Summer camp: It’s for munching on s’mores, seizing victory in tug-of-war and making lifelong friends.
For this group of successful businesswomen, though, it’s also about trading tactical advice about managing boards of directors and selling companies. And fighting to get a piece of an investment world dominated by men.
Welcome to Camp Female Founders Fund, a coastal oasis in Montauk, New York, on eastern Long Island, where female business leaders broaden their networks, share their struggles and triumphs and have some fun.
“I’m so craving a retreat from my day-to-day life where I actually get to connect with other women that are dealing with a lot of the same things that I am,” Vanessa Torivilla, who founded Goldbelly, the international gourmet food delivery service, told NBC News earlier this summer.
The approximately 100 “campers” include founders behind several popular household brands including beauty, fashion and pet companies such as Jones Road, Rent the Runway, Wagmo and Ceremonia. Days include over 12 hours of programming, including seminars, meals and exercise classes.
The camp is an extension of the Female Founders Fund, a venture capital fund created by Anu Duggal in 2014 to help women get more skin in a game whose rules are often dictated by men.
Duggal, an entrepreneur herself, experienced this unbalanced dynamic when she was seeking funds for her own e-commerce businesses.
“The real takeaway was around funding and the fact that almost everybody that we met as part of our fundraising journey was male,” she said. “As I looked into the numbers, it became clear there was kind of a larger issue at hand.”
Over 11 years, the initiative has raised funds for female-founded businesses that are now worth over $3 billion in total. Still, women-led startups only receive about 2% of all venture capital money, according to the 2025 Female Founders Fund Report.
Duggal founded the camp five years ago to juice investment momentum by connecting founders through a sense of community and nostalgic summer fun — and as an antidote to “tech bro” culture.
“This is where we get those conversations done,” Kristie D’Ambrosio-Correll, the founder of Dacora Motors, which produces ultra-luxury electric vehicles. “And women have a lot of power and a lot of wealth, and more and more every day. This is our golf course.”
This year, members met business idols such as cosmetics magnate Bobbi Brown, discussed the stigma women in leadership roles face, tackled the use of artificial intelligence in their day-to-day work, and sought new funds and clients.
“We’re creating companies, we’re having exits, we’re putting money back into the system,” said Michelle Grant, who founded the apparel company Lively and energy drink maker Gorgie. “And then we’re also gaining the confidence to go bigger.”
