Access Latina is Looking to Boost Successful Latina Entrepreneurs

Check out Access Latina, an exciting new platform investing in Latina Entrepreneurs!

nbcnews.com - Latina entrepreneurs are among the fastest growing and industrious business owners in the United States, and one organization is looking to give a leg up to promising companies.

Access Latina, which is completely run by women, provides a platform for promising and pioneering Hispanic women who need capital or guidance to further grow their businesses. The platform seeks to uplift Hispanic women working in agriculture, social innovation and STEM fields.

Puerto Rican co-founders Lucienne Gigante and Marta Michelle Colon have always had an interest in helping others achieve self-sustainability, and so they created Access Latina to offer other Hispanic women with more professional tools, resources and human networks.

"When you invest in Latinas you invest in economic development and society," Colon said. "We are following a path to make good in society, and when you make profit, you can create more social good."

Access Latina is a competitive acceleration platform for Hispanic women who own, or partially own, at least 20 percent of a business worth between $50,000 and $1 million. If applicants are selected by a panel of judges, all receive access to Access Latina's business network, five have the opportunity to win a $25,000 grant and six months of mentorship, and one one will win $100,000 and networking opportunities.

Read more

Great News: Women Owned Businesses Growing, Thriving, Employing More

We loved this article from Take the Lead Women, all about how women are literally leading the way. Read the whole story for some amazing details. Women business owners are true trailblazers, and as they succeed they're paving the way for countless others! 

taketheleadwomen.com - The 11.3 million women-owned firms in this country are performing five times better than the national average of businesses, employing close to 9 million people and generating over $1.6 trillion in revenues, according to the latest American Express OPEN report.

Just to repeat for the record, that was trillion with a “t.”

The greatest growth in these companies owned by women is shown by companies owned by women of color.

In all women-owned businesses, “Comparative employment growth is even stronger. Employment in women-owned businesses has increased by 18 percent since the recession, while among all businesses employment has declined 1 percent since 2007,” the report showed.

While not at parity, women own 38 percent of small businesses in this country and revenues are increasing at a more brisk pace. “Business revenues among women-owned firms have increased by 35 percent since 2007, compared to 27 percent among all U.S. firms – thus at a rate that is 30 percent higher than the national average.”

While overall employment growth across sectors has been stalled, “employment in women-owned firms, which – according to this report – is up 18 percent  since 2007 compared to a percent decline among all U.S. firms,” the report shows. Firms owned by women with 50 to 99 employees, have seen a 27 percent increase in employment since 2007.

Read more

27 Inspirational Female Entrepreneurs Who Are Positively Impacting The World

Entrepreneurship can be the ultimate investment and adventure, and there is always inspiration to be gained from the ups and downs of entrepreneurs' stories. Perhaps even more inspiring, however, is the impact businesses—and the women who lead them—can have. From authors and inspirational speakers to philanthropists and tech trailblazers, women entrepreneurs are using their businesses for good and making a difference. Read on for more from Everyday Power, learn from the impact women are having on the world, and keep investing in women—and in yourself!

everydaypowerblog.com - Female entrepreneurs are certainly a force to be reckoned with – and 2016 is their year. Today, about 37 percent of global enterprises are owned by inspiring, dedicated women. From supporting their own communities to contributing to global wealth, they prove that there’s no barrier when it comes to success.

Want to know their stories? Here are 27 of today’s amazing female entrepreneurs.

1) Julie Steines  

Author, publisher, philanthropist, Mom to Norbert the Dog. 

 Julie (Freyermuth) Steines is a multiple award-winning children’s book author. She co-owns the publishing and education company, Polly Parker Press, with her mother, Dr. Virginia Freyermuth. Her beloved Norbert book series is inspired by her real-life 3 lb. registered therapy dog whose message is, “You don’t need to be big to make a BIG difference in the world.”

As a registered therapy animal team for the past six years, Julie and Norbert have spent many hours volunteering at hospitals, nursing homes, schools, fundraisers, and homeless shelters to bring comfort and smiles to people of all ages. Julie’s work with Norbert has been featured on Time, People, Wired, HLN, Huffington Post, AOL, InStyle, Oprah.com, Paper Magazine, and Brides.com, among others.

