Recap: 2022 Glaring Gap Summit

This month, Embarc Collective hosted the Glaring Gap Summit, sponsored by ReliaQuest. Now in its third year, the Summit has provided startup investment training to over 150 women across Florida—from college students to mid-level professionals to accredited investors.

The Glaring Gap Summit isn’t your typical speaker conference. Instead, the Summit provides an interactive investor education to its attendees—blending inspirational startup leader speakers with tactical deep dives on due diligence, startup valuations, and venture math considerations for building a startup investment portfolio.

The feedback we received on this year’s Glaring Gap Summit reinforced that providing intentional and intensive education on startup investing can create a meaningful impact: “This event filled my cup. It had all the things: education, motivation, practice tips/solutions, and networking. Even if I did nothing with Angel investing (which I hope to), it would’ve still been worth it because it gives me better insight into what my company leadership is looking at and how they are operating.”

Here are some of the highlights of this year’s Glaring Gap Summit:

Capital Deep Dives: Equity Crowdfunding, Web3, Venture Capital

The Summit then shared a lightning round of capital deep dives to better understand the pathways that exist and how to participate as an investor.

“At the core of our mission, we wanted to provide access to quality deals for investors—no matter your accreditation status.” – Caitlin Szikszai, Republic

“What I love about Web3 is that it’s focused on giving ownership to everyone—so I think we are going to see a lot of disruption moving forward.” – Yasmine Morrison, Florida Funders

“The advent of scalable technology made investing in businesses that could be home runs into a professional industry.” – Kristina Barrett, Cultivation Capital

Investor Education Training: Angela Lee, 37 Angels

Angel investor and educator Angela Lee shared practical guidance on developing your investor point of view: “Most of us read a ton of articles and books. If you are serious about getting into venture capital, I would encourage you to start writing. Go read ten articles about crypto, and then write ten bullet points on your thoughts about crypto. This forces you to digest, chew, and develop insights, which is very different than just passively reading. I find that it’s very hard to go from reading ten articles to speaking smartly about a topic. You have to go through that in-between process of writing down your thoughts.”

Want to join our mission to close the #GlaringGap in startup investing? Submit an interest form to participate in our 2023 program.

Read more about the Glaring Gap Summit coverage here:

• Who is Really Addressing the “Glaring Gaps” in the VC World? by Hypepotamus
• Bringing Top-Notch Venture Training to Female Investors by Venture Capital Journal
• Leaders Behind myMatrixx, iRobot Discuss Breaking Boundaries by St. Pete Catalyst
• Female Investors: Protips and Insights for The Next Generation by PS27