Female Founders: Frances Simowitz of WEVE On The Five Things You Need To Thrive and Succeed

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

…I don’t want to be discouraging because I believe that more people can be founders that end up making the leap, but I also don’t think that everyone is cut out to be a founder, just like I’m not made to be a theoretical physicist. I also believe that certain personality traits can help a founder succeed more than others.

As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Frances Simowitz. Frances is the CEO of WEVE Acceleration and an expert in the NYC technology startup scene. Prior to her time with WEVE, she has over 10 years of experience in the startup ecosystem, helping to establish and grow operations in cities such as Boston, Chicago, DC, and New York for startups like Sittercity and Startup Institute. She has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurs and has established one of the largest entrepreneurial communities in NYC through HackerNest.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I had a very non-traditional path to get into the startup scene. I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Music Education and Voice Performance. I fell in love with music because of Choir, it was an opportunity to create something beautiful collaboratively. I decided not to pursue music any longer because when you start to seek out a solo career as an opera singer, it’s very much the mindset of “my success means someone else’s failure.” My ex-husband was a software engineer and worked in the startup space. I loved how collaborative they were, it had the energy of building amazing things with great people, and I knew I wanted that.

I found an educational program run by the Managing Directors of TechStar’s Boston (and built on the same accelerator model) called Startup Institute. Instead of accelerating startups, they accelerated individuals with the skills and knowledge necessary to work and be impactful at startup companies. This program changed my life and set me on the path I’m on today. It was clear that the accelerator model was a fast-track to clear outcomes through network and knowledge. After getting my first job at a startup through their network, I later worked at that accelerator, selecting the cohort and helping run the program.

From there, I had the opportunity to join the global accelerator, NUMA, as one of the founding team members of the New York office. They were already globally established, operating in seven other markets around the world, headquartered in Paris, and looking to open a New York office specifically to help startups globally expand to the US. I was excited by the prospect of building an accelerator program from scratch, especially when leaving one that had already existed and was operating when I joined. I quickly progressed at the company, promoted to Program Director after six months, and before two -years, I was promoted to the CEO of the office.

I then had the very fortunate opportunity to continue my growth trajectory in the company. In July of 2021, my business partner, Giulia Imperatrice and I acquired the US subsidiary of NUMA and rebranded to WEVE Acceleration. It’s a beautiful feeling to be able to own the thing I’ve been building and pouring my heart into for the last five years.

Can you share the most interesting story that has happened to you since you began your company?

It’s been an exciting and ever-changing five years, but I think my path to fully owning this business is unusual. It’s not every day you start at the bottom, eventually get promoted to CEO, and then buy the business. People told me not to even interview for the company because they heard the position was junior, and I’m not junior, so I shouldn’t pursue it. However, I firmly believe that opportunities are not yours to say no to until they give them to you. I also had two other job offers at the time, one of them with a base salary of more than $40K more than what I was offered originally at NUMA (now WEVE). Choosing a non-traditional path and not being the typical picture of an entrepreneur or leader has been thoroughly rewarding throughout the journey.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I am historically not great with WhatsApp, but I had to start using it more early on because it is one of the main modes of communication for international companies and startups. So, unknowingly, I chose a profile photo of me on New Year’s Eve wearing a sparkly short sequined dress and a sparkly cat-eared headband. We had been working on a client project with a large enterprise to run an innovation program, and for these programs, we needed to use WhatsApp to communicate with all of the program participants. The program went exceptionally well; however, I had an embarrassing moment when the client mentioned to me on a later call how his wife had seen my photo on WhatsApp and had been concerned with who “ that girl” was. Thankfully after a bit of damage control, I was able to reassure the wife that I was only his contact in a professional context.

While this didn’t end up being a deal-breaker, it could have been, and it was a reminder that when you are working with clients, it’s essential to keep an appearance of professionality — that sparkly fun party photos should stay on accounts I only use for personal things. It also highlights one of the many challenging things about being a woman in business: I don’t think a photo of a man at a New Year’s Eve party would have likely received the same type of commentary.