Read more

PEWIN expands Africa operations to Nigeria

The Private Equity Women Investor Network, a worldwide organization dedicated to connecting and promoting senior women in private equity, recently expanded with a new chapter in Nigeria. Guardian Nigeria discusses the importance of gender diversity in private equity, as well as how the group will be a boon for women as well as the country.

guardian.ng - The Private Equity Women Investor Network (PEWIN), a global networking organisation for senior women in private equity, has expanded its operations to Nigeria.

The group, with chapters in the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia, made the move, following its formal entry in Africa earlier in the year, in South Africa.

The invitation-only members organisation, which was founded in 2007, in the United States, has been expanding internationally, opening London and Hong Kong chapters in 2015, in its first international expansion move.

Future expansion on the continent will include Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya.On 10 November 2016, PEWIN hosted an Africa Institutional Investor Roundtable in Lagos, Nigeria.

This event was attended by nearly 30 senior women investors, representing pension fund administrators, fund managers, development finance institutions, insurance companies and other stakeholders focused on private equity.

The purpose of the event was to bring into focus the role of private equity, not only as a developmental tool for the country at large, but also for women in Nigeria.

The theme of the roundtable discussion was, “Will Private Equity Save Nigeria?” and speakers included Mrs. Titi Lawani, Chief Executive Officer of Progress Trust CPFA; Ms. Eme Essien, Country Head, IFC; Ms. Abimbola Sulaiman, Head of Investments, PAL Pensions PFA; and Mrs. Ijeoma Agboti-Obatoyinbo, a senior private equity advisor.

PEWIN’s expansion in Africa comes as the investment management and private equity industries are increasing their focus on how to boost the number of women working in the industry, which is one of the most male-dominated areas of financial services.

Read more

Gender pay gap: Icelandic women take a stand

Women in Iceland came out—literally—to protest wage inequality earlier this week, in a move meant to symbolize and draw attention to the fact that women in Iceland only earn 70 percent of their male colleagues. It's a wake-up call not only in Reykjavik, but for the rest of the world: When a world leader in equality still lags this far behind in pay equity, we've all got a long way to go when it comes to true gender equality.

dw.com - Thousands of women in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik, walked off the job at precisely 2:38 p.m. on Monday, October 24. They were protesting against the fact that they earn less than their male colleagues, for doing the same work with the same qualifications.

The time is not an arbitrary choice. Theoretically, from 2:38 p.m. onwards, an Icelandic woman on a normal eight-hour working day is not earning anything, because women in Iceland only earn an average of 70 percent of the income their male colleagues receive.

"There's still a significant divide between men and women in our society," Brynhildur Heithar- og Omarsdottir, the executive manager of the Iceland Women's Rights Association, told DW. The pay gap between the sexes has narrowed somewhat, she said, but the country is still very far from achieving true equality.

Protest despite top ranking

How can this be? The pictures of all the striking women in Reykjavik don't really fit with Iceland's image as a model feminist country. For years now it's been the international frontrunner on issues of economic equality. This was just affirmed by the World Economic Forum's most recent Gender Gap Report - Iceland comes top in the ranking of a total 144 countries.

"Iceland may lead the Gender Equality Index, but when it comes to the pay gap between men and women, our record is terrible," the former environment minister, Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir, told to DW.

Read more

Want to receive earlybird invitations to our global events, custom-tailored content we think you'll love, and get exclusive access to "The World Women Report"?

Join Us by Subscribing NOW!

Video Series Helps Women With Retirement and Financial Security

planadviser.com - In recognition of National Retirement Security Week, T. Rowe Price released “Women on Retirement: Stories to Empower,” a seven-part, documentary-style video series created to help women navigate the unique challenges they face when saving for retirement.

Women often experience competing priorities and barriers when it comes to their financial future, including lower wages, a longer life expectancy, and fewer years in the workforce compared to their male counterparts, T. Rowe Price notes.

