Women Leading

2025 Impact Report

Elevating Women Leaders

Amplifying Their Impact

More than ever, we need confident and decisive leaders who put stakeholders first, aim to make the world better, and manage with empathy and humility. That is how women lead, creating organizational cultures that are inclusive, collaborative, and innovative, and demonstrating time and again that this kind of leadership leads to better outcomes.

Project W is on a mission to see that women have commanding roles in creating new technology, shaping developing trends, and making critical decisions that affect our lives and the health of our planet. In 2025, we doubled down on our commitment to elevating women leaders:

By empowering women through our programs for women building the next generation of game-changing companies in key industry sectors,
By supporting women who are investing in solutions and products that have the potential to be transformative,
By building communities of women across disciplines—executives, professionals, investors, and entrepreneurs—who collectively are changing the face of their fields, and
By partnering with mission-aligned organizations who share our belief that we will all benefit with more women leading.

ln this report, we showcase the women leaders in the Project W community during 2025. We are proud to be part of their journeys and to support their work. We are also proud that, for the first time in its 81-year history, Davis Wright Tremaine—the law firm that supports Project W and makes our work possible—elected a woman managing partner, Jaime Drozd. Just like the leaders highlighted in this report, Jaime is committed to delivering the highest level of outcomes while fostering a people-focused culture that values inclusivity and community stewardship. We celebrate these women and the impact they make in their fields and beyond.

Empowering the Women Founders of the Next Iconic Companies

The lists of founders of the largest and most iconic companies are replete with men. Only one woman has ever founded and led a Fortune 500 company. That glass ceiling may have been cracked, but it deserves to be broken. Through our accelerator programs, Project W aims to empower the next founder-CEOs of companies that will become household names.

Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp

Our Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp (WEB) is a daylong intensive program for women founders of seed and Series A-stage companies focused on scaling and growth. Through sessions with experts on sales and revenue generation and by facilitating meaningful connections with investors and other funders, WEB positions founders to put their companies on a high growth trajectory and deliver maximum impact. In 2025, our programs focused on sectors where women entrepreneurs are building solutions for healthier lives and a more sustainable environment.

Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp | Climate Tech

Elevating the Women Building a Sustainable Future

THESE FOUNDERS ARE:

Building climate-resistant foods systems,
Accelerating the transition to electric vehicles,
Using data and AI to manage environmental and energy risk, and
Creating transparent and ethical supply chains and circular economies.

Learn more

Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp | Health Tech

Elevating the Women Transforming Healthcare

THESE FOUNDERS ARE:

Building products and platforms to improve the health and wellbeing of women throughout their lifecycles,
Creating access to healthcare in underserved communities, and
Using data analytics to reduce the care burden, deliver better outcomes, and improve the care delivery experience for both patients and providers.

Learn More

Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp | Consumer

Elevating Brands that Improve Lives and Deliver Great Consumer Experiences

THESE FOUNDERS ARE:

Making products sustainably, with healthy and clean ingredients and no additives,
Building products and solutions for people and families on-the-go, and
Creating products and solutions for overlooked markets.

Learn More

Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp

Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp | Climate Tech

Elevating the Women Building a Sustainable Future

THESE FOUNDERS ARE:

Building climate-resistant foods systems,
Accelerating the transition to electric vehicles,
Using data and AI to manage environmental and energy risk, and
Creating transparent and ethical supply chains and circular economies.

Learn more

Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp | Health Tech

Elevating the Women Transforming Healthcare

THESE FOUNDERS ARE:

Building products and platforms to improve the health and wellbeing of women throughout their lifecycles,
Creating access to healthcare in underserved communities, and
Using data analytics to reduce the care burden, deliver better outcomes, and improve the care delivery experience for both patients and providers.

Learn More

Women Entrepreneurs Boot Camp | Consumer

Elevating Brands that Improve Lives and Deliver Great Consumer Experiences

THESE FOUNDERS ARE:

Making products sustainably, with healthy and clean ingredients and no additives,
Building products and solutions for people and families on-the-go, and
Creating products and solutions for overlooked markets.

