From Lab 2 Fulfilment with Dr. Orly Yadid-Pecht
Dr. Orly Yadid-Pecht has been an inventor, entrepreneur, and engineering professor for over two decades. In the early years of her career, she experienced the implicit gender bias in entrepreneurship firsthand, which would later inspire and drive her to start the From Lab to Fulfillment (FL2F) workshop.
“The FL2F workshop is created for the younger me, based on my personal journeys.” - Dr. Orly Yadid-Pecht.
The workshops are delivered to provide tactical knowledge of and solutions to the process, challenges, and barriers associated with entrepreneurship. Up to eight women in each cohort learn about intellectual property (IP), how to strengthen ideas, find early customers, strategically plan a project, and build alliances. In addition, the program recognizes women's internal challenges as they balance work, life, and family, and participants can relate to and feel supported by one another in FL2F.
“Providing women with an entrepreneurial toolbox and skillset will lead more women to pursue patents and create companies. By having more women involved in commercializing their ideas and facilitating collaborations and networking, we will have more women board members, CEOs, and directors,” says Yadid-Pecht. “This helps overcome systemic barriers around investment attraction, access to leadership and advisory roles, and will eventually create a shift in society.”
The mission of FL2F is to empower women and set them up to have an equal opportunity of starting a company. The foundation gives women entrepreneurs the boost, confidence, grit, skills, and knowledge to start their endeavours and feel supported within a network of like-minded entrepreneurs.
“We have seen incredible results from our participants, which is what gives me the motivation to keep going,” says Yadid-Pecht. “From each cohort, women write more patents after the workshop, reach out for collaborations with industry, and develop collaborations with other participants. Quite a few of our alumni open companies themselves. Our best ambassadors are our alumni.”
Yadid-Pecht’s goal with FL2F is to provide women entrepreneurs with the networks needed to succeed in the STEM-H entrepreneurial world and to decrease the evident gender gap. Specifically, 16% of women inventors are currently on patents, and Yadid-Pecht wants to increase this number to 30% by 2030. In addition, there are currently only 10% of women owners of companies, and Yadid-Pecht intends to increase this number to 40% by 2030.
“It is possible with the right information and confidence. To have a significant impact, we would like to see FL2F offered in every regional economic development agency. We are starting now with a few communities in Alberta and British Columbia, and we look forward to expanding and scaling up nationally,” she says.
From Lab 2 Fulfillment (FL2F) is a three-week purpose-driven program that entails small interactive sessions with one-on-one coaching to cultivate a supportive space to ideate and pivot ideas into business. Over the three weeks, there are 20 hours of content, approximately two hours a day, four days a week.
“I have been a professor in engineering for many years and started being involved with company creation myself in the last 10 to 15 years. There is a struggle, especially for women striving for more life-career balance. Only when I started coaching did I realize I can teach based on my experience. The FL2F workshop is created for the younger me, based on my personal journeys,” says Yadid-Pecht.
The FL2F received funding through its partners from the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, which has enabled the workshop in Alberta and elsewhere in Canada for two years.
“We believe that within these two years, we will have generated the awareness and interest needed to grow FL2F and significantly expand its impact more rapidly,” says Yadid-Pecht.
Please visit www.fl2f.ca for more information. To reserve your spot in Southeast Alberta, connect with APEX Alberta by completing this form: www.apexalberta.ca/fl2f-workshop