We hear more and more about women founding their own companies. However, in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Latin America, the number of women founders is still low: according to Endeavor, around 5% of the total number of startups are founded by women.
In this context, Google for Startups opens a new call to participate in Startups Academy for Women Founders, an online program to support early-stage innovation projects that will help them capitalize on new opportunities.
“The program grew out of an initiative by Google Developers in partnership with Women@Google, and today aims to help women in Latin America whose ventures are in earlier stages of development than those addressed by Google for Startups Accelerator,” said Francisco Solsona, Google for Startups Accelerator Lead for Latin America, in a press release. Solsana reinforced this very idea in a round table whose streaming was accessed by Contxto.
Tools for women founders
The program is 100% online and will take place between October 17 and 28. It includes the technical product, marketing, and leadership training, as well as training on topics such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, which are part of the daily routine of startup leaders in Latin America.
Solsona said during the roundtable that there are three pillars to the program: the first is education, a series of talks with people from the ecosystem, and workshops where best practices and credit and technology issues are addressed. The second is connections, where they seek to put them in contact with investors. And the third is networking, to bring together women entrepreneurs to share experiences and knowledge.
Gabriela Ceballos, CEO of Hitch, a recruiting startup, participated at the same table. The executive was part of one of the editions of Startups Academy for Women Founders and said that it is a very personalized program that gave her the tools to open a marketing area in her company and pay attention to their public relations, which has led them to have greater exposure.
Startups Academy, from which the women-focused model was born, has more than 100 mentors who share their knowledge. And a year after its arrival, it has already had five editions focused especially on accelerating ventures created by women.
In each of them, 129 startups from different industries, such as edtech, fintech, delivery, retail, and SaaS, participated. Past editions took place in countries and regions such as Mexico, Colombia, Jamaica, and the Southern Cone.
The new Startups Academy call for Women Founders is now open, and anyone who wants to participate can register here until September 18, taking into account these criteria:
Have a technology-based startup in early stage (Pre-seed – seed) located in Latin America.
Have a product launched in the market with traction and revenue.
The startup’s full-time founding team must have at least one female or non-binary co-founder.
There are other Google For Startups programs for founders (regardless of gender) in Brazil and Uruguay, where one will be held for the first time. It will be carried out at the end of October and is part of the commitments made by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, with the president of the country to support entrepreneurship programs.