Shirley Blumberg: a founding activator of SheEO: radically generous women creating a new economic model
Shirley Blumberg is one of 500 Founding Activators for Radical Generousity, a new model to finance, support and celebrate female entrepreneurs launched by SheEO in July 2015.
The SheEO Journey
Prequel
Over the past 25 years, Vicki Saunders, founder of SheEO, award winning mentor, serial entrepreneur and recognized global influencer, has launched many models, companies, programs and initiatives all with the goal of finding a pathway to a better world. Recognizing that women are significantly underfunded by current models, she launched SheEO in 2015 to take advantage of women’s economic and social power to radically transform the landscape for women entrepreneurs by raising a billion dollars of capital by 2020 through individual women committing $1,000 each.
Conception
In the summer of 2013, Vicki Saunders ran an experimental cohort where aspiring SheEOs were paired with existing female entrepreneurs to see if there was interest in an incubation program for young female entrepreneurs succeeding on their own terms. The success of this experiment led to launching SheEO, which was incorporated in February 2014.
Pilot
In July 2015 SheEO launched a call for #radicalgenerosity to women across Canada and 500 women Activators stepped up and committed $1,000 each to create a pool of capital of $500,000. The capital raised was distributed to five selected SheEOs in the form of 0% interest loans.
Today and Beyond
The plan is to take this model and roll it out, city-by-city, over the next five years. Our goal is to get to one million women committing $1,000 each by 2020. A billion dollars of capital! Imagine the possibilities?