What Stalls the Growth of Women Founders?

How is Started

Simply. With a text.

I needed a sounding board to brainstorm a business idea so I sent a SMS to a fellow entrepreneur.
The text turned into a coffee chat.
The coffee chat turned into voice-notes. Longer and longer voice-notes.
We met with other entrepreneurs; voice-notes became a group chat.

Group calls.
Body-doubling sessions.
Never-ending conversations.
Strictly business, but somewhat…also personal.

Why? We are women founders from visible minority and immigrant backgrounds, and jumping into entrepreneurship is both an opportunity and a threat. Like butterflies who can’t resist the light of a flame that can also burn them.

• How do you tell your parent, who’s spent upward of $50K each year for your studies, that you’re leaving a stable situation for the uncertainty of launching a business? I was once 33 and yet still anxious at the idea of telling my African dad that I had left my adult job.
• How do you ask your partner and/or children, who left behind all they knew for the prospect of a better life, to make an additional bet on you?

All of us, and our parents, had to sacrifice A LOT in order for us to come, live, study or work in Canada.

More Than Business

With that perspective, taking a conscious leap of faith into entrepreneurship cannot be just about passion, purpose or mission alone. These concepts don’t do justice to all that’s at stake.

When women founders from visible minority and immigrant backgrounds put their livelihood, their stability and their sacrifices on the line, it’s because they’re ambition-driven, legacy-oriented and growth-focused.

We want to create scale, optionality and assets.

What Now?

So I am taking the chats out of the group chats, with the invaluable support of Belinda Handou, Géraldine Jippé, Jeanine Hage, Julia Falci, Lin Sok and Ysimer Gonzalez, and inviting other women founders from visible minority and immigrant backgrounds to join.
To break the isolation. To voice culturally-loaded business questions. To challenge what growth means.

When?
📅 Tuesday, September 29th 2026
🕝 9:00AM to 3:15PM
📌 Montreal, in-person

If you recognize yourself in what I described or you know someone who might, register or share!