🎈 Founderland turns 1
Dear Reader,
It’s Founderland’s first official birthday! Sure, we’ve been working behind the scenes on this mission since 2020, but who doesn’t love a big milestone?
We’re celebrating a year of accomplishments that we could have only dreamed of achieving. Founderland is growing rapidly, and we couldn’t have done it without you. Let’s reflect, dream bigger, and celebrate together, shall we? ✨💙
THE FOUNDERLAND FAMILY
Today, we are celebrating one year as a non-profit organization: on January 10th, 2022, we signed the paperwork to officially set up Founderland as a gemeinnützige Unternehmergesellschaft.
Since then we’ve seen our team grow from 3 to 10, including one baby and one puppy.Â
* That being said, Alina Bassi is back from maternity leave and is now mother to a happy & healthy Dylan.
PROGRAMSÂ
In September 2022, we welcomed the first cohort for Compass, our inaugural investor-readiness bootcamp, supported by Google.org, launched with Goldman Sachs and Distill Ventures. We will open applications for our next Compass cohort in March 2023.Â
Learn more about Compass here: LINK
Our Beacon Investor Collective was in stealth mode until December 2022. We currently have three VCs committed to leveling the playing field for underrepresented founders: Omers Ventures, Ananda Impact Ventures, and Distill Ventures.
Learn more about Beacon here: LINK
EVENTSÂ
We’ve been busy from Berlin to Paris to Zoom, with over 25 events led by 30 speakers from around the world, including David Cohen, Liz Tran, Zoe Peden, and Nicole Crentsil, to name just a few.Â
Do you want to be a speaker at our events or know someone great? Nominate them here: LINKÂ
COMMUNITY
👉We’ve grown our community of founders from 115 to over 350+, from over 26 countriesÂ
👉We now have 10 partners to offer great perks for the founders in our community. These include Notion, Miro, Zendesk, DocSend, Sifted, Penta, BetterHelp, Cabal, Design Match, and Cobble. Stay tuned for more 👀
👉We’re so proud of our partners, including R/GA (Make/Good initiative), Google.org, Google for Startups, Techstars Foundation, Launch with Goldman Sachs, Distill Ventures, CoAct, Osborne Clarke, SEND e.V., BIWoC Rising, LinkedIn, and Vital Voices.Â
👉As you can imagine, we really care about gender equality. That’s why we’ve created easy-to-use templates, the essentials for our Gender Equality Plan for busy entrepreneurs. Our toolkit is all about getting clarity on key values and tangible policies that support all employees to live well at work. And we’ve made it easy to use for everybody. Use this as a framework to create your GEP today: LINK
Do you know someone who should join our community? Share this with them: LINKÂ
BERLIN INITIATIVES
In 2021, we applied for a grant via The CoAct project which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.Â
On January 26th we will launch Founderland’s Rise and Thrive digital report. This report is the first of its kind to hone in on the intersection of gender and race in one of Europe’s leading hubs for entrepreneurship.
Last year we applied to emp:our now – Gemeinsam stark für ein vielfältiges Morgen with our friends from BIWoC Rising. Our project Brave Spaces 2.0 is an empowering platform with the aim of providing women, trans*, inter* and non-binary people of color who want to become self-employed with relevant information, support and networking tailored to their needs.
We’re Hiring! > to build up and expand our team, we are looking for a motivated *Communications Manager* starting on March 1st! Full job profile here: LINK
ON THE HORIZON
What we’re launching in 2023:
Ally program - On-demand access to over 100 experts in the Founderland ecosystem across every industry and from diverse backgrounds. We know the founders in our community are all at different stages in their entrepreneurial journeys and our Allies get that. This program is meant to answer your questions and needs from field experts on a schedule that works for you.
More connections for our community - You wanted more chances to meet one another? That is exactly what we are working on for 2023. We are teaming up with platforms to provide you with more informal events to nurture relationships and encounters in the Founderland community.
Speaker directory - A public directory showcasing the women in Founderland via short videos, bios, and other relevant information for keynotes, moderators, and panelists at the next big conference.
Investor introductions - Customized introductions for the founders in our community to investors.Â
Partnerships - Our goal is to double our partnerships in the next year, so we can offer our community the best perks out there to grow and scale their businesses.Â
Ambassador program - We are building out a program with a dedicated group of women who are leading the Founderland movement in their city.
Next Generation pilot - We are launching a program to inspire the next generation of young women, beginning in High Schools in Berlin.Â
CHEERS! 🥂
Thank you everyone for an amazing first year. Here’s to many more!
With love,
The Founderland Fam ✨
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