Founders, investors and community leaders coming together on Tuesday, December 8 in Menlo Park. Find someone to meet, then read the stories they chose to share.
20 women
Founder, Entelligence.AI
Founders· San Francisco
Solo female founder who raised over 5M from tier 1 VCs to build a cost and quality optimization engine for engineering agents.
Co-founder, Astrapuffs
Founders· SF
Carissa Karban is the co-founder of Astrapuffs, an AI-native studio pioneering a new era of play, connection, and intelligent companionship. With a background spanning engineering, organizational development, and transformational leadership, she brings a uniquely human perspective to emerging technology. A passionate advocate for conscious innovation, Carissa believes the future we create with AI is a reflection of who we choose to become.
Founder, Clean Living Magazine
Founders· Palo Alto
Consultant, founder Clean Living Magazine, Founder Lash Binder, Founder Clean Beauty Podcast
Founder, GlamRoom
Founders· Toronto
I’m a Toronto-based founder building GlamRoom, an AI-powered marketplace connecting beauty, style, wellness, and the creator economy.
My journey started in technical recruitment, where I became a top biller, earned multiple President’s Club awards, and broke company revenue records. But I always knew I wanted to build something of my own.
What started as an idea to help my sister, who’s spent 20 years in the beauty industry, turned into something much bigger. With no traditional engineering background, I taught myself to code and spent the last year and a half building GlamRoom from the ground up, all while working full-time and leading a team.
I’ve self-funded the business, navigated the challenges of being a solo founder, and was recently selected as a Founder in Residence at Antler.
I’m most proud of betting on myself, learning an entirely new skill set, and turning an idea into a real technology company. My goal is to create opportunities for people to build businesses, earn more from their work, and get rewarded for the influence they already have.
President & COO, Perforated AI
Founders· Mountain View
My journey has been very non-linear - from music, to strategy consulting, to deep tech. At each stage I've had to embrace a beginners' mindset and get comfortable with being "bad" at something as I started something new.
Founder / CEO, Neighborhood Linguist
Community leaders· Antioch, CA
I'm the founder of The Neighborhood Linguist, a woman-led firm that bridges the tech world and the communities it too often misses. With a background in Tech, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies and Linguistics, I've built my career translating between people who build technology and the people who need a way in.
When I was laid off in 2025, I didn't wait for the next role. I built my own. I launched Tech Meets Couture, a fashion-and-tech series with founder showcases, panels and live demos. When my event partners dropped out this fall, I produced the SF and LA Tech Week editions on my own. SF reached 200+ RSVPs in two weeks, and LA drew 300+ guests and had to move venues to meet demand.
I also launched VANTAGE, a technical audit workshop helping women builders & senior leaders solve scaling, systems and AI bottlenecks.
My goal is to open doors and keep them open for the next woman.
Co-founder, Evenmouth
Founders· SF, CA
Practicing dentist of 10+ years who left her practice to build a oral microbiome science company with the most innovative science coming out of the oral microbiome space. We launched the Duo Biotic toothpaste 3 months ago.
Investor, LFX Venture Partners
Investors· San Francisco
I grew up going to warehouses and moving pallets around. Long before I knew what venture capital was, I was watching goods get made, stored, and moved, and learning that the global value chain runs on a lot of unglamorous, essential work. Today I’m an investor at LFX Venture Partners, where we back new technologies and business models in manufacturing, logistics, and commerce enablement, all the technologies needed to make, move, and sell products. One of my proudest moments was bringing our portfolio companies together at our cross-portfolio conference to share our collective learnings on building and scaling AI-native solutions across the global value chain of commerce. Outside of work, I’m passionate about fashion, an industry where design, manufacturing, and logistics all meet. I’m always looking for founders who will transform commerce and the global value chain.
Investor / Advisor, Funding Breakthrough Lab
Leadership· USA
Holly Uber is a product and innovation leader, strategic advisor, and speaker working at the intersection of technology, healthcare, and education. With roots in classroom teaching and experience leading product strategy at Genentech and zSpace, she brings curiosity and a human-centered perspective to how technology is designed and used. Her work spans digital health, immersive learning, and emerging technologies, helping founders and teams turn new possibilities into products and experiences that serve people. Through her speaking and advisory work, she invites people to question assumptions and explore what technology could make possible.
