Stacy’s has made a commitment to helping female founders rise. As a female-founded business that started small, Stacy’s understood the challenges female entrepreneurs face daily. And as a pita chip that is enjoyed during more meaningful conversations, we had an authentic role in facilitating important conversations that matter to women and female founders. Unfortunately, women continue to battle the cloak of invisibility, and female founders continue to face unequal opportunity, specifically as it relates to funding. With only 3% of venture capital funding going to female-founded businesses, we couldn't sit idly – we had to act. With a larger goal of moving the needle on the 3%, Stacy’s was all-in to live their purpose fully and help female founders rise.

As female entrepreneurs continue to face inequality, we knew we had to step up to not just support female founders, but amplify their voices. It was hard to imagine that only 3% of all venture capital funding was going to women in 2020, but that reality drove us to act. Because when we support women, we all rise. Since Stacy’s is committed to amplifying the voices and talents of marginalized female founders, it was important to us that our team working on this platform was a true reflection of our objective. In fact, 81% of team members working on this platform were from underrepresented groups spanning gender, race, and LGBTQ. Specifically, within our creative department working on this program, that percentage rose to 83%.

The funding gap for female founders is real. And it’s massive. To make matters worse, the truth is, many female founders don’t even get into the room to make their pitch. As a female-founded business that started small, Stacy’s Pita Chips wanted to help female founders be heard. So, for Women’s History Month, Stacy’s launched the Real Elevator Pitch. Through the initiative, we wanted to give venture capitalists something other than elevator music to listen to as they ride up their office elevators. We wanted them to listen to real elevator pitches by talented female founders seeking funding. We also created an online elevator experience so that VCs everywhere could invest and help these women rise. Literally.

This brand activation aimed to stop VCs in their tracks, and make the public aware of the funding gap. In order to help amplify female founders, we went straight to the source: venture capitalists. Women continue to fight the cloak of invisibility when it comes to being seen and heard. So, we aimed to get the attention of venture capitalists who contribute to the jarring funding gap that female entrepreneurs face. Since many female founders never get into the room to make their pitch to venture capitalists, we needed to find a creative way to get their elevator pitches heard.

We launched the Stacy’s Real Elevator Pitch by seeding a call-for-entries video on social media, where we showed a Stacy’s-branded elevator and asked female founders to submit their elevator pitches. The elevator was strategically placed in a VC building and was wrapped with statistics about female founders—including the fact that only 3% of all VC funding goes to female founders. Then, we installed a speaker in the elevator to play the elevator pitches for VCs riding the elevator. We chose the top elevator pitches from real female founder submissions to amplify through our effort. Online, we created a digital elevator experience, where VCs could “stop” on a floor and listen to a female founder’s pitch.

With very little spent on media and production, this activation sparked a meaningful and timely conversation around the funding gap for female founders—and the need to rise the ratio when it comes to funding. The Real Elevator Pitch effort accrued 11 million impressions and over 520k social post engagements. And, most importantly, Stacy’s helped female founders rise.