Throughout high school, Nina Boord ’25 had always been fascinated by technology and entrepreneurship and dreamed of starting a company one day. When she arrived at Stanford, she noticed a plethora of clubs related to these interests, as well as a variety of pre-professional women’s clubs.

But none, Boord said, were related to women in tech entrepreneurship.

“I remember going to the club fair as a freshman and was looking for the women in tech entrepreneurship club. I was like, where was that?” Boord said. She said that this experience made her realize the need for a community that uplifted aspiring female entrepreneurs.

Boord’s friend Symphony Koss ’24 M.S. ’25 shared Boord’s passion for bringing new ideas to life through building and tinkering. Koss had always loved “building things for fun.” As she grew older, she discovered her passion for product design and how it could help her build products for women’s health. 

But like Boord, she also believed that women’s voices in tech entrepreneurship hadn’t adequately been represented or uplifted at Stanford.

Boord and Koss’s shared interests and sentiments led them to co-found Stanford Women in Technology Entrepreneurship (SWITE, pronounced “suite”) in fall 2022. SWITE aims to empower aspiring female tech entrepreneurs at Stanford.

“Something I was thinking about going into [entrepreneurship] was like, ‘how do we create a really strong community of women?’” Koss said, explaining her and Boord’s vision behind SWITE as co-founders and former presidents.

Fifty members showed up to SWITE’s first meeting. Three years later, the club has over 160 active members, and this year, there were 140 new signups. Leadership roles for SWITE are based on passion and participation in the organization, which according to the co-founders, is designed to foster a welcoming, non-competitive environment.

The club hosts speaker events with female tech entrepreneurs and leaders, social mixers and entrepreneurship workshops, alongside events like VC Alphabet Soup. According to co-President Lily Loughridge ’25, VC Alphabet Soup is an educational event aimed at acquainting its members with the complex terminology of the venture capital (VC) space that tech entrepreneurs would often encounter in their line of work.

Events such as these, Loughridge said, “align with [SWITE’s] mission of taking down the barrier of entry for women interested in tech entrepreneurship.”

SWITE’s Chief Financial Officer Xinru Pan M.S. ’26 Ph.D. ’28, a second-year Ph.D. student in political science, said she came to Stanford to pursue a career in academia. She joined SWITE’s founding team because of her interest in VC and desire to expand her network.

“Working with undergrads gave me a community [that is] involved and entrepreneurial,” Pan said. “I’m destined to go to academia, and I didn’t know there was such a huge variety of career paths that exist in the VC ecosystem.”

That same community also drew Ingrid Luo ’27 to SWITE, who was selected as SWITE’s vice president of marketing three months after joining and now serves as the club’s chief marketing officer. She said SWITE’s community was a testament to its focus on creating a diverse community of women.

As Loughridge and Evelyn Hur ’25 M.S. ’26 lead SWITE as co-presidents, they intend to execute what Loughridge calls a three-tiered mission to create a community, inspire members and connect them with luminaries in the area, and give them a space to build. They believe doing so will empower women in tech entrepreneurship and help tackle the systemic challenges women face.

Hur mentioned that female tech entrepreneurs are still not taken seriously because of the belief that they are not gritty enough to go through the ups and downs of running a startup. Loughridge says that this misconception is unreflective of the entrepreneurial spirit she sees among her community of aspiring female tech entrepreneurs.

As for future projects, Hur noted that SWITE is offering more building workshops this year. These workshops will be catered to members with an idea of a startup or project they want to start while cultivating a “collaborative space” where members can connect with VCs and receive industry advice. SWITE is also looking to corporate partnerships with VCs and start an ideathon to help bring more women into the startup ecosystem.

“We hope to put the ‘SWITE’ in ‘C-SWITE,’” Boord said.

A previous version of this article said SWITE was founded in Fall 2021. The Daily regrets this error.