Anthony Amunategui is founder of CDO Group, a women owned business that provides general Contracting and Construction Management.  He now spends most of his time as podcast host of The Future Factory Podcast, a podcast focused on diving into conversations about what the future holds for us personally and professionally and the adventures that shape that journey. 

Our discussion starts with Anthony's upbringing in Florida and how he got his start - painting houses, and then as a stockbroker.  We speak about how he learned to grow his sales technique, and the mentor who taught him about using his language to convey images. We hear about the relentlessness needed to make 300 calls a day, and how he processed the rejection and the no. 

We jump then to his work in construction management and how he devised the concept of outsourcing construction management and how the business achieved its growth. We hear about mindset - about letting go of some of the baggage that weighs us down, weighing on our confidence and outreach.  

Anthony is the founder and host of The Future Factory Podcast - which you can find here: https://www.futurefactorypodcast.com

He tells us what drove him to gather this collection of leaders and the sparks that unite them. We hear about the importance of working on oneself as an attribute of leadership - of pushing oneself to learn and change. He touts the benefit of coaching in many aspects of life including in business, relationships, personal development and leadership.

Isabella Mandis has just finished her freshman year at Harvard College and the founder of “Girls who VC” an industry affinity group which offers resources, content and community to women interested in pursuing careers in Venture Capital. 

Isabella came to my attention through the industry grapevine and it is a fitting end to the first 2023 Diverse Founder and VC series to amplify some of the extraordinary work that she is doing in this field. Although still very early in her career, Isabella has gained valuable expertise across entrepreneurship and finance.  It was in pursuing this interest that she realized that there were relatively few resources and affinity groups available to shine a light on VC investing and provide a vibrant career network in this area. She then did what every good entrepreneur does - she built one.

Listen in to hear how the idea was born over a winter break and how it quickly grew to close to 1000 members. Hear about the content that it provides and the insights that budding VCs find particularly helpful.  Clearly the industry needs more initiatives like this in order to expose and amplify career choices that lie outside the traditional. It is exciting to see the ingenuity and promise that the next generation holds.

You can read more about girls who VC here: https://www.girlswhovc.com

Courtney McColgan is founder and CEO at Runa, a Mexico City based firm that offers a complete cloud-based HR and payroll software solution designed for small to medium-sized companies in Latin America. She previously was Chief Marketing Officer of Cabify a transportation services platform with operations across Latin America, Spain and Portugal.  Prior to that she was CEO and Founder of Yellowsmith a venture backed start up based in New York. She has spent time at Y Combinator and as Entrepreneur in Residence at Morgenthaler. She started her career investment banking and venture capital. 

Our conversation starts with Courtney's journey into tech and her experience in various accelerators which taught her everything she had not learned at Stanford Business School.  We learn about the networks she developed, and her experience both as a founder and in capital raising. We speak in particular about the point at which it might be necessary to exit a start-up and start again, when the odds are actually in your favor depending on the stage you are at in your career. 

Given Courtney's deep experience in Latin America we dive in to the tech ecosystem there and she maps the largest markets, the regulatory backdrop and the state of the infrastructure and she speaks in particular about her own experience as a female founder within it. She also shares her experience as a mother and a founder and the choices that worked for her.