T. Rowe Price’s 2015 Retirement Spending and Saving study found that Millennial women had significantly less money saved in their 401(k)s―a median account balance of $10,600 compared to $22,200 for Millennial men. Additionally, the study found that women were contributing less of their salaries to their 401(k)s―a median of 5%, compared to 7% for men.

T. Rowe Price’s 2016 Parents, Kids & Money study asked parents how knowledgeable they felt about money and investing. Women were significantly less likely to say they felt knowledgeable about money (67% compared to 78% of men). The difference was even more extreme when women were asked about investing, with only 35% of women saying they felt knowledgeable, versus 62% of men.

Read more

Want to receive earlybird invitations to our global events, custom-tailored content we think you'll love, and get exclusive access to "The World Women Report"?

Join Us by Subscribing NOW!

Scaling Women Entrepreneurs: 'Imposter' Syndrome, Gender Insults And The Beauty Of Bragging

Women trying to go big in business face far more dismal success rates than their male counterparts: Only 3 percent reach $1 million in annual revenue. In the first part of "Scaling Chronicles," a three-part series, Forbes contributor Jean Tang interviews five successful women entrepreneurs to get to the bottom of the challenges women face with scaling—and how they might beat them. Forbes - In my inaugural Scaling Chronicles, I mention how few women entrepreneurs reach a million dollars in annual revenue (“three percent,” according to Million Dollar Women). I heard from several female founders that this statistic was egregious, and I agree.

To figure out what gives, I convened five other women business owners one morning to discuss their particular challenges with scaling. What were some of our collective strengths? What did we perceive as weaknesses….and were our fears justified? Together, could we derive a model for scaling a female-owned business?

What follows—in a three-part series—are observations, revelations and excerpts from the lively discussion that ensued.

Visit Forbes to read the whole series, complete with observations from million-dollar CEOs and owners of service-based businesses.

Social Media Tips from 3 Wise Southern Women Entrepreneurs

ME Marketing Services brings us an interview with three women entrepreneurs from The Southern Coterie, sharing their wisdom and tips about social media and entrepreneurship.  Women are the primary users of social media and the Internet, and with women opening businesses at unprecedented rates, it's no wonder they're leveraging social media to help their companies thrive. From the difference between various social media channels and claiming your company's name to handling feedback and the importance of supporting others, these three women entrepreneurs have some fantastic advice for anyone looking to use social media to thrive in business—or even just in life.

memarketingservices.com - Here are some stats about women entrepreneurs:

• Women start companies at 1.5 times the average rate in the United States.
• The absolute number of startups in Crunchbase with at least one female founder has more than quadrupled in the last five years, from 117 in 2009 to 555 in 2014.
• Women entrepreneurs in the United States rank their happiness at nearly three times that of women who are not entrepreneurs or established business owners.
• The U.S. ranks No. 1 among 31 countries considered by Dell on the support of women’s entrepreneurship.
• Today, 18 percent of all startups have at least one female founder.
• There are just over 9 million women-owned companies in the United States.
• A net new 340,000 jobs were added by woman-owned businesses between 2007 and 2015. At the same time, men-owned businesses shed 1.2 million jobs, according to a 2015 study by Womenable and American Express.
• Forty-six percent of the privately held companies in the U.S. are now at least half owned by women.
• Financially, women entrepreneurs outperform everyone but blue chips over time. In the last couple decades, the growth in the number of women’s businesses (up 68 percent), employment (up 11 percent), and revenues (up 72 percent) blows past the growth rates of all but the largest publicly-traded businesses, and tops growth rates among all other privately-held businesses over this period.

Source: http://www.inc.com/lisa-calhoun/30-surprising-facts-about-female-founders.html

Being a female business owner, I’ve gotten to know others like myself from many different industries. Living in the South, there are thousands of us alone. I am a part of a group call The Southern Coterie, or more commonly referred to as the Southern C. This is a group of phenomenal Southern female entrepreneurs who come together to share their experience and knowledge to help each other. Through this group, I’ve gotten to know many of these wonderful ladies and today three of them are sharing their social media experience with us.

