Make Impact & THRIVE, on your terms.
REDEFINE THE FUTURE OF FOUNDERSHIP.
Startups for All is an online incubator for purpose-driven founders and emerging social entrepreneurs from historically marginalized populations.
We help YOU clarify your North Star purpose and make meaningful progress on your entrepreneurial journey through small steps for BIG change.
All you need is YOU, 3 hours a week + a strong, pressing desire to make positive change for the people and communities you care about. No MVP or tech required. No co-founders required. No CV or resume required.
Bring your North Star Vision to life, on your terms.
Now enrolling for Cohort 6*! Enroll by February 20, 2024, to lock in Early Bird rates.
*Please note, Cohort 6 meets Wednesday evenings online, starting March 20, 2024. Enroll by February 20th, to lock in Early Bird rates (you can change your mind at any time). General registration closes Friday, March 8th. Questions? Book a 1:1 or email Susan at susan@startupsforall.org.
Our Mission
We are reimagining and redefining what foundership looks like and building a world where we see full representation of today’s most marginalized populations, particularly women of color and queer/trans/non-binary BIPOC (Black, Brown, Indigenous, people of color)—as startup leaders and CEOs.
From less than 1% to 51% by 2026.
#RepresentationMatters #TheTimeIsNow #OurFutureIsEPIC!
Our Core Values
We are community first.
We believe in the value of community and human connection, one conversation at a time, one relationship at a time. We seek to leverage our collective and individual strengths through practices such as cooperative agreements, co-creation, inclusive listening, and transparent feedback loops.
We see YOU.
We believe in your authentic self, your differences, your superpowers. We value our unique backgrounds and prioritize safety in our interactions with each other. From day one, we strive to create spaces where everyone has equitable opportunity to rise and participate.
We lead with purpose.
We believe in purpose over profit, valuing the journey over the destination, creating sustainable change over time. We help you define your north star and non-negotiable core values. These serve as cornerstones in navigating decisions with ease and progressing your venture in ways that embrace joy, liberation, and harmonize life and work.
We RESPECT THE SMALL.
We honor and value the tiny steps we take, off the beaten path, that make space for new possibilities and transformative change. We prioritize advancing meaningful progress through small shifts in the words we use, small shifts in our habits and rituals, small shifts in how we make sense of what’s happening around us. Small steps for BIG change.
We EMBRACE SPACE, PACE & GRACE.
We believe that the journey of purposeful foundership is nothing like than a race and so much more than a marathon—it’s lifelong journey of evolving how we earn and generate wealth for ourselves and the communities we care about. We create space to breathe, to stretch, to flow. We move at a pace that is right-sized for our life contexts. We move through fear and grant ourselves grace in how we reflect on the decisions we make and how we interpret the results of our actions.
Our Impact
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60+ Founders
60 Unique Stories. 60 Unique Visions.
60 Unique forces on mission to make a difference for the communities they serve. -
40+ Experts
40 Trusted Experts and Community Leaders Like Us empowering today’s and tomorrow’s founders to thrive together and rise together.
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200+ Cocreators
200 Individuals actively redefining the #FutureOfWork, the #FutureOfLeadership, the #FutureOfFoundership.
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89%
Of Founders and Experts self-identify as female/women, non-binary, LGBTQIA+.
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74%
Of Founders and Experts self-identify as BIPOC (non-White) or as a mixed ethno-racial identity.
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100%
Of Founders, post-program, feel they had equitable opportunity to participate in cohort events very often or extremely often.
OUR APPROACH
Startups for All’s approach to sustainable, purpose-driven foundership and leadership, first and foremost, centers on uncovering, uplifting, and celebrating the lived experiences, perspectives and shared stories of those who are traditionally excluded from startup and tech ecosystems—particularly those of intersectional identities: Black women, Brown women, Indigenous women, women of color, and queer/trans/non-binary BIPOC.
