Why We Need Limitless Access for All

Why WEI? Why now?

Most people don’t realize it, but the largest untapped economic engine in America isn’t technology we haven’t invented yet: it’s women whose businesses haven’t been built.

In 2025, this truth sits in plain view. Women are now starting nearly half of all new U.S. businesses, a dramatic rise from the recent past. Yet their firms receive a fraction of investment capital, and earn less than male-owned counterparts. Disparities signal not a lack of ambition, but a systemic failure to make information, supporters, and policy conditions that allow talent to flourish available to all.

Women Are Nearly Half of New Founders, Yet Under 30% of Owners of Mature Employer Companies

^{Source: Gusto New Business Formation Report 2025, https://gusto.com/resources/gusto-insights/womens-entrepreneurship-2025} 

^{Source: Census Bureau Annual Business Survey, 2022, Table AB2200CSCB02}

This is the environment that inspired the Women’s Entrepreneurship Institute (WEI), which is announcing its opening today. We think our timing could not be more consequential. The country is navigating an economy reshaped by AI, regional industrial shifts, and a rebuilding of supply chains. Investors, companies, and governments are searching not just for efficiency but for sources of the next generation of growth. Workers regard an uncertain long-term landscape for traditional permanent employment, and are likely to consider starting a business if they can.

Women’s entrepreneurship can serve as a bridge to a stronger future, but data are fragmented, or misinterpret past performance as the only sure indicator of future potential.

WEI is dedicated to solving precisely this problem. It gathers and translates disparate data and knowledge into insights that reveal where women-owned businesses are growing fastest, where hidden opportunities lie, and which policies produce real, measurable change. Instead of focusing on where the economy has been, WEI surfaces where it is moving, and who is positioned to lead it.

Across industries as different as advanced manufacturing, childcare, and information technology, early signs of momentum are often missed because they live in silos: proprietary datasets, academic journals, agency reports, or the lived experience of founders who rarely have a platform. By acting as a central hub, WEI converts these scattered signals and experts into a coherent picture of economic possibility, and a powerful, more closely coordinated network. The information gathered also serves as a resource for active entrepreneurs. All of this matters for people building businesses, and for policymakers and investors who need clear, accessible intelligence to make smart decisions. 

Looking at Data Differently Reveals As-Yet Untapped Potential

^{Source: Census Bureau Annual Business Survey and Nonemployer Statistics by Demographics, 2022, Table AB2200NESD01}

WEI recognizes that data alone is not enough. Entrepreneurs succeed when ecosystems supply mentors, capital pathways, and social infrastructure such as childcare and paid leave at scale. By convening cross-sector partners and elevating what works, WEI helps communities cultivate the conditions where women-owned businesses can scale, thrive, and multiply their economic contributions.

In a time of need for both stability and innovation, WEI’s mission is critical: reveal the opportunities we’ve been overlooking, and help turn latent talent into lasting prosperity. Our success will unlock trillions for the economy. The future depends on us.