Venturing Women Lab
Venturing Women Lab is a startup incubator for first-time female founders. The online program equips ambitious women with the support they need to transition from a corporate career to tech entrepreneur. Want to know when registration for our next cohort opens?
Transform Your Idea for a Tech Product To Reality in 10 weeks
Maybe this is you?
You feel like you’ve hit a ceiling in your career and you know you can do and be so much more!
.You consider yourself a highly driven ‘intrapreneur’ but your job seems to stifle your ability to express your full potential and you feel stuck!
.You have identified a market gap that can be solved with technology and are now toying with the idea of starting your own tech company.
.Perhaps you do not have a technical background and/or you are at a loss with where to start.
.On top of all this, you are not sure if running a tech company is compatible with having a balanced life.
.
And now, you want to have an actionable plan on how you can transition from employee to entrepreneur, in the most feasible and safe way.
INTRODUCING
Venturing Women Lab
Venturing Women Lab is a 10-week online incubator program designed for visionary women with tech product ideas. It is for women who want to defy corporate boundaries and unleash their full potential by solving a significant market need with innovative tech solutions.
We will guide you on your path of launching your tech company with confidence.
The best part?
The time commitment required is compatible with your full-time job.
You require an average of 6-12 hrs per week.
Designed with busy multi-tasking women in mind!
What You Get
2x Weekly Live Classes with Experts
Learn from serial founders and DaryaGuided Assignments
Structured assignments to keep you on track in your entrepreneurial journey.Community Access
Connect with a vibrant community of aspiring female entrepreneurs for networking and support.Bi-weekly Masterminds:
Engage in bi-weekly mastermind sessions with Coaches for personalised guidance and more accountability.1:1 Mentorship Pairing:
Receive bi-weekly individual mentoring sessions with experienced founders to fine-tune your business strategies.Exclusive Working Group
Join a smaller closely-knit working group of aspiring women founders for enhanced peer support and accountability.Buddy System:
Pair up with a fellow fellow venturing woman for tandem learning and mutual accountability.Pitch Demo Opportunity with Investors:
Showcase your business in a pitch demo to investors, get exposed to investors, gaining valuable feedback for refinement
OVERVIEW OF OUR HOW OUR PROGRAM WORKS
Action brings clarity!
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 10 WEEKS
[PROVIDED YOU PUT IN THE EFFORT]
You’ll finally stop thinking and start acting.
You will have developed a solid plan for the next 3-6 months both for yourself and your business.
You will have the first prototype, customer feedback, clear understanding of how to make money with your product, a pitch deck should you need to fundraise and a totally new environment of aspiring founders around you.
You may get adamant this is the journey you want to pursue.
Or you may decide to postpone this adventure to a later moment in your life.
You may pitch your idea to your employer and build it within your organisation as an intrapreneur keeping the safety and security of your job but implementing change you want to see.
You may even figure out entrepreneurship is not for you and give up on it all together.
This conclusion will release a lot of energy that is
currently channelled into wondering ‘shall I or shall I not?’
and allow you to proceed with clarity.
Our programme has a rigorous pace consisting of two tracks that run in parallel. Business track walks you step-by-step through the process of launching your tech company. Personal transformation track supports your mindset shift from employee to entrepreneur as well as your identity change.
View Our Curriculum
Week 1 - 3
EXPLORE
BUSINESS TRACK
-
Idea validation and market research.
Creating value proposition and business modelling.
PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION TRACK
-
Understand your why, your purpose and reasons to become an entrepreneur
Self-audit of your resources & challenges
Working with resistance and fears
Week 4 - 6
BUILD
BUSINESS TRACK
-
Hands-on workshops with no-code tools.
Building your first prototype.
PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION TRACK
-
Holistic well-being and self-care practices.
Building community and support networks.
Risk and self-management, planning personal transition.
Week 7 - 10
ROLL-OUT
BUSINESS TRACK
-
Go-to-market strategy and branding.
Pitching and funding opportunities.
Pitch demo with investors.
PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION TRACK
-
Experience in practice what it means to be a founder,
Build your founder brand,
Crafting and sharing your founder story.
Tailored for ambitious women ready to take charge of their future.
You consider yourself an intrapreneur and driver of change at your workplace, but you seem to have hit a ceiling
Your ideas have been grossly undervalued and sidestepped at your workplace and you want an opportunity to create your own environment as an entrepreneur that reflects your values and leadership style
You know that you are worth more than your job can offer and you feel this restlessness to explore beyond the boundaries of the corporate world
You've spotted a problem that can be solved with tech but you’re not technical and unsure of how to get started
Or maybe you have technical knowledge but lack business acumen
You also want to be able to design your dream life that gives you enough flexibility and quality time with loved ones
You sense that it’s time to transition from corporate and launch your idea and you need practical guidance and support.
