Female Startup Leadership: Lessons Learned Accelerating Global Companies

Hello everyone and welcome to the Founder Institute event on building startup ecosystems as a female startup leader. So my name is Ryan McLeady, I'm head of global operations for the Founder Institute. I've been working here for the last almost 7 years now building startup ecosystems all over the world, and I also run the Founder Institute Silicon Valley program as a managing director. So For those of you who maybe don't know, Founder Institute is the world's largest pre-seed startup accelerator. So we've been around for 12 years, we've created over 5,000 companies across 200 cities, and we have the largest mentor network in the world of 21,000 mentors. And so today we have an amazing panel of women startup leaders from all around the world who will be discussing the lessons that they've learned accelerating startups in their ecosystem. So let me give you just a brief agenda of what to expect. So in a moment, I'll introduce the speakers and they'll introduce themselves. We'll do a panel discussion and we really want to get your questions answered. So if at any point you have a question for one of the leaders on the call, just pop it into the chat. Our team on the backend will send it to me and then we'll integrate it into the conversation. And then upon closing the session about an hour from now, we're gonna do an optional networking event on Airmeet. And so for those of you who have not used Airmeet, it's a really great platform just to, you know, do speed networking or join a table to talk to other people. But, you know, in this sort of virtual environment, it's harder to get in front of people and network, so we want to create as many opportunities as possible for you to do so. And so before we get started with the event, I do have one— the Founder Institute is expanding rapidly. We're looking for more women startup leaders to help run accelerator programs all over the world. So if you or someone you know is interested in becoming a managing director for an accelerator program, please message me directly. You can email me at ryan@fi.co, or you can send them the application link. It's fi.co/lead. Our producer will put that in the chat here so you can, so you can go ahead and refer that link to anyone who you who you think might be interested. So without further ado, I would love to do the panel introduction. So first up is Eileen Brewer. Eileen, do you want to do a quick introduction?

Sure. Thank you very much for Ryan. It's great to be a part of this panel. I'm currently living in Kurdistan, Iraq, which is in the northern region of Iraq. I first met Ryan several years ago at the Founders Institute in Palo Alto. I was supporting them back then. And since then, I've been providing entrepreneurship training across many countries, and I've landed in Iraq for the last year. We have built the first accelerator in the country, and we're supporting the startups that come out of the incubators. There's about 5 different incubators in the country, and then the startups don't have anywhere to go after that. So we have created the more advanced training. We work on getting them then investor ready and working through what due diligence is and developing strong pitch decks. So it's been a fun experience. I'm happy to share about it. Thank you.

That's awesome. I certainly have a lot of questions for you. We build accelerators in like Afghanistan and in like really challenging markets. And so I would love to hear more about the Iraq ecosystem and do whatever we can to support your efforts there. So next up, let's go to Laura. Laura, do you want to do a quick introduction?

Sure. Thanks, Ryan. Super excited to be joined by everyone across the world today. This is amazing. I am a director in the Waterloo, Toronto corridor in Canada. And a lot of the founders we're working with are full-time employees elsewhere right now. They've got this idea and we're really helping them focus in and hone in on that idea to help them build it out to become a really amazing business. And it's been great seeing the talent come through the cohorts so far.

Awesome. And you're an entrepreneur yourself, right? You've had some, some recent success. What would— tell us a little bit about your company.

Yeah, so I'm a co-founder of a business called Loopd, and what we do is we have built a software platform that enables rental subscriptions. So we're big proponents of the circular economy, and we work with big retailers across the world to enable their rental subscription programs, so to offer their customers a more sustainable way to shop with them.

Awesome, that's, that's great to hear. And, you know, we love the work that you're doing in Waterloo and Toronto. So up next, Paloma, do you want to do a quick introduction as well?

Yes, thanks, Ryan, for having me here today and be beside these amazing women that are leading their ecosystems around the world. I'm Paloma, I'm a regional director at Founder Institute in the region of LATAM. I'm based in Brazil, so I'm Brazilian, and I had the honor in 2015 of being a graduate of Founder Institute. In my cohort, I was the only female founder that got to graduate. And there was no local leader females, very little female founders. And I watched this situation change in Brazil in my own ecosystem. So Founder Institute now has several chapters running. In all of them, we're happy to say that we have female leaders, me being one of them, and a lot of female founders, female mentors have been growing for the past 5 years in Brazil. So here down in Brazil, we have been pushing a lot female founder initiative, which you guys are gonna learn a little bit about today, I believe, which is this arm of Founder Institute that helps to promote and engage more female founders in our portfolio to launch significant companies. So I'm one of them in the grant portfolio. It used to be less of us, and with this amazing work of FI, I think this number has been growing. And the more we have local leaders and local female mentors, we're able to attract better female founders as well and to support them. So I'm just— Very honored to be here today with you guys. Thank you so much for the invite.

Yeah, 100%. And I definitely want to dive into the Female Founder Initiative. You've been the point of the spear in Brazil helping with that. And so we appreciate everything you're doing. But last but not least, Eva, do you want to do a quick introduction?