Read more here—including tips from Monica Lavin, founder of The Lavin Label; Alesya Opelt, CEO and founder of Alesya Bags; and Angie Tillman, owner of Phickles. 

WECREATE Center opens doors to Women Entrepreneurs

The Women’s Entrepreneurial Centers of Resources, Education, Access, and Training for Economic Empowerment (WECREATE) was launched last week with US Ambassador Robert Godec, and joins a number of other centers lunched to help empower women by promoting entrepreneurship opportunities globally, tailored to provide education and tools specifically to help women. The center is one of three announced by President Obama during the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in July, 2015. Read more at the link, follow WECREATE Kenya on Twitter at @WECREATEKENYA, or visit the center online to learn more.

herbusiness.co.ke - The WECREATE center opened its doors last week, launched by the US Ambassador, Bob Godec. The centre aims to mentor and empower women entrepreneurs.

Based in Lavington, the centre is a fulfillment of one of the promises made by President Barack Obama during last year’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit held in Nairobi last year.

The WECREATE Kenya Women Entrepreneurship Center is a project of the United States Department of State and the Caterpillar Foundation.

“The center should collaborate with public institutions in enhancing the skills of businesswomen and expanding their businesses beyond the borders,” Said Sicily Kariuki, the Public Service Cabinet Secretary.

The WECREATE Center is the second one to be opened in Africa and it serves as an entrepreneurial community center for women interested in starting or expanding an existing business. The Center provides mentoring, business connections, specialized training, connections to the community, media attention, access to markets and capital along with the technical tools and resources necessary for taking any business to the next level.

Read the rest here.

CURLS Launches 'Girls Rule the World' Campaign to Empower Female Entrepreneurship

The organic hair care company Curls, well known as a natural hair-care brand, is commemorating Black History Month with a program to empower women entrepreneurs. We love female entrepreneurship and we're inspired by programs like CURLS Girls Rule the World, which use the power of social media and women's stories to show other women that overcoming challenges and biases—even the intersection of racial and gender-based bias—is possible, and that resources are available to help women entrepreneurs triumph.

The featured event of the movement—the CURLS Girls Rule the World: Empowering Entrepreneurs Luncheon—will be held April 1; with celebrity expert mentors from business, media, entertainment, nonprofit and more.

We hope you'll visit Madame Noire to check out the whole story, including a list of luncheon guests.

Madame Noire - In celebration of Black History Month, CURLS has launched CURLS Girls Rule the World, a signature program dedicated to empowering female entrepreneurship, and MadameNoire has jumped on board as the official media sponsor.

To kick-off the national campaign, CURLS will host over 100 girls of color from New York City and Westchester County between the ages of 12 and 24 at its CURLS Girls Rule the World: Empowering Entrepreneurs Luncheon on April 1, 2016 at Mist-Harlem in New York City. The event will expose girls to accomplished mentors in various industries so they can begin to learn how they can make their dreams come true.

“We are so proud of our CURLS Girls Rule the World program and our upcoming ‘Empowering Entrepreneurs Luncheon’ in New York City,” CURLS CEO and Founder Mahisha Dellinger stated. “Having a mentor and being exposed to business resources to help me accomplish my dreams was something I did not have when I was a young girl. Being able to provide girls with the opportunity to meet successful women, who will stay in touch with them, is truly giving the girls a leg up in realizing that whatever they dream is possible.”

What Does It Mean to Be a Millennial Founder in This Economy?

tech.co - Millennials are poor, and poor people don’t have the freedom to become entrepreneurs.

How bad is it? As previously covered , 63 percent of millennials can’t scrape together 500 dollars with no notice, and 79 percent are concerned that they will never have a retirement plan. The result is a significant drop in millennial founders: The average successful startup founder is in his or her 40s, according to data from the Kaufman Foundation. In this article, we’ll dig into the most recent data surrounding the state of our economy and how millennial founders are working around it — or aren’t working around it, as the case may be.

