Three years ago, at the Amazon Accelerate block party, I headed to the restroom
By jessica-rene-wright · September 17, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Three years ago, at the Amazon Accelerate block party, I headed to the restroom at the base of the Space Needle. Walked right in, grabbed a stall, done in 30 seconds. On the way out, I noticed the men's line was snaking around the complex.
No shade to Accelerate, they put on an amazing show, it's my favorite event of the year hands down. And Sell on Amazon does plenty of work to highlight small businesses with a focus on elevating minority segments. But tell me where else you've experienced a line for the men's room and not the women's at a large event? It's certainly not common.
This was an accurate picture of Ecommerce 3 years ago. Women are here, we always have been- female-founded companies raised a record $73.6 billion in the US last year, over 25% of total venture dollars, up from roughly 15% a decade ago - but we're not as visible. There are a multitude of reasons why (shout out to all my ladies from this year's Women's Meet Up at Prosper who put in the work to discuss and ideate on this topic among others).
A few months ago, I stumbled on a new-to-me event by chance. Create & Cultivate is billed as the largest festival in the world for women in business, so I don't know how it wasn't on my radar before now. This weekend, I'll be there front row, to find out what I've been missing!
The agenda includes speakers and panels all day, hands on workshops, mentor sessions, and Connect, their AI-matched 1:1 meeting program that's set up over 10,000 introductions onsite between founders, investors, brand partners, and mentors.
My network is strong on the marketplace side of this ecomm. This weekend, I look forward to building a new segment, women running and growing businesses across every corner of this industry!