Designing to support female founders with Kalsoom Lakhani
Tell us a bit about i2i and how it became a female-focused accelerator.
From the very beginning, our flagship accelerator program had more women-founded businesses and it caused us to revisit why: the majority of our team was women. By virtue of that, we were always designing for women and that created a network effect as more women came into the program.
One of the reasons we’ve had high women-founder registration is that our program is not grounded in a city. We are a moving program, we would run for six weekends over four months, in several cities. We also accommodated for the culture – Pakistani culture is family driven, and so women could come with their babies. We would take the baby off their hands when they were pitching. That kind of inclusion and flexibility was baked in from the very beginning.
Through the pandemic we’ve learned that virtual programming allowed for even more inclusion and participation by women-led companies. We adjust for the timings that women are free, sometimes they are attending the training while they are cooking, and we constantly tweak and iterate in favour of women, by talking to the female founders about what they need rather than the male founder.
What have you learned about women and girls over the years?
Women always outperform, but this leads to mounting pressure
Women always outperform our male founders, in terms of ethics and also funding. This is not just investment, but also grants. We’ve seen that generally female founded companies, when they have the opportunity and resources, can accomplish more revenue wise and business wise, compared to male founders. While this is great, there is definitely pressure on you to outperform and can create a vicious cycle. Women are always dealing with the feeling and the narrative that “you’re just one of the few.
A safe community element is key
We invest in creating a safe and strong peer to peer community. As a woman who founded an accelerator program in Pakistan, I had felt the burden myself and the peer communities I was a part of at the moment gave me so much value, so community became a key element for us from the very beginning.
We always start our programs with a community building retreat where the curriculum is focused on vulnerability. At the same time, we ease into it – creating a safe container means approaching it like peeling the onion. We might start off with seemingly “superficial” icebreakers, but quickly move into personal stories about why they’re here, what their moments of impact have been and before we know it, the tears are out.
The role of male cheerleaders
In Pakistan, or other family driven cultures, we noticed the importance of a strong male cheerleader – whether a husband, father or brother – in order for a woman to succeed. Many of the companies we work with are husband-wife duos as confounders. While we do have to assess if the woman is just a token there, we also know that this is the culture we’re working in.
How have you designed for specific barriers female founders face?
Diversifying the definition of “capital”
Aside from providing an investment readiness coaching program, one thing that we design for is to educate on the types of capital available. A lot of women-led companies are not VC style businesses — and that’s ok. But there’s a couple of issues that emerge: (1) there is not a lot of diversity in capital and (2) educating women that going for other types of capital does not equate to “you’re not VC worthy / capital worthy / worthy.”
We work through our international capital program to widen the base of funding and one of the first things we say during our investment readiness training is that “not everyone needs to raise VC money,” following up with examples of what types of business that are suited for VC funding and which for other types. We also put bootstrapping at the top of every option – we get them comfortable with the idea that running a business isn’t about raising capital early.
Providing systemic access: funds and investment readiness
Overtime, we’ve also built a VC fund – so when we come across female founders who come to us for fundraising and we feel they’re not yet ready, we send them to the accelerator program. And, we usually find that six months later, they are ready – so we’ve created a symbiotic relationship between the fund and accelerator and can send founders to the sister entity they need at a certain point in time.
What advice would you have for someone creating a product, service, or community for women?
Women are not one amorphous identity
I cannot stress this enough: really know who is at the center of who you are trying to impact. Who is your early adopter female? Is she Gen Z? Highly or undereducated? There’s so many ways to design for women beyond “women” and placing her at the center of the design. I’m surprised that so many people don’t do that. Write out all the assumptions you’ve made about your central persona, then go out and test those assumptions.
What are some common misconceptions about designing for women?
That just because you're a woman, you’re going to design well for women. It’s about truly, actively listening to the woman.
Where else in the world do you wish to see more intentionally designed offerings for women?
In emerging markets. Just because a water wheel works at MIT, doesn’t mean that is what people want or want to have.
About Kalsoom Lakhani
Kalsoom Lakhani is the Co-founder & General Partner at i2i Ventures, an early stage VC fund for Pakistan, and the country’s first female-led fund. Prior to opening the doors to i2i Ventures in 2019, Kalsoom was the Founder of Invest2Innovate, i2i Ventures' sister entity, which she founded in 2011 to support and unleash the potential of young entrepreneurs in growth markets like Pakistan. She has trained young entrepreneurs, changemakers, and civil society leaders in Kosovo, Nepal, Cambodia, Ireland, Bangladesh, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan, and has spoken at numerous venues, including the World Economic Forum, Aspen Ideas Festival, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, U.S. State Department, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit, and SXSW. Kalsoom is currently a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and serves on the Board of the American Pakistan Foundation.