TechChill’s Post

I've been blown away by the support available to female founders that I've seen over the past few weeks. Highlights: - Female Founders Office Hours by Playfair which gave founders 15 min sessions with four investors. Really great conversations. -Linked to this, I also got to learn about SISTAFUND who have just got the most amazing mission to get female founders funding, as well as support. -Female Founders Rise put on three incredibly insightful webinars in quick succession covering investors and valuation with Sam Simpson; personal branding with Lottie Unwin (she/her) and strategic partnerships with Khalia Ismain and Lucy Woolfenden. Seriously good stuff out there. Funding is still terribly skewed to male-led start-ups, but I feel confident there are amazing people out there fighting the good fight. #femalefounder #womenintech #femalefoundersrise #ffoh

We are so excited about our collaboration with Even Founders introducing the founders’ day out event, taking place at BLOXHUB - a day of co-work, connections and the possibility to learn more about our new network group - Female Economy - with Ana A. as part of the steering comittee. Sign up on the below link & see you there! #cowork #femalefounders #startups #femaleeconomy

Thank you so much Aussie Founders Club for having me on your panel last night! I will never get tired of telling the One Roof business pivot story and all the lessons we learned scaling our community from a bricks and mortar business to a fully digitised platform and membership. ICYMI, here are some of the takeaways I shared about why building community can be an incredible business strategy: 1. Enhanced Customer Loyalty and Retention: A deeply engaged community fosters strong emotional connections between members and the business, leading to higher customer/member loyalty and retention rates. 2. Valuable Feedback and Insights: Active community engagement provides a continuous stream of feedback and insights directly from the users. Feedback is our love language and has been invaluable in our product development, service improvements, and overall business strategy. By listening to the community, businesses can quickly adapt to changing needs and preferences, ensuring they remain relevant and competitive. 3. Increased Brand Advocacy: Engaged community members often become brand advocates who promote the business through word-of-mouth recommendations and social media. This organic advocacy enhances the business's reputation, expands its reach, and attracts new members. 4. Co-Creation and Innovation: A well-engaged community often participates in co-creating new products, services, or features. By involving the community in the development process, businesses can tap into a diverse pool of ideas and experiences, fostering innovation and ensuring that new offerings are well-aligned with the community's needs. 5. Resilience and Agility: An engaged community acts as a support network during challenging times. Whether facing market disruptions, economic downturns, or other external challenges, the community's collective strength and support can help the business navigate difficulties and emerge stronger. It's a daily honour and privilege to serve the amazing women entrepreneurs that make up the One Roof community ❤️ It was also awesome to share the stage with community legends Alan Crabbe and Paz Pisarski! Kudos Megan Luttrell for MCing a terrific conversation and thanks Rick Giner and EverestEngineering for your hospitality! Sheree Rubinstein Faith Limantono Abbey Pantano

Reflecting on last week’s travels, a few takeaways stood out—lessons I’m leaning into as a first-time founder growing something meaningful: 1. The competition is steep. At True Talk in Atlanta, I saw a startup ecosystem that is thriving. People are building incredible things all around the world and standing out takes unwavering persistence. 2. Growth comes from community. Spending time with some real titans of industry in Newport Beach reminded me how valuable shared insights are. Conversations with experienced founders, investors, and industry leaders shift paradigms and help open new paths forward (s/o Christian E. White for an awesome event). 3. Supporting underrepresented founders is essential. I got the chance to view “Show Her The Money” a documentary that highlights the unique barriers women founders face and we all have a role in changing that. Think about ways you can support underrepresented founders—whether through investment, connections, or amplifying their voices. Shoutout to everyone out there making things happen—it takes real grit. The road’s tough, but the progress is worth it.

Investing in women entrepreneurs is one of the most effective ways to increase economic growth. At FourthWave.io, we are changing the funding equity narrative. Are you a female tech founder, like FourthWave alum 🍷Christy S. of PairAnything (Techstars ‘24), on a mission to build a successful, sustainable business? Why not check out FourthWave.io? Because our non-profit organization invests in leadership development, insightful mentors, and access to capital to facilitate your growth as impactful, conscious leaders. Learn about the 2024 FourthWave Accelerator... Application deadline extended to June 14th: https://lnkd.in/e5YqgJN #FourthWave #femalefounders #consciousleaders #mentorship #fundingequity

