A practical, pastel‑powered guide to building grassroots deeptech spaces — even if your “lab” currently shares a wall with your kettle.

Let’s be honest: when people hear “deeptech lab,” they imagine something dramatic. White coats.

Laser beams.

A room full of blinking servers that hum like a sci‑fi spaceship.

A mysterious person whispering “deploy” at 3 a.m. But the truth?

Some of the most revolutionary tech movements didn’t start in labs.

They started in:

• garages

• basements

• community centres

• borrowed office corners

• and yes — kitchens Because innovation doesn’t care about location.

It cares about intention.

And right now, women around the world are building Feminist Tech Labs — grassroots spaces where deeptech meets community, care, creativity, and a little bit of chaos.

This is your guide to starting one, too.

🌸 1. What Even Is a Feminist Tech Lab?

Let’s clear this up before someone imagines a room full of pink servers and glitter‑coated Raspberry Pis.

A Feminist Tech Lab is not about aesthetics.

It’s about values.

It’s a space — physical or digital — where people explore deeptech through:

• collaboration

• care

• ethics

• emotional intelligence

• community learning

• accessibility

• and a refusal to gatekeep knowledge It’s where:

• AI meets empathy

• robotics meets repair culture

• cybersecurity meets psychological safety

• DevOps meets feminist governance

• innovation meets inclusion It’s a place where people can say “I don’t know how this works yet” without being judged.

It’s a place where curiosity is currency.

It’s a place where technology becomes a tool for liberation, not exclusion.

🌿 2. Why Start One? (Besides the fact that it’s iconic)

Because the world needs more spaces where:

• women can experiment without being interrupted

• queer folks can build without being questioned

• beginners can learn without being belittled

• experts can teach without ego

• communities can innovate without permission.

Deeptech is too important to be left in the hands of the same five people who always speak at conferences.

A Feminist Tech Lab:

• grows local talent

• builds confidence

• creates opportunities

• sparks innovation

• strengthens community

• and makes tech feel human again

Plus, it’s fun. Like, genuinely fun.

🌸 3. Step One: Choose Your Lab Format (Yes, your kitchen counts)

You have three main options:

A. The Kitchen Table Lab is perfect for beginners, introverts, and people who believe in the power of tea‑fuelled innovation.

You need:

• a table

• a laptop

• Wi‑Fi

• snacks

• and a willingness to learn together.

This is how many feminist tech movements started.

B. The Community Lab: A shared space in:

• a library

• a community centre

• a coworking hub

• a school

• a local café. This is great for workshops, meetups, and hands‑on sessions.

C. The Hybrid Lab Part physical, part digital.

Think:

• Discord

• Notion

• Zoom

• shared GitHub repos

• collaborative Miro boards.

This is the most accessible model — and the most scalable.

🌿 4. Step Two: Define Your Lab’s Purpose (Your “why”)

A Feminist Tech Lab can focus on anything, including:

• AI literacy

• robotics

• cybersecurity

• DevOps

• ethical tech

• environmental tech

• digital storytelling

• affective computing

• data feminism

• open‑source tools

• repair culture Your “why” can be:

• “We want to help women learn AI without fear.”

• “We want to build ethical tech for our community.

• “We want to explore deeptech in a safe, supportive space.”

• “We want to create a local ecosystem of feminist innovation.” Your purpose is your compass.

🌸 5. Step Three: Build Your Founding Circle. You don’t need 20 people.

You need three:

• one who dreams

• one who organises

• one who shows up with snacks.

This is your founding team.

Look for people who are:

• curious

• kind

• reliable

• collaborative

• excited to learn

• not allergic to group chats.

Avoid:

• ego warriors

• gatekeepers

• people who say “that’s not how we do things in tech” Your lab is a culture.

Choose people who will protect it.

🌿 6. Step Four: Create Your First Rituals (Yes, rituals) Feminist tech spaces thrive on rituals — small, meaningful practices that build community.

Here are some you can adopt:

✨ The Opening Circle Everyone shares:

• what they’re working on

• what they’re curious about

• what they need help with

✨ The “No Stupid Questions” Rule: Because there aren’t any.

✨ The Documentation Ritual: Every session ends with:

• notes

• links

• learnings

• next steps

✨ The Snack Offering Snacks are sacred.

Snacks are infrastructure.

Snacks are love.

✨ The “Show Us Your Chaos” Demo Members share messy prototypes, half‑finished ideas, or things that broke spectacularly.

It builds confidence. It normalises failure. It’s hilarious.

🌸 7. Step Five: Funding (Without Selling Your Soul) You don’t need millions.

You need micro‑funding. Here are realistic options:

✔ Community Grants Libraries, councils, local innovation funds.

✔ Crowdfunding Ko‑fi, Payhip, Patreon.

✔ Sponsorships: Local businesses, tech companies, coworking spaces.

✔ Workshops Teach:

• AI basics

• cybersecurity hygiene

• digital storytelling

• ethical tech

• repair culture Charge a small fee.

Reinvest in the lab.

✔ Donations: People love supporting grassroots tech.

✔ In‑kind support: Spaces, equipment, snacks, software credits. Start small. Grow sustainably.

🌿 8. Step Six: Case Studies (Real labs, real magic)

🌸 The Kitchen Robotics Club (Berlin) started by two women with:

• a 3D printer

• a kettle

• and a dream. Now they run monthly workshops for girls in robotics

🌿 The Ethical AI Circle (Lisbon) began as a book club.

Now they advise local NGOs on AI ethics.

🌸 The Community Cyber Lab (Manchester) started in a library meeting room.

Now they train women in cybersecurity fundamentals.

🌿 The Repair & Rebuild Collective (Warsaw) started with a single soldering iron.

Now they run repair cafés and teach hardware literacy.

None of them waited for permission. They just started.

🌸 9. The Bold Feminist Tech Manifesto (Lab Edition)

Here’s the part where we get loud again.

We reject tech spaces built on exclusion.

We reject innovation that ignores community.

We reject the myth that deeptech belongs to the elite.

And we choose: Care as infrastructure.

Community as innovation.

Learning as liberation. Access as a right, not a privilege.

We choose to build labs where:

• beginners are welcome

• experts are humble

• curiosity is celebrated

• failure is normal

• Collaboration is culture

• and everyone belongs.

This is feminist deeptech.

This is grassroots innovation. This is how we build the future — together.

🌿 10. A Soft, Poetic Closing Thought: A lab is not a room.

A lab is a gathering.

A lab is not equipment.

A lab is intended.

A lab is not a budget.

A lab is a community choosing to learn, build, and imagine together.

Start small.

Start messy.

Start in your kitchen if you must.

But start.

Because the world needs more spaces where technology grows with care — and you are exactly the kind of person who can build one.