Chicago— Beta Boom, a venture academy unlocking the $4.4T opportunity of overlooked female and multicultural founders, is inviting investors to celebrate rising, traditionally overlooked female talent by joining their Female Founders Summit on September 24, 2020 from 4:00 – 8:00 pm CDT. Private sessions for angel, venture, and family office investors will be held in addition to live pitch competitions awarding female founders capital as well as coaching. 

To provide female entrepreneurs with an opportunity to showcase their startups to notable investors from Elevate Capital, Khosla Ventures, Chicago Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and other notable firms, the Summit will feature a “Friends and Family Pitch Competition,” representative of the initial funding round often unavailable to diverse or underrepresented founders. The competition will feature 6 early-stage startups competing for $5,000 in equity-free prize money plus 20 hours of coaching with Beta Boom’s team of coaches. 

Startups that are US-based and have received less than $20,000 in equity investment, provide a tech-enabled or consumer product, and have at least one cofounder who identifies as female are encouraged to apply. Applications must be submitted by Sunday, September 13. Chosen startups will be notified on September 18 and invited to give a three-minute live pitch that will be judged by notable leaders in the tech and VC community including Elizabeth Yin of Hustle Fund, in addition to members of the press. 

According to CB Insights, five out of the top ten reasons startups fail are due to poor product-market fit or distribution, a primary driver behind Beta Boom’s model to invest human capital, alongside traditional monetary capital, to reduce executional risk. 

“While providing women and people of color the funds, early-on, is one critical step in leveling the playing field for overlooked founders, frankly, writing the check is just not enough,” said Kimmy Paluch, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Beta Boom. “Our goal is never just to check the box. We like to pull our sleeves up and essentially become temporary co-founders to help them grow their startup and set them up for enduring success.”

Beta Boom’s 2020 Women’s Startup Academy teams will also be competing for $10,000 during the Female Founders Summit. The participating startups include: 

• The List, a modern, data-driven online matchmaking service bridging the gap between self-service dating apps and expensive, traditional matchmakers
• Geaux Network, a multi-media destination providing multicultural millennials with authentic, informative, and entertaining content 
• Nodat, a community marketing platform that drives repeat and new customers to small local businesses through incentives and gamification
• SureShow, a software platform allowing medical practices to fill no-show appointments with billable telehealth visits

“We’ve been fighting to address racial and economic disparities in entrepreneurship since leaving Silicon Valley and launching our first academy,” said Sergio Paluch, Co-Founder at Beta Boom. “The Female Founders Summit is our way of lending resources and networks to continue to open doors for early-stage founders while also celebrating the incredible work and dedication of our Women’s Startup Academy participants. But there’s always more to be done, and we’ll continue pushing.” 

The 2020 Women’s Startup Academy, an intensive six-month training rooted in product, marketing, and fundraising coaching, is nearing completion, with the upcoming Summit serving as a final culmination event. The program was led in partnership with Womenpreneurs and featured speakers including founders from mental health app Ginger.io, digital care management platform Lark Health, and Chicago’s most recognized startup incubator 1871, among other notable founders and investors.

To register for Beta Boom’s upcoming Summit, or to learn more about joining companies like Carta and Brex as a sponsor of the event, please visit https://betaboom.com/summit/. 

About Beta Boom

Beta Boom is a venture academy unlocking the $4.4T opportunity of overlooked female and multicultural founders by providing early-stage startups with an intensive six-month program focused on product, marketing and fundraising. Cofounded by Kimmy and Sergio Paluch, who have led product innovation projects for companies like Google, TiVo, and Bank of America, Beta Boom looks beyond Silicon Valley and invests human capital in diverse, scrappy, and persevering leaders who are creating solutions to today’s biggest challenges. For more information, follow Beta Boom on Twitter (@betaboom) or visit https://betaboom.com/.