Movement51

Women-owned businesses receive just 2.8% of VC funding available worldwide. And yet, companies with a woman founder perform 63% better than all-male founding teams, and women influence a staggering 85% of consumer spending with their annual $20 trillion expenditure. What’s happening in pitch rooms that can explain why women receive such a small (nearly nonexistent) piece of the pie? 👩💼 66% of questions posed to female entrepreneurs are prevention-oriented, focusing on potential risks and losses, safety, responsibility, and vigilance. 👨💼 Flip the script and 67% of questions posed to male founders are based on promotion, focusing on growth potential, gains, achievements, and advancement. ❓ Entrepreneurs who field prevention questions raise an average of about seven times less than the average raised by entrepreneurs who are asked mostly promotion questions. So, what can we do about it? ⤵️ #vc #womenfounders #pitching

To build the world we want to live in, we need to actively support and invest in bringing diverse, innovative ideas to life. Registration for the fall cohort of our Financial Feminism Investing Lab is open! 🚀 Run in collaboration with the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, FFIL is a 5-week, community-engaged financial education program that guides you through everything you need to know about early-stage investing and helps you unlock the confidence to get started—all through an inclusive women and gender-diverse lens to invest with impact. 📚 Learn more about the course, timing, and commitment >> https://hubs.li/Q02FnG4M0 Register now for FFIL and learn how your dollars can power the next generation of future-fit, feminist businesses. #learnhowtoinvest #investingeducation #buildwealth #earlystageinvesting #financialfeminism

We’ve had the long weekend to soak up last week’s Founder Lab Demo Day, and we’re still getting goosebumps over that great day! From the live pitches at the packed Platform Calgary stage to the buzzing marketplace where we saw the founders' ideas up close and personal—it was a stellar afternoon seeing our community come together. Relive more of Demo Day with us since the official event photos are up on our blog now 📸 https://hubs.li/Q02DN5yC0 #startups #founders #entrepreneurs #financialfeminism

Cheers to this year’s Founder Lab! 🎓 We couldn’t be more proud of the graduates of the 2024 cohort! Thanks to these founders for their dedication, commitment, and openness throughout the lab. It’s not easy being vulnerable as a founder, but oh, the magic that happens when you are... There were sparks of it everywhere at Demo Day and in the marketplace. Endless amounts of gratitude go to our funders, investors, partners, sponsors, champions, experts, alumni, and team—none of this would be possible without each and every individual’s support. We're beaming over the stellar community we have who are dedicated to a diverse innovation ecosystem and powering the full economic participation of women and gender-diverse people in Canada. The mission of the Founder Lab isn’t only to support diverse and brilliant minds but also to underscore the importance of investing in women: an underlooked, overperforming asset class. 🥂 Here’s to you, founders! LEWK Helpful Places Binoloop RLP Industries Kindr Smart Home Gadgets Small Bits of Happiness My Well Self EmployNXT FLIGHTFŪD Spero Careers Canada Seven Summits Snacks Starluv Inc. The Better Butchers DOUBL My Normative Alea Protection RICCI Cannabis Inc. VVector Bio LifeEngine Technologies 📹 Eli Clark #startups #founders #entrepreneurs #financialfeminism

Tomorrow is the big day… It’s Demo Day! 🎉 Demo Day is the last day of the Founder Lab, where the 20 participating founders from across Canada take the stage at Platform Calgary to pitch their companies, marking their completion of the course and beginning their next step in venture growth. Last but not least on our #CountdownToDemoDay are these final few fantastic ventures we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know and welcome into the M51 community: 1️⃣6️⃣ Seven Summits Snacks is a women-owned and led superfood chocolate company that provides purposeful chocolate, made by athletes, for athletes. Kristyn Carriere 1️⃣7️⃣ Starluv Inc. leverages cutting-edge technology to power their community-driven platform where Canadians can buy and sell new and pre-loved items with ease and confidence. Adilya Dragan 1️⃣8️⃣ The Better Butchers develops meat alternatives powered by mushrooms for a superior nutrition, taste, and texture for clean proteins that are better for you, better for the planet, and better for the animals. Celeste Trujillo 1️⃣9️⃣ DOUBL is the first smartphone-fitted bra made just to your measurements so that women, especially those post-menopause, can have a convenient option without having to choose between support or comfort. Jessica Bosman, Bryn Davis Williams 2️⃣0️⃣ My Normative is a female-focused health platforming disrupting the sex and gender data gap through validated data collection, management, and analytical processes. Allison Swelin Here’s to this cohort of incredible founders and gearing up for a great program wrap-up celebrating them! 👩🎓 #startups #founders #investors #financingstrategy #financialfeminism

