Max Marmer‘s Startup Genome research cites New York City as the friendliest startup ecosystem for female founders who are launching their own company. Just ask founders like Katia Beauchamp, Birch Box; Kellee Kahlil, Loverly; Caroline Goshn, Levo League; Karen Moon, Trendalyics; or Katie Nadler, TopShelf Clothing why they choose New York City as the place to found their companies.
My hunch as to why female founders love New York? It’s organizations like the ones in the following list who are deeply committed to cultivating talent and growing successful companies that makes all the difference.
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1. WIM (Women Innovate Mobile)
The founders of WIM, Deborah Jackson, Kelly Hoey, and Veronica Sonsev, are gearing up for their next class and have brought in an amazing executive director, Shala Burroughs, to manage their second cohort. Their accelerator focuses on investing in female-founded companies in the mobile space. After a successful exit from their first class and a worldwide tour with Apple for their Meet the Innovators series, WIM is ready to bring their global mindset to the next round of companies. The word on the street is that this next class will have more companies (the first class had 3), but will maintain the boutique-style custom curriculum and mentorship for each company. What sets them apart from other accelerators? This year they are focused on distribution. Keep an eye out – what they have up their sleeves is sure to impress.
Image credit: CC by Dell’s Official Flickr Page
2. Pipeline Fellowship
Natalia Oberti Noguera is such an impressive woman. She’s literally changing the face of angel investing. As founder of the Pipeline Fellowship, she trains women to angel invest. It’s her mission to make more capital available for female founders in the social entrepreneur space. Starting with one class in New York, the Pipeline Fellowship has expanded to Boston, Chicago, LA, DC, and the Bay area. If you ask her, she’ll tell you that per an Emory University study, women-led for-profit social ventures are 40% less likely to get capital, despite generating 15% more revenue, than their male-led peers. She’s committed to increasing the diversity of the U.S. angel investing community and creating capital for women social entrepreneurs.
Image credit: Pipeline Fellowship webp
3.The Li.st
The Li.st is a private membership community for women in tech and media curated by Rachel Sklar and Glynis MacNichol. They say it’s only for badass women, and I can’t disagree. It’s kind of like having a best friend who can help you with every business need waiting to help from your inbox at all times. Many powerful women on the List, have opened doors for me by helping with the Official SXSW 2014 Interactive Cookbook, putting my name up for leadership positions at nationally know organizations, and have recommended contractors who I have hired. The list makes me feel like just about everything is within reach, and keeps me from feeling alone. Sometimes entrepreneurship can be a lonely game.
Image credit: CC by David Berkowitz
4. Women2.0 Pitch NYC Conference
I have to give credit to Women 2.0’s Shaherose Charania, Sepideh Nasiri, and Angie Chang for the great work they are doing to organize women in tech on the national level. Last year’s Pitch NYC conference included powerhouses like Amanda Steinberg, Founder & CEO of Daily Worth; Laurel Touby, founder of Media Bistro; Katherine Minshew, founder of the Muse, and Limor Fried founder of Adafruit. It was a great gathering of many of the most powerful women in tech in NYC.
Image credit: Women 2.0 website
5. Girls Who Code
Founded by Reshma Saujauni and run by Kristen Titus, the executive director, Girls Who Code is getting middle school- and high school-age girls excited about computer science. The magic of their program is that they show the girls the power technology holds when applied to problems like making games that inspire positive action. It’s no surprise to anyone working in tech that there is a shortage of technical talent and future projections see the need for talent greatly surpassing the amount of engineers who are being educated currently. Girls Who Code is inspiring girls to enter into a job market where there is tremendous opportunity and demand.
Image credit: Girls Who Code website
6. NY Tech Women
The NY Tech Women meetup is a great way for women who work in New York Tech to connect with others in the space. The organizer, Jenn Shaw, who is launching Bella Minds, recently funded through a crowdfunding campaign on Plum Alley, is famous for hosting Manic Monday get-togethers, which regularly draws an interesting cross section of the finest women in NYC.
Image credit: NY Tech Women website
7. Springboard Enterprises
Under the direction of President Amy Millman, Springboard Enterprises has helped the female-run companies to raise $6.2 billion. If you are a bold woman with big ideas, this group with a proven track record may be just what your company needs to become a big business that started small.
Image credit: Springboard Enteprises website
8. 40:20 Vision
Christina Vuleta hosts these private salon events where young women get to connect with power houses (hence the 40:20) and discuss whatever is on their mind in these group-sourced mentorship sessions. The conversation is always significant and fun.
Image credit: 40:20 Vision website
9. Women Entrepreneurs Festival
Joanne Wilson, and ITP’s Nancy Hechinger, and Midori Yasuda, recently hosted their 4th Women Entrepreneurs Festival.. You have to apply to attend, and they actually do turn people away. That makes the audience of his event incredibly selected and the mix of entrepreneurs and investors of supremely high quality. At lunch, they arrange the seating wedding-style and pick tablemates who are likely to be helpful to your business growth. The panel sessions are packed with actionable insights from people who are in the trenches and not talking heads. If you are a woman entrepreneur, this event should be on your must attend list. Don’t miss the next one!
Image credit: CC by ITP Photos
10. Camp Campbell
I also deeply respect Denise Morrison, the CEO of Campbell’s Soup for the work she is doing to open doors for women leaders and entrepreneurs in the areas of food, innovation and social entrepreneurship. The program is not New York specific, but that’s the first city that Camp Campbell has launched in.
And more so many more… seriously, there are so many amazing things happening here in New York. It’s hard to keep up with all of it. Others who’s work is not solely female focused, but deserve a mountain of credit include Jessica Lawrence for what she’s done with the New York Tech Meetup, Jen Consalvo who is growing tech cocktail to a national presence, and it will be interesting to see what’s in store for 85 Broads now that Sallie Krawcheck has purchased it from Janet Hanson.
Additionally, We Work Labs is an incredibly female-friendly coworking space. There, I have made several incredibly helpful business contacts, and have been constantly wowed by how supportive and wiling to help We Work community is– which shows the great leadership of Matt Shampine and Jesse Middleton and the great community managers they have at 175 Varick, like Adam Wacenske.
