Ruth Shaber MD is the founder and president of the Tara Health Foundation, which promotes health, well-being, and opportunity for women and girls through innovative evidence-informed programs. She is also the co-founder and board chair of Rhia Ventures, a group of foundations and investors that collaborate to bring new types of capital and enterprise to the field of reproductive health in the United States.

The following conversation took place on February 18, 2020, and is the first of a two-part interview series.

Vicki Saunders launched SheEO in 2015, a perpetual loan fund powered by the ‘radical generosity’ of several activators who each contribute the equivalent of 1,100 dollars (or $92/month) into a pool of capital for women-founded ventures solving social problems (or, as Saunders describes them, ‘the world’s to-do list’). SheEO launched in the UK, their fifth country, in late 2019, and have a pipeline of 70 further countries keen to replicate the model. The long-term goal is to reach a million women activators by the end of this decade, and a billion dollar fund helping 10,000 entrepreneurs every year.