On Thursday, July 14, the Women in Cloud community engaged in #WICxINSPIRE, presented by Kyndryl. Where we reimagined the use of hyperscaler cloud marketplaces to drive digital transformation and a new route to market.

Emcee Sonia Dara, Chief of Staff at Microsoft, created a warm welcome at the stage. Chaitra Vedullapalli, Co-Founder & President, Women in Cloud and CMO, Meylah and Sheetal Rishi, Senior Partner, Cloud Engineering & Development at Kyndryl brought important information and contagious excitement of strategic partnership with Women In Cloud within the Opening Remarks.

Then our Keynote, Jacqueline Woods, EVP & CMO at Teradata, brought us Leading Strategic Partnerships with Hyperscalers with audience Q&A led by Michelle Pruitt, Principal Program Manager, Microsoft & Women In Cloud Board of Advisor. 

The CXO Panel: Mastering Co-Sell GTM with Hyperscalers with Gail Mercer-Mckay, Vince Menzione, Amy Bray, and Annemarie Dev, moderated by Sharan Hildebrand. This panel showed you how to make sure that you have all the right factors in place before launching any new products or opening any new channels.

Then we went to Bootcamp! #CloudFounders Bootcamp began with Christine Puccio, VP, Global Cloud Alliances & GTM Programs, JFrog and Chaitra Vedullapalli led us through a Fireside Chat on “Leading Co-Sell Product Launch Strategies with Hyperscalers.” Then Chaitra Vedullapalli, led the workshop “How to Secure Funding For Eligible GTM Strategies from Hyperscalers” with proven tactics for your GTM strategy.

Next we celebrated the finalists and winners for the #empowHERaccess 2022 awards, Emceed by Amy Protexter, Senior Vice President, North America Marketing at Insight. We had wonderful award presenters from our sponsors: Camille Geiger from Boeing for the Cloud Advisor of the Year Award Presenter; Regina Manfredi from Teradata for the Supplier of Year Award Presenter; Andrea Perkins from Insight for the Digital Transformation Project of the Year; Dikasse Zalla from Avanade for the Investor of the Year Award; Katie Franzen from Accenture Women in Technology Outstanding Leadership Award.

Congratulations to the winners: Gena Goh, Beth White, Neal Dempsey, Ashley Miller, Elif Tutuk!

 

Then we joined our masterclass of advisors for intimate roundtable discussions on: Tech Leadership Roles, Executive Leadership and Presence, Tech Platforms, Business Partnerships, and Business Conversations. Thank you to our advisors: Nehal Mehta, Sreelakshmy G, Colleen O’Brien, Dhaval Shah, Sandhya Parameswara, Shirelle Francis, Anamarie Franc, Sahiti Bayana, Keri Smith, Geetha Gandhi, Ebony Burroughs, Amina Sartaj, Laura Sewell, Natasha Eichman, and Emily Colby.

Keep an eye for WIC’s next exciting initiatives:

Announcing the first WIC 100 Influencer NFTS! 

  • Get your WIC Influencer Limited 2022 Edition NFT: Pre-Order Now! 

The Exclusive Gold Edition NFT Includes Access to:

  • Annual Access Pass
  • WICxIcons Celebration Dinner
  • #WICxSummit2023 Speaker Opportunity

 

WIC Million Dollar Partnership Challenge

Standing out in the $7 trillion cloud industry is no easy feat—in fact, 98% of women are unable to get access to corporate contracts and capital investments. 

That is why Women In Cloud is ecstatic to announce the Million Dollar Cloud Partnership 3-Day Challenge from June 22nd to June 25th, 2022. 

This challenge is designed to take women technology founders’ businesses to the next level and help them achieve the impact they have always dreamed of. 

Through a series of live webinars and editable workbooks, participants will become experts in strategic co-selling with cloud hyperscalers, develop a collaborative mindset that facilitates strong partnerships, gain access to new B2B SaaS investors, acquire skills in marketing and brand promotion, request warm introductions, and more! 

