“No early, early-stage proof of concept founder should go into debt, funding their thing. You just shouldn’t. 92% of startups fail, and that’s totally fine. But what isn’t fine is failing and going into credit card debt.” – Karen Cahn
Karen Cahn is the Founder and CEO of iFundWomen, and has dedicated her career to closing the funding and the confidence gap for women entrepreneurs.
Named on NASDAQ’s “10 Best Sources of Funding for Women Entrepreneurs”, iFundWomen is a startup funding platform providing female entrepreneurs access to capital, coaching, and connections critical to launching and growing their businesses.
Karen is a pioneer in tech and media. She was an early Google Intrapreneur where she spent 10 years leading various monetization teams in search, display, and video. Most notably, Karen started the Branded Entertainment business at YouTube, when, back in the olden times of YouTube 2006, she and a rogue group of sales and product managers, made the connection between big consumer brands and video creators, thus creating the first native video ad experiences monetized on YouTube.
Most recently, Karen spent three years as General Manager of AOL Original Video, and was responsible for business strategy and strategic partnerships. In this role, Karen built AOL’s female creative economy in video and as a result, nabbed AOL its first-ever Emmy nod.
Karen is on the board of advisors of Girl Rising, an organization dedicated to girls education in developing countries. She is also on the Springboard Media Council and invests her “human capital” in their pipeline of high-growth, women-led companies.
