SheWorx100: Three Pillars to Scaling Successful Businesses
“The SheWorx100 Summit was not ambiguous and awkward like other investor + startup events. The goal was clear: streamline access to capital and company growth for female founders” — Katherine Kuzmeskas, Founder & CEO, SimplyVital Health
So you’ve started a business. You’ve got a business plan. A product. An awesome tech team. The ball is rolling and it’s picking up speed. In an ideal world, your business will just run itself from here on in. But more likely, you’ll hit a bump or run into a wall along the way. Either you’ll slow down on impact, or, if you’re really unlucky, lurch to a dead stop. It’s important to remember that, no matter how successful in the beginning, every startup will hit a plateau at some point. While a company can often launch successfully, it is much more difficult to build long-term sustainable growth. The SheWorx100 Summit Series was created to give female founders the tools they need to gain this sometimes much-needed momentum, and to continue to build and scale their companies successfully.
Provide Access to Funding through Engaged Investors
“The SheWorx100 Summit is most remarkable for the eagerness of investors to engage with founders… I was astonished to have two super interesting investors reach out to me immediately” — Barbara Tien, Co-Founder & CEO, Ponga
While you might be able to finance a successful software based tech start-up without external funding, provided you’re a coding wizard and have a lot of spare time on your hands, chances are you’re going to need some funding in order to survive the early days of your startup. Accessing investors, and getting them to buy into your idea helps to reduce personal risk while also increasing the visibility of your company with a big-name backer. Women entrepreneurs face significant challenges in accessing funding. Oftentimes, they can’t gain access to the higher ups in the organization or investors are simply disengaged. SheWorx aims to give its members exposure to VC’s who are really interested in engaging with female founders, one-on-one. For those who might not yet be at the investment stage, the SheWorx100 Summit Series is a good way to start forming some early relationships.
Deliver Constructive, Actionable and Candid Feedback in an Open Environment
“Investors and fellow founders provided open and candid feedback that [was] actionable and will help me to grow my company” — Celena Green, Founder & President, Teke Global
Women-centric entrepreneurial events are important, because they allow female founders to showcase and create space for one another in a safe environment. Women need a platform to address their concerns and re-imagine their place in the structure of startups, from brand building to product development to fundraising. The problem with many female-centric events is that they tend to focus too much on the problem (for example, the lack of funding for women in the tech industry) instead of the solution (connect female founders directly to top-level investors). The goal of the SheWorx100 Summit Series is to focus on actionable take-aways and follow-ups for female founders so that they when they leave the event, they have their work cut out for them. Content is meant to inspire and motivate, but also provide a framework for how to identify a goal and work towards it strategically: undiluted, straight to the point information that will help founders to grow their businesses.
Create a Strong Start up Ecosystem for Female Entrepreneurs
“SheWorx is a powerful sisterhood of strong, smart, visionary women empowering each other to change the paradigm of funding opportunities for women and minorities” — Lucia Brawley, Co-Founder of Amp.It
Women are in a league of their own when it comes to startups. They receive less funding than their male counterparts. It’s more difficult to be taken seriously. Many successful female founders feel isolated as they climb the corporate ladder or carve out an entrepreneurial niche for themselves. The list goes on and on. Female-centric events allow women to subvert the networking norm by giving them the opportunity to take ownership of a space that is traditionally male-dominated. When female founders manage to connect with other successful, like-minded women, the impacts are far-reaching. The SheWorx100 Summit Series helps to provide these kinds of exceptional opportunities for female founders, to collaborate with potential investors and business partners. The goal being to forgo the ‘spirit of competition’ that is inherent in many entrepreneurial conferences and to forge instead a strong and supportive global community of women helping women to succeed in business.
While the SheWorx100 Summit Series is unique in its approach to funding, networking and actionable results, it thrives because of its diverse and influential membership. SheWorx is proud to work closely with entrepreneurs and investors, through the SheWorx100 Summit Series, to close the funding gap and help women grow and scale their businesses across the globe. Join us for the upcoming SheWorx100 Summit in London on June 7th!
By: Lisa Wang: She is a serial entrepreneur and the Co-founder of SheWorx, the global collective of ambitious female entrepreneurs redefining leadership.
Originally published at www.sheworx.com.
