Women in TECH power (insights from a male founder)

Statistically, an average woman involved in a car crash would be 47% more likely seriously injured than a man. It’s happening because the car safety systems including the seat belts were designed and tested for male adults.

We hear a lot of talks about diversity in different industries, but, unfortunately, the world is not there yet.

Several weeks ago, we had a BootCamp for “Women in Tech Batch”. Here is what I learned about female founders:

• There are more women-led projects than you could think of — they are just mostly invisible and running their project in the black. Why? Because they attract only 7% of the total startup funding, despite significantly better financial performance.
• Also, 7 startups out of 10, are usually led by a successful mother. As you can imagine, this combination requires some exceptional time-management skills.

Some numbers from BootCamp: 28 startups joined our BootCamp, 70% of female founders at the Bootcamp are raising from 1 to 3 kids, 90% of the founders are 25+ years old.

• 80% of the startups, participating in our BootCamp created additional value: like social and sustainability impact. So it’s not just about earning money but also about literally changing the world. Yes, it’s a trendy topic. But how often an average startup tackles this issue? According to PwC recent study, 50% of women in STEM in the UK mentioned that the most important factor when choosing their future career is “feeling like the work I do makes the world a better place/has a wider impact”
• With only a few months of scouting and traveling — more than 50 applications for “Women in Tech Batch” came in. It’s less than an average number of applications for our batches, however, every first startup was worth looking at, and we had quite tough decisions to make while pre-selecting the BootCamp participants.

Some numbers from BootCamp: 3 amazing days with mentors, workshops, and innovation. 22 offline and 6 online pitches. It’s more than 21 hours we spent together as a big innovation-driven family.

• Women in Tech actually mean TECH. Science-driven approach to the startups? Yes! And more than that. Baltic Sandbox is now working with a project that dives deep into a microscope in a laboratory to analyze Mitochondria. It helps you to know very precisely how your body reacts to different nutrition, trainings, etc. Yes, that’s some sort of rocket science for us, as well.
• #FoodTech? Yes. #MedTech? Yes. #AgroTech? Yes. #B2B? Yes. #Marketplace? Yes. #SustainableBusiness? Yes. #EcoFuture? Yes. and more than that.

Our awesome “Women in Tech” batch started yesterday. We truly believe it’s going to be an amazing journey.

The selection committee has chosen 13 projects to continue participation in the Women in Tech acceleration program. With the amazing #biotech, #foodtech, #deeptech, and #b2b products — it’s going to be an inspiring trip.

We even have our internal slogan for this Batch: “Underpromise, but Overdeliver”.

Are you ready to join us and foster the REAL innovation and a brighter future?

By Andrius Milinavicius, co-founder of Baltic Sandbox