Episode Summary

Noga Edelstein is the lead of the Equity Clear initiative, a not-for-profit effort to get Australian investors tracking pipeline diversity data with a common standard. She's also a former General Counsel at Yahoo, a multi-time founder, and has had her fingerprints across the Australian startup ecosystem for over a decade.

In this episode, Cheryl and Maxine unpack why pre-seed funding to women is at its lowest level ever and how Equity Clear is building the data infrastructure to finally see where diverse founders are falling out of the pipeline. Noga shares what the UK's five-year head start has revealed, including that angel groups with at least 15% women invest in 10X the number of women-led companies, and why the mere act of tracking your own pipeline drives better outcomes.

You'll also hear how a broken website form accidentally proved that women disproportionately use cold inbound to reach investors, why male founders and LPs should be asking their investors about diversity tracking, and what sport can teach us about leveling the playing field through systemic tweaks like funded childcare for founders. Noga closes with her Big Cojones moment: quitting her General Counsel role at Yahoo with a newborn to go all in on a startup.

Time Stamps

00:00 Intro

02:27 – Noga's first investment: dollar-mite savings accounts in primary school

10:02 – What is Equity Clear and why pipeline data is the missing piece

14:40 – Why closing the gender gap matters now: productivity, economics, and AI bias

19:27 – Pre-seed funding to women is at its lowest ever despite lower barriers to building

24:44 – Why collecting diversity data feels hard but isn't

28:32 – Lessons from the UK: what five years of tracking has revealed

32:02 – Maxine's accidental experiment: when a broken form hid all the women founders

37:39 – How male founders and LPs can push for change by asking simple questions

48:16 – Why funds are missing a trick on sourcing diverse founders

51:32 – Breaking the archetype: leveling the playing field with systemic tweaks

57:15 – Big Cojones moment: quitting law with a newborn to start a company

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