The Female Founder Collective (FFC) celebrated its annual Ascent Summit with a two-day gathering designed to connect, inspire, and equip female founders with the insights, relationships, and resources needed to scale high-growth businesses.
Programming kicked off on September 29 with an intimate dinner at the Santa Monica Proper Hotel celebrating The Cabinette, FFC’s private, invite-only community for women building and scaling high-growth companies. The following day, FFC convened leading founders, CEOs, and executives across fashion, beauty, wellness, food and beverage, technology, and consumer for the 2026 Ascent Summit, a full day of candid conversations, actionable programming, and meaningful connection focused on the realities of building and scaling a business.
Female Founder Collective co-founders Rebecca Minkoff and Ali Wyatt welcomed attendees and set the tone for a day centered on the conversations founders are having behind closed doors — from scaling with intention and evolving as a leader to building brands with staying power, harnessing emerging technology and navigating an increasingly fast-moving consumer landscape.
"The Cabinette Ascent Summit was created to bring together women who are actively building and scaling significant businesses and give them access to the kind of candid, high-level conversations that are often hardest to find at this stage of growth,” said Rebecca Minkoff. “Every woman in the room has built something real, and there is incredible power in bringing them together as peers. Our goal with Ascent is to move beyond surface-level success stories and create a space where founders can talk honestly about what it takes to scale—the decisions, challenges, pivots, and lessons that happen behind the scenes. We want every founder to leave with new relationships, new perspectives, and the feeling that she belongs in every room she is building toward,” said Ali Wyatt, CEO and Co-Founder of Female Founder Collective.
Opening the 2026 Ascent Summit was Iskra Lawrence, founder of Saltair, who joined a conversation on turning personal experience into purpose-driven entrepreneurship and building an authentic community around a brand. Reflecting on Saltair’s beginnings, Lawrence shared how a deeply personal experience ultimately shaped the brand’s mission to make everyday self-care feel more accessible.
"I was going through a really dark time with postpartum depression, and when my husband asked me what made me feel better, my answer was simple: taking a shower and having that time for myself. But when I got to the shower, the products I loved were either so expensive that I felt guilty using them and saved them for best, or they were treatment-focused products that felt so clinical they became another chore, and I was already struggling just to take care of myself. That experience made me realize there was an opportunity to create high-quality body care at an accessible price point, products that make people feel like they deserve to take care of themselves every day,” says Iskra Lawrence.
The day’s programming featured conversations spanning leadership, growth, technology, and brand building, including:
The day’s programming culminated in a closing keynote conversation featuring FIGS co-founders Heather Hasson and Trina Spear, moderated by Ali Wyatt. Hasson and Spear made history as the first female co-founders and co-CEOs to take a company public on the New York Stock Exchange, but the conversation went beyond the IPO to explore the years of building that came before it. The founders pulled back the curtain on what it took to build a differentiated brand in a category long overlooked by the fashion and retail industries, sharing lessons on identifying white space, challenging conventional thinking, building alongside a co-founder, and scaling FIGS from an idea into a category-defining global brand.
The Summit concluded with a closing circle and cocktail reception, giving attendees an opportunity to continue the conversations and connections sparked throughout the day.
The 2026 Ascent Summit was brought to life alongside a group of leading brand partners committed to supporting and empowering women in business. Delta Air Lines joined as the Summit’s Official Travel Partner, while Google brought practical innovation to the main stage through an interactive AI working session. ELEMIS, the event’s Official Skincare Partner, presented the Built to Last: The Leadership Behind Enduring Brands panel and created the Ascent Wellness Lounge, where attendees could recharge with treatments and product discovery. TriNet supported the founder community through an on-site brand experience, while Taikun served as the Presenting Brand Sponsor of the Ascent Summit VIP Dinner, bringing a timely conversation around wealth creation and financial freedom into the room.
Founded by Rebecca Minkoff and Ali Wyatt, The Female Founder Collective was created to support, develop, and elevate female-founded businesses. As part of that mission, The Cabinette was built for women at a pivotal stage of entrepreneurship — when the conversation shifts from launching a company to navigating scale, leadership, financial growth, visibility, and long-term impact. The private, invite-only community brings together women leading companies generating $10 million to $400 million+ in annual recurring revenue, creating a highly curated network of founders and executives navigating similar stages of growth.
Today, the Female Founder Collective has grown into a global platform supporting more than 30,000 women entrepreneurs, providing access to meaningful connections, education, funding opportunities, and resources designed to help women build, scale, and grow their businesses.
Images courtesy of The Female Founder Collective