None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are many. I’ve been very fortunate to have a lot of unique bosses and mentors along the way. Attending the accelerator program, Startup Institute, was pivotal for me. Coming from a background in music and working as a nanny on the Upper West Side of Manhattan right before I attended the school, I entered with a lot of excitement for the new path. Still, I knew it would be hard to prove my capabilities to work in business to the business world. There was a program component called Partner Projects, where we would get put into groups and have the opportunity to work with a real startup to solve a real challenge using our new skills. One day at lunch with the founder, we were discussing his business, and he looked at me and said, “Wow, you are pretty smart for a nanny.” I credit the staff at Startup Institute and all of the mentors for being incredibly supportive at building the necessary confidence and skills to make a massive transition into a new career path.

My first two opportunities in the startup world were working under women bosses. When I was at Sittercity, my boss, Martina, was an incredible leader. She showed compassion for her reports and operated with extraordinary competency. She also was 100% herself; she would come to the office in sky-high heels and dresses. It was vital for me to see that being feminine didn’t mean that you couldn’t still be incredible at the work you do.

My next boss, Katie, was also a significant role model. It was under her that I learned my most treasured skill of sales. I had joined the company in a role that was positioned heavily as a sales position, which brought vivid thoughts to my head of used-car salespeople, cold-calling, or a room full of sales-y tech-bros. Under her leadership and teaching, I learned that the nuance of sales is about solving problems, listening, empathizing, and understanding if you can help their challenges. If you can, educate them on why and how, or craft a solution creatively together, and if you can’t solve it for them, be honest and direct them to something that might. Sales is such an essential skill for leadership. Even if you are not directly selling a product or service, you are selling your company’s vision or selling your employees on why they should work with you and your company. It’s also a very male-dominated industry, which confuses me — many of the top “skills of selling” are actually attributes that women I know possess, like the ability to empathize, actively listen, and solve problems in a genuine and caring manner. Working alongside and learning from these outstanding female sales leaders has shifted my approach to sales and business, and these takeaways are now a large part of how I now coach my team and their sales skills.

Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects excellent historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience, what is currently holding back women from founding companies?

It’s a complex question: there are many challenging things for female founders, from dealing with unconscious biases to having more examples of female leadership, etc. One of the things that are starting to evolve (but has not changed nearly enough) is the number of women who are GP’s in Venture Capital — it increased from 12% to 15% in 2021, which I’m confident also has led to the increase in female funded companies. But in order to see a shift in where the capital is moving, the diversity of who controls the money needs to change first and foremost.

My current team is 100% female-owned, all of the leadership is female, and at this present moment, the entire team is female. Previously we’ve had men on our team, but at WEVE, the women who work with us get to have a unique tech experience compared to male-dominated companies. Examples of determined female leadership have been beneficial for many of our previous and current employees — seeing the ways women can succeed is compelling. This is why we need more prominent, public examples of female founders who are collaborating & coaching other women. This is not to negate the value of my male mentors, but the truth is that women will be faced with different challenges when it comes to perception and negotiation. Understanding how other women have overcome similar hurdles can positively impact self-perception and one’s ability.

My final point will be on the different work-life pressures women face compared to their male counterparts. When I was a student in the accelerator program Startup Institute, one of my fellow students was a gentleman from out of state who had moved up to New York for eight weeks for the duration of the program, and he had a wife and children back at home. No one ever asked him, “Who is watching the kids!?” or questioned his quality as a parent because he focused on his development and career. Sadly, this is not what happens to women. Many female friends of mine have wanted to start businesses, or they had a business and have closed them down for the sacrifice of being the main caregiver of their family. Being an entrepreneur is a very challenging career path, and I think it’s hard for women to see a way to do both in the way our society is structured. For example, I have personally delayed having children because my business is my baby right now, but that is not the choice many women make.

Can you help articulate a few things that can be done as individuals, as a society, or by the government to help overcome those obstacles?

