Empowerment Square's Ansa Noreen inspires us all

In 2019 I launched Startup Standup here on LinkedIn. I had been a mentor to a lot of entrepreneurs that came to me for advice on raising money and just general startup tips. It was baffling to see that women had a really hard time raising money - especially when their business plans were on par (or even better in many cases) than male-founded companies.

In an effort to get the word out and learn from each other, the concept of Startup Standup was born. In Season 3 we'll hear from seven tenacious founders who are navigating the funding stage - whether it's Lexi who is still completely bootstrapped or Neha who pivoted her company and is ready to secure that next round of institutional funding. Make sure to click subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!

I'd love to hear what you think and if there are any other female founders I should get to know. Oh yeah, and let's all support these phenomenal founders! :)

Enjoy,

Marc

Meet Ansa

This week I'm talking to one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, Ansa Noreen. Ansa is a human trafficking survivor, serial entrepreneur, mother – and so much more.

After escaping her abuser in 2016, Ansa was determined to find the hope she saw on the other side of her pain. She learned English, reunited with her son, and began building her non-profit. Empowerment Square gives the hope Ansa never lost sight of to dozens of her fellow human trafficking survivors by providing continued mentoring, resources, and learning during the most critical time. And, she’s ready to take it one step further with Village Square – a for-profit, e-commerce platform dedicated to providing a safe and profitable platform for her fellow survivors to sell their goods and services.

Not only do I believe in Ansa’s big vision – I believe in her. Take a listen!

Marc: Hello, Ansa, so nice to meet you.

Ansa: Hey Marc, thank you so much. Same here, so excited and thank you so much for this opportunity, wow.

Marc: Yeah, I'm really excited to hear about your story. I was really inspired when I read about everything you've accomplished. It's really incredible. I mean, I would love for whatever you're comfortable sharing, maybe just a little bit about your story. I think it's fascinating and I'm just, again, super inspired by what you've accomplished.

Ansa: Thank you. This means really a lot to me and I would love to share a little bit about this, about my journey. I am from Pakistan originally, I was a fashion and textile designer over there. If I say very accomplished, that wouldn't be a lie. I was working on a very high level with the political elite, I would say. And then like everyone else, I had my own vulnerabilities as well and there are people who, they look for those vulnerabilities everywhere and they want to exploit that. That happened to me as well. As a result I found myself here in New York and it was a very tough thing for me to decide what my next steps would be or what my future would look like because it was not just me in danger, it was my family as well, I was separated from my son for many years.

Then there was a moment when I decided to take a step. I decided to take the step for myself and my son as well. It was only possible because I could see the hope on the other end. And I took that step. I'm sorry, I cannot go much deeper into this, but it's basically I survived or I came out of this abusive relationship in 2016 with the help of many wonderful organizations in New York City. I had all my legal work done. I found myself in a safe house among other survivors, still figuring out, not sure what to do. What are the next steps? I did not speak the language. The first barrier for me was to learn the language so I can speak and speak my heart because there was so much that I wanted to say and tell, and build my future from the beginning.

Being among other survivors, that really pushed me or gave me the courage to do something bigger than myself, actually. That's kind of a little bit the background, how my journey as a survivor and as the entrepreneur in the nonprofit and for-profit world started. I was still separated from my son, trying to bring him over and my exploiter or my perpetrator, he is a very, very powerful person, are very connected in the political realm over here. So it was super difficult to do everything, but the hope for a better life for myself and all these survivors around me, it really gave me the courage to take the step and do the things that I started to do.

I started my journey with advocacy because I saw gaps by working with multiple nonprofit organizations, serving on their advisory boards, I realized there is a gap. Although all these organizations, they are doing such a wonderful job, but the healing journey and then the empowerment, that is my goal. That was my goal from the beginning. As a result of that mission and aspiration, I started Empowerment Square, the logo is behind me and my son designed that logo. I would love to give credit to him.

