It's about empowerment, mental health, physical safety—and making a community that welcomes women in.

By Justine Crowling

When Caitlin Hodge T’14 left her role in venture capital and moved into a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) gym in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she wasn’t chasing a new fitness hobby. She recognized a challenge, and wanted to understand the sport–and the community–from the inside.

After watching her brother, a retired professional fighter, and his wife navigate the male-dominated world of combat sports, Hodge saw a gap: women were underrepresented, underserved, and often overlooked in martial arts. 

Her solution is FeMMA, a new app and social platform designed to connect women in the martial arts community, helping them find training partners, vet gyms, and safely advance in the sport. Backed by Strava co-founder Michael Horvath, Hodge is drawing on her background in tech, venture investing, and nonprofits, along with the Tuck network, to bring the platform to life. “We’re building a product for women, from the ground up,” she says. “It’s about community, confidence, and access.” 

For those who don’t know, what is FeMMA, and how is it different from other fitness or martial arts apps? 

FeMMA is essentially a social network for female athletes in combat sports. We’re focused on solving a problem many women face: progressing in a very male‑dominated space where women are often overlooked. The idea is to connect women so they can log training sessions, comment on each other’s sessions, and create new sessions together. 

You can’t really progress alone in combat sports. You need partners. So the more we connect women, the more they train and bring others in. 

A big piece is helping women find safe, supportive places to train. You can’t just Google a gym and know whether it’s a fit. On our platform, women add the dojos they actually train at. You can see who trains there—friends or people you follow—and the “vibe” of the dojo: is it female‑friendly? Beginner‑friendly? What’s the coaching culture like? 

Over time we want to make it very transparent and accessible, down to simple but important things like locker rooms and bathrooms. Privacy features are a core part of this too, because women—whether beginners or pros—want to feel safe, physically and mentally.

What sparked the idea, and when did you realize it needed to be a company, not just an idea? 

I got into the sport through my older brother, a retired professional MMA athlete, and saw the gaps. My sister‑in‑law trains too, so I viewed a lot of it through her experience. During COVID I moved from investing into working closely with startups and realized I wanted to build something myself. My brother told me, “If you’re going to build for fighters, you need to learn the sport.” 

I was living in Boston, and he told me to go where the best train: Albuquerque, New Mexico. I did a weekend trip, met fighters at Jackson Wink Academy—kind of the Harvard of MMA—and it clicked. I put my things in storage and moved. I ended up living in the gym for about a year. 

Seeing how women trained and what they needed was eye‑opening. I also helped the head coach’s wife with a self‑defense program and realized most women only had two entry points: a one‑off self‑defense workshop or the pro‑fighter track. There had to be a regular, lifestyle way to train. 

We started training everyday women like pros train, but without the pressure to become pros. When you connect women who know what they’re doing with women who are new, the lightbulb goes on. That’s when I knew there was something here. I didn’t want a brick‑and‑mortar concept; I wanted technology that could support and scale the community. 

Where is the product today? 

We’re early and iterating. Right now we’re in an invite beta. Women on the platform can add their dojos, log sessions, comment, and create sessions with others. We’re building more around dojo discovery and safety signals, and we’re being thoughtful about privacy because gym affiliations can be territorial in this sport. We’re designing controls for who sees what and when. 

Who are you building for first? 

I’ve gotten to know three groups: pros; hobbyists who have regular jobs but train a lot; and women who are brand‑new. The hobbyists have the biggest pain points—pros have coaches and sponsors; newcomers need on‑ramps. So our initial focus is the hobbyist woman. 

You mentioned Strava’s co‑founder, Michael Horvath. How did that connection happen, and what’s his role? 

Professor Paul Argenti introduced us last summer. Michael immediately got it—he saw parallels to Strava’s early focus on the avid cyclist. His advice was “inch wide, mile deep”: stay niche, build a great product for this core user, then expand. He’s now my lead investor and partner. He’s said that if he could do Strava again, he’d build it for women from the foundation. That’s what we’re doing with FeMMA. 

Can you share a bit of your path before FeMMA? 

Before Tuck I studied economics at Columbia and danced; I worked in finance and nonprofits in New York. At Tuck I received a full‑ride through the Consortium. I interned at HP and ended up in a chief-of-staff-type role [for the CEO Meg Whitman] which was an incredible learning experience. We even started a venture initiative that partnered with startups; that’s where I met Andy Palmer, whose company Tamr was one of our investments. 

Later I helped launch The Engine, MIT’s accelerator for “tough tech,” and worked closely with first‑check startups. I also joined a few consumer‑oriented ventures. During COVID, after a lot of founder advice—“you have to go all in”—I decided to build FeMMA. 

Where is FeMMA headed over the next couple of years? 

We recently raised about $1.4 million. Over the next 15–18 months we’re focused on product‑market fit: building with an initial group of around 100 founding members, refining features, and then rolling out a paid membership starting in spring/summer 2026. We’ll expand to more hobbyists in the U.S., then look to Europe and Asia. We’ll partner with fight organizations and safe entry‑point events—like Haymakers for Hope, which raises significant funds for cancer and is a great first competition environment. Longer term, we’ll figure out how supportive men participate on the platform, too—coaches, corners, and allies matter. 

Why does this issue matter so much to you? 

Because training changes you. Confidence skyrockets with combat sports. As one coach says, “The more you learn to fight, the less you fight.” It’s not about aggression. It’s about empowerment, mental health, physical safety—and making a community that welcomes women in. 

What makes Tuck unique to you? 

It sounds cliche but of course, the community. It’s authentic and accessible. If you contact a Tuck alum—even a very successful one—you’re likely to hear back. Being in Hanover also gives you space to think about what you want to do. For me, it felt like coming home to New England and a place where I could really focus and grow. 

This story originally appeared in print in the Winter 2026 issue of Tuck Today magazine.