# Shalini Sardana > Co-Founder & Co-CEO | Angel Investor & LP | Capital Raise Advisor | Business Innovation | Ecosystem Builder Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/shalini Entrepreneur | Business Strategist | Fundraising Expert | Ecosystem Builder | Investor Awarding winning entrepreneur and business strategist, I specialize in startup fundraising, building entrepreneurial communities, creating innovation with design. I help founders navigate the complexities of early-stage funding and business scaling. 🚀 Key Achievements & Expertise: ✔ Fast Company Award Honoree – Recognized in the World Changing Ideas 2022 category ✔ SXSW 2023 Panelist – Speaker at the Female Quotient Equality Lounge, driving conversations on gender equity in funding. ✔ Founder & Co-CEO, She Raises Capital – Built an AI-powered funding platform, growing it to 500+ users (founders and investors), facilitating 200+ investor introductions ✔ Awarded “Top 100 Women in the Technology Industry for 2024” by King Street Ventures ✔ Angel Investor & Startup Mentor – Advised and invested in early-stage startups, helped with fundraising strategies and business development. ✔ Keynote Speaker, NATIVO Summit in Las Vegas in 2020 ✔ Adjunct Professor & Lecturer – Designed and taught courses on design thinking, business strategy, and design leadership at UC Berkeley and California College of the Arts. With expertise spanning business development, investor relations, and impact-driven entrepreneurship, I thrive in fast-paced, high-growth environments. Whether it’s raising capital, scaling startups, or fostering partnerships, I am passionate about driving meaningful change. Open to collaborate on funding, strategy, or ecosystem growth! ## Work Experience ### Co-Founder & Co-CEO / Head of Partnerships @ She Raises Capital Jan 2024 – Present | United States She Raises Capital is a global AI driven matching and funding platform for early stage female founders across sectors to connect with investors and ecosystem partners. 350+ founders & 150+ investors are already on the platform and continue to grow. Our data driven platform is built as an end-to-end capital raise experience that systematizes & reduces barriers for founders. The core focus is on improving visibility for our founders, making the process more predictable and bringing multiple funding options they need to build, run and grow successful businesses. We support our founders with business education, resources and tools in addition to a strong community for peer to peer support. Once ready we put you in front of investors and bring you other capital sources. Multiple AI driven tools - Investment Readiness Assessment, Investor-Founder Matching, Due Diligence Reports and more. ### Capital Raise Advisor @ She Raises Capital Jan 2020 – Jan 2023 Worked with 80+ early stage female founders for over 3.5 years to get them investment ready for investors, increase visibility, create more predictability in the capital raise process and bringing them funding optionality from grants, loans, debt financing to venture funding. Provided customized strategies for to meet the founder's specific needs, provided strategic introductions and personalized mentoring. For those raising capital, access to proprietary investment readiness assessment & recommendations that would put founders in their drivers seat of their capital raise journey. Built a relationship with early stage investors providing them high quality deal flow, also helping their portfolio companies close rounds with angel investors. ### Strategic Advisor @ Lorai Health Jan 2026 – Present ### Startup Mentor/ Coach @ AlchemistX Jan 2025 – Present AlchemistX is the corporate innovation and government services arm of Alchemist Accelerator. Partnering with leading enterprises and visionary governments to support the world’s top entrepreneurs and breakthrough innovations. As an AlchemistX Coach, I work directly with startup founders from around the world, helping them tackle the complexities of building and scaling high-growth ventures. Leveraging my own entrepreneurial and advisory experience, I guide founders as they prepare for global expansion and long-term success. ### Limited Partner @ Portfolia Jan 2025 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Limited Partner in Rising America Fund III focusing on US Emerging Markets — high-potential, high growth opportunities brought about by rapidly changing demographics or market orientation in the US. By 2030, women will hold two thirds of private wealth and control 85% of consumer spending. The fastest way for us to see a change in the world is to use our financial resources to invest in companies creating products and services that we want to see in the world. As a Portfolia investor, I’m part of a powerful community investing in the companies we want for returns and impact. ### Limited Partner @ How Women Invest Jan 2025 – Present How Women Invest is a women-led venture firm that invests solely in women founders. Limited Partners are a community of industry leaders investing together to shift the venture capital landscape one woman at a time. ### Startup Advisor & Mentor @ Self Employed Jan 2023 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area Providing guidance to early stage startups from simple consultation encompassing mentorship, networking and hands-on support needed for strategic growth to investment readiness for capital raise, support in closing rounds and access to my entrepreneurial ecosystem. ### Angel Investor @ Pipeline Angels Jan 2018 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area SF Fall 2018 Cohort Pipeline Angels is a network