Women in Cloud launches ICONIC Leadership Kickstarter Campaign; designed to build the next generation of leaders for AI economy The campaign is designed to be a global leadership movement aimed at developing 10,000 ICONIC Leaders worldwide

Bangalore, July 2026 : Kickstarter Campaign that is aimed at preparing professionals, executives, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem builders to develop the next generation of leaders, who will shape the AI economy through trust, collaboration, innovation, and economic access. The campaign is designed to be a global leadership movement, which is a part of the book launch of ICONIC Leadership that has been co-authored by Dee Dee Walsh and Chaitra Vedullapalli along with 20 others. The campaign will run for 60 days, concluding on September 15, 2026.

The genesis of ICONIC Leadership Kickstarter campaign is deep rooted in the recent Economic Access Research conducted by Women in Cloud in 2026 that revealed a critical leadership challenge. The research highlighted that 92% of professionals know where to learn new skills but only 10% know how to access opportunity. ICONIC Leadership addresses this opportunity gap by shifting the conversation from technical excellence to opportunity creation, helping women and allies to build trust, expand influence, activate partnerships, and create lasting economic impact for others.

The campaign also invites 1,000 Founding Members to help launch a global leadership movement focused on economic access, opportunity creation, and developing 10,000 ICONIC Leaders worldwide. These founding members will help establish the first ICONIC Leadership cohorts, leadership workshops, assessments, companion tools, and a worldwide community committed to democratizing economic access through leadership. The program also has insights from 20 accomplished global leaders.

Commenting on ICONIC Leadership Kickstarter campaign, Chaitra Vedullapalli, Co-founder and President of Women in Cloud and co-author of ICONIC Leadership, said, "The world doesn't need more managers. It needs ICONIC leaders. AI can automate knowledge. It cannot automate judgment, trust, courage, or the ability to create opportunity for others."

The first 1000, who would join as co-founders will get invitations to the inaugural ICONIC Leadership Workshop, exclusive founding member recognition, access to 20+ Co-Authors and Global Leaders through behind-the-scenes conversations and leadership experiences, special Kickstarter-Only Experiences, and get access to launch Celebration and Book Reveal Experiences available only during the campaign.

The Kickstarter campaign has an initial funding goal of $20,000, which will support production of premium collector editions, educational experiences, leadership resources, and launch activities that bring the ICONIC Leadership framework to professionals around the world.

About Women in Cloud

Women In Cloud is a global network of 150,000 Women Tech Founders, Executives, Tech Professionals, and Allies in 100 countries who are committed to inspiring the tech ecosystem to be an inclusive force for change and take collective action by providing a powerful platform to collaborate, build community engagement and unlock $1B in new net economic access by 2030. Through events and initiatives, Women In Cloud also promotes conversations around its focus areas of Cloud Workforce Development, Civic Engagement via Policy Advocacy, Entrepreneurship and Cloud/AI Innovation and Global partnerships with corporations, community leaders, and policy makers. All of which are united by the ESG and UN Sustainable Development Goals that are driven by job creation, diversity and inclusion, technology innovation and sustainability, giving women a powerful platform to accelerate as industry leaders. We are fiscally sponsored by SDG Digital Foundation 501(3c) organization.