A women-only tech forum has now become its own business

Elpha launches during a turning point for an industry that’s still reeling from #MeToo

Navigating a career in Silicon Valley can be hard without the right connections and advice. For women, often outnumbered in tech workplaces, it can be even harder. There aren’t as many other women to help answer big questions: What’s a standard salary for my role? How do I bounce back from a career misstep? How do you find a mentor?

Cadran Cowansage, a 33-yearold software engineer, had a day job working at startup acceler- ator Y Combinator, but in 2017, she started to spend her nights and weekends building Leap, an online community for women in tech. She wanted to answer those questions and more — how to fire someone, how to handle difficult conversations, when to raise funding and which investors are most friendly to women. She launched the platform as a part of Y Combinator, but as it grew, Cowansage started thinking about making it a stand-alone business.

On Monday, Leap became El- pha, a new company armed with seed funding from Y Combinator and angel investors, plus a spot in the next batch of startups in the accelerator’s program.

Elpha is launching during a turning point for an industry still reeling from its #MeToo reckoning. As women increasingly have turned to informal “whisper networks” to share information about bad actors in tech or to swap advice, Cowansage hopes to make a business out of facilitating a supportive, women-only, tech community. Elpha also isn’t the only company to see a potential market opportunity in the feminist movement. Women-focused businesses such as co-working space the Wing have recently attracted more attention from investors.

Cowansage said she saw demand for the service firsthand. Until starting the venture, she said, “I didn’t feel like I had a place where I could candidly talk to other women in tech, online or otherwise.”

Elpha’s site centres on forumlike posts about news, personal questions, job opportunities and more. Users have to be invited by a current member or submit a short application. And while most members disclose their full names, pictures and backgrounds, they can also post anonymously if they choose. In posts tagged #vent, members discuss being hit on by men in professional settings, struggling financially as a founder and being frustrated with how women investors seem harder on female founders. The site also has some Q&A posts with influential women in tech.