Women’s entrepreneurship is rising — but women still own only one in three businesses globally. They also continue to get a small piece of the venture capital “pie”: Startups with all-women founders accounted for only 6.9% of deals during the first half of 2022, which marked a decade high.
At Women Techmakers, our goal is to build a world where all women can thrive in tech, providing visibility, community and resources for women in technology — and this includes women founders.
In 2020, to spotlight the voices of women founders globally, we launched Founded, a podcast interviewing women tech entrepreneurs around the world. This fall, we’re bringing back Founded, but with a twist. We’ve made the move to video, and each episode will feature two women founders interviewing each other and talking about their experiences as founders and the challenges they faced along the way — everything from funding to managing technical teams.
Founded is not just about businesses but the passionate women behind them. The fourth season showcases 12 extraordinary founders from eight different countries. The first episode features Min Chen, Co-founder and CEO of Wisy — a California-based AI platform that helps retailers track inventory, using image recognition to detect when items need restocking. She’ll speak with Courtney McColgan, Founder and CEO of Runa, a Mexico-based company that provides software to automate payroll in Latin America.
Min Chen, Co-founder and CEO of Wisy (left) and Courtney McColgan, Founder and CEO of Runa (right)
Meet the other founders featured this season:
Kasia Dorsey, Founder and CEO, Yosh.AI (Warsaw, Poland) — provides AI-powered voice and text agents to support customer service operations.
Sasha Haco, Co-founder and CEO, Unitary (Cambridge, United Kingdom) — uses AI to help companies detect harmful content.
SaLisa L. Berrien, Founder and CEO, COI Energy (Brooklyn, New York) — a digital energy management platform that eliminates energy waste in buildings and repurposes that waste for good.
Georgene Huang, Co-founder and CEO, Fairygodboss (New York, New York) — the largest online career community for women.
Maricarmen Herrerías, Co-founder and COO, Casai (Mexico City, Mexico) — a company that provides travelers with premium accommodations.
Melina Cruz, CEO, Homely (Mexico City, Mexico) — a company that connects people with trusted cleaners for home and office spaces.
Vivian Nwakah, Founder and CEO, Medsaf (Lagos, Nigeria) — a medication supply chain management solution for hospitals and pharmacies.
Melissa Bime, Co-founder and CEO, Infiuss Health (Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria) — a company that connects U.S. and Europe-based pharmaceutical and life science companies and researchers with participants for clinical trials and research in Africa.
Teresa Condicion, Co-founder and CEO, Shoplinks (Singapore) — digitizing and personalizing in-store promotions for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG).
Hyemin Lee, Co-founder and CEO, Finda (Seoul, South Korea) — an online comparison platform for various financial products.
The first episode will launch on September 26 — keep an eye out for it on the Women Techmakers YouTube channel.