- The Female Founders Alliance announced it has launched a second accelerator class. And several organizations are going to provide founders with investments.
The Female Founders Alliance has announced its second accelerator class. And Microsoft for Startups, Providence St. Joseph Health, Brex, Cooley LLP, WeWork Labs, and Project W are partnering with Female Founders Alliance to help founders secure early-stage investments.
Of the 400 women and non-binary-led companies that applied to participate in this year’s program, less than 2% were selected for the cohort. The participants represent companies with huge upside potential across a variety of sectors and geographies — who are solving substantial problems in unique ways.
“We created a program that is equally or more selective and value-adding than the top accelerators nationally, but consciously designed for women and non-binary founders,” said Female Founders Alliance founder and CEO Leslie Feinzaig. “I feel privileged to introduce the outstanding group of companies that were selected for this second edition of Ready Set Raise.”
The Ready Set Raise Class of 2019 includes the following companies:
Echo Echo
AI-powered tools for podcasters.
CEO Alina Serebryany (Oakland, CA)
Give InKind
Coordinating support through major life events.
CEO Laura Malcolm (Seattle, WA)
Honistly
A new class of financial instruments to minimize the impact of short term cash needs.
CEO Betsy Tong (Portland, OR)
Juicebox It
Modernizing erotica with a chatbot that is arousing AND educational.
CEO Brianna Rader (San Francisco, CA)
Panty Drop
A personalized intimates shopping experience for women sizes XS-6XL
CEO Julie Arsenault (Reno, NV)
The Labz
A collaborative platform that protects and memorializes creative content development in real-time.
CEO Farah Allen (Atlanta, GA)
Tougher
Functional, well-fitting workwear for women in the skilled trades.
CEO Stacey Gose (Corvallis, OR)
Wheyward Spirit
A sustainable farm-to-flask spirit made from excess whey
CEO Emily Darchuk (Eugene, OR)
The program will take place over six weeks and companies will work one-on-one with specially selected coaches in preparation for FFA’s Investor Showcase on October 16th. These coaches are former startup founders and leaders who became professional investors after achieving successful exits themselves.
And the investors include former LinkedIn (acquired by Microsoft) and 23andMe COO Sarah Imbach and Dwellable (acquired by HomeAway) co-founder and former CEO Kirby Winfield.
“I am excited to be involved with RSR because the cohort has real venture scale potential, and the talent level is strong and nontraditional,” added Winfield. “My investing algorithm improves substantially when I’m exposed to high-quality entrepreneurs from all backgrounds.”
Along with the addition of the coaches, Ready Set Raise participants will receive guidance from dozens of venture capital investors, founders, technology executives, partners, and several matter experts. And through FFA’s partnership with Microsoft for Startups, each participant will receive up to $120,000 in Azure credits and other Microsoft technologies as well as technical and business mentoring from Microsoft executives.
“We are proud to stand behind FFA’s vision of providing access and opportunities for their members,” commented Microsoft for Startups managing director Ian Bergman. “Both FFA and Microsoft recognize a major lapse in opportunities given to women and non-binary founders. We look forward to our continued work together to promote this necessary shift in the VC landscape.”
Several Experts from Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, K&L Gates, and Cooley LLP will offer legal workshops and clinics. And participants will learn about finance for startups from executives at corporate credit card supplier Brex along with company valuation and fundraising terms from executives at Carta. And childcare will be provided courtesy of Seattle-based Spilt Milk Nannies.
The Ready Set Raise 2019 program will run between September 9 – October 18. And it requires founders to be in Seattle for two of the six weeks. On October 17, each company will showcase their business models to a large audience, national media, and industry influencers on Demo Night.