Learn More

Tech Equity Hub

Unlocking the Potential of Under-Resourced Women Founders

The Tech Equity Hub is a hybrid program for under-resourced women founders of pre-seed-stage companies designed to help these founders overcome the unique barriers they face in launching and growing successful businesses. Through two days of in-person and ten weeks of virtual workshops, the founders learn the fundamentals of building a business and meet with experts and investors to help position them on a trajectory for success.

THESE FOUNDER ARE:

Providing products and services for people with disabilities and limited mobility and that improve feminine health,
Building educational tools to train skilled workers, to coach students in critical thinking, and to foster emotional learning, and
Offering platforms to improve the consumer experience for homeowners, sports teams, and pet owners.

Learn More

Founded in Texas

Connecting Texas-Based Companies with Investors

The Founded in Texas event is held every year at SXSW and pairs a select group of women founders of Texas-based companies with investors from around the country who share their insights on building successful companies.

These founders are building solutions to disrupt industry sectors, including logistics, computing, workforce training, healthcare, and home building.

Learn More

Meet the Class of 2025

WEB | Climate Tech

WEB | Health Tech

WEB | Consumer

Tech Equity Hub

Founded in Texas

Hear from Founders in our Class of 2025

Mariza Hardin

Co-Founder & COO

Zócalo Health

Kim Petty

Co-Founder and CEO

Onward

Tushita Gupta

Co-Founder and CTO

Refiberd

Ann Xu

Co-Founder and CEO

ElectroTempo

Our Alumnae Program—Support That Keeps on Going

Our support of women founders does not stop when our programs conclude. We support our 250+ group of alumnae as they continue their entrepreneurial journeys, including through in-person gatherings and our series of educational webinars, Founder Fundamentals.

Celebrating our Houston-Based Alumnae

Hosting our Washington D.C. Alumnae for a Night with Women in Tech at Washington National Opera

Founder Fundamentals Webinar Series

Accessing SBIR Funding

Speakers:

Insider’s Guide to AI

Speakers:

How to Work Effectively with Your Lawyer

Speakers:

Deconstructing a Series A Term Sheet

Speakers:

Supporting The Women Deploying Capital

Whether or not women investors deploy their capital through a gender lens, they are more likely than their male counterparts to invest in gender-diverse founding teams. But the amount of venture capital invested by women is a fraction of the billions invested each year. Although more women are founding venture funds, the percentage of venture capital assets under management by women is still minimal given the size and vintages of the venture firms founded and led by men.

Solving this imbalance—and the knock-on effect it has on funding women founders—will take systemic and fundamental changes in how institutional investors allocate capital. Until that happens, our goal is to foster connections and collaboration among women fund managers and investors. By sharing deal flow and co-investing, women fund managers can compound the impact of their investing power.

Hear from Investors in the Project W Community

Michele Colucci

Managing Partner and CEO

DigitalDX Ventures

Emma Cartmell

Managing Partner

Create Health Ventures

Sara Brand

Founding General Partner

True Wealth Ventures

Elevating Women Leading in Their Fields

Like women entrepreneurs and investors, women professionals, academics, scientists, and executives who lead their fields are making decisions and fostering cultures that contribute to the success of their organizations. Through our peer communities, Project W aims to support these women as they rise in their fields. These communities, led by some of DWT’s most accomplished women, bring together women from across disciplines to sponsor and promote one another and to amplify each other’s voices.

Promoting Gender Equity in Media and Entertainment

Poker Evening

May 2025 | Culver City

Reception with Lattice

October 2025 | New York

Evening of Champions – RiseTogether and the Dodgers

December 2025 | Los Angeles

Women Advancing a Prosperous Alaska

Steering for Success: Exploring Paths and Paces for Career Development and Evolution with PNC Bank

April 2025 | Anchorage

Refining Your Brand Workshop

June 2025 | Anchorage

Women Innovating in Healthcare

Update on Legislation Affecting Women and Healthcare

May 2025 | Seattle

Amplifying Impact Through Collaboration

Through collaboration with our valued partners, we amplify the impact that Project W makes and the impact the women we support make. Meaningful progress happens when changemakers join forces, and we are privileged to do so with many leading firms who share our mission of elevating women leaders.

