Announcing Pitch Lab: find values-aligned investors, tap into your feminine leadership, and possibly receive $10,000

I’ve been in the social entrepreneurship / mainstream startup ecosystem for over a decade, and I’ve seen every side of the story of “how do we build companies to solve intractable social challenges at scale?”

I’ve interviewed hundreds of grassroots women entrepreneurs as a Kiva Fellow in Bolivia. I’ve written and published 15+ business case studies on entrepreneurship and social impact used in classes at Ross, Kellogg, Harvard, and other business schools globally. I booked a one-way ticket to India in 2011, and lived there for 6 years, launching a Rockefeller Foundation-funded program to help impact founders raise seed capital (and millions in follow on funding). And most importantly, I’ve been a founder myself, building a platform to bring sexuality and gender education to 600,000 students in India. 

Through this process, I went through a number of prestigious accelerators and bootcamps aimed at helping me raise capital (including a reality show, Shark Tank style!)  - but I never quite felt supported. Alongside mainstream tech ventures, I never quite felt seen, heard, or understood in my purpose-driven venture to stop sexual violence. I also felt like the fundraising game just wasn’t “for me” - like it was impossible for me to find an investor who shared my same vision and would support me in it, no matter what happened.

Through my journey, I realized that I’m not the only one. Purpose-driven female founders are emerging like never before, and we are addressing the problems that haven’t been addressed by any other sector - not the government, not industry, and thus far not the venture capital ecosystem - not exactly.

And, we need a different kind of support that celebrates and amplifies our vision and purpose instead of compressing it. Support that helps us actually up-level our mindset and venture, bring in capital, and start to change the system.

Here’s how we purpose-driven female founders think about things differently.

1. We care deeply about our larger vision of transformation

All of our industries are ripe for transformation. Our healthcare system keeps patients in cycle of dependency and sickness, and is highly opaque and also costly (and can we imagine a more holistic, preventative, and transparent system that everyone has access to?)

Our education system has not fundamentally changed since the Industrial Revolution, when our economy needed more obedient factory workers (and can we imagine a way to educate that is more fun, nurturing, community-centric, creative, and prepares students for the future of work? And does not make them sit in a fluorescent-light room for hours on end?) Our food systems are not sustainable. Our news media and entertainment media need to become democratized and get back to their roots. Cities have a myriad of issues, including housing and transportation. 

Everything must shift. There are those of us who are intrinsically, intimately, motivated to try to solve some of these challenges, in our own ways, based on our own experience and intuition. These are purpose-driven founders - and most of us happen to be female. 

We start working on our ideas, but when we start thinking about fundraising, we sometimes start to feel like a square peg in a round hole. Without a lot of role models of highly purpose-driven successful female founders, we start to compress our vision a little bit so that it can fit in the round hole. 

That is not just a small compromise. In the long run, we start to feel burnt out and distanced from the vision we set out with, as we go through larger and larger rounds of capital. It’s unsustainable.

As a founder, our vision is our lifeblood, our fuel.

What if our funding, business model, partnerships and the rest could mold themselves around our vision? What if boldly being in integrity to our highest vision for humanity could actually bring in greater prosperity for our ventures? 

(It can. And it’s much more nourishing and easier to do it that way.)

2. We lean into our inner knowing - our feminine leadership (“goddess leadership”)

The startup ecosystem and investment ecosystem in particular, is based on external validation. We get caught up in gaining approval from others, winning awards, and “winning” a capital raise. 

It’s also based on a “startup grind” and “hustle” mentality - working endless hours and operating in scarcity. This doesn’t lend itself well to thoughtful, sustainable, foundational leadership. Leadership that can actually build something to transform lives, add value to all stakeholders, grow with all its processes in place, and be grounded and stable in the long run.

If we want the latter type of leadership in our ventures, we have to switch modes right now. Just because the rest of the ecosystem’s stress level is on EXTRA-HIGH, doesn’t mean that we don’t have a choice to lead differently. 

We allow ourselves to take lots of time to ourselves, to rest, and to make thoughtful decisions. “Productivity” isn’t our goal. Allowing our ventures to be as powerful and expansive as they can, is. These are two separate things. And actually, the latter is what an investor would actually like to see in a founder. We’ve just been fooled into thinking that sprinting as fast as we can will get us there. (Slow. Down. To. Go. Faster.)

Which brings me to…

 3. We bring in values-aligned investors 

The values-aligned investor is not a rainbow butterfly fantasy. It’s a necessity and a boundary every founder needs to set for herself.

Values-aligned will mean different things to different people. But I’ve spoken to enough founders whose ventures failed because of undue pressure from predatory (and well known) venture capital firms. I never want this to happen to my purpose-driven founders - the world needs our ideas too badly to allow this to happen.

The first way to magnetize aligned investment into your venture is to be aware that it exists. There are people out there who will share your vision - and fund it - at terms that feel really perfect for you.

 It’s up to you whether you want to continue down the road of equity-based investment for future rounds (resulting in either buy-out or IPO). There are ways for your investors to buy back their shares in case you don’t want to go down that road. You’re not locked into any specific trajectory, if you have alignment with your investors. Everything is possible.

4. We connect and collaborate with like-minded industry leaders

We remember that our vision is broadly held by others like us, at the highest levels in our industries - and we go find them.

Whatever industry we operate in, it can sometimes feel heavy, and like everyone is too invested in the status quo for anything to truly change. However as founders, we have the very thing that our industries badly need: fresh new ideas, outside perspective, and energy to execute.

The trick to getting aligned partners, sponsors, collaborators, allies, and funders on board is all about finding those who already resonate with our message. It’s not about building uphill - it’s about letting our message be heard and letting the right partners organically come in.

As purpose-driven founders, letting like-minded people support us is the easiest pathway to success. 

Announcing our Pitch Lab program

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a program and community that could carry me through this process of crystallizing my grand vision, co-creating and bonding with industry leaders, leaning into my feminine leadership, and attracting values-aligned investment?

Yess…announcing Pitch Lab, the accelerator program and community we’ve been waiting for.

Pitch Lab is for the early stage founder who has some traction around her transformative solution/product, and is ready to up-level her venture into raising capital or multiplying her cash flow. She’s tired of going it alone, and knows that she can progress exponentially quicker with the support of a venture coach and values-aligned community.

We are looking for ten to twelve such energized and ready founders who are up for rapid transformation and growth - at the individual and venture level. 

My dream and vision is that every single founder going through this program should reach her desired outcome - whether it’s raising capital or multiplying her cash flow. The magic is in the one-on-one coaching with me, paired with industry experts, investor pitches, and a supportive community of other purpose-driven founders.

Also: We are awarding a $10,000 grant to one data-driven impact venture, courtesy of our grant sponsor, Splunk Ventures! If you are using data to power your impact, and/or if data plays an integral role in your business, then you’re a great fit for this grant.

Do we receive male and non-gender binary purpose-driven founders? Absolutely yes. If you are deeply in integrity to your vision of social change, please reach out - everyone is invited.

Pitch Lab starts on June 29th. Founders will be enrolled on a rolling basis all this month. All industries and geographies are invited to apply!

Intrigued? Excited? Apply here. Or say hi at hello@thefemalefounderslab.com .

Investor? Get on our investor list to gain access to our pipeline of founders.

Not a founder or investor, but want to collaborate? E-mail hello@thefemalefounderslab.com

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