How to Survive as a Female Founder

Hi, I’m Rachel. I’m the founder of Seeds. We convert more freemium gamers into paying customers, and we do it using social good.

So what that means is, if you buy a virtual good — a virtual sword, say, or virtual gold — in a game that features Seeds, you get an item that improves your gameplay, and simultaneously we’ll channel what you spent into a microloan made to a woman entrepreneur in the developing world. We make profit on both the gaming and microlending sides.

I’ve been struggling for years to make this work, and signs indicate that it is finally on the cusp of taking off.

But the road has been long and hard. There were late rent checks, metro turnstyles hopped when I didn’t have the cash to pay (one time immediately after giving a keynote at a DC tech conference). A kind, sensible lawyer sister (and teacher mom) who let me put charges on their credit cards and pay them back later when I didn’t see another option. Understandably concerned relatives who told me that it was time to “get a real job.” A lot of it sucked. But what sucks the most is that I saw male friends with startups get a lot more support, more readily…and often with less traction to show.