Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are Doing To Make That Happen
- Fernanda Carapinha
- Jun 21, 2023
- 10 min read
Updated: Mar 28
Strike the word Empowerment. Women need resources, support, and opportunity not empowerment. They are big girls and can empower themselves. Stating it says we are weak, and we are far from weak.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Fernanda Carapinha.
Fernanda Carapinha is a serial media/tech entrepreneur, author, TEDx speaker and elite business mindset coach with over 25 years of experience in the entertainment and technology industries. She has a deep understanding of both the creative entertainment/media business and the data science/software business, which has allowed her to be ahead of the curve in the convergence of these industries.
WE Global Studios, the latest venture from Carapinha, is an AI-powered innovation studio and founderverse platform that supports women entrepreneurs worldwide. WE Global Studios powers the life-cycle success of female-led tech startups from ideation to exit, with a comprehensive suite of intelligent solutions and resources. WE Global’s mission is to be the chief producer of early-stage, fundable female CEOs, leading investor-ready, tech startups. They are addressing the pervasive female founder pipeline problem with AI-enhanced solutions and full-stack strategic services, all centered on a steadfast commitment to catalyze revenue growth, spur traction, and leverage non-dilutive capital to elevate startup value. Fernanda’s mission is to create an open and intelligent ecosystem where women globally can successfully pursue and further their entrepreneurial dreams.
Before founding WE Global Studios, Carapinha was the founder and CEO of 4Digital and 4Digital Entertainment, two Los Angeles-based companies at the forefront of the content/technology movement. 4Digital is an AI/Machine Learning-driven technology company focused on behavior data analytics software applications that straddle the media and cybersecurity sectors. 4Digital Entertainment is a multi-platform digital content company that develops high-impact narrative content while developing proprietary software to fully exploit the 360-content experience.
Prior to her entrepreneurial endeavors, Carapinha held senior roles at Brillstein Grey Communications, and Paramount Studios, where she oversaw the development and production of television series and movies. She has worked with top showrunners and developed series for A-list stars such as Jim Belushi, Tea Leoni, and Elizabeth Perkins.
Fernanda holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School and a Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University. Carapinha’s diverse background and expertise have positioned her as a leader in the intersection of media, technology, and entrepreneurship.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
Growing up as a Portuguese immigrant, I’ve always felt a strong connection to those on the outside and a sincere desire to see them succeed. Throughout my life, I have experienced many “firsts,” often defying the limitations imposed by my circumstances. My mom used to wonder if I was truly her child because I refused to let my modest reality dictate my future. I firmly believed that anything was possible. This mindset set me apart from my parents’ generation, who had a different perspective on life. For instance, I was the first person in my family to graduate from high school. When I got accepted into the University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship, I had to convince my parents to let me attend. They were concerned about me being far away from home and didn’t fully grasp the difference between a local community college and an Ivy League institution. It took a lot of selling.
When I turned 21, my parents moved back to Portugal, and after college I set off to navigate my own path with the $5,000 I had borrowed from them. I embarked on my career in the entertainment industry, starting at ABC and Lifetime in New York City. Eventually, I made the move to California to work at various studios. Interestingly, back in Portugal, my family struggled to explain what a “development executive” did, so they simply told their friends I was a doctor. It was easier for them to comprehend, and I would just smile and play along. In a way, I became a “startup doctor” of sorts.
After many years as a senior studio development executive overseeing series production and development, I decided to transition into entrepreneurship. At first in entertainment as a writer/producer, then novelist and later I launched my first company. A few companies later, I have realized I am very good at identifying what is broken in a system and architecting how to fix it.
WE Global Studios emerged from what I saw was a core overlooked deficiency of the startup ecosystem. It was heavily focused on the financial side of the business, offering a plethora of options (access is another matter) such as angel networks, venture capital, private equity, family offices, grants, revenue financing, crowdfunding and much more. The monetary side had a robust and mature structure. However, there was a glaring absence on the other side — the building process.
Let’s use the entertainment industry as an example. Imagine if every writer or producer had to pitch their ideas to “Wall Street or their local bank” for funding every time they wanted to produce and distribute a series or movie. Financiers would read treatments, conduct due diligence, assess market potential, evaluate risks, and ultimately decide whether to invest. If funded, the writers or producers are then on their own to assemble teams, cast actors, oversee production, manage post-production, find distributors, handle marketing, track accounting, and repeat the process for each project. This model is known as “Independent Production.” This is not an easy model for inexperienced writers and producers, but often the only option for an outsider.
On the other hand, there is the Hollywood studio model where the studio secures funding from Wall Street (to run its operations) and centralizes all the necessary resources and experts to oversee in partnership with the writer, producer all aspects of production at scale. This centralized approach allows for great risk reduction, efficiency, and optimization, akin to a creative version of manufacturing. However, this kind of infrastructure is entirely absent from the current startup ecosystem. The only building-oriented infrastructure available are bootcamps, typically known as incubators and accelerators. Although they offer valuable support, including some funding, their focus is primarily on preparing startups to pitch and secure financing to develop or grow their businesses. Their success metric is measured by how much a founder raises, and there lies one of the problems.
The Venture Studio model is the closest to the Hollywood Studio model with centralized resources for the life cycle of the company, but it does not operate at scale. It will fund and support a small group of founders (depending on the size of their budget) analogous to a small boutique production company.
