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

Why Australia’s Leading Family Offices Are Backing ALIAVIA Ventures’ Cross-Border VC Strategy w/ Marisa Warren

July 17, 2025·47 min·5 clips

Marisa Warren traces the path from corporate leadership at Microsoft and SAP into venture investing. She and Kate Vale built ALIAVIA Ventures around a cross-border thesis spanning the US and Australia. The fund focuses on early-stage female founders. That focus is framed as both an investment opportunity and a correction to how capital has historically flowed. Warren talks about the uneven experience of female mentorship. She contrasts that with the way men often help one another move forward. The episode uses that contrast to show why women backing women matters in venture. It also keeps circling back to the idea that impact and profit do not have to be in conflict. A major stretch of the conversation digs into how the fund actually got raised. ALIAVIA used a loan structure to warehouse deals before first close. The loan was short-term, carried interest, and included an option to convert into an LP position. That structure helped bridge the gap between conviction and committed capital. The episode explains that the same approach was later used for fund two. Carol Schwartz is discussed as an important part of the story. She was initially a no. Then the team came back with a revised strategy. That second pass changed the relationship. She eventually became the anchor investor for fund one. The conversation treats that shift as a lesson in persistence rather than luck. It also notes the emotional side of fundraising when a hard-fought email lands badly. Warren and her partner responded by refining the thesis instead of backing away. The episode also touches the wider LP environment. Distributions remain tight for many investors. That pressure affects how emerging managers are judged. Against that backdrop, the fund’s willingness to keep pushing matters. The discussion stays grounded in vintages, capital cycles, and the realities of proving a strategy. It never loses sight of the personal stakes behind those terms. The closing turns back to women supporting each other more directly. It frames women as an overlooked source of value and performance. The tone stays warm, but the message is firm. This is a story about building a fund, winning trust, and proving there is another way to allocate capital.

As heard by us

A clear look at how cross-border conviction becomes fundable.

Marisa Warren's story tracks how a cross-border venture thesis gets built in practice: bruising fundraising, a revised strategy, and steady conviction around early-stage female founders in the US and Australia.

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Why you'd press play

If you want the real mechanics behind a cross-border VC fund backing female founders, start here.

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