What if technology could unlock access to legal services for millions who can’t afford it?

In this episode of Unless, Hemma sits down with Zach Posner, co-founder of The LegalTech Fund, who’s on a mission to transform access to legal services —one beautifully designed, engagement-driven tech solution at a time. Zach shares how he went from entrepreneur to impact investor, the spark that led him to focus on legal innovation, and why user experience is the non-negotiable heart of every company he backs.

In this conversation, Zach talks about what drew him to this mission, how he funds and mentors entrepreneurs who are building tech to “do good and do well,” and why he believes the future of legal services lies in a “spectacular user experience.” He explores the opportunities for impact, the power of betting on bold founders moved to build a better world, and the real stories of people getting help they never thought they could afford—all because someone dared to care “a whole awful lot.”

This is an episode about access, innovation, and legacy—and how we can invest in a better world.

Highlights:

• The founding story of The LegalTech Fund

• Why beautiful design and user experience matter in legal tech

• The qualities Zach looks for in founders and companies

• Real-world impact stories from the startups he’s backed

• How to play a part in unlocking the potential of many for impact at scale

Timestamps:

1:09 - Introducing Zach Posner

3:23- Access to justice shouldn't be a luxury

14:28 - The challenges Zach faced along the way

18:08 - Prioritizing the user experience

27:15 - When Zach realized the impact he's had

41:15 - What's next for Zach

Resources:

The LegalTech Fund

TLTF Summit

Biography:

Zach Posner is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of The LegalTech Fund (TLTF), an early-stage investment fund focused on technology companies transforming the world of law. He also co-founded the annual TLTF Summit, which brings together a curated group of influential and innovative leaders across the legal industry, and has been called “the legal tech world's answer to Davos" and the “best legal tech conference ever”. At TLTF, he oversees the organization’s team, investments, operational activities, and support for its growing list of portfolio of companies. Before founding TLTF, he founded an EdTech company (sold to McGraw-Hill) and has been an active angel investor. He started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Insight Partners, and served in several other roles including as an adjunct lecturer in a master’s program at the University of Southern California. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting & Finance from Indiana University and is a proud Hoosier.

In this episode of 'Unless the Podcast,' Dr. Hemma Lomax interviews Cliona O'Hara, CEO of the Napoleon Hill Institute and inspirational thought leader on personal growth. Cliona shares her inspiring journey from growing up in poverty in Northern Ireland to becoming a leading figure in personal development and coaching.

Tune in to hear Cliona and Hemma discuss the transformative power of thought, the principles of Napoleon Hill's philosophy, and Cliona’s global vision for the institute, including her plans for helping women and single mothers. Cliona also offers practical advice on finding purpose, overcoming fear, and maintaining a positive mindset through personal anecdotes and teachings from Bob Proctor.

Highlights:

• From Cliona's Early Life and Inspirations

• Embracing Purpose and Philanthropy

• How to Overcome a Scarcity Mindset

• Practical Steps to Manifesting Wealth from Napoleon Hill

• The Role of Leadership and Living a Meaningful Legacy

Timestamps:

1:34 - Introducing Cliona

11:34 - Why taking action is so critical

17:01 - Cliona's passion for philanthropy

29:09 - Cliona's advice for those scared for their future

38:48 - The difference between achievement and fulfillment

47:15 - Napoleon Hill's legacy

Resources:

Courses, Events, and Coaching: https://www.napoleonhillinstitute.com/

Free E-Book: https://www.napoleonhillinstitute.com/think-and-grow-rich-book

Biography:

Cliona was born and raised in Derry, Northern Ireland. When she was 18, Cliona took a huge leap of faith and moved to New York to chase the American Dream.

At the age of 27, Cliona stumbled upon the movie “The Secret,” which would eventually transform her life from poverty and despair to a life of abundance and success. This movie was the beginning of an “awakening” for her as she started studying daily all things “personal development and human potential,” and immediately, her life began to transform.

In 2014, Cliona became dissatisfied with the corporate world and decided to sell her companies in healthcare. One she had started when she was 29 the other was a family business she had shares in was valued at approximately $100million in 2016. She decided to leave the Healthcare Industry behind and pursue her true passion, Personal Development and Coaching.

Cliona has studied personal growth for over 17 years and has worked with some of the masters in personal development. She became a coach with Bob Proctor and soon moved up the ranks to become an Inner Circle Coach and VP of Sales, now she is working with Dr. Joe Vitale and being mentored by Matt Higgins from Shark Tank.

Today, Cliona is living her purpose as she coaches clients all over the world, helping them achieve their goals, know their worth, and create a life of financial freedom, joy, abundance, and health.