At my core, I believe that changing the demographics of where the money comes from is critical to overcoming these obstacles. Many funds are working to diversify their portfolio and invest in more female-led companies, but I would love to see more LPs do similar things.

It’s also important to think about the collective ecosystem versus the individual. As someone that runs an accelerator, I understand how powerful a network of mentors, peers, and advocates can be. And as a women business owner, I need to make meetings and have calls that are more in a coaching or advisory posture to other women in their careers, building businesses themselves, or developing professionally. It can all feel like a lot to juggle when running a business, but taking time for networking can feel fulfilling and meaningful. Male mentors (which I’ve found many) should also consider finding diverse founders to work with and support. Having a robust network can also lead to opportunities, capital, and other resources, so I’d love to see in general more support for diverse businesses.

The government also has the power to play a positive role. For example, most investment companies get in the United States are from private and venture capital. Compared to Europe and other places globally, early-stage startups have access to much more government funding and grants. An increase in government support could positively affect the democratization of access and serve as a way to preserve ownership stakes in early-stage businesses. I’d love to see the U.S. develop similar programs specifically targeted at women and minority founders.

Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?

I have a vivid memory of being in the third grade, and it was career day at school when people came in and spoke about different jobs. I remember having a visceral reaction when they talked about entrepreneurship, thinking, “Who in the world would want to do that!? That sounds like a terrifying amount of responsibility!” But third grade fears aside, it’s a great career path for many reasons.

Having ownership and building something for yourself has more value than the salary at any job. Ownership is a great path to earn wealth, often delayed wealth, but more wealth in the long run. A well-run business can be an asset; if you sell it or go public, you own a piece of that and get a return. It’s the same reason why renting forever has less value than if you can buy a home. A home is an asset, and it can increase in value. Economic independence is a beautiful thing.

You can create the work environment and culture you want to see. Entrepreneurship is still heavily skewed towards men, which means many teams and company cultures are still very male-dominated in their leadership. As an employee, you can impact the culture of an organization; but as a founder or business owner, you dictate that culture. WEVE is 100% women-owned, currently 100% women in leadership positions, and at the time of me writing this, my team happens to be 100% all women. Building a company culture means injecting the values you want to see in the world into your brand and team. Our team cares about individual growth, feedback, communication, and authenticity, and getting to build that has been truly rewarding.

What are the “myths” that you would like to dispel about being a founder? Can you explain what you mean?

The glamor of it. In our culture, we often idolize entrepreneurs and founders — we look at the Jeffrey Bezos and Elon Musk’s of the world and see a shiny new toy. It’s so common as a founder to feel like you need to have it all together; everything has to be multiplied and growing, and you always need to present the rosiest picture possible. The truth is, it’s not easy, it is not always picture-perfect, and there will be ups and downs in the business. You will make tons of mistakes (all of the time!), but what matters is that you just keep moving forward and learning from them.

Is everyone cut out to be a founder? In your opinion, which specific traits increase the likelihood that a person will be a successful founder, and what type of person should perhaps seek a “regular job” as an employee? Can you explain what you mean?

I don’t want to be discouraging because I believe that more people can be founders that end up making the leap, but I also don’t think that everyone is cut out to be a founder, just like I’m not made to be a theoretical physicist. I also believe that certain personality traits can help a founder succeed more than others.

Resiliency is an important one. As I mentioned before, it’s not always the easiest path: there will be setbacks, challenges, and an occasional sleepless night worrying about your team, the business, or a specific problem that needs to be solved. But having the confidence in yourself and your team always to find the solution and continue pushing forward towards your goals is a huge asset.