I am so So SO excited to be in the first cohort of the Female Founders Rise Funding Accelerator 🥳 Absolutely cannot wait to get started with this, Emmie Faust & Dan Bowyer. There were loads of reasons this was THEE accelerator I wanted to be part of - but if I had to highlight a few reasons, it would be these… 1. Outcome/impact driven It’s all about receiving at least 1 offer or term sheet from a prospective investor. For me, having a collective tangible goal like this, stands out head and shoulders above many other accelerators out there. 2. Lessons (with purpose) I love that sessions are unapologetically called lessons. As founders, time is our most valuable resource, so if we’re giving it up, we absolutely need to be learning/gaining. This approach reinforces the importance of every minute spent 3. Homework! We know there’s going to be homework, which is crucial. Insight without action is such a waste of opportunity. For founders who wear many hats and get pulled in every direction, the FFR Funding Accelerator will provide me with clear and specific direction. Love it. 4. National reach This accelerator isn’t just regional, which means I get to be part of a diverse cohort of entrepreneurs from across the UK, learn from my peers, and connect with investors nationwide. Side note: Being from North East England, which in my humble opinion is the best region in the UK for beauty, culture, and people 😎, it’s important to acknowledge that funding is more limited here, especially for female founders. Building a network that taps into London and other more buoyant areas of the country massively widens the opportunity scope. 5. Led by battle-tested founders This accelerator is run by people who have genuinely walked the walk and have the scars to prove it. Personally, I learn best from people who have either successfully done what I want to do or are currently doing it – and both Dan and Emmie fit the bill in spades. Their guidance and advice isn’t just theory or from a textbook, I know it’s based on lived experience. Dan is a partner at VC firm SuperSeed with years of entrepreneurial experience. He has successfully built and exited two startups and is an active angel investor in many more. Emmie is a serial entrepreneur and a Dragons’ Den contestant who successfully landed the show’s biggest-ever deal. She’s also an angel investor and FFR founder who openly shares her successes and her failures, all with the aim of lifting up female founders across the UK. All in all, they are a pretty impressive pair to learn from. If you’re reading this and are also on the accelerator, I’d love to connect with you beforehand. Feel free to say hi, drop me a connection request, and if you’re from the North East, definitely let me know. Maybe we can even have a couple of mini catch-ups in between sessions! 😊

Did you know? Less than 1% of venture capital funding goes to Black women founders. In the PR industry, the numbers are even more stark. But sometimes, opportunity knocks when you least expect it. Last month, what was meant to be a self-care day at #EnvsnFest founded by Laura Stylez and Sharifa Murdock in NYC turned into an unexpected win for J.McKee & Co I walked into the festival seeking rejuvenation and walked out with renewed purpose and validation for our mission. In an impromptu pitch competition, I shared our vision for amplifying diverse voices in PR. The result? A $1000 prize and a powerful reminder that our passion and purpose resonate. This experience fills me with immense gratitude. Grateful for the platform that #EnvsnFest provides. Thankful for visionaries like Anisa Pennie Kadidja Dosso of Dosso Beauty and Foot Locker who create spaces where diverse entrepreneurs can shine. To my fellow business leaders, especially women of color: Your voice matters. Your ideas have value. Stay ready, because you never know when your moment will come. Let's continue to show up, speak up, and lift each other up. Together, we can change the statistics and create a more inclusive business landscape. #GratefulEntrepreneur #WomenInPR #DiversityInBusiness #UnexpectedBlessings #PublicRelations #brandtransformation #crisismanagement #mediaoutreach #thoughtleadership #collaboration #authenticity #crisismanagement #mediaoutreach, #influencerpartnerships #contentcreation #brandpartnerships

Next week I'm going to interview two amazing women founders of SaaS companies in Dallas to local women entrepreneurs at the Founders, Funders & Innovators event. This is a regular gathering of women founders, funders, creators, and community experts at the HEXA Coworking & Event Center in Richardson, Texas, hosted by Ayesha Mayhugh. Morgan Denton Katz 🎟️ and Raya Khashab have each created very different SaaS companies with over $1M in revenue and growth rates of over 50% per year--without outside funding. Morgan is CEO and founder of Ticketnology. Raya is CEO and co-founder of ezClocker. They are both women founders/CEOs who live in North Dallas. And they both have big smiles. I know them both well. But they couldn't be more different in their personalities, customers, and approaches to growth. There isn't just one way to create and grow a successful software company. You get to do it your way, on your terms, using your superpowers--when you don't raise outside funding that tells you how to do it. If you're a female entrepreneur or founder in the Dallas-Forth Worth area who would like to attend this event, use the link in the comments below. #practicalfounders

See below for a great community network event (& food) for women that are involved with digital products and product management! I attended the last event that Smooth Sailing organized and it was a great experience ❤️ If you're free on Thursday 30th, or know someone that would find this interesting- this below post is for you! #network #community #womeninproduct

Female founders are lighting the way for more women-led innovations. 💡  Fenwick partnered with The Female Founder Collective and Amplifyher Ventures during New York TECH WEEK by a16z to talk about smart fundraising, ownership preservation, and which key metrics to watch for growing your business.  Get their tips here: https://bit.ly/4eBaj8d Which tip resonates with you the most?  #NYTechWeek #FemaleFounders #WomeninTech