As Female Ventures marks its tenth year, the women who lead it open up about what brought them here, what it has given them, and why they keep coming back.
There is a particular quality to the energy in a room full of women who believe in something. It is hard to name precisely, but you know it when you feel it.
Female Ventures has been building spaces like that for ten years. What started as a small gathering at Venture Café Rotterdam in March 2016 has grown into a community of more than 6,500 businesswomen across five Dutch cities, powered entirely by volunteers. People who chose to show up.
We asked four of those people — board members, programme directors, and national leads — to tell us why.
Different reasons for joining
Eleonore Mouy arrived at a Female Ventures networking event in 2022, freshly returned to Amsterdam after nearly a decade in Asia, looking for a way back into a professional community. She came once, then again, then signed up as a mentor. Three cohorts later, she saw the board member role open up. “I knew I wanted to step up to help drive our mission of empowering women,” she says.
Karin Lubbers, who joined the board as Secretary earlier this year, came through a job posting. She had spent her career watching executive boards fill up with the same faces. “When I see in my work field that so many executive boards are still only filled with men — even though there is plenty of female talent in those organisations — I know there is still a long way to go,” she says. The Female Ventures posting felt, as she puts it, immediate. “I was attracted to the organisation from the very beginning.”
“I first got involved as a marketing volunteer for the Delft and The Hague chapter. What made me say yes was the feeling that the work mattered — that the stories we were telling were genuinely worth telling, and that they were making a difference in the lives of our community members. It just energises me, seeing all these women succeed! And more than two years later, I’m still here,” shares Kristin Unger, National Marketing Director.
For Christina ‘Chia’ Antell, who now leads the Career Vitality Mentor Program, the timing was personal. “I was in a darker place in life due to personal circumstances during spring 2024, and decided to tackle it by getting a dog and finding a purposeful volunteering position.” The ad for Participants Coordinator of the Career Vitality Mentoring Program appeared on her LinkedIn a day or two later. She called then program director Marta Machkovska. “We hit it off immediately,” she says. “And the rest is history.”
What none of them fully anticipated was what waits behind the scenes of an organisation that looks, from the outside, polished and well-organised.
“I am constantly amazed by the sheer volume of time and effort our volunteers dedicate purely out of belief in our mission,” says Eleonore. Karin noticed the same thing, and found it difficult to explain in purely rational terms. “There is so much energy and passion, and everybody shares that on a pure voluntary basis,” she says. “That feeling of belonging, that feeling of community — it has something to give that money simply cannot pay for.”
That feeling of belonging, that feeling of community — it has something to give that money simply cannot pay for. — Karin Lubbers, Board Secretary
Kristin adds: “What surprised me most, and still does, is the contrast between what people on the outside see and what actually goes into it. We organised more than 300 events in the past five years with over 3,500 participants. All of this is accompanied by event marketing, community management, partner relations and more. And behind all this professional effort are volunteers. Women fitting this work into an already full life, because they believe it matters. That dedication humbles me every time.”
Chia, who manages a mentor programme of several hundred participants in her day job at Erasmus University Rotterdam — a role she describes as being “a one-woman circus” — recognised the scale of invisible work because she lives it professionally. “I’ve been most surprised by how many community members don’t realise how much work really goes into everything behind the scenes — and that we are all volunteers,” she says. It is something she now actively addresses: making sure the team is acknowledged and seen at every event.
The moment that made the work feel real
For Chia, it arrives in the form of feedback from mentoring participants who doubted their match at first. “Some of them come up to us personally during events, saying they weren’t really convinced, but as they start working with their mentors, they realise this person was exactly who they needed, and that they have grown remarkably in just a few months.” She pauses. “The energy that is oozing around them when they thank you makes you feel honoured and proud to be part of their journey.”