Christian Hunt has over 27 years of experience in Financial Services, working in Investment Banking, Asset Management, and a Family Office. He is the founder of Human Risk, a consultancy where he helps organizations improve their ethics and compliance programmes to achieve business outcomes. His work benefits from the unique perspective of having held senior roles as a Regulator and Risk & Compliance Officer.

Resources

You can find more information about Christian and his services and his book, Humanizing Rules at www.human-risk.com

You can peruse his collection of amusing "Compliance in the Wild" spotting on LinkedIn.

You can also listen to the Human Risk Podcast.

In this episode of 'Unless the Podcast,' Hemma interviews Melanie Sponholz, the Chief Compliance Officer and Director of Responsible Investing at Waud Capital Partners and a professor at Fordham Law. Melanie shares her unique career journey, which began as an English major and transitioned through roles in physical therapy and compliance leadership for a leading private equity firm and their portfolio of healthcare companies.

Tune in to hear this engaging discussion on the challenges and opportunities in private equity, including the importance of efficiency and creating a community of practice among compliance professionals. Melanie's approach to mentoring and professional development within and outside her portfolio companies highlights her dedication to elevating the compliance profession.

Highlights:

• Melanie's Career Journey: From Literature to Compliance

• The role of the Unexpected Compliance Officer

• Responsible Investing and ESG Strategy

• Private Equity's Reputation and Impact

• Mentorship and Building Professional Communities

Timestamps:

3:11 - Introducing Melanie

13:18 - The importance of a human-centered approach

24:37 - Melanie's unique role in the PE space

33:22 - Responsible investing

47:18 - Efficiency in private equity

53:43 - Melanie's thoughts on corporate compliance

Biography

‍In Melanie's compliance role, she serves as a strategic resource to the firm’s healthcare portfolio companies to support the mission of creating and maintaining a strong culture of ethics and compliance within WCP-affiliated entities. She works in tandem with the WCP investment teams and portfolio company leadership teams throughout the life cycle of every investment to build best-in-class compliance programs, provide effective risk assessment, guide compliance team development, coordinate with legal and outside consultants, provide guidance on due diligence and integration efforts, and prepare for future transactions.

Prior to joining WCP, Melanie served as Chief Compliance Officer at BioScrip, Home Solution, and Fox Rehabilitation. She is a frequent speaker on healthcare compliance and strives to support the compliance professio by mentoring and creating networking and development opportunities for her team and others in the field. Melanie holds a BA, magna cum laude, from Drew University and an MS, with honors, from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as numerous credentials from the Compliance Certification Board.

Outside of her professional career, Melanie enjoys spending time with her husband and three daughters, cooking, doing Peleton everything, and daydreaming about her future life on an organic farm with many, many rescue dogs.

In this episode, Hemma visits with Margarita Quihuis to talk about Peace Innovation and the role that Responsible Persuasive Techology can play in having impact at scale. Margarita is the CEO of PeaceX Ventures, the first venture studio dedicated to building ESG-native companies from the ground up. She is also the Executive Director of the Peace Innovation Lab (PIL) at Stanford and the Peace Innovation Institute at The Hague.

Tune in to hear how Margarita defines positive peace not as the absence of conflict but instead as a reflection of how the world works together on a micro-level, interacting with each other and our environment. Leveraging her expertise in behavior design and technology, Margarita helps her clients solve for X, where X is everything from AI to business to urban planning and beyond. If it exists, she’s trying to find a way to build peace into it. If, like Margarita, you agree that the time has come to be done talking about the problems that plague the world, and instead to find solutions, you won’t want to miss this episode.

Highlights:

• Margarita’s Incredible Journey to Silicon Valley at an inflection point for mobile technology and personal computing

• Behavior design and persuasive technology

• Our role in fostering positive peace in our communities and beyond

Timestamps:

1:23 - Introducing Margarita

4:40 - Margarita's "origin story"

9:12 - Leading as a female director at a venture capital firm

14:08 - Margarita's experience as a woman in Silicon Valley

28:05 - The female gaze in business

36:01 - What is Peace Innovation?

51:01 - What does responsible AI look like?

55:52 - Climate action and responsibility

59:48 - Designing positive behaviors

Resources:

https://margaritaquihuis.com/

Biography

‍Margarita Quihuis is the CEO of PeaceX Ventures, the first venture studio dedicated to building ESG-native companies from the ground up. She is the Executive Director of the Peace Innovation Lab (PIL) at Stanford and the Peace Innovation Institute at The Hague.

Margarita launched Astia, the first technology incubator for women entrepreneurs, and raised $67M in venture funding within 18 months.

As a public speaker on entrepreneurship and social behavior, she has addressed many corporations and institutions on ESG, ethical business, and innovation.

Margarita divides her time between academia and corporate engagements. As a research team member at BJ Fogg’s Behaviour Design Lab, she combines behavioral change, persuasive tech, and finance for real-world impact.

