ABOUT
Leslie Feinzaig is the founder and Managing Director of Graham & Walker, an early stage venture capital fund and community on a mission to reshape the Nasdaq by investing in tech companies founded and led by women.
Born and raised in Costa Rica, Leslie moved to America in 2005 to attend Harvard Business School. Immediately following, she worked under renowned HBS Professor and influential economist Clayton Christensen, helping companies identify and deflect disruptive innovations in their space, and launch their own disruptive businesses. Building on that experience, Leslie spent a decade launching products and businesses across consumer tech, digital entertainment, gaming, ecommerce, and early metaverse.
In 2016, following the birth of her oldest daughter, Leslie launched her first startup. As she attempted to raise venture capital later that year, she started connecting with other women CEOs of tech startups that were on a similar journey. This was the Female Founders Alliance, which started as a 25-person Facebook group, and in five years grew into the most prominent and tightly engaged community for women-founded startups and aligned investors across America.
Leslie has earned multiple accolades for this work. She was named one of Forbes Magazine's Most Powerful Women from Central America, Worth Magazine’s Worthy 100, Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40, Geekwire Impact Awardee, and Seattle Magazine's Most Influential People. Leslie serves on the Boards of the Washington Technology Industry Association, the Girl Scouts of Western Washington, and the Harvard Business School Equity and Entrepreneurship Initiative Alumni Advisory Board. She is also a frequent contributor to Fortune, Fast Company and Techcrunch, where she writes about innovation, venture capital, startups and women in tech.
Leslie has a Bachelor's degree from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and two young daughters, and spends as much time as possible with her family in Costa Rica.
OPEDS
Techcrunch
3 ways founders can turn feedback into action
5 pieces of advice to help early stage founders navigate the months ahead
Techcrunch
Early stage fundraising is a tale of two planets
The differences between angel investors and VCs
Fast Company
A great disruption is coming for venture capital
Two girls walk into a job fair (or why I raised a VC fund)
Why it's incredibly rare for companies led by women to IPO
New data shows the number of women-led VC funds is exploding
Three ways VC firms can construct sustainably diverse portfolios
The pandemic is deterring women from becoming entrepreneurs
Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passing feels like millions of women have lost their bubbie
Startup accelerators don’t work for female founders. Here’s how to fix that
I run an accelerator. Here are 4 things startups can learn from rejection.
I am a working mom and CEO who’s worked under pandemic conditions. Here’s why productivity is a myth.
SPEAKING
RECENT PRESS
7 first time funds see an advantage in this market
We Rise: HBS alumnae and faculty weigh in on what it would take to close venture capital’s long-standing gender gap
The VC who believes investing in women is good business
Leslie Feinzaig se presenta en la Vivencia ALAS
The Women Writing Checks
CONTACT ME
Contact me for partnership, press, and speaking engagements.