This challenge will cover a range of topics that promote professional and personal development:

  1. Collaborative Mindset
  2. Investor Access
  3. Co-Sell Solution Identification
  4. Brand Visibility

In addition, participants will meet and learn from industry leaders such as Chaitra Vedullapalli, Gillian Muessig, Rajeev Kapoor, Christine Puccio, Karen Fassio, and more!

Don’t miss out! Secure your ticket today! 

See the exciting schedule below:*

  1. Tuesday June 21st 11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT: Kickoff : Collaborative Mindset Through The Power of Trust (BONUS SESSION)
  2. Wednesday June 22nd 11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT: Access to Investor and Investments
  3. Thursday June 23rd 11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT: Cosell Solution Development with Hyperscalers
  4. Friday June 24th 11:00 am – 12:00 pm PT: Brand Visibility & GTM Plan

*Note: You are NOT required to attend every session. Ticket grants access to ALL sessions.

For more information on Women In Cloud’s 3-Day Million Dollar Cloud Partnership Challenge, click here

On April 22, the Women in Cloud community joined together as we hosted a special edition of #WICxFortune100 Lunch and Learn. Salesforce Ventures features “A Guide to Corporate Venture Investing: Learn the Ins and Outs from Salesforce Ventures.” 

salesforce lunch and learn

To begin the event, Erin Northern, Partnership Lead for Women in Cloud (WIC) set the stage to introduce WIC and Salesforce Ventures. Erin greeted the audience and encouraged an active chat within the attendees. Attendees came from 5+ countries around the globe, all with a goal to learn and be inspired by the event today. 

Watch the introduction here:

 

Next, Salesforce Ventures brought Enki Toto, Investor for Salesforce Impact Venture Fund to the stage for the Keynote: A Guide to Corporate Venture Investing. Enki gave an in-depth presentation on the basics of investing and how corporate venture capital is different. With insightful questions from the chat, Enki delivered a well rounded approach to the topic, breaking down ideas and methods to teach and engage the audience.

Enki focused on the following topics: 

  • Deal structures
  • How to prepare for your pitch
  • Due diligence, risks, and closing the deal
  • The return on investment

Enki is currently an investor on the Salesforce Ventures Impact Fund, Salesforce’s corporate venture capital fund that invests in cloud technology solutions with a demonstrable impact in Education and Workforce Development, Sustainability, DE&I, and the Social Sector. She’s been involved in the company’s investments in BlocPower, Circulor, Crehana, Ellevest. and Propel.

 

Watch Enki Toto here: https://youtu.be/0bpqONyLC54

With this special edition of the #WICxFortune100 Lunch and Learn featuring Salesforce Ventures, WIC captured a niche audience and brought important information to the stage. 

Useful Resources: 

  • If you missed this session, you can find the recordings here
  • Register for #WICxInspire on July 14 for an interactive virtual event 
  • Do you want infinite access to more career and professional development opportunities? You can get $1000 of value for just $249 with the Women In Cloud’s Annual Access Pass. Learn and connect with the tech industry’s top leaders through Signature Events and Warm Introductions, develop your leadership skills, reach your full potential, and more! 
  • Learn more about EmpowHERaccess Awards
  • WICxLEAD: Next-generation Corporate ESG Women’s Leadership Accelerator, designed to empower corporate women and entrepreneurs to ignite economic access. Learn more and apply to qualify.
  • Want to request a warm introduction with Cloud Leaders from the session? Click here to request warm introductions today.
  • Join the #WiCDigitalNetwork to connect with community members and stay up to date with latest news, opportunities, and initiatives 

 

What if we told you you can access enterprise opportunities via Cloud marketplaces?

Global enterprises will spend more than $7 trillion dollars in the next four years as they struggle to modernize, build a global technology foundation for growth, and support simple, secure, and reliable access to data and services, says the IDC.

The big drivers? The usual suspects like cloud initiatives, big data analytics, and mobility. But, IoT is becoming a major investment focus, and so are automation or AI initiatives. Women In Cloud Cloud Accelerator is established to help you represent and access these opportunities via the new sales engine called Cloud Marketplaces powered by Microsoft, Google, RedHat and AWS.

