecosystem to empower women founders and investors. My next goal is to raise a venture fund to finance women entrepreneurs and gender-mixed teams to make the startup & investment world more equitable, diverse and thriving.

Now, until May 6, I have an incredible opportunity to amplify my impact by attending the prestigious education program offered by Stanford University and 500 Global. This is a rigorous and highly competitive investor training for emerging fund managers and leaders who want to shape the future of the venture capital industry - just like I do.

The program comes with a significant cost and I need your support. Your donation isn't just for my education—it's an investment in a future where every woman’s big ideas have a chance. A future we will all benefit from these new ideas becoming a reality.

Getting admitted to the program of such calibre was a pinch-me moment. I applied for a scholarship but unfortunately did not receive it. ‘Heck, it does not happen every day that I get admitted to Stanford,’ - I thought and decided to crowdfund.

Most crowdfunding campaigns address a human crisis. This one aims to amplify human potential - not just mine but of many people I will be able to elevate as an investor. Be a part of this story!

Any amount will make a difference.

Why this matters:

Investors play a critical role in shaping our world, deciding which innovative ideas flourish and which do not. Right now, the amount of venture capital that women collect worldwide, is abysmal.

Last year, all-female startup teams received only 1,5% of the venture capital invested in Europe. All-female teams collected 80,8%. In the US, the numbers are 2,1% and 74,1% respectively.

Why does this happen?

Investors tend to finance those who ‘look like them’. Given that the absolute majority of venture capitalists are men, guess what happens? Right, men mostly invest in men. Women founders experience immense challenges fundraising. Off the record, I hear outrages stories from women founders on what kind of hoops they have to jump through to raise capital.

It’s not some moaning about ‘how unfair our world is’.

This means, countless innovations coming from women will never get a chance. From everyday essentials to groundbreaking services, the lack of diversity among investors means we all miss out. The global economy could rise by trillions of dollars in fact according to a BCG study!

This is also not only about our economy. It is about our dreams - millions of dreams that will never come true.

As humanity we do not exhaust our full creative and economic potential.

My Vision:

I envision a world where every ambitious woman can reach her full potential building a startup - and get the necessary support and funding.

For that, we need more women investors.

We also need more funds run by women (research shows that funds led by gender-diverse teams also deliver higher returns for investors).

As an investor, I will not only finance and support women founders shaping the world around us. I will also serve as a role model for more women to join the investor ranks and further transform the industry. Just imagine this ripple effect!

However, breaking into the venture capital industry is hard and even more difficult for women.

My story:

I spent more than a decade working on the confluence of tech and automotive, working with data products. I experienced first-hand and observed how much more difficult it is for women to navigate male-dominated industries.

Once I hit my glass ceiling 2 years ago, I committed to elevating female founders and started building a community and an ecosystem.

In these 2 years, I have:

Only to state: All this is not enough.

What I need to do is to become an investor. Build my own fund to finance women founders. But for that, I now need a springboard.

I grew up in poverty in the Russian province in the aftermath of the Soviet Union collapse. In my wildest dreams as I child, could I not imagine how far I would have gone and how much impact I would have had.

A springboard that made all this possible was a scholarship for my Master’s studies in Germany. To receive it though, I had to be very creative as typically, law majors like myself rarely get a chance to study abroad.

I am again being creative - now with a crowdfunding campaign if not a scholarship.

How You Can Help:

Join me in building a more inclusive and equitable world. Your support will help cover the tuition for the VC Unlocked program, enabling me to gain the knowledge and network necessary to build my own fund and elevate women founders.

Your Impact:

Rewards:

I am immensely grateful to everyone who supports my mission: cheerleading, spreading the word, donating. Thank you for considering supporting my journey.

Any donation makes a difference.

Every supporter will receive an invitation to a closed WhatsApp group where I will be sharing my journey and learnings from preparing for and attending the program. I will also host a live session after completing my studies. If you are an aspiring VC, this will give you access to the backstage of attending a top-tier education program and exclusive insights I will be collecting along the way.

But I also do want to offer something in return to the most engaged donors even though Gofundme does not incorporate a reward system.

500 euros/dollars:

I will gather a small mastermind group with weekly or bi-weekly sessions (4 sessions in total). Masterminds are facilitated peer-to-peer mentoring sessions that offer a mix of brainstorming, education, peer accountability, and support. We will need at least 3 participants for the group dynamics.

750 euros/dollars:

3-hour brainstorming session - a deep dive to analyse your startup/situation and strategise.

1000 euros/dollars:

Founder branding: Individual support and guidance to help build your founder brand on LinkedIn (4 sessions).

Idea validation: Individual support and guidance to help you validate your business idea and either start working on it or ditch it to focus on something else (4 sessions).

3000 euros/dollars:

Individual guidance: I will be your advisor, mentor, sounding board and sparring partner for 3 months to propel you to new heights. I am very good at identifying people’s blind spots and helping them to find hidden doors and overlooked opportunities.

5000 euros/dollars:

If you are a VC, a fund or crowdinvesting platform willing to diversify your portfolio, let’s talk about how I can support you as a scout or venture partner for a time period.

My areas of expertise:

My core expertise is in the data industry.

Key functional areas: data monetisation, data acquisition, data products, business development, business operations, data marketplaces. Core industry segments: mobility & automotive, smart cities, logistics, IoT.

As a podcast host at Venturing Women and content creator, I offer insights on content creation, storytelling and founder branding.

One of my key strengths is analytical thinking: move from big picture to the not-so-obvious details and relationships between those, bring new perspectives and find non-trivial solutions.

Finally, what people say about my work

‘Your podcast was one of the reasons for me to become an entrepreneur. I heard so many amazing founders on your show. This made me believe it was possible’ – Claudia Guerreiro, Founder at Conscious Marketing Movement

‘My pitch deck before your online speed mentoring session and after it are worlds apart’ – Zaahirah Adams, Founder at hati

‘Your advice helped me develop my business model and tap into sources of revenue I would never have come up with’ - Dr Michele Veldsman, Founder at Playroom

‘You are not only sharing information, but also inspiring other women to become entrepreneurs. Showing real-life cases, highlighting and busting myths and misperceptions, guiding through common pitfalls, you make it all much more understandable and doable for the rest of us’ - Marina Nevolina.

‘Your LinkedIn post on angel investing with small checks opened my eyes and triggerred me to become an angel investor. I realised there are many initiatives which make angel investing more mainstream and not only for the high-net-worth individuals, which was my perception before. This is huge impact!’ – Viara Ivanova

‘You made me overcome my fears. Now I know I can do anything’ - Valentina De Giorgis opened her angel investment chapter literally copying and pasting my update (with a credit).

Links

My profile on LinkedIn

Homepage of my incubator , Venturing Women Lab

LinkedIn page of Venturing Women Lab

My podcast, Venturing Women is available everywhere where podcasts live

Instagram of Venturing Women Lab

VC Unlocked program by Stanford and 500 Global

Thank you for being a part of my journey and helping me to change the venture capital industry and elevating women founders!

Please share this campaign with people who care about this cause. Share it with your network. Let the power of crowdfunding do its magic!