According to Crunchbase data, global venture funding to female-founded companies plummeted in 2020. There’s no one factor at cause here, but COVID has disproportionately impacted women. McKinsey and Lean In’s Women in the Workplace 2020 report explains that child or elderly family care obligations will force as many as two million women to leave the workplace as the result of the pandemic. One final jaw-dropping stat: Business Insider recently reported that hundreds of startups go public every year, but only 20 are founded and led by women. That’s right, only 20 companies since the founding of the New York Stock exchange in 1817 were founded and led by women. Boston Consulting Group analysis of MassChallenge data explained what we’re leaving on the table in ignoring women’s entrepreneurial leadership: if women and men participated equally as entrepreneurs—and had equal access to capital, mentorship, and customer access—the global economy would rise from $2.5 trillion to $5 trillion. 

The lack of support for women entrepreneurs is clear, and it’s part of the reason why I joined Women in Cloud as an Advisory Board member. Women in Cloud is thinking about the full lifecycle of business success—from coaching women entrepreneurs in the Microsoft Cloud Accelerator to partnering with forward-thinking politicians like Washington State Senator Patty Kuderer in developing legislation to provide more equal opportunity to women entrepreneurs. 

Of course, while we can all influence our representatives to prioritize support of women entrepreneurs, and tout these important stats, there’s more direct action that we can take as well:

#1 Do the research – Learn about the local businesses in your neighborhood that are founded by women, and tap into communities supporting women entrepreneurs. Take inventory of the products and services that you’re using daily and look into the companies behind the brands. How could you get more intentional about supporting a representative population?

#2 Understand your sphere of influence – Write down all the ways that you might better support female founders. Maybe it’s buying products or services that they offer, but it could also mean facilitating an introduction to an investor, sharing social media posts to promote their business, or offering an endorsement to feature on their site or in a Yelp review.

#3 Invest in female founders – This note is specifically for the institutional and angel investors out there. If you have access to capital, investing in women is likely to return a higher ROI. Boston Consulting Group and MassChallenge published research in 2018 to demonstrate why women-owned startups are a better bet. Despite receiving significantly less early-stage capital, women ultimately deliver higher revenue.

When it comes to realizing greater equality in entrepreneurship, each and every one of us is responsible for pushing for the change we wish to see—whether that means voting with your dollars or prioritizing your time to support women entrepreneurs. Global change will require the partnership of policymakers and corporations, but you can have a direct impact on a women entrepreneur’s business trajectory today. 

Interested in learning more about this topic? Join me January 28-30 at the Women in Cloud Digital Summit 2021 and be a part of the movement. Book your spot today with a 15% discount, and get on board to witness the collective power of women in the technology industry from around the world.

Ticket secured? I highly recommend prioritizing the following sessions:

  1. Welcome Remarks featuring The Right Honourable Kim Campbell, Canada’s first woman Prime Minister
  2. The #CloudJobs Recruitment Lounge
  3. The Black Founders Circle
  4. #RockYourPitch – a session on personal brand architecture
  5. #CloudMentorshipCircle – a session with cloud industry leaders
  6. Youth Mentorship Circles focused on STEM topics
  7. A digital scavenger hunt to network close out the summit

Whether or not you can attend the summit, I appreciate any amplification of the opportunity to friends and colleagues. And to keep the conversation going, I recommend joining the Women in Cloud Digital Network, where you’ll meet incredible women entrepreneurs, corporate cloud leaders, and supporters of greater gender equity in the cloud business.

Current Openings: 03

Current Openings: 03

Looking back at my journey, I have come to realize that over the years I worked hard to independently forge an international way in the business while nurturing a thriving family – it would have been so much easier with a network of like-minded support. A platform where ideas are shared and problems solved by people who experience the same barriers was missing; Women in Cloud offers this – a place where women can help each other progress in a world dictated by men, after all, a problem shared is a problem halved.

Women make up roughly 50% of the world’s population. I believe this is a significant force that can and should be used to empower all that is good! Instead of continuing the traditional and destructive pursuit of GDP, I believe a collective of women with positive, proactive, and purposeful ideas can rethink a sustainable economy and improve the quality of life for everyone and everything that shares the planet.

I am not the first to say that “Education is the Answer.” Despite this 175M children lack basic literacy skills. Around 2/3 of the world’s illiterates are women (UNN, 2010). Children and their facilitators in deprived areas have even less of a chance to succeed in life. 

The reasons for this are 1) Gender bias 2) Poverty 3) Lack of resources. Utilizing shared knowledge, resources, and technological prowess, we can level the playing field and improve world prospects by uplifting women from the ground up and providing every child – irrespectively of gender, culture, and parenting background – equal opportunities to access education. At the Women in Cloud Digital Summit 2021, I want to share my ideas on ways to utilize AI to reduce barriers, and positively impact families, and nations.

