EMPOWERING FEMALE FOUNDERS ...
with a Forum and Federal Credit Union (in organization).
Female Founders Forum (F3): member network to identify, mentor and cultivate talent.
Female Founders Federal Credit Union (F3CU): designed to serve their needs with sophisticated and low cost non-commodity lending and merchant services.
We need your help to create the next generation of financial services. Please click on the button below to show your support making this effort possible.
Do You Know these Female Founders?
WHY Build a FCU
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Finally, we can align our banking with our values
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Promoting and serving our members is always our SOLE mission; not delivering profits to shareholders
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Industry-leading, sophisticated tools for both retail and enterprise customers
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Partnerships with firms that can amplify the commercial success of our membership
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Low cost loans and financial services for Female Founders
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Advisory and Relationship Management Services
OUR APPROACH
To be established in 2025, Female Founders Federal Credit Union (F3CU) will become a trusted name in Financial Services. Our team of experts are dedicated to providing tailored guidance based on industry knowledge. When you choose us, you are choosing excellence.
The Backstory
Women are SUBSTANTIALLY Under Capitalized.
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25% of women are denied a business loan
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Female-owned businesses received only 28% of SBA 7(a) and 504 loans in 2023
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< 2% of equity funding goes to female founders
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Innovative, female-led companies do not fit male patterns so they are unfairly challenged in raising capital and peppered with prevention questions so they are passed over by male capital providers (92% of all VCs are male)
Daniel Wheeler says ...
I’ve seen first-hand the extraordinary difficulty that deserving female founders experience when raising capital. They battle the entrenched network effect of male investors who find it easiest to back male founders who look and talk like them. Female founders live in a capital desert. We need a powerful counter-network to overcome this intractable problem. We do that by rooting our counter-network in an insured depository institution owned by its members. A female founder-focused credit union will provide debt and equity capital as well as focused mentoring and coaching. A reimagined credit union is not just another accelerator or incubator program or another venture capital fund (those well-meaning efforts have not solved this massive and intractable problem). This effort is a multi-billion dollar pool of capital and talent organized and managed for the single purpose of funding deserving female founders from startup to mature company. This endeavor is a revolution!
Maryanne Morrow says ...
The biggest risk for my last startup was my gender. It's a sad but all too vivid reality for most female founders.
Throughout my career, I have always been comfortable being the only female in the room. The gaslighting, mansplaining and puffy jackets of Silicon Valley are omnipresent. It's rare that the male VCs look you in the eye or ask you anything but prevention questions.
First Round Capital's study found that women-founded companies outperformed all-male teams by 63%; so why are they receiving <2% investment?
The time is NOW to support badass, fierce female founders!
Joyce Mehlman says ...
A financial institution is what I have always wanted to start. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer I only hoped for one thing -- to see my children graduate high school and then college. I am one of the lucky ones who survived and thrived.
After moving past cancer, I was then hired as the COO of The Bancorp Bank where I got to learn all about Fintechs from the bank the started it all. When I left the big bank, all I hoped for was to have a successful consulting company in the Fintech vertical and once again my hopes came true when I founded iLEX (a boutique consulting group). iLEX has grown, launched over 55 programs, helped numerous banks enter this space with a sound oversight program and continues to thrive. Through the years of growing iLEX my hopes went from wanting it to be successful - it is - to my old dream of having my own bank. AND NOW ... that hope is coming true to with F3 and F3CU - a credit union designed for women and their business needs. My hope is that this startup, too, will thrive and if it follows the path I have been on, IT WILL!
So now I am a 20 year breast cancer survivor, a proud mom of 2 successful children (and their spouses), a nana of 3, a successful business women and part of a financial institution that I know will get it right!!!
