Athena Collective

The Athena team is at Web Summit all week and we could not be more excited to be here! We are on the floor all week with our Co-Founders Sarah Bundy and Mikayla Stewart and some of the Athena team Caroline Wakefield (she/her) Colby Davidson and Sakina Anverali Damathia. We have a booth (A1-14) today and we would love to meet you, hear what you are building, and connect with the incredible, visionary women in this room. We also have something special for every female founder who we all meet this week. Come say hi and you might just leave with a free year of Athena! And if you want to step away from the conference floor for an hour, come join us for an Athena Walk and Talk on Wednesday May 13 from 12 to 1pm. Meet us at the Olympic Cauldron at noon for fresh air, light movement, and good conversations. All are welcome. We cannot wait to connect with you this week. See you out there! 👋 #WebSummit

This month at Athena Collective, we’re going deep on the conversations every female founder needs to have but rarely gets to. You'll want to be in the (virtual) room for these sessions led by women who've been there. Here's what's on the calendar for members: 🌟 Beyond the Raise: Learn how revenue-based financing, credit lines, and working capital products actually work and how to choose what fits your business right now. 🌟 The Best Self-Care That Money Can't Buy: A real conversation about boundaries, burnout, and what it actually takes to protect your energy without the guilt. 🌟 Athena Open House: Learn how Athena Collective helps female founders grow, scale, and exit, with the right room, connections and roadmap. 🌟 We Are All Worthy: A heart-centered session on money stories, imposter syndrome, and building a business that pays you well and protects your nervous system. 🌟 The Framework You Need to Scale Profitably and Work Less: Six pillars, three priority moves, and a proven framework for turning a profitable business into a real asset. And here's what makes these workshops different: every single one is brought to life by the women in this community. Members can pitch ideas, host workshops, and share their expertise right inside the Athena ecosystem. Because the best thing about a room full of talented founders? There is no shortage of wisdom to go around. The workshops are just one part of what's waiting for you inside Athena Collective. Not an Athena member yet? This is your sign to join our growing ecosystem of women building businesses together. 

Exciting news! We're proud to announce our new partnership with WeBC! 🎉 For over 30 years, WeBC has been British Columbia's leading non-profit organization for women entrepreneurs. WeBC provides financing, mentorship, and business support to thousands of women across the province. Their mission? To empower women to make an impact in their communities and create real opportunities in BC's economy. Those values align directly with our mission to make every woman founder’s journey less lonely, more supported, and full of possibility. From the idea stage to post-exit and every stage in between, we exist to ensure that no woman in business has to figure it out alone. Because every female founder deserves the roadmap, tools, and connections they personally need to build and grow with confidence and clarity. By bringing together our two organizations, we are creating a wider, stronger ecosystem for the women building incredible businesses across BC. To every woman building something brave: we see you, and we're here. Together, we're just getting started. 

Last night, something special happened in Vancouver! 🎉 A room full of female founders talked about money. Openly, honestly, and without apology. Money Moves at Bennett Jones was everything we hoped it would be and more. There is something so meaningful about watching women come together to get real about their financial foundations, sharing lived experiences, asking the questions they have been carrying, and leaning into the kind of honest conversation that just needed to happen. The room was warm, the stories were real, and the energy was something we will not forget. The evening kicked off with our Athena Member Marketplace, where founders got to connect, explore, and support one another, and it set the most beautiful tone for everything that followed. Thank you to all the founders for bringing their businesses into the room: A&N Holistic Health Andrea Pomeroy The Long Lever Carla Smith Erin Vanderkooy Wellness Erin Vanderkooy She Session Studio Olga Pulwarska Plantd Skincare Ltd Tricia Stevens Ripple of Change Whitney Larson The WOW Culture Ingrid Broussillon To Bennett Jones, thank you for opening your doors to us once again. Your space set the perfect stage for an evening like this and we are so grateful for your continued support. This evening would not have been possible without our incredible panelists: Tracey Lundell, BA, CIM ®Nelofar Maleqazghar Julia Chung, CFP, FEA, TEP Thank you for sharing your knowledge, your lived experiences, and the kind of honest insight that truly made a difference in that room. And to every single female founder who showed up, asked a question, introduced yourself to someone, and stayed for just one more conversation, thank you. You are the reason this room was so full of good energy. We are already looking forward to the next one!

What's on your calendar next week? 👀 We have two workshops coming up for Athena Collective members and they're both ones you don’t want to miss! 🗓️ Tuesday, April 28: Making AI Actually Useful in Your Business: How To Design Workflows, Choose the Right Tools, and Avoid Overwhelm We'll walk through a practical framework for identifying what's worth automating and choosing tools that help simplify client communication, content, and operations. Perfect for founders, consultants, and operators ready to move past experimenting. 🗓️ Thursday, April 30: Make Your Money Work: Lending & Financial Foundations For Real Business Owners In 60 minutes, we'll cover separating your business and personal finances, what lenders actually look for, managing cash flow on an unpredictable schedule, and pricing your work for real profit. Come ready to learn. Leave with tools and templates you can use the same day. Already an Athena member? Sign in to the platform and grab your spot! Not a member yet? These expert-led workshops are just one part of what an Athena membership has to offer. Plus members can host their own workshops too. Sign up today and you'll get access to not only these workshops but everything else inside Athena: a personalized roadmap with the resources, connections, and guidance you need to start, scale, or exit your business with clarity, confidence, and control. Learn more at athenacollective.co

We are SOLD OUT and we are so excited! This room is going to be incredible: four expert panelists, our Athena Member Marketplace, and a room full of female founders ready to have real money conversations. We cannot wait to welcome you all in. If you're joining us, drop a 👋 in the comments and introduce yourself! Tell us who you are and what you do. Let's start connecting before we're even in the room together! Plus you never know who you might end up sitting next to and this is your chance to find a business bestie before the night begins. Due to high demand for this event, if your plans have changed and you're no longer able to join us, please reach out via dm to Kim Jacob so we can do our best to get your ticket into the hands of someone waiting. We can’t wait for next week, see you soon! 

