Billion Dollar Moves™ with Sarah Chen-Spellings | Global Venture Capital · Sarah Chen-Spellings

The Power of Diverse Leadership in Driving Billion-Dollar Growth w/ SISTAFUND, Korelya Capital, Xtramile, & Dell Technologies

·54 min·3 clips

Tatiana Jama says only 2% of venture money went to women entrepreneurs over 10 years.

Sarah Chen Sparlings opens by asking what it means to back the next billion-dollar businesses in Europe. The panel is set in Paris as part of her Beyond the Billions series powered by Dell Technologies. Flo Pellerin brings the perspective of a former French minister who now works in venture capital. Tatiana Jama adds the view of an exited founder who moved into investing. Stephanie Nenta speaks as an AI entrepreneur navigating the same capital environment. Liz Matthews joins the conversation. The discussion starts with whether Europe is ready to fund its next wave of scale-ups. It quickly turns to the funding gap that still holds founders back. One theme is that women entrepreneurs are often expected to outperform the norm before they are given the same room to build. Another is that diversity is not a symbolic issue but a business one. The guests argue that the literature points in the same direction: diversity outperforms. They also make the case that progress needs structure, not just speeches. France's board-balancing law comes up as a concrete example. Almost 15 years ago, women held less than 5% of CAC 40 board seats. Today that figure is about 40%. The panel links that shift to the power of mandatory compliance backed by a strong financial incentive. The guests note that excuses about a thin talent pool tend to fade when compensation is at stake. The conversation also widens to institutions beyond boards. Pension funds, endowments, and family offices come into view as allocators with real influence. Sarah keeps pulling the thread back to the same question: what incentives actually change behavior? The result is a discussion that treats representation as an allocation problem, not a slogan. It is as much about who gets funded as who gets invited into the room. The episode ends by returning to the idea that women are already wielding check-writing power in ways that can reshape markets.

As heard by us

Diversity is treated here as an allocation question, not a branding exercise.

The Paris panel frames a practical question: whether Europe is ready to stand behind its next billion-dollar businesses, or whether the funding gap still slows founders down.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want the funding gap and boardroom incentives unpacked in plain terms.

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