Our methodologies are inspired by concepts and practices from these disciplines and knowledge domains:
Agile Methodologies
Community-led/Cooperative models
Deliberate Practice
Design Thinking
Desire-based Design (vs. Needs-based Design)
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Emergent Strategy
Equity-centered and Trauma-informed Facilitation
Human-centered Storytelling
Intersectionality
Liberatory Leadership
Liberating Structures (Turn-taking/Timed Facilitation)
Nonprofit strategy (Theory of Change, Outcome frameworks, Evaluation)
Peer Coaching
Pluriversality
Product Strategy and Management
Somatic Learning
User Experience Design & Research
Visual Collaboration & Mapping
Writing for Liberation
**Please note, Cohort 6 meets Wednesday evenings online, starting March 20, 2024. Enroll by Tuesday, February 20th, to lock in Early Bird rates (you can change your mind at any time). General registration closes Friday, March 8th. Questions? Book a 1:1 or email Susan at susan@startupsforall.org.
Meet Our Founders
Our founders exemplify what it means to embrace purpose and bring their North Star vision to life.
They are multi-faceted entrepreneurs and inclusive leaders who open opportunities and build wealth for the communities they care about.
Learn more about Who They Are
Who We Are
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Susan Liao (She/Her)
Champion of Inclusive Leadership and Product | Innovation+Impact
Susan has a mission to reimagine and redefine the #FutureOfWork, the #FutureOfLeadership, and the #FutureOfFoundership by advancing full representation of our most marginalized populations, including women of color and queer/trans BIPOC, as startup leaders and CEOs.
Founder + Lead Coach & Facilitator, Startups for All -
Bria King (She/Her)
Product Strategist specializing in product discovery for impact-driven, human-centered problems.
I've been in tech for 10 years, passionate about taking a people-first approach to product management. This includes how I approach solving problems for users/customers and how I motivate my team. I love working on problems with a social impact and am energized by small, scrappy teams.
Adjunct Faculty, Startups for All -
Erin-Kate Escobar (They/Them)
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Consultant
Erin-Kate Escobar Consulting
Erin-Kate is DEI centric, focused on empathy, care and healing while challenging systems of oppression and working to the change status quo.
Adjunct Faculty, Startups for All -
Lena West (She/Her)
CEO + Founding Director | Inclusive Business Strategist | Startups + Founders | Digital Transformation
CEO Rising®
Adjunct Faculty, Startups for All -
Phim Her (She/Her)
Founder, HAWJ Studio
Founded by Phim Her, HAWJ Studio offers certified professional life coaching services on top of strategic design, marketing and business consulting. The studio also offers holistic healing practices.
Guest Coach & Community Partner
Brand strategy, Storytelling/Pitch Narrative, Wellbeing and Wellness -
Steven Wakabayashi (He/Him)
Creative Changemaker, Empowering Underrepresented Designers | Founder & President, QTBIPOC Design
Steven Wakabayashi (he/him) is a creative director, changemaker, and founder of mission-driven organizations empowering historically marginalized communities within design & tech.
Guest Expert & Community Partner
Community development/engagement, Product design, Wellbeing and Wellness -
Dr. Samantha Rae, EdD, MPH
Dr. Sam, CEO & Founder, is a DEI strategist who helps tech & non-profit orgs merge DEI with their operations. She founded DEI Offload™️, the first mental health app for DEI professionals with 450+ global members.
Guest Expert & Community Partner
Community development/engagement, DEI strategy, Wellbeing and Wellness -
Evan Tzeng (he/him)
Founder, Altered and Director of Sustainability, Beyond Green Travel
Evan is the Founder of Altered, Director of Sustainability for Beyond Green Travel and PTG Consulting, and a Founding Steering Committee Member for Coalition of Festivals.
Guest Expert & Community Partner
Brand strategy, Community development/engagement, Verticals: Creative, Hospitality, Festivals, Events, Psychedelics, Travel -
Rijon Erickson
Rijon Erickson, Spirit Guide, has a mission to connect people with ideas, each other and themselves.
Guest Coach & Community Partner
Community development/engagement, Storytelling, Technology -
Kim Savelson
Faculty, Program in Writing and Rhetoric, Stanford University
Kim Savelson teaches students how to engage in deep, innovative research in the context of writing and rhetoric courses. She maintains a particular emphasis on helping students communicate with wider audiences, outside the academy, through narrative technique and storytelling.
