CEO, SPRINGBOARD ENTERPRISES
Natalie Buford-Young joined Springboard Enterprises as CEO in Jan 2021 and leads Springboard's mission to accelerate the growth of entrepreneurial companies led by women through access to essential resources and a global community of experts. An accomplished and innovative corporate executive, entrepreneur, and community builder, Buford-Young joined from Deloitte, where she served as Managing Director of Market Development for Deloitte's venture capital, private equity, and emerging private company practices.
An active leader in the entrepreneur community, Natalie served as Executive Director for Deloitte's Tech-Venture Center, which provides programs and networking opportunities for entrepreneurs and investors. Additionally, she has been active in the entrepreneur and investor communities through her involvement with the Mid Atlantic Venture Association, Deloitte Technology Fast 500, the Florida Venture Forum, National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), and Council for Entrepreneurial Development (CED). She was also recently named a Power Woman of DC Tech by DCA Live for making significant contributions to the growth of the DC-area tech community.
To date, Springboard's portfolio includes 835 women-led companies, which have created $35 billion in value over the last 21 years. An outstanding 90% have raised capital, with over 200 exits to strategic acquirers and 24 IPOs. The Springboard pipeline is full of current and rising 'unicorns' supported by a global network of domain and business scaling experts in the fields of drug development, therapeutics, medical devices, digital health, cybersecurity, AR/VR, retail, robotics, supply chain, AI applications, and renewable energy, among the many tech-driven solutions their innovators are bringing to market.