Closing the Funding Gap: How Women Investors are Supporting Women Founders in Venture Capital with Jacqueline Schafer Artwork

How Women Inspire: Invest, Lead, Give

How Women Inspire: Invest, Lead, Give sets out to bring the voices of empowered and inspiring women forward to share their stories of stepping into leadership positions. We aspire to share what is possible and encourage more women to leap, striving for these board and c-suite positions themselves to change the path towards a more inclusive future. This podcast will share stories on how women lead and how their leadership opens the doors for the greater value of opportunities for others. By listening to this podcast, listeners will feel empowered to level up themselves or invest in women-led and women-founded companies to change the world of business. Find out more about How Women Inspire at https://www.howwomenlead.com/

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How Women Inspire: Invest, Lead, Give

Closing the Funding Gap: How Women Investors are Supporting Women Founders in Venture Capital with Jacqueline Schafer

March 05, 2025 • How Women Lead • Season 1 • Episode 158

What if I told you that women are poised to control trillions of dollars in wealth, yet only a fraction of venture capital funding goes to women-led businesses? It's time to change that narrative. Today, Julie Castro Abrams and Jackie Schafer discuss how we can support women founders, close the gender funding gap, and create a future where women's leadership thrives. This week’s episode 158 of How Women Inspire Podcast is about closing the funding gap and supporting women founders in venture capital!

This episode was created in partnership with the Nasdaq Foundation. Together, we are working to educate, inspire, and engage women from diverse backgrounds on venture investing and entrepreneurship. Did you know that only 2% of venture funding goes to women-led companies? Together, we are working to show that women are the new face of venture investing.

In this episode of How Women Inspire Podcast, Jacqueline Schafer is sharing the importance of investing in and supporting women founders and actionable steps you can take right now to start your investing journey.

Jacqueline Schafer is the founder and CEO of Clearbrief (Winner, Litigation Technology Product of the Year, Legalweek 2023). Schafer serves as one of inaugural members of the Texas Bar’s AI Taskforce, and she was chosen by the American Bar Association as one of the “2022 Women of Legal Tech” and named to the 2022 Fastcase 50, Honoring ‘Innovators, Techies, Visionaries and Leaders’ in Law, Schafer also received the 2021 Washington State Bar APEX Award for Legal Innovation for founding Clearbrief as well as for her 2020 law review article ("Harnessing AI for Struggling Families").

Some of the talking points Julie and Jacqueline go over in this episode include:

Why it's crucial to support women-led companies, especially in AI and emerging tech.
The value investors can bring to a new company beyond the money.
Committing to making introductions for other women as a rule.
Why it's crucial to support women-led companies, now more than ever.

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Learn more about How Women Inspire at https://www.howwomenlead.com/podcast

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Clearbrief

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Julia Castro Abrams

Host