Geri Stengel

Sherry Saeedi's Verswire, a music industry disruptor, empowers artists with a venture capital model, championing fair pay and creative freedom for musicians.

Teachers, parents, and schools now have a unified, two-way communication platform that facilitates parent engagement with education.

Veterans have powerful skills that enable them to overcome the challenges of entrepreneurship.

Two women GPs are challenging the bro culture of European VC, and their strategy is paying off. CapitalT invests in incredibly diverse founders who are outperforming.

With programs like SSBCI and IIE, government funding, matched by public and private investors, opens debt, private equity, and VC funding to diverse-owned businesses.

Women-accredited investors energized growth in VC investments in FemTech. They play a crucial role in improving women’s health innovations. More need to become LPs.

Becoming a team instead of individual founders was the first step in developing an email marketing platform for small businesses. It was critical to the success of Flodesk.

Research into women’s health needs has been underfunded, but the Women’s Health PAC aims to change that by making women’s health research a priority issue.

Oak Theory—a women-owned UI/UX design firm—defied the odds to break through the $1 million mark by leveraging supplier diversity programs and joining a peer support group.

Funding investments at the intersection of sustainability and consumer technology deliver financial returns and make a social and environmental impact.

Identifying opponent weaknesses and finding hidden talent requires lots of data that AI can analyze quickly, giving coaches insights they may have missed and saving time.

Destination Sitters’ growth during and after Covid-19 highlights the adaptability and agility of women-owned businesses when they have access to capital.

Shazi Visram son’s autism diagnosis drove her to create HealthyBaby, providing non-toxic products to keep babies and toddlers safe. Being resilient is part of her DNA.

Despite a lawsuit challenging grants for black-owned businesses, Hello Alice closed a Series C funding round and continues to give grants to small businesses.

Despite self-doubt, a lesbian founder overcame VC bias to found a high-growth healthtech startup to treat loneliness. Health plan companies are impressed with her results.

Women VCs—Sheila Gulati and Stacey Giard of Tola Capital—promote diversity among LPs and fuel innovation through early-stage investments in AI enterprise software.

The aligned values of two human capital management companies, will help the acquisition of Via by Justworks succeed, and their small-business customers thrive.

Maxeme Tuchman's desire to apply her entrepreneurial and edtech skills to public school education guided her to become a candidate for a seat on a school board.

With Clayful, an on-demand, chat-based platform, schools can provide students with coaches to work through everyday emotional challenges and manage their mental health.

Darrow, an AI justice intelligence platform, automates research to help find class action lawsuits and build cases more quickly. Meet the woman CTO and cofounder.

Despite wartime challenges, SOLO for Diamonds and Alkor-D continue operation, producing lab-grown diamonds and fine jewelry in the Ukraine.

In 2 years, Melanie Samba, a Black female founder, created a conference intelligence platform raising over $1 million with a waitlist of over a thousand prospects.

A women-owned real estate private equity firm outperforms and passes $10 billion assets under management.

The not-yet-wealthy need financial advice to build wealth, which was costly, until now. A Black woman has built a business that makes wealth management affordable.

Whether it’s grants or venture capital, funding technology for progressive causes requires dedication and patience, but New Media Ventures is determined.

Immigrant entrepreneurs bring grit to building a business. With support, even the pandemic didn’t stop these Hispanic business owners from growing dramatically.

As startups do, itselectric is changing how electric vehicles are charged in the U.S. Two cofounders looked at the problem differently than transportation insiders.

Waste management has long been a man’s game, a dog-eat-dog game at that. But women-owned, SBC Waste Solutions, has changed the rules, and is winning.

A female founder navigates childcare challenges and supports her Ukrainian team during wartime while building an innovative project management cloud platform.

Lawsuits against supplier diversity programs fail to recognize the value to the overall economy. It’s not just diverse-owned businesses that benefit, it’s everyone.

By using natural silica grasses, Sigrid Therapeutics with its Glucose Stabiliser hopes to prevent Type 2 Diabetes. Preventive supplements are peaking investor interest.

Pooping isn’t the subject of polite conversation but it is critical to health. Prebiotics for kids can establish good gut health and prevent lifelong problems

AFL lawsuit against Hello Alice, a grants provider for underrepresented entrepreneurs, could have catastrophic effects on small businesses and the U.S. economy.

Female founders in emerging markets have huge potential, yet they face discrimination and lack financial support. In Bangladesh, Praava Health is overcoming the odds.

When high-net-worth individuals invest, they allow innovative startups—often founded by women, POC, and other underrepresented groups—to grow and prosper.

By creating microdoses of THC—the active ingredient in cannabis and hemp, The High Confectionary gives people more control over achieving the desired experience.

Day One Ventures is helping to change the game for underrepresented founders by providing capital, mentorship, coaching, and connections to funders and customers.

