Breaking the Cycle of Exclusion: Funding for Women-Owned Businesses with Erika Lucas

Feminist Founders: Building Profitable People-First Businesses

In this episode, Becky Mollenkamp sits down with Erika Lucas, a trailblazing entrepreneur and advocate for women-led businesses and entrepreneurs of color. Erika shares her journey from growing up in a family of bootstrap entrepreneurs in Mexico to navigating traditional corporate environments in the U.S. before breaking free to co-found Stitch Crew and Vest. Erika candidly discusses the systemic barriers for women in business, including challenges in raising venture capital, and how these obstacles disproportionately affect women of color. She also highlights the realities of venture capital inequality, the lack of women in private equity, and the importance of inclusive workspaces for women. Together, they dive into how entrepreneurship for women of color is essential to breaking the cycle of inequality and creating real, lasting change in business. This conversation touches on funding for women-owned businesses, addressing microaggressions in corporate America, and finding non-dilutive funding for startups.

Erika Lucas (she/her) is the Founder of StitchCrew, an organization providing capital and resources to the New Majority entrepreneurs. Erika also founded VEST, a peer network for women professionals and investment fund investing in women-led companies building solutions for the intersection of the Care Economy and Future of Work. Erika is a thought leader, sought-after speaker and LinkedIn Top Voice on Venture Capital and Entrepreneurship. She is on the Board of Arvest Bank, the Diversion Hub and the Oklahoma City County Health Department, as well as a member of the Latino Corporate Directors Association, Familia VC and Somos VC. Prior to StitchCrew and VEST, Erika was a Partner at a Private Equity firm investing in Aerospace & Defense. Before that she was Global Director at the Oklahoma Department of Commerce.

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Discussed in this episode:

• Erika’s journey from traditional employment to entrepreneurship and the systemic challenges women face in both spaces
• The myth of the self-made entrepreneur and its harmful effects on business owners
• Venture capital inequality and why so little funding goes to women and people of color
• The importance of intersectional feminism in business leadership and building diverse investment teams
• How Latina entrepreneurs are thriving, despite systemic barriers
• The role of accelerators like Stitch Crew in supporting women-led startups
• Non-traditional venture capital funding, social impact investing, and solutions for entrepreneur burnout
• How Vest is changing the game for women-led businesses and tackling the care economy

Resources mentioned:

• Stitch Crew
• Vest
• “America’s Trillion Dollar Blindspot,” Erika’s TEDx Talk
• Yoni.Fit
• Diversion Hub