With the goal of supporting, developing and elevating the founders of female owned and led businesses, Rebecca Minkoff and Ali Wyatt founded Female Founder Collective in 2018, a 9,000-plus person network of businesses led by women. Last week, the organization held its first virtual version of its Female Founders Day: The Business Blueprint event, which was previously hosted in-person in New York and Los Angeles. The annual workshop was filled with two days of educational and empowering programming, as well as a competition, The Big Pitcher, presented by Klarna, offering a $10,000 grant.

“We wanted to reimagine how female-forward conferences are made. We launched this as a passion project to foster the success of more women entrepreneurs,” said Ali. “Attendees were able to have blueprints and actionable takeaways that women can implement in their businesses. It’s not your usual speakers celebrating one success story after the next.”

Rebecca added, “We are creating a forum where women can meet and learn from each other, with a focus on the important tools needed to launch, run and scale a business. Women are empowered to share, not guard resources, and talk about finances as well as business and personal development openly.”

Lunnie, a nursing bra brand that leverages the insights of hundreds breastfeeding moms, was announced as the winner of the pitch.

“The stigma around breastfeeding is stifling innovation. Doctors encourage it but society tells moms to whisper about it – leaving moms unsupported and unprepared,” said Sarah Kallile, Founder, Lunnie. “Moms deserve better. That’s why I created Lunnie, which I named after my two daughters Lucy and Annie. When I couldn’t find a better nursing bra for myself, I decided to make it. I hacked the first prototype together with my mom, a talented seamstress, and am testing it out on Lunnie Hive members for initial feedback. In sharing my idea with the Female Founder Collective, it validated that this pain point is universal among breastfeeding moms and the time is now for a better solution.”

Going forward Ali and Rebecca hope to continue to roll out events that are aimed towards increasing financial prosperity for women.

“We are working on several initiatives which will begin to cascade in the coming months that are designed to super-serve female entrepreneurs,” said Rebecca. “At a time where more women are starting their own businesses, we are continuing to evolve our offerings to best support them on that journey.”