Ep 56: Amra Naidoo (Co-Founder, Accelerating Asia & General Partner, Accelerating Asia Ventures)

Amra Naidoo is the co-founder of Accelerating Asia, an early stage venture capital fund that runs programs for startups and investors, and General Partner at Accelerating Asia Ventures. Prior to that, she was the Head of Corporate Partnerships at UN Women, including Project Inspire (a UN Women global social entrepreneurship program) and a part of muru-D’s, which was one of the top startup accelerators in Asia. She is also the APAC Regional Lead for Shaper Impact Capital and Outgoing Curator for the Global Shapers Singapore Hub, an initiative of the World Economic Forum and is the host and creator of the Doing Good Podcast. She has been interviewed and featured as a guest author on industry blogs, including The Straits Times, Techcrunch, Reuters and named as one of Harper's Bazaar’s Women Who Inspire Others.Highlights1:56 Growing up in Zimbabwee3:14 Moving to Australia5:23 Why Amra started dreaming of working at the UN7:26 Selling SKII & Shiseido13:53 Deciding on how to change her life16:18 Getting a UN internship20:03 Becoming Head of Corporate Partnerships at UN Women21:00 Running Project Inspire25:50 How startups can run successful crowdfunding campaigns27:28 The struggle with marketing 31:35 Why Amra ended up leaving the UN34:17 Obtaining a marketing degree from the University of Newcastle36:30 Meeting Craig, her current co-founder, at muru-D37:19 How the idea of Accelerating Asia began39:20 The “missing middle”41:26 The biggest challenges in setting up an independent accelerator43:21 Bootstrapping to set up a consultancy program44:16 Running the 100 days accelerator program47:22 The regulatory challenges behind running a venture fund48:24 Fundraising for their venture fund50:37 Why selling a fund is similar to selling Chanel56:25 Why Accelerating Asia focuses on pre-Series A companies58:48 Whether Amra looks for social impact in their startups1:04:00 Starting the Doing Good podcast1:05:44 What Amra thinks about the creator economy & how VCs/startup founders should get into the space1:07:31 How Amra ended up joining the Payment’s Race - MoneyAsia 2020📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/56 💌 Sign up for the weekly STIMY newsletter: https://sothisismywhy.ck.page/ebf231f605