Building balance

by Ana Bradley
Originally published 13th October 2016

In 2015, women represented just 17.5% of ICT professionals; at Doteveryone, we don’t understand why outdated gender values have infected such a new industry. In Martha Lane Fox’s BBC Dimbleby lecture in 2015, she set out her mission to make the UK the best place to be a woman in tech. We’ve been working on this mission and so far we’ve held two 5050tech Challenge events that took place in London and Newcastle where 24 startups attended a pitch clinic and then pitched to a room of investors.

Our biggest learning from the 5050tech events was that we need to reinvent demo days — the current format does not foster diverse teams. That’s why we are working with Kindred on our third event, Building Balance — a one-day event for diverse teams to meet diverse mentors on November 17th at Campus London.

We want founders to have the opportunity to have frank, open and honest roundtable discussions with industry leading mentors, covering how to storytell, how best to set yourself up for funding success, and how to build a kick-ass team and culture.

We are looking for UK based tech startups, with at least one founder who identifies as a woman, seeking early-stage or seed funding.

Application deadline: Friday October 28th, noon (click here to apply)
Shortlist announced: October 31st
Finalist announced: November 4th
Event: November 17th, 10am — 4pm, Campus London