Teqbahn Foundation

Based on my first hand experience as an entrepreneur and woman of color, I know about deep marginalization and consistent exclusion based on gender, race, and class. 

I have worked with survivors and entrepreneurs, gathered global research, and developed a model that has achieved measurable progress to drive social impact for people who are consistently excluded and denied access to knowledge and resources. 

This model is called Teqbahn and I would use the Elevate Prize to transition our deeply committed pro bono team into paid staff. Their conviction and sense of urgency in our mission has advanced the work. This prize would enable us to scale by operationalizing our core competencies to transform the lives of marginalized women entrepreneurs. 

The Teqbahn community is working tirelessly and rigorously around the clock to drive transformative outcomes in the lives of the women we work with. This team provides the practical tools and step-by-step guidance necessary to scale an idea from concept to market – such as governance, branding, a white paper, a prototype, and beta pilot.

Professional skill development for marginalized women in an equitable and inclusive manner is the foundation of our community ecosystem model.

As a child of immigrant entrepreneurs, growing up in New York City, I joined the family business at age 7 - to help put food on the table. I learned very early that integrity and grit paid the bills in our home.  

After a successful management career in the Fortune 100, I founded Gangashakti, to understand my own forced marriage and raise awareness. I wrote, “Voices from the Frontline,” to find other women, build community and understand what happened to me. I was unexpectedly cited by the American Bar Association and my work was covered by NPR, Thompson Reuters, Al Jazeera, and TV Asia. This was a pivotal step forward, giving me strength to heal and be hopeful.

I brought my methodology to the issue of Violence Against Women while a Fellow at Harvard. I established the Violence Against Women Research Database and a global coalition, with 1700 members from 128 countries, to help lay the foundation for a global treaty on violence against women and girls.

My goal is to use my entrepreneurial journey to inform and advance a more equitable economic model of participation that delivers access, opportunity, and education to marginalized women – using equity and inclusion.

Teqbahn is built on the power of disruption for equitable progress. We are a collection of inclusive leaders committed to bringing new ideas to life. We believe in forward momentum based on a new model of economic participation that implements the daily practice of inclusion, equity, diversity, and sustainability at its center. We commit to responsible innovation (T), reduction of structural inequalities (eq), and practices to increase access to resources (bahn).

We solve the problems of the world through the lens of the people of the world. Globally, everyday experts are well positioned to shift the course of events that widen the income gap and profit from under resourced and overlooked communities. However, the estimated cost to run a small start-up in the U.S. is $184,000 per year and only 2.3% of start-up funds went to women in 2020. 

Economic violence and discrimination is common based on gender and the intersection of race, class, and other factors. Women are disproportionately impacted by violence, economic downturns, and COVID-19. 

We bring ideas to market at scale, which starts with a problem and the inspiration to solve it. We give women from marginalized groups access, opportunity, funding and community.

People who are marginalized in society, face problems everyday – problems that others may not even realize, recognize, or fully understand. Because they face these problems everyday, they know solutions that can make the problems not only easier to bear, but are solutions that can solve problems, lessen trauma, and break harmful cycles.

Often economically focused foundations aim to eliminate poverty for the recipient. The goal being to start a small transactional business – opening a bakery or bringing goods to market. Teqbahn strives for more – equitable, inclusive, full economic participation. We know how to catalyze people, make impossible ideas possible, and build something bigger than ourselves.

Teqbahn's impact is to create social change by putting people who’ve been traditionally on the sidelines, front and center to drive innovation.

Teqbahn works through an organically evolved strategy that has been proven effective. The strategy started with a successful career at a Fortune 100 company, put into practice to initiate and sustain domestic awareness, dialogue and finally recognition of forced marriage in the United States, and refined at Harvard while working to end violence against women. Teqbahn currently works with five companies, bringing ideas to life that would otherwise be overlooked.

Giving access, opportunity, and knowledge of business is often done with one goal – the generation of capital. Teqbahn goes further with the belief that a sole focus on capital only reinforces an economic system that excludes, extorts, and perpetuates harm on society and the environment. 

Teqbahn disrupts this harmful cycle through partnership with women from marginalized groups. The organization sees beyond capital and places the potential for social impact center to the work. Being hyper-aware of the small things that drive inequity, whether uneven distribution of funds or governance that puts one party at a disadvantage, Teqbahn aims to create a new norm for equitable economic participation.

Through connections and networking we recognize women who have innovative ideas about driving social impact within their spheres. Women who typically would not receive venture capital funding or loans or who fit the typical description of “founder.” Their experiences make them the strongest people to drive change.

We use a horizontal approach to collaborate on ideations, governance, market research, and beta pilots, all while building environmentally low impact tech. This sets a deeper tone and model for how things can be done and has resulted in working products and global partnerships.