#StartupsEverywhere profile: Cindy Foy-Uhlir, Founder & CEO, Fierce Female Founders
This profile is part of #StartupsEverywhere, an ongoing series highlighting startup leaders in ecosystems across the country. This interview has been edited for length, content, and clarity.
Creating New Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs
Studies have repeatedly shown that women founders face greater obstacles to funding and investment opportunities than male business owners. Tired of the lack of opportunities for women entrepreneurs, Cindy Foy-Uhlir—a former consultant based in Raleigh, North Carolina—decided to do something about it. Foy-Uhlir started Fierce Female Founders to help support women-led startups and businesses as they seek to grow and realize their dreams. We recently spoke with Foy-Uhlir, the CEO of Fierce Female Founders, to learn more about her efforts to support women entrepreneurs and how policymakers can work to improve capital access for these often overlooked founders.
What in your background made you interested in entrepreneurship?
I’m an electrical engineer. When I started my career in the 1980’s, the conversation was more like “we’ll let you be a female engineer because we need an affirmative action number.” To succeed, you had to conform and become like the guys at the table. You were never able to leverage your authentic self.
I then became a management consultant for Fortune 500 companies working for a small boutique firm in Atlanta, Georgia. I did that for about 15 years. I got tired of banging my head against the wall, because it's so hard to get change done when working with a huge corporation. So I decided to form my own consulting firm to work with small- and medium-sized companies, since they are more open to change. This firm still does some work but my major focus is Fierce Female Founders.
Can you tell us more about Fierce Female Founders and the work that you’re doing?
Fierce Female Founders came to be because I got tired of having the same conversations I had 20 years ago about the lack of opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
The idea was born in a coffee shop meeting with my former co-founder a year ago, when we both acknowledged that we were meant to do something more than what we were doing. So I borrowed a pen from the barista and I drew a picture of the model for Fierce Female Founders. It’s framed in my office now.
Despite the Raleigh Triangle being a hotbed for entrepreneurs, not many of them are women. When I work with women entrepreneurs, there are three consistent issues that they all face. They’re not sure about the right next steps if they want to scale, they lack a network of other women entrepreneurs that understand what they’re going through, and they lack access to capital. Our vision is to bring together the growing community of energetic and passionate women in business and entrepreneurs who are ready and committed to unlock their fullest potential. We provide them with the tools and resources to form and grow their business, a sacred space to offer organic and authentic connection, business relationships and collaborative partnerships and the access to the capital they may need. We believe the economic recovery will be driven by entrepreneurship and women will lead that recovery.
How have women entrepreneurs been affected by the pandemic?
Our founders have been able to pivot when needed and have not seen a significant impact. They aren’t ignoring it, but they have stayed focused on building their businesses. We have one startup that’s focused on homeschooling resources, and because of the pandemic the founder has been able to help solve a ton of problems relating to shifts in schooling. She is flourishing.
We pivoted by taking our programs online. The advantages we have seen is that in going virtual we are no longer bound by geography. It has opened us up to be able to serve women everywhere. Because our mission is to guide as many women entrepreneurs to be empowered personally, professionally and financially so they can change lives, become the key drivers of economic growth and impact the world.
In general, how can policymakers better support women entrepreneurs?
On a national level, the biggest issue is access to capital. It’s insane everything I have to do to prove that I’m a women-owned business and jump through bureaucratic hoops in order to access dedicated resources. So it needs to be easier to be recognized as woman-owned businesses. I work with entrepreneurs all the time who say they can’t figure out how to even register as a women-owned business because the paperwork is so complicated.
And on the other end of the spectrum, I’ve put founders in front of investors before that have said “come back with a male CEO and then we’ll talk to you.” Like, are you kidding me?
It goes back to educating women entrepreneurs on how to access funding. These types of small businesses are still desperately needed in this economy. Two things I know for sure is entrepreneurship will bring back the economy, and women will be at the forefront of this new wave of entrepreneurship.
What are your goals for Fierce Female Founders moving forward?
We want to be the source for women entrepreneurs to answer questions and solve the issues.
As we said earlier, we are moving our programs to an online platform which allows us to serve more women everywhere. And we are looking at potentially developing a fund for the women founders in our network. A lot of the entrepreneurs we work with are focused on lifestyle type businesses, so they don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars, but a small amount of money could make a significant impact.
So our mission is to facilitate as many successful, women-led startups as possible. In doing that, we want them to realize that their ideas are valid and that they deserve to be paid for them.
An example is that Raleigh was recently ranked as one of the top five cities for women entrepreneurs—but the average income was $25,000 per year! The number one city in this study was San Francisco, where the income was $27,000. Why are we celebrating this? The strife that women entrepreneurs go through and the success they can offer is worth much more than that. We want to be the resource that drives that transformation.
All of the information in this profile was accurate at the date and time of publication.
Engine works to ensure that policymakers look for insight from the startup ecosystem when they are considering programs and legislation that affect entrepreneurs. Together, our voice is louder and more effective. Many of our lawmakers do not have first-hand experience with the country's thriving startup ecosystem, so it’s our job to amplify that perspective. To nominate a person, company, or organization to be featured in our #StartupsEverywhere series, email edward@engine.is.