Female founders carry a unique mix of courage, ambition, and vulnerability that few others truly understand. Here's what one of our members, Lacie Thompson shared with us about her experience inside Athena Collective: “I joined Athena because I came to a dinner at ASW [Affiliate Summit West] and I didn't realize how much I need and we all need a community of like-minded women, women who support other women, women who lift each other up, women who know what it's uniquely like to be a woman starting and running a company. At that table, I felt like I was with my people, but in everyday life, I feel oddly alone much of the time, like a square peg amongst a bunch of round holes. Doing what we all do can be scary, untraditional, exciting and rewarding, sometimes all within a single week or even a single day. I find having a tribe of people who GET all of those emotions is very rare and helpful.” Words like these remind us exactly why we do what we do. We're so grateful to have Lacie as part of Athena Collective; her energy, perspective and heart make our ecosystem stronger. Lacie is the Founder of MediaPact, a digital media marketplace that connects Creators and Publishers with Agencies seeking paid sponsorship opportunities! #MemberMonday

Two weeks from now, you could be walking out of the most valuable evening you've spent on your business finances. Money Moves: A Finance Panel for Female Founders Who Mean Business is almost here and tickets are almost sold out! We're bringing together leading experts in wealth management, private lending, and banking all in one room, for one honest, no-gatekeeping money conversation that female founders actually need. Business finances. Personal wealth. Smarter banking. Funding options you didn't know existed. This is the real talk you've been waiting for. And before the panel begins? The evening opens with wine, cheese, and the Athena Marketplace where you can browse a few of our members’ businesses, connect with other founders, and find your people before you find your seat for the panel portion of the event. Here’s a sneak peek into our featured Marketplace businesses: Kiyoko Verde Ciara Hamagishi A&N Holistic Health Andrea Pomeroy The Long Lever Carla Smith Erin Vanderkooy Wellness Erin Vanderkooy She Session Studio Olga Pulwarska She Session Studio Plantd Skincare Ltd Tricia Stevens Ripple of Change Whitney Larson The countdown is on and this room is filling up fast, so reserve your spot before it’s gone! 🎟️ FREE for Athena members. Non-members welcome too (non-member price: $35 + fees). Link in the comments!

Some things are hard to put into words until the right person finds exactly the right ones to say. Here's what one of our members, Hope, shared with us about her experience inside Athena Collective: "I joined Athena because it kept coming up in conversations as the place to be for women in business in Vancouver. I heard about it again and again from founders I respect, and eventually I thought, okay… I need to be in this room. What drew me in was the energy. Being surrounded by ambitious, thoughtful female founders across North America, both virtually and in person, feels powerful. It’s rare to find a space where women are building big things and genuinely cheering each other on at the same time. The value I’ve received so far is honestly hard to quantify. The workshops with subject matter experts have expanded how I think about growth and leadership, and the conversations with other members have sparked ideas I wouldn’t have come to on my own. I’m especially excited to start using the matchmaking tool to connect with potential collaborators and build partnerships that feel aligned." Hope Mikal is the founder of Unicorn Marketing Co., a brand and website studio known for its bold visuals, joyful design, and human-centred approach to marketing. Today, she leads a growing team of contractors and hosts Magic Hour, a podcast exploring what really makes marketing work, from empathy and storytelling to wellness and sustainable growth. We are so grateful to have Hope as part of Athena Collective; her energy is one of a kind and she brings out the best in everyone around her! #MemberMonday

One year ago we launched the Beta MVP of Athena Collective. 🤩 A small, handpicked group of women entrepreneurs were invited to use a test platform we built from scratch. There were a whole lot of questions about what we were creating and whether it would work. These early adopters showed up and engaged. They gave us real, honest feedback. And we took every single piece of it and built something stronger. Twelve months later (today), we have 1,000+ members worldwide and growing fast! Women are finding us in all kinds of ways, but mostly, they're hearing about us from each other. From happy members who are building stronger companies, finding their people, learning new skills, trading services, asking hard questions, and getting real answers. Mikayla Stewart and I have travelled a lot this year. And at almost every conference or event we've attend, SOMEONE pulls us aside and says: "You built Athena Collective? I keep hearing about it everywhere. I can't wait to join." But don't take it from us. Here are the words of the women inside our ecosystem using the platform and community every day. These are the ones who show up, do the work, and remind us every day why we built this in the first place: 👉 https://lnkd.in/g9t8AKZP To every woman who jumped in early and helped us build, learn, and grow - thank you! You are the foundation this was built on. To every woman who's joining us now, this is just the beginning, and you're in for a treat 😃 We're only in Q2 of our second year, and we've already surpassed everything we produced in year one, combined :) We crossed six figures in just a few months. And we are firmly on our way to seven figures in the next few months. The sky is the limit. There are MILLIONS of women worldwide who need our help and want to connect with each other, support each other, do business together and finally THRIVE, not just survive day to day. Here's to every woman who says YES to her business. YES to other women. YES to finding a better, faster, and smarter path forward. We built this for you. We are here for you. And we are ready to celebrate YOU, your growth and your success 🙌 Can't wait to see where we are a year from now! #AthenaCollective #WomenInBusiness #OneYear #1000Members #WomenEntrepreneurs #CommunityOverCompetition #Growth #Leadership #Founders