This program is a perfect fit for you if:
This is your sign to take the first step towards your dreams
We DO NOT recommend that you sign up for the program if:
You simply want to start a “small business” that is not scalable including lifestyle businesses (small businesses are great but this program isn’t tailored to that)
You haven’t identified any gaps in the market and do not have an idea to work on
You want to be self-employed as a freelancer
You want to run a service-based business like coaching, consulting, marketing agencies, etc.
You do not have plans to build a tech-driven business
You are not ready to put in the work and follow the tasks in the program
Our program is rigorous and meticulously designed to guide you from idea validation to market-ready within 10 weeks. Therefore, we recommend that you apply only if you're prepared to commit to the work required to test both your ideas and yourself.
Testimonials
-
![]()
The program's focus on network, idea validation and scalability have been key for my development. The candid feedback gave me the knowledge and clarity to build my startup based on strong pillars.
Marie Roels
Architect & Startup Founder
How Venturing Women Lab was born
After 14 years in the corporate world, Darya Kamkalova, founder of Venturing Women Lab, hit her glass concrete ceiling and quit her job at an multinational corporation. She had spent a decade working in a confluence of two-male dominated industries: data and automotive.
To figure out her path, Darya experimented with freelancing, considered building an investment-focused fintech, and explored opportunities to build her own venture fund to channel more money into female founders’ hands. In parallel, she interviewed female founders and investors on her podcast Venturing Women.
Her own transition from employee to entrepreneur, a huge mindset shift associated with it and numerous conversations with aspiring founders made her launch the Venturing Women Lab to support other women going through this transition.
Building a tech company is often seen as a hero's journey, a sacrifice, a deed. We want to shatter this narrative.
Instead, it can be an opportunity to play by your own rules and design a business and life in sync with your heart.
Although undeniably challenging, this path should not suppress your identity, essence or jeopardise your relationships.
Meet Our Experts for Cohort 1
-
![]()
Darya Kamkalova
Founder at Venturing Women Lab
Angel Investor, Podcast Host & Startup Mentor -
![]()
Shruti Kuber
Founder at PitchBazaar
Investor at Signature Ventures
Mentors [Cohort 1]
-
![]()
Jenny Romano
Co-Founder & CEO at The Newsroom
-
![]()
Polina Mikhaylova
Co-Founder at KNOT
At the end of 10 weeks you would have:
.
Formed an actionable plan on your transition from employee to entrepreneur in a way that fits your lifestyle
.
Gained an understanding of how best to monetize your idea
.
Tested yourself in the role of a tech entrepreneur and joined a community of like-minded women
.
Built your first prototype & collected initial customer feedback
Frequently Asked Questions
-
The programme is designed for women with an idea of a product who want to build a tech company of their dreams but do not know where to start. This program is best suited for experienced professional women (mid-career or senior) of different backgrounds. If you feel you have hit a glass ceiling and realised you will not reach you full potential as an employee, this programme is ideal for you. This is the story of our founder, Darya, and she has an intimate understanding of challenges you are facing.
If you are currently pursuing MBA or EMBA studies and are reflecting if you should return to employment or build your own business, we encourage you to join us.
Fresh graduates with no professional experiences may not benefit from this programme as much as more seasoned professionals. goes here
-
By the end of 10 weeks, if you put in the time and effort required by the curriculum, you will have the first prototype, understanding of how to make money with your product, feedback from your target audience and a community of women on the same journey. Most importantly, you will have an actionable plan how you can transition from employee to entrepreneur in the most feasible and safe way.
In addition, you will also go through a personal transformation track to support your mindset shift from employee to entrepreneur and your identity change.
You will have tested not only your idea but also yourself in a role of a founder to conclude if this is the right path for you. Even if by the end you choose to shelve the plan to build your own business and instead stick to your corporate career, you will have made an informed decision. You will stop wasting time and energy on these back-and-forth contemplations, ‘Is this the right thing to do? Should I pursue this idea?’ Such pondering saps a lot of our energy. You will be able to claim it back and get peace of mind.ription text goes here
-
Both programmes require participation of live sessions (which will be also available as recordings), work on assignments and community interaction throughout the 10 week duration. It is important to consider that you cannot build a business by watching webinars and you get out what you put into the programme. Treat as an investment of time, effort and energy and discipline as each entrepreneur has to invest resources to build up their business. Optimal results will depend on the amount of work and time you put in.
We anticipate the following minimum commitment to achieve programme goals as:
Core Programme
- twice weekly 1 hour live sessions
- 6 hours of work outside of live sessions each week which includes interacting with the community.
