Entrepreneur Spotlight Series: Women’s Entrepreneurship Week with Katie Kupstas

On October 17, 2023, as part of Women’s Entrepreneurship Week, The John F. Scarpa Center for Entrepreneurship and Law co-sponsored a fireside chat featuring founder and CEO Katie Kupstas. This discussion, which was facilitated by Scarpa Fellow Ciara Murphy (Class of 2024), focused on Katie’s mission to provide a holistic support system for female entrepreneurs, to champion the ideas of women, and to consult her clients with integrity as a means of combatting predatory practices aimed toward patent-seeking inventors.

Katie Kupstas, a former educator and PR agent who grew up in the small restaurant industry, is the founder and CEO of Inventors Club for Women (ICW). Through ICW, she provides individualized consultations and programs, educational workshops, and networking events. ICW endeavors to bridge the gap in patent ownership, with Katie sharing that only 13% of patent holders in the United States are women.

Prior to ICW, Katie observed organizations claiming to help inventors taking advantage of these entrepreneurs by unequivocally supporting their ideas and making empty promises, but ultimately failing to provide any return whatsoever and leaving inventors with significant financial losses. Katie knew she had to create an alternative to these ineffective and harmful practices, which led to the creation of ICW. Today, she continues to guide primarily female inventors in their entrepreneurial pursuits, in part by being transparent about the difficulties of securing patents and preparing them to face obstacles in the way of achieving entrepreneurial success, all while continuing to support them along the way.

Katie relies on her educational background to identify her client’s individual needs, determine whether their portfolios have sufficient functionality, and break down complicated IP and business issues in a digestible manner for her clients. When consulting, Katie “meets [her] clients where they are.” In other words, not only does Katie educate and provide resources for female inventors seeking to protect their ideas, but she and her trusted advisors also assist with PR, connecting clients to manufacturers, communications, and acquiring funding as needed.

It can be a lonely road to support inventors differently than most inventor organizations. However, to Katie, running a values-based organization focused on female empowerment and integrity makes the loneliness worth it. Her work has significantly paid off; Katie sees the success of female inventors every day, and she is helping to increase the percentage of women who hold patents through her work. Katie will continue to engage in this meaningful work for as long as she can and has plans to expand her reach through university partnerships.

This fireside chat provided insight into gender disparities among owners of intellectual property, predatory practices designed to take advantage of inventors, and the meaningful ways in which Katie has achieved and continues to work toward filling these gaps in the industry. To learn more about Katie and Inventors Club for Women, visit the ICW webpage.