Student Organizations Come Together to Empower Student Entrepreneurship
After a year of collaboration, student-led organizations Hack+ and TechTogether are officially forming a three-year partnership to develop a wide range of resources for aspiring student innovators, entrepreneurs, and hackers to jump-start their idea.
“We’re extremely excited to partner with TechTogether to promote inclusivity in entrepreneurship and computer science. Hack+ strongly believes that all students deserve to have access to the resources and infrastructure they need to pursue their ideas. We look forward to working closely with TechTogether to create accessible opportunities in tech and entrepreneurship for female and non-binary students.” said Sanil Chawla, Hack+ Founder and Executive Director.
Although the percentage of women-owned firms has increased by 114% in the past 20 years, women and other gender-marginalized communities continue to encounter gender-discrimination in entrepreneurship.
According to Entrepreneur magazine, out of $85 billion in VC funding last year, only 2.2 percent went to female founders. Every year, women of color get less than 1 percent of total funding. In addition, 70% of LBT women raised less than $750,000 of outside capital, while 47% of GBT men raised at least $2 million.
By joining their forces together, Hack+ and TechTogether hope to improve these numbers by using their expertise to make innovation more accessible to gender-marginalized communities.
“Without the support of Sanil Chawla and the Hack+ team, TechTogether would not exist at the scale it does today, ”said TechTogether Founder and Executive Director, Fiona Whittington. “As our organization expands into new cities, I’m excited to see how our community takes advantage of the amazing entrepreneurial resources Hack+ provides its students.”
