Startup America Women

On October 25, 2011, the Startup America Partnership launched "Startup America Women," an initiative to rally women's advocacy and membership groups representing women entrepreneurs and business owners to promote the engagement of women-led high growth startups. To get involved with this initiative, please click here.

The following organizations have signed on as affiliate partners in support of this initiative: 

85 Broads

85 Broads is a global women’s network whose mission is to generate exceptional professional and social value for its members. Through their regional network events and online at 85Broads.com, members invest their time, their intellect, and their financial capital in each other’s ideas and businesses.

ACTiVATE

The ACTiVATE® program is a yearlong, applied, entrepreneurship training program focused on teaching women with some technical or business experience to create technology companies based on inventions from the region’s research institutions and federal laboratories.

Activate/Path Forward Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The Path Forward Center provides programs, resources, access to technologies, tools and support to help women realize their untapped business potential to start and grow their own businesses.

Anita Borg Institute

The Anita Borg Institute seeks to increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology, and increase the positive impact of technology on the world’s women. ABI has developed tools and programs designed to help industry, academia and government recruit, retain and develop women technology leaders.

ASTIA

Astia is a community of experts committed to building women leaders and accelerating the funding and growth of high-potential, high-growth, women-led startups.

BELLE Capital

BELLE Capital, LP is an early stage angel fund focused on building great companies in MIchigan and other, underserved geographic regions in the Midwest and South. 

Ceres Venture Fund L.P.

 

Ceres Venture Fund L.P. is an established Chicago-based venture capital fund dedicated to funding high growth companies located in the Midwest in their early stages of growth. As growth-oriented investors, the fund seeks to partner with entrepreneurs of proven ability and provide them with the resources needed to achieve extraordinary success.

 

Consulting Concepts & Innovations

Consulting Concepts & Innovations is a management consulting firm specializing in call-center service operations. A woman-owned small business, Consulting Concepts & Innovations helps clients build, change and improve their organizations to achieve sustainable results.

Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network

The Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) event spotlights female entrepreneurial success and creates an atmosphere where women can connect with one another, share best practices, build business opportunities and recognize female influence in business and technology.

Director of the Entrepreneurship Program/Simmons College

Simmons women entrepreneurs make a difference. And their top 25 ranked U.S. graduate program is right there with them, every step of the way. The Simmons College Entrepreneurship program has a mission to educate, connect and advise women as they imagine and develop their ventures whatever the industry or region of the world.

Enterprising Women

Enterprising Women Magazine is a publication that accounts the achievements of community of women, more than 10 million strong and counting, in which each individual is a pioneer, a trailblazer, an innovator, and a visionary. These are today’s women entrepreneurs, and they account for nearly half of all small businesses in America and continue to start businesses in record numbers all over the globe.

Ernst & Young Winning Women

Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women Program is a national competition and executive leadership program that identifies a select group of high-potential women entrepreneurs whose businesses show real potential to scale — and then helps them do it.

Femfessionals

Femfessionals is an organization that is fresh with its approach in connecting business women; it is diversely represented and inventive in its resources. Femfessionals is an innovative forum where ambitious women can share their knowledge, and support each other in the business world.

 

Girls in Tech

Girls in Tech is a social network enterprise focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology. 

Golden Seeds

Golden Seeds is a network of angel investors dedicated to investing in early stage companies founded and/or led by women. Golden Seeds is dedicated to empowering women financially, based on a commitment that diversity in business ownership and management improves corporate performance and creates a stronger economy.

Hot Mommas Project

The Hot Mommas Project is an award-winning social venture that pairs the world’s largest digital case study library of female role models with cutting-edge teaching tools. 

Illuminate Ventures

Illuminate Ventures is an early stage VC firm led by a team of experienced investors with significant operating and investment track records. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the firm is targeting US-based high growth, capital efficient companies in selected sectors within the high-tech landscape. We work closely with founders to support them in building truly great companies.

Inforum

Unique in the U.S., and one of the largest and most prestigious business forums in the Midwest, Inforum has more than 1,800 members throughout the state of Michigan representing a broad cross-section of the business community. Inforum seeks to strengthen Michigan’s business environment by creating opportunities for women to lead and succeed.

Ladies Who Launch

The nationally acclaimed Ladies Who Launch program has enabled thousands of women across the country to break out of 9-5 and thrive in entrepreneurial enterprises that reflect their true passions, skills, and desires. 

National Association of Women's Business Owners (NAWBO)

The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) is the unified voice of America's more than 10 million women-owned businesses representing the fastest growing segment of the economy.   

National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT)

NCWIT is the National Center for Women & Information Technology, a coalition that works to increase diversity in IT and computing. NCWIT believes that greater diversity will create a larger and more competitive workforce, and promote the design of technology that is as broad and innovative as the population it serves.

Phenomenelle Angels

Phenomenelle Angels Fund I, LP is an early stage fund that invests in women and minority owned or managed businesses in Wisconsin and the Midwest.

Pipeline Fellowship

The Pipeline Fellowship trains women philanthropists to become angel investors through education, mentoring, and practice.  Fellows commit to invest in a woman-led for-profit social venture in exchange for equity and a board seat at the end of the training. The Pipeline Fellowship aims to diversify the investor pool and connect women social entrepreneurs with investors who get them.