Based on that mission and inspiration, I started this organization, putting together the pieces that I really felt are necessary, very, very necessary. And not many organizations are able to do this because of their own reasons. I'm not saying that they're not doing this purposely, but as a result of that, I compiled all these pieces and I set up the programs, and the organization is working right now. We are serving 30 plus women survivors of human trafficking at the moment. Actually the graduation is coming up on March 22nd, and I would love to have you at the graduation so you can see and hear for yourself what these programs and this organization, and the work that we do means to these survivors. So that's a little bit about my Empowerment Square and my journey behind this.

But in a nutshell it is all about empowerment, empowerment of women. And especially when I speak to this, because in the essence of celebration of Women's Day, I think this message is really important to go out, not just for the survivors, but every woman out there listening to us. That you have that spark inside of you, which sometimes you put it aside because of the fears or what you have been told by this society. That spark needs to be brought up, and really think about everything that you have accomplished in your life. You still have the courage, please take the stand, not just for yourself, but for the next generations, for every woman around you. So yeah, that would be my main message. Please stand up, educate yourself and I mean, educate about the topic because these things are still happening.

It is happening right under our nose. I was reading this article the other day about what happened at the Sarah Lawrence College. I'm not sure if you read about that but see, there are people who are very wealthy people. Nobody can even fathom the fact that these people could be involved in these things, and these children, they come from very privileged families, right? I used to think and feel bad about myself, even talking about my story, that people would think, "Oh my gosh, she is an educated woman. She had her own business and a very professional life, accomplished life back in Pakistan. How could she be a victim of human trafficking?" Right?

And that kept me for very long from talking about my story or sharing it with others. But then I realized, unless I share my story, others would be doing the same. They would be enduring all that abuse and all that wrongdoing that others are doing with them just by thinking the same part, so that is basically what helped me to come to the front. And I have been speaking at the United Nations and everywhere because I really want to encourage the women specifically, that please recognize your power and speak up if there is anything that you see.

Marc: Wow, that's really, really inspiring, Ansa. I mean, I applaud you for taking the leap and being so vocal and helping so many people. I'd love to learn more about this organization and what exactly, you said 30 people graduate... By the way, I'd love to go to the graduating class, that sounds great. I'd really appreciate that opportunity. How long is the class and what gap do you think you're filling relative to what exists out there?

Ansa: Absolutely, and thank you so much. I would love to have you at the graduation, that would be such an honor. About the organization, we start our building blocks basically we call it elevate to empower model. This starts with getting your voice back because a lot of the survivors, they, first of all, don't speak English. English is not their first language. But even for those for whom English is their first language, they are local born and brought up girls, the confidence piece and the trauma that they have been through, they don't feel themselves acknowledged or appreciated enough that they can go out there and speak their heart. Or be their own advocates and represent their theirselves in a respectable way because of the way they have been treated previously by their abusers and traffickers.

So as a first step, even when I was in the safe house myself, I used to advocate so heavily on the fact that, please do something where they can learn the language to express themselves. This is the first step that we do, and the way we do it, we pair each mentee... we call our clients, they are called mentee... and we pair them with individual dedicated, native English speaking mentor. This mentor and mentee, the pair, they work over a period of six months via Zoom. They connect every week, they do their practice, they learn about the culture. They develop their own stories and gaining the confidence in themselves. That is a huge piece that we were very focused on because if you have the confidence and even if you speak little English, still you can very confidently portray the message and advocate for yourself. And you're above basically the risk of being abused ever again in your life.

This is the first step that we do, and we have wonderful, wonderful mentors and you can read more about our mentors as well, it's all on our website. They work with these mentees over a period of six months. So this is our first cohort, basically. We have learned a ton through our journey. Our mentees, they are super, super appreciated. Our mentors are feeling great. So I don't know. I cannot over appreciate everything that is happening. I'm just so overwhelmed because the fact is that initially I thought for 10 people, because we were just such a small organization with no funding, no nothing, but because it was my mission. Even before that, I had been training people, my fashion and textile background really helped me.

I taught women how to sew, how to be in the textile industry. And I'm so proud to share that many of those women, these days they have been making face masks during the COVID, that this has been a great opportunity and they have been selling it online. And that online piece was because I taught myself website development when I was in the safe house, so I taught them as well. Like, "Create just one pager, and put your products on there, whether it's a bakery product or your jewelry making," we do all these workshops as well, even before the organization started. Because I was trying to really empower them in each and every way, and financial empowerment, which begins with learning the language and speaking from your heart and being able to express yourself, is the first step.