A joint public opinion survey from Economic Innovation Group (EIG) and professional services firm EY polled 1,200 millennials in order to learn more about them. Here’s a few of the most interesting takeaways.

“Even though 62 percent of Millennials have considered starting a business and 51 percent know someone who started or worked for a startup, only 22 percent believe entrepreneurship is the best way to advance their career.” “42 percent of Millennials lament that they don’t have the financial means to start a business. Across demographics, white men are least concerned with finance, with only 40 percent citing it as the biggest obstacle compared to 53 percent for black women and 59 percent for Hispanic women.”

Read more

Want to receive earlybird invitations to our global events, custom-tailored content we think you'll love, and get exclusive access to "The World Women Report"?

Join Us by Subscribing NOW!

5 Challenges Female Entrepreneurs Face

"As a female entrepreneur, choosing to do business with other female-led companies is one of the best ways to dissolve the patriarchy in the industry."

While this article underlines the struggles women in business face, particularly in male-based industries, it also offers a simple solution. Women must work together with such vigilance in order to close the gap of gender roles and stereotypes. If you are a woman with a business, no matter what it is, join in unity with other women who also have entrepreneurial aspirations. The sad truth is that oftentimes men won't bet on your business. So we as women, must bet on each other. 

- Victoria Mendoza

wearethecity.com - The issue of gender inequality has been a prominent topic throughout history, and despite women over 30 gaining the right to vote in 1918, the need for feminism is still prevalent in modern society.

In recent years, women have made great strides in the world of business, but nevertheless, there’s no doubt that female entrepreneurs are still facing a number of challenges in the workplace in comparison to their male counterparts.

Today, we’re exploring some of the challenges female entrepreneurs face, and how they can overcome these obstacles in their quest for a successful business.

1. Managing time between work and family life

Whether it’s a startup or well established business, finding that work-life balance is difficult for any entrepreneur – regardless of gender. While the notions of sharing parental leave and the decision to opt for a female breadwinner are becoming increasingly popular, traditional gender expectations often still prevail.

Starting a family can create all sort of challenges in the workplace for a woman. From finding time to fit in antenatal appointments to sharing responsibilities between their business and family, a female entrepreneurs can face far more taxing time management issues than male workers. There’s no right answer to the work-life balance either, it’s all down to personal preference and the demands of the business – meaning female entrepreneurs can often feel guilty for not fitting into the stereotypical roles and expectations.

Read more

Essential Read: Impact with Wings

We know many of you are sure to be interested in the new anthology book now available for pre-order on Amazon, Impact With Wings: Stories to Inspire and Mobilize Women Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs. We discovered it through the recommendation of Lionesses of Africa, an online community fostering women’s entrepreneurship in Africa.  Read an excerpt of Lionesses' endorsement here, and click through to learn much more about the book and its authors, female impact investors who came together to co-found Wingpact, a global community of investors and entrepreneurs united in a vision to get more women involved in angel investing and entrepreneurship. 

lionessesofafrica.com - Look out for the launch shortly on Amazon of the wonderfully titled Impact With Wings: Stories to Inspire and Mobilize Women Angel Investors and Entrepreneurs. It’s an anthology of personal stories and research written by six female impact investors. This book's purpose is to enlighten and inspire women to step into angel investing and/or entrepreneurship, as it is through investing in each other that we can begin to tip gender imbalances and bring more women forward.

“As women achieve greater financial success, they are looking for projects they can support on behalf of women. Impact with Wings covers a timely topic of interest for more women than ever. It is an extremely valuable and thought-provoking narrative, coupled with practical information on financing.” --- Dr. Marsha Firestone, President/Founder, The Women Presidents’ Organization

The authors of Impact with Wings ask a fundamental question in their book - will you settle for leaving half the world’s wealth on the table? Discovering angel investing transformed the lives of the six women who cofounded Wingpact, a global angel investment and entrepreneur community. In a world where women’s capital remains underused, angel investing—providing money, human capital, and expertise for startup or early-stage companies—offers a potent and often overlooked opportunity for women to impact the future. The authors, all of whom are well-established in the global business and investment community, share their personal stories and insiders’ insights, offering a clarion wake-up call intended to activate new women angel investors and spur women to invest in female-founded companies.

