Wednesday Google hosted a special edition of their annual "Demo Day" event featuring 11 early-stage startup companies founded by women from eight different countries. More than 450 women from 40 different counties applied for a spot, and the winner of the competition was Bridgit, a fast-growing Canadian company which provides a mobile communications platform for construction teams. Online voters also awarded the "Game Changer" title to KiChing, a startup that's actively addressing Mexico's unique e-commerce challenges. But all of the startups at Wednesday's event were already actively raising series-A funding, and "We aim to help connect them to mentors, access to capital, and shine a spotlight on their efforts," said Mary Grove, the director of Google for Entrepreneurs, addressing the Demo Day audience in San Francisco.
(Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Monday December 14 2015, @09:40PM
Basically, yeah. I certainly could be wrong - a short presentation (and my tendency to skip around because corporate pitches don't interest me) is nothing much to go on. But to lay my implication bare: A short look at the video was enough to make suspicious that Google chose these groups because a woman was on the letterhead of the application and would subsequently be standing on their stage, not because the women had any tangible vision or leadership traits. If they were genuinely interested in drumming up capital for women leaders, wouldn't they have at least made sure the woman was doing the leading?