Guest Advisor & Expert -
John Diaz
Managing Partner at Stone Mountain Ventures
In my role, I look to fund great healthcare, consumer, and technology companies. I work with diverse and passionate founders.
Guest Advisor & Expert -
Mina Kumar
Social Sector Strategy & Outcomes Consultant
Mina is an expert project manager with over twenty years of experience with social sector organizations including non-profits, private foundations, socially responsible businesses, and social enterprises. Mina’s passion is managing teams and building culture, stakeholder engagement and facilitation, performance management, and strategy.
Guest Advisor & Expert
Our Connected Communities
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Hacking The Workforce
Hacking the Workforce is a non-profit organization committed to empowering and employing QTIPOC individuals in cybersecurity. Our mission is to promote representation and visibility of QTIPOC in the field by building a community that centers those who live at the intersection.
Learn More -
Inclusive Design Jam
We are a global community of practice and training academy for inclusive design founded in May 2022. Our mission is to make the access and use of products, services and environments equal to all.
Learn More -
PMDojo
A global learning community that helps career transitioners especially from marginalized intersectionalities get an education, skills, and real-world experience to successfully transition into tech, product management, or UX career fields. We are proud to achieve 95% Fellow Success rates.
Learn More -
QTBIPOC Design
Empowering LGBTQ+ designers of color with free and accessible digital design education, mentorship, and networking opportunities to thrive within the digital creative industry.
Learn More -
#RealRaise
A Cooperative "Virtual Village" for Equity in Innovation. Realigning the startup ecosystem for ALL to win-win together. Proudly powered by WeTransact.live.
Learn More -
Room for Us
Room for Us is a community focused on creating a third space, separate from work and home, to connect with lifelong learners. Join us for coaching and community dialogues focused on infusing meaning and learning into our work, play and healing. Room for Us was founded in 2021 by Phim Her of HAWJ Studio LLC.
Learn More -
Scroobious
Scroobious teaches diverse founders how to create investable pitch material through a scalable online platform and makes it easy for investors to discover them through data-driven curation. Our framework has been published, vetted by investors, and has helped hundreds of founders score meetings, raise rounds, and get into prestigious accelerators.
Learn More
what our alumni say
What's one way Startups for All has affected your journey as a founder?
“Startups for all has been extremely beneficial in the structure of my business. It has allowed me to create action-based steps for the future of Lexxi Cosmetics. In addition to the immense resources Susan has provided, she has ensured that we all have the capability to truly thrive in our industry...”
— Alexis Obodo, Founder & CEO of Lexxi Cosmetics, "Beauty that bridges the gap."
“It gave me a path to get to the next level. Thanks to Startups for All, I was able to describe the value of my venture in a clear way, work on my pitch, and most importantly gain confidence and get constructive feedback about my venture.”
— Maggie Joanidis, Founder of Impact Mates, “A Single Partnership to Double Your Impact”
What excites you most about your future as a founder?
“The prospect of changing the safe security industries landscape for diversity. In doing that I will also positively impact the lives of my community.”
— Aashni Shah, Founder and CEO of Taonga, "Take back control of your personal documents."
“Without a finished product, no funding, and a part-time team, we are already making an impact on people and how they think about health.”
—Alina Matson, Founder of Fitment, "Fit microworkouts into your life and into your pocket."
What one moment of your Startups for All experience stands out to you today?
“The Founders Showcase stands out the most to me from my experience with Startups for All. This was my first time participating in any activity like this before. I was very nervous and did not know if I was coming across with a spirit that really demonstrated my passion and dedication to Hacking the Workforce. At the end of the competition, turns out that I tied for first place. This experience helped me combat imposter syndrome. I never thought I would be that guy with a message so meaningful that other people who didn’t know me could get behind.”
— Safi Mojidi, Founder & CEO of Hacking The Workforce, a non-profit organization committed to accelerating social and professional development, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, and full employment and decent work for Black members of the LGBTQ community.