Sure. Hi, everyone. I'm Eva. I'm based in Cologne, Germany. I'm originally from Bulgaria, so my German is a little bit broken. And as someone who started a chapter in a foreign country without knowing the language, I have a lot of experience to share, especially since we, we started the chapter or restarted the chapter during the pandemic. So, so that was a lot of learning for us there. I'm happy to say I'm also a graduate of the Foundry Institute. And ever since I got in touch with the Foundry Institute, I've been a huge fan, which also drove my decision to to join as a director eventually, and I enjoy working with you guys so much. So I'm very excited for today's call and sharing all our experiences and hearing how our other female local leaders, yeah, driving the community forward.

So I appreciate everyone for doing your introduction. So let's go ahead and jump in. And just as a reminder, anyone here who's in the attendee list, you can go ahead and ask any question you'd like. So if you have questions, go ahead and put it in the chat. Otherwise, I've got plenty of questions to fill the event. So this is a super important topic, right? A few years ago, we launched the Female Founder Initiative. Our goal was to try and get to a 50/50 mark in our program where half of our alumni around the world are women. And so we had a really great success, especially in North America. We actually, I think, got to like 40% of our alumni were women. And like we're making strides internationally, although it's a little bit more of a challenge. And so I guess to kick this off, like what was the main reason you decided to become a startup ecosystem leader and actually run an accelerator? And Eileen, maybe we could start with you because your story is a little bit different, right? You were like entrepreneur, moved to investor, and then, you know, this opportunity came to like run an accelerator program in Iraq. Tell us a little bit more about, like, the reason why.

So while I was living in Silicon Valley, I started hearing from women that they were having a hard time getting funding. And I lived in Silicon Valley for 20 years, but I worked for tech companies. I wasn't working in the startup space. So I wasn't really educated about the startup space there because it wasn't where I was working. But when I started hearing from women that they weren't getting funding, I started attending pitch events. And I started watching the behavior of what happens with the men and women in the room during pitch events and how women were treated, how the audience reacted, how the judges reacted, how the investors react, the type of questions they ask. And it became really obvious to me that we were having an issue there. And so then I made it a mission to become an investor so I could make a difference So I literally went to my boss and said, I need a raise. And he said, why? And I said, because I need to be an investor and I need to hit this threshold so I can be an investor. And he said, okay. And so, so I got my raise so that I could qualify. And then I went back and I joined, uh, then I started investigating angel groups to join. Golden Seeds is by far the best in the US. There are 300 angels across the United States. They invest in only female-led companies. They have chapters all over the United States. Um, they're 90% about 90% female members. We do have about 10% male members. We have free office hours and pitch events, and the women that come and pitch always tell us that we are the most comfortable, safest place for them to pitch and that we treat them equally and with respect, and they really enjoy that. From there, I recognize that more training could be done. Like, I would listen to what the investors were saying after the founders left the room. And what the founders weren't addressing in their pitches. So then I decided I would start providing some training to founders and that just kind of morphed and grew. And then I started traveling to different countries and providing training in a bunch of different countries over the last several years. And now this opportunity came up to build an accelerator from scratch. It was, part of it was because COVID happened and I wasn't allowed to do a lot of international travel. Anymore, and I have a focus on helping entrepreneurs in spaces where they have the least amount of resources. So I don't go to across the European countries. I go to places like Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and Cameroon and Zimbabwe and, and now Iraq, because I feel like it's— there's really, really smart people everywhere, and many of them don't get the resources that we get the luxury of having in a more third— first world countries. And so it's just a real passion of mine to bring what's very easily accessible in California, take it to the least accessible places.

And it's been fun.

That's so interesting. We actually have some, some people from Kazakhstan on the call today, so it's really interesting to hear that.

Yeah.

So, so let's go, um, maybe Eva, let's go to you next. Like, you know, talk a little bit about like why you decided to become an accelerator leader in helping women-led startups? Because you were originally from Bulgaria, but then you moved to Germany and then you decided to kind of jump in headfirst. Like, what's the story there?

Yeah, so in general, I like to jump headfirst in many things in my life, and I like to do that. And with respect to joining as a leader here in Germany, I realized in the last years that with my work, what I actually enjoy and want to do is make a difference. So I wanna be able to help people, founders, companies bring their ideas to life and have impact. And that includes, of course, female-led companies. And so one of the ways to do it is to be a consultant, which is, by the way, something I am for the last 5 years. And I've worked with many startups, and I also worked with Fortune 500 companies. But another way to do it is to actually immerse yourself in the startup community. And Eileen, I really liked what you said about bringing more resources to countries that don't have it. In Germany, we have a lot of resources. It's such a safe place for people to start company. They get government funding, and they have support. From their family, and yet people are so unwilling to take any risk, which is a learning for me. I was not expecting it. I already told you I'm coming from Bulgaria, and there we don't have so much resources, but the startup community is so much more developed, and people are willing to try things out, to fail, and to try another thing again. So coming to Germany and seeing that, I want to work and to help it basically embrace entrepreneurship, embrace this fail fast, learn fast, and be successful attitude. So this is my driving force, and my plan is to just keep on doing this for as long as it takes.

Awesome. Well, you know, I— having run programs in a lot of cities, I can tell you that the first program is always the hardest, and then you start to get some momentum. Eileen, I'm sure you're seeing a lot of this as well. You know, once you start getting some success, it tends to carry you forward. So Laura, let's go to you because you kind of have that traditional like entrepreneur, did some great things and then wanted to help other entrepreneurs and run a program. But what's your story with wanting to help accelerate companies in Waterloo and Toronto?