After vetting 70+ applications, we were thrilled to accept 20 incredible companies into our 2024 Founder Lab! These top 20 founders and co-founders have been learning from other accomplished founders, specialized experts, angels, and venture capitalists to build tailored playbooks so they can fundraise with confidence. Now, they’re ready to spotlight the lessons they learned at Demo Day on June 26. As we #CountdownToDemoDay, get to know the ventures pitching up on stage if you’re joining us this Wednesday: 1️⃣1️⃣ My Well Self is an AI-Powered recommendation tool helping to better utilize health benefit HSA (Health Spending Account) dollars. Brenda A. 1️⃣2️⃣ EmployNXT transforms recruitment by integrating AI and community events to promote diversity and inclusion, providing compatibility ratings and personalized feedback for quick, informed hiring decisions. Shubhra Singh 1️⃣3️⃣ FLIGHTFŪD is a unique travel supplement designed to enhance your travel experience, both during the journey and at your destination. Jamie Renney, Kaeli Bauman 1️⃣4️⃣ Spero Careers Canada is a social impact / social innovation software company that builds employment solutions with the neurodivergent community. Elizabeth Plouffe 1️⃣5️⃣ LifeEngine Technologies aims to accelerate the adoption of surgical innovations into patient care with a user-friendly blood flow simulation on realistic human models. Catherine Forest-Nault Show your support for all the work these founders have put in by joining us at Demo Day this Wednesday at Platform Calgary! #startups #founders #investors #financingstrategy #financialfeminism

What’s the importance of a data room, a five-year forecast, and investment-ready pitch deck? 💭 Covering these types of questions and more, our Founder Lab was designed to demystify the entire fundraising journey. With this cohort wrapping up, get to know more of the group as we #CountdownToDemoDay: 6️⃣ Alea Protection is on a mission to make clean and sustainable period products more accessible, offering a turnkey solution to organizations that wish to provide free organic, non-toxic, and sustainable period care products to their employees/students. Roxane Champagne-Duval 7️⃣ RICCI Cannabis Inc. is a pioneering company dedicated to producing premium non-alcoholic beverages infused with cannabis. Sarra Jayasinghe 8️⃣ VVector Bio is developing innovative technologies to alleviate current biomanufacturing challenges for cell and gene therapies to treat incurable diseases. Alina Venereo-Sanchez 9️⃣ Smart Home Gadgets is a one-stop smart home shop that combines the best knowledge, compatibility, and selection of smart home devices in one comprehensive platform, to make it simple to build the perfect smart home. Janine Lam 🔟 Small Bits of Happiness — Learn Small Bits is an enterprise learning platform, providing digital wellness content to teachers, schools, and school-boards. Mercedes Korngut You’re invited to celebrate this cohort with us! Demo Day and the marketplace are happening on Wednesday, June 26 at Platform Calgary. #startups #founders #investors #financingstrategy #financialfeminism

Meet Leilani Mustillo: a dedicated registered veterinary nurse turned entrepreneur as the founder of Animal HealthLink. Follow Leilani's journey to learn how she's battling burnout in the vet industry, get an idea of what's next, and hear her wisdom for women founders. 🔗 https://hubs.li/Q02CRQGs0 #veterinarymedicine #vetmed #vettech #womenentrepreneurs

Less than a week from today, and we’ll be celebrating the graduating class of the 2024 Founder Lab! 👩🎓 Eleven intensive weeks have passed since we kicked off, and we’re in awe at how much our 20 founders have learned and accomplished. As we #CountdownToDemoDay on June 26, allow us to reintroduce you to this cohort a few organizations at a time: 1️⃣ LEWK leverages the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning to deliver hyper-personalized styling advice and shoppable mood boards for online shoppers. Tianna Going, Sheena Virmani 2️⃣ Helpful Places works with organizations around the world to deploy the open-source communication standard Digital Trust for Places and Routines so that they can operationalize smart city and innovation principles. Jacqueline Lu 3️⃣ Binoloop helps organizations make better, faster and fairer decisions for critical applications about people, companies, and technologies through their flagship product, Tally. Purvaja S. 4️⃣ RLP Industries creates both software-only and wearable technology solutions to combat women's safety issues in public and private life. Robin Petrogiannis 5️⃣ Kindr is a social impact platform that connects impact organizations, investors, and individuals to drive measurable, transparent, and collective change. Jaime Z. Join us on June 26 at Platform Calgary to cheer on the pitches of the brilliant graduates of Movement51's Founder Lab! #startups #founders #investors #financingstrategy #financialfeminism

The deadline to apply for the Women Innovators Scale-Up and Investment Program is June 21! ⏰ Who should apply? Founders who have... ✅ Completed a seed round of financing ✅ Proven your product-market fit ✅ Developed an understanding of your business model ✅ Identified team leads Founders are eligible even if they have already participated in incubator or accelerator programs. The aim is to provide support to founders and leaders who need to develop their operating system and funding knowledge in order to scale efficiently. Get your application in by tomorrow! ⤵️