WEB Program Partners

Community Partners

The People Who Made Our Work Possible

It takes more than a village—it takes an entire ecosystem to drive change. We are deeply grateful to the many individuals who gave so generously of their time and talent in 2025 to make our work possible.

NAME	COMPANY
Noelle Acosta	Thatch
Elyse Adamo	J.P. Morgan
Dylan Adams	Davis Wright Tremaine
Murat Aktihanoglu	Remarkable Ventures Climate
Elaine Albrich	Davis Wright Tremaine
Buffy Alegria	LOUD Ventures
Sarit Amir	J.P. Morgan
Disha Anandpara	Independence Point Advisors
Sean Atkins	Davis Wright Tremaine
Chaarvi Badani	AmFam Institute
Katie Bailey	HearstLab
Roxanne Baine	Piva Capital
Louisa Barash	Davis Wright Tremaine
Nicole Bentz	S3 Ventures
Nicole Bleuel	Collected Company
Emily Bond	Lotus Bridge Partners
Sara Brand	True Wealth Ventures
Rachel Braun Scherl	SPARK Solutions for Growth
Karla Brollier	Velveteen Ventures
Emily Brown	Attane Health
Lisa Burton	HearstLab
Elisabeth Bykoff	Boxsy
Megan Cai	Hennessy Capital Growth Partners
Alicia Castillo Holley	Wealthing VC Fund
Claire Champy	Atlas Innovate
Christina Chan	Davis Wright Tremaine
Kanika Chander	Cloudbreak Legal
Michelle Chen	Humble Growth
Anne Clarke Wolff	Independence Point Advisors
Michele Colucci	DigitalDx Ventures
Lara Compton	ATA Action
Nicole Connor	Airbus Ventures
Margot Crivelli	JPMorgan Chase
Mirella D'Agnano	Inspiralia US
Haley Daiber Brannan	Operator Collective
Antonia Dean	Black Ops VC
Janet DeFrino	Five Mile Advisors
Amanda DePalma	Siemens Healthineers
Beth Devin	HearstLab
Jane Eckels	Davis Wright Tremaine
Peri Ehlman	Chingona Ventures
Perry Ekierman	Enlightened Hospitality Investments
Brian Fanning	Davis Wright Tremaine
Carolyn Fikke	Golden Seeds
Olivia Fleming	The Helm
Sarah Foley	InviNext Growth Partners
Jenny Gao	Energy Impact Partners
Lucy Gao	U.S. Bank
Therisa George	Paine Schwartz Partners
Jenevra Georgini	Spark + Sterling
Naomi Goez	Forum Ventures
Amanda Goltz	Amazon
Knute Gregg	Davis Wright Tremaine
Mindy Grossman	The Consello Group
Megan Guy	King River Capital
Sheena Hafez	J.P. Morgan
Iynna Halilou	The MBA Fund
Claire Hansen	Firebrand Ventures
Nancy Hayes	NKH Group
Caroline Hearst	HearstLab
Hannah Honeycutt	US Bank
Alex Houghtalin	Access Venture Partners
Carolyn Houren	S3 Ventures
Sallie Jian	Diageo
Cheryl Kallem	Golden Seeds
Kange Kaneene	LevelUp Ventures
Dana Kanze	Georgetown University
Anne Kennedy	Masters Fund
Daryl Kennedy	Stack Infrastructure
Deb Kilpatrick	Sonder Capital