Yeah, I think similar to Eva and Eileen, just helping and helping educate and help, just helping in general. My entrepreneur journey started back in 2018. And one of the things I learned really quickly and was kind of surprised about, just given my past work history, was how incredibly supportive the entrepreneurial community is. My co-founder and I were reaching out to other entrepreneurs who had successful exits because we wanted to learn from them. And I think time and time again, I was so surprised at how many yeses we got and how many great conversations we had. And that was really instrumental in helping shape how we looked at developing our business and lessons learned from people who had been on the ground themselves. And I really wanted the opportunity to pay it forward. And I actually was introduced to Founder Institute through becoming a mentor in Waterloo, the cohort previous to last. And I just really not only enjoyed the opportunity to help pay it forward and help other entrepreneurs, but really appreciated the curriculum and the structure around Founder Institute. Thought it was super sound. I could see I see a lot of my journey in the curriculum and I'm like, this is such an amazing resource for entrepreneurs to have. So it was kind of a combination of, you know, that I wanna give back to the way people had given to me in the community, but also the rigor and structure around the program, I think is setting founders up for the best success possible. And if I can be a part of that, it's a really great feeling.

You know, you bring up some really interesting points, right, around how entrepreneurship is sort of this like very supportive community. And it kind of goes back to something that Eva was saying is like you're taking all this risk and there's so many people that are like risk-averse in different markets. We see that a lot in Germany, we see that a lot in Japan. And, you know, it really does like I think because it's so hard that naturally if you find a peer who's also starting a company, it's like you kind of get it and you want to support each other. I think that's kind of the magic of kind of being a leader in that community. So let me ask you the same question, Paloma, and you actually, your journey was a little bit different because you actually went through the Founder Institute program first, and then you decided to become a local leader, and then you started becoming like a regional leader running programs all over Brazil, and then now you're actually working for Founder Institute HQ. Tell us about your journey.

Yeah, I think I'm wearing all the hats now in Foundry Institute, but yeah, it's awesome perspective to see from a grad point of view what it is to build a business firsthand, to have the struggles, to try it and fail and try it again and then just keep going. During and after the program specifically and still have a support network. So for me, it was very interesting to go through the program to get my angel investors and my first customers through Founder Institute Network locally and to be able to then later do Funding Lab. And that firsthand experience also helped me to learn why I want to support other entrepreneurs. I was very engaged in nonprofits and supporting social problems. And I just saw in startups and all my peers and everybody I was meeting in Founder Institute Network and other programs I passed through how the opportunity that Brazil has so many problems and so many entrepreneurs willing to solve them. It just makes so much more sense to than me just building my own company to support all those other entrepreneurs as well. So it was a very smooth transition from leaving the company I built for the past 5 years as a grad to being like, okay, now that I'm changing hands, what else can I put my time and effort to make a change and to solve problems in Brazil? And it was just a very organic thing to, from a grad helping out some chapters and then helping out more chapters. And I think that transition also of being a female leader, it was very cool because When I graduated, there was almost no women. It was like the first cohort of FI in Brazil, I think the first year of Founders Institute in Brazil. So there wasn't many examples of female founders successful in the ecosystem yet. And I experienced this 5 years as a grad of seeing more grads coming on board, more local leaders coming on board. And more females getting inspired by other female founders to build their dream company and to solve real issues of our country. So for me, it's still that social impact drive that drives me to even now want to help LATAM to expand and have more FI chapters because I experienced firsthand how it helped me as a female entrepreneur. So I can just see how all these other women that are looking at problems every day and having that bright idea of maybe I could, but I don't know if I'm the right person to do that, to just get the extra support they need to launch their companies.

Yeah, that's really great. And, you know, in many ways, right, like the whole like startup journey and experience, it's probably the single best change agent for actually driving some of the impact that you were mentioning, right? Because like entrepreneurship not only can solve big problems, but you're also creating economic opportunities, you're developing the ecosystem, you're creating new skill sets for people. And so when it comes to ecosystem development and like really building out the startups that are local, you know, we really take that sort of impact-first approach because if you're going to spend 20 years working on a startup, you might as well work on something that matters and something that's going to have a positive impact. And, you know, we see that every single day in ecosystems around the world. And so, you know, that said though, every ecosystem is different and there's like different challenges based upon like, you know, what's the local talent base look like, you know, what's the local funding situation look like. And so it's very unique. And, you know, Eileen, I think you're probably in the toughest market right now, or one of the toughest in the world. And so what are some of the challenges that are unique to the Iraq startup ecosystem?