Female entrepreneurs on the rise in male-dominated Kirkuk

Though they're still in the minority, there are thousands of women business owners in Kirkuk. From economic changes in the region to the ability to work on projects in supportive environments, Kirkuk paints a complex but encouraging picture for many ambitious women entrepreneurs. rudaw.net - KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region - When Fairouz Nasih started her own business in Kirkuk in the mid-1970s, little did she know that one day she her work would open new doors for women in the city.

Four decades later, her small sewing shop has turned into a design institute that gives complete courses in fashion, and even finds jobs for its graduates.

Nasih still remembers when she opened her very modest store in her poor neighborhood in 1974.

“I think everybody was shocked when they first heard that I ran a shop of my own,” Fairouz, now in her 60s, told Rudaw.

“I was very young, but I was extremely ambitious too, so after a while I rented a bigger place and continued from there,” said the woman, who currently owns her own fashion academy in Kirkuk.

Much has changed in the last decade with regard to women’s access to the labor market, as Iraq went through unprecedented economic growth, exclusively due to the money-spinning oil industry, which for now has declined as prices have dramatically plummeted.

Read more here.

Meet Shantha - The Woman From Kerala Who's Given Her Entire Village A Way To Sustain Themselves

When women are thrive, communities thrive. We're happy to share this story today about Shantha from southern India, whose passion lifted up an entire group of women and all the lives they touched.

Shantha began by taking a volunteer job--while women are legally equal in India; they still face inequalities in work, salary, education and more. She networked and learned while volunteering for the government, and eventually learned about microfinance, in which several people can come together, contributing money and approaching a bank for a loan as a group. After working to build a microfinance group, Shantha and her co-entrepreneurs got a loan from the bank--and eventually connected with a larger company, earning even more money and notoriety. The more Shantha and her group gain; the more they're able to help lift their families, give back to their neighborhood and community, improve their own safety and lives, and transform the world around them.

Click through to read more about Shantha and her journey, and keep supporting women's entrepreneurship and empowerment worldwide! 

indiatimes.com - Woman empowerment and entrepreneurship -- together -- are a sign of intensity and achieving independence. There are lot of challenges a woman has to still face: for example, striking a work-life balance chord in the perceived corporate culture scenario. Coming to rural India, there are many young faces which are making a difference to the society today.

Some of them have achieved success through their unprecedented talent, while others have made their mark by their contribution to the upliftment of the society, or just to meet their own ends. Whatever the channel of success, it has definitely given Indian rural society an edge. Today, we share with you an exemplary effort of a 53-year-old woman in Southern India who has inspired many women in her village, and the community at large.

An iron fist for the contemporary rural time - Shantha

When it comes to the rural community of India, the common perception of a lady doing the usual household chores incessantly is the image. Extend our perception to many women in India facing the flak of their husbands; unfortunately even violence and abuse are not unusual at all. Now, cut to an image of a 53-year old, who after many years of struggle and then, hard work, has made her way to achieve modest means for her family. Yes, she has a television, a fan, a bed - all that was unheard of in her poverty-stricken village. She has in fact lifted her whole village out of poverty -- backed by an incredible story of wit and courage.

Read more

As the Clinton Global Initiative opens its final annual meeting, Zainab Salbi lauds its vision

Zainab Salbi, women's rights activist and founder Women for Women International, talks about the impact of the Clinton Global Initiative and the amazing community of activists and humanitarian workers CGI has built to advocate for women's economic progress around the world. 

