Women’s Entrepreneurship Week(s)

The 7th annual Women’s Entrepreneurship Week went 100% virtual for fall 2020 and extended over several weeks for what became the Weekly Women Entrepreneurship series.

Hosted by the Feliciano Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, the events featured remarkable stories and interviews with women entrepreneurs – shared via the Center’s platforms and social channels through November 13.

“Last year, more than 240 universities and colleges in 32 countries and 49 states, plus D.C., in the U.S. organized at least one event featuring a woman entrepreneur on their respective campuses,” says Carley Graham Garcia, executive director of the Feliciano Center. “This year, many of those schools were back – joined by businesses and nonprofits, also featuring an event with a woman entrepreneur. It was exciting to connect our global community for the first time with content sharing across our platforms.”

The women shared their stories and wisdom on everything from quitting your day job, giving back to the community and learning from failure to financing, packaging, marketing, networking, distribution, e-commerce and dealing with a global pandemic.

Denise Woodard, the founder of Partake Foods, which bakes “delicious, nutritious and allergy-friendly” cakes and cookies for kids, told participants that “as a woman, as a woman of color, as a first-time entrepreneur, I knew it was going to be very hard to raise venture capital. I wanted to prove the product first.” Ultimately, Partake Foods attracted Jay-Z’s Marcy Venture Partners – when the time was right.