Make Money with Conscious Capitalism | Eva Yazhari

Eva Yazhari — Managing Partner of Beyond Capital Ventures, early-stage investor, author of The Good Your Money Can Do, and advocate for conscious capitalism. Her funds have backed 50+ equity and 9 debt investments, reaching over 100 million customers across Africa and India.

• First and most recent dollar:

  • First job: Working at a Staten Island bread shop.

  • Today: Managing partner of a venture + private credit fund investing in emerging markets with LP capital.

• Family background & mindset:

  • Father grew up in Tanzania; grandfather a medical doctor working with Catholic missions — early exposure shaped her view of Africa as opportunity, not risk.

  • Parents were artists — exposure to art trained her in pattern recognition, now one of her investor superpowers.

• Education & mindset pivots:

  • Started pre-med at Columbia → realized it was toxic competition. Pivoted to math, discovering both aptitude and love of problem solving.

  • Training in mathematics = fluency in patterns, language of money, and risk analysis.

• Early career:

  • VP at Entrust Capital (fund of hedge funds). Employee #2 → helped scale from $200M → $4.8B AUM. Managed relationships with activist hedge fund giants like Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn.

  • Learned portfolio building, risk management, and fundraising skills that later became core to her VC work.

• Why venture capital in Africa & India?

  • By 2050, 1 in 4 humans will be African; India today has the world’s largest working-age population.

  • 53% of the next decade’s growth will come from these regions.

  • Saw contrarian “alpha” opportunity most Western investors still dismiss.

• Sectors of focus:

  • Healthcare

  • Fintech

  • Mobility

  • Agtech (selectively)

  • All are tech-enabled, solving essential problems for fast-growing middle classes.

• Conscious capitalism lens:

  • Portfolio companies think beyond profits → align incentives with customers, governments, communities.

  • Example: Rwanda’s first licensed online pharmacy; startup scaling e-motorbikes after gas bikes banned.

  • Beyond Capital gives founders a share of fund profits — equitable ownership model.

• Fundraising lessons:

  1. Fundraising is sales math: Eva raised her second fund after 550+ investor meetings → ~30–40 LPs. Funnel has to be very wide.

  2. Mindset matters: Rejections happen, but abundance mindset drives momentum.

  3. Referrals are gold: “Every dud knows a stud” — rejections often connect you to your best investors.

  4. Exude confidence from a clear strategy — investors back comfort + conviction.

• Personal insights:

  • Considers herself an entrepreneur, not just an allocator.

  • Believes leadership skills are as critical as financial acumen.

  • Thinks of her fund as her “third child.”

• Alternate career: Pop star.

• Dream chat: Emma Grede (helped Kardashian brands scale).

• Learning style: Podcasts, audiobooks, physical books.

• Reading now: The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle.

• Her book: The Good Your Money Can Do.

• Pump-up song: The Rapture Pt. 3 by Black Coffee.

• Weakness: Moving slowly — always in motion.

• https://www.instagram.com/consciousinvestor/?hl=en

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