“Springboard Enterprises Opens Doors so that Women Can Run Through Them”   

Two generations ago the mention of non-profits and women in the same sentence evoked images of women masterminding the next PTA bake sale. Today, women’s expanded opportunities in business have brought women to the forefront in technology. Women are amazing innovators and problem solvers, however, even the best and brightest, from astronauts to software developers, can hit a wall that seems impossible to scale.

The right springboard will not only spring your business over the wall; it will also place the business on a trajectory toward accelerated growth in ways the entrepreneur was unaware is possible. Springboard Enterprises is a 15-year-old non-profit helping female entrepreneurs accelerate their businesses through a safe, vetted network of innovators, influencers, and investors.

Amy Millman, co-founder and President of Springboard Enterprises, said, “The women who benefit from Springboard want to grow their businesses in a crazy big way.” Participating companies and entrepreneurs must be on a growth trajectory already with a vision to becoming billion-dollar businesses, and are not of the mindset, “I want to own 100% of this and grow it in an organic way.” All the businesses are technology-facing businesses, especially life science and health IT companies. Not all the women participating are techies or scientists—although a lot of them are–a lot of them just really know how to build businesses. One member is an astronaut with a technological vision to travel to another universe within 15 years.

Millman, reflecting on the past for women in business, said, “We all wanted a mentor to help us get through the door faster, and we didn’t have that.” Springboard provides this for them, “finding them someone to open doors so that they (women) can run through them.”

Visionaries Wanted!

What differentiates them from other entrepreneurs who want to bring something to market for use today, Millman said, “are their desires to solve an issue, a problem, a challenge, or something that is in their mind they think is important. They are visionaries that believe“sometime in the future, the market will catch up.”

The venture capital world is very interested in this future technology. Springboard is a messaging vehicle and an expert network to prepare women for the challenges related to pitching investors. “When you have to pitch something, you have to practice it.” Millman emphasized, “What resonates with you might not resonate with your audience.”

“Most of these people know how to pitch a product, but they don’t know how to speak investor.” Millman said. They come in speaking about algorithms, rather than talking about how a product or business will make money. All investors want is answers: “Who wants to buy this? How will it make money? How will you get it to the people who want to buy it?” Investors want to know which products will be homeruns.

Leaping through Open Doors

Next, Springboard introduces businesswomen to people who provide another perspective, resource, or connection to them to get them on track faster. Members benefit from Springboard’s Dolphin Tank™ approach. Instead of savaging women in a “Shark Tank” and putting them on guard, Springboard’s Dolphin Tank™, so named because dolphin pods work together as a group and assist one another, encourages shared ideas on issues like marketing strategies, IP protection for a new product, or pricing model assistance. A woman might say to the group, “I need funding for my business, but I don’t know what path to go down.” Someone else in the group might reply with, “I had the same concern and I chose to license my product.”

Springboard is a safe place, with zero competition, where women can share ideas and expertise. There is no feeling that her ideas will be critiqued or criticized. Instead, members hear, “How did you get that? We love what you are doing. Here are some of the things you might want to think about.”

Springboard’s mission, according to Millman, is not so much to inspire women, as it is to tell women, “Here’s how you do it.” Springboard women are already inspired. They have ideas, products, and businesses already in motion. What they generally require is a nudge toward expansion opportunities through polishing of their presentation to investors, or fine-tuning, so to speak.

Investor Relations=Marriage

While starting and growing a business is to a certain point like giving birth and raising a child, Millman said, “The investor experience is like a marriage. Everything sounds so wonderful…they are giving you money…there’s all this excitement and investing in you, and obviously in a marriage it’s investing in you, and they’re saying they love you. But then, like in a marriage, you hit a lot of bumps along the way, then people change and situations change and people get disappointed in each other, and then they either deal with it and grow and figure out how to work with each other or not.”  Just as you would vette a person you plan to marry—meeting their family, doing your due diligence to see what skeletons might hang in the closet, potential investors need vetting as well.

Knowing how to navigate investor relationships does not come easily. Sprinboard members might ask, “When happens when I am in an investor meeting and they say this? What does it mean?” Within the network, the answer will spring forth from someone who has already been down that road, “Well, this is what it means and this is what you do.”

This is the knowledge that many women who have “made it” would have killed for when they were younger and less experienced. Advice can range from a warning to watch your back to when to hire a lawyer to keep from losing your company. Getting into bed with the wrong investors can plunge a business into hot water. Consider a case in which an alternative energy company unexpectedly acquired an investor in a venture fund that turned out to be an oil company. If that oil company investor demanded additional research on the product, it could significantly delay the product’s arrival at market. These are the instances where Springboard’s network can offer guidance and assistance.

How to Join Springboard

Becoming a Springboard member begins with a detailed application much like an executive summary of the business. The application moves through an online screening process where about 100 people review it. Of the hundreds of applicants, a small group will receive in-person interviews, and from that group, Springboard will distill a smaller group of approximately 10 companies that will then come to make presentations to Springboard. Springboard then assembles a team around those entrepreneurs—based on their needs uncovered during the presentations—to spend 6-8 weeks addressing areas in which the entrepreneur requires assistance or doors opened.

Once you’re in; you’re in. Millman laughingly says that people have referred to Springboard Enterprises as the “Hotel California” because “you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.” All Springboard participants are experts in something, so the tendency is for them to stay on as part of Springboard’s network of advisors to give back to future members.

Advice: Build Yourself an Advisory Council

Whether or not they are candidates for Springboard, Millman said all women should “Put an advisory council together,” comprised of the top ten people whose advice is valuable to them. It might be neighbors, former professors, family members or friends of friends, but you need the truth tellers who can tell you how to do things. Surround yourself with experts. “You don’t have to hire it; you just need to have access to it,” Millman said.

Springboard asks all their candidates, “Who are your advisors?” The girlfriend you ask for advice is one of your advisors; women, especially, need to think in these terms. In this capacity, your friend might not be just your friend; she might be a trusted business advisor.

Although Millman admits to perhaps drinking a bit too much of the Kool Aid of Springboard positivity, she said does not see any obstacles to women entrepreneurs. “There aren’t any obstacles except the ones you put in your own path.” There are no obstacles, only challenges such as not knowing, yet, how to do something. She believes, at the end of the day, the people who succeed are the ones that figure it out.

All women have ideas inside them waiting to become the innovations that will power tomorrow. Millman recalled when her children were young thinking that it would be great to have a car seat that doubled as feeding chair and snapped into the stroller with ease. Now, a dozen or more companies offer such products. That’s the kind of forward-thinking, problem-solving idea that women need to bring to market right when they think of it. Springboard helps talented, creative women bring the next gamechanger to the world, sometimes, before the world recognizes the need for it.