Female Student Founders Break Barriers: $500K+ Raised and Thousands Empowered Across Industries
Chloe Samaha’s (Babson '25) 89% Retention Win, Riya Dev (UMich '25) Joins Telora’s Exclusive Batch, Meet the 8 Female Founded Startups Featured in Poets&Quants’ Most Disruptive Undergrad Startups
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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This week, WWV Labs officially launched its Chapter Leaders Program, bringing together ambitious female student leaders to foster vibrant female-focused startup communities on their campuses.
During our info session, chapter leaders connected, learned about their roles, and explored how to promote entrepreneurship through events, recruitment, and creative marketing initiatives.
If you missed it, it’s not too late to get involved and start your own WWV Labs chapter—this is your chance to build connections, gain hands-on experience, and create a lasting impact in the entrepreneurial ecosystem at your university.
If you’re interested in launching a chapter, please complete this Tally Form (due by 11:59 PM EST, tomorrow, Monday, January 20th). It’s quick (<15 minutes) and asks for the following:
A detailed plan (under 200 words) for executing one event this semester.
A list of other organizations (e.g., student orgs) to potentially partner with.
Your availability for the masterclass and biweekly chapter leader meetings.
We’re also excited to announce that Masterclass 1: Building an In-Person Female Startup Community will kick off virtually this week!
This session will focus on community building, event planning, and securing partnerships to inspire and engage your campus community.
Stay tuned for more details and join us as we help shape the next generation of female innovators and leaders!
The Female Founder Collective’s 'NY Loves LA' campaign raised an impressive $1.7 million in just one week for wildfire relief, with funds supporting the L.A. Fire Department and grants for female-owned businesses impacted by the fires.
Female-founded startups overall saw their share of VC deals drop to 22.7% in 2024—the lowest in five years—despite raising $45.3 billion in aggregate funding.
Brenda Schmidt, Founder of Solera Health (Phoenix, AZ) secured $40M in Series E funding to scale the HALO platform, enhancing access to tailored digital health solutions for employers and payers nationwide.
Chloe Samaha, Babson ’25 and founder of BOND, turned a manual WhatsApp experiment with 80+ daily users into a thriving app for remote teams—raising $50,000 in pitch competitions and achieving 89% daily active user retention before scaling her product.
Cheryl Liu, Founder of Raspberry AI (New York City, NY) raised $24M in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz to accelerate fashion design through generative AI, helping brands innovate faster with realistic digital prototypes.
Ali Phillips, founder of MedicalMatch, was accepted to the University of Utah's one-of-a-kind Master of Business Creation program, where founders build their startups as part of the curriculum—enabling her to refine her healthcare staffing platform, secure two major clients, and close a seed funding round.
Women-Owned Brands to Shop Now highlights Alex and Ani’s jewelry and The Outset, Scarlett Johansson’s skincare line—showcasing the impact of supporting women-owned businesses that deliver quality and purpose-driven products.
Clarisse Hagège, Co-Founder of Dfns (San Francisco, CA) raised $16M in Series A funding to enhance wallet-as-a-service technology for digital asset security, empowering fintechs and institutional clients globally.
January 22 | 🌉 B.E.L.L.E Startup Showcase & Networking (San Francisco)
January 23 | 🌃 NYC Student Founder Dinner hosted by WWV Labs (NYC)
January 28 | 🥂 Women in AI: San Francisco Happy Hour hosted by Create.xyz (San Francisco)
January 30 | 🌉 Women Tech Meetup (San Francisco)
February 4 | 🏛️ Unusual Ventures University Founder Fellowship Event (Boston)
February 7 | 🍽️ LA Female Founders Lunch (LA)
February 7-8 | 👩💻 FEMHACK: All-Female Hackathon hosted by Fierce Foundry (NYC)
February 10 | 🌃 Female Founders & Funders Networking (NYC)
Hosting an event for women in entrepreneurship?
Share the details with WWV Labs Her Hustle’s community by filling out this form!
Amrita Bhasin, Berkeley alum and co-founder of Sotira, shared bold advice for aspiring student founders: focus fully on building your startup, prioritize customer discovery over chasing capital, and invest your energy into solving real problems—not just coding or fundraising.
Female student founders from top universities have launched groundbreaking ventures, collectively impacting thousands of users, earning over $500,000 in funding, and reshaping industries—from eco-friendly snacks to life-saving incubators.
Riya Dev, UMich’25 and her cofounder, Luke Zhu, were selected as 1 of just 7 teams out of 900 applicants for Telora's W25 batch in Miami, securing funding and access to world-class mentorship to accelerate their startup journey.
12 incredible women from the Harvard ecosystem have founded unicorn companies like Cloudflare, Rent the Runway, and Nextdoor, collectively building ventures valued at over $1 billion each—highlighting Harvard’s powerhouse role in shaping the future of female entrepreneurship.
This week, 11 female founders across the globe collectively raised an impressive $234 million, with standout funding rounds including $41M for Paris-based Bioptimus’ “GPT for biology” and $40M for Solera Health’s digital health platform.
Venture Capital Journal’s 2025 Rising Stars list highlights 24 trailblazing women in VC who collectively led hundreds of deals, raised billions, and reshaped industries—from Cindy Xiong closing a $900M fund to Elena Viboch spearheading $175M life sciences investments.
Name: Emily Rose, Clara Kim, & Erica Liu
School: University of Waterloo
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Startup: PeriGuard
Sector: FemTech
Description of Startup: PeriGuard is a device designed to reduce the severity and incidence of perineal tears - tears that occur around the perineum during childbirth for up to 90% of women. The device distributes pressure while applying consistent controlled heat to relieve tension and protect mothers from perineal trauma.
Biggest Startup Achievement: PeriGuard recently won first place at the Velocity FemTech Canada’s Innovation Challenge!
Biggest Startup Learning Moment: Designing PeriGuard allowed us to experience firsthand the importance of deeply understanding user needs to create something truly impactful. Early feedback from physicians was crucial for shaping our design and establishing user requirements to build a successful, user-centered product.
Advice for Female Students Interested in Entrepreneurship: Spend time assembling a passionate team and a strong network of mentors. Challenges are inevitable, but having a supportive community to provide guidance can help to move you in the right direction. Learn from each step of the way and believe in your ability to make an impact!
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 600+ fellows from Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, UC Berkeley, and other top universities today!
👩💻 The Female Founders Alliance is looking for a driven intern to assist with a short-term research project—perfect for students or recent grads eager to gain hands-on experience and explore the venture capital world!
👩💻 MELD is now accepting applications for its 2025 intern program, offering Gen Z women the chance to gain hands-on experience in events, partnerships, social media, and community building while preparing to lead the future of innovative workplaces.
🚀 Applications are now open for Greylock X 2025, a highly-selective summer fellowship for up to 20 student founders to gain mentorship, network with top entrepreneurs, and build the next generation of startups—past alumni have launched companies like Cresta, Anyscale, and DoNotPay!
🚀 CPGrow's virtual pitch competition is offering $250,000 in no-cost inventory funding for innovative CPG brands ready to scale—apply now to showcase your bold ideas and growth potential!
🛂 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
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I hope you enjoyed this newsletter, Hustlers!
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Love,
Daniela