A big difference between people that are good as employees vs. founders is the ability to be comfortable with ambiguity and to be a self-starter. One of my old managers used to tell me that I’m tough to manage, in the sense that I don’t let her manage me. I was never waiting around for what to do next or asking for a path; I was much more comfortable and excited by coming up with new ideas or ways of going about things and testing or implementing them. Now, this was a challenge for me when I was on the other side of the table as a manager. I did not like or need much management or oversight, so in the beginning, I would give my reports a lot of freedom. I learned that in reality, a lot of people want and crave structure and to be managed, and that is 100% okay, but I had to work to implement those things for my employees. It’s also common earlier in a career as people learn to need more management and support. I always tell people with future entrepreneurship aspirations to start at larger companies where you have support and guidance from leadership, maybe one that isn’t so huge that you can work directly with senior management and use that as opportunities to learn and build confidence. Over time you can choose smaller and smaller companies until you have the confidence to strike out and develop your own business.

Ok super. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why? (Please share a story or example for each.)

Be friends with your fear. There is a notion of the fearless leader, but it is a myth, and it creates a lot of shame for founders and leaders. When I was first promoted to the CEO position at NUMA (now WEVE) more than three years ago, we had a negative $7K balance in the bank account due to late-paying clients, and I was terrified about how to handle the next payroll. In those moments, and there will be those moments, you will not be scared, but you need to act anyway. Moving through fear has been extremely useful to start learning how to do it, and acknowledging that the fear is a normal response and it doesn’t mean you are incapable can help in those moments. I turned into problem-solving mode and figured out short-term solutions until our clients paid.

There will be many things you don’t know, and that’s okay. Starting in the world of business was especially intimidating for me because I never went to business school — I majored in classical singing and music education. Early on, it took a lot of humility to admit when I didn’t know something ( like what a KPI stands for), but it was the only way to learn. That feeling, no matter how long I’ve been doing this, never goes away. And even though I run an accelerator, I can easily forget that I can equip my network and people who guide me for support and knowledge in areas where I lack expertise. For example, when we were going through the acquisition process, I had conversations with 8–10 people that I respected and trusted in the business world to tell them the situation and said to them, “please tell me what I don’t know that I don’t know about this.” I also have employed this recently when exploring changing our tax status for the business and whether a C-corp, LLC, or S-Corp would be the best structure. On the call with our tax and accounting firm, they were throwing out terms like NOL’s and QSBS, and making them stop to explain to me what these terms mean instead of being embarrassed helps me make better business decisions.

Leading people is a different skill-set. I was a fantastic operator! I loved running the actual accelerator program, doing the day-to-day with the founders, sending invites to demo days, and running the show-flow for the events. When you step into a leadership role, this changes entirely. In the beginning, it was tough to let go of what I felt was MY program, like it was my baby. It was a struggle with my internal sense of trust and letting go of things, and I think this is common for many leaders. As soon as I learned to let these things go, delegate, and trust, it has done wonders for the business. My team often has far better ideas than I do. My business partner and COO, Giulia, who took over as Program Director after me, ran the program far better than I ever did. We had fantastic outcomes for our founders, but that wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t let go for her to have the creative liberty to own it. And my day-to-day is different. As WEVE grows, my role continues to evolve: instead of being involved in every individual program and its execution, my part now is to think first about my team. It’s my job to support them to be successful, make sure they have the resources and support they need, that goals and objectives are clear, and that they feel excited and cared about as human beings to do their best work.

My teachers were right; math is useful. I make this joke that I wish I had paid more attention to math in high school because there are actual real applications, especially in business. It helps when running a business to have a good grasp of numbers, especially regarding your finances. Initially, this was intimidating for me, and I know it is for a lot of early founders, especially if math and numbers are not their strong suit. My math teacher put me in algebra competitions, but it was the only type of math I was ever good at, and at music college, math is an after-thought type of class. It’s something you can learn and get better at and equip others to support you. I learned to manage a P&L and calculate our businesses’ EBITDA from asking those that do it well to walk me through it, as well as utilizing my good friend ‘Google search’. I learned how to do cash-flow analysis and be better (but by no means the best) at excel spreadsheets. I also know that I’m not a financial expert, so I have chosen a great accounting and tax firm and work with a wonderful woman who is a contract CFO supporting me in making our forecasting and analysis. Founders shouldn’t avoid this area just because it feels unnatural to them or overwhelming; having these numbers is critical to making decisions and will give you the confidence you need to continue growing and managing your business.

