Women Leading the Way
Insider’s Hande Çilingir secures record martech funding, MabLab’s Vienna Sparks hits TechCrunch’s Top 5, and Sophie Friedfeld-Gebaide on pivoting Atelier Society. Plus, top events and resources!
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 seasoned professionals turning their bold visions into reality.
Welcome to the new readers who have joined us since the last issue!
If you haven’t yet, join our community of 2,000+ readers by subscribing below.
🚀 Female Founder News
Turkish martech unicorn Insider raises $500M Series E (Tech.EU)
Insider co-founder and CEO Hande Çilingir, calls the funding the “largest investment ever made by marketing technology companies in Europe.”
This is also the largest investment ever secured by a female-founded martech company globally.
Vienna Sparks and MabLab aim to revolutionize safety with game-changing drug testing strips at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 (TechCrunch)
“MabLab was just selected by many of the world's leading investors as a Top 5 Finalist for the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. To be among the less than one percent who make it to the final stage — alongside alumni like Dropbox, Discord, and Cloudflare — feels absolutely surreal.” - Vienna Sparks (Columbia’26)
🔥 Highlights from LinkedIn
Anu Duggal: Female Founders Fund returns its Fund I
“With notable exits such as Walmart’s acquisition of ELOQUII, Fiserv’s acquisition of BentoBox, and Maven Clinic’s recent $125M growth round, we’re seeing firsthand the power of women-led innovation.
With this milestone, we’re proud to double down on our commitment to the next generation of female founders building tomorrow’s leading companies.
As FFF investor Erin Harkless Moore, CFA of Pivotal Ventures put it, 'Female Founders Fund has shown that investing in women isn’t niche—it’s mainstream.'”
Elise Pham (Harvard’26): Gen Z turns to TikTok to find the perfect school. Some college students are cashing in. (Business Insider)
“I’d like to extend a thank you to Business Insider for sharing my work on Ultimate Ivy League Guide.
Our mission extends beyond securing college acceptance; we aim to nurture academic excellence, foster impactful community service, cultivate leadership skills, and instill strong values in our students.”
✨ Female Founder Spotlight
Name: Sophie Friedfeld-Gebaide
School: Yale School of the Environment
Major: Masters of Environmental Management
Startup: Atelier Society
Sector: Fashion
Description of Startup: We are a bespoke tailoring service for retailers to offer consumers tailoring before delivery for both in-person and online purchases. We resolve issues with fit before delivery through just-in-time tailoring, paid at the consumer's expense, ensuring that apparel fits like a glove.
Biggest Startup Achievement: We built a product that our target audience loves.
Biggest Startup Learning Moment: We had to learn to listen to advisors. When we started the company, we created a DTC apparel company that offered just-in-time tailoring before delivery. It resolved a problem of fit + offered super cute clothes for a niche, target audience of busy, working women. Every advisor we chatted with advised against creating a DTC product. The market is no longer backing DTC consumer companies. Initially, we ignored them - until the raise. They were right. We re-listened to the market and pivoted away from our initial company. We now have been able to raise and are resolving a bigger problem for a much larger market.
Advice for Female Students Interested in Entrepreneurship: First, make sure your startup idea solves a pressing problem. Too many startups create an incredible product but do not actually solve a real-world problem. Second, begin chatting to other founders who can tell you how to find a co-founder, how to begin a raise, how to create a CRM to track all your contacts for the raise, what legal needs your startup will have (hint: Delaware C-Corp) + so much more. Third, BUILD.
Know a bada$$ female student founder?
Nominate her or yourself to be featured in Her Hustle’s newsletter by completing this form!
🥳 Upcoming Events
November 6 | 📲 Mastering Social Media for VCs and Female Founders (NYC)
November 14 | 🤑 Fintech Feminists Book Tour (Boston)
🍣 Free sushi dinner!
November 17 | 🗣️ Harvard Law Entrepreneurship Project Visionaries & Ventures Convention (Boston)
🎟️ Students can use the promo code STUDENT30 for a 70% off discount.
November 18 | 👩💻 Foundess x Harvard Undergraduate Women in Entrepreneurship: Womxn Co-Building + Networking Night (Boston)
👩💻 Resources
💁♀️ 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!
🌍 Cherry VC, one of Europe's leading VC firms, is interested in supporting WWV Labs fellows with opportunities at European startups. If you have EU or UK citizenship and are interested, please email wwvlabs@gmail.com.
✍️ We are gauging interest to see how many female students subscribed to our newsletter would be interested in connecting with a female founder, female investor, or male ally founder/investor during drop-in office hour sessions through WWV Labs. If you’re interested in this opportunity, please fill out this interest form!
👩⚖️ Being a startup founder is hard, and dealing with legal issues is even harder. Sign up for Onward Justice’s legal platform to post your questions for free and connect with lawyers ready to help (for a fee)!
Let’s Connect
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I hope you enjoyed this newsletter, Hustlers!
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Love,
Daniela