Project Eve

 

Project Eve is a global social media platform that helps female entrepreneurs and business owners connect across cultural, social and geographic barriers to interaction. Project Eve's online network gives female entrepreneurs and business owners the ability to be a part of a social work environment, a global forum to discuss and develop their ideas, access to business resources, a channel to establish important industry relationships and a platform to demonstrate and market their expertise.

RampCorp

Texas State University RampCorp brings “The Ramps™” to cities across Texas. They recruit up to 30 current and future entrepreneurs per city to launch companies with guidance from seasoned entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors.

Sharp Skirts

Sharp Skirts is a community for women entrepreneurs that provides knowledge about business building, connecting women with know-how to women who need to know. 

SheEOs

SheEOs is a Boston-based group of women entrepreneurs and CEOs

Smart Girls Way

Smart Girls Way is a social-venture dedicated to empowering women entrepreneurs to create significant economic breakthroughs for themselves, their communities and the next economy. Smart Girls Way believes a world with more women leaders in real positions of influence will be a better world, and that entrepreneurship is the fastest, most direct and interesting path to that leadership position.

Springboard Enterprises

Venture-catalyst Springboard Enterprises is the premier platform where entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts meet to build great women-led businesses. Springboard educates, sources, coaches, showcases and supports high growth companies seeking equity capital for expansion.

StartUpChicks

StartUpChicks strives to Connect and build a world-wide community of like-minded female founders. StartUpChicks educates, coaches, and mentors entrepreneurs to help accelerate their businesses. All while Inspiring aspiring female entrepreneurs to take the leap.

The Daily Muse

The Daily Muse is an online source of information and database of job opportunities for up and coming female entrepreneurs.  

The Women's Venture Capital Fund

The Women’s Venture Capital Fund invests in high potential women entrepreneurs with big ideas that make a difference.   We invest in digital media and sustainable product and service companies that have achieved market traction, are relatively capital efficient, and have strong potential to scale to become attractive strategic acquisitions

Tory Burch

Tory Burch is an attainable, luxury lifestyle brand defined by classic American sportswear with an eclectic sensibility. It embodies the personal style and spirit of its CEO, Tory Burch.

WEST Advancing Women in Science and Technology

The WEST organization provides a forum for women in science and technology industries to network  and share information about career advancement and skill development.  Uniquely tied to this highly educated, influential community, the WEST leadership has long provided a supportive environment for mid-career women in these vital sectors, allowing them a unique opportunity to acquire the skills necessary to become business leaders in their fields.

Women 2.0

Women 2.0 is a emerging global media company for aspiring and current female entrepreneurs to launch successful scalable, innovative ventures. Women 2.0 is a global network and social platform for influencers that drive trends and decisions — as startup founders and as consumers.

Women Entrepreneurs Organization

Women Entrepreneurs Organization of Vancouver, Washington is a warm and wonderful group of Women Business Owners that meet the third Wednesday of each month at the Heathman Lodge in Vancouver, Washington to share Knowledge, to Network and to Support one another in our business endeavors.

Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP)

Women Impacting Public Policy, Inc. (WIPP) is a national nonpartisan public policy organization that advocates for and on behalf of women-owned businesses in the legislative processes of our nation, creating economic opportunities and building bridges and alliances to other business organizations. 

Women In Bio

Women In Bio was established in 2001 to help women entrepreneurs and executives in the Baltimore-Washington-Northern Virginia area build successful bioscience-related businesses. Today, WIB aims to serve all women in the bioscience industry.

Women Presidents' Organization

The Women Presidents' Organization is a non-profit membership organization for women presidents of multimillion-dollar companies. Members of the WPO take part in professionally-facilitated peer advisory groups in order to bring the 'genius out of the group' and accelerate the growth of their businesses.

Women's Business Development Center (WBDC)

The Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) has helped prospective and established women business owners achieve economic independence through entrepreneurship. From workshops and seminars to business coaching and financial assistance, the WBDC guides women to business and economic success. 

Women's Business Enterprise Council

The Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), founded in 1997, is the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned controlled, and operated by women in the United States. WBENC, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit, partners with 14 Regional Partner Organizations to provide its national standard of certification to women-owned businesses throughout the country.

Women's Entrepreneurial Council

The Women’s Entrepreneurial Council is a “super” organization created to align the many groups that support women entrepreneurs. The WEC mission is to create a powerful, connected ecosystem for entrepreneurial women. By facilitating communication, coordination and collaboration among the many groups and academic institutions that support women as entrepreneurs in New England, WEC’s goal is to ensure that women entrepreneurs have the resources and support that they need to create, launch and build their businesses, regardless of scale.

Women's Leadership Exchange

Women's Leadership Exchange® (WLE) is a social entrepreneurship organization founded by and for successful businesswomen. Recognizing the unique challenges facing women in business – whether they are leading their own companies or are leaders in the corporate, government or not-for-profit sectors, WLE offers a program that helps them fill the information gap and provides a venue for building connections that will facilitate their success in business and in life.