Well, when we ran our first accelerator last summer, we opened— we opened up our whole business like in July. And so when we posted our applications open in August, we didn't think that we were going to get any traction. And we got a lot of traction because news travels fast in communities like this. So we had about 100 and I think 150 applications, which is pretty good for being brand new on the ground in this type of country. So when we ran our second cohort, we thought we would receive 300 or 400 or 500 applications. And the reality was we got 60 applications because there's so few startups at that level that are ready for the type of training that we provide as an accelerator, not an incubator. So we realized right away that the, um, there weren't enough startups in the, in the country. There's a lot of SMEs. There's a lot of people creating agencies and digital marketing services. And there's 15 e-commerce and 15, uh, you know, marketing, but very few that are at that level that you would normally expect to put through an accelerator. So we immediately had to start changing our programming. So, that was the first lesson, was change the programming and bring it down and make the window a little wider so you can get more in. Some of the hardest parts are investors won't invest unless you're registered. And to get registered is really hard. It can take you easily 6 months or 8 months and it costs several thousand dollars. And then by then you've lost the investor's interest. They've moved on to something else. So those are some of the biggest challenges that we've faced so far. But in the 1 year that we've been here, we've seen more accelerators open and we've seen 2 other— we've seen 2 other accelerators open and more incubators open. So the ecosystem is there. It just is growing. It's just a little bit early. We will keep our high-level program in existence because There will be those who need that level that are at that caliber. It just won't be at the, at the quantities that we thought that it would be. And, um, we just continue to modify. Like, we came out with one program, and now it's a year later and we have 4 programs because we, we're constantly— we're very agile. And we joke when, when we're with our founders, even while we're running a cohort, we'll tell them, we're agile, we may completely change what we're doing next week with you. You know, just based on what we hear from them. Yeah.

So it makes sense because, you know, startup accelerators within themselves are like startups, right? And so sometimes, especially in a market where you have to be on your feet and move quickly and adapt, I mean, that's what startups are all about, right? And so that's really good to hear. And you bring up a lot of good topics and, you know, we could dive into like the regulation issue. I've seen that in a lot of different regions around the world. I mean, it's a bit crazy to me. That like governments are making it hard for people to create companies. It's like if you did nothing but make it cheap and fast and easy to create a company, you will grow your economy. Just reduce the regulation and make it simple. But, you know, obviously these things take many years and, you know, we see like, you know, example Luxembourg and some of these European countries, it's like $25,000 to incorporate your company. And meanwhile Estonia is up in the north saying, hey, come to us. Right? We'll incorporate you. We'll become your, you know, home base for your startup. And so it's just, you know, it's really frustrating sometimes dealing with the local governments. So, you know, for one thing that you had mentioned, you know, around like kind of like almost like moving the program a little bit earlier stage, right? Which is sort of like originally you came in maybe like the seed level, it's worked with startups and you had this vision, but you had to quickly adapt to go a little bit earlier. We've actually seen the same thing with Founder Institute, and that's kind of why we focus on pre-seed, because in a lot of these markets, you just don't have like that critical mass of startups to really get it going. But we know though, like if you can seed the ecosystem with new companies, you know, those companies will go on to grow a few years down the line. Maybe they raise money, maybe they start hiring people and building the ecosystem. And then what we've seen over time, and this is kind of what happened in Silicon Valley, if you go back like, you know, 70 or 80 years ago, like, you have these, this sort of like critical mass that starts forming, and then all of a sudden, yeah, exit happens. That money then stays in that ecosystem because the investors are investing money locally. And then all of a sudden you have this like new talent base of people that can go and start their own company, and they've sort of been trained in innovation. And so we kind of call this like the virtual cycle, but it's like if you can start by just launching companies, that's gonna over time build the ecosystem. Those companies will grow and, you know, you start seeing what's happening in Africa right now. I mean, they're starting to get multiple billion-dollar companies in the ecosystem. And now all of a sudden there's like, you know, they're hiring hundreds of people and the talent is increasing and now there's sort of like someone's paved the way in, in the, the jungle, so to speak, to actually help, like, you know, be the, be the influencer and be the example for these startups, uh, to show them that, hey, we were able to grow this big company, you can too, here's how we did it. And like, all of a sudden, like, there's this, like, critical, uh, mass of people and support in the ecosystem. So I'm, I'm so excited about the work that you're doing in Iraq. And like I said, we, we're happy to help however we can.

Great, thanks.

So I guess, Eva, let's go to you because, you know, you mentioned something in the beginning around like sort of Germany having like a lower risk tolerance, it being kind of hard, you know, because it's so— there's so much support in the ecosystem. What are some of the challenges that you're seeing building startups and developing the ecosystem in Germany?

Yeah, so When we were about to restart the chapter here in Cologne, I was hearing two things. Either there are too many accelerators, we don't need another one, or there are not enough accelerators, which means there's a lot of hype, everyone is trying to do something, but actually the good programs that actually bring value are really not that many. So yes, there's a lot going on, but no, it's not enough of quality things happening. And so when I started recruiting my team members for the chapter, knowing the Foundry Institute, having been through the program and what it brings, I was very convinced why this is going to be helpful for the ecosystem. So when I was talking with people, they were immediately interested in joining the team and doing something. So that definitely helped, trusting what the founders should bring, trusting the result that it's been proven for the last 12 years in so many markets. So this was a good thing. However, having the hype of the startup and kind of building the community, people are— a lot of the people are thinking that they're fishing from the same pond, in the same— meaning that If a couple of programs are recruiting startups, the startup needs to go either to this, to program A or to program B. It cannot go to both programs. And I'm trying to, we're trying to turn away, turn the picture upside down. We're trying to promote this collaborative thinking that if one startup goes through 3 different programs, that's even gonna be better for the ecosystem. Like it doesn't have to be either or. We can all collaborate and we can all create more companies, better companies. It's not like one program is enough for a founder to learn everything and to do everything correct, and from there on it's only growth. It's a constant learning journey being a founder, and so having this full ecosystem that provides value at each step and that they are also open to collaborating is very important. So we're trying to change, change the mood here, trying to be supportive for other programs and collaborate as much as we can. But yeah, since, since there's a lot of things happening, we also need to establish ourselves as a— it takes time for people to see the value of something because at the beginning it's just words. Everyone is saying that they're the best. But so it takes a little bit of time in order to be— for the people to see the value, and they're starting to see it now. I think we're doing a great progress and people are starting to pay attention now.

