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Project Female Founder 2025 - It's a Wrap

  • Writer: Live True
    Live True
  • Jun 10, 2025
  • 4 min read

16 founders pitched to 14 investors this morning in Project Female Founder’s (PFF) Pitch Day for the Asia-Pacific Cohort and what a love fest it has been! 


My inbox and phone is still pinging with appreciation notes and anecdotes, and my brain hopped up from the high-quality pitches and investor responses I listened to. 

Celebrating the 3 most rewarding elements of the 2025 PFF season: 


1️⃣ Mentors

The intervention is showing results. 

said one mentor. That’s important, of course. 


The surprise to me was how meaningful it has been to have mentors participating in every session of the program - a first this year. 


Building rapport and reducing barriers between founders and investors is a raison d’etre of the program and we got to see investors do human things like 

☕️ drink coffee

🎧 take calls from cafes or their closets 👜

🚗 commute

😂 laugh

🫶 want to make friends with each other

😅 recount their mistakes

… even as they generously dispensed sharp observations, affirming suggestions and practitioner insights. 



2️⃣ Founders

It really was a great experience for me, seeing how other female founders talk about their business with so much passion. Learned a lot the past 8 weeks!

While there is plenty to know about fundraising, I know we’ve created something transformational when the growth is in multiple dimensions:

I was definitely nervous presenting and learning alongside such brilliant founders… But as I watched how the mentors, guest speakers, other start-up founders, and you carried yourselves, I had this 'aha!' moment. I truly believe in what I'm trying to achieve! I've stopped feeling small, and I absolutely have faith I'll keep doing better! 
What you shared about regarding self-limiting beliefs, trauma and mental health really resonated with me. As an introverted person, it's really hard for me to talk about myself and the business and definitely a barrier I'm working through.


3️⃣ The UBS ecosystem


Client advisors have been involved in the program since day 1 in many ways, but often behind the scenes like veteran Akshay Menon who brought in stellar well-received mentors.


This year we saw folks like Tessa Sunoko, Rino Nakamura, Andrew McKillop, CFA and Stanley Teo moderate breakout rooms. It brought a personal touch, convening folks from their respective regions so we could have breakout rooms for Australia and Japan. Let me acknowledge, as a trained facilitator, that it is no small feat managing time, Teams and new faces online. 👏 for stepping out of your comfort zone and getting closer to the startup ecosystem!



It’s been such a pleasure to take our core team’s collaboration to the next level, with Emma Wheeler, Vishakha Rajput, Marissa Ow, Aneta Orlowska, Grace Yeo , Cheryl Ng bringing their institutional knowledge and skills to raise the PFF flag higher each year, and enabling Delilah Panio and I to do what we do well. 


Which brings me to my partner for the 4th year in a row, whose leadership, empathy and wisdom I hold deep respect for. One founder said we were great complements:

Delilah with her punchy informative training and Gail who infuses the energy and human touch

A true blessing to experience this synchrony at work. 


This will be my last post of the PFF series for awhile as we conclude the program but it is never goodbye. Withdrawal next Tuesday 10am will be real! 


To all my new friends gained (and existing friends renewed) through this season of Project Female Founder: thank you 🙏 all for sharing your knowledge and presence in our time together. Know that we are all part of this global PFF community, now 4 years old and numbering in the hundreds. Let’s continue funding change we want to see in the world.


Huge thanks to our Pitch Day mentors:



Well done to all founders who put yourself out there… 

and also those who worked hard but were circumstantially foiled. Whatever you put in, pays off. 


Project Female Founder is a virtual investor readiness program for female founders hosted by UBS, in partnership with Coralus, Fortuna Funding LLC and Live True Pte. Ltd.. This year’s cohort includes over 100 founders from around the world raising pre-seed/seed/Series A capital.

 
 
 

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