For Immediate Release: March 3, 2020
San Francisco, California– The SoGal Foundation, a nonprofit working to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship, hosted the top 60 woman and underrepresented founder-led startups, chosen from over 1,700 companies globally during 25 regional competitions as a part of the SoGal Global Pitch Competition.
Indianapolis-based tech startup SNAPSHYFT joined 59 other finalist teams from around the world, to compete in San Francisco as part of the SoGal Summit. The finalists from each regional round competition traveled to Silicon Valley to participate in SoGal’s three day immersive educational bootcamp. SNAPSHYFT was the winner of the South Bend, Indiana regional, co-founder Stephanie Corliss said glowingly after the events in San Francisco, “I cannot express the full scale of how I feel at the moment… I have smiled, laughed, cried and questioned… this weekend has been full of insight, reflection and affirmation! Thank you SoGal for boosting us diverse group of founders”.
Stephanie’s co-founder, Thor Wood offered his perspective, “I was lucky to be invited to and without a doubt these are some of the most determined and talented entrepreneurs I’ve ever been around; I came away feeling truly blessed to have Steph as my co-founder— Looking at our shared desire to excel in our mission to reshape how staffing is done, and eliminating bias and discrimination and generating a positive social impact— I hope we’re fortunate enough to build a truly diverse team, with diverse backers, and diverse board— representative of the diverse industry we serve”. Wood continued, “The facts can’t be denied, for one, that women-led startups outperform the male-only startups, and I know we wouldn’t be where we are today had Steph said ‘no thanks’ when I asked her to be my business partner; but also we need to see investors open their damn checkbooks for women and minorities as quick as they do for white men’.
The three-day bootcamp included networking events with investors, educational programming, press opportunities and a chance to win a portion of $600,000 in investment capital allocated for on-the-spot investment. Most of the funding for the SoGal Global Pitch Competition came from SoGal Ventures and Draper U Ventures, and a panel of 28 women and minority venture capital experts judged the competition.
All participating startups must have raised less than $3M, with at least one woman or self-identified underrepresented founder. South Bend, Indiana was one of 25 regional rounds hosted in SoGal chapters across five continents. Other regional rounds were hosted in New York, San Francisco, Lagos, Chicago, Dallas, Charlotte, London, Berlin, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Sydney, Nairobi, and more.
The competing startups varied in industry, including those from healthcare, HRtech, Fintech, consumer goods, B2B, and more.
“SoGal was born out of the need to put millennial and generation Z women front and center in entrepreneurship and VC globally,” said Pocket Sun, founder and co-president of SoGal Foundation. “Women and other underrepresented founders are underestimated and undercapitalized, yet when provided with resources, network, and capital, women founders are statistically proven to outperform their male counterparts. There’s been enough data, research, and education but too few actions and capital allocation. We just need to allocate capital to women and the rest will sort itself out.”
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ABOUT SoGal Foundation
SoGal Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and the largest global platform for diverse founders and funders in 40+ chapters across 5 continents; our mission is to close the diversity gap in entrepreneurship. SoGal Foundation’s global startup competition represents the first and largest opportunity for women and diverse entrepreneurs and investors to connect worldwide.
The SoGal mantra: we are the change we’ve been waiting for. Diverse founders are creating billion-dollar businesses at an unprecedented speed. We’re done waiting for these statistics to change; we’re taking action to point investment capital toward these diverse-led startups. With the right resources and equitable allocation of capital, we will change the future of entrepreneurship.
ABOUT SoGal Ventures
SoGal Ventures is redefining the next generation of diverse founders and funders. As the 1st female-led millennial venture capital firm SoGal Ventures represents how far our generation has come, and how deep our impact on the world can be. We believe in the power of diversity, borderless business, and human-centric design. We invest in early stage diverse founding teams in the U.S. and Asia, and aim to be the strongest ally for our portfolio companies. Powered by the SoGal Ecosystem across 40+ cities around the world, we are galvanizing a brand new demographic – millennial & Gen Z women and minorities – to take center stage in entrepreneurship and creation. This will change EVERYTHING. With that in mind, we invest in the future of how we live, work, and stay healthy.
ABOUT SNAPSHYFT
The SNAPSHYFT Labor Marketplace is a cloud-based staffing software and mobile app connecting food & beverage and hospitality operations with actual industry pros, on-demand. We help fill shifts fast— combining the best attributes of the gig-economy and HR Tech— as the only true on-demand staffing solution dedicated to the food & beverage and hospitality industry. Built from the ground up, our platform is changing the way these businesses get the right talent for their immediate needs, while eliminating bias and discrimination. In turn, we are generating hyper-positive socio economic impact for the operations, the professionals, and the community at-large. SNAPSHYFT is a Delaware C-Corp, headquartered in Indianapolis, with an executive outpost in San Francisco. The company is currently working on pilots in cities throughout the midwest and mountain west, and anticipates additional opportunities in the south. SNAPSHYFT is currently available in the App Store and Google Play.