“If women are healthy and educated, their families will flourish. And when families flourish, communities and nations do as well.” — Hillary Clinton

With my association with Women in Cloud, I aim to enable the use of AI educational tools – giving remote, poor, and underprivileged children access to high-quality tuition, feedback (AI enables recording, data collection, and analysis)

Partnering with Cloud hyperscalers such as Microsoft, afford memory and storage of lessons, data, and feedback to populations that could not otherwise access tools that can propel and certify their academic progression.

Technology has been underused in the furthering of rural women’s educational and economic opportunities with men being the primary adopters of assistive technology. This is mirrored to a lesser degree of 60%-40% in modern settings (Gill et al, 2010). Policies that would lessen the educational gap by means of technology, need to be focused on 1) delivery of energy to support electronic technology 2) refocusing of the hardware development lifecycle from marketing, aesthetics, and profit to longevity, user-focused simplicity, and affordability. 3) finally this hardware needs to be connected, so free cloud and internet coverage of rural and impoverished areas need to be implemented.

“Modern technology enables us to meet the needs of those on the fringe of society, making technology a necessity in the realization of these children’s potential.” – Nataliya Tetruyeva

So this January, join me at the Women in Cloud Digital Summit 2021 to discuss the possibilities of incorporating technology into education to benefit millions who will impact the future and sustainability of our world. 

Book Your Spot today with a 15% discount, and get on board to witness the Collective Power of Women in the technology industry from around the world! 

I highly recommend the following Interactive Experiences for you to participate and expand your network: 

  1. 28 January: Learn about Tech Industry at their opening plenary with Former Prime Minister of Canada, Rt Honorable Kim Campbell, and Corporate Vice President Gavriella Schuster 
  2. 28 January: Explore Cloud Jobs at #CloudJobs Fair & Recruitment Lounge
  3. 28 January: Meet Black Founders
  4. 29 January: Master your pitch at #RockYourPitch Experience
  5. 29 January: Get access to mentorship from Cloud Industry leaders
  6. 30 January: Get your kids to participate in Youth Mentorship Circle
  7. 30 January: Make New Friends at Scavenger Hunt 

Also, join WIC Digital Network to be part of the global economic access movement

As the co-founder and principal of Go Big Coaching, my mission has always been to help women overcome the social and systemic barriers that hinder them from thriving in male-dominated fields while also developing a stronger, more courageous mindset to find success within their professional lives. 

I believe that we need more women in decision making roles to enhance economic access for all. I believe in the power of closing the wage gap, and I think a reasonable policy shift would be along the lines of what my home country Germany has, which is a Wage Transparency Act for companies with over 200 employees. It gives people the right to find out the median compensation of a colleague in the same or a comparable role. This type of transparency would remove obstacles that contribute to wage inequality based on gender, and could even result in an effective Equal Pay Act. Also, I believe that everyone should have the right to parental leave, which could help both men and women with job and wage security rather than punishing them for familial obligations. As a community, we must join forces to make these positive impacts,  and use our Collective Power to achieve the goal of an inclusive, innovative future. 

But what other than societal barriers restricts women to rise above and drive change? My passion for helping women unlock their potential has led me to develop a growth mindset that includes unlearning self-destructive behaviors and persevering through professional setbacks. I am excited to be presenting at the Women in Cloud Digital Summit 2021 on the topic of ‘Unlearning Negative Self-Talk.’ Our worst critic is our inner voice, but our self-criticisms don’t define or motivate us, and the only way to achieve inner peace and happiness is to acknowledge and overcome this inner critic. 

“Eventually I realized that learning would not get me where I wanted to go. This is when I had my lightbulb moment: It was time for me to UNlearn.”– Micha Goebig

So join me this January, at the Women in Cloud Digital Summit 2021 and let us work towards unlearning negative self-talk and replacing destructive thoughts with optimism. 

Book Your Spot today with a 15% discount, and get on board to witness the Collective Power of Women in the technology industry from around the world! 

I highly recommend the following Interactive Experiences for you to participate and expand your network: 

  1. 28 January: Learn about Tech Industry at their opening plenary with Former Prime Minister of Canada, Rt Honorable Kim Campbell and Corporate Vice President Gavriella Schuster 
  2. 28 January: Explore Cloud Jobs at #CloudJobs Fair & Recruitment Lounge
  3. 28 January: Meet Black Founders
  4. 29 January: Master your pitch at #RockYourPitch Experience
  5. 29 January: Get access to mentorship from Cloud Industry leaders
  6. 30 January: Get your kids to participate in Youth Mentorship Circle
  7. 30 January: Make New Friends at Scavenger Hunt 

Also, join WIC Digital Network to be part of the global economic access movement.