You know, one of the things that we've talked about over the last like year and a half, this started kind of pre-pandemic, is this concept of global startup alignment, which is, you know, how do you align partners and people in the ecosystem to support companies that are being developed. And, you know, I've seen the same thing in certain markets where, you know, and this is just speaking for Founder Institute, but like, you know, Founder Institute goes into a new city, there's some established players, and we actually see this, Laura, up in Canada a lot. You know, they're like funded by the government, millions and millions of dollars. And, you know, they see FI as like competition because they're like, what's this Silicon Valley program doing in my ecosystem? You know, this is going to affect my budget and I'm not going to be able to get the government grants that I used to. But quickly they actually realized that we can help them because we act as that feeder system, right? Like, because we're focused on pre-seed, that's our core area of competency, we're able to create better companies that then go into their programs that then help them achieve the metrics that they're trying to achieve. And, you know, as you know, running the program, I mean, we don't have budget. We don't really run a program with budget. This is basically all volunteer work and incentivization through the Equity Collective, but we're able to create companies at scale with $0. And so that's really powerful because on the other hand, like, you know, if you were to go and create an accelerator right now, just, you know, the AVA accelerator, you'd probably have to go and raise a couple million dollars. You'd probably have to hire a full-time team, build out your marketing funnel, your website, and do all this stuff, the curriculum, versus like at FI, you just kind of join us, spend 6 to 8 hours a week working on it, and like you're creating companies at scale, which is pretty powerful for the global ecosystem. So is there, I guess, like just to kind of piggyback on some of the things that you were saying, like, you know, what in your background sort of led you to want to work with these companies? Because your background is sort of a growth and marketing expert, right? And so like when you first came to Germany, like what was the idea behind like taking, you know, the growth and marketing background that you had and then applying it to startups?

Well, when I came to Germany, that was not planned, by the way. I just came for one month and then I stayed a little bit longer. And now I'm here for, for 4 years. But when I came to Germany, I went to work with big corporates and we launched a couple of projects. I helped launch them basically from scratch. And so this was very entrepreneurial experience within the, within this big organization. But seeing the constraints in those big organizations and how with time projects just die out instead of continuing to innovate, continuing to do something good in the world, kind of really drove me a little bit crazy. So, I was looking for a way to be able to influence in a more direct, more fast, more lasting way with, the ecosystem with my work. And so what is this way? Well, startups is a great way to do it and it's fun and you get to learn, you get to meet so many people and you get to be part of a change that is needed. So taking my marketing and growth experience into startups is actually very valuable because most startups are thinking about mostly about that. They're not thinking about operations, they're not thinking about many of the other things that a startup should first prepare. So it's very relevant for them.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So Laura, let's talk about Toronto and Waterloo. I mean, you know, it's such a— I mean, it's, you know, it's been said that Toronto is the next Silicon Valley. And in many ways, you know, I've been to Toronto, I've met a lot of people there, and like, I'm very bullish on the Waterloo-Toronto corridor. I think Canada has incredible talent and the work that you guys are doing is phenomenal. So are there any challenges that you've run into being an accelerator leader, running the program and working with startups that might be unique to Toronto or Canada?

It's so funny the timing of this question. We had graduation last week and actually hosted a panel with other accelerators in the ecosystem and It was the very first time that all of us had gotten together for kind of the common good and what we're all working towards. And it's actually spawning more conversation offline now, which is great. We're like, how great that Founder Institute could be at the center of that. But we actually had a really good discussion on exactly this. You know, Toronto-Waterloo has really been primed on the global stage right now you know, a lot of purpose-led tech and a lot of trust in what's coming out of the ecosystem. But I think it was agreed unanimously across the board, and we're seeing it in even our last cohort. There are a ton of hustlers out there, but the hacker side, the actual tech background individuals and the talent there, we produce a ton of it actually. One of the universities, main universities in Waterloo, is the top third supplier of engineers to Google. And a lot of that talent has been leaving the country to go work elsewhere. So it's really about not only retaining the Canadian talent, but how can we look globally to bring other talent into Canada? And, you know, I think Eileen was, and you were jamming on the, you know, the barriers with government. While there isn't the barrier in Canada to start a business, bringing in talent for the purpose of working at startups actually can be challenging. And there's a lot of details that become barriers for a lot of businesses here. So I think the talent aspect, especially from a tech perspective, is one of the biggest challenges that the Toronto-Waterloo market is facing. And I think is something that the ecosystem is going to be really working together to protect and try to solve.

Yeah, that's fascinating. And, you know, I know Canada has the Startup Visa program and like it's actually probably more progressive than a lot of countries. I know the US is kind of restarting our Startup Visa program, which is important. And so like, what do you like Toronto being sort of this international hub? Are you seeing a lot of like immigrant founders coming to Toronto to start companies?

Yeah, we are. We actually had several in our cohort that's just graduated. And yeah, we're seeing a huge influx in the corridor of people that are coming and have that passion and drive to start their own business. And I have a thought now, it's completely escaped. But to answer the question, yeah, Absolutely. We're definitely seeing it. And I think that's something that we're really focusing on in Toronto Waterloo is how do we bring more people with more diverse backgrounds and have that represented in our cohorts? It's female founders, it is immigrant founders, because those are, you know, where some of the best diverse ideas, where they come from, are some of the most successful ones. So Jordan and I are really focusing on really expanding and growing and having that representation in present in the cohorts moving forward.

Yeah, that's very cool. And, you know, we kind of see that naturally across many different chapters and programs because FI basically provides people with this, this really great network. So if you're looking to build that network, maybe you just moved to a country and you don't know anyone, or like your network's small, you know, it's sort of this like instant network in the startup community that creates pathways for you as a leader. So that's great to hear. And Paloma, I mean, you know, Brazil has a lot of challenges, but there's so much opportunity there, you know, with you and with Nima's help, we've been able to get to, I think it was like 15 cities at the peak. So tell us a little bit about some of the challenges that you're seeing, you know, in the startup ecosystem in Brazil.

Awesome, Ryan. Yeah, I think the challenges have changed a lot. So F5 Brazil has been running for about like 5 years, and we had So many cities running simultaneously. In the beginning was a lot struggles with government and bureaucracy, and people actually did not know what a startup was 5 years ago in Brazil. I was in the first cohort, so we were like, what are these words that these people are using, right? Like, what does that even mean? So I think we have consolidated a lot now, like partners, Júpiter as our national partner, but also government partners, ecosystem, other startups. We work a lot together in collaboration and we were able to increase a lot the level of mentors we attract in the program. In the beginning, it was very tough. Like we had to like go after so hard, like finding the top entrepreneurs around the region to be our mentors. Because at FI, one of our differentiators is to be an FI mentor, you probably build a business before and you created something that had a growth, and there was not many startups back then in Brazil that were those examples. So it was very hard to find those entrepreneurs that were hidden, getting their work done instead of being a mentor. But we consolidated that network now of mentors, of grads. The level of entrepreneurs also increased a lot. One of our recent challenges was just to get to the entrepreneurs wherever they are. Brazil is a massive country, so it's like, a lot of people, but also a big, uh, land, right? So it was hard to get everybody to fly into São Paulo, to Rio, or to regions. So we're very happy with this transition to the virtual that recently happened at FI. Before, a founder would have to leave their region and fly into São Paulo to build their company, right? To get that experience. And now people from the northeast region, people from like anywhere in Brazil can pretty much just log in on Zoom every week and get the experience of a high-quality accelerator without even leaving their house. So we are getting much more broader region reach. So people from like rural areas with like agrotech solutions are being able to, in a cheaper way, joining the sessions and the program and high-level mentors as well. Because Mentors don't have that hour commute anymore to get to a session. They can do more office hours and we can get so much higher mentors. So I think that's a big challenge we have in Brazil yet, uh, to break the bubble of the big, uh, centers, the big capitals, and to make sure that if you're an entrepreneur, doesn't matter where you are in the country, we can provide you access to a high top level accelerator. So you can build your business from wherever you are. You don't need to go to the US, you don't need to go to Toronto because we do have a lot of brain drain from Brazil with our top engineers. So I think we do suffer a little bit of what Laura said, like Brazilian, if you go anywhere in the world, there's a lot of good Brazilians, right? So Brazilians tend to leave the country for better opportunities and we're showing them that they can be just here and build a global company.

Yeah, that is so powerful and it makes a lot of sense. So I guess just, you know, I want to be mindful of time here and in the last kind of 10 minutes or so, I want to ask each of you sort of a two-part question, right? So the first is that, you know, what advice do you have for women entrepreneurs who are building their companies in your startup ecosystem? And then the second question is, what advice do you have for other startup leaders, men or women, who are interested in running accelerator programs or building the ecosystem through an accelerator? So, Eileen, maybe we can start with you, and you could talk about your experience in Iraq or in the US.

So, it's interesting. I just finished one week of 20 hours of training that was offered by the World Bank. For several of the leaders of— there's an accelerator in Iraq with the focus on helping female founders. And through that discussion and us constantly having this discussion in our staff, what's come to mind for me that I think will really help the female founders when they're pitching is to— especially if they're not tech, if they're not a strong SaaS or something like that, I think it's critical to put your numbers in the front of your pitch. Because I've watched the reaction of the investors and the judges, and you start with the story and you're doing something that's just a little too femme or retail, like the B2C versus B2B, they lose investor traction or attention pretty quickly. But they have huge numbers. But by the time they get to their numbers in their pitch, they've already lost the attention of the investor. They've already formed an opinion. So what I'm going to be doing in the next training cohort is teaching them to put the numbers up front. One example I'll use is we have a gal that makes candles, and I was even resistant into letting her into our accelerator because it's candles, and right, and so there's this resistance of recognizing what she could do. She is shipping over 500 candles a month. She is doing really well. So we taught her how to build a platform and how to do white labeling and how to do wholesaling to really boost her business. So she will be moving out of her home, her business out of her living room, had 500 candles a month, into a warehouse and hiring staff, but the investors didn't hear that. They lost the minute she said candles in the first 30 seconds, she lost their attention. But by switching it and putting that type of traction in the front and showing the year-over-year growth that she has, she can hold their attention longer because what matters is the numbers and the traction and the acquisition. And so put the KPIs in the front, your strong metrics in the front, and then do some of your storytelling after that, like why you did the business or what gap you're filling. And I think that would help. Substantially some of the ladies, especially if they're having to face a whole panel of males and if they're having more of a feminine product.

