For Women Startup Founders:
A 2-day immersive workshop.
May 17-18, 2025
The fact is that there are more successful women startup founders than ever today, and more women in investment roles at venture capital firms. And yet the playing field still isn’t level – women face certain biases and challenges that are different from their male counterparts.
Over the course of an immersive weekend, this workshop is intended to give women startup founders the tools and resources needed for success.
We’ve designed this to be a very interactive and collaborative two days together. Each lecture component will also include plenty of time for discussion, plus there will be group exercises, meals breaks for networking and discussion, and breaks for walks together.
Register your interest now.
Space is limited. Register to be notified when registration opens.
This workshop will be led by Bret Waters. He has been Founder & CEO of three Silicon Valley software companies and now teaches entrepreneurship at Stanford University as well as coaches startup CEOs at Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship. Previously he spent six years on the advisory board of the Stanford University Graduate School of Education, was interim CEO at Stanford New Schools, and served as Chief Mentor with the European Innovation Academy, teaching Silicon Valley innovation methodology to engineering students from around the world. He received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He is passionate about the democratization of entrepreneurship and is the author of the recent book, The Launch Path: Getting from a startup idea to a launched venture.
Agenda, Day 1:
- Breakfast and Networking
Get to know the other participants and create goals together for the day. And then each participant will stand up and deliver a 30-second description of their startup. - Introduction to the day and themes – Bret Waters
Introductory remarks, and outline of the day. - A Founder Story – (speaker TBD).
A first-person story from a CEO about her experience of being a woman founder and growing a successful venture. - Startup Methodology in 2025 – Bret Waters
2025 is probably the best time in history to launch a new startup. Drawing from his current work at Stanford, Bret outlines some current Silicon Valley methodology for building and scaling a successful new startup venture.
- Group Exercise
Break into groups to discuss your own startup (or startup idea). How can you apply some of the learnings so far to your own venture? How can you support each other as you push your venture forward?
- Life Balance – (speaker TBD).
Women founders are more likely to be balancing several responsibilities – shifting back and forth daily between being a CEO and being a mom, for example. So how can we learn to effectively optimize the way we balance our time?
- The Women who built Silicon Valley – Bret Waters
And now for some history. We’ll look at some of the women who played key roles in building Silicon Valley into the world’s most important hub of entrepreneurship and innovation, and what we can learn from them. - Wine, Snacks, Discussion
Unstructured time at the end of the day to network, discuss, share, reflect, and set individual goals for the following day.
Agenda, Day 2:
- Breakfast and getting to know each other.
Sit next to people you didn’t talk to the previous day. Get to know at least three new people! Make an ask – one thing that might help you as you push your venture forward. - The Capital Landscape – Bret Waters
Much has been made of the fact that women are less successful at raising venture capital, but In 2025 there are lots of great ways to finance a startup venture. What do things look like today, and how should founders think about raising capital that aligns with their startup’s needs and goals? - A Founder Story – (speaker TBD).
A successful woman founder tells her own story about raising capital for her startup, and lessons learned. - The Pitch
Successful startup founders are pitching all the time – for money, partnerships, co-founders, customers, and more. Some studies show that women approach pitching differently from men and that women are perceived differently. How can questions and answers be reframed? How can we all learn to get better at telling crisp, clear, and compelling stories?= - Group Exercise
Break into groups to discuss your own startup (or startup idea). How can you apply some of the learnings so far to your own venture? How can you support each other as you push your venture forward? - Mindset
Most startup founders suffer from a little bit of Imposter Syndrome, and women perhaps more so. The fact is that out of all the factors that drive startup success and failure, the CEO mindset probably matters most.
Register your interest:
