What I Learned Evaluating 300+ Startups: The Psychology of Founder Success with Julia Fisher

In this episode, I sit down with my lifelong best friend Julia Fisher to explore behavioral science and startup investing. Julia transitioned from Senior Investment Analyst at Village Capital to pursuing her MBA at INSEAD. We discuss founder psychology, gender bias in VC funding (connecting to regulatory focus theory), and practical fundraising advice based on her experience with hundreds of early-stage startups.

Guest Bio

Julia Fisher is an INSEAD MBA with over 7 years of experience in impact investing. As a Senior Investment Analyst at Village Capital, she led six direct investments and supported over 300 impact-driven startups in raising pre-Series A capital. Julia has worked across sustainable finance, fintech ecosystem development, and microfinance initiatives in multiple countries, giving her a unique perspective on startup evaluation and investor psychology. Her work has particularly focused on addressing funding gaps for underrepresented founders, using data-driven approaches to reduce bias in investment decisions. 

Key Topics Covered

Successful Founder Traits:

• Coachability: ability to take advice and act quickly
• Resilience: managing entrepreneurship's emotional ups and downs
• Risk tolerance: embracing failure as learning
• Network building: start investor relationships 1+ years before fundraising

Gender Bias in VC:

• Connection to regulatory focus theory research
• Women's cautious language (prevention focus) vs. startup risk-taking environment (promotion focus)
• Solutions: structured due diligence to avoid biased questioning

Practical Founder Advice:

• "More dangerous to wait too long than start earlier"
• VC is overhyped - consider bootstrapping, grants, other capital sources
• Investment is "art not science" - heavily relationship-based
• 80-85% of VC goes to NYC/Boston/SF, creating opportunities elsewhere

Impact Metrics:

• Climate: CO2 emissions, biodiversity improvement
• Social: people reached, demographic breakdowns
• Early-stage: reach metrics often more feasible than outcome data

Bootstrapping vs. VC:

• Bootstrapping: keep equity, maintain control, flexibility
• VC: scale faster, access networks
• Trade-off: 2 years bootstrapped vs. 4-6 months with investment

Key Insights

• Average founder age is 40s, not 20s
• Entrepreneurship is inherently social - build ecosystems
• Early-stage focus: prove you can make money vs. perfect product
• Current market (2025): funds deploying slower than 2020-2021

Connect with Julia

• LinkedIn: Julia Fisher