of women investors working to "change the face of angel investing" and creating capital for women and non-binary femme social entrepreneurs. Since launching in April 2011, 200+ women have invested over US$5M in 50+ companies. As an angel investor, I'm supporting women entrepreneurs for a better and more equitable future. Becoming an investor has challenged the creative in me to develop entrepreneurial perspectives at the same time use my creativity to change the status quo. Areas of focus: FemTech, Women’s Health, EdTech, Financial education for women ### Investor @ YourChoice Therapeutics Jan 2025 – Present ### Investor @ Cheersy Jan 2025 – Present ### Investor @ Backpack Healthcare Jan 2021 – Present ### Investor @ Hubly Surgical Jan 2021 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area ### Investor @ Mahmee Jan 2021 – Present ### Investor @ Eisana Corp Jan 2022 – Present ### Investor @ Bloomi Jan 2019 – Present ### Investor @ CNote Jan 2019 – Present ### M&A Strategic Partner (US) @ GrowthPal Jan 2025 – Jan 2025 | San Francisco Bay Area Dedicated AI-powered M&A matchmaking platform helping strategic corporates and companies in the new-age sectors do transactions at a much faster pace than conventional investment banker. Closed 42 deals in IT Services, SaaS, Fintech ### Startup Mentor @ Techstars Jan 2023 – Jan 2023 | Oakland, California, United States ### Advisory Board Member for 'Women Living a Richer Life' @ Brighton Jones Jan 2022 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area The unprecedented collective economic power of women today represents a historic shift in global culture. For the first time, women hold the financial resources and influence to reshape industries, communities, and their own futures. To fully embrace this shift, it’s time to engage in deeper conversations about how women can take ownership of their wealth and make intentional decisions about how it is used. Women Living a Richer Life (WLRL), led by Tama Smith, is a dynamic and empowering community dedicated to helping women cultivate wealth—not just in monetary terms, but in every area of life. This community equips women with the knowledge, tools, and mindset to build lives that integrate financial, social, emotional, and physical wellbeing. The mission of WLRL is to spark meaningful conversations, create valuable connections, and foster a sense of community that encourages women to align their financial and personal decisions with their deeper purpose and passions. ### Founder @ Impact by Women Jan 2019 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area Impact by Women is a bootcamp for female entrepreneurs that also helps them find values-aligned investors. Raising capital is reported as one of the biggest challenges faced by women entrepreneurs. The experience is fraught with multiple barriers and inadequate support & mentorship throughout the process. Low success rates perpetuate a cycle of self doubt for existing entrepreneurs while discouraging new entrepreneurs to enter the arena. We want to change this experience. We understand the importance of an investor who sees the value of investing in women for a better future and can support their entrepreneurial vision. Our goal is to match women with such values-aligned investors. As the pipeline of such investors continues to grow, a bridge that connects them to vetted women entrepreneurs is needed. Impact by Women provides this bridge. ### Activator @ SheEO™ Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area SheEO is a global community of radically generous women transforming the way we fund, support and celebrate women-led Ventures working on the World’s To Do List. Since launching in 2015, 4000 women Activators in four countries have collectively loaned out $4M to support 53 women-led Ventures. Our goal is to reach 1M women Activators and a $1B perpetual fund which will support 10,000 women-led Ventures each year for generations to come. Are you IN? https://sheeo.world/ ### Venture Partner @ Republic Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 The Venture Partner Program includes founders and investors who support Republic's mission to democratize investing and provide access to capital for underrepresented founders. ### Community Connector @ Women's Startup Lab Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area Women's Startup Lab, led by Ari Hori is a unique accelerator program helping women entrepreneurs. They have a broad focus: Technology, women’s empowerment, Leadership and corporate innovation. Their mission: “Be extraordinary. Be the impact." After meeting Ari, having attended several events like Influencer Salons, VC nights, Pitch summits and meeting many of their graduate women entrepreneurs, I was so impressed that I wanted to get involved. ### Design & Strategy Lead @ Social Impact Designs Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 Rob Joyce, a social impact consultant and experienced non-profit leader and I have collaborated to create a curriculum that incorporates social impact into the DNA of an early stage startup aligned with company values and vision. Our focus is particularly on women and non-binary femme social entrepreneurs with a larger goal to: - design a new social impact driven entrepreneurial ecosystem - redefine the norms of business development to be inseparable from community development - imagine a highly effective “impact alignment” that entwines business success with the success of internal and external stakeholders. - create a new paradigm of "success" built on values of dignity, sustainability, and social justice powered by transparency, accountability, and intentional design. ### Adjunct Professor, Masters of Interaction Design (MDes) @ California College of the Arts Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco I'm excited to be co-teaching "Leadership by Design" with professor Sharon Green who created this course. The focus is on creating the next generation of design leaders and influencers who can be successful as entrepreneurs as well as intrapreneurs. With a focus on social impact, this course offers tools to navigate change within organizations, building change as a social impact venture while developing effective personal leadership skills like purposeful facilitation, developing thought leadership, collaborative team building, understanding power dynamics, and fostering innovation. The next generation of "wicked problems" will require these systems leadership skills. ### Lecturer, Design Thinking @ University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 | Berkeley, CA I'm part of a team of industry practitioners brought together to teach the newly redesigned MBA Design Thinking curriculum led by Clark Kellogg & Dave Rochlin, Executive Director of the Innovation, Creativity, and Design Practice at Haas. ### Certified Leadership Ambassador / Workshop Facilitator / Design Thinker @ Take The Lead Women Jan 2016 – Jan 2019 | San Francisco Bay Area I prepare, develop, inspire, and propel women to take their fair and equal share of leadership positions through trainings and workshops. The focus is on changing the narrative from problems to solutions through thought leadership and application of "power tools". Our approach is a movement - a unique catalyst for women to embrace power and reach for leadership parity. As a human centered designer, I bring creative problem solving design skills to these trainings. My efforts are focused on using design thinking strategies to collaboratively solve leadership challenges by bringing women across sectors and length of experience on the table. It is powerful to see a room full of strangers end the session feeling more connected to each other and solving career problems for themselves and others who might be experiencing similar challenges. "The design thinking exercise was the part where I learned so much from people who were going through the same situation, or had already gone through it." - workshop participant - Conducted over 10 workshops. - As an ambassador, I've had a chance to speak, present and keynote at events. - Conducted sold out public workshops at SF Design Week 2017 & 2018. - Collaboration with other area experts to push beyond leadership content. - Creating a community beyond workshops to continue the conversation. Trainings/ Workshops / Talks conducted: DIVERSITY 4.0 CONFERENCE | Keynote Speaker JUNE 15, 2018 | Washington DC WOMEN, MONEY & PERSONAL LEADERSHIP | SF Design Week JUNE 13, 2018 | San Francisco WOMEN BACK TO WORK CAREER EVENT | Speaker APRIL 18, 2018 | Redwood City WOMEN OF COLOR LEADERSHIP FORUM | Workshop Facilitator NOVEMBER 7, 2017 | San Mateo UXINDIA: WOMEN IN DESIGN | Panelist & Moderator NOVEMBER 3, 2018 | Bangalore, India TURN AMBITION INTO INTENTION | SF Design Week JUNE 16, 2017 ### Activator @ SheEO™ Inc Jan 2016 – Jan 2017 | San Francisco Bay Area SheEO is a global initiative focused on building an innovative new model to finance, support and celebrate female entrepreneurs. The signature initiative, "Radical Generosity", calls upon 1000 women per city to commit $1,100 to provide low interest loans to 10 women-led ventures that are selected by the 1000 women, the Activators. I became an Activator because I believe that a radically different approach is needed to achieve equality and empower women entrepreneurs. This initiative has been designed to create new mindsets, new models and new solutions that are benefiting humanity. ### Designer & Researcher, Mechanical Engineering Design Group @ Stanford University Jan 2015 – Jan 2015 | Palo Alto Working with Professor Barbara A. Karanian, Ph.D & co-founder of The Design Entrepreneuring Studio to use Design Thinking methodologies in storytelling to help graduate business, engineering and design students make connections and real progress in their projects and product development processes. Course: Tell/Make/Engage: Action Stories for Entrepreneuring is a seminar that takes place over 10 variable and dynamic episodes, facilitated by the Design Entrepreneuring Studio and the participants. It is aimed to help designers overcome the chronic and well-documented problems in the invention process and is intended for use during the exploration, discovery and prototyping phases of the design process. Storytelling is rapid prototyping that provokes innovation, drives new design elements and creates shared vision for transformative culture impact. Individual storytelling action and reflective observations gives the course an evolving framework of evaluative methods. ## Education ### Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Design, Interaction Design California College of the Arts ### Certification in Graphic and Interactive Design University of California, Berkeley ### Masters in Fashion Technology in Fashion/Apparel Design National Institute of Fashion Technology Delhi ### Bachelor's (Hons) in Psychology Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR), Delhi ### Authentic Leadership Seat of the Soul Institute Jan 2019 ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/shalinisardana - Portfolio: https://sheraisescapital.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/shalini JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/shalini/resume.json Last updated: 2026-03-25