Lisa Erhart
One of the few people in the world who has both secured millions in funding as an applicant and assessed millions more from the inside. Lisa brings a perspective on the funding system that most founders — and most podcast guests — simply do not have access to.
Most guests talk about funding from the outside. Lisa has sat on grant assessment panels, read thousands of applications, and watched strong businesses fail to secure funding for entirely avoidable reasons. She also personally secured $2M in her first 18 months as an applicant. That combination — assessor and applicant — is what makes her a guest your audience won't hear anywhere else.
Lisa spent years on the other side of the table assessing government and philanthropic applications. This episode pulls back the curtain on what assessors actually look for, the patterns that sink strong applications, and what fundable really means — beyond eligibility.
VC funding to all-female teams fell to 0.8% in 2025. The standard advice is to pitch better and network harder. Lisa's argument is different: the problem is structural, the system has a compounding loop, and the founders who break through are the ones who build businesses funders already recognise — before the door opens.
Lisa's journey started in sustainability and social impact, moved through corporate innovation at scale, and led her to build a global platform helping women founders access capital. This is the story of what she learned from both sides — and why she rebuilt everything from a new country.
AI tools can generate a polished application in minutes. The problem: funders can tell — and a well-written application that doesn't reflect genuine readiness fails faster than a rough one that does. Lisa has built AI-powered assessment tools herself and knows exactly where the technology helps, where it creates false confidence, and what it cannot replace.
Lisa built an international consultancy, then relocated and built again. Less about funding, more about the identity shift of reinvention — what it takes to start over in a new country, build credibility from zero, and back yourself when nobody knows who you are yet.
The Great Wealth Transfer is the largest intergenerational movement of assets in history. Women are projected to control 60–65% of it. Lisa has spent years studying where this converges with the explosive growth of female entrepreneurship — and what it means for founders building right now, in the window before the system fully realigns.
Lisa Erhart is a funding specialist, grants assessor, author and founder of Funding4Growth — a global platform helping women-led and innovation-driven businesses understand how funding decisions are made and build the evidence base that funders recognise.
Before founding F4G, Lisa led large-scale corporate innovation programmes, built an international sustainability consultancy with UK and US partnerships, and was recognised with the Visy Environmental Award from Creative Partnerships Australia for outcomes achieved with Live Performance Australia.
Having personally secured $2M within 18 months as an applicant, and having assessed more than $50M in applications from the inside, Lisa brings a perspective that is direct, grounded and rarely available to founders — or to podcast audiences.
She is also the founder of FUNDiD — a global community for ambitious women founders driving impact and creating legacy by leveraging external funding opportunities.
She is the author of Advanced Grant Writing for Female Founders (2024, Amazon) and the architect of the proposed 365 Initiative — a $107M national funding framework for women entrepreneurs modelled on the UK's Invest in Women Taskforce. She is currently based in Monza, Italy, building F4G's UK and EU presence.
Conversational interview, panel, or solo episode. Comfortable with live and pre-recorded formats. Video and audio.
Women founders, entrepreneurs, impact investors, and anyone navigating the intersection of business, funding, and system change.
Based in Monza, Italy (CET). Available for recording across AU, UK, EU and US time zones. Lead time appreciated.