Female Founders Lab:a feminine venture accelerator

The Female Founders Lab is a virtual, global accelerator for the ideas that will radically transform our world to become more regenerative, sustainable, holistic, democratic, and just.

Highlights. In the past two years, I have:

• "High touch" accelerated 12+ founders who have collectively raised millions in pre-seed and seed capital, gotten into Techstars, appeared on their #1 national talk show,  scaled their user base 10x, and more.
• Created a "feminine first" approach for coaching founders, including deep alignment exercises to help them crystallize their vision and communicate it to attract values-aligned people into their venture.
• Reached a 3,000+ online audience of high caliber founders, startup investors, and those interested in starting companies in the future. 
• Partnered with Splunk (publicly traded data company headquartered in SF) to provide a $10,000 grant.
• Been featured as a speaker at Stanford, SOCAP19, Lyft, General Assembly, Draper U, Pharrell Williams' Black Ambition accelerator.
• Been published in 500 Startups, Nasdaq, Brit+Co. Been awarded FLIK's AAPI Entrepreneurs to Follow 2021. 
• Judged the UN Food Systems Summit pitch competition, with IDEO/Rockefeller Foundation, serving on the Advisory Board for SXSW Pitch 2022.

What do we do?

We are building a global, virtual community for feminine founders with ideas to transform our industries, including healthcare, education, food systems, media, prison systems, future of work, future of cities and communities.  The idea is that whatever stage you're at, you should be able to access support to tune deeper into your vision and move it into reality at quantum speed (aka receiving larger outcomes in shorter and shorter time frames.)

We have three programs: 

• The Female Founders Lab online community where you get access to monthly office hours with Nilima
• Idea Lab, a six week program to help you crystallize your "idea" into a tangible vision, value, and method (offering) for your customer through inner journaling and meditations and then building your first web page or pitch deck
• Pitch Lab, a six week program to help you prepare to raise pre-seed or seed capital

Why are we doing this?

In my personal experience as a purpose-driven founder creating a transformative and taboo-breaking sex education venture in India, I went through many big-name tech accelerators and pitch bootcamps, but I always felt like the odd one out. I was not there to *only* raise money - I was also there to learn how to drive effective results in my venture in service to the larger impact on the world. 

This required so much more than cookie cutter frameworks on how to pitch - I need a coach to help me surpass my blocks and fears, I needed accountability to move quickly toward the next big outcome, I needed a strong network of values-aligned people who would move the needle for me. I also needed to learn how to anchor deeply into my own vision, rather than seeking validation from the startup ecosystem. 

I spent years teaching myself all of these skills, and then scaled my product to half a million youth across India. I spent a lot of time and effort learning these concepts, so you don't have to. You can just step into it.

Who is Nilima?

Hi! I'm the founder of The Female Founders Lab, and I'm also a globally recognized expert in social impact, startups, and feminine leadership. Before this, I've...

• Founded a taboo-breaking social venture called Iesha Learning, bringing sex education and gender sensitization to half a million middle schoolers across India, on the heels of the rape crisis.
• Launched and ran an impact accelerator program that was later funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, with a 75% success rate in helping raise seed capital for entrepreneurs in sustainable energy, holistic education, inclusive finance, regenerative agriculture and food systems, and new paradigm healthcare. 
• Been featured in numerous publications including VICE, USA Today, Harvard Business Review, and CNBC, was named in the top 100 global social entrepreneurs by Echoing Green and top 8 tech ventures in India by TechStars, have given two TEDx talks, and once starred in a reality show about social entrepreneurs reaching 10 million viewers.
• Written 15+ business case studies used as curriculum at top-tier business schools globally, including Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern Univ), Harvard, and Ross School of Business (Umich). 

What is the vision for the next 12 months? 

Now that we have seen some great results for founders going through Female Founders Lab programs, I've like to magnify all of my programs so that we reach hundreds of thousands of women and men all over the world who have visions to impact humanity. 

In order to do this, I will be:

• building a core circle of Co-Conspirators - high caliber founders and investors who will be carrying our message and running events in their communities
• creating "Goddess Tank" (like Shark Tank, but more grounded) events around the US and virtually to engage founders in every industry
• laying the groundwork to eventually raise a $10m seed fund to invest in purpose-driven founders

Thank you so much for contributing to my vision. I hope that you are able to fire up your own purpose in collaboration with me, or just be a happy contributor toward my journey.