Four years ago, Anne Cocquyt was doing double duty: toiling away at a corporate gig in digital health innovation and organizing a ladies club where women could network, event, and attend workshops.
But she knew there was room to do much, much more. “I just felt like there really needed to be an actual community space for female entrepreneurs,” she says. “Something that would support the women who wanted to build things and put awesome companies out there.”
Making the most of her connections in her home of San Francisco, she started building The GUILD. Her bread and butter was in-person events, and along the way, she built a core community of women entrepreneurs.
But while those events themselves had a genuine, palpable energy, Anne struggled to keep that momentum going afterward.