Karen Cahn is Founder & CEO of iFundWomen, a company on a mission to increase access to capital for female entrepreneurs, empowering women to start and grow better businesses. iFundWomen drives funding to startups and small businesses through
a flexible crowdfunding platform with a pay-it-forward model, expert startup coaching, professional video production, and a private community for our entrepreneurs. iFundWomen is changing the business of how businesses launch.
Karen is a pioneer in the digital media space, and was an early Google employee where she spent 10 years leading various monetization teams in search, display and video. Most recently, Karen spent three years as General Manager of AOL Original Video, and was responsible for business strategy and strategic partnerships. In this role, Karen built AOL’s female creative economy in video and as a result, nabbed AOL it’s first-ever Emmy nod.
Prior to AOL, Karen spent ten years at Google and YouTube, where she held various leadership roles in video, search and display advertising. Most notably, Karen started the Branded Entertainment business at YouTube, where she concentrated on the marriage of big brands and video content.
Karen is on the board of advisors of Girl Rising, an organization dedicated to girl’s education in developing countries. She is also on the Springboard Media Council, a highly respected group of experts across the world of digital media, content management and discovery, TV, advertising and other media verticals who invest their “human capital” in Springboard and their pipeline of high-growth, women-led companies.
Karen holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, double majoring in African-American Studies and US History. Originally from the suburbs of Boston, Karen migrated to New York City in 1998 to be a part of the early days of the digital media revolution with Salon.com. When she’s not working, Karen can be found in her kitchen in Montclair, NJ baking Toll House cookies with her kids (because there is no substitute for Toll House), or outside doing something sporty like playing golf, yoga, tennis, tetherball, or any sport involving a ball and maybe a bat.