Salbi shares examples of ways CGI brings together diverse people and organizations to help raise awareness, funds, and ideas to empower women and nurture societies—bringing large-scale impact to grassroots global efforts, and giving the power and resources to a whole new generation to lift up women and the world. Click through to read the whole article. 

nytlive.nytimes.com - I am a first-hand witness to the impact that the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) has made in the world. It’s much easier to criticize institutions, pointing out their flaws from afar, than to run them. As someone dedicated to women’s rights, and who cares about the environment and education, I am grateful for the community CGI has built: for its trailblazing multi-sector collaborations; for its determination to push marginalized issues into the limelight; and for the platform its conference has provided for so many leaders at the grassroots level.  Though I am saddened that this year marks CGI’s last Annual Meeting, I trust that the community it has built and the impact of their work will endure.

I was invited to many conferences during my tenure as founder and CEO of Women for Women International.  Like many non-profit leaders, I took whatever opportunity I was offered to raise awareness and support for my organization. I have circulated in the global conference world quite a bit (and sometimes been jaded by it). But no organization has had as great an impact as CGI has on Women for Women International and women’s rights: I raised more funds for women survivors of wars while attending CGI than through any other initiatives — from an individual who contributed $25,000 for humanitarian work in Afghanistan to donors and companies that contributed more than a million dollars for women’s education in Rwanda.

I am hardly the only witness to CGI’s impact. I’m joined by an entrepreneur helping women earn paychecks in rural Pakistan and an educational leader in the slums of Kenya, both in their 20s and doing amazing work at the grassroots level.  Not until CGI supported them were they given the opportunity to speak in front of world leaders and attract support for their work.

Read more

Inside One Woman Investor's Plan To Get Black Female Founders Funding

Though black women are the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs in the United States, their companies aren't being funded at the same rates as their peers--receiving only 0.2 percent of all venture funding in the past five years. Kathryn Finney set out to find out why--and to shed a light on the details. Calling black women entrepreneurs the "real unicorns of tech," #ProjectDianne was launched to show that there are viable startups founded by black women, as well as to promote the founders as part of a documentary. Finney hopes that these efforts, and the information collected through them, will help foster greater numbers of black women-led startups being funded.

Read about her efforts here and in the full article on Forbes.com.

forbes.com - Black women are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S. They own 1.5 million businesses between them, up 322% since 1997. Their companies generate $44 billion a year.

So why is no one investing in their startups? Why have black women received only .2% of all venture funding in the past five years?

That was what Kathryn Finney set out to uncover when she launched Project Diane, a definitive study of the state of black women in tech entrepreneurship that took the better part of a year to complete.

“We knew it was bad, but no one was quantifying it,” said Finney, founder of Digital Undivided, a social enterprise that runs an accelerator program for startups led by black and Latina women. “It was just, ‘there are no black people, there are no black women.’ Anecdotally, we knew it to be true.”

 What she and her team found, after examining more than 60,000 startups: 88, total, led by black women. That’s 4% of the 2,200 women-led tech startups in the U.S.

Of these, only 11 have raised over $1 million in outside investment.

Read the rest here.

Meet Komal Minhas, the unstoppable Canadian entrepreneur who took the White House by storm

Komal Minhas doens't let anything get in the way of her dreams: not losing a job, not uncertainty, not the challenge of meeting with high-profile individuals, not even cancer.

The young media entrepreneur is one of two visionaries behind "Dream, Girl," a documentary highlighting inspiring female entrepreneurs. The movie was Girl was named the number one "Feminist Film to Watch" by Huffington Post.

Minhas discussed her love of video and film production, how tenacity and hard work have helped her make the most of fortuitous connections and opportunities, embracing challenge, and more.

nationalobserver.com - Komal Minhas has never been the kind of woman who takes 'no' for an answer.

At the age of 23, she strong-armed her way into meeting Oprah at a special event in Ottawa. Minhas hassled organizers until they coughed up a backstage pass. She had grown up watching Oprah on the TV in her living room, and wasn't about to let the opportunity to meet one of her heroes pass her by.

She got herself face-to-face with the legendary producer and philanthropist, and Minhas told her:

"Oprah, we’re going to meet many times in our lives, and one day we’re going to work together, and I just wanted to say hello."

It was a fleeting interaction. Oprah laughed and gave her hug before proceeding to meet the next person in line. But three years later, Minhas and Oprah would connect again — only this time, the celebrity would be asking her for a meeting.

