Founderland

Adrienn Lestyan  Producer R/GA Alexis Waller Creative Director R/GA Alina Bassi Co-Founder/Managing Director Founderland Anna Bulman  Strategy Director R/GA Augustus Cook Executive Creative Director R/GA Bayyina Black Global Sustainability & Impact Director R/GA Deborah Choi Co-Founder/Managing Director Founderland Dylan Boyd Director, New Programs Development, Ventures, R/GA Ventures Erin McCarthy  Design Director R/GA Jo Hayes Marketing Sciences Director R/GA Kathrin Oehme  Associate Strategy Director R/GA Lais Rogerio  Senior Visual Designer R/GA Lisa Kirmsse  Jr. Copywriter R/GA Nadine Müller-Eckel Strategy Director R/GA Nyomi Warren Designer R/GA Raakhi Chotai Sr. Copywriter R/GA Rachel Cantrell Design Director R/GA Sofia Vienny Research Analyst R/GA Stephanie von Behr Co-Founder/Managing Director Founderland Tanja Warzecha  Program Manager R/GA Victoria Pajaujis  UX Strategist R/GA Zainab Noshahi  Jr. Visual Designer R/GA

The Berlin-based nonprofit, Tech in Colour (TiC), was the first program created to support women of colour startup founders in Europe. The co-founders, knowing all too well the struggle to find community and allyship in the startup scene, set out to build a program that would serve the needs that they had experienced. However, as more organizations in the tech and investment spheres rushed to promote half-baked commitments and performative actions in response to the racial justice reckoning of 2020, Tech In Colour wasn’t cutting through.  Media regulations/restrictions, Civil liberties issues, People, Environment, Economic, Peace & Justice, Inclusivity & Partnership, etc. The European startup world is dominated by white men, who receive 90% of all venture capital funding. Meanwhile, entrepreneurial women of color get less than 0.5%. And while many organizations exist to help change this, such as ‘Tech in Colour,’ they weren’t cutting through the noise.  So, we helped change that, by giving them more of an identity in the start-up world, through a new brand and a new purpose.  But, we also recognized that there wasn’t an existing program that supported BIPOC founders that they could work with, so we also created a new place; a community that would do just that.  The work is intended to have a long-term impact, as it is a brand identity that can scale and be leveraged across all corporate and marketing activities as Founderland continues to grow. Tech in Colour wasn’t cutting through the noise and needed an entire rebrand, to both attract new founders, and reach VC’s to gain funding, therefore, their new identity would need to speak to multiple target audiences with different objectives.  So, we gave these female founders more than just a company, we gave them a place to call their own: Founderland. This rebrand was centered around creating a community for these entrepreneurs, sharing their stories in a way that felt unique to the individuals. As their individuality permeates through, this allows VC’s to connect with the founders directly, not just via the company they are a part of.  Data gathering, Target audience (consumer demographic/individuals/organisations), Relevance to platform, Approach, etc. Every woman of color founder has faced a host of obstacles on their business journey tied to their ethnicity, race or gender. And when the VC industry gives just half a percent of funding to these women of color, it is essentially treating them like outsiders. And while the convention is to speak to the process of overcoming barriers and breaking through, this misses the end benefit that these “outsiders” yearn for… a sense of belonging. Thus, the guiding principle for our brand was to create a place where women of color founders actually do belong. Implementation, Timeline, Placement, Scale, etc. Everything was focused on creating a space for founders in an industry that historically has not done that. We took this literally, by developing a flexible design system inspired by flag iconography as well as the individual qualities and ideologies of each founder.  This gave us a toolkit to celebrate each founder’s individuality, while also remaining cohesive. We even created generative profiles that allowed us to celebrate what makes each of them so unique. We created a consistent look and feel that has been able to grow and change as Founderland grew as well. RESULTS/IMPACT Contribution to the advancement of the selected Sustainable Development Goal, Business impact – sales, donations, Scalability, Behaviour change/action, Legislation change/regulations, Awareness/attitude shift site traffic, Response rate, Impressions, etc. Founderland has become not only a destination for women founders of color, but also for VCs from Europe and beyond looking to connect with them. Our brand is educating VCs on the many challenges founders of color face in the European market.   Exceeding all expectations, Founderland caused a massive impact in Europe’s VC space. Our growing pool of investors have come from across the continent and beyond, setting a foundation for exponential growth over the next few years.    Since the launch, we’ve already seen explosive growth in the community with a 268% increase in applications. Additionally, our follower count on LinkedIn grew by 10x, and we even received $700k in funding from Google.org. A place of belonging is becoming increasingly viable.