| As young women with world-changing aspirations, we recognize entrepreneurship as the means to fulfill our life goals. After attending numerous local networking events for entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley, we asked “Where are all the women in the Silicon Valley?” | |
 Founders Team Awards/a> Steering Committee |
Sponsors Affiliates Media partners Events |
Mission
Increase the number of female founders* of technology startups**.
* Women 2.0 supports any early-stage startup with at least one female on the founding team.
** Women 2.0 defines a technology startup as one with a technologist (scientist, engineer, mathmatician, etc.) on the founding team.
Knowledge + Action = Real Change
Women 2.0 takes a no-nonsense attitude towards advancing women in entrