Leap Academy with Ilana Golan - Raising $24M After 107 Rejections: Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen’s Journey to Scaling Female Invest | E135

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

When 19-year-old Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen walked into a bank hoping to secure a loan to buy a property, she was denied on the spot. That “no” pushed her into investing and ultimately led her to co-found Female Invest, a global platform empowering women to take control of their financial futures. In this episode, Anna joins Ilana for a raw, honest conversation about the reality of fundraising as a female founder, from enduring 107 rejections to breaking global crowdfunding records and facing the backlash that followed. She shares what it truly takes to scale a mission-driven company, rise above bias, and empower women financially on a global scale. Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen is an entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of Female Invest, a financial education platform that has empowered women across more than 100 countries. She’s a leading voice in closing the financial gender gap through education, representation, and access. In this episode, Ilana and Anna will discuss: (00:00) Introduction  (02:51) Her Early Interest in Finance and Investing (05:15) Turning Down McKinsey to Build Female Invest (09:10) Challenges and Misconceptions in Entrepreneurship (11:07) Launching a Facebook Group That Grew Like Wildfire (13:35) Why Money for Women Is Deeply Political (15:29) Bootstrapping to Success After Near Bankruptcy (22:14) Anna’s Y Combinator Experience (25:02) The Reality of Fundraising as a Female Founder (30:35) Raising $24M After 107 Rejections (34:01) Facing Backlash, Anxiety, and Hate (38:08) The Biggest Financial Mistakes Women Make (44:12) Lessons and Advice for Founders Anna-Sophie Hartvigsen is a Danish entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of Female Invest, a financial education platform that has empowered women across more than 100 countries. A Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, she helped bootstrap Female Invest from a small Facebook group into one of the most engaged financial communities in the world. Anna is also the bestselling author of Girls Just Wanna Have Funds and a leading voice in closing the financial gender gap through education, representation, and access. Connect with Anna: Anna’s LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anna-hartvigsen-46352611a  Anna’s Instagram: instagram.com/anna.hartvigsen  Resources Mentioned: Female Invest: https://www.femaleinvest.com  Anna’s Book, Girls Just Wanna Have Funds: A Feminist's Guide to Investing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0744077303  Leap Academy: Ready to make the LEAP in your career? There is a NEW WAY for professionals to fast-track their careers and leap to bigger opportunities.  Check out our free training today at https://bit.ly/leap--free-training

Wow, this show is going to be incredible. So buckle up, and I'm sure you're going to enjoy it. But before we get started, I want to ask you for a favor. See, it's really, really important for me to help millions of people elevate their career. Fast-track to leadership, land dream rules, jump to entrepreneurship, or create portfolio careers. And this podcast is all about enabling this for millions of people to see a map of what it actually takes for big leaders to reach success. So subscribe and download.

ever miss it. Plus, it really, really helps me continue to bring amazing guests. Okay, so let's dive in. Money is power. Money is independence. When women have more money, it's better, not just for women, but for all of us, actually. Anna Harvickson, she is the co-founder of female invest, a global community and learning platform that has empowered women in more than 100 countries to take control of their financial future. Women in general just struggle to be included in high-powered networks because they're often made up of men. The moment, like, you walk into the meeting,

you just know no matter what I say, like, I'm done. Like, they don't want to invest in anything by or for women. We stopped counting after 107 knows. We ended up raising $24 million. When we closed the money, I expected that now it was over. Now we could be happy. But what happened is that we got so much hair. When you're told over and over again that you don't fit in, that you don't have potential,

then it's very hard to not start believing it. What are the things that women miss, the big things that we don't know? The biggest mistake I see women make is... What is it like for three female founders to look for investment? Why is there a financial gender gap? How do we solve biases? How do we avoid them? I'm so excited about this conversation with Anna Harvickson.

She is the co-founder of Female Invest, a global community and learning platform that has empowered women in more than 100 countries to take control of their financial future. They have raised $24 million. They broke many records in the crowdfunding space. including, listen to that, a million dollars raised in four minutes. Wow. She has spoken to hundreds of thousands of people around the world, is a bestselling author of Girls Just Wanna Have Funds. She's a Forbes 30 under 30, and I can go on and on and on on accolades. But this conversation is going to be about the real truth of what it actually took from her to get where she is,

the hardship, the nose, the rejections, the hate, I wanted to hear all of this. If you're listening to this, if you're a man or a woman, there's nothing against any one of you, but I wanted to hear the truth behind what it actually took for three female founders to raise $24 million and to be on this incredible mission. So lean in, it's going to be an incredible conversation. Anna, I'm so glad to have you here. Thank you so much for having me. I want you to go back in time.

What sparked this interest in finance, in investing? I don't know if this is how you grew up. Can you share? So I come from Denmark, from a small city where no one talks about money, no one talks about investing. But I was always quite interested in money, even as a child. I remember I would do all types of children. sure us, make up little jobs to make money. And I started working when I was 13. So by the time I was 19, I'd actually saved up quite a bit of money. And that's when I learned that the value

of your savings is actually going down because of inflation. And that's what really sparked my interest in investing. And you have a great story that you literally go to the bank and you want to invest, share that for a second. Because it's actually interesting that at the age of 19, you already had so much awareness to things like this. Yeah, so when I was 19 and when I learned that the combination of inflation and interest rate meant that my savings were losing value, I booked a meeting with my bank, which I'd never done before because I wanted to buy property because everyone have heard that buying property is a great way to grow your money. And I remember I showed up and the very nice advisor that

I have prepared a full hour meeting where she just went over a PowerPoint slide deck with all of the reasons why I could definitely not borrow any money because I didn't make enough and I just didn't qualify for a loan. And at the time, I thought it was really embarrassing because I totally understood where she was coming from when she went through that. And I never applied for a loan at a different bank because I thought that when the bank says no, the bank says no. And so I went back home and I started thinking about.

other ways to grow my money. And I remembered watching the news where all the little ticker codes from stocks would roll during the evening news. And so I started learning about investing. And little by little, I learned more, started investing more and ended up taking over my parents' investments as well. So it all started from some kind of hunger to understand more. And, you know, it's interesting to see if there was a certain event that made that so clear. But in business school, you're already very passionate about this topic. Like, you were talking about it, right? So how did you meet Emma? And why was it so interesting for you at that time? When I started business school, I'd already been investing for quite a few years. And I did have a few years where I was

trading every day. And it worked so well. I made a lot of money during that time. So I talked a lot about it also to find like-minded friends. And I just couldn't find any women. But But Emma, one of my co-founders, had heard from other people that I'd been talking about investing and she was working at a bank as a certified stockbroker, the youngest ever in Denmark at the time. And so she went up to me one day and asked if I wanted to do something with investing for women. And that's how female invest started. And our third co-founder, Camilla, joined shortly after. And I think for listeners, this is all about the hidden market.

And I think it's all about speaking, right, about your dreams. I think there's a lot of myth around hiding your dreams or hiding your goals or hiding what you're trying to work on. And the truth is, if nobody knows about it, nobody can hope you either. And the chance that somebody is actually going to steal your brilliant idea is so far off because the ideas are endless. And the execution is what really sets people apart. And I love it. So you spoke about it. People somehow knew that you're interested. Emma came in. But again, And you could have chosen the regular, and I think you did a little bit, the McKinsey route, paying well, comfortable.

What made you decide, no, no, I want this new world? It was a very difficult decision, but it also happened gradually over a longer period of time. So as a person, I think the same reason why I was so attracted to money from an early age, you know, it was all about the freedom, the opportunities. And so at business school, I was very. attracted to the best job I could think of at the time, which was working at McKinsey. So I worked really hard to land a job offer from there, and I got it and I signed it. And the starting salary is great, obviously.

Everyone congratulates you and understands that this is a great opportunity. But at the same time, I also had female invests growing on the side. And even though there was no prestige connected to female invest, there was no money connected to it, I just felt. in a way I'd never felt before. And so it ultimately became a choice between wild passion and then the route that everyone else would understand and that would pay well.

And I figured that if there was ever a time in my life where I would just go with a passion and choose uncertainty, then it would be now because I was so young. I didn't have children. I had no commitments. And so I took the leap, but it was definitely not difficult to turn down that safe future. Do you remember like a specific conversation that somebody is like, Anna, what are you doing?

Why are you ruining your life? Or was it pretty much, go Anna, let's go follow your passion? Most people didn't understand it in the beginning, especially because I mean, no, it's crazy to imagine now. But back when we started female invest entrepreneurship, at least in Denmark, was not a thing. I never heard of someone who started a company. So even with my parents, when we talked about, about it, they kept saying that I had to get a real job at some point, like, no one thought in your own thing, you know, was a real job. And so on top of choosing that uncertainty,

that was also just justifying all the time that this is not time off. I'm working, actually, on something. I love when people think that it's time off and you're actually working your brains up. Stay a night, like so hard. The hardest job I've ever had, especially the early days, because it's so scrappy. You have no money. You have to do everything yourself. Let's talk about those early days, Anna, because I think there's a myth around seeing somebody like you with all the accolades after you raise $24 million and saying, oh, it's so easy for Anna. It's hard for others, but it's so easy for her. I want us to go from the creation of that tiny, tiny Facebook group and walk us step by step in some of those fears in the beginning and

maybe doubts, because the truth is it does come from doubt. There's not enough conviction to say, oh, my God, this is going to be big. So maybe first to your point of thinking, oh, it's so easy for Anna, I think as humans, when we see other human doing well, we just assume, oh, it's easy for them, or they don't have the same problems or the same fears, but it's just as hard. I had it recently where I shared in my Instagram some fears I had, and so many people responded that they could see themselves in that, but that they never imagined I felt that way. But I mean, of course I do, and I still do on a daily basis when we try new things.

And in the very beginning of female invest, it was no different. We had no money at all, as in nothing. We didn't know anyone with money. We had no experience in building companies. We had zero network. We didn't know anyone who knew anyone. So it was completely from scratch. I didn't even know what funding was. So when people think that it's too hard, to start because they don't know anything. That's literally how we started. Most of my learnings actually came from podcasts. So we would just learn day by day, how to build a website, how to build a community. We set up an Instagram account, learned in Canva how to make the content ourselves, all of that. No one teaches you. No one taught us. And the only way to learn is by doing.

And it's true because nobody teaches you. And I think that was part of Leap Academy. I just felt like I don't know where to learn some of these things. But, okay, so you somehow scrappy, you start this tiny, tiny, tiny, or you think it's going to be a tiny, tiny Facebook group. What happens then? So we launched the Facebook group. We called it Female Invest. That was 2017. And back then we thought this would just be a student organization, you know, something small next to studying. And then this ball kind of started rolling and it got bigger and bigger. And we turned it into a for-profit company in 2019. Wait, wait, we're not going there yet.

Not yet, not yet. So you're starting this Facebook group, 2017, and suddenly 400 sign up or something along the line, right? And they feel like it's part of a mission. Talk to us a little bit about what happened in those early, early days. So as you mentioned, on the day that we launched the Facebook group, we had more than 400 women who signed up to join. And our initial vision for female invest was that we just wanted a small,

group of women like 10 to 20 women to just drink some wine, talk about stocks, you know, have a good time. But then suddenly hundreds of women were signing up and they wanted us to teach them about investing. And that's when we started realizing that this lack of community is not just a problem we experience personally. This is a global problem. It impacts women around the world. It's significantly impacts our freedom, our opportunities. So we started doing small educational events, first in classrooms, then in big lecture rooms. We outgrew those. We started partnering with big companies to use their spaces. And in the end, it created a hype where tickets would sell out in minutes. You know, there was a secondary market for their tickets,

we turned finance events into something cool, you know, champagne, house music, never how you would have imagined it paired with education. And that was really how the movement was. was built, the media was all over it, it just became such a massive hype thing. And interestingly, when we started out, we really made a point out of saying that we were not political at all. So even when we talked about the mission, we were like very, very delicate because we knew that women who speak out are more likely to be shut down and we just didn't want that to get in the way of what we were trying to do. But as we grew and of of course, much more in later years, which we'll get to, we also realize that with a great

platform comes a great responsibility and money is highly political, especially for women, which was also an interesting journey for us to go through. Talk to me about what that means. What do you mean when you say political? Money is power. Money is independence. The people with money are the ones who design not just the world we all live in, but also our day-to-day lives. And because of structures, and again, this is not an opinion. It's just facts. It's so well proven because of a lot of structural barriers, women are falling behind. And that means that women have fewer opportunities in life. And we do live in a patriarchal world. And that just does not benefit women financially. And so there are some

conversations we need to have with women, there is awareness to create, there is knowledge to be shared about how best to manage this, because when women have more money, it's better, not just for women, but for all of us, actually. That's incredible that you still see the political side of this, and I agree. We've seen a little bit of that too, and I think I have an incredible supportive husband. I think I'm surrounded by a lot of these, but I think there's also people that get annoyed when the woman makes more. And we've had those in Leap Academy, actually. We've had women that needed to leave a job every time they got a promotion. I still remember that. And I was like, wait, what? You can't take the VP role? That's an incredible role. Why can't you take it?

Because my husband can't do that. I can't make more than him. So we have seen some of these for sure. And we'll talk about naysayers for a second because I'm sure there's a lot of thick skin as well that comes with the politics and stuff. But at some point, you need to monetize, you need to start scaling. Scandinavia, maybe it's not enough. Maybe you need to get out of that. So talk to us a little bit about now the next phase.

Definitely people are interested. Women are coming in. You're starting to get the movement. What's next? We realized pretty quickly that we were not able to scale the in-person events that we'd been hosting After the first year and a half-ish, we had had more than 25,000 women in person at our events, which is just unheard of.

And we were just a road show like touring around the Nordic countries. And we just hit the ceiling for only being able to be in one place at a time. And that's when we decided to launch an online version of our learning, turn it into a membership. By this point in time, we started to have a lot of demand, also from other countries because our Instagram was in English. We started to have a few thousand followers there. And around the same time, COVID closed the world, which effectively meant that we lost all of our revenue,

which still came from events and partnerships with financial institutions. And that really accelerated the shift to an online education platform. If you're feeling stuck, underpaid or unappreciated, or you're simply ready to take your career in life to the next. next level. I have the perfect solution for you. We have a program that helps you fast track and leap your reputation and career. Become the best version of yourself. Get the dream role you deserve, move up to leadership, jump to entrepreneurship, or even build a portfolio career. This program helps hundreds a year and it will help you gain the income, influence,

and impact that will transform the second part of your life. Watch our free training today at leapacademy.com slash free hyphen training. The link is in the show notes. Now back to the show. Hey, are you running a business online or creating an impressive portfolio career? Look, you're going to have to build trust

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So COVID hits. You just got an office. You're starting to grow. This is real. There's expenses and you're feeling like the hype. And then suddenly COVID shuts everything down. Walk me through what happened and how do you cope with it? It was horrible.

COVID closed everything in March. And we had gone full time from January 1st, which was also the point in time where we got our office and started having real. expenses. You know, it just turned down the job at McKinsey. And so it just felt horrible to lose everything when we just started. And now it's so easy now that we made it through to look back and say, oh, of course we would have made it through, but that was not at all obvious. And we actually agreed at one point to closing down the company because we couldn't pay our bills and we didn't have money or access to money, even though our expenses weren't that high. And what

What happened is that the day after we decided to close down the company, we woke up to the news that we were on the Forbes 30 under 30 list, and Forbes had shared us on their Facebook page. And so obviously we could not close down then. You can't go bankrupt now. We can't go bankrupt now. And so what we did is we just went back to the office and then we just lived there during COVID.

And I've never worked so many hours. even sleep was just an inconvenience to get over with so we could continue. And very slowly we started to turn it around. And that was just, I think no words will be able to describe how insane of a feeling that it was. And I think one of the interesting things, and it's so easy, this podcast, we've had hundreds of people that are doing some incredible things, running huge businesses and almost every single one, or maybe.

every single one had some of these near-death experiences. I think one of the things that I'm hearing is that you shifted your thinking from, okay, I don't think we can do this. Everything is closing down. There's not a possible way to how do I do this? And I think your question of how is starting to force solutions. Walk me through, how do you from that point on start and literally bootstrap the first, I think you said, what, 10 employees or so? We bootstrap the company up to the first 10 employees, which was insane. And it was a mix of so many things. People always ask, what's the secret or what's the one thing that turned it around? But really, it's a mix of a thousand little things and an unreasonable amount of work. So what we did is that we learned

obviously how to build the website, do all the content, do marketing ourselves. And in order to do paid marketing, obviously you need to have money to put in. And we had so little money in our bank account that we had to wait for money to be paid out by Facebook to put more in. I have a screenshot of our bank account at one point where we had three dollars in it. That was how low it went. Insanity, we had at one point a Christmas party and we had to make it bring your own food and drinks because we just, we had like nothing, but it was also very fun. And what happened that really helped us is that within half a year of trying to turn the

company around. We happened to win the world's largest startup competition, the Kachir Women's Initiative, and we won the first place, which gives you $100,000 equity-free. And obviously, that was a major, major game change as well. But talk to me, Anna, for a second, about that $3 in your bank account, because most people would stop way before that, right? You're looking at this. What is the conversation with your co-founder? With Camilla, with Emma, what is the conversation to say, maybe we're wrong. Maybe there's no way to do this. Failing just didn't feel like an option.

And it was a mix of two things. We already put in so much time, dedication, so many people told us we couldn't do it. So just from a pride perspective, we just no way we could leave it. But then also, and this is probably the biggest reason, that this very, very quickly became a lot bigger than just us. This was not just about our dream. This is about a big issue that impacts every single woman listening now, every single woman out there by existing in this world.

You are, by definition, impacted. And that mission is just so deep. So now I feel that if I fail, I would fail all of the women that we're fighting for, and I just feel like I couldn't live with myself if that was to happen. And I think it's a blessing, but sometimes it's also a burden because the pressure is not just the company. It's being the women who made it, not just the women who are building for other women, but also just the female entrepreneurs that now break glass ceilings and so on. And it's a credible story. In bootstrapping to the first 10 employees, Leap Academy now is

bootstrap, but it's after many years and a lot of more spare. It's incredibly hard. So first of all, huge kudos to you, Anna, and to your co-founders. And then you decide to go to White Combinator, and that's been also a really interesting, I assume, experience. Talk to me a little bit about White Combinator. And again, I got to mentor in startup accelerators like Google and Singularity University and others. So it's an incredible thing to see the founders that can actually lean in and get the 300 people that wanted to invest after that. So talk to me a little bit about it. So for those who don't know,

Y Combinator is a global accelerator. It's probably the most famous in the world where companies like Airbnb and Dropbox started out. The acceptance rate to Y Combinator is half, I read. The acceptance rate to Howard University, so it's very hard to get in. And it's especially hard if you are a woman. I think the stats, when we applied,

was that around 5% of the people who applied were female founders. And I think there's a lot of things to say about that, about who we think are qualified. I would say our experience with Y Combinator was very mixed. We went into it so excited. We read about this. We applied three times. So for a year and a half, we put everything into it.

We took a week off to rehearse for the interview, for an example. but I think the fact that no women are really allowed or I really let in is also very much reflected in the program itself. And I think in the end, I feel like we didn't really learn that much because we were so far ahead of all of the other companies that were in there. I read somewhere that the average company in Y Combinator has around $1,000 in monthly recurring revenue. We had $100,000 in monthly recurring revenue at that point in time. So we were just way ahead. And then also a lot of the advice just didn't really apply because the rules and the game when you're a female founder is not the same as when you are male founder.

But what we did get out of it was the very last day, which is pitching day, it's demo day. This is where all founders are given 60 seconds to pitch their company and then investors from around the world tune in. And if they like what you're saying, they swipe right. And if they don't like it, they don't swipe at all. And after our 60 seconds, we had more than 300 investors that had swipe right and reached out. And that was a major game changer for us, both in terms of the valuations, the money we had access to, but also just the blue stamp in the network because we knew no one who knew anyone.

So even getting into the VC world can be such a barrier if you aren't a white man. And I agree. But you did something that I want to tap into for a little bit, Anna, because you're right. It's not the same journey for men and women. The first impression is not the same. It's incredible hard to get out of the people's pile for many, many reasons. I'm not judging, you know, I think we're all biased, by the way, men and women. Sometimes the women investors are even more biased. So I don't think there's a right or wrong. Like I think we're just trying to break that glassy, and give more templates of success, if you will. And that's part of why I'm so glad that we're talking because I want the men and women to listen to this podcast and hear. But talk to me a little bit about when you go to investors, when you say your journey is different, talk to me a little bit about why.

I would say that our experience aligns very, very well with what research shows as well. And I think in these conversations, it's so important to keep in mind that there's a difference between, opinion and fact. And I think very often when we talk about bias and inequality, whether it's gender or race or whatever it is, I think people often confuse the two. But just sticking to facts, which I really like to do, then female founders and founders of color as well are

underfunded when a female founder and a male founder present the same pitch, word for word, many studies and this. I encourage everyone to Google afterwards. Men are significantly more likely to get funded. Women are asked different questions when pitching. They ask much more about risk, whereas men are asked more about potential. Women are judged differently as well, whether it's how likable they are or how competent they are. Then there's also the whole issue with having access to networks.

And again, so well, research that women in general just struggle to be included in high-powered networks because they're often made up of men. And all of that is textbook proven over and over again. So that's a fact. And then moving on to my personal opinion is that that's what I experienced as well. Yeah, I think exactly what research shows is what we experienced. And some people say that that type of resistance makes them more motivated. That's really not the case for me.

