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Julie Castro Abrams

Julie Castro Abrams

Founder & CEO, How Women Lead; investor advancing women founders.

julie-castro
San Francisco Bay Area, California
Joined August 2025
Favicon imagehowwomenlead.comFavicon imagehowwomeninvest.comFavicon imageniaimpactcapital.comFavicon imagecouncils.forbes.comFavicon imageinstagram.comFavicon imagetheorg.com

Network

26.8K connections

Summary

Leader of a national movement to increase women’s influence: Julie founded and runs How Women Lead, a community and platform that trains, network-builds and places senior women into corporate boards and leadership roles. Under her leadership the organization is a primary engine for board-diversity advocacy and executive development for women. howwomenlead+2
Investor and builder of women-focused capital: As a Managing Partner/GP at How Women Invest and co‑founder of Limitless Bridge Capital, Julie works to channel venture capital and investor networks toward women founders, while building pipelines and governance practices that reduce barriers to funding. howwomeninvest+2
Experienced nonprofit executive with a track record in microenterprise and economic empowerment: Prior to founding How Women Lead she spent decades leading nonprofit efforts (for example, CEO of Women’s Initiative for Self Employment) that trained and lent to thousands of women entrepreneurs, demonstrating operational chops in program delivery, fundraising and mission-driven scale. theorg+1
Governance, board-building and public advocacy: Julie’s board service (including roles with the Women’s Funding Network, Vital Voices, Association for Enterprise Opportunity and arts organizations) and public commentary (articles, podcasts, conferences) show a focus on governance, recruitment and systems-change to advance inclusion at the leadership and board level. theorg+2

Work

Education

Projects

Writing

Take off your blinders and move past “We aren’t finding qualified female candidates"

April 1, 2023

Opinion / thought-leadership piece arguing that organizations must proactively change recruiting and culture rather than default to excuses about supply — an example of her writing on leadership and gender equity.

Favicon imagehowwomenlead.com

Pathfinder: Julie Castro Abrams (interview/profile)

April 1, 2022

Profile/interview highlighting her mission to place women in leadership and to build women-focused investment vehicles (How Women Lead / How Women Invest).

Favicon imageinvestforbetter.org

Hobbies

Active philanthropy and arts support (serves on arts boards and funds arts organizations). theorg+1

Public speaking and mentorship (frequent speaker and podcast guest on leadership, investing and women's economic empowerment). fiftyfaceshub+1

Notes

SPSummer Polettisaid they've seen
JCJulie Castro Abrams
make a real difference by investing in education or social impact initiatives.

Apr 29, 2026

LMLiz Mabeysaid
JCJulie Castro Abrams
is one of the most insightful early-stage investors they've worked with or observed.

Sep 23, 2025