Partnership Aims to Encourage Female Founders to Scale Alongside Leading Startups at RocketSpace
Today, we’re announcing a partnership with Girls in Tech, a global nonprofit focused on eradicating gender disparity in the technology industry. The new partnership enables Girls in Tech’s top startup participants to accelerate their growth through RocketSpace’s campus and services, and supports our commitment to help increase diversity in the tech industry, particularly in leadership roles.
RocketSpace is now the exclusively endorsed coworking provider for Girls in Tech, who has 60 local chapters and more than 50,000 members worldwide. The organization’s exec team, including CEO Adriana Gascoigne, is now based here on our San Francisco tech campus and will be joined by Girls in Tech startups who meet RocketSpace’s admission criteria and apply to become members. Like our other members, they’ll get access to campus services including mentorship, members-only workshops, investors and our Fortune 1000 corporate innovation clients.
“The diversity figures released by technology companies throughout Silicon Valley and beyond are painfully out of touch with society,” said Adriana Gascoigne, CEO and Founder of Girls in Tech. “RocketSpace’s commitment to supporting diversity on their campus is an example that should be emulated. We’re excited to work with RocketSpace to increase opportunities for female founders to accelerate the growth of their startups.”
Since RocketSpace opened in 2011, we’ve been fortunate to work alongside many amazing tech founders and their startup teams. But yet, currently, only 10 percent of startup founders on campus are female. According to Girls in Tech, the average number of women at tech companies is 30 percent, with only 15 percent occupying technical positions. We believe diversity can only fuel innovation. This partnership will hopefully encourage women who are passionate about tech and entrepreneurship to grow their businesses alongside some of the best in the industry.
On the RocketSpace team, we recently appointed Marissa Cho to CFO and Priya Guha, the UK’s first female Consul General in San Francisco, as GM of our new UK campus in London. They join two other female execs on our leadership team.