Co-Founder & CEO, Xela
Founders· San Francisco, CA
Growing up in a small town without a grocery store, the daughter of parents who worked incredibly hard but never had the chance to go to college, I paid my way through school with odd jobs and never imagined I’d one day ride a bike past the Apple Spaceship on my second day at the world’s most valuable company. At Apple’s AC Wellness clinics, I spent five years building eight clinical programs, including an anxiety program in which 84% of patients dropped a full severity category within 12 weeks. Before Apple, I was Vida Health’s first employee and scaled its coaching organization to four national teams reaching more than 100,000 members. For the past three years, I’ve returned to the early stage as a fractional executive, advisor and angel investor, helping drive 128% revenue growth in three months at Cascaid and building a rural prenatal billing model that became Lōvu Health’s core business. Now, as co-founder and CEO of Xela OS, I’m live in six clinics serving more than 25,000 patients, delivering a 15% revenue lift and a 70% cut in admin time so clinicians get their time back and providers get paid for the care they deliver.
Co-Founder & Co-CEO, WOMEN x AI
Community leaders· Redwood City
I'm Jenny Kay Pollock, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of WOMEN x AI (WxAI), Founder of Luminizing Growth, and an angel investor and advisor to women-led startups.
I've spent more than a decade helping technology companies grow and navigate emerging technologies. Along the way, I've learned that some of the most meaningful opportunities come from taking calculated risks, building relationships, and creating something before you know exactly how it will turn out.
One of my proudest achievements is co-founding WOMEN x AI with Reut Lazo. What started as a belief that more women should have a voice in shaping AI has grown into a community of over with more than 3,000 event attendees and 300+ speaking opportunities created for women.
Building a community from the ground up comes with plenty of challenges, from limited resources to the uncertainty of whether an idea will resonate. But watching women gain confidence, build meaningful relationships, step onto stages, and pursue opportunities they might not otherwise have considered has made every challenge worthwhile.
Today, I also invest in and advise women founders because I believe economic opportunity and influence go hand in hand.
I'm proud of the companies I've helped grow and of the opportunities I've helped create for other women.
Founder & Managing Partner, Pachamama Ventures
Investors· San Francisco
I'm proud to have started a VC firm with a strong mission and values investing in climate resilience and industrial sustainability.
General Partner, Siat Ventures
Investors· Burlingame
I started I in We because I needed proof that I belonged in tech, and it grew into a community of 8,000 Korean women in tech and entrepreneurship. What I learned is that if we want change, we have to create that space ourselves and make it worth joining. Now I’m doing the same as an investor, through Siat Ventures.
Founder and CEO, PelvicPrime Plus
Founders· Morgan Hill
I've worn a lot of hats: event producer at Stanford, multi-unit franchise owner, South Bay chamber connector, and for almost ten years the woman who walked Stanford Genetics postdocs through their H-1B paperwork. Every role taught me the same lesson: systems either lift people up or quietly leave them behind.
Then life handed me my biggest pivot. As a divorced mom rebuilding from the ground up, I had to decide whether my next chapter would be about surviving or about building something that mattered. I chose to build.
Today I'm the Founder and CEO of PelvicPrime Plus. We bring FDA-cleared electromagnetic pelvic floor technology to women who've been told that leaking, discomfort, and post-baby or menopausal changes are just "part of being a woman." (They're not. Sit down, relax, and let the chair do your Kegels for you.) I'm a certified menopause coach with a medical support background, and I'm opening our flagship studio in downtown Morgan Hill with investor backing, with a second location already in the works.
I also founded The D Girl Project, a writing and coaching community that helps women reclaim their voice and their power.
What I'm proudest of? Building all of this while raising my girls, and proving that a mom who's been knocked down can rise right back up as the CEO.
Chief of Staff, LinkedIn
Community leaders· San Jose
I’m Nirnaya Lohani, founder of AI, Her Way, Chief of Staff at LinkedIn, and a mom of two girls. I came to the U.S. from Nepal to attend college, where I rarely saw women who looked like me in leadership.
