Female Founder Collective In Partnership With Webex Launch The North Providing A $20,000 Grant

In 2021, entrepreneurs broke a record in the number of businesses started. As reported by the World Economic Forum, more than 5.4 million new businesses were created last year. Although women launched 49% of new companies, obstacles remain. Men still outnumber women 3-1 when it comes to business ownership. These statistics are prompting organizations and associations to develop opportunities to advance female entrepreneurs.

Rebecca Minkoff and Ali Koplar Wyatt, cofounders of the Female Founder Collective (FFC), partnered with Webex, spearheaded by Webex senior vice president Aruna Ravichandran, to launch The North. The program connects female entrepreneurs with influential female business leaders in one-on-one mentorship sessions. Additionally, it includes a pitch event where female entrepreneurs pitch top female executives to receive a $20,000 grant from the FFC Foundation.

“We are looking to provide a path forward for many women entrepreneurs across the board,” Ravichandran expresses. “If you look at some of the stats, more than ever, women are starting to start businesses, but only about 2.3% of only a small part of women actually get the 2.3% of the VC funding. I also read that women are half as likely to get a grant compared to men. So for us, this is about being able to help elevate these female entrepreneurs, support them as a part of their business and work through this FFC partnership. The work Rebecca is doing is truly phenomenal. It gives a platform and an opportunity for those female founders to come up and bootstrap their businesses; that was the primary goal for us actually to come up with this.”

Minkoff gained popularity in 2001 when actress Jenna Elfman wore one of her designs on the Jay Leno Show. Shortly after, she and her brother launched Rebecca Minkoff, a collection of handbags, jewelry and accessories. As a new designer building her brand, she focused heavily on the creative aspect versus the business. Her brother, CEO of the company, helped her shift her mindset.

“He told me that I couldn’t just focus on design; there’s a language of business and technology,” Minkoff shares. “That I’d be a better designer if I really began to understand this world. I resented him for it. I thought that would be making me not creative. Would I be as good of a designer if I was bogged down by these boring spreadsheets and quarterly meetings?... Looking back, why didn’t I pursue this as a new language before? I’m a much better entrepreneur because of it. The trajectory of my business would have been more successful faster.”

In 2018, Minkoff launched FFC with founding team member Elisabeth Leonard. They established a network of businesses led by women who invest in female financial power across a socioeconomic spectrum. The organization has over 17,000 members and supports women-owned businesses by giving them access to education, networks and mentorship.

Shortly after inception, Wyatt, a media specialist whose resume boasts such brands as InStyle and Refinery29, joined the team as a cofounder and CEO to help usher in and organize FFC into a bigger education platform and membership community. When Wyatt became a mother, she didn’t have the support she needed at work to adjust to becoming a new mom figuring out childcare and balancing her work responsibilities. That experience amplified the disparity in the overall workforce between men and women. So she knew she wanted to create a platform that supported women and their aspirations.

Now, enter Webex by Cisco, a web conferencing platform. Ravichandran and her team searched for an organizational partner that elevated women. As management looked at many different initiatives across the board, they discovered The North. The goals aligned with FFC and would create a more inclusive atmosphere where women entrepreneurs can connect with others worldwide and expand their businesses.

“My fundamental belief is you have to align when you think about a cause,” Ravichandran states. “Our purpose here at Cisco is to create power and an inclusive future for all. We actually do it by finding different opportunities to help the various folks around the world.”

Minkoff adds, “The crux of this is that we’ve been listening to our founders for the last four years. As much as we do group education and group events, this desire and endless thirst for one-to-one where they can be in private and ask women like Arian Simone or Jesse Draper or Kirsten Green advice and get the answers they need, we knew it was key. With all of us learning how to use video as we are remote, we thought that the platform and the suite of offerings that Webex has would be great.”

As Minkoff, Wyatt and Ravichandran continue to evolve their partnership and The North, they focus on the following essential steps:

• Adjust your time horizon for success. Everyone wants instant gratification, but it doesn’t happen that quickly. It takes time and persistence.
• Take the risk. The unconscious bias claims that women doubt themselves more than men because they want to be perfectionists. Perfection is not realistic. Just go for it.
• Unveil the root cause of why you think you can’t do it. Address the issue, build a support team and then move forward.

“There’s a critical time in the beginning or when you just start your business where capital is hard to come by,” Minkoff concludes. “You might be too small or not have the credit to qualify for a loan. Not every woman starts their business with an MBA from Wharton or Harvard. So the fact that out of this, you also get great advice from having gone through this process and the pitch, the feedback that these women get, whether they win or not, are going to be able to take that away and create better businesses.”

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Updated: 9,000 members to 17,000