Nilima Achwal

Background

About Nilima Achwal

Through my brand The Female Founders Lab, I have the pleasure of coaching some of the most brilliant feminine visionaries of our time, who have collectively raised millions in the last couple of years. I receive 1:1 coaching clients through a complimentary 30 min pitch deck reflection session which you can access here: Over my last 15 years in the impact venture space, I've led accelerators and worked with hundreds of pre-seed founders across the US and emerging markets like India, Africa, LatAm. I believe that our industries are undergoing a radical systemic shift toward transparency, decentralization, and regenerative and holistic values, and it's purpose-driven founders - particularly women and POC - who are powering this change from the bottom up, in areas like healthcare, education, food systems, media, circular economy, and future of work/communities. Previously as a purpose-driven founder myself, I created Iesha Learning - India's first startup focused on transformative sex education, a revolutionary offering to combat the rape crisis in India and years of deep taboos on gender and sexuality, currently reaching teens in partnership with Tata. When I was a founder, I often felt not seen, alone, and burned out, and like the startup culture was opposite to my natural way of doing things as a feminine founder - so, I created a new feminine path to venture success, called Goddess Leadership. I previously created and ran SEED accelerator at Villgro that succeeded in 75% of ventures' raising capital, which the Rockefeller Foundation later funded, as well as the Government of India's IndiAfrica bootcamp for Indian and African young visionary founders. My background as a rigorous researcher and writer of business cases for top-tier business schools like Ross and Kellogg has enabled me to see, analyze, and forecast industry trends very astutely. I've been published and featured in 100+ publications/talks worldwide, including CNBC, VICE, TEDx, and I starred on 8 episodes of The Real Deal, a reality show about social entrepreneurs in India, breaking the taboo about values-based sex education to 10 million viewers across the country. Invite me to speak or facilitate a workshop at your next event: