Foundress is a noun that refers to a female founder. It is also a noun that refers to a female leader of a colony. 

The root word of foundress is founder, which is from Old English and refers to ‘the originator of something.’ The suffix R-E-S-S indicates that we’re talking about a woman. This is true in both definitions of the word. Here’s an example:

The foundress of our company would probably be ashamed to see the kinds of practices we’ve been up to lately. The company she originated a hundred years ago once stood for dignity, pride and excellence. Now it just stands for profit at any cost.