The Fempire Movement - Changing the flow of capital, one relationship at a time

Fire. Energy. Trust. Perseverance. Changing the statistics. The Fempire Ecosystem is on a mission to activate and grow women’s power at every level of society. We want to help women drive more revenue for their businesses, get more credit for their revenue impact, and get the top ecosystem and sales leadership roles. We also want to ensure women CEOs are at the top of the fast-growing partner sales tech industry.

Last year, I wrote this post where I committed PartnerTap to hosting 12 Fempire dinner for the purpose of bringing together 500+ women leaders in Channel, Partnerships, and Sales to promote the vision of a new community in our industry that will change the flow of capital to more women.??

I’m proud to say, we did that and more:

• 14 Fempire Dinners
• 1 Fempire Happy Hour
• 11 different cities across the US?
• 524 attendees??

Check out our 2023 Fempire year in review:

In order to host this many dinners and grow the Fempire community, I became accustomed to traveling week after week, month after month, a new life where I was away from home more than I was there.? But there was a true fire inside of me. I was committed to spreading the vision, changing the flow of capital while growing the Fempire community one dinner at a time.? The connections and conversations in each of these rooms continued to propel me forward.? These events gave me the energy and inspiration to take PartnerTap to the next level, faster than I ever thought possible. I’ve heard from several attendees that felt similarly invigorated by our great guest speakers, authors, and the business relationships that were created.

These dinners are special. My team at PartnerTap, along with our partners, created an experience where women leaders came together and were able to truly let their guard down.? Quality time was spent connecting and getting to know each other on a deeper level.? These events were helping to foster authentic connections so that women could do business with each other and do more business together.? Business only happens when trust is built, and the speed to trust was happening in the span of one dinner.? I started to personally hear from women who landed their largest accounts through connections they were making in these rooms we were curating.? Partnerships were being launched and we were starting to actually live out the vision.? We were changing the flow of capital, starting with our own sphere of influence!??

Dinner after dinner, I would hear the same themes emerge from multiple conversations.? Themes around immense perseverance, breaking down barriers, conquering lofty goals, the thirst for change and the need for equality.? We were co-creating a different room, we were making a space for Fempire leaders, and it was exhilarating!? I had finally found a room where I felt like I belonged as a woman CEO and a place where I didn’t feel alone. I felt so inspired because we were coming together through shared experiences, and everyone was ready to use their power to change the flow of capital.??

When I co-founded PartnerTap as CEO, I didn’t think about the odds being set against me.? I knew from the start I was building a new category of technology from my domain expertise and that the market was huge. Because of that, we started to grow through customer acquisition and had product market fit.? We were growing organically at a venture scale pace minus the venture backing.? As a domain expert, I personally lived the co-selling problem we are solving, and I am still just as obsessed with solving that problem today as I was when we started.??

In 2016 when we founded PartnerTap, “only 2% of venture funding went to female founders”. Since then, the stat hasn’t increased, it’s actually decreased.? Allison Beyers, a Female Founder, recently testified during the California State Assembly that “In 2022, $238 billion in VC dollars were allocated.? Just 1.9% went to women, down from 2.4% in 2021. In the first half of 2023, Black founders got 0.75% of venture funding, down from 1.25% from a year ago. At the same time, a study of managing partners of top venture funds reported that 8 out of 10 managing partners view the funding landscape as balanced.”?

Allison’s testimony helped to support this new law “Fair Investment Practices by Investment Advisers” which will require venture firms in the state of California to report the diversity metrics of the founders they invest in to the state.? Her action embodies the Fempire mission of changing the flow of capital. In order to change the flow of capital we all need visibility on where capital is being allocated.??

Most people are surprised when they hear the stats about the amount of VC dollars actually going to female founded companies.? They are even more surprised when they hear how many female founded companies have gone public.??

• Only 22 Women CEO Founders have taken their companies IPO
• Only 44 companies with a woman on the founding team have gone public.? ?

Despite the fact that companies with women executives are 30% more likely to outperform other companies, the gender gap and capital invested in women founding businesses is abysmal.? The gender gap is also unbalanced for women leaders across the US workforce.??

• Women represent 58.4% of the US workforce as of September 2022, and held only 35% of senior leadership positions.
• 10.4% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women
• Less than 1% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women of color

Why are we still so imbalanced? Last I checked it was 2023!???

When I think about it, it’s really not that long ago that the majority of households were one income households.? Women stayed at home, and men were the breadwinners.? I grew up in one of these households.? My father had a demanding job in technology working for large global corporations.? I always believed I would follow in his footsteps and become a leader in a global corporation.? He would constantly tell me growing up, “Cass, you can be anything you want to be.? As long as you work hard and set your mind to your goal, sky’s the limit.”??

Should we be telling our daughters this?? Are we perpetuating a lie?? Are we setting the next generation up for failure???

When reviewing the stats above, it would seem like it.? Which is why I feel there is a real movement growing.? We’re living in a time where the majority of households have two working parents.? We’re also living in a time where the Barbie movie is the top grossing film in Warner Brothers 100-year history.? We are living in a time where Taylor Swift speaks out and uses the power of her community to overturn the sale of her own recordings in a male dominated recording industry.? Which allowed her to buy back the rights to her own music she had written since the age of 12.? I personally had never really listened to Taylor Swift until this year and I’m proud to say, I’m now a full-fledged Swiftie (shout out to all the Swifities reading this) after listening to her newest album Midnights, and then following the news articles around the business she’s built and the obstacles she’s broken through.? I’m absolutely amazed.? Go Taylor!

The Fempire Movement shows that the time is now. We felt it in every room we filled with every attendee and repeat attendee. It felt like we were a true rocket ship.? In every city we traveled to, we were introduced to more like minded women leaders in our industry.? We all were working in our own rite for a future of limitless possibilities for the next generation of female leaders.? We all just wanted the same things: our voices to be heard, and our work to be the proof that we belong, and more capital flowing to women.??

During this last dinner in New York, I truly felt the room shift and it was then that I knew the Fempire was moving from a community to a movement.? We’re here for it, and we can’t wait to see many more faces in 2024.? Join the Fempire movement and help us change the flow of capital!

To everyone that joined a Fempire dinner this year, thank you!? There were many dinners where you gave me energy when I was depleted, hope when I felt defeated, inspiration when I had no more, and the strength to continue to fight when the odds are in no way in the favor of a female founded company.? But most of all, you gave me life long friendships.? Thank you from the bottom of my heart.? It is because of you all that we’ve ignited the #FempireMovement.? Here’s to changing the flow of more capital in 2024!??

With immense gratitude,

Cassandra?

#FempireMovement #EmbraceAmbition #FlexYourPower #DrivingBillionsTogether #ChangeTheFlowOfCapital