Welcome to Tech AF Founder Community!
We bring together women tech founders in a safe and supportive community to create money-making businesses and products customers love so that we can live life on our own terms.
Do you ever wonder...
What would be possible for you and your tech business if you were surrounded by genuine, supportive founders?
Only 1.7% of funding went to all female founding teams in 2022. That’s BS. But it’s not the only thing that’s broken. It’s the whole system.
We asked first-time women tech founders what the hardest parts of being a founder were. Besides funding, it was doing it all by themselves - making the right decisions for their company, accomplishing all of the administrative tasks, marketing and back-end work, networking and education, and sometimes just knowing what to ask and who to ask.
Solo women entrepreneurs are juggling more responsibilities than their white, male peers. You have caregiving responsibilities, less time, and more pressure to succeed in a tighter timeframe. To make it worse, you are forced to play in the same old boys club that just wasn’t built to nurture your multi-dimensionality.
What if you didn’t have to build your tech company alone?
Organized communities are proven as THE best way to:
Navigate fast-moving industries (Helloooo Tech!);
Form new habits; and
Achieve results and transformation.
When you join our community of first-time women founders, you access a vast pool of diverse perspectives. You share skills, hold one another accountable, cheer one another on, celebrate failures, and build new practices and habits – all while navigating the founder journey together.
Recent Results from Tech AF Community Members
🎉 Erin Croom just received $200,000 of undiluted funding (aka a grant) to build her technology to bring high-quality nutritional education to children in the South East.
🎉 Alice Thacker released her travel app 1.0 and is getting feedback from users (including Tech AF community members) while still iterating and adding value to her customers.
🎉 Bryanna Marshall was just accepted into an accelerator program for her tech-based maternal support network. She has positioned herself as a thought leader in her space, collaborates with peers in our community, and mentors other founders.
We could not be more proud of our members and the successes fostered together.
Is the Tech AF Founder Community for ME?
Tech AF Founder Community is specifically built for:
Women, transgender, nonbinary, and gender-fluid people;
Founders in the early stages of development: from idea-on-a-napkin to releasing an MVP to making money off your tech product; and
People who want to contribute to the creation of a supportive, safe community.
Tech AF Founder Community Membership Includes:
Curated content, daily member conversation, and networking opportunities organized around monthly themes designed to push you and your business forward
Community of "co-founders" to pool and share diverse perspectives, skillsets, and expanded networks
Goal-setting and accountability
Fireside chats and interactive workshops with subject matter experts who want to help you
Meditations, journal prompts, and self-care practices to do at home with monthly group coaching calls
An ever-expanding library of recorded content
A Note from Kristin Slink, CEO & Founder
Women founders get to be especially discerning with how they spend their funds. Some of us feel like we can barely keep our heads afloat when it comes to finances. We totally get it. Investing time and money in ourselves is counter to what society says a woman should do.
Over ten years ago, I started a financial tech company. I didn’t have a background in tech or business and could in no way be confused with a trust fund baby. I was almost always the only woman in the room, building alongside partners I didn’t fully feel safe with. But I was passionate and determined, and willing to risk everything to learn how to build and sell a multi-million dollar business.
In the end, I raised $55M and sold my first startup. The acquisition was hard on me, but it brought me to Atlanta. Ever since, I’ve dedicated my professional and personal time to help other underestimated founders.
When I decided to launch Tech AF, it was because I was sick of seeing women founders getting overlooked and underestimated. They were starting incredible companies and solving real-life problems that could change the world. But no programs or funders talked to them until they had a product, customers, and traction. They were getting left behind before they even had a chance to start, while white men were out here getting funded for half-explored ideas. I knew I was in the position to change that for women everywhere. But the thought of launching and running a company on my own did not excite me as I thought it would.
I was so sick of doing this alone.
Making every decision, being on every call, wearing every single hat, overcoming every obstacle on my own… It was daunting.
Then I thought, “Do I really have to?”
Real AF Talk: I will never tell you to get a co-founder just to have a co-founder. You need someone who is as passionate as you are, as willing to dive in despite the risks, and who has a complementary skillset. Luckily for me, I had already engaged someone to help me And she was just as committed to seeing women gain more wealth and influence as I was.
I asked Ashley Aarti Beck to join me as Tech AF’s Co-Founder and CSO. She dove in, adding her 8+ years of consultation experience in strategy, fundraising, campaign, program, and leadership development. But that’s certainly not all. We realized that you cannot change systems– whether we mean work cultures, communities, or society– from the same viewpoint they were created initially. That's why Ashley brings her 13+ years of personal development work to Tech AF's Academy curriculum and membership. Although you may forget, you are so much more than your company– and we support all of YOU.
Also, we have way more fun with one another and the community we are creating. We attend events together, bounce ideas off one another, laugh as we lean into our own totally unique brand voice and messaging, and carry the weight and levity of the lows and highs together. This has made the journey worth every step. I am not waiting to make it big before I can enjoy myself- and this alone keeps me connected to the mission and the vision of what we’re doing together.
Bringing women together as a community of co-founders.
Through our work, Ashley and I have saved founders hundreds of thousands of dollars in development, alone. We’ve collectively raised over $120 Million in various funding capacities. We’ve coached hundreds of executives on how to lead with grace, intelligence, and a bottom line in mind. With this experience and great enthusiasm, we design content and create spaces that give you a better way to build your company- with a community of co-founders to help you make decisions, meet expanded networks, brainstorm and problem-solve, and move through the highs and lows. We always provide holistic support that honors your multi-dimensionality as a human, woman, mother, daughter, Rich Auntie, employee, employer, community member, etc.
Why? Because this is our mission.
The Results You Get
By bringing women tech founders together in a safe, supportive community, YOU build money-making businesses and products people love so you can live life on your own terms– whatever that means for you.
From our Community Members:
✨ “I’ve really enjoyed the fireside chats [with experts in funding, development, and leadership] and was surprised by how much I have enjoyed the mindfulness sessions. In an industry that so often pushes you to feel like you are never going fast enough, I have found so much value in being around people who think a founder's holistic well-being is important, and taking time for that doesn’t make you a failure.”
✨ “I feel very welcomed and also safe in this community to be extremely transparent about where I am on my founder journey.”
✨ “It's been really great to hear from other women who have such a breadth of experience.”
✨ “The Community offers a nice mix of resources for body, mind, spirit, and business.”
✨ “The thing I love most about Tech AF is that it allows for personal growth and development.”
✨ “This is an authentic and truthful program that deals holistically with the trials and struggles of being a female founder. Instead of just hearing from founders who have already won, it is building a community of founders that are in the trenches.”