At PIL, she researches innovation, mass collaboration, and social technology to reform society. The focal points of her work have included the application of persuasive technology for government innovation, humanitarian relief, and citizen diplomacy.

Honors include:

• Named “One of the 100 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley” by Latino Leaders Magazine

• Named Manor Labs: “Bright Idea” Innovator by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance at Harvard University

• Named one of Women’s eNews’ “21 Leaders for the 21st Century”

Margarita has also been an entrepreneurship consultant to the US State Department.

She has been widely quoted in the Asian Venture Capital Report, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, US News & World Report, Forbes ASAP, CNN, and CBS MarketWatch.

In this episode, Hemma visits with Roxanne Bras Petraeus, entrepreneur super mom, U.S. Army veteran, McKinsey alum, and CEO co-founder of Ethena.

Tune in to hear about Roxanne’s remarkable journey from serving in the US Army and at consulting giant McKinsey to tech entrepreneur designing a product to reimagine the future of culture building at work. Roxanne’s willingness to ask audacious questions and do hard things well has opened doors and brought down walls. She gives a masterclass in discovering works when it comes to culture building at work, particularly for female entrepreneurs finding their voice and for those looking to advance technology solutions to enhance the employee experience.

Highlights:

• Roxanne’s experience as a woman in the US Army

• Highs and Lows of being a female tech entrepreneur

• The magic of a stumble and what we can learn

Timestamps:

1:06 - Introducing Roxanne

3:19 - Why did Roxanne start Athena?

13:33 - How do we have impactful, quality training?

18:47 - Why leaders need to set the tone

29:38 - Athena's culture survey and hotline

39:36 - Roxanne's advice for female founders

Resources:

www.ethena.com

Biography

‍Roxanne Petraeus is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ethena, a compliance training platform startup with intuitive and powerful admin tools that make required training easy, engaging, and effective.

Roxanne previously consulted for McKinsey, and before that, she was an officer in the US Army. She found that no matter the setting, whether consulting or in the military, there remained an opportunity to make compliance training better. She started Ethena in 2019 with Co-Founder Anne Solmssen.

Ethena enjoys incredibly positive word of mouth within the HR community and is trusted by thousands of companies like Figma, Notion, Noom, Pinterest, and Carta to provide actionable training. The employees love it: Ethena has a 93% positive rating and over 2M positive reviews. Roxanne is a natural leader, and her eagerness to question and reinvent old paradigms is at the heart of Ethena’s ascendance.

In this episode, Hemma visits with June Benjamin, a  peace warrior, attorney, former entrepreneur in residence at the Stanford Peace Innovation Institute, and founder of Peace IQ, a technology company leveraging the power of AI to offer strategic insights, predictive analytics, and conflict resolution tools, creating pathways to enduring peace.

As Peace IQ’s Chief Visionary Officer, June coined the term "peace intelligence," a multifaceted approach that integrates AI, wisdom from ancient traditions, and peace data to train AI in providing insights and resolving conflicts.

Is peace a grand scheme for global cooperation, a means to resolve conflicts or a journey of self-discovery? Tune in to find out and be inspired by June’s incredible journey from refugee to peace warrior.

Highlights:

• The Role of Peace Intelligence in Everyday conflict-resolution

• June’s remarkable impact in her local community and beyond

• How solving for peace is the most important challenge of our time and well within reach

Timestamps

2:47 - Introducing June Benjamin

5:38 - Defining peace

13:07 - June's background, and how that led her to seek peace

21:13 - Finding purpose in pain

28:24 - Collective peace building

42:41 - The role of spiritual stories in fostering peace

51:40 - How we can apply these lessons in corporate cultures

Resources:

https://www.peaceiq.com/

Founding Peace Newsletter

June Benjamin - LinkedIn

Biography

As a peace innovator and international attorney, June founded Peace IQ to upskill leaders and their teams to resolve conflict and build sustainable cooperation. As the founder of Peace IQ, June coined the term "peace intelligence," a multifaceted approach that integrates AI, peace data, and insights from wisdom traditions. Peace intelligence leverages the power of AI to offer strategic insights, predictive analytics, and conflict resolution tools, creating pathways to enduring peace.

June’s experience as a former refugee from the Liberian Civil War and Baha'i refugee from Iran, inspired June to pursue a J.D and M.A. in Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University where she received the Dean's award for Professional Responsibility. She then served as a visiting scholar at the Baha'i Chair for World Peace alongside her work as a human rights attorney.

She now combines her experience at the forefront of AI governance to innovate technology that helps clients turn the small daily decisions that add up to conflict to add up to peace. June partners with the Peace Innovation Institute as the Entrepreneur-In-Residence where she helped to launched the Peacebase network to foster relationships between thought leaders, industry experts, start-ups, and peace technologists to identify exciting new business opportunities in peace innovation.