In 2025, US female-founded companies raised $73.6 billion, nearly doubling from 2024 but only 27% of all venture-backed funds raised, according to PitchBook’s 2025 All In Report . In addition, of $289 billion raised globally, only 2.3% of venture capital funding in 2024 was raised by female-only founding teams, per Founders Forum Group’s 2025 analysis . For women of color, this disparity is compounded, with Black women founders raising well under 1% of total funding despite the population being one of the fastest-growing groups of entrepreneurs in the country, according to J.P. Morgan research .

This disparity is ripe for disruption, as recent research from Boston Consulting Group contrasts how women-founded companies generate 78 cents in revenue per dollar invested, or over 2.5x more, compared to 31 cents for male-founded companies. The statistic illuminates massive market inefficiency turned opportunity and a gap that DivInc hopes to fill with its upcoming Women in Tech Accelerator, a zero-cost, equity-free cohort. At the helm is DivInc’s new CEO, Tauri Laws-Philips.

A New Era: DivInc & Tauri Laws-Philips

For over a decade, DivInc has worked to break down systemic and institutional barriers for entrepreneurs launching and scaling businesses. Laws-Philips brings experience supporting more than 200 founders through her work at Andreessen Horowitz, along with firsthand experience as a founder and CMO of multiple beauty startups. Her broader 15-year career spans startup leadership, community building, and marketing work for clients including Unilever.

“DivInc has always been about proving that talent is everywhere, even when opportunity is not,” she shares. “I’ve spent my career building the kind of connected ecosystems that under-resourced founders need to thrive, and I’m honored to bring that work to DivInc’s mission of closing the racial wealth gap through the innovation economy.”

Laws-Philips is no stranger to this work. Having also served as a mentor and program director for other accelerators in addition to building companies herself, she uniquely brings the perspective of both an entrepreneur and an ecosystem builder.

More broadly, Laws-Philips has been deeply engaged in the community where DivInc is based: Austin, Texas. She also sits on the Board of the Austin Creative Alliance and remains a working comedy performer and diversity facilitator through ColdTowne Theater, which she formerly co-owned. Laws-Philips’ goal in this new chapter is to expand the organization’s ecosystem by coalition-building with philanthropic leaders, universities, corporations, and peer organizations to equalize access for entrepreneurs nationwide.

Proof in the Pudding: DivInc’s Accelerator Model

In the pursuit of empowering traditionally overlooked founders–including those of the global majority, women, the disabled community, and those from rural areas–DivInc has hosted three signature program models, including its Founder Accelerator Program, MVP Academy, and Internship Program. These programs have built an alum network of over 90 successful venture-scale founders through cohort-based learning opportunities, mentorship, and network access.

A staple of DivInc’s accelerator model is its emphasis on supporting what Laws-Philips calls “the whole founder.” Alongside business fundamentals, founders receive cohort-based community support, office hours, mentorship, and access to advisors who can help them navigate the personal and professional demands of building a company. That combination is intended not only to help founders reach milestones, but also to help them remain resilient enough to stay in the game. In post-program surveys from the latest cohort, roughly 89% of participating founders reported gaining sustainable traction, while about two-thirds said they had reached or made significant progress toward product-market fit. 100% of participating founders identified pitching and storytelling as a core growth area.

While the hope is that all businesses take off successfully, DivInc’s model acknowledges the potential for differing outcomes, with founders pursuing the following during or after the program: 57.1% pivoted their business strategy, 42.9% expanded their professional networks, and 28.6% landed major strategic partnerships.

Creating an Equitable Future: Women In Tech Accelerator

Laws-Philips’ first major move as CEO was relaunching DivInc’s accelerator program. The prior cohort, the Innovation & Influence Accelerator, which wrapped this July, follows a two-year pause and reflects research suggesting that structured, cohort-based programs can support stronger outcomes for underrepresented founders, particularly when the program design and surrounding ecosystem are tailored to their needs.

A 2026 Strategic Management Journal study on accelerator programs for women entrepreneurs found that acceleration was linked to real performance gains for women-led ventures, particularly in programs designed with them in mind.

DivInc is now accepting applications for its sixteenth accelerator . The free, 10-week hybrid accelerator takes no ownership stake in participating companies, a structural choice intended to prevent further dilution for founders who have traditionally been underfunded and under-resourced.

Over 10 weeks, comprising two bookend in-person meetings in Austin and eight virtual weeks of programming designed to accommodate founders who are gainfully employed as well as those focused exclusively on their ventures, DivInc covers topics including pitching and storytelling, go-to-market and sales strategy, financial and capital readiness, and building the relationships founders need to translate traction into sustained success.

Laws-Philips’ Wisdom for the Aspiring Founder

Based on her experience within the field and the possibilities DivInc’s future accelerators hope to offer participants, Laws-Philips shares the following advice for new and seasoned founders:

  • “Talent is everywhere — opportunity lies in bridging access”: Like accelerator programs, founders have a unique opportunity to bridge access to a solution for their customers. Lean into that possibility and your audience will follow. Similarly, the same can be said for the greater educational community when it comes to venture capital. Lean into possibilities for those at the margins; the statistics point to greater possibility for a wider variety of communities.
  • “Build the relationships before you need them”: Y ou can launch and scale more quickly by investing in building an ecosystem of stakeholders before a need emerges. Embrace building relationships as you never know when a need may emerge that requires the breadth and speed of a mobilized community.
  • “Know your numbers before you pitch — and treat efficiency as a strength, not a constraint”: Success rests in a tested and refined model; stress-testing with mentors, advisors, and/or potential customers helps you build a product that lands well with venture capitalists and subsequently your product’s audience. It also helps build confidence in your outcomes.

“With the continuity of accelerators and the advancement of technology like AI that is creating more founders than ever before, mentorship and ecosystem building are what take founders furthest. I’m excited that my peers and I at DivInc get to work in this space at this exciting time,” says Laws-Philips.