Women are underrepresented in technology in Canada, as demonstrated in a recent report by the Brookfield Institute (“Who Are Canada’s Tech Workers?“). This issue can also be seen on a global level, as Digital Journal’s recent article “Under represented and under-paid: Women in the technology sector” discusses.
The Big Push has announced a series of initiatives to help address the situation in Canada, by way of promoting women technology leaders as role models, and to offer women-led technology firms support. The organization has launched a “Pitch and Pair” program throughout Canada. The scheme will match promising women-led technology startups with The Big Push’s group of experts.
The Big Push is a business accelerator that offers women-led technology companies with a route to expert resources via a specially developed business model. The key aim is to get women-led technology firms focused and investment ready. With this guidance, such early-stage companies can hopefully scale faster and without the need to pay for additional labor costs.
Through the new program, women-led startups will have the chance to outline their company and identify key acceleration needs and priorities in front of experts. The experts have been selected in terms of being knowledgeable and as the type of people who are willing to be proactive.
Commenting about the events arranged to support the program, Sharon Zohar, who is the founder and CEO of The Big Push, said: “This is more than just one evening of networking. Each Pitch and Pair program takes place following an extensive due diligence process where each person in the room – including startup founders and experts – undergo extensive vetting by The Big Push Investment and Recruitment Committees.”
She explained further about how the program works in practice: “Everyone selected to attend understands their role as an active participant in the evening: startups showcase their business and identify the areas in which they require support, and experts pick the company they would most like to work with. Following the event, startups and experts are paired and the work begins.”
Each program that springs out of the event is designed to run for around nine months, with each expert providing about 15 hours of hands-on advice and support during each month.
Following on from the success of the first event in Toronto, the coming rounds of Pitch and Pair events are due to held in Montreal (March 2019), Vancouver (June 2019), and Ottawa (October 2019).
