On 21 September, Mindset opened the doors to its first Women Tech Entrepreneurs Global Growth Program. Fifteen female founders from Bangladesh, Egypt, Ukraine, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Russia logged on from seven time zones for the opening session, where they met the first of the practitioners who will work with them throughout the program.

They have already built their products. They have already gained early traction. What they do not yet have, and what the program is designed to provide, is a practical communications playbook for accessing Western capital, international press coverage, and building the personal brand needed to compete internationally.

The founders are building companies across B2B SaaS, health tech, mental health, fintech, marketplaces and consumer platforms. Their businesses include a neuro-diagnostics company developing new ways to interpret brain data, a pet-care marketplace operating in five cities across three countries, and a women-only fitness platform with more than 9,000 members in Indonesia. What brings them together is the ambition to take what they have already built and make it visible far beyond their home markets.

Who is teaching them

Dina Mostovaya, Founder and CEO of Mindset, and Natalia Edde, Partner and COO, lead the program alongside seven international practitioners with experience across fundraising, customer research, media and founder positioning.

• Taryn Andersen (Impulse4Women, EIC Jury), on raising capital as a founder from an emerging market

• Natasha Gorobinskaya (Blueberry Research Group, ex-Google, Miro, TheFork), on understanding what customers are really saying

• Astghik Zakharyan (Mossy Ventures, SIA), on building an angel round from the ground up

• Karolina Attspodina (Beyond Vision, BMW Foundation), on developing a personal brand that helps founders raise capital

• Erik Eklund (The Oasis, IESE Business School), on turning a founder’s story into a competitive advantage

• Cate Lawrence (Tech.eu), on approaching press coverage from a journalist's perspective

• Akansha Dimri (Tech Funding News), on building long-term relationships with journalists

Over two months, the founders join live sessions, work through real cases, and leave with practical tools they can apply to their own companies. The program ends with a Mini Growth Strategy Showcase, where each founder presents a six-month plan built around the priorities she has developed during the program.

Why this program

Women already build and lead a significant share of businesses worldwide, yet they continue to face major gaps in funding, support networks, and media visibility. The challenge is particularly acute for founders from emerging markets. Women-owned SMEs account for roughly a third of businesses in developing countries, but face an estimated financing gap of about $1.7 trillion. Around 70% of women-owned SMEs in the formal sector in developing countries remain unserved or underserved by financial institutions.

In venture capital, of roughly $289 billion invested globally in 2024, female-only founding teams received just 2.3%. This persists despite evidence that women-founded companies deliver stronger returns. BCG research shows female-founded startups generate 78 cents of revenue for every dollar invested, compared with 31 cents for male-founded companies. UN Women estimates that closing the gender gap in entrepreneurship could add up to $7 trillion to the global economy.

Much of the support available for female founders today focuses on funding or product development. Far less attention is given to communications: how founders present their companies to investors, journalists, and international audiences. The program brings Mindset’s experience in these areas into a free, structured curriculum for founders who may not otherwise have access to this kind of specialized support.