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Everyone needs a level playing field for unlocking their genius

PowerUp. Strategic and Financial Planning Non-Profit Program to Empower Female Founders

Our purpose is to bridge the gender funding gap by reducing execution risk and accelerating the flow of capital into female-led ventures worldwide.

2%

Women entrepreneurs only raise 2% of VC funding*.

38%

38% of founders stated that running out of cash and failing to raise new capital is the number one reason for startup failure**.

28 trillion
$

$28 trillion or 26 percent can be added to $28 trillion annual global GDP in 2025 if the gender gap is bridged***.

2.5x

Businesses founded and co-founded by women, deliver 2.5x revenue than male founded startups****.

* Source: PitchBook report.
** Source: a study conducted by CB Insights.
*** Source: the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
**** Source: Boston Consulting Group.

What is PowerUp?

  • A unique groundbreaking non-profit program for women-led ventures designed to close critical gaps in their strategic planning, financial management, sales and hiring strategies and establish a direct link between planning and execution

  • A combination of a week-long virtual immersive bootcamp, 7 one-day quarterly assessments and weekly executive group coaching sessions

  • An effective blend of curated instruction and individually tailored consulting sessions with seasoned entrepreneurs and industry practitioners to empower founders to take companies to the next level fast.

If you are a female founder, we’d love to hear your fundraising experience and share it with our audience. Submit it here.

Other facts:

  • PowerUp can be delivered virtually and in-person.
  • Progress of program participants is rigorously monitored by data collection at each program event and for 5 years after the program completion.
  • A global PowerUp Ambassadors network will provide a pathway to easier access to capital and cross-border expansion.

The result: a repeatable scalable blueprint to achieve economic growth, create jobs, while addressing social inequity worldwide.

For more background, download the PowerUp two-pager. To learn more about the bootcamp structure, go-to market strategy, our track record and team bios, download the Pilot Program Overview.

To stay abreast of what is happening with the PowerUp program.

The main challenges we address

Strategic planning and Sales

  • How to develop objectives, key results, and key performance metrics near and long-term;

  • How to scale and grow your company with limited capital or overcome stagnant revenue growth;

  • How to choose the right team without the ability to pay market rate for talent;

  • How to efficiently allocate your time between fund raising, business development and managing people.

Finance

  • How to select and set up financial systems and processes so that you have the right information to drive your business forward;

  • How to determine the key drivers of your business;

  • How to set the right financial goals and understand the implications on profitability and cash flow;

  • How to select the revenue model; cost structure, and financing method that best fits to your needs;

  • How to create a new financial plan given new economic realities, even without much financial history.

Fundraising

  • How to avoid falling into the trap of changing your business plan to fit investors;

  • How to plan future fundraising rounds;

  • How to create and manage the Board of Directors and effectively communicate with existing investors;

  • How to choose between equity, debt, SAFE, and convertible debt, and get a fair deal.

Let’s change the startup world together so that every female founder can make her dream come true!

Contact us to learn more!

Company Eligibility Criteria

  • 01

    No industry focus.

  • 02

    At least one female as part of the executive team.

  • 03

    In business for at least one year.

  • 04

    Producing revenue from at least ten clients.

  • 05

    Has a staff of at least five people.

  • 06

    Founders raised an initial round of financing from family, friends & Angel investors.

Who We Are

Victoria Yampolsky

PowerUp Co-Founder and CEO

Victoria Yampolsky, CFA, is a serial entrepreneur and an experienced business and finance executive with extensive startup experience. She is the President and Founder of The Startup Station, a CFO advisory and finance education platform for startups and small businesses.

The Startup Station, a CFO advisory and finance education platform, empowers startup founders and business owners to use finance to drive their business forward and accelerate their fundraising process. We help entrepreneurs transform their vision into profitable and fundable businesses.

The Startup Station worked with more than 150 founders one-on-one across 15+ industries and helped them raise $50M+ in venture capital.

More than 1,000 founders have taken The Startup Station’s courses to learn the basics of accounting, valuation, financial modeling, and startup financing. Victoria also teaches at the Bank of America Institute of Women’s Entrepreneurship at Cornell University.

Previously, Victoria worked for Deutsche Bank Research and was a technology consultant with CapGemini’s Financial Services Division. Victoria holds a Bachelor’s Degree, Cum Laude, in Computer Science, with a minor in Mathematics from Cornell University, and an MBA, with honors, from Columbia Business School.

Clarence (Hamp) Hampton III

PowerUp Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer

Clarence (Hamp) Hampton III is the CEO of Guerrier Consulting, a consulting firm focused
on Go-To-Market planning and building scalable sales processes.

Hamp is a C-Suite sales & marketing executive, trade show speaker, player/coach, enterprise sales manager. Entrepreneur with experience in scaling and building startups and early growth stage companies. Board Advisor to several start-ups.

Three time startup CEO with two exits; CRO for two tech companies that scaled sales from $10 to $50 million respectively; National Sales Director for a Privately held Medical Marketing company that grew business 30% annually until company went IPO; Adjunct Professor for MBA program for Entrepreneurs at Metropolitan College of New York

Thierry Vodounou

Head of Africa Region in PowerUp

Thierry Vodounou Managing Director of Sarenga Group, Sarenga Group is a global investment advisory firm that offers transaction services as well as capital raising support to companies at all growth stages. Sarenga works across sectors and takes consultative and collaborative approaches with its clients.

Thierry is a strategic, global finance leader with an entrepreneurial mindset with significant lead investment and M&A advisory roles in simple to complex projects. Thierry has 25 years of combined experience in banking, corporate finance, business development, and investment consulting across sectors in North America, Europe and Africa. He is a multilingual communicator adept at building relationships with external clients and internal team members and optimizing performance outcomes. Influential self-starter with a proven record with Big Four accounting firms and Fortune 500 firms and Development Finance Institutions, who works persistently to help clients achieve ambitious business visions.

Since 2018, Thierry has been dedicated to empowering youth-and-women-owned Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) in Africa and North America as mentor, executive business coach and investment instructor in renowned accelerator programs including Techstars Equitech Accelerator, Newchip, E4Impact, GetFundedAfrica, and ShEquity Business Accelerator (SHEBA). Thierry has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in Finance from Ouachita Baptist University, and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) focusing on Derivatives Markets from Loyola University Chicago.

Pauline Koelbl

PowerUp Venture Partner

Pauline Koelbl is a founder of ShEquity, Managing Partner as well as AfriProspect GmbH’s Founder/CEO.

Pauline is gender-lens/impact investor and a leading innovation expert in developing & emerging economies with over 20 years’ experience in international affairs and venture philanthropy. Pauline also has 11+ years’ experience catalyzing innovation and supporting SMES/startups across Africa, deals sourcing, conducting DD and fundraising; 5 years of early-stage investing.

In 2022, Pauline was recognized as one of 100 Leaders building Meaningful Business, combining profit and purpose to help achieve the UN Global Goals. Her passion lies in innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic empowerment of youth and women.

A double Fulbright -Scholar and Fellow-, Pauline holds an Executive Education in Innovation for Economic Development from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government; a Master’s Degree (MA) in Poverty and Development, Institute of Development Studies (IDS) from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Studies (Honors) from the University of Arizona (UoA), USA

Selected PowerUp Ambassadors On Board

Our ambassadors are a curated community of investors, business leaders, C-suite executives, entrepreneurs, academics and philanthropists, already in 25 countries on 5 continents.