You have to take care of yourself — every boss I ever had used to struggle to get me to take time off. When I started at NUMA, I hadn’t taken a vacation in three years. I suppose I felt like it earned me some badge of honor that I worked so hard and didn’t need to take time to recharge. I also tended to feel an incredible sense of responsibility to the work and to the people I worked with and felt guilty when taking time as if I was letting people down. One of my bosses told me, “you might love the job, but the job will never love you back.” My perception of this had to change as soon as I stepped into being the business leader. In some of my employees, I saw what my previous bosses saw in me. Many of them worked so incredibly hard, and I couldn’t get them to take time off because they also felt a tremendous amount of personal responsibility. I realized that as the leader, it was up to me to set the example, and I would make myself go on vacation, no matter how uncomfortable it was for me, which I realize sounds strange. I lamented one Saturday morning in bed, struggling for hours to pick a place to go, and finally settled on Costa Rica for a solo trip. And when I’m off, I try my hardest to actually be off because if I don’t do that, my team won’t be comfortable doing it either. I am responsible for setting the culture and tone, but more than anything, I do not want my team to burn out. This has become especially important in the pandemic when people couldn’t travel, but that did not protect us from burnout. In fact, the uncertainty of the world increased feelings of burnout despite the fact we were all home. I set the example by taking a week off while I was home to recharge, and after that, several of my team did the same. It felt super odd having nowhere to go, but I needed a mental break, and so did they. As a founder, this also extends to other areas of your life. It’s easy to feel like your business needs to be 150% of your life, but you will be a better leader if you also make sure you take the time to exercise, eat well, and spend time doing hobbies and things that you love besides your business. I took up doing musical improv comedy in New York, and having a regular creative outlet has increased my overall well-being and ability to lead.

How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

My hope and goal is that my business (WEVE) can accomplish that daily through our work. Accelerators are platforms that provide tremendous opportunities to companies and individuals through access and connections to knowledge, network, and resources. So many of the startups we work with are solving significant challenges across industries, including areas like education and sustainability. Being able to support these founders in achieving their dreams and solving meaningful problems will hopefully have a greater impact on the world in the long run. The better our business does, the more entrepreneurs worldwide that we can support.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

I’m extremely interested in the idea of applying the accelerator model in new ways. There’s an old-school way of thinking in the accelerator community that an actual accelerator is for early-stage startups to get seed funding (meaning it’s only for startups, and the primary outcome is access to capital). But this is a limited view of its applications, and I often argue that the traditional use-case is a VC fund that utilizes an accelerator to increase the chances of success for their portfolio.

An accelerator is a model that can speed up the desired outcome due to access to knowledge and curriculum on topics taught by those working in the field rather than academics, has a community aspect through a cohort, and provides access to expansive networks and relationships in a condensed and focused time. This type of model can be applied to many different challenges and populations of people. For example, an amazing accelerator called Defy Ventures has an entrepreneurship program for incarcerated individuals to reduce recidivism and aims to create more economic opportunities for the population. I recently met another woman named Frances doing her Ph.D. at Yale in Music. She built an accelerator program and venture fund called Midnight Oil Collective to increase the equity ownership and wealth opportunities for artists (artists are often the ones who financially benefit the least from their craft).

I’d love to see more individuals apply accelerator models in new ways designed to tackle real problems — for example, creating an accelerator to support people without homes.

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with and why? They might just see this if we tag them 🙂

This is a tough one to answer — there are so incredible leaders I’d love the opportunity to meet! Given that Entertainment is a category, I’m going to say that I’d love to meet Imogen Heap. I had the chance a few years ago to see her speak at Web Summit, and was thoroughly impressed and surprised to learn that she has a keen interest in technology and solutions to help artists through solutions like blockchain. She’s also one of my favorite musical artists. With my background in music and being in the business career I have now, I’d love to chat with her about running an accelerator program to support companies building those types of solutions.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this interview!