Heroikka

Founder and Organizer of the SF International Women Entrepreneurs Forum and Co-Founder at Heroikka. Maica’s experience in entrepreneurship, government and non-profits, has helped her create a platform for diverse international organizations to collaborate, share resources and give visibility to various projects and initiatives, start-ups and businesses specific to women at the SF International Women Entrepreneurs Forum. As Co-Founder at Heroikka, Maica is passionate and committed to closing the gap by connecting women-led projects, funding and support systems around the world. She is also on the Board of Directors for the ”Association of American European Chambers of Commerce and Business Associations” and Co- Founder of the California – Spain Chamber of Commerce.

Women with small and new business have limited or lack access to networks that effectively support their entrepreneurial efforts.

Heroikka provides a platform for women to access opportunities facilitated by corporations and governments looking to build inclusive impact.

We have discovered through our project that women entrepreneurs are able to increase their growth opportunities, balance the gender gap in entrepreneurship within their communities and improve their chances to build sustainable projects.

Unequal access to social capital plays a significant role in the gender gap, particularly for women starting new businesses. Women have a steeper learning curve and face many barriers and prejudices trying to access networks/capital. 

Globally, there are +400 M of women entrepreneurs. Approximately 231 million women are starting or running new businesses in 59 countries. In low-income countries, 37.8% of women intend to start a new business within three years, but world-wide women owned businesses operating for more than 42 months is only 6.2%.

If women and men participated equally as entrepreneurs, the global GDP could rise by approximately 3% to 6%, boosting the global economy by $2.5 trillion to $5 trillion. 

90% of the women (Latinas, African-American and Immigrants) that we interviewed said they have higher risks of business discontinuance within 6 months of starting. 

In communities abroad who engaged with our platform, less than 3% of women, had direct access to funded programs and opportunities provided by corporate and governments.  

On Heroikka, women are able to register and post their projects and share  their specific needs in areas that they need particular assistance. In the project template women share a brief description of their venture that serves as a introduction of their business.

These projects are then made visible to companies and government organizations. Project leads can be contacted directly on the platform and when enabled shared on social media. 

Corporations and governments get a customized tag assigned to their  programs in the platform. Women then, can add the tag to their projects to be considered for open calls and campaigns related to these programs.

Through our platform analytics, we are able to gather information about the most wanted skills for the businesses, the most popular projects locally and overseas, connections made by project. Collation of these trends help organizations to localize their community and engagement efforts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd0-Pv8PqJw&t=11s

Women: with early stage businesses, ideas or project with a social impact component. We want to be the foundation of community growth and provide wider opportunities to vulnerable women. Putting women at the center of economies will fundamentally drive better and more sustainable development outcomes for all, support a more rapid recovery from the current economic climate, and place the world back on a footing to achieve the 'Sustainable Development Goals'. 

So far we have been able to run 3 government initiatives that resulted in registration of 821 projects, institution engagement with 150 projects, award of 60 scholarships, and established avg 4.7 connections per project. 

Imagine how many women were empowered to fulfill their dreams. How many did they then inspire with their projects. How many communities benefited from 3 initiatives.  

We serve women in underrepresented communities and low-income regions. At Heroikka, it is key that women discover networks, connect with resources and workforce to build sustainable projects. This is the best way to create growth that translate to good jobs for the community at large. We want to be the catalysts that drive meaningful and long lasting changes to all the women entrepreneurs out there. 

The businesses that participated in the Canary Islands program through our platform created 32+ jobs.

After I started the SF International Women Entrepreneurs Forum, I did the first Gran Canaria Summit for women entrepreneurs in the Canary Islands, Spain. I was receiving many e-mails asking for help from different countries.

I remembered talking to my Co-Founder Janelle about a better way to find and share projects led by women.

From my own experience, I have struggled to start and build out my ideas. Just like the women we are helping, we had to educate many people about what we do everyday so that we could get access to the right networks and contacts.  We deserve better! 

I know that it takes a “village” to build a project, business or community initiative. We wanted to create something that helps many women, not only few. So we started working with organizations, governments and companies to show the amazing impact that all these women are generating in their communities. 

We bring exposure to the story behind their projects.