NAME	COMPANY
Carson Kleiner	Rosenthal Capital Group
Megan Klingbeil	Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP
Erin Lambroza	Manna Tree
Allison Lee	Western Technology Investment
Michelle Lemmons-Poscente	Side View Ventures
Lindsay Lightman	RevTech Ventures
Caroline Lippman	Coefficient Capital
Alice Loy	Relevance Ventures
Caoimhe MacRunnels	Reach Capital
Carol Magalhães Isaacs	BBG Ventures
Joe Magliano	Continental Grain
Aman Mahajan	Healthier Capital
Alex Malamatinas	Melitas Ventures
Shelly Malik	Davis Wright Tremaine
Rebecca Mandel	Siam Capital
Waverly Middleton	Slauson & Co.
Elisa Miller-Out	Chloe Capital
Julie Miller-Phipps	Collaborative Innovation Partners
Laurel Mintz	Fabric VC
Julia Monfrini Peev	PACE Healthcare Capital
Ethan Monreal-Jackson	Newtype Ventures
David Morris	University of California, San Francisco
David Muldoon	Manus
Leslie Murphy	Davis Wright Tremaine
Jill Ni	ReThink Impact
Dayna Nicholson	Davis Wright Tremaine
Jessica Ochoa Hendrix	Killer Snails
Berta Okenve	Inspiralia US
Shannon O'Neil	Davis Wright Tremaine
Onicka Oxford	Anchin, Block & Anchin LLP
Kavita Patel	MUUS Climate Partners
Debbie Perelman	InviNext Growth Partners
Martha Phelps	Davis Wright Tremaine
Ellen Pizzuto	J.P. Morgan
Olga Polunina	Independence Point Advisors
Shweta Ponnappa	Providence
Nia Pryce	Forum Ventures
Barbara Raho	Golden Seeds
Chryssa Rask	Cerberus
Andrew Reynolds	RCV Partners
Jennifer Richard	Bonfire Ventures
Juliette Richert	The Artemis Fund
Catherine Roggero-Lovisi	World Collective
Sarah Romanko	Geek Ventures
Eastin Rossell	HearstLab
Kerry Rupp	True Wealth Ventures
Ashley Ryder	Vamos Ventures
Aimee Schuster	Bandwidth Strategy
Steph Scott	Questa Capital Management
ShoYoung Shin	Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator
Michelle Snyder	McKesson Ventures
Teo Soares	Collected Company
Kristen Sonday	Longjump
Natalie Sportelli	Bullish
Stacey Sprenkel	Davis Wright Tremaine
Kaylee Tao	Stripes
Marta Tejedor	Inspiralia US
Rachel ten Brink	Red Bike Capital
Tracey Thompson	VMG
Danielle Toaltoan	Davis Wright Tremaine
Jeff Uhrig	Beech Lab
Priyanka Vaidya	Coyote Ventures
Liza Valiaveedan	GingerBread Capital
Pratibha Vuppuluri	PA Green Wave Capital
Luke Wippler	U.S. Bank
Desiree Wrigley Vargas	Velocity Catalyst
Aimee Xu	I Squared Capital Global InfraTech Fund
Cynthia Yee	Vensana Capital
Grace Zuncic	Manna Tree

What's Next

As we turn the page on 2025, we look forward to another year of advancing our mission. Here is some of what is in store.

Daylong in-person programs for founders of seed and Series A-companies

WEB | Climate Tech – April 16 in New York

WEB | Health Tech – June 26 in New York

WEB | Consumer – October in New York

Virtual program for founders of emerging food and beverage brands

Spring 2026

Program for under-resourced women founders of early-stage companies

Spring/Summer 2026

Returning with:

Dinner for women fund managers

Poker evening

Founded in Texas founder and investor meet-up

Creating opportunities for women in gaming and AI to rise to the top of their fields

We look back on 2025 with satisfaction on what we accomplished, with gratitude to the many women and men who have played an essential role in making our work possible, and with admiration for the women who are leading the way to positive change and a hopeful future.

As we launch into a new year, we have many reasons to be hopeful. For the first time in its 71-year history, the 2025 Fortune 500 list shows that women lead 11% of the largest U.S. companies by revenue, an historic milestone in corporate leadership. Women are climbing the corporate ladder. While venture funding for women-led startups remains stuck around the 2–3% level, over the past decade, women-led exits nearly doubled, including a 7x jump in women-led IPOs. Women-led companies are outperforming their peers and, in doing so, successfully scaling to strong exits and returns for their investors despite the lack of early-stage funding. While raising venture capital in the post-pandemic environment continues to be challenging, by 2024, women held 17% of decision-making roles at venture firms, a three-fold increase over the past decade. The number of women angel investors and limited partners is also increasing.

We look forward to another fulfilling year supporting women who inspire us and working with our valued partners and allies. Join us on our mission to elevate the next generation of women leaders making positive change.