#133 21-year-old VC & Racial Justice Tech Founder w/ Irene Wu, Founder at The YX Foundation and Investor at Blue Collective

In #133, futurists tap into an electric conversation with Irene Wu, a 21-year-old venture capitalist investing with Blue Collective, Harvard student, and Founder at The YX Foundation. Irene trained for half her life being the coxswain for Men's rowing teams, committing to Harvard as a student athlete before suffering a concussion that resulted in her taking a gap year. It was Irene's interest in rowing that led her to become obsessed with a streetwear startup called Rowing Blazers, and she ended up cold-emailing the CEO and moving to NYC before she had completed her first year of college to work full-time at a startup. Following her three-year stint at Rowing Blazers, Irene became an investor at Blue Collective, and she's invested in several companies including Doola, Parlor, and Teleportal. In 2019, Irene founded The YX Foundation, a hybrid coalition-design lab dedicated to prototyping at the intersection of deep technology (AI/ML) and critical race theory. On this episode, Irene and Michael discuss her journey in the startup world, lessons learned, and then dive headfirst into a conversation about the intersection of race and startups. Don't miss this one. Get 50% off Verb Energy's Starter Pack: https://www.verbenergy.com/ourfuture Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2htIc3-njRI5BKTJ2QqNfA Subscribe to Our Future Newsletter: https://www.ourfuturehq.com/ Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/ourfuturehq/ Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ourfuturehq