Hailed as a tremendous success, NYU’s first ever Female Founders Symposium (“#NYUFemaleFounders”), held at Two Sigma Ventures on April 13th, 2018, allied aspiring women entrepreneurs across New York City with the some of the most successful frontrunners and mentors in the startup industry.
Above: Desiree Frieson, kicking off the first ever NYU Female Founders Symposium
Powered by Blackstone LaunchPad and NYU’s Entrepreneurial Institute, #NYUFemaleFounders is a semester-long, community-building initiative aimed to provide women entrepreneurs with fun and engaging events. This initiative provides events such as the monthly “lunch-&-learn” panels, professional networking events, as well as other experiential opportunities to help women entrepreneurs facilitate and build successful startups with other like-minded individuals. No matter where a woman entrepreneur might be on her professional trajectory, #NYUFemaleFounders provides an effective, collaborative pathway for women to “start up” in style.
Above (L-R): Keynote Panel Speakers, Fiona Teng, Carley Roney, Melissa Marsh, Yin Lin
Hosted by Desiree Frieson, Program Manager for the Blackstone Launchpad, this half-day event kicked off with the Keynote Panel with speakers including Fiona Teng (far left), Communications Manager for the NYU Entrepreneurial Institute; Carley Roney (center left), Co-founder/Chief Creative Officer for the Knot & XO Group; Melissa Marsh(center right), Founder & CEO for Dagne Dover; and Yin Lin (far right), Co-founder for SheWorx. While discussing the topic, “Stronger Than Yesterday, The Woman’s Guide to Future of Work”, each panelist spoke to their personal experience navigating obstacles in order to achieve their ambitions. Overall, the speakers concluded that with the right guidance, women entrepreneurs can turn their innovative dreams into a startup reality. Their motivating stories and personal reflections on their professional career paths set a very motivating tone to the start of a very inspirational day.
Above: Meredith Broussard, giving a speech on ‘Women on the Frontier of AI’
Following the Keynote Panel, Meredith Broussard, Assistant Professor in the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, led an illuminating presentation on “Women on the Frontier of AI”. As a former software developer both at AT&T and the MIT Media Lab, she has extensively written on her professional insights across various articles, essays, as well as in her new book, titled, Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World, which sheds light upon the inner workings, the outer limits of technology, and, overall, why we should never assume that computers always get it right! Professor Broussard explained the concepts of her new research rather simply and innovatively, and even explained how to apply machine learning to understand the survival rates from the Titanic sinking.
Above (L-R): Desiree Frieson, Hediya Sizar, Tobey Nelson, Jennifer Shaw
Following Professor Broussard, Desiree Frieson (far left) led a panel talk on mentorship along with Hediya Sizar(center left), Co-Founder of Bring on the Books Foundation; Tobey Nelson (center right), Founder & CEO for WISE Advisors; and Jenn Shaw (far right), of the Movement Co-Operative. The talk, titled, “Girls Just Need a Mentor!”, was a really lively discussion about how having the right kind of mentors can make or break your success story. The panelists talked about their own personal mentorship experiences, about how to professionally and successfully network, how to sell your idea succinctly to mentors, and what would make a perfect fit.
Above: Jodi Jefferson
After “Girls Just Need a Mentor”, Jodi Jefferson, NYC Director of Retained Executive Search at Riviera Partners, spoke on how to think of diverse teams as systems. Ms. Jefferson suggests, “A diverse team is like having a diverse set of tools that allow you to optimize for diverse problem solving, which will only make a system work better, be more resilient, with happier people and better products”. During her extensive experience in recruitment, Ms. Jefferson notes how she encountered various women all of whom felt that they were not truly on diverse teams. According to Ms. Jefferson, the women whom she met often would say, for example, “In 20 years, I’ve never really had a female friend at work”, or, “The last time I worked for a woman was 14 years ago.” Overall, Ms. Jefferson stressed the importance of working in highly diverse teams, and the benefits that such teams bring including increased productivity.
Above (L-R): Desiree Frieson, Nikki Rubin, Sowmya Viswanath, Dana Levin-Robinson
For the next panel, titled, “Owning Your Confidence”, panelists spoke at length on the importance of being confident and learning not to wait for the “perfect time”. On the panel, Desiree Frieson (far left); Nikki Rubin (center left), Associate Director of Creative Destruction Lab in NYC; Sowmya Viswanath (center right), Vice President at Morgan Stanley; and, Dana Levin-Robinson (far right), Chief of Staff at VirtualHealth. The speakers projected questions, such as, “What is the timing risk of waiting?” and “How long can you honestly wait before you miss out on the opportunity?” in order to motivate women entrepreneurs to move away from the idea of perfectionism. were the wise words about moving away from perfectionism. Being an entrepreneur, ultimately, is not for the fearful. The speakers concluded that investors “buy into you and your vision”, and recommended that when you tell your story, confidence can make all the difference
Above (L-R): Sutian Dong, Diana Melencio, Kobi Wu, Magogodi Makhene, Huriyyah Muhammad
After “Owning Your Confidence”, panel moderator Sutian Dong (far left) of the Female Founders Fund; Diana Melencio (center left), Founder of Quinn; Kobi Wu (center), CEO for VisuWall; Magogodi Makhene (center right), Writer and Social Entrepreneur; and, Huriyyah Muhammad (far right), Founder of The Black TV and Film Collective, led an engaging discussion on surviving fundraising, and encouraging young women entrepreneurs to “show and use their personality” as a strength. Each speaker assessed different fundraising approaches and tactics based on the experiences from each of their industries, which no doubt provided the audience a holistic perspective of the subject matter.
Above (L-R): Corey Blay, Keith Mauppa, Philip Loew, Beno Oppenheimer
As part of the only panel to feature any men, Corey Blay (far left), Associate Director for Graduate Leadership Programs at the NYU Leadership Initiative; Keith Mauppa (center left), Vice President of Flat World Partners; Philip Loew (center right), Associate Director & Business Manager for NYC Regional Innovation Node; and, Beno Oppenheimer (far right), Founder of XiMiO, participated in and presented on “Allyship: Men and Women as Allies in Startups”. In terms of advice and suggestions for women entrepreneurs, Mr. Oppenheimer notes, “Don’t be silent. Say what you feel. If something makes you uncomfortable, say it.” Though this world is still considered by some to be a man’s world in many respective fields, all the men on the panel unanimously agreed that allyship between the sexes is extremely important as women continue to innovate, break norms, and crush glass ceilings. Every panelist reflected on how they each had been greatly inspired by the women in their lives, and each commented on how well these women have performed in leadership roles on their teams.
Above: ‘How I got started’ with Carmela Rea
For the final talk, Carmela Rea, Founder of EggFund, shared some thoughtful perspectives and insightful experiences about her personal and professional journey toward her creation of EggFund, a fertility-financing platform. Based on her and her husban’s harrowing three-year fight to have a baby, EggFund helps the 1 in 8 Americans with infertility afford to have a family. On her tumultuous journey, Ms. Rea comments, “I hit my bottom, and after speaking to my good friend about the experience, I decided to do something about it. To flip the script for others suffering with infertility. So EggFund was born.” Ms. Rea’s powerful take on turning her worst experience into an innovative opportunity with a groundbreaking social impact. This proved to be an inspiring and fitting end to an entire afternoon offering growth, innovation, and informative ideas!
Ultimately, the takeaway for all the attendees of the event was unparalleled, experiential insight into how aspiring women entrepreneurs can successfully start their startup, effectively build a STEM career, and position themselves to conquer the new era of WERK!