And I think it's a bit naive to say that. Because when you're told over and over again hundreds of times that you don't fit in, that you don't have potential, you're not the right person to build this, you're not good enough, then it's very hard to not start believing it. And I really thank us for being three. I think that really helped us through. Walk me through an situation that you remember because I've been ignored many, many times, Anna, one of the reasons why I try to very specifically be on a stage or on, like I try to play a different game now because I know that otherwise, if I're going to be in a leveling playing field, it's not going to help just a regular networking event

or regular dining environment. That's not going to be a good one for me. But I needed to learn this a hard way. And I agree it is actually heartbreaking to see it. Walk me through a situation where you felt either ignored or completely like just, okay, what is going on? So the interesting thing is, I mean, of course, there are a few examples where we really felt like our boundaries were crossed, whether it was going to strip clubs for investor events or being, you know, skipped when founders went around the table to talk about their business at an investor dinner. And we were skipped as the only women because, I don't know, they just didn't want to hear what we had to say. There are some very clear examples I could come up with, but the most

dangerous and impactful ones, I think, are all of the microaggressions that happen, you know, all the subtle things and the questions you asked or not being asked any questions at a dinner, the way that all of your little mistakes are like nitpicked and doubled down on in a way that a man's never would be. So I think it's all of the smaller things, you know, not feeling welcome, not feeling comfortable. Sometimes even before you go to an event is so draining because you know you're going to have to like all the time fight for people to take you seriously, which they most likely won't do. So I think it's all of their microaggressions actually that make it harder than the bigger things because they have more rarely. And I can deal

with those. It's the in between the lines that are the hardest to deal with. And again, I think what's interesting is, and I want to give some perspective, Anna, what you three achieve, for example, in the crowdfunding space, they literally raised $1 million in four minutes. They broke any ceiling possible. So we're talking about obviously very, very, very capable three founders. They happen to be women, but that's unrelated, just incredibly capable. So when we're looking at biases and we're looking to solve a problem, it's not about victim mentality or crying. It is, this is real. This is the first impression for women is harder. I remember still getting from one of my bosses at the time, like, hey, you should go and buy shoes with my wife or getting brochures to take care of my

skin. And I'm like, is this really ever held us back in the company? Why am I getting those? But I agree. So let's talk about that crowdfunding because I think, first of all, that is incredible. I think you also mentioned you probably don't want to do that ever again. We decided to raise $1 million as part of our series A. We decided to limit it at $1 million because it was not about the money and we didn't want it to send the wrong signal that we couldn't raise from VCs. We just really wanted our community to also have ownership in the company because we are community-made.

So we launched our crowdfunding campaign and as you said, we broke multiple world records. I think it was six fastest to $1 million and also the highest number of investors. and obviously not everyone could invest. We had tens of thousands of investors who wanted to invest, but we just didn't have enough shares. We beat Revolut, which is a major bank here in Europe, as the biggest crowdfunding campaign ever.

So as you say, when I'm talking about having a hard time raising money from VCs, it's not because I have some little company without revenue and no experience and no skills in pitching. We had top numbers. We had a very strong company, and still it was so hard. And in the end, we ended up raising $24 million, which makes us some of the women in Europe to ever raise the most money, sadly. I did want to put that in perspective. It's not something that you don't know how to do.

You know how to raise money. The numbers were there. The health of the company was there. And still, I think you got a ton of nose for investors. Let's talk about that for a second. I think getting knows is part of any fundraising journey, and I'm totally fine with that. When it stops being fine is when you start comparing your journey to your male peers, when you start sharing experiences, and sometimes we just had to laugh.

When they shared, you know, how they got funded or the numbers they had or how it happened because it just seemed like, I almost want to say like comical, you know, how vastly different it was. What usually happen for us is that we would pitch to women at entry-level positions who would love it. We started actually setting a limit that we only wanted to meet with one entry-level person because otherwise we just got passed around. Then we would usually go up one to a person in a middle layer, and they would usually also kind of like it, maybe not getting fully what we do, but liking the numbers. and then we would be passed up in most of the cases to the investment committees,

which is nine out of ten times, if not ten out of ten times, just a bunch of old white men. And you just know the moment, like you walk into the meeting or you log onto the call, you just know no matter what I say, they don't want to invest in anything by or for women. We stopped counting after 107 knows. And, yeah, it was really hard. but in the end we made it, we ended up getting five term sheets, which was really exciting for being able to negotiate and choose a deal that was really good, but definitely was a tough

journey to get there. Let's talk about those 107 knows, because I think most people will stop after 8. It gets really painful, and self-doubt is real, especially because I know what building a business means. I'm sure you had a lot of hates. I'm sure there's a lot of comments. You know, and now you need to deal with all of it together. Share a hard moment and how do you get over it? The hardest moments are when you feel like it's unfair because I can deal with not being good enough or, you know, if the numbers are off, I can deal with that. Interestingly, I would actually say the hardest part was almost after we closed the money and announced it because

it had taken, I would say, a piece of our soul to close that series A round. It was so hard. My co-founder was heavily pregnant, puking up until the day that she gave birth. We signed the documents on her due date and the money got wired while she was giving birth. Like, it was insane. And when we then closed the money, I expected that now it was over. Now we could be happy. Now we could celebrate.

