Geekettes is a community dedicated to facilitating relationships between women in the technology sector. This network, founded in February 2011, helps women in Berlin’s rapidly expanding, grass-roots technology scene. It started as a women-in-tech mentorship program with monthly meetings at Google’s Berlin headquarters. Founders Jess Erickson and Danielle Philipp believe that the more women get involved with tech design, development and leadership, the more successful and diverse our companies and products will be in the future.
“Life is about self-discovery, growing from within, but also sharing wisdom and experience from others. I created Geekettes as it became increasingly clear that female technology professionals required their own grassroots structure to share wisdom and experience” - said Jess Erickson, Founder of Geekettes.
Geekettes also host talks to inspire and motivate women, as well as organize workshops to teach and refine skills. They also created a one-of-a-kind hackathons to bring women together to create unique, original products, and their mentorship program pairs ambitious tech professionals and entrepreneurs with experienced role models who offer guidance and insights into the tech world.
The group has attracted hundreds of young women at a time when the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is sharply divided over the merits of a quota to bring more women into German boardrooms. Ms. Merkel herself is a trained physicist and self-declared “digital migrant” who extols technology advances but says little explicitly on the advancement of women.
The Geekettes are now organizing their first European Demo Day on June 6, 2014 in Berlin, Germany. The event, in cooperation with 500Startups, Projekt Zukunft, McKinsey & Company and sponsored by Google and Hub:raum, aims to support more women in their investment pitch training and to eventually fund more female-led startups. 10 startup founders will be selected after our screening process and will be given the exciting opportunity of pitching in front of a room of VCs, angels and investors.
The application runs until April 3, make sure to check out Geekettes' website for further information on the event.