It is incredibly fulfilling to watch women recognise their superpowers, build confidence, and go on to shape successful careers that bring them genuine happiness. — Eleonore Mouy, Board Member
“For me it often happens in the moments between events, when a community member messages to say that something we shared online made them apply for a role they had been too afraid to go for, or that they met someone at a drinks evening who changed the direction of their career. I fondly remember one of our community members coming to her first Female Ventures event with a lot of question marks about her next step, and just three years later she is changing the Dutch healthcare landscape with her programme,” Kristin remembers. “I couldn’t feel more proud to be part of a community that enables growth and keeps supporting its members. Even when you don’t always see the impact directly, it’s there.”
Female Ventures always gives back
Female Ventures asks a great deal of its people. It also gives something back, in ways that are harder to anticipate than the work itself.
“The friendships,” says Chia, without hesitation. “I’ve found a handful of women who I now also meet in personal settings, for walks or drinks. That is not something I expected when I joined.” Karin speaks about access to a world beyond her own professional lane. “I enjoy building a community of like-minded, ambitious people who I can learn from every day. I don’t easily meet people outside of my own work area.”
Next to the personal side, Female Ventures also has a direct impact on their volunteers’ professional lives: “I’ve grown as a professional and as a person in ways I didn’t anticipate. Working with this many talented, driven women — women who are doing this for free, because they care — changes how you think about leadership and about what it means to build something that lasts. At Female Ventures, I could develop new skills in a nurturing setting. And I even found new career opportunities through the network,” says Kristin. Eleonore puts it in terms of what she has helped to build, as much as what she has received. “I gain a deep sense of community and the personal satisfaction of knowing we have built a safe space for women,” she says. “A place where they can truly be themselves, build new skills, strengthen their careers, and enrich their lives.”
What makes Female Ventures different?
There is no shortage of professional networks for women in the Netherlands. So what is it about this one?
“Our absolute focus on community,” says Eleonore. “The way the women in this network come together to support and lift each other up is incredibly rare and special.” Chia points to the breadth of who is welcome. “It’s an organisation where everyone is welcome, no matter if you are climbing a corporate career ladder, thinking about becoming a solopreneur, or simply wanting to grow your network and meet interesting new people. There is no ‘type’ required.”
It’s an organisation where everyone is welcome — no matter if you are climbing a corporate career ladder, thinking about becoming a solopreneur, or simply wanting to grow your network. — Christina Antell, Career Vitality Mentor Program Director
“As a non-profit run entirely by volunteers, Female Ventures has a unique set-up that also reflects our purpose to advance women’s economic empowerment by helping them grow, connect, and lead at every stage of their professional journey,” says Kristin. “We’re proof that this kind of impact doesn’t need a paid team behind it — just people who believe in why it matters. What I’ve noticed in 2.5 years of working on FV’s communications is that the stories write and sell themselves. That is rare. It tells you something about what is actually happening in this community — the impact is real, and it comes through in everything we create.”
Ten years in, the ambition has not dimmed
“My wish is for Female Ventures to grow into a nationwide movement where diversity is celebrated, unique talents are championed, and everyone has the opportunity to thrive,” says Eleonore. Karin keeps her gaze on the structural problem FV was built to address. “As long as boardrooms and entrepreneur gatherings do not properly reflect our society, there is space for improvement through organisations like Female Ventures,” she says. “I wish that FV continues its growth and its community-mindset.”
Kristin closes with her personal wish for all women in the Female Ventures community: “My wish is that in ten years, Female Ventures transitions from a celebrated regional network into the definitive, top-of-mind brand for female ambition across the Netherlands and beyond, where our name alone opens doors before our members even walk through them. I wish no woman ever doubts her right to occupy space at the top. And I hope that in ten years, looking back, I’ll know we built something that truly changed lives, and that what we’re building right now was part of that. The story is just beginning.”
These are the voices behind Female Ventures. Not the loudest, not always the most visible, but the ones who show up every week and make it work. Ten years in. Still building.
Contributors
Eleonore Mouy · Board Member, Processes & City Connections
Karin Lubbers · Board Secretary
Christina ‘Chia’ Antell · Career Vitality Mentor Program Director
Kristin Unger · National Marketing Director