Marc: How did they find out about your program and how do you decide who to accept in? How does that work?

Ansa: Great question.

Marc: And how much funding have you gotten or do you need?

Ansa: Cool, thank you. We partner with other organizations in the city like Sanctuary for Families, Restore Life network, there are many more. And since I have worked with them as a client, we had this relationship and now we are collaborating on many levels, not just them referring their clients to our programs, but on many, many other levels as well. So that's how we get our clients. But in the future, the plans are that we will be working with the law enforcement agency so they can send their clients directly to us. The only hindrance would be that we don't have a space to make those clients stay, because that's also, they don't have any place to live. But if that would be possible, which is our ultimate goal, to have our safe houses for these women. To have their healing journey while they learn all these skills and get themselves where they can truly be independent.

Because I really use this analogy sometime, and there are other safe houses. I have been living in one of the safe houses in the city too. But the piece that I really felt lacks is, the analogy I use is this, you have this bird that you had just saved from their abusive, they just came out of this trafficking situation and you put them for 12 or 18 months in a safe house. But if you don't teach them how to fly eventually, after these 12 or 18 months, what's going to happen? This bird is going to fall back or drop down on the road, and the cat's going to come.

How would you avoid that? Either it's going to be the old cat or a new one, because there are many out there. We can tell that, right? Every day we see that, we read that. So my purpose is, and that's how actually my journey began, I was advocating like, "Please teach us something. Teach us the skills. I want to be independent. I want to do something for myself." Then I saw everybody else struggling with the same thing and that's how I started this. Our priority is always the clients who are living in the safe houses or the shelters, we give them priority in our programs so they can really start their journey of independence.

Marc: Oh, okay. No, I mean, it makes a lot of sense, to start to learn about everything that's happening. I think that you're onto something, that you can't let people just leave without having learned a skill. And you used the word empowerment, I think empowerment is right on. People have to feel empowered that they have skills to make a living and feel proud of what they're doing on a day to day basis. That's what got me thinking about, can you teach people to be an entrepreneur? It sounds like that's sort of what you're doing.

Ansa: Absolutely, absolutely.

Marc: If you had more capital, what would you do? And first of all, how do you get capitalized and how big's the organization?

Ansa: Sorry, I missed that question, totally. I was just so lost about talking about the programs. So in terms of capital, the first big, I would say, grant or support that we received, it was $50,000 just last year. It was a pitch competition that I participated. Our organization was not even incorporated at that time. But I had been so passionately working with the clients and I had all these programs in line, that I won $50,000. Right now we are relying on individual fundings. We are applying to organizational, institutional support of government, non-government, every, every kind of support. We are planning and developing our strategies and everything, but yeah, that's the main source. Basically, we are pursuing every source.

Marc: What would you want to do in terms of like, to take it to the next level? I'm sure you've thought about that.

Ansa: Absolutely. Absolutely, we have big, big plans actually. Over the years, we have seen that not every survivor is able to get to a job or ideal job where they can support themselves and their family and truly become independent, financially. And the reasons are so many, their educational background or their confidentiality and security issues. In some cases they go over a period of maybe 10 years, right, so that you cannot be exposed working outside. That was the reason why we would go in that area as well. I started this Village Square e-commerce platform because I see the tendency of survivors, the cultures that they come from, every one of them has this entrepreneurial spirit in them. Because you see in our countries, the job infrastructure is not the best. There are only either government jobs where you have to... I don't even want to go into that.

So every one of them mostly has that entrepreneurial spirit so that's why I am building into that. In order to prepare them for that entrepreneurial journey, we have our financial education program, which is starting this month. We have partnered with organizations like WE NYC and and others, and their instructors would be teaching these courses. There is financial education program, and then job and skill training program. That's a huge one where they can be trained, we help them get internships, job placement. Most of them are very much into the food industry, the culinary industry, in so many different roles and positions. So that's basically one of the things that we are really focused on.

