At UpWest Labs, a 2-year-old Palo Alto accelerator program for Israeli entrepreneurs, co-founder Shuly Galili quickly recognized a pattern in her applicant pool. “The number of male versus female applicants was really skewed,” she said. “We quickly realized how much of a gap exists.” UpWest is one of 40 companies that will receive funding from Google’s entrepreneurship arm in a new push to establish more female-led tech companies.
The lack of females in startups and tech is a big issue to many, and now, Seattle-based UP Global is teaming up with Google in an effort to help support women entrepreneurs. UP Global, the Seattle non-profit that formed last yearthrough the combination of Startup America and Startup Weekend, is launching an initiative called “Startup Women,” that has support from Google for Entrepreneurs and The Blackstone Charitable Foundation. The idea is to connect more women with the world of entrepreneurship and support them through UP Global’s programs, which include Startup Weekend, NEXT and StartupDigest. There are some ambitious 2014 goals for “Startup Women,” which include the creation of 1,500 female-led startups, an advisory board for “Startup Women” efforts, and a minimum of 10 Startup Weekend Women’s Edition events in the U.S. along with five abroad.