Episode 45

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Published on:

8th Jul 2025

From Engineer to Venture Capitalist: Empowering Women Through Strategic Investment – with Carrie Colbert

Dive into a powerful conversation with Carrie Colbert, Founding General Partner of Curate Capital, a trailblazing VC firm investing in women-led, women-serving companies. With almost two decades in the oil and gas sector and retiring at age 38, Carrie transitioned into an accidental—and now passionate—venture capitalist. She went from angel investor to launching Curate’s debut fund in 2021, oversubscribed by 50%, and filled with mostly women investors.

In this episode, Carrie and I peel back the layers on:

  • Her journey from petroleum engineering to purposeful investing in female founders
  • The moment she realized her greatest impact would be through capital + advocacy
  • What Curate Capital seeks in potential investments—and why authentic resonance matters
  • How “by women, for women” capital is reshaping consumer markets
  • What she learned from her first major exit in CPG and how it shapes her mentorship

This is more than strategy—it’s an invitation for female founders to see funding as a partnership rooted in shared vision, values, and voice.

If you’re building, scaling, or considering capital—this one’s for you.

Remember, stay confident, stay focused, and keep wearing those pants with pride.

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About the Podcast

She Wears the Pants
She Wears the Pants is the podcast for the women building more than businesses—they’re building identities, empires, and legacies.

Hosted by globally recognized business advisor, multi-business founder, and start-up investor Ashley Deland, this show lives at the intersection of strategy, structure, and self. Each week, Ashley pulls back the curtain on what it truly takes for women to scale companies that are financially sound, spiritually aligned, energetically sustainable, and structurally unshakeable.

This is where high-growth women founders come for boardroom-level strategy, identity evolution, feminine leadership, and the inner work required to hold the success they’re building.

Because strategy means nothing if the woman behind it can’t hold it.

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Ashley Deland