have succeeded and failed, we noticed that the experience was very different for women and men. We wondered, ‘What would an accelerator look like if it were built only for women?’ Right now everything that exists was almost 100 percent conceived of and created by men, and naturally caters toward the way men operate.
One of the things that we’ve learned, and research shows, is that women are very collaborative in the way we learn and communicate. We gain confidence in working with others; women really thrive when they’re talking about their concepts, bouncing ideas across companies. We’re also great promoters of others.
X: What research did you do to figure out what women want in an accelerator program?
CR: A lot of reading and lot of anecdotal evidence. There was lot of trial and error; we’ve been iterating with every class with the things that we’ve learned to understand why they succeeded or failed. The biggest things for entrepreneurs in general are access to mentors, and a mentor community that they can relate to. That means having a large pool of female mentors for female entrepreneurs.
The other thing is access to capital and helping entrepreneurs engage with an investor community that understands their business models, [and having] VC firms with female partners or male partners that understand the female market.
We’re really trying to represent the more marginalized entrepreneur demographic. If you live in the Bay Area, you are exposed to the great resources in Silicon Valley. That’s wonderful, but there’s a lot happening outside of that. We’re trying to be that connector: Here is how you need to be thinking about scaling your company, what it means to raise capital, and how to seek investor relationships. Let us help connect the dots and integrate you into the ecosystem.
X: Tell me about the accelerator and the program. How many startups are involved? What do they do?
CR: Our 12 week cohort is divided into groups of 10 circles. Each week, they go through a topic of focus, some online content they are reviewing, strategic blueprints of how they need to be thinking. We have group calls; they talk to their group of 10 on topics such as what they’ve achieved over the past week, what they’re focusing on going forward, metrics they’re tracking, and how they can utilize the resources of