Now we could set an example also and show other. women that it is possible and show the industry a success story. But what happened is that we got so much hate when we closed the funding round, which completely took me by surprise. And a lot of it was centered around people, making it a bad thing that we raised the money and accusing us of being not good at business because we had to raise money, because we just had such big losses. And we spent the money on glitz and glamour and portraying us as reckless. women just spending money on shit and parties, which felt so unfair because we just worked so much harder than any man to break glass ceilings that so few women have broken.

And then finally, when we reach the top bloody and bruised, you know, just to stand there with a lot of mediocre men, they turn around and they tell us that what we just did, which men do all the time because it's so much easier for them, was bad and it meant that we were bad found us. And that was very hard. I would say that almost broke me because it was so unfair. How do you recover? How do you hope each other go through this? Because hate can get really hard. And I think there was somebody John Ennessy that actually shared here in the podcast and said, if you don't have hate, you're not relevant. And I was like, oh, God, I needed to hear this. I was just like, but how do you deal with it, Anna? I think I'm not very good at dealing with it.

I think it's getting better, but we've all definitely struggled a lot with anxiety. I mean, now this episode also ended up being a lot about the challenges around being a female founder. And I think every time I talk, it just is a topic that naturally comes in because it's such a big part of our story. But as a person, I'm not someone who likes conflict. I don't enjoy talking about injustice or bringing up topics where people would disagree. like it actually takes a lot of energy and it's a big cause for anxiety. But I also cannot choose not to talk about it because that wouldn't be right. And the way I found works best to deal with it is working on my physical body, exercise now every morning, sleeping.

I had to completely change my diet, also just to have more stable glucose levels. So I think working on my body has really helped because I can't always control. control my mind in those situations. That's incredible. And again, the reason why I wanted to talk about the truth, because I think it is hard. And we're going to talk also about the impact that you all do. But I think it's also I want people, men and women, to see that it gets really, really hard. And eventually the people that can create the bigger impact in the world are just the people that don't stop, despite everything, despite the hate, despite the no, despite everything, just continue. So I do appreciate

that you're sharing that journey because I think at the end of the day, most people kill the dreams because they stop way before the results could have happened. So I think we're just impatient creatures as well. But let's talk for a second about the huge impact that you're making. I think you have, I don't know, like 60 million impression a month. Like you're creating massive impact. and doing whatever you can to close the financial gap. What are the things that women miss? What are the big things that we don't know? So I think what we've built is a movement,

like truly a global movement where women who never thought that they would be interested in anything around money or investing starts to realize that this is not about the actual money. It's not about having an interest in investing. I don't even know if I have an interest in investing. It's about wanting to have ownership of your own future, and that's relevant for everyone, no matter who you are. And the biggest mistake I see women make is assuming that they won't be good at it or that they don't have to do it. Things will work out, but they won't, or at least not as well as they could have.

And one of the things I'm the most proud of is seeing the diversity also in the movement that we've created, women from around the world, women from all ages and all backgrounds, because I think making this topic something for the masses, I really feel like it's a big achievement and something that brings me so much joy. Oh, and I can see it in your eyes, by the way. And again, we are huge on what we call portfolio career. You know, I do believe that the future is more about multiple ventures and multiple things that people will be busy doing because it's not just a portfolio career. You know, I do believe that the future is more about multiple ventures, about creating that paycheck, but also the life that you want was a paycheck. And to me, that's what creates this mega snowball and I'm excited about it. But what are some of the

stories maybe of a woman that you could see that her life is changing because she's starting to be more financial aware, if you will? We get messages every single day. And it's women again from all walks of life. I especially like the ones where they turn something around. We very often and see it with women who've gone through divorce. Women are, again, fact, not opinion, significantly worse off financially. The financial hit that women take is around twice as hard on average as the hit men take, despite the way we talk about it in society that women rip men off. That's not the case on average.