Giving back is part of my DNA. I've been always committed to bringing opportunities to women and now more than ever since I have a 9 month old daughter.

I always wanted to tell all women that we see them, that their projects matter to us.

We've carried out two pilots with governments, one in Spain and  another in Mexico. Results show that more progress is being made in women that participated in an open call from programs posted in Heroikka, and there is a significant increase in engagement with other women entrepreneurs that are starting new businesses in the region. 

The Canary Islands have one of the highest unemployment rates in the European Union. Last year the Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE Program) in Europe posted an open call for projects on our platform for women entrepreneurs in the Canary Islands. Women from Latin America, Africa and Europe living in the islands responded. We were able to facilitate access to 60 scholarships, 6 awards and 5 projects were nominated for the Santander X Global Award. Thanks to the success of the open call this program will be implemented in Andalucía and Sevilla in 2020.

My experience in entrepreneurship, government and non-profits, has helped me create the SF International Women Entrepreneurs Forum, a platform for diverse international organizations to collaborate, share resources and give visibility to various projects and initiatives, start-ups and businesses specific to women. 

As Co-Founder at Heroikka, I'm passionate and committed to women gaining mentorship, visibility and economic opportunities.  

Come see the power of networks, engagement and right resources. 

My background is not technical and with our little budget to build the MVP, we never thought we would be able to do it in such competitive and money driven ecosystem. 

I came out of my confort zone, since I had to learn many things to build the MVP and look for creative ways to adjust our budget. We reached out to different networks and continue giving back.  A great woman in Texas that found out how we helped a "Dreamer"  with the procedure to obtain her documentation, helped us build our MVP.

My best ability is to connect and make work together people from all backgrounds and nationalities. A good example of this, the 30 organizations that we were able to put together under the SF International Women Entrepreneurs Forum.

We have started also the "Asociacion Heroikka" in the Canary Islands to support women and girls with programs and initiatives for entrepreneurship.

We are currently, reviewing two projects with institutions to help vulnerable women in Chile and Turkey. We are also preparing an open call of projects in a digital global event for women from at least 3 continents in November.

We are a partner under the initiative 100 Women to Change Africa.

https://100women.afrimac.org/

The women in the Heroikka platform are the real role models.

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I'm just an immigrant, a daughter, a mother born during a dictatorship that cares for what women are doing in their communities. The best thing that I can do for them, is to build the global network that will see them the same way I do.

Heroikka empowers women to connect their project ideas and needs with global networks and social capital This includes women gaining mentorship, visibility and economic opportunities.  Our immediate goals are to increase the participation of women in the programs established in their communities, understanding the specific needs for their projects, and made visible these projects to the institutions and partners that run these programs. These immediate goals link to our long-term outcomes including improving the employment rates in the communities, strengthening the access to corporate and government partnerships, and decreasing the rate of business discontinuance for women. We've carried out two pilots, one in Spain and  another in Mexico. Results show that more progress is being made in women that participated in an open call from programs posted in Heroikka, and there is a significant increase in engagement with other women entrepreneurs that are starting new businesses in the region. 

The Academy for Women Entrepreneurs (AWE Program) in Europe posted an open call for projects on our platform for women entrepreneurs in the Canary Islands. Women from Latin America, Africa and Europe living in the islands responded. We were able to facilitate access to 60 scholarships, 6 awards and 5 projects were nominated for the Santander X Global Award. Thanks to the success of the open call this program will be implemented in Andalucía and Sevilla in 2020.

- Academy of Women Entrepreneurs in Spain  ( US Embassy in Madrid and US State Department through our non-profit in Spain, Asociacion Heroikka.

https://asociacionheroikka.com/

- Proexca - Canary Island Government: Preparing an open call of projects in a digital global event for women from at least 3 continents in November.

- AFRIMAC: 100 Women to Change Africa

https://100women.afrimac.org/

We have encountered the same problem that we are trying to solve.

We need access to new networks, funding and technical advise to build the new platform with what we have learnt from our users and project builders.

Just by applying we are giving visibility to the projects that are in the platform created by amazing women from around the world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQD0d6eHoPU

We also need partners for the Summit that we have established to give visibility and connect all these women through their projects with opportunities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmpJPakMoe8&t=2s