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PNC sponsors female fellowships to the Founder Institute’s pre-seed accelerator program.

October 7, Palo Alto, CA, & Pittsburgh, PA – The Founder Institute, the world’s largest pre-seed startup accelerator, and PNC Bank, a financial institution with a longstanding history of creating opportunities for businesses and the parent company of numo, a new model for corporate-backed innovation and entrepreneurship, are announcing five female-founder fellowships for the upcoming Founder Institute Pittsburgh program. 

The Pittsburgh Founder Institute aims to inspire and support early-stage female founders in the Pittsburgh Founder Institute by providing: 

  • Feedback and Mentorship from 85+ top startup leaders including Suzy Teele, Ilana Diamond, and Meghan Skiff  
  • Several Female Founder Fellowships awarded to the top female applicants, allowing them to participate in the program for free: https://fi.co/join/fff  
  • A Local and Global Support Network of Entrepreneurs, Investors and Advisors
  • More than $2M in Partner Deals and Resources 

Laura Ritz, Chief Operating Officer at numo, explains,

Women-owned businesses are among the fastest-growing business segments in the United States. But the availability of strong mentors in this space continues to be a challenge. PNC and numo are excited to help facilitate these meaningful relationships and to play even a small role in charting a successful future for female entrepreneurs.

This partnership is part of Founder Institute’s goal of improving the gender gap in technology worldwide through the Female Founder Initiative.  Launched in 2016, the Female Founder Initiative provides support for women founders all over the globe through their funding-focused webinar series, pitch deck feedback opportunities, mentor-led group office hours, monthly newsletter, and global slack channel. 

To celebrate the announcement of these fellowships, Founder Institute Pittsburgh and PNC will co-host an event dedicated to discussing the unique challenges of being a female founder: 

  • Female Founder Roundtable: How to Get Ahead in Entrepreneurship with PNC: Tuesday, October 29, 6 p.m., American Club - Beauty Shoppe (The Pitt Building, 213 Smithfield St, Pittsburgh, PA 15222): RSVP

Rachel Sheppard, Global Marketing Manager at the Founder Institute & Co-Creator of the Female Founder Initiative, adds, 

To improve the gender balance in technology worldwide, we must support female founders at the early-stage to launch, grow and fund their companies. With the generous support of PNC, we are able to provide five female-founded companies the opportunity to leverage the Founder Institute Pittsburgh program and network to advance their company further and faster.

Any female founder who is interested can apply to the Founder Institute Pittsburgh at https://fi.co/join/fff

Learn more about the Founder Institute’s Female Founder Initiative: https://www.femalefounderinitiative.com

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PNC Bank, National Association, is a member of The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. (NYSE: PNC). PNC is one of the largest diversified financial services institutions in the United States, organized around its customers and communities for strong relationships and local delivery of retail and business banking including a full range of lending products; specialized services for corporations and government entities, including corporate banking, real estate finance and asset-based lending; wealth management and asset management. For information about PNC, visit www.pnc.com.

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The Founder Institute is the world's largest pre-seed accelerator. We help pre-funding entrepreneurs and teams build an enduring company by establishing a critical support network of local startup experts that are invested in their success, and providing a structured and challenging business-building process that has helped our alumni raise over $800M. Leaders of the world’s fastest-growing startups have used the Founder Institute to raise funding, get into seed-accelerators, generate traction, recruit a team, build a product, transition from employee to entrepreneur, and more. The Founder Institute was founded in 2009 by Adeo Ressi and Jonathan Greechan, today the program operates across 180 + cities and is localized into 9 languages.

FOUNDER INSTITUTE PRESS KIT

GLOBAL MEDIA CONTACT: Rachel Sheppard, Global Marketing Manager at the Founder Institute & Co-Creator of the Female Founder Initiative (rachel@fi.co) 

Graduates of the Founder Institute are creating some of the world's fastest growing startups, having raised over $1.75BN in funding, and building products people love across over 200 cities worldwide.

See the most recent news from our Grads at FI.co/news, or learn more about their stories at FI.co/journey


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