Strategy for women who are ready to build

You already know your 9to5 job isn’t it.
You have the business idea. Now, let’s build it -
with a clear framework and strategy.

Cristina Méndez Palencia, strategic designer and founder of The Woman Entrepreneur Lab, Stockholm

Why I built this

Cristina Méndez Palencia, strategic designer and founder of The Woman Entrepreneur Lab, Stockholm

I left Scania in 2025 with a plan.

Because I had a strategy. A burndown chart, a severance package, and a clear answer to the question: how much runway do I need before I build something I am proud of?

Before I got there, I spent months blaming myself for burning out. Panic attacks before my alarm went off. Crying in between meetings. Antidepressants.

What I eventually understood: it wasn't a resilience problem.
It was a systems problem. The corporate environment I was in was designed in a way that breaks ambitious intelligent people — especially women who actually care about the work.

So I left. Strategically. And I started building.

Now I work with women who are exactly where I was — sharp, exhausted, sitting on an idea they haven't built yet. Not because they can't. Because nobody has handed them the method, the financial clarity, or the room full of people doing it alongside them.

That's what The Woman Entrepreneur Lab is.

🚀 The Woman Entrepreneur Lab

The Flagship Program.


Most women I talk to aren't stuck because they lack ambition. They're stuck because they're facing a false choice:

Stay in a draining job and keep the financial safety.
Or quit without a plan and risk everything.

Neither feels right. Because neither is right.
There's a third path: build it while you still have your job.
Test it with real customers before you invest everything.
Leave when the data tells you to — not when desperation does.

That's what The Lab is built around.


Fall 2026 cohort open.

WHAT I ALSO LOVE DOING

As a strategic designer and product builder, my itch to create things is strong.

A Stockholm community.

A closed community for women who show up for each other — physically, monthly, intentionally. First Thursday of every month.

womeninmotion.global

🏃🏻‍♀️ Women in Motion

My design podcast.

A closed community for women who show up for each other — physically, monthly, intentionally. First Thursday of every month.

→ Listen on Apple Podcasts
→ Listen on Spotify

🎙️ The Curious
and Creative

WHY WORK WITH ME

You don't need another course.
You need a method and a room.

Most programs for aspiring entrepreneurs are either a solo online course (cheap, lonely, easy to abandon) or a one-on-one coach (expensive, no peer accountability).
The Lab is neither.

I've spent years doing this professionally — running customer discovery, shipping digital products alongside development teams, and learning what separates things people say they want from things they'll actually pay for. That's the method I brought to building the Lab, and it's the method I'll teach you.

I also lived the process.
My exit wasn't a leap — it was a plan. And I built the Lab from the evidence I gathered along the way.

Cristina working at her desk, building her entrepreneur program for women