Host Coline Witt welcomes Lakeisha Landrum Pierre, founder and managing partner of Emily Line Venture Capital, for a conversation about venture capital’s influence, the industry’s barriers for women and people of color, and why representation among check-writers matters. Lakeisha cooks a low-cost Colombian coconut rice with raisins inspired by her broke grad school days at Harvard, and shares her background growing up in Los Angeles with deep entrepreneurial family roots in real estate, including the impact of the 2008 crash on Black wealth.

She discusses choosing finance and business after briefly studying theology, the role of education and relationships in her career, and taking on major leadership roles early—such as becoming COO of a $10M ARR e-commerce startup at 20.

Lakeisha outlines how Emily Line Ventures invests in women-led and mixed-gender founding teams, typically at early stages (often around $500K–$1M+ revenue in the current market), and focuses heavily on women’s health areas like maternal health, endometriosis diagnostics and treatments, fertility, menstrual health, and menopause/perimenopause.