The plans in terms of the next level, we called all these programs, the tier one programs, with very limited number of survivors. For example, we have 26 just for the English literacy program and the rest four of them, they were in the professional development or internship, you can say. They worked with industry leaders to learn the skills how they can go into the job industry. So we do want to serve more people. We have 20 people on the waiting list, and we have these people throughout our cohort. We could not really manage. But with more capital because we really don't have any staff member at this point. Everyone is a volunteer. We are all volunteers. So we try to do our best and we would love to serve more clients. We would love to take it to the next level as in having our own safe house, where they can stay and continue their healing journey. At the same time get the skills to be financially independent and then fly on their own wings, basically.

Marc: Wow. That sounds like a great plan. I'd love to get together and see how I might be able to help on the entrepreneurial side. Also, I'd like to make a donation too.

Ansa: Oh, thank you so much.

Marc: I want to, yeah, support you. I really believe in what you're doing and I'm inspired by your story, and I think you have the potential to do so much good in this world. I want to try to be helpful if I can.

Ansa: That's great.

Marc: I have some ideas on the entrepreneurship side, on some ways to get people involved as an entrepreneur, that could be interesting. But it's probably too much to get into on this call, but...

Ansa: Wonderful, wonderful, I'm just more than excited.

Marc: When is the graduation, Ansa?

Ansa: The graduation is on March 22nd at 6:30 PM. So yeah, you can mark your calendar for that.

Marc: Okay, the 22nd, great. I look forward to it.

Ansa: Thank you. Thanks so much.

Marc: Do you have any questions for me? And we can get together in person, but if you had any questions that you wanted me to answer now?

Ansa: Absolutely, tons of questions, actually. I don't know if you can answer all those questions on this call. As you know, I'm starting on this Village Square, a e-commerce shopping platform. I would love to know, okay, what the next phase would be? Or even how can I get the funding or let's say... The prize is $200,000, I'm very hopeful that I would get that, but that to me, it's like nothing as compared to what this platform will look like. Because our plans are to have vendor portal to support our vendors with the expertise, like packaging and marketing. And how to make their brand really look good and sell on the national and even international level, all those pieces. So maybe the main question would be how to already plan for the next phase of funding? Because I want to make sure that we don't have to stop the work and then look for funding. I want to be prepared in advance for that.

Marc: Okay. And the website, because it's easier to raise capital if it's for-profit, meaning they're investors, it's easier. If it's not for profit, I can still probably help you but there's fewer investors that would be interested in that. How is it structured, the website?

Ansa: So yeah, initially I thought about making it a nonprofit and linking it to Empowerment Square, but then I got the similar ideas or advice maybe, that it would be much harder to raise the capital for a nonprofit. So I have decided to make it into a for-profit.

Marc: Yeah, I think that makes sense. And it does have a social responsibility, social good component that's powerful. But at the same time, there's a lot of investors out there that want that and the potential to make returns on their investment as well. So it offers a great opportunity for investors to get involved in something, do good and also potentially make some returns. I can definitely help you, introduce you to some venture capitalists and some funds, small funds, and medium-sized funds probably that would be candidates to invest in that business. We probably need to get together and I can just understand a little bit more about the technology where you are, what you want to do with the funding, how much you need. Then we can, I don't know if you have a pitch deck, but we can go through that.

Ansa: Yeah, that would be fantastic, for sure. I'm working on developing the pitch deck for this specific project, but yeah, I could use all the help from you. And this would be the first time raising capital like this, especially here in America, so of course I'm super thrilled and I feel like this is the perfect match. I could not have asked for better, to have you as my mentor and to support me in this. I genuinely mean that.

Marc: No, I believe in what you're doing. And like I said, I mean it, it's truly inspirational, your whole story and what you're doing, and that you are putting the amount of time you are, and effort into giving back. No, I'm really, really inspired by it. So I want to help.

Ansa: Thank you.

Marc: And I want to come on the 22nd and talk about a donation and how I can help on the website, and the pitch deck and all that stuff.

Ansa: Awesome. Awesome, thank you so very much, Marc. Really appreciate that.

Marc: It was great meeting you, too.

Ansa: Absolutely, same here. Same here. Thank you.

Marc: All right, till next time.

Ansa: Until next time, thanks.

Marc: Bye.

Ansa: Bye.