WINSight // WINtopia x The Mind Co — LATAM Innovation Week
“Entrepreneurial success is not strictly to deliver and grow. Success is about being generous to people and the ability to transform the world into a better place. It’s about improving lives. Success is a change of mindset” - Natalia Yael Jasin, CEO and Founder of Bounty Edtech
Welcome to WINtopia! A world that recognizes, supports and empowers women to develop their full potential and achieve success on their own terms. The future they want to see. The future we want to see.
On September 17th, WIN welcomed 20 leaders and entrepreneurs from across Latin America, to explore and co-create WINtopia, an exciting stop in their journey of New York’s innovation landscape, part of LATAM Innovation Week hosted by The MindCo. The afternoon kicked off with a tour of Smart Design’s Navy Yard studio space, where we started thinking about collaboration and community building as vehicles for innovation. Walking around the corner, we then ventured to It’s Electric home in the Newlab to continue the conversation with their one and only Shannon Dulaney, Director of Public Affairs at the sustainably focused company.
With innovation at the front of our minds, we then sat down for an afternoon of collaboration of our own. Starting with learnings on the female founder experience, co-authors Laura Martinez and Rhea Alexander from Parson’s ELab, shared an in-depth view of the barriers and enablers that female-identifying founders (FIF) face when launching their ventures. Gathering from the North American perspective, we delved into the Latin American perspective, and what it takes to win in this space through a workshop facilitated by Maria Fernanda La Rotta, Co-Founder and Head of Strategy at SWITCH Studio. It was truly exciting to see all these diverse WIN members come together to build a vision for WINtopia.
We wrapped the day with actions and resources from a fireside chat about ecosystems and cultures that shape our ability to dream, do and WIN. Hosted by Amanda Ramos, we welcomed Marisol Rodriguez, Rhea Alexander, Carolina Obregón, Cristina Calvo, and Dani Lopez to discuss how they have worked through the barriers presented by the triple bottom line, and their ability to drive change through incubators, startups and corporate impact.
But that’s just a little on our whereabouts in WINtopia. Keep reading to see what we learned about the three stages of recognizing your WINtopia: Dream, Do, Win!
Dream
“We can create business and achieve impact” -Rhea Alexander
Every good idea starts with a dream, where you set yourself up to believe that you can make it to the next step. Through their research at Parson’s Elab titled “AI: Friend or Foe for Female Identifying Founders (FIF)?” Laura and Rhea found that only 1.8% of FIF receive funding for their startups. This leaves an immense potential for business already on the table, decimates opportunities for female entrepreneurs, and cuts potential impact on the communities that surround them. It’s a proven fact that when you invest in women, the effects trickle into their communities and support them from the ground up. Yet almost 89% of the founders they interviewed for their study say that they have either negative or mixed feelings about seeking investment.
Also addressed in their research, Rhea and Laura shared that by the age of twelve, 50% of girls aspire to be in stereotypical feminine roles. How do we challenge traditional notions of femininity so girls can DREAM without constraints, and participate in all spheres of life, realizing their WINtopia?
It’s a dream. That is until it isn’t.
Do
“What can we do to build this culture? Do more - ask for help. Stop - thinking we’re not enough. It's not true. We tend to be very hard on ourselves, our own voice creates a vision that’s limiting. No! What's the worst that can happen? Just give it a shot.” -Cristina Calvo
So what changes in practice? Once you have the dream to get started, you have to claim your space and find your voice. A recurring theme in our workshop conversation was standing up for yourself and looking up to the women in your own life as fundamental pillars for finding the strength to keep moving forward. They acknowledged that “Nuestras madres y comadres son las que mantienen cuerda a través de este camino” / “It’s our mothers, (women) friends and colleagues who keep us sane in this journey” and that success becomes wider than getting the idea off the ground but in being able to make it happen, together.
However, making it happen isn’t so easy. That we all know. Felicitas Pujol, Co-Founder at IT Pando and member of the audience commented on how when she speaks up for herself, she’s made choices to change [her] language. “Every time someone tells me I’m being too intense (or pushy) I get back to them saying ‘Yes, I’m a high performing person, I’m a very productive individual’.” We don't need to constantly reshape ourselves to fit the world's expectations. Our key takeaway, stand firm in our beliefs, allow those beliefs to shift the perception of what a woman leader truly is.
And it goes even further than that. Audience members talked through how the fundraising process was designed for the male experience. That FIF have to adapt to the “golfer” conversation to gain potential investors, while feeling inauthentic to themselves. Networking becomes bigger than your business, you have to think through “what you’re going to wear, what message is this ‘giving,’ and even, if my clothes or the place I’m going to are going to put me in danger.” We heard it loud and clear. Not only are female founder opportunities more scarce, it’s an entirely different journey where we fight stigmas and stereotypes to reach our dreams. Sharing these experiences in a room was empowering, also reminding us that we can't do it alone, we must do it together.
Win
“We created out of seemingly nothing, a culture that took over the world” - Dani Lopez
So what if the WIN is not only in the destination but a series of milestones across your journey? During our adventure through WINtopia, we kept coming back to this idea of finding your voice, and claiming your space. Dare we say… finding your WIN. There’s no surprise that to find success, you’ll have to ask for a lot and hear no, a lot. But in order to hear yes, you still have to ask the difficult questions, try alternate paths and define success yourself! Whether that is becoming a founder on your own pace and terms, making your kids proud, or climbing the corporate ladder. The definition of the dream is entirely yours.
And even just asking the question is a WIN. Finding the strength and courage to believe in yourself, that’s a WIN. Feeling success, building businesses and communities that can improve the lives of others, that’s a really big WIN. At WINtopia, we see your success and we are really excited to celebrate it with you, together.
¿Qué necesitas para empezar a soñar? So what’s stopping you from getting started?
Interested in having your own conversation about your WINtopia? We’d love to hear from you!
Written by Isabelle Scola, Global Newsletter Lead