Featured Founders
Every day women build startups and change the world. On this page you will find founders who are in the Founder Institute and Female Founder Initiative’s network who gave their time, knowledge, and advice to help make your journey a little easier.
Reva McPollom, FI Alumna
Sector: health edtech
“Let’s work together….and start collaborating to build a better future” encourages Reva McPollom, CEO & Founder of the health edtech startup Lessonbee.
Dr. Taghreed Al-saraj, FI Mentor
Sector: human resources
Dr. Al-Saraj, upskillable CEO & Co-Founder, is Chairman of the Saudi UK Alumni Board, an Ambassador for Women's Entrepreneurship Day Org. (WEDO), Arab News columnist & more.
Hoda Mehr, MBA FI Alumna
Sector: fintech, investing
Hoda is the Co-Founder & CEO of Stock Card, which combines human-centric design, ML, and behavioral science to eliminate decision biases and barriers.
Sabrina Noorani, FI Alumna
sector: health and beauty
Sabrina is the Founder and CEO of ClearForMe, a platform that standardizes ingredient information, making product discovery simple and transparent.
Pooja Viswanathan PhD, FI Alumna
Sector: health tech
Braze Mobility developed a blind spot sensor system that can be added to any wheelchair, offering the driver feedback regarding proximity of obstacles through lights, sounds and vibrations.
Olivia Owens, Guest Speaker
sector: startup fundraising
Olivia is Head of Partnerships and a founding member at iFundWomen, a platform that has helped women to raise millions in capital, get coaching and build connections needed to grow businesses.
Holly Stephens, FI Alumna
sector: video accessibility
Holly is the Founder and CEO of Subly, a London FI portfolio company that enables automatic transcription and subtitling for videos, across multiple languages and all in the browser.
Yamini Rangan, MBA, Guest Speaker
Yamini Rangan: Chief Customer Officer at Hubspot, former CCO at Dropbox, recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in Business by SF Business Times, earned an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Clemson University & an MBA from UCB.
Rachel Sheppard, MBA, FFI Co-Creator
Rachel is the Co-Creator of the Female Founder Initiative! She is also the Global Marketing Director at Founder Institute and a Global Ambassador for WomenTech Network.
Ashley Connell, FI Alumna
Sector: human resources
Ashley is the CEO and Founder of Prowess Project, which vets and certifies women who have taken a pause in their careers through using the latest technology and emotional intelligence.
Sana Afouaiz, FI Mentor
sector: diversity and inclusion
Sana is the Director of Womenpreneur, Co-Founder of Womenquake, Advisor for UN Women, public speaker, and Author of “Invisible Women of the Middle East.”
Janice Williams Oliver, MBA, FI Alumna
Sector: hair and beauty
Janice is the Founder and CEO of MisTee and a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management. MisTee PRO is a handheld steaming device that addresses knots and tangles in hair.
Courtney Brand, FI Alumna
sector: career planning
Courtney is the Founder and CEO of TheLightHouse, which empowers and connects employees to the support and resources needed to navigate and thrive in the fast changing world of work.
Stela Suils Cuesta, Guest Speaker
Sector: fintech, D&I
Stelam Founder of DiTal, Regional Leader for LeanIn Portugal, and Director of the Startup Grind chapter in Lisbon, commits to empowering diversity, equality, and inclusion in tech and leadership positions.
Janet Todorova, M.A., FI Director
Sector: startup ecosystem growth
Janet is on the headquarter team at Founder Institute and is the Co-Founder of SofiaStartup, which builds bridges for the Sofia startup ecosystem. Her Master’s degree focused on entrepreneurship.
Laura Amado Díaz, M.Sc, FI Alumna
Laura is the Co-Founder of Fantine, which enables coffee growers in developing countries to gain market access. Previously, she was the Regional Product Manager for Latin America at Philips Lighting.
Monisha Varadan, Guest Speaker
Monisha is a Partner at Zephyr Ventures, Lead of Product Partnerships at Google, Lecturer and Entrepreneur in Residence at INSEAD. She’s a global citizen, having lived in Singapore, the UK, and India.
Emna Ghariani, MS, FI Director
Sector: Saas, communications
Emna is the Founder and CEO of Veamly, Board advisor for Augmania, Founder of Poindevster, and Founder Institute Global Director of the MENA region.
Casey Means, MD, Guest Speaker
Dr. Casey is the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Levels and was a surgeon in Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery. Featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Business Insider, NutritionFacts.org, The Hill, Well + Good, Endocrine Today, Endocrine Web, and Metabolism.
Amy Wu, Guest Speaker
sector: venture capital
Amy is a growth investor at Lightspeed across US, India, and China. Former exec leadership in Finance, Ops, and Strategy. She is on the Board of Directors at Harvard’s School of Public Health.
Kimberly Ofori, FI Mentor
sector: scaling startups
Kimberly is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder of Growth Lab and was the guest speaker for Founder Institute’s webinar “Learn How to Scale Your Early-Stage Startup During COVID-19.”
Liza Rodewald, FI Alumna
sector: saas talent management
Liza Rodewald is the Founder and CEO of Instant Teams, a technology platform that enables companies to create and manage remote customer success teams powered by a global workforce of military spouses.
Mariah Lichtenstern, FI Director
Sector: venture capital
Mariah, is an Aspen Tech Policy Fellow, the Founding Partner and Managing Director of DiverseCity Ventures, an AI Ethics Advisor for Hayden AI, the Director of FI Sacramento, and is an FI Alumna.
Windi Muziasari, PhD, MS, FI Alumna
Windi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Resistomap and her passion is to fight antibiotic resistance issues, especially in low/middle-income countries. She has studied in Indonesia, South Korea, & Finland.
Lamia Al Otaibi, FI Mentor
Lamia Founded Qanooni-sa, is the Legal Counsel at Zahid Tractor, is a Qimam Fellow, and earned her MBSC in Business Entrepreneurship at Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College of Business & Entrepreneurship.
Dayo McIntosh, FI Graduate
Sector: wellness and beauty
Dayo is the Founder and CEO of yateou, a platform for customizable hair, skin, and aromatherapy oils. Previously she was a Program Manager at Facebook and a Chevron PM.
Gayatri De Sarkar, Guest Speaker
sector: venture capital
Gayatri, is the Managing Partner at HYPE Capital and is the Founder and Host of She-VC. She is Partner at Israeli Tech VC fund. Previously at Goldman Sachs, Fed Reserve Bank of Boston, GP@ Sports fund(acquired).