And I really enjoy seeing women who've been wrecked financially, turn it around, start to feel secure again and be able to plan. for the future, I think that's probably what I enjoy the most. So when they start learning a little bit about finance and equality and what do you feel is one of the biggest shift that people or women need to hear, or maybe overall, like men and women need to hear about closing the gender gap? I think what we all need to understand is that this is not men versus women. I know now I talked a lot about how hard it is to be a woman, but it's not to pit.

women against men. As you say, we all have bias. So this is not one group against the other. And I think what we really need to understand is that working together, all of us benefits, all of us. Economies grow. We get more innovative solutions. Companies grow as well. We all win when we allow women to play in an even playing field. So this is really not about bringing men down or creating more walls. It's about working together. And it is very easy to build walls between each other. But I don't think that's the right solution. I think working together is the way forward. And I agree, Anna. Like I think one of the things that we pride ourselves in Leap Academy that somehow we became 50-50 in terms of the clients. And we were helping thousands

of clients a year. So the 50-50s shocks me every single time. But it does, you do need, many times the men to bring you into the opportunities. So I think it is very, very important for them to be around the women, you know, and to help out. What would you want the women to know when they're hearing this conversation? What do you want the men to know? What I want the women to know is that they are capable and they are talented enough. So to stop, listen to anyone, including themselves, telling them that they aren't enough and then just go for it.

I think we're brought up to believe that we aren't good enough and to question ourselves and not take up space, but I really urge any woman listening to this to challenge that stereotype. And for the men listening, I really urge you to open doors for the women around you. I think when you are in a position of privilege, it's often very difficult to acknowledge because despite being in a position of privilege,

which is also not easy to be a man. You know, they also face challenges, but really opening doors, helping out, trying to be understanding. And if there is anything that feels unfair to you, then just try to don't challenge it. I think it's very tempting, you know, if we feel like we're being attacked or it's unfair

to then really speak out, even though we don't have all of the facts, but maybe just sit back and listen. What I love about these conversations, and for me, listeners, if you're hearing, this. I think catch yourself when you show bias. I found myself biased for sure against women, against men, against whatever, against color. We all have biases. It's kind of inevitable. I think the question is what do you decide to do about it. And if you decide to challenge yourself and

really do listen and give a true chance, I think it really is really, really important. I think it's that awareness that needs to happen first, because the problem is what we're not even aware of the bias. So Anna, if you're looking back, what are some of the biggest lessons that you want to personally for Anna and maybe for the founders that are hearing this? What would you want to do differently or learn better? So many things. I think on the smaller levels, you know, there are so many things from building teams to leading to, you know, ways of building the company, but boiling it down to a few bigger things. I think one thing would be to think even bigger from the beginning. It can be very hard when you come from nothing and you don't,

you know, you haven't seen anyone do what you want to do. I think thinking big enough can be very hard. But even if you don't reach the goal you set, you're likely to get a lot closer. if you put the bar higher. So be a little bit delusional. It never hurt anyone to shoot for the stars. I think if we had done that also from the beginning, back then I didn't even have the fantasy to imagine that it could be what it is today.

But had I had that, we might have done some things differently in the beginning in terms of the bets we took, the legal foundation, you know, everything, a lot of decisions would have been different. So think about where you want your company to go and then start acting like it from the beginning, even though you aren't there yet.

Oh, that's powerful, Anna. It is really, really hard when you're scrappy and trying to take those imperfect steps, but it is really, really interesting to try to envision what is success and what does that look like. Where do they find you? How do they reach you?

Instagram is probably the best stormy through our website. We have an amazing team, also getting back to everyone, but otherwise social media, both for me, but also for female. And if anyone wants to start learning, we have, of course, our app as well. It's free to get started. And they just search for female invest and they find all of it. And we're going to have a lot of things in the show notes as well. Anna, I'm so proud of what you've all created.

Anything else that you want, Laz to summarize for our listeners here. I think just underlining that we need more women starting businesses, we need more money in the hands of women, it's good for everyone, and it's also a lot of fun along the way. Yes, it is hard, but I've also never had as much fun as I've had both building this company but also building my own wealth on the side. I mean, it is pretty fun to watch your money grow. So if anyone listening has not started that journey yet, then get started because it's a long one. It's not as quick as social media might want you to believe, so you better get started now.

And I agree. And again, at the end of the day, it's about freedom of choice, right? And it's about creating that opportunity for yourself to create that freedom. And in order to do that, there's no way it's only about that one 5K, 10K promotion that you're going to get. That's not what's going to change the rest of your life. It's cool. But what's going to change your life is when you're going to know how to create money or create more portfolio of money and portfolio of things and ventures and just have fun along the journey because at the end of the day, why would we do all of this if not to have a ton of fun? Anna, thank you for being on this show. Thank you so much for having me. if you did, please share it with friends. Now also, if you're feeling stuck or simply want more from

your own career, watch this 30-minute free training at leapacademy.com slash training. That's leapacademy.com slash training. See you in the next episode of the Leap Academy with the Ilan Godin Show.