FLIK, short for the Female Laboratory of Innovative Knowledge, is a social enterprise that brings together female founders and emerging talent for mentoring and training opportunities. First launched in 2020, the FLIK platform has grown significantly over the past couple of years.
FLIK facilitates connections so women at different stages of their companies and careers can be mentored and nurtured through experiences that make a lasting impact. Harnessing the power of technology, they exist to completely democratize opportunities by expediting a connection between two people.
A Brief about the History of FLIK
After Michelle and Ravina struggled to connect with female founders and mentors at Next 36, they founded FLIK. The prime plan was to meet eminent female visionaries in order to share their inspirational stories on their platform. They integrated FLIK and built a website in just 48 hours and soon had the opportunity to interview notable women such as Genevieve Jurvetson, Co-founder of Fletcher, and Samantha Barry, Editor-in-Chief of Glamour Magazine. They were invited to cover a talk given by Michelle Obama.
Their stories published on FLIK received great responses from young women in over 20 countries around the world, all asking how they can connect with exceptional female leaders themselves. FLIK transformed and relaunched as a global portal enabling young ambitious women to train with top female leaders. Applicants poured in from outside North America; women of Lebanon, Rwanda, Germany, Bangladesh, Netherlands, and Estonia, among others, have come to FLIK in order to advance their careers and businesses.
In the present day, the community has grown to more than 2,000 game changers and they are starting to witness an impact that they have beautifully created by bringing together diverse and talented women with mentoring opportunities that Michelle and Ravina once struggled to find. FLIK’s prime goal is to promote women-owned businesses on a global scale.
A Few Lines about the CEO of FLIK – Michelle Kwok
Michelle is a Vancouver-born and raised medical student turned social entrepreneur. She was born into a traditional Asian immigrant family, who left Hong Kong for Canada in order to have a better future, more liberty, higher standards of living, and financial stability.
She is the CEO and co-founder of FLIK, a platform that connects founders or executives as well as students around the world through meaningful education. Kwok has had the privilege of speaking at venues and universities across North America, sharing her personal experiences and thoughts on entrepreneurship, diversity and inclusion, women empowerment, and tearing apart barriers.
Michelle now serves on the League of Innovators alumni advisory council and also as an alumni representative for Next 36, where she works to nurture more young entrepreneurs. She was named by Tease Tea Founders Fund as one of the Top 20 Women Entrepreneurs to watch in 2020 and was also profiled as 2020 YWCA’s Young Woman of Distinction.
How FLIK Nurtures the Female Founders of Today and Tomorrow Globally Click To Tweet
About the Mission of FLIK
FLIK’s mission is to empower and connect motivated women of every stage of their careers and organizations worldwide, and to advance the women leaders of today and tomorrow.
Presently, less than 1 out of 5 companies worldwide are led by women, and this robust organization in the name of FLIK was launched to change that. Their concrete solution: a portal that enables ambitious women to start mentor-based training under a female manager. Women leaders advance their companies, mentor the next-gen of women leaders and have the chance to connect with exceptional talent. The apprentices can learn about the overall entrepreneurship ecosystem, grow practical skills, and acquire the experience that is needed to tell their stories of success.
Through FLIK’s exclusive content, the tales of visionary women around the world will inspire the next wave of women entrepreneurs who are making change happen.
About the Core Values of FLIK
FLIK is based on five core values, such as:
- Humility: FLIK celebrates authenticity by exhibiting the talents and work of women who let their work speak for itself.
- Freedom: FLIK wants to give women the freedom to be their own and express their thoughts with respecting the rights of others. FLIK believes that with unconditional respect for one another, women can be free to be themselves.
- Curiosity: FLIK is of the opinion that passion comes where curiosity pilots. They believe that finding a way forward with the ceaseless pursuit of knowledge, mastery and discovery.
- Courage: FLIK believes that courage means living life with all heart. Women, by sharing their most vulnerable moments can give others the permission to be themselves, motivate them with stories of perseverance and also advocate living free of expectations.
- Compassion: FLIK is of the view that at the root of every social impact is the drive to do good, to truly want to make a meaningful difference in the world, and to selflessly give back without expecting anything in return. FLIK is just like a family – a truly unconditional support system.
How FLIK Align Themselves with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals?
FLIK work towards contributing to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
- Quality Education
- Gender Equality
- Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Reduced Inequalities
How Does FLIK Accomplish These Goals?
FLIK achieves these goals through:
- Creating lifelong learning opportunities and skills development that is effective, practical, meaningful, and relevant for young women in order to prepare for the future workforce.
- Nurturing entrepreneurial skills and developing new-gen of job creators. FLIK strives to help expedite present women leaders who are undercapitalized, under-resourced, underestimated, and wish to motivate mentees in order to become leaders themselves.
- Enhancing educational access and skills opportunities for females who are left behind by the swiftly changing global economy. FLIK puts forward tools and resources for authentic learning experiences to take place, regardless of where each member is located. Whether it’s through community events, the mentorship experience, or resource hubs that permit leaders and apprentice mentees to discover external opportunities and learn fresh skills.
- Eradicating feelings of aloneness and building virtual opportunities to further refine education and basic skill advancement. FLIK actively works to completely diminish spaces that have been granted privileges to access resources, university career support, representative role models and guidance. They democratize a level-playing field where women have historically been underrepresented, particularly in certain demographics.
- Cultivating a relevant online community that results in quantifiable and tangible outcomes. As the global pandemic is disproportionately impacting women leaders and the trainee community, FLIK has assisted both groups to connect at a time when personal experiences are suspended.
- Providing potential job opportunities. The apprentice mentees can leverage the skills, knowledge and experience acquired from the apprentice to create their CVs and network in desired industries. The mentors can provide a reference, introduce the apprentices to the network, or maybe even hire for their company in the end. The FLIK platform also includes a robust resource hub where trainees can have access to external job openings, internships, scholarship opportunities to apply for process tools and career navigation resources.
For more information regarding FLIK, you can scroll through their official website and explore more.