Total - at least 8 hours a week
Cohort
- twice weekly 1 hour live sessions
- 6-8 hours of work outside of live sessions each week which includes interacting with the community
- bi-weekly mentoring - 30 min
- bi-weekly masterminds - 1 hour
Total - at least 10-12 h a week
-
The Core Programme is a self-learning going through business and personal transformation modules with access to the webinars and community of aspiring entrepreneurs.
The Cohort experience includes everything included in the Core Programme. On top, you become a part of a small group of participants and get access to mentorship and masterminds that provide accountability and support. This also means that the Cohort requires more time and work dedication, which translates into faster progress and more tangible results.
-
You can self-enroll in the Core Programme.
The Cohort requires you to apply and share the details of your idea. Your application will be reviewed by our team to ensure the limited spaces are filled with high-quality ideas with solid potential, committed participants and that they fit the programme requirement of a tech product.
Application process aims to select those people who we will be able to set up for success and propel to new heights. We will be hand-holding every Cohort participant on every single step of their journey. Since Cohort requires a higher weekly workload, we want to be sure about serious intentions of the applicants.
-
This is a structured programme with assignments, elements of accountability, community of aspiring entrepreneurs providing support designed to keep you on track to build a business plan and a plan to transition to entrepreneur.
Self-paced learning programmes allow more flexibility yet require substantially more discipline, long-term motivation and good judgement on what to work on when and how.
A structured programme like this incubator on the contrary keeps you laser-focused and accountable. It sets the right priorities and aims to protect you from tasks that would waste your time. Also, as all participants are on the same learning curve, you can tap into peer support and bond with them.
Since this is a relatively short programme, you will be able to get tangible results in just 10 weeks. With self-paced learning experiences, you may take months and years to move ahead.
-
Yes, you are more than welcome to join and you do not need a technical background to join.
-
Yes. You don’t need a co-founder to join the programme. However, if you do have one, drop us a line and get a 10% discount for each of you
-
The content of the programme is location-independent. However, the live webinar session schedule is tailored to the European time zone. Also, we expect most participants in the first batch to be located in Europe and MENA which means, you will be establishing connections and building a network of peers primarily located in these regions.
-
In fact, you do need an idea to join the programme and receive all of its benefits. The curriculum does not allocate time for you to develop a totally new idea.
-
Although we encourage live participation, we do understand that life happens and you may not be able to attend all webinars live. They will be available as recordings.
-
Go to the Enroll section of this page.
-
Experienced founders or ex-founders and investors to help you with your journey through the programme. They have been in the trenches and collected first-hand experiences of what it takes to build a tech company.
-
Core programme is 750 EUR and the Cohort is 2900 EUR.
-
You do not have to already have a tech product ready to go to market but you do need at least an idea to participate.
-
If you still need to validate your MVP and determine market validation, Go-To-Market, value proposition, you are welcome to join. It is quite common for MVPs and prototypes to change quite a lot in the very early stage of the idea validation and market research. However, if you have already advanced beyond these steps, you should not join the program.
-
The program is focused on hardware and software products from any technological background to participate. Businesses providing services, consulting or freelance work require a different support and will not be a fit for this programme and should not join.
-
After completion of the programme you will continue to be a part of the community of aspiring entrepreneurs providing each other support and accountability. You will also continue to have access to course materials after the programme is finished to support you on your transition to an entrepreneur.
We’re working on designing further support programmes.
-
The programme is designed to help you focus on the right things and protect you from wasting your time on working on wrong priorities. It is designed by experienced entrepreneurs to help you find the best, most efficient ways of working. The Cohort is designed to offer you more support, feedback and make sure you stay on track with the programme and your own plan.
All participants will be able to ask questions to the community of aspiring entrepreneurs and our team after the programme finishes. You will still have access to all materials and resources and if things take a big longer, you can keep on working on them.
-
No need to invest money into building an MVP during the programme. No-code tools with freemium models will be shared to help you advance along with the programme.
The final module of the programme will include information on external funding opportunities. Participants in Cohort will be pitching to investors at the Pitch Demo. Select participants in the Core Programme will be invited to apply to pitch to investors at the Pitch Demo.
IMPORTANT: Down the road, you will need to be able to invest some money as it is impossible to launch a business without investing any money. The amount of investment depends on many factors: product, market, location, how quick you are able to generate revenue, etc.
-
Cohort participants will pitch results of their work to investors at Pitch Demo. The goal of this session is to collect feedback and practical experience of pitching along with exposure to investors. It is not intended to immediately raise money which is not impossible but relatively unlikely after a 10-week programme.
Core Programme participants are welcome to attend the Pitch Demo. We will invite select participants of the Core Programme with the most promising ideas and progress to apply to pitch to investors at the Pitch Demo.
-
Yes, you can reach out to us through hello@venturingwomen.org to learn more about the programme.