AI, Her Way grew from my decision to build the kind of community I once needed: a place where women can learn about AI, share their expertise, and take their next bold step. I’m proud to have grown it from a small gathering in the South Bay into conversations and events across California and Utah. What means the most is seeing women make connections, recognize their own abilities, and pursue opportunities they might otherwise have held back from. AI is the entry point but people are the point.
Founder, Blendbound
Founders· Oakland, CA
Growing up, we’re taught that every great story ends with “happily ever after.” But what happens when the life we’re told to dream of isn’t the life we want?
My journey began in Saudi Arabia, where I challenged the story that had already been written for me. Moving to the United States, rebuilding my life, and finding my place in Silicon Valley taught me something profound: happiness isn’t a destination someone else defines for us. It’s a story we discover and create for ourselves.
That realization inspired me to found Blendbound, a company built around one question: What if we could redefine happily ever after through play?
We began with Folded: Inner Journey, an interactive game where players enter a black-and-white paper world and gradually restore its colors through exploration, choices, and connection. The game became our first step toward creating worlds that encourage empathy, imagination, and self-discovery.
But our vision grew beyond gaming.
We began exploring how artificial intelligence could make stories and virtual experiences more emotionally responsive, and how consent-based emotional insights could help us better understand human experiences.
Today, Blendbound is expanding its vision into B2B applications, exploring how emotional intelligence, interactive storytelling, and AI can transform experiences across education, entertainment, cultural institutions, and businesses.
What started as my personal search for belonging has become a mission to build technology that helps people understand themselves and connect with others.
I no longer believe happily ever after is an ending. I believe it’s something we have the power to create, one choice at a time.
Founder and CEO, RingOn
Founders· Houston, Texas
I’m Shoshi Kaganovsky, founder and CEO of RingOn. Born in Ukraine, I previously founded Sensoleak, an industrial technology company, and exited in 2021. I’m now building RingOn, a wearable panic button with AI, focused on sexual assault and trafficking prevention.
Scientist, Thermo Fisher Scientific
Founders· United States
I am a curious, ambitious, and lifelong learner who believes in continuously evolving, embracing challenges, and creating opportunities rather than waiting for them.
I moved to the U.S. with aspirations of building a career in science and creating a meaningful future. Finding my place in a new country and growing within the corporate science industry has been a journey of persistence. Beyond learning the technical aspects of my field, I had to navigate a different workplace culture, communicate and compete alongside native English speakers, establish my credibility, and find my voice in professional spaces. Growing within organizations and advocating for my own career advancement hasn't always been easy, but those experiences have shaped my confidence, resilience, and perspective.
Today, I work in science and quality operations, where I've gained experience in problem-solving, process improvement, collaboration, and supporting teams. I'm proud of how far I've come, but I'm equally excited about what lies ahead.
As science and technology continue to evolve, particularly with AI, I find myself wanting to learn, adapt, and explore new possibilities. I'm especially interested in women's health and research. I believe there are still significant gaps in what we understand about women's health, and I would love to contribute to bringing more attention, innovation, and research into this space.
I'm also exploring the idea of building something of my own by leveraging the knowledge, professional experience, and perspective I've gained throughout my journey.
Beyond my professional identity, I'm a mother, a dreamer, and someone who values family, community, and meaningful connections. I believe in growing while helping others grow, staying curious, and having the courage to start something new even when the path isn't completely clear.
I'm still figuring out my next chapter, but one thing I know is that I don't want to stop learning, creating, or challenging myself.
Founders· San Francisco
Supriya spent almost two decades in AI product leadership at IBM, Meta, and, most recently, Intuit Credit Karma, as a VP running its 300-person AI org. The problem she saw is universal and structural: the more senior you get, the more the world demands your voice, and the less time you have to use it.
The systems to scale influence have always been entirely human. She built Eve when the underlying AI finally matured enough to handle the nuance and complexity of how leaders actually think and put it into words. Today, Eve turns thoughts into content, but, in due time, Eve will run businesses.
Founder, Ask The W
Founders· San Francisco
Founder of Ask The W (askthew.com). Agents that help you think before you build.
I built about 45 AI products across voice, video, robotics, software automations and one of the products made revenue on launch day.
Former Meta PM, Nvidia Engineer, SaaS/Robotics startups.
Coming to the summit and want to update your listing? Email natalie@breakthroughlab.org.
