An Open Letter to Women Entrepreneurs

Dear Friend, 

We have seen you countless times in boardrooms and break rooms, pitch meetings, and subways with your eyes buried in a book or tablet. Always learning, always interpreting, always growing. 

We’ve watched you keep your composure in the face of rejection, translate your novel ideas into words that resonate with anyone, everyone, all at once. 

We’ve watched you bridge the gap between ideas and solutions, juggle the demands of entrepreneurship with caregiving, community-building, or simply the fierce pursuit of your own vision — all in the hope that more of us will have the space to experiment, take risks, and make a lasting impact on the world.

We started AMH Catalyst Center for you.

Some numbers speak for themselves. Others demand a response.
In 2023, women founded nearly half of all new businesses. Still, they received just 2% of venture capital. For women of color, the number drops to 0.39%.

Over the last decade, we have worked together and separately to design and invest in national solutions that close this gap, such as the Open for Business Fund and How Women Invest. We’ve seen what happens when the right capital reaches the right founders and how overlooked talent can drive outsized results when given a real chance to scale.

Now, we’ve launched something of our own to ensure that there is no limit to what women entrepreneurs can accomplish.

There are countless women with the vision, ambition, and experience to lead high-growth companies. What’s missing isn’t talent — it’s access. We’re proud to know many of these founders, and we look forward to meeting more in the months and years to come.

When given the resources — even when not — women innovate in ways that drive exceptional results, outperforming industry norms.

When venture-backed, these businesses deliver.  Women-led companies see 35% higher ROI and 12% higher revenue than male-led peers. Startups founded by women generate 78 cents in revenue for every dollar of funding compared to 31 cents for male-founded companies. 

Over the years, we’ve met with investors who see the numbers and want to help shift the landscape. They’ve asked how they can back new voices and invest in the kinds of ideas that challenge the status quo.

At AMH Catalyst Center, our mission is to deliver solutions that unlock opportunity for underfunded founders, bring transparency to venture capital, and fuel long-term economic growth. We exist to connect high-impact founders to capital and to reimagine the systems that keep those connections from happening.

We’re here to bring more support, more clarity, and more freedom to how women access funding. Because when more women scale, everyone benefits.

We’re changing the tides by:

• Leveraging AI and blockchain technology to streamline financing systems and build trust through transparency
  
• Partnering with public and private sector leaders to expand market access and open new channels of capital
  
• Redefining what makes a “venture-backable” founder by introducing new frameworks that reflect real-world outcomes, not outdated patterns
  

2% was the wake-up call.  AMH is the response. We’re here to help the next generation of founders raise capital on their terms and reshape the future of innovation while doing it.

The name AMH comes from our daughters’ initials: Angela, Maddie, and Hannah. We want their future to include the agency to build something of their own, to start companies, spark industries, and scale impact, if that’s what they choose. We want them to feel fearless in pursuit of their ideas. We want them to walk into any room and see it as theirs to lead.

If this resonates with you, we hope you’ll join us. We’re only just getting started.

Jenny Flores & Grace Lee
Co-Founders, AMH Catalyst Center