Recent Posts (Female Founders)

All Posts

Promise Co-Founder and CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins on Being a Force for Good

by Lindsay Amos3/26/2021

Pheadra Ellis-Lamkins, Co-Founder and CEO of Promise ,had witnessed technology’s impact on the work communities in which she’d been apart — and not always for good. In the labor force and the environment sector,she’d seen technology replace jobs, relegating janitors and receptionists tocontract work. In the music industry, she’d seen artists’ content devalued withadvances in digital innovation. “I went into tech to understand it,” she said.

Edlyft Co-Founder and CEO Erika Hairston: How Community Can Elevate Tech

by Lindsay Amos2/25/2021

Edlyft co-founder and CEO Erika Hairston never imaginedherself as a “techie,” but was drawn to computer science while at YaleUniversity—not that it was a cinch for her. “I actually really struggled throughthe major and almost dropped it,” she says. While she ultimately persevered andgraduated with her computer science degree from Yale in 2018, she also builtappreciation for what it’s like to be truly intimidated by a subject matter.

Partnering with CodePath and ColorStack to support future technical founders

by Geoff Ralston11/19/2020

YC was founded around the idea that technologists should be at the center oftech innovation. It seems obvious today, but it wasn’t always that way. Webelieve that technology startups should include a technical founder because itis critical that a CTO have a seat at the table where key decisions regardingthe future of the startup are made. When it comes to deciding what to do withtechnology, technical founders know what the options are and what kinds ofproblems are hard and which are easy.

Future Founders Conference for Women Globally

by Kat Mañalac10/15/2020

On November 18, we are hosting our first Future Founders Conference for women who aspire to become a startupfounder. The event will be online, and whether you are curious about launchingyour own startup or are in the early stages of building one, you’ll walk awaywith the knowledge to define your own path.Attendees will meet YC partners, our alumnae, and other entrepreneurial women.

The YC Directory

by Geoff Ralston9/21/2020

We recently launched the YC Directory .The directory lists 2,000+ publicly launched YC companies and makes it simple tofilter by batch, industry, status, region, and company size. Potential investorsand partners can use the directory to easily find and contact the companies withwhom they’d like to work. The directory also has a filter for discovering YCcompanies that are hiring. We hope this tool helps job seekers find their nextrole.

Female Founders Office Hours and Happy Hour - July 26

by Kat Mañalac6/25/2019

We’re hosting group office hours and a happy hour for female founders on Friday,July 26 at the YC office in Mountain View, California.If you’re in the early stages of building a company we’d love to meet you —anyone from idea stage through Series A is welcome to join.From 2pm-5pm, we’ll host 45-minute office hours where you’ll be sorted intogroups based on the topic you’re most interested in discussing.

Leap Spins Out of YC

by Michael Seibel2/4/2019

In 2017, Cadran Cowansage , a software engineer atYC, started building Leap, anonline community for women in tech. This YC project led to thousands of womentalking openly about their experiences and sharing career insight.Today, Cadran and her two co-founders, Abadesi Osunsade and Kuan Luo, arespinning Leap (now Elpha) out of Y Combinator and launching as an independentcompany.