Barbara Dalton Russell co-founded Cap W – an Advisory/investment Banking firm focused on early/mid-stage tech-enabled companies, characterized by strong female and/or POC founders & teams, solving BIG problems with massive market opportunities. We advance the ability of tech-based companies, with a focus on AI/ML, VR/AR, ed-tech, clean-tech and fin-tech, to succeed through our model of investing and providing strategic advice that maximizes the ability of these companies to scale via targeted fundraising from optimal/inclusive strategic, venture, and other capital sources.

Barbara serves on the board of several rapidly-scaling, early and mid-stage companies, providing advice fueled from her 28 years of experience in private equity, investment banking, M&A, and capital markets.  She also serves on non-profit boards including: Alliance for Business Leadership (ABL)and NFTE, both of which represent her progressive views on diversity and inclusion.

Barbara serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Massachusetts, where she teaches three undergraduate courses in Entrepreneurship.

Prior to Cap W, Ms. Russell was Managing Director of Investment Banking at Detwiler Fenton, co-founder of: the Social Internet Fund (2011) with Lou Kerner; Bold Cap, a woman-focused venture fund, with Kay Koplovitz, Heide Miller,& Barbara Corcoran (SharkTank), and before that, Senior Partner, and Group Head of the Media, Entertainment, New Media investment banking group at CIBC Oppenheimer, where she raised significant amounts of capital as well as provided advice to technology, media, & digital companies.

Ms. Russell is a mentor, judge, and/or investor in several accelerators, angel investment groups, and not-for-profits including: TechStars; LearnLaunch; Harvard i-Lab; NYS Bus.Plan Comp; Rice University Bus.Plan Comp; National Venture Plan Competition; U Mass-Lowell Innovation Contest; Virginia Tech Pitch Comp; and MIT Alumni Angels. She has been a senior lecturer at Babson, MIT and University of Massachusetts, where she is now an adjunct professor teaching entrepreneurship. Barbara has delivered her “Pitch Perfect” webinar to over 40 universities around the world, which is considered a gold standard for early-stage companies writing and presenting pitches. She received her MBA from the Sloan School at MIT and a BA in Economics from Boston University.