Girls In Tech

The Founder Institute (www.founderinstitute.com), a pre-seed incubator, recently unveiled a program designed to increase the number of females founders in technology. Their goal? To launch 175 female-led tech companies in 2011.

The Female Founder Fellowship program will provide extraordinary female applicants the opportunity to launch their dream company with the Founder Institute – free of charge. The Institute will subsidize the course fee for the most extraordinary female applicant in each of it’s ten Spring Semesters; including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington D.C., San Diego, Berlin, Brussels, Paris, New York City, Boston, and Singapore.

Best part of all:  Any female who applies to any of these Spring Semesters is automatically eligible. Many of the deadlines are approaching, so apply today at http://founderinstitute.com/join.

To date, 16% of the Founder Institute’s 250+ graduated technology companies have been founded by females – which sadly is quite higher than the industry average. More importantly – the Institute’s acceptance rate amongst female applicants is essentially equal to that of the men, while the graduation rate amongst women is almost 20% greater than that of the men. With this in mind, the Institute hopes to double the number of female applicants with this program – which will in turn push the number of female graduates over 30%, equating to over 175 new female tech founders in 2011.

Some notable female graduates of the Founder Institute include:

1.     2RedBeans (www.2redbeans.com) – Q Zhao (Bay Area)

2.     Ergolution (www.ergolution.net) – Charissa Shaw (Los Angeles)

3.     EximFlow (www.eximflow.com) – Stacey Arbetter  (Boston)

4.     Fashioning Change (www.fashioningchange.com) – Adriana Herrera (San Diego)

5.     Memetales (www.memetales.com) – Maya Bisineer (Seattle)

6.     Micromobs (www.micromobs.com) – Himani Amoli (Bay Area)

7.     MySweetsBox.com (www.mysweetsbox.com) – Regine Harr (Berlin)

8.     Skimble (www.skimble.com ) – Maria Ly (Bay Area)

9.     WhatsFun.com (www.whatsfun.com ) – Katherine Chalmers (Washington DC)

10.  Zebraminds (www.zebraminds.com) – Oza Klanjsek (Denver)

Apply today!  *(You know who you are!)

Tags: entrepreneurship, female founders, Founder Institute, The Funded
Posted in Berlin, Boston, DC, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Diego, San Francisco | 2 Comments »

To date, the Founder Institute has launched over 190 technology companies in 10 cities worldwide – many of which have been founded by women, such as Skimble, Memetales, WhatsFun, and many more. Is yours next?  Applications are closing soon for Winter Semesters in Silicon Valley, Houston, Seattle and Boston.

This 4-month startup accelerator program provides structured training to launch an enduring technology company, in a teamwork-oriented environment where everyone participates in a shared equity pool. In addition, sessions take place once a week at night, so you are not required to quit your day job.

Their great Winter 2010 Mentors include:

- Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO of Mint.com;

- Heather Harde, CEO of TechCrunch

- Gina Bianchini, Co-founder, Ning

- Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin;

- Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo;

- Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote;

- Phillip Kaplan, Co-Founder of Blippy;

- Jeffrey Dachis, Co-Founder of Razorfish;

- Adeo Ressi, Founder of the Founder Institute;

- and many more.

Anyone starting a technology company or thinking to become an entrepreneur should apply. It only takes a few minutes, and you don’t even need an idea – just a passion to create a great technology company.- Apply to Silicon Valley by Nov. 7th

- Apply to Houston by Nov. 7th

- Apply to Seattle by Nov. 21st

- Apply to Boston by Jan. 16th

For more information, click here.

Tags: Founder Institute, start-up, technology, The Funded
Posted in Boston, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley | No Comments »

See Mike Maples Jr. at the Founder Showcase – 15% Off.

Mike Maples, Jr., Managing Partner of FLOODGATE (and early investor in Twitter and Digg), encourages entrepreneurs to build “Thunder Lizard” companies – small, disruptive startups that require little money, but are “hatched by atomic eggs” and eat the competition like Godzilla.

Are you one of these companies?

Find out at the 5th Founder Showcase on Thursday evening, October 21st, in Mountain View where Maples will give the Keynote speech. The Founder Showcase gathers 300 top technology CEOs, investors, and early-stage companies in Silicon Valley for one action-packed night each quarter to network, hear talks from leading CEOs, and help launch a startup company to greatness. Guests will also see pitches from 10 startup companies in an exciting (and free) Pitch Competition, and network with over 40 investors in a demo table area where other startups will launch and showcase their wares.

Tickets start at just $40, and GIT readers get 15% off with the code GIT. Click here to register now – there are less than 75 tickets and inexpensive tables left, and the last three Founder Showcase events have sold out.

Want a FREE Table to meet investors and show off your company to the crowd?  The Funded is giving away a table (which includes two tickets) – either retweet this post, or use the hashtag #foundershowcase and the URL http://bit.ly/9OlVo8 in a tweet by Friday, Oct. 15th, and on that day we’ll announce a random winner on our @thefunded and @founding Twitter accounts.

Judges include:

Rebecca Lynn, Partner, Morgenthaler Ventures

Gus Tai, General Partner, Trinity Ventures

George Zachary, General Partner, Charles River Ventures

Venue

Tags: #foundershowcase, Christine Oneto, disruptive, entrepreneurs, Founders Showcase, Founding, girls in tech, Mike Maples Jr., The Funded
Posted in All Chapters, Events, San Francisco, Silicon Valley | No Comments »

Tuesday, Aug. 3rd @ 4 – 10pm
Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus, Mountain View CA

See Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motorsand SpaceX, and Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo.com, speak at The Founder Showcase. This quarterly start-up pitch and networking event gathers over 300 investors, founders, and members of the press in Silicon Valley to hear talks from leading CEOs, and pitches from 10 hot technology start-ups. Over $1mm has been raised by presenting companies at previous Founder Showcase events. Tickets start at just $50, but space is very limited.

To register or enter the free Pitch Competition, go to www.FounderShowcase.com. Our friends at Girls in Tech get 15% off by using discount code GIT.

The Founder Showcase is a quarterly, open start-up pitch and networking event that highlights seed- stage businesses, helping founders gain traction among the Silicon Valley elite. The event is hosted by TheFunded.com, a community of over 14,500 registered CEOs to rate sources of venture capital and discuss all things small business.

Tags: Founder Showcase, mahalo.com, start-ups, Tesla, The Funded
Posted in All Chapters, San Francisco, Silicon Valley | 2 Comments »

Final applications for the The Founder Institute‘s Spring 2010 LA, Denver/ Boulder, Paris and Singapore/ Asia Pacific semesters are due this Sunday, Feb 28th.

Tags: entrepreneur, Founder Institute, girls in tech, Partnership, The Funded, Training Program
Posted in All Chapters | No Comments »