Breaking the Glass Ceiling in AI: Lessons from Continuum Founder Michelle Shocron

The short answer: The numbers are stark — only about 2% of global venture capital goes to companies founded by women. Continuum founder Michelle Shocron chose to build in AI anyway, and in a feature with Argentina’s Aire de Santa Fe she shared what it actually takes: not waiting for perfect conditions, surrounding yourself with mentors, learning both the technical and business sides, and treating failure as information. “Building in AI,” she says, “takes not just vision, but extraordinary resilience.”

The odds, stated plainly

Aire de Santa Fe opened with the data that frames Shocron’s story:

• Only about 2% of global venture capital goes to women-founded companies.
• In Latin America, women represent roughly 27% of entrepreneurs, but only 5% of startups are founded exclusively by women.
• In Silicon Valley, Latina women make up about 2% of the tech workforce.

Against that backdrop, after a standout run at Mercado Libre and Pedidos Ya, Shocron skipped the expected next step — an MBA — to build an AI company instead.

What the leap required

In 2023 she earned a place at Draper University and Techstars, two of the world’s best-known startup incubators, to develop and pitch her idea.

“Deciding to leave the corporate path, where things were going very well for me, to step into one full of challenges and steps I didn’t know at all, was not easy,” she told Aire de Santa Fe. “It was at Draper that I understood bold innovation must always be backed by practicality.”

Building in a competitive, male-dominated field without significant initial funding meant sacrifices and hard strategic calls. Her reframe of the hardest part is the most quotable:

“What cost me most in the early stage was realizing that to start something, I had to allow myself to fail — and that those lessons would build the path.”

Three things she tells women who want to build in tech

For young women who haven’t yet taken the step, Shocron points to three fundamentals:

1. Find mentors and role models — people who’ve walked similar paths and can share practical lessons.
2. Learn technical and business skills — from programming to resource management — for greater control over a project’s vision and execution.
3. Adopt a growth mindset — treat every obstacle as a chance to learn and move forward.

“Failure doesn’t define your destiny; it defines your next step,” she concludes.

Her advice on when to start is just as direct:

“We don’t need to wait for conditions to be perfect to act. You have to start with what you have, learn as you go, and find strategic allies who believe in your vision.”

That mindset — bold but practical, relentless about relevance — is the same one behind Continuum, the personalization layer for advertising she’s building today.

This article draws on the Aire de Santa Fe feature “Building with AI: the Argentine who made the leap and is revolutionizing the data-intelligence market” (February 2, 2025).

FAQ

What does Michelle Shocron advise women who want to build in AI? Find mentors and role models, learn both technical and business skills, and adopt a growth mindset. “Failure doesn’t define your destiny; it defines your next step.”

How underrepresented are women in startup funding? Only about 2% of global venture capital goes to women-founded companies. In Latin America, women are ~27% of entrepreneurs but only 5% of startups are founded exclusively by women, and Latina women are ~2% of Silicon Valley’s tech workforce.