My question (the Why) that birthed WE Global was how can we create a democratized, transparent, optimized, and intelligent system that produces a high-quality, low-risk, pipeline of early-stage global female led startups AT SCALE that will successfully exit or IPO, creating real wealth, power, and influence for women? And given that 70% of funded startups fail, we did not believe the answer was simply more access to capital. We believe the answer lies initially in the mastery of the build. WE Global is focused on delivering excellence in business fundamentals, driving startup revenue, and leveraging non-dilutive sources of capital to increase startup value and develop the next generation of fundable CEOs. The how is our AI-driven Founderverse platform, complemented by our strategic services and human augmentation layer. The future we believe is in the power of AI-technology solutions to fuel the growth, accessibility, and success of the female founder pipeline. YouTube’s platform and thousands of others brought content creation, distribution and monetization opportunities to the masses which previously was reserved only for those behind studio walls. A new economy was created, and we intend to do the same.
Please share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting. Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
During the final rounds of interviews for an executive development position at Paramount, I had a real Amelia Bedelia moment that still makes me chuckle. After the final rounds of interviews, they generously offered me a ride back on their private jet to New York, where I lived. They were headed to the annual and star-studded upfronts in NYC, so I hitched a ride. I had never been on a private plane before. White leather, beautiful wood, champagne, caviar. Before social media these images were not as common, and I was a bit plane struck. It was packed with senior executives, Hollywood agents and me — the new girl (or so I hoped). It was the 90s and the times were good. Other than not being able to find where the camouflaged toilet was hidden in the bathroom, things had been going smoothly for a few hours. Kerry McCluggage, the head of the television studio, sits down next to me on the couch. Excited and a bit nervous, I found myself trying to make small talk with him. As we enjoyed the fancy snacks, he suddenly asked, “Have you seen any of our pilots?” Without missing a beat, I responded, “Yes, the blonde one. He passed through a few minutes ago.” The confusion on his face quickly turned into laughter as everyone joined in and I quickly realized he was referring to Paramount’s new television pilots, not the airplane pilots. I still got hired. Clearly, they found my naiveté amusing. It was a lesson in learning your “new” industry’s unique lexicon.
In the captivating world of startups, there exists an equally important industry language, the “language of finance” that some of us fabulous founders may hesitate to embrace fully unless heavenly caffeinated.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Please share a story about that.
I was never shy about being bold and taking risks in my professional career. When I was head of program planning and scheduling for Lifetime in NYC, and I decided I wanted to take the leap to become a creative executive, which I had no experience in, I traveled to LA for general meetings. Trying to figure out how to convince others to take a chance on me and what job would be the easiest entry point to transition into was a challenge especially when it is a new area that you have no experience in.
I had settled on pitching current programming positions (oversee the creative of existing shows on television) vs development which I really wanted (oversees the development of new shows and the production of pilots — episode 1 — the MVP). After meeting with several executives, I was getting the usual nice but discouraging feedback about how business executives don’t transition to creative jobs without first starting at an entry level and starting over. I was already a VP at 27 and was not starting over as a coordinator.
Luckily, I had lunch with at the time the head of ABC’s scheduling department who I had worked with at ABC, back then that was a big and very powerful job. When he asked me what I wanted to do I pitched him on my aspirations to get into current and get into the creative side. He asked me why I wasn’t pursuing development jobs. I told him I felt they were out of my reach. I had no creative experience at all, and even current positions seemed like a stretch. He put his fork down and stopped eating his salad and looked at me and said you are smarter than half the people in those jobs. You are selling yourself short.
To this day I don’t think he realized how those two sentences changed the trajectory of my life. I just needed someone to give me permission, someone from the inside, to tell me yes you can do this. Go for it. A few months later, I landed a big job at Paramount as an Executive Director of Development and doubled my salary. All because I believed him. It taught me to not listen to the noise, to not let the reality of your today define what you can and should do tomorrow. It helps when you have people in your circle who believe in you even when sometimes you begin to doubt yourself. That is why community is key. I wish I had known that in my 20s, a professional community not just a personal community.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
Annie Lammot’s book Bird by Bird. I was reading it as I wrote my first screenplay and struggling to find my writer’s groove. I would pour over her book for inspiration and confidence to keep going. And to this day there is a line in that book I never forgot. She said, when you sit down to write (or create I would add) you must shut off K-FUCKED radio. K-FUCKED radio is the station we play sometimes during times of stress, or anxiety that broadcasts all the negative voices in your head. The chattering could be deafening she would warn; “you are not good enough, what are you thinking, no one will buy that.” She simply advised to tell them you would turn them back on in a few hours when you were done! Click.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
Many, many. “You have the power to create what you envision if you believe wholeheartedly that it is yours.”
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Yes, for sure. I have done a lot of different impact work. I was also an inner-city High School therapist in LA mid-career. I headed up a charity at Cedars that supported the NICU families and babies who were in critical condition. Our family renovated all the NICU bays to minimize stress to the infants and created a Goodbye room where families can say goodbye to their babies in a home nursery setting as they are being taken off life support. Very tragic but important work. We had been there as a family and knew how important the need was. We had said goodbye in what had been a storage room. I said never again for future moms.
According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
Honestly, we need to create a pipeline for female founders like they did for female athletes in the 60’s with Title IX. Those female athletes didn’t materialize out of thin air, the development programs had to be built and it took years. We have not even started. We are still swirling around the money problem, but it is so much bigger than that. It starts with how girls are being raised, entrepreneurship is a risky career move and not one encouraged in homes by parents. Then lower schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges have to develop a cohesive growth plan on how they are introducing entrepreneurship, and leveling up that education as students get older. Entrepreneurship is a creative mindset; it’s not a job or simply a career track. It is still being taught as a bolt on in schools.
And in one word, women hold back out of fear, and shame around failure because society and families judge them harshly. However, Covid changed much of that, and women leapt in huge numbers out of necessity and opportunity.
Please share with our readers what you are doing to help empower women to become founders?
I founded WE Global Studios. I don’t believe in using the word empowerment EVER. The only person who can empower you is yourself. Period. Hard Stop.
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