Yeah, there's so— you said so many great things there, I don't even know where to start. But, you know, even at the accelerator level, like when I see someone's application to, you know, Founder Institute Silicon Valley, it's really hard to get a good judgment of where they are. And a lot of the time it's just the founder doesn't know, like, the words to unlock attention. Which is like, you know, hey, I'm Ryan, I make candles and I'm currently shipping 500 candles a month. It's like at that point it's like, oh, okay, like they've got something versus like— so it is really important to bring that traction to the front. And I've actually seen the same exact thing on the veteran side. So on, you know, for military veterans, and I do a lot of work in that community, a lot of the time they kind of lead with like, you know, veteran first and like, you know, it's kind of like what they do. But, you know, Jason Calcanis had this really great piece of advice, which was like, you know, talk about how you're building a really great company first and then talk about how you're also a veteran, right? And like, you know, you want to get to the meat of it first and everything else is like, you know, a positive thing, but no one's going to invest in you if you're not building something that actually is like gaining traction and doing something meaningful. So really, really great advice. And I guess the second part is, do you have any advice for people who are looking to build their startup ecosystem? For you, Eileen.

So if they're in Iraq, then we need more accelerate— we need more incubators, and we need more innovation hubs at university level. So we're dealing with— and this, I'm going to say, this is probably relevant to 70% of the countries around the world. So if you're in a space where you're thinking that you want to start something the majority of the citizens are coming from universities or schools where they're just doing memorization and rote learning. They're not being taught entrepreneurship, critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration. So they're coming into incubators without any of those skills. So I think it's very beneficial, especially as we're continuing to reach out into starting to build these spaces in the more rural countries is to recognize that these citizens need training, and the younger you introduce it, the better. Like, I'm— I constantly talk about you could change an entire country and the culture in one generation by introducing entrepreneurship, critical thinking, problem solving in school, in the public schools, and every year. And the curriculum's slightly different each year, and you can embed it in science, embed it in history, embed it in math, and then a whole generation grows up and graduates with this problem-solving, critical thinking mindset, and they'll build solutions for the country. Like, you could really advance a country very, very quickly by doing something like that. So I say, go down, go younger, go younger, go younger.

I couldn't agree more. In fact, my 3-year-old daughter loves watching the Founder Institute sessions. She's like, Daddy, are you running a webinar tonight? I was like, yes, I am. That's funny. So maybe I'll play this back for her later on once we get the recording. So thank you, Eileen. That was great advice. Eva, let's go to you. So like, what advice do you have for women entrepreneurs in the ecosystem? And then any advice for people looking to build the ecosystem?

Yeah, so I have two advices and they're both applicable to two founders and two ecosystem builders. The first one is, especially as a woman, right? So the first one is, how are you approaching certain arguments? And so for me, let me give you an example. I used to do a lot of sports, and when I, when I had a very hard training and I'm like, I cannot go on anymore, I cannot continue fighting, you know, doing the exercises. And the trainer, if the trainer starts to explaining me logically why I need to continue. Oh, you know, you're coming here every week. You need to practice more to become better. You want to win the championship, right? I'll be like, I don't want to hear you. I'm just going to quit right now. Uh, but if the trainer is like, go ahead and do what I'm telling you because I've been doing this for 20 years, I know how it works. So now go on and I know you can do it and you're going to manage. So, um, it's about about having the confidence when you're telling someone what to do or when you're expressing an opinion versus trying to convince them logically. So it's basically like leadership through knowledge, which I think we all need to have and we're all trying to achieve, versus leadership through conviction and being secure in your own opinion, which doesn't mean you cannot learn and that your opinion is correct. But it just means that you know your experience and that you're sure that what you're saying has a ground. And so this is the first part of my advice. And then the second part is about arguments and when you have to negotiate. When someone is telling you a certain argument about something and you're like, yeah, this is a valid argument. I'm not sure how I can disprove this, how this is going to be not correct. 'This is correct, so I guess I need to stop the conversation.' And that's not the point, that's not the case. It's not your goal to disprove someone else's argument. Your goal is to have a better argument. Your goal is to introduce them to a point of view that is going to bring them closer to what they actually want to achieve. And I'm always imagining lawyers, you know, trying to defend one side or the other. Both lawyers have a good point, right? But it's at the end of the day, it's all about which lawyer has the better arguments and not whether the other lawyer has wrong arguments or something. So these are my two know-hows that I learned in this past year that were very useful. And it was like eye-opening.

That is awesome. Yeah. Confidence through experience, I think, is great advice. Laura, what about you? What advice do you have for women entrepreneurs? And then do you have any advice advice for people who are looking to build their startup ecosystem?

Yeah, I think the best advice I can give to female entrepreneurs is be bullish and be bold and do it unapologetically. It kind of touches on what Eileen and Eva have both said. Don't be afraid to talk business. I find women, you know, can often shy away. It's not, you know, always the case, but We're a little more tepid by nature. And I think, you know, the female entrepreneurs that have the drive and want to be successful, don't apologize for your vision.

