2025: The Year of Community, Content, and Collaboration
WWV Labs Launches Chapters Program, Join WWV Labs for a Ladies Networking Night in Miami, Margaret Duckhorn’s $1.95B Exit: A Toast to Female Leadership in Wine
This is WWV Labs’ weekly newsletter: Her Hustle, a place to learn all about the new and the next in female entrepreneurship, and we’re here to help you dive into it. We highlight all the fierce women who are building startups—from those launching from dorm rooms and balancing classes to recent grads and experienced professionals turning their bold visions into reality.
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Happy New Year, Hustlers!
New year, new energy! While resolutions work for some, I’ve found that living my life through key themes helps me unlock behaviors that drive my goals.
This year, I’m embracing the 3 C’s: Community, Content, Collaboration. I’m committed to continuing to build community through Harvard Undergraduate Women in Entrepreneurship (WiE) and WWV Labs, sharing my journey and insights through LinkedIn, and collaborating with amazing female founders, investors, and male startup allies.
From what I see on LinkedIn, 2025 is the year of personal brand building, thought leadership, and in-person communities. After posting daily on LinkedIn for over a year (growing to 10k followers!) and scaling Harvard WiE and WWV Labs to a combined community of 800+, I’m thrilled to announce a major next step: WWV Labs Chapters Program.
As a founding chapter leader, you’ll gain access to free masterclass trainings on:
Building an in-person female startup community
Marketing and social media brand-building
Support from WWV Labs to help you recruit more college women and recent graduates to join startups.
If you’re ready to grow your community and make an impact, email me at danielaandrade@college.harvard.edu with your name and university ASAP.
Don’t miss our info session next week to kick off the program—this is YOUR time to lead in 2025!
Margaret Duckhorn, co-founder of The Duckhorn Portfolio, saw her Napa Valley-based luxury wine company acquired by Butterfly Equity in a $1.95 billion deal.
Mollie Warrington built her business during maternity leave, turning her pottery side hustle into Naetive Studio, which now produces 400 custom mugs weekly with a team of 12, stocked in major retailers like Anthropologie, and loved by influencers like Molly-Mae Hague.
Aisha Bowe, Founder and CEO of STEMBoard and LINGO, transformed her journey from community college to aerospace engineering, leading two award-winning tech companies and inspiring a new generation in STEM.
Karin Frost, founder of Ergobaby, a global leader in premium baby carriers, saw her company acquired by Highlander Partners.
Piyali Chakraborty of Ashmi Health and Renuka Agarwal of UpTrials are among the Top 120 Female Founders on the Aurora Tech Award 2025 longlist, selected from over 2,000 applications worldwide, for their groundbreaking innovations in Femtech and clinical trial optimization.
January 7 | 🚺 What’s Your Plan in 2025? Take Action on Building Your Career in Women's Health (Virtual)
January 9 | 🌅 Ladies Networking Night hosted by WWV Labs (Miami)
January 23 | 🌃 NYC Student Founder Dinner hosted by WWV Labs (NYC)
Hosting an event for women in entrepreneurship?
Share the details with WWV Labs Her Hustle’s community by filling out this form!
Mercedes Bent, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, Stanford GSB alum shares how staying connected with professors post-grad has been key to her success as a VC, proving the lifelong value of academic relationships and mentorship.
Sara Blakely, Melanie Perkins, and Samantha McKenna are redefining leadership, running multi-million and billion-dollar companies with compassion, avoiding layoffs, and prioritizing employee well-being even during challenging times.
Katherine Homuth, a hard-tech female founder shares the reality of scaling manufacturing, tackling a $23M funding gap to unlock profitability and pave the way for a $200M raise—proof of the grit and strategy powering transformative innovation!
Kick off 2025 with 16 incredible VC fellowships and internships—spanning Thrive Capital, Halogen Ventures, HBCUvc, and more—offering unparalleled opportunities to break into venture and scale your ambitions
Name: Vaishali Jha
School: UC Berkeley ‘28
Major: Nutrition
Startup: Glomood AI
Sector: Health Tech
Description of Startup: Glomood AI is an AI therapist trained to listen attentively, analyze your input, and provide thoughtful and compassionate responses tailored to your needs.
Biggest Startup Achievement: Launching a product that combines technology and mental health, achieving meaningful user engagement, and seeing its positive impact on well-being has been our biggest achievement.
Biggest Startup Learning Moment: Learning that adaptability is key—plans often change, but staying focused on solving the core problem while embracing feedback and pivoting when needed has been invaluable.
Advice for Female Students Interested in Entrepreneurship: Embrace challenges, trust your instincts, and actively network. Seek mentorship, stay resilient, and don’t fear failure—it’s a stepping stone. Believe in your vision and persistently pursue it.
Know a bada$$ female student founder?
Nominate her or yourself to be featured in Her Hustle’s newsletter by completing this form!
💁♀️ Are you a female student or recent graduate who wants to work at a startup? Apply to WWV Labs Fellowship Program to find ad hoc projects, term-time internships, summer internships, or full-time employment opportunities at startups!
Join our community of 450+ fellows from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, UC Berkeley, and other top universities today!
📈 The Rice Business Plan Competition 2025 is a premier competition for collegiate entrepreneurs, offering over $1.5M in prizes, including a $150K investment for the grand prize winner. Applications close on January 27.
🌟 foundess’ Hatch is now accepting applications: a free 6-week program for female-led teams in North America to build bold ideas, gain mentorship from top VCs and industry leaders, and compete for $20,000 in prizes with an exclusive IRL demo day in San Francisco!
🚀 The Bain Capital Ventures Labs Fellowship is now accepting applications: a Summer 2025 internship program for tech-focused undergrads, master’s, and PhD candidates to work with BCV-backed startups in Silicon Valley, network with founders and VCs, and access exclusive career opportunities.
🛂 If you're an international student founder aiming to work in the U.S. on your startup or join a startup team, Alcorn Immigration Law offers personalized guidance to secure the right visas and green cards to help bring your entrepreneurial dreams to life—reach out to Sophie and mention you were referred by Daniela Andrade, WWV Labs!
📊 Accountalent, the leading tax and accounting firms for over 5,000 startups, has offered to file 2024 taxes for any undergraduate female-founded and managed startup corporation totally free of charge. This includes filing the Federal and State corporate tax returns, DE Franchise tax return, Form 1099s, consulting on tax matters, etc. It also includes preparing 2024 financial statements.
Joe Faris, CPA, founder of Accountalent has conducted Office Hours for many years at Harvard, MIT and UChicago and has worked with hundreds of female founders, including many foreign founders. Feel free to email him or make an appointment on his online calendar to redeem this perk or if you have any tax questions:
Joe Faris, CPA, jfaris@accountalent.com, Online Calendar: https://calendly.com/joefaris
📋 Unlock funding opportunities with this curated list of 30 grants, fellowships, and investor networks for underrepresented founders—complete with application tips and deadlines.
🚀 Share this newsletter with a friend and start growing your network.
💁♀️ Connect with me on LinkedIn for daily insights on women in entrepreneurship.
📈 Partner with WWV Labs if you are a startup interested in hiring top female talent.
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I hope you enjoyed this newsletter, Hustlers!
Feel free to share your feedback on this newsletter with me by filling out this form!
Love,
Daniela