Erica Bethe Levin

Globowl is my third startup so I’ve been an entrepreneur for a while now but surprisingly it is not something I went to college for or always saw myself doing. For my first company, I recognized a need in the market place and wanted to be the one to fill it. What inspired me to be an entrepreneur again with Globowl was this deeply passionate motivation and mission behind getting my kids off to a more nutritious start, mitigating picky eating and texture aversion, and educating my children about the world. During the pandemic, when we couldn’t leave the house, travel, and teach our kids about other cultures, I decided to bring the world to my kids through food. When I realized international baby food did not exist in supermarkets, I decided to fill this gap in the market.

Having never run a consumer packaged goods business before, bringing that to life was a challenge, especially given supply chain issues. Also, learning an entire new industry has been a challenge - everyday there is so much to learn such as working with a manufacturer, and going through compliance and certifications. Therefore, the learning curve of running a product company has been huge. Also, working with a very small budget is challenging. When you’re creating a new company, you need a large marketing budget to get your product out there and that can be challenging without a lot of cash flow. Raising money is also always challenging, especially as a woman raising capital. We all know the numbers that less than 2% of venture funding goes to women despite the fact that statistically speaking women-led companies outperform.

Amazing groups like GET Cities create such a strong network of like-minded founders where we can bounce ideas off each other and support one another. This is also true of the TechStars community. I graduated from TechStars in December 2022 and still talk to my fellow cohort members almost every day. Also, the Target Accelerator network, which is on the retail side, has been so supportive. My mentors from both of these organizations and those who have been with me since my first company have been extremely helpful. They know me really well and can help me with decisions that are right for me and the business so I rely heavily on my mentors. Lastly, my family is a huge source of support and my two children help me by giving me a break from the founder space.

Most of the founders I know are women so it shouldn’t be that unique to be a woman founder, but the unique part is that we are still underfunded and underrepresented when it comes to investment portfolios. If I had the answer as to why women founders are still underfunded, all of my woman founder friends and I would be funded, but we don’t know what the answer is. I hear the same types of stories from my women founder friends who raise in different cities around the US - when they walk into the room as just a woman founder, it yields less investment than when they walk into the room with a male counterpart. I do not have the answer as to why this is. It can be especially puzzling when looking at the statistics that female-led companies do just as well as male-led companies. Therefore, we should be getting 50% of the funding. I do not know why investors see it as more of a gamble to invest in women compared to men.

This question makes me smile because I’ve been in the Chicago tech space since 2008. Chicago is my home and entire professional community, and I couldn’t think of a better or more supportive place to run a company. I was the first woman founder at 1871 when it opened. From seeing 1871 open to seeing where Chicago stands in the global startup economy today has been amazing. There are so many great programs and resources in place to help underrepresented founders. For example, World Business Chicago has been a huge advocate for us and has helped put us in contact with manufacturers in Illinois. There was no doubt in my mind that headquartering Globowl in Chicago was the right place. Since starting Globowl, I’ve raised about half a million dollars, and every single dollar has come from Chicago. Also, people ask me why I went through TechStars with Globowl when I already founded two other companies. The reason I wanted to go through TechStars with Globowl is because I wanted to deeply and fundamentally understand this business better than other past businesses I’ve created. For me, Globowl is the most important thing I’ve ever done professionally so I wanted to be part of TechStars and that community to help this business thrive.

I loved attending the luncheon where we were able to meet founders from both cohorts. I brought my son to that event, and being able to bring my six-year-old son to a room full of powerful women was very impactful. He’s able to learn about what entrepreneurship means and what it looks like. Every founder looks different, and I’m glad my son gets to see the diversity within this community.