{"podcast":{"title":"Immigrantly Podcast","slug":"immigrantly-405230","podcast_index_feed_id":405230,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/ALMIR7476721196","website_url":"http://immigrantlypod.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/67e7ebd8-3927-11ee-8b82-379d072cf5c2/image/8f5ce43c397028e39d3f2b96adc3d1b9.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Immigrantly Media","episode_count":401,"summary":"Who gets to define America? Immigrantly is Saadia Khan's weekly attempt to answer that — with artists, academics, cultural disruptors, and people whose ordinary lives contain something extraordinary. Saadia has worked in human rights, built a media company, and spent twelve years becoming an American — which is a long time to think about a question most people never ask. We go past the surface to the messy beauty of belonging. Identity is powerful, but unchecked it becomes an ego trap — so every episode sits with the nuance, the humor, and the contradictions of what it means to be from somewhere and of somewhere else. Real talk, never flattened. New episodes every Tuesday. To join this fun, thoughtful, and inclusive community, subscribe! Producer & Host: Saadia Khan Editorial Review: Shei Yu Content Writers: Michaela Strauther, Bobak Afshari, Rainier Harris, Adiba Hussain & Saadia Khan Sound Design & Content Editor: Haziq Ahmad Farid, Paroma Chakravarty, Steve Martin, Lou Raskin Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson Other Music: Epidemic Sound Please share the love and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts & Spotify to help more people find us! Don’t forget to subscribe! Follow Saadia Khan…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-08T16:18:49.406317+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/immigrantly-405230"},"episode":{"title":"What Investors Say After Founders Leave the Room with Erika Lucas","slug":"what-investors-say-after-founders-leave-the-room-with-erika-lucas","published_at":"2026-08-25T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/immigrantly-405230/what-investors-say-after-founders-leave-the-room-with-erika-lucas","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/immigrantly-405230","url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/ALMIR9049565637.mp3","audio_url":"https://pdst.fm/e/traffic.megaphone.fm/ALMIR9049565637.mp3","summary":"Erika Lucas spent years inside private equity and venture capital, the rooms that decide who gets funded in America. Then she left to build what goes around them. In this episode, she tells Saadia Khan exactly what investors say about founders once they’ve walked out. Erika was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and came to rural Oklahoma at 13 with her mother and sister, speaking no English. She went back. She built a career in Mexico, returned to the U.S., ran foreign direct investment for the State of Oklahoma, became a private equity partner—and then walked away to co-found StitchCrew, which has brought capital and networks to hundreds of founders the system overlooks. She also founded VEST, a peer network for women professionals, and VEST Her Ventures, a fund backing women-led companies in the care economy. Her TEDx talk, America's Trillion Dollar Blindspot, argues the money in this country is pointed the wrong way. She and Saadia get into the part most founder conversations skip: not how to pitch better, but who is on the other side of the table and why they keep writing checks to people who look like them. Erika's advice to founders is not what you'd expect from a former VC; she'd rather talk you out of raising venture at all. You can connect with Saadia on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠IG ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@itssaadiak⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Find Erika Lucas on IG at @erika_07 Email:saadia@immigrantlypod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Host & Producer: Saadia Khan I Content Writer: Saadia Khan I Editorial review: Shei Yu I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin I Immigrantly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound Immigrantly Podcast is an Immigrantly Media Production. For advertising inquiries, contact us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠info@immigrantlypod.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…","meta_description":"Erika Lucas spent years inside private equity and venture capital, the rooms that decide who gets funded in America. Then she left to build what goes arou…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3060,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/immigrantly-405230/episodes/what-investors-say-after-founders-leave-the-room-with-erika-lucas/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/immigrantly-405230/what-investors-say-after-founders-leave-the-room-with-erika-lucas.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}