“It really is like flying a plane and building it at the same time,” Leslie Feinzaig told me, beaming at the 110 guests who showed up to support the nascent Seattle Female Founders Alliance (SFFA) that she launched just eight weeks ago.
Feinzaig and I caught up after the SFFA Startup Showcase, featuring eight entrepreneurs who joined the group in search of community and support from other female founders.
In celebration of SFFA’s launch, a crowd of tech workers, investors, and entrepreneurs filled The Riveter, a brand-new co-working space for women that just won GeekWire’s Newcomer of the Year Award. Feinzaig called the event “an out-of-body experience.”
Feinzaig started SFFA as a private Facebook group for her female founder friends. She had been building Venture Kits, a box subscription company that teaches children entrepreneurial skills through play, and she found the startup journey a bit isolating and lonely. She encouraged members of the group to support one another in big ways and small while they tried to get their startups off the ground.
Fast-forward eight weeks and the group has 75 members (with another 40 applications pending) and Feinzaig is fielding inquiries from founders in other cities about how they can set up local chapters.
“Our mission is to help each other succeed,” she said on stage before the pitch-off. “Individually, we are drops of water. Together we are a thunderstorm.”
Continue reading for photos and quotes from the founders who pitched their startups at the SFFA launch event.
Lyfboat: “Lyfboat is on a mission to enable anyone, anywhere to get access to the care they need regardless of where they live.”
Tanji: “We are building the first mobile ticketing app amplifying and curating women-centric content in theaters and online, made by women and putting us at the center of our own stories.”
Babyrific: “Finally parents and nannies can find places to take their kids, near them, right now.”
Invio: “This is a great opportunity for not just affecting one medical problem, but making all research better for everyone.”
CreositySpace: “At CreositySpace, we’re bringing sexy back to STEM and making it current, real, and relatable for all elementary students and their teachers.”
Give InKind: “The single-solution platform for lending a hand from anywhere.”
Equinauts: “We are the first and only comprehensive automated intelligence. We’re basically productizing what the consulting firms do for a fraction of the cost.”
Genneve: “It’s time to bring transparency to a marketplace that connects 50 million women with the real need in their personal health and life with two million health and wellness professionals.”