July 2026: $100K in open grants, live Codex trainings, and how one gal turned corporate burnout into a delicious beverage

Written By Ladies Who Launch

We had an absolutely brilliant time in London last week with our UK Launchers! What an incredible treat to see everyone again this year. 😍

From real tips on personal branding from Lydia Miller & Amelia Miller to a clear framework for learning AI from Siddhi Mittal to a practical panel on local funding hosted by the UK government's Small Business Commissioner, Emma Jones... we talked about it all! Gals walked out with pages of notes, and we are soooooooo excited to see what comes from it.

Left to Right: Martha Lane Fox (yes, her!!), a group of Launchers at networking hour, and Siddhi Mittal giving us all a crash course in building with AI.

For those who couldn't make it, the recordings will be posted to our YouTube channel in a few weeks. (Caty is furiously editing them as we speak!) And don't forget to keep an eye on our Instagram for more photos & recaps.

We have 2 more in-person events this year: Austin, TX on September 10th, and Dublin, Ireland on October 12th. The official RSVP link always launches to our newsletter list first. Hopefully we'll see you at one of them!

Finally, this month is the one year Launchaversary of our newsletter! 🥹 Every month we build this thing with love and the intention of sharing the most useful information to support you and your business. We sure hope that we're hitting the mark. If you ever have any feedback for us, don't hesitate to hit reply. We want to make sure this is the best email you read each month.

What's on deck for July:

  • 💰 Open grant opportunities: As always, there's money available for the taking and we want you to get it! 6 hot ones are down below, with dozens more in the LWL Small Business Grants Database.

  • 📚 The right type of capital is almost more important for your business than the amount you snag. Why? As Helena Fogarty says, "Because a VC and your mama need very different things from you."

  • 💻 Refresh your website with Codex: The OpenAI team walks you through using Codex Sites on July 16th. Registration link below!

  • 🎧 Learn from the 'Oprah of LinkedIn': Love to hate personal branding? We get it! Hopefully this podcast episode helps with that.

  • 🩵 Meet Jamie: She turned corporate burnout into an amaro company built for lingering, gathering, and making every day worth celebrating.

In your corner,

The Ladies Who Launch team

💰 GRANT DEADLINES

For any questions about the below grants, including eligibility, please reach out to the granting organization directly.

💥 POWER PICKS

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🩵 LAUNCHER SPOTLIGHT

In celebration of all women who build. Be sure to give your fellow Launcher some love online... It's easy, free, and means the world!

Meet Jamie Hunt

After more than 20 years building global digital businesses, Jamie Hunt was ready to make something that did *not* live on a screen.

Jamie had spent years solving complex problems, leading teams, and creating experiences that connected millions of people. Impressive? Absolutely. Sustainable? Not quite. Eventually, the pace, travel, and digital blur left her craving something more tangible. Something local. Something people could hold, smell, sip, and share.

Then one night at Rob Roy in Seattle, while drinking an after-dinner amaro with her husband, the idea arrived with beautiful simplicity: Maybe I could make this?!

It made a certain kind of sense. Not only had Jamie fallen in love with amaro while traveling in Italy in her twenties, but Italian food culture had shaped her long before that.

You see, her grandparents emigrated to the United States from Sicily. And Jamie's childhood memories are filled with unrushed Sunday dinners, homemade pasta drying on sheets across the house, chicken soup simmering, and her grandmother’s California garden fragrant with citrus, basil, and oregano. She was taught that hospitality is not a performance. It is how you welcome people into your life.

That spirit now lives inside Fast Penny Spirits, Jamie’s Seattle-based amaro distillery. Its flagship Amaricano (get it??) blends Italian tradition with Pacific Northwest swagger: Rainier cherries, Yakima hops, Oregon hazelnuts, locally foraged black truffles, Washington saffron, and a whole cast of botanicals that took two and a half years, hundreds of blends, many tiny bottles, and one very serious spreadsheet to get right.

“It was equal parts science experiment, art, and obsession,” Jamie says.

The result is not an Italian copycat. It is Jamie’s version of carrying tradition forward. Italy gave her the blueprint, but the Pacific Northwest gave her the flavor, texture, and attitude.

Fast Penny was also built with impact in the bones. Through its Pretty Penny program, 3% of bottle revenue supports women in business, local communities, and the hospitality industry. Ladies Who Launch is so grateful to have been chosen as her Pretty Penny partner this year! The company is also a Certified B Corp.

Today, Fast Penny Spirits is part distillery, part gathering place, part excuse to stay out a little longer than planned. Jamie knows the amaro is working when guests start talking to strangers, meet a new friend, or settle in for one more round because the room just feels good.

“At the end of the day, we don’t just make amaro,” Jamie says. “We create opportunities for connection.”

And a bottle of Fast Penny Spirits’ Amaricano is an invitation: linger after dinner, invite one more person over, and make Tuesday feel a little less like an average Tuesday.

See you next month!

Ladies Who Launch https://www.ladieswholaunch.org/
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June 2026: $5K-$100K Available for Women Founders