Learn how Partake Foods CEO Denise Woodard defied VC funding challenges to raise $20 million, including from Jay-Z’s VC fund, to create an allergy-friendly snack brand.

Veterans know how to face down challenges and solve problems, which is why they make good entrepreneurs. But funders may not see that when the veteran is a woman.

Women know what women need, especially when it comes to lingerie to wear post-breast cancer. Keira Kotler is tapping into the adaptive wear market worth billions.

Women know that strong communities need affordable housing, and real estate development funds must play a role. How one woman is ensuring more women are involved.

Startups innovating healthcare have a new source of funding: a socially responsible corporate venture capitalist firm that cares about values as well as returns.

Lawsuits are undermining the ability of Black/African American-owned businesses to get funding through special programs that try to equalize funding opportunities.

When a founder takes VC funding, who is really in charge? A new book explores the dynamics between founders and investors in startups.

To combat food insecurity, Farmbox Rx partners with health plans to offer their members access to healthy foods through their insurance or OTC member benefit.

Osteoporosis is a painful and expensive problem not limited to older women. Now, a medtech company is using NASA research to treat low bone density.

Who’d think that nail polish and socks could be a red carpet-item? Branding that stresses individualism and self-expression disrupts markets and builds businesses.

Detoxing from substance abuse is tough, but oral Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NAD) is a former addict’s gift to those who want to end their dependency.

Dispersa, a cleantech company, transforms food waste into biosurfactants, a green ingredient in industrial and consumer cleaning products. The company raised $5 million.

JoAnn Price is one of Forbes 50 Over 50: 2023, proving that investment in diverse and emerging managers is good business.

Fundraising for the preseed round for Rising Team to Jennifer Dulski, a serial entrepreneur, seemed long, six months. But her seed round took just three weeks.

Slow processing of payments has limited the growth of B2B small businesses. Two women entrepreneurs have tackled the problem with a new financing option.

Deskless frontline workers need training. Most VCs and angel investors didn’t see need. A founder discovered how to find the proverbial needle in the haystack.

Fearless Fund and its legal team are standing up to a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination and fighting for economic freedom for Black female founders.

Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, which is why the SBA was created. Thanks to the SBA, WOC-owned businesses grew stronger coming out of Covid-19.

When plastic bottles washed up their beach, two young, sibling entrepreneurs turned their disgust into a thriving, lifestyle clothing business that recycled waste.

Financing options for women-owned businesses have expanded. A small business credit card helps credit-challenged or early-stage entrepreneurs build their credit history.

Sometimes, good things bring pain. For some women, sex and childbirth can be both. Materna Health is finding solutions to vaginismus and severe perineal tears.

Smaller can be better. When it comes to VC fund management, the ability to spot good investments is more important than the amount of assets under management (AUM).

Where there’s gender disparity in a sector, women step up with ways to close the gap. A woman-owned company is doing just that in the private credit and private equity.

SCOTUS ruling against affirmative action doesn’t make DEI programs obsolete. Diversity is good business, and companies will find ways to achieve it.

Cybersecurity is necessary for every business. Yet, investors were reluctant to fund a Black female founder, no matter her credentials. She overcame that reluctance.

Women’s economic participation is hampered by their roles as chief caregivers and the lack of support to facilitate their participation. Now a VC firm is focusing on building that infrastructure.

Women architects are leading the way in inclusive design that makes it possible for neurodiverse people to be their best.

Two men have built a company that helps businesses as well as families. With safe, stable child care as an employee benefit, employees are more loyal and productive.

Robyn Streisand, CEO of The Mixx, a strategic creative agency, began growing by acquiring complementary businesses.

With an ESOP, you can keep your company’s values and culture in place when you exit by turning it over to those who helped create them—your employees. It's a win win.

To achieve success as an entrepreneur, you have to ignore the naysayers and keep on trying. That attitude has brought a new kind of digital play to board games.

Women are revolutionizing the climate-tech and clean-tech sectors by creating and funding products and solutions for a healthier planet.

The big guns in supply chain management have a challenger, a company founded by a woman immigrant. She’s filling gaps the big guys didn’t notice.

Differentiation is a competitive edge for founders and venture capitalists. Diversity is a proven success factor, yet institutional investors ignore the opportunity.

A dentist drilling is an image most don’t enjoy, but a startup with a drill-free option may change that. And it doesn’t require an expensive trip to a specialist.

The new kids on the block—BIPOC and female founders and fund managers—have another player on their team: a seed funder who is looking to help those just entering the marketplace.

Forget the Glass Ceiling: Build Your Business Without One is a practical look at the barriers women face in starting new businesses as well as the ways over, under, around and through those barriers. Using the experiences of 10 high-powered women entrepreneurs, Geri Stengel lays out the tactics that women can use to inspire and achieve business success.

Investing in women entrepreneurs is good for the economy and good for you. Find out why.