Be—

stay true to, you know, your business better than anyone. And don't shy away from creating a big vision for yourself. We received feedback really early on in our journey around, like, you're being too small. Like, I actually think this opportunity could be bigger, stop being so reserved in where you think this can go. And that was a really great piece of advice that unlocked, you know, a really exciting path to progress for us. So be bold, be bullish, and do it unapologetically is what I would say to the female founders. And then for anyone starting an ecosystem, I think taking a look at what exists, and where you can fill in the gaps. For us in Waterloo, Toronto, Toronto, Waterloo, however we want to say it, there's a lot of accelerators here that doing different things. And it's like, how do you carve out the niche and position yourself as offering something to help a certain segment? And for us, you know, we obviously precede, but a lot of the people are, they have their full-time jobs and we've really positioned ourselves ourselves as the go-to for the working professional who has that business idea that wants to get things moving. And we've created a lot of success and been able to carve out that niche for us and differentiate ourselves within a fairly populated ecosystem. So I think if, if you're looking to, to start something up, take a look around, see what else exists, and see how you can create that differentiator and help solve problems for other entrepreneurs that need your help.

Yeah, that's great advice, both for ecosystem builders and also for startup entrepreneurs. So thank you, Laura. And last but certainly not least, Paloma, what advice do you have for women entrepreneurs in Brazil? And then do you have any advice for helping build the ecosystem for anyone out there interested?

Sure. So I think for our female founders or for any founder out there, something I learned in my entrepreneurial journey and I think is very important is you have to take care of yourself as a founder. You, whatever you do is going to be a reflection in the company, especially in the early days when it's like not as many people, like you are going to be the company mood, the company spirit, everything. And if you neglect your health, if you neglect yourself, it accumulates, right? So I remember so many nights not sleeping, so many nights eating like whatever was in front of me because I had that deadline or that special assignment or whatever it was. And it adds up, right? So I think it's awesome what Founder did, which is adding like mental health to the curriculum and a lot of like, take care, take a breath, go meditate, think about stuff. Because if you're building a significant company that's gonna last a long time and impact millions of people, you need to be well, you need to be at performance, right? You're pretty much, When we're talking about building startups, you're a performance athlete, and you don't see anyone winning like a gold medal if they're eating junk and like staying all night up like in front of their computer, right? So I think it's something we don't talk much, but the health of the founder reflects in the health of the company, and no investor wants you to fall sick next year, and they would totally understand that you need to take care of yourself. So So I think founders need to be more careful of that. And in the end of the day, it's the long run that counts. So yeah, we do have to have our sprints, we do have to deliver, but we also need to survive. So we are here for the long term. So I'll be careful with that. I did my, my fair share of mistakes during the past 5 years. So I think it's better to learn from other people's experience than to have to do that yourself. And then for whoever is starting like an ecosystem in their home country or even in Brazil, and we'll be happy to help you do that as well all over Latin America, is you need to raise your standards, right? It's very easy to be in your comfort zone and like, you know, a few entrepreneurs in your region, you call them as mentors, and then you know a few other people and you call us partners. But if you're already gonna commit to build and help founders that are gonna be performance founders, you should do your best to like expand that and raise your standards, right? Like I'm pretty sure in your local ecosystem, there's mentors that we never even heard of. There's like this crazy entrepreneurs, they're like building this massive company and they're not doing mentoring and office hours because they're they're building their business, and that's the best mentor you can have, right? So it's very easy for us to fall back into the same mentors, the same startup events, the same, the same people, but our founders deserve the best because they're gonna build the best companies and they're only gonna do that if they have the support they need, right? So I, I'm always watching over myself if I'm not falling into my comfort network and like, it's so easy, right? Uh, to invite your friends and to do something that's not the best that could be. So I will look around and be like, okay, if I were to like me get the best mentor to help me, who would that person be, right? And then go after that person. Sometimes we're like, oh my God, he's never going to take the time to mentor. And you'd be surprised with the name of Founder Institute or even how much people are willing to give back because because they've been through that patch and now they're able to support new founders, right? The same thing with partners. Sometimes you look like, oh, if I had that as a partner, like I would attract a lot of founders. Just ask, you already have the nose. So having that boldness that Laura just talked about, like just going after like the best of the best, you see how much better founders you attract by having the best mentors or how much of like, add value you can add to them by having those, those people involved, right? So after you get that top mentor in your program, to get the other ones also gets very easy because you're like, oh, I already have that guy, you want to join? So it accumulates, right? Uh, and it, it's tough to hear the nos, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Yeah, that really great advice. Thank you for sharing, Paloma, and thank you to all the, uh, the the female panelists that joined us today. You guys are awesome. This was a fantastic event. And so I just pasted in the chat a link to an optional networking session if anyone here wants to connect with other people who are here today. And as a reminder, we are looking for more women startup leaders to help run accelerator programs all over the world. So if you or someone you know is interested in becoming a managing director for a Founder Institute accelerator program, please send them the fi.co/lead link that's here in the chat, and we look forward to helping build the ecosystem in your city. Ladies, thank you once again, and we'll send the recording out to everyone once it's done being processed. Have a great rest of your day.

Thank you, guys. Thank you, Ryan.

Thanks, everyone.