We are inviting you to learn and explore if you are the right fit for the WIC Accelerator Cohort 7.0 starting Late May 2022.

We invite you to join our Cohort 7.0 Open House on May 6th at 10am PST.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in becoming a part of the Cohort 7.0 Accelerator Program this will be a great opportunity to ask questions about the program before you sign up.

We will be discussing the following:

  • Co-Sell Cloud Accelerator with Hyperscalers To Win Enterprise Opportunities

  • Program Outline & What to Expect

  • Opportunities for Access

  • Perfecting Your Solution on a Marketplace

  • Building Co-Sell Go To Market Plan

  • Accelerator Benefits

  • Open Q&A

Please register for the event HERE.

If you know other female tech entrepreneurs who might be interested please pass the event invite along.

Co-Sell Cloud Accelerator with Hyperscalers : Program Benefits At A Glance

  •  3 Month Dedicated Accelerator starting May 2022
  • 3 years of access to all the enterprise opportunities to get you access to customers and investors

  • Monthly roundtables & Community connections

  • Speaker slots on industry and community events

  • Expedited Warm Introductions To Advisors, Investors & Buyers

  • Access To Cloud Hyperscaler Partnerships

  • Invitations to participate in digital GTM offerings from Hyperscalers

  • Get your ready to participate in Cloud marketplaces

  • Dedicated Digital Learning Hub

  • Access to Cloud Hyperscaler programs and cloud credits

Website: Cloud Accelerator

We look forward to seeing you soon on May6th.

Note: This is a U.S.-only program.

Microsoft has developed the Partner Fund Program to help provide working capital to existing Microsoft Partners. You’re invited to apply for this program as you seek to grow your business.

As a Microsoft Partner, Microsoft is committed to your success. Whether you’re seeking to scale your business, improve your Microsoft capability, or put yourself on a more profitable path, this fund is for you. Review the loan information and eligibility requirements below, then fill out the form to nominate your company. Upon completion of the form, they’ll contact you to discuss your submission in detail.

About the Partner Capital Fund loan program:

  • Partner can apply for loans ranging from $25,000 to $500,000.
  • Loans maintain terms of less than 60 months.
  • No or low interest will be charged for payment terms (Microsoft will cover all or most of the interest costs).
  • Eligibility is based upon financial and other information provided.

Partner Capital Fund eligibility requirements:

  • Partner must be based in the U.S.
  • Partner must be enrolled and active in the Microsoft Partner Network.
  • Eligible businesses who are partners include those who are:
    • Offering consulting services that utilize Microsoft products OR
    • Building on a Microsoft platform to build their own business OR
    • Developing app using Microsoft products OR
    • Creating IP using Microsoft products (i.e., organizations who are willing to build unique technology on the Microsoft platform).
  • Partner must be in good standing (i.e., no disputed accounts receivable greater than or equal to 60 days).
  • Partner must have less than $7M in annualized revenue.
  • Partner must have ability to provide three years of financial statements (reviewed or audited) or provide three years of federal tax returns.
  • Startup organizations must provide a five-year projection or business plan.
  • Additional items may be requested from Microsoft’s banking partner.
  • Partner must self-certify responses.
  • Commitment to allocate forecasted spend on Microsoft products or services reviewed as a percentage of the loan. Details to be provided during review process.

You’re invited to nominate your company to receive working capital support through the Microsoft Partner Capital Fund. Whether you’re seeking to scale your business, improve your Microsoft capability, or put yourself on a more profitable path, this program is for you.

To nominate your company, review the loan information and complete the form within the link below. The Microsoft team will review your submission and contact you to discuss in detail.

By submitting this form, you are indicating that you are interested in having access to credit with the Partner Capital Fund for the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) that Microsoft’s banking partner offers. Participation in the Partner Capital Fund program is subject to Microsoft’s program terms. Credit review and approval is subject to the program terms set forth by the banking institution providing the credit. Your personal information will be shared with banking partners and processed by Microsoft as per their privacy policy.

Apply Today!

You can learn more at Microsoft Lunch and Learn on May6th, 2022. Save Your Spot