In August, Minhas and her business partner, Erin Bagwell, were named on Oprah's Super Soul 100 list of "awakened leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity" for co-founding the feminist entrepreneurial film, Dream, Girl. Minhas said Oprah didn't remember that they had ever met, and her praise for the documentary was entirely coincidental.

It was a jaw-dropping level of recognition, and Minhas felt like the cosmos had aligned around her.

Read more

7 incredible life lessons from the top female entrepreneurs

More and more women are climbing ever-higher in business—shattering barriers, building companies, making connections, forging amazing lives and paving the way for enterprising women to follow—but there are still unique challenges and obstacles for women entrepreneurs. So we were thrilled to find this article from AlphaGamma, a business portal for millennials, highlighting seven inspiring women trailblazers in diverse industries and the wisdom they've gained through their efforts, successes, and even failures. Learn about everything from determination and confidence to how to deal with intimidation and mistakes from these incredible women. 

alphagamma.eu - What we see in successful people is who they are now: wealthy, well-known and respected role models.

Not many people pay attention to the hardships and struggles they must have faced during the journey to the top.

Are you an aspiring entrepreneur craving for success? Meet these 7 self-made female entrepreneurs and be inspired by their experience and wisdom.

OPRAH WINFREY

Founder and CEO of Oprah Winfrey Network

20th century richest African American, one of the most influential women on Earth, philanthropist, well-known TV producer, “Queen of All Media”. Before she became a media mogul, the girl in a dress made of potato sack struggled with a number of hardships starting from poverty, being raped by the members of her family and becoming a mum at age 14.

A girl who risen from the poverty is one of the best examples of self-made billionaires of our times. The Oprah Winfrey Show is highest-rated television program of its kind in history.

SARA BLAKELY

The founder and owner of Spanx, an American intimate apparel company

Sara’s idea for business was simple – forced by her company to wear pantyhose she wanted to both look good and feel comfortable. With little savings and no knowledge about this business, she wrote her own patent and launched her company at age 27. The company gained huge popularity thanks to Oprah’s recognition of Spanx products.

While being a successful entrepreneur, Sara is also a philanthropist supporting the education of women by establishing the Sara Blakely Foundation. She was also the first female billionaire to join the Giving Pledge initiative.

Read more

5 Unique Traits of Millennial Entrepreneurs

From getting their start in a rocky economic climate, to a focus on education, to use of technology and a unique collaborative approach; millennial entrepreneurs embody a distinctive set of circumstances that shape the way they do business. We loved this list from Entrepreneur, excerpted below, detailing five traits millennial entrepreneurs bring to the table. The list comes to us from Entrepreneur contributor Zach Cutler, founder and CEO of Cutler PR, a tech PR agency in New York and Tel Aviv.

I started Cutler PR in 2009 at age 22 — just three months out of college. I began the business in my bedroom, with $200. I was scrappy and focused on results, and I hustled to make my company a success. As a millennial entrepreneur, I did things that in many ways were different from the actions of previous generations of entrepreneurs.

Here are a few of the top characteristics that set today’s millennial entrepreneurs apart:

1. We grew up on entrepreneurship.

Past generations idolized climbing the corporate ladder, whereas for millennials, business success has often been envisioned in the form of enterprising endeavors.

"Gen Y is the first generation to grow up with entrepreneurial role models,” says Donna Fenn, author of Upstarts! How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit From Their Success.

Our parents looked to the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, like Chrysler's Lee Iacocca and GE's Jack Welch, for career inspiration, but we grew up watching Steve Jobs lead the renewed Apple, Mark Zuckerberg create a social media sensation and other young innovators break new ground. We saw entrepreneurs, not corporate titans, as the rock stars -- and we all wanted to be them.

Not only did these role models attract us to entrepreneurship through role models, but events simultaneously repelled us from the traditional corporate lifestyle: We watched corporate scandals unfold, experienced elders get laid off or fired and other facets of the downside to corporate life reveal themselves.

We were inspired to create our own paths.

Read the rest of the article here.