The familiar story of entrepreneurial success that founders are told is fantastical. Entrepreneurs are meant to be inspired by million-dollar pitches won through presentations scribbled on restaurant napkins. We’re meant to revere those shucking the affluent promise of ivy-league institutions and respect the crowd that leaves the safety of cushy six-figure jobs, only to see their companies pop up as the next decacorn a few years later.
It’s easy to feel like this startup story of success is unobtainable when your turtle neck-ed silhouette hasn’t appeared on a hallowed business magazine cover. It’s easy to feel like any setback, failure, or inadequacy means you aren’t “doing” the startup process correctly or don’t belong. For many Latina and Black women founders who comprised just 1% of distributed investor money in 2021, the idea of getting into the hallowed networks that lead to tabletop napkin pitches feels like a fairytale you don’t belong in–and maybe, you don’t want to.
digitalundivided is proudly supporting founders as they build new startup journeys that are imperfect, out-of-the-box, and led by founders deserving of equal access to the tools, knowledge, and networks to be successful.
To help showcase the diverse ways our trail-blazing digitalundivided founders build their startups, we’re unleashing their hidden narratives through a new, founder-focused interview series, Founder Features.
Each week, digitalundivided will dive into the entrepreneurial journey of our digitalundivided program graduates from all six proprietary and data-informed cohorts. Our digitalundivided program graduates — who hail from industries such as tech, healthcare, beauty, food and beverage, and more — are at all stages of their entrepreneurial journey. You’ll experience a day in the life of a digitalundivided founder and gain first-hand knowledge of each entrepreneur’s biggest startup struggles and insight into how they overcome them. You’ll also gain advice on navigating your entrepreneurial journey and learn how some digitalundivided entrepreneurs used their experience in our proprietary programs to support their startup’s growth.
By normalizing new ways to be and grow as a founder, including embracing our unique journeys, hard-earned failures, and aptly celebrated successes one story at a time, digitalundivided is building a space for Latina and Black women founders to develop entrepreneurial pathways that feel right and true.
Dive into our first interview: Founder Feature: 5 Questions, with Samora Suber, founder of SamoraLife.