January 2021 – More from the Institute for Women's Entrepreneurship at Cornell

Pandemic Results in More Women Launching Businesses

black business woman at laptop writing a note

According to this article from Time, in December 2020, America lost over 140,000 jobs – and all those jobs belonged to women. It’s no surprise, that the Washington Post just reported that this has likely been partially responsible for the “pandemic-fueled rise in female entrepreneurship”. This Post piece highlights stories of women who either saw changes in the economic landscape that encouraged them to launch their ventures or were forced to pivot and turn to entrepreneurship because of job losses and stay-at-home orders.

Radical Candor Explained in Six Minutes

“Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity” is a New York Times best-selling book published in 2017 by Kim Scott. The term “radical candor” is defined by Scott as the ability to challenge directly and show that you care personally at the same time. While that seems like it should be every leader’s goal, the reality is that being radically candid is challenging – often because it is counterintuitive to how we have been raised.

radical candor framework - x and y axis with four labeled quadrants.

Scott breaks down the concept of radical candor and outlines the other quadrants where we can find ourselves in this six-minute video. If you want to dig a little deeper, she has a podcast and a blog as well.

Link to Webinar – Starting a PPE Company During A Pandemic: Lessons Learned

In Spring of 2020, Dr. Gabrielle Page-Wilson, Dr. Samira Brown and business executive Alexandra Stanton, launched Little Lives PPE, a Black and woman-led company changing the personal protective equipment (PPE) landscape for American families and communities.

In this webinar, Dr. Page-Wilson and Ms. Stanton discuss the challenges of launching a PPE company during the COVID pandemic and how the business and product lessons they learned can apply to any aspiring entrepreneur who is thinking about launching, managing, or scaling a business during this unprecedented time.

SBA Launches Largest Expansion of Women’s Business Centers in 30 Years

According to this recent post, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) recently announced grant funding along with the launch of 20 new Women’s Business Centers (WBC) that will be opened across America. These new centers will serve rural, urban, and underserved communities. The move to open 20 new WBCs is the largest single expansion of the program since it began 30 years ago. Check out the post to read more about where the centers will be located as well as to access other resources from the SBA.