Victoria Armstrong stood before a room of her best friends.
The exquisitely dressed, high-heeled women complemented the artwork adorning the walls of Ann Connelly Fine Art in Baton Rouge, where the ladies gathered. But not all of the women were longtime acquaintances of Armstrong, founder of Curate for Women Who Work, a network of businesswomen and their supporters.
They were Curate Besties, angel investors looking to support female founders, who often struggle with access to capital. Funds pooled together from the group become prize money for the winner of a pitch competition at the annual Curate Conference. Armstrong recounted her own struggle to find investors to scale the conference, despite its success…