Nastaran Baleng-Soultani, Co-founder of Space Academy and RadCap Ventures, discusses the AI hype and trends in startup investments. She focuses on investing in startups working on climate challenges and sustainability. Nastaran also explores the use of AI in female-founded startups and the potential of AI for personal productivity. They discuss investor expectations and the importance of solving real problems with unique approaches using AI.
Nastaran is interested in investing in AI startups that focus on solving climate challenges and promoting sustainability.
Female-founded AI startups tend to have a stronger focus on sustainability.
Deep dives
Definition of AI
AI is defined as programming machines to think, reason, solve problems, and learn by themselves.
Encouraging diversity in the tech industry
The podcast guest shares her journey in tech and innovation, emphasizing the importance of increasing diversity within the industry. The goal is to develop solutions that are developed for everyone by including different perspectives.
Investing in female-founded companies
The podcast guest discusses the gender disparity in venture capital and her initiative to encourage more women to become investors. She co-founded RedCap Ventures, an investment firm that focuses on female-founded companies, aiming to provide opportunities and training for female investors.
AI applications in various industries
The podcast guest mentions the wide range of industries where AI is being applied, such as construction, femtech, and healthcare. Specific examples include companies using AI for recruitment processes, simplifying invoicing in the construction industry, and providing personalized recommendations in femtech.
Nastaran Baleng-Soultani, co-founder of Space Academy and RadCap Ventures shares with us her thoughts about the “AI hype” and the trends of AI startup investments. She describes the ultimate startup settings where she would be interested in investing. In particular, Nastaran expresses her interest in ideas where AI could help us solve climate challenges and be more sustainable, and she provides a couple of examples. Beyond the idea, Nastaran's focus is on the team and the passion of the team to solve the problems they are tackling. What makes female-founded AI startups different? This is a question that Nastaran answers. While her observations don't show any difference between companies with and without female founders, she notices that female founders tend to focus on sustainability. Ather asks Nastaran whether she would ever invest in an AI company based on a presentation only. Tune in to hear Nastaran’s thoughts!