Leslie Feinzaig’s Army of Women

Leslie Feinzaig went after the American dream.

She left her home in Costa Rica to attend such prestigious schools as the London School of Economics and Harvard Business School. She moved to Seattle after getting her MBA to for senior roles at Microsoft, and other startups, before starting her own company, Venture Kits in 2016.

She was used to being an in-demand executive people were trying to poach and like so many women didn’t really get hit with sexism until she became a new mom and an entrepreneur. She was shocked by some of the comments she got while raising money for Venture Kits, the suggestions that she was really just a stay at home mom, not a real entrepreneur. A momtrepreneur. 

Like so many other female founders, those stats– that just 3% of venture backed companies have female CEOs– became real at that moment.

Since then, Feinzaig has fought to make life easier for other women building high growth companies in the Pacific Northwest. Female Founders Alliance was started as a hobby, but is now a surging network of women who help each other solve tactical problems, like how to pitch investors or how to get press.

I got to know Feinzaig recently, because I’m headed to Seattle for several book/Chairman Mom promotional events, and several women have told me about what she’s pulled together. She was my guest on this week’s “A Uterus Is A Feature Not A Bug” podcast, where we talk about raising money as a new mom, what separates meaningful women’s networking groups from the rest, and her career-long effort of beating the odds.

If you live in Seattle, check out this event we’re doing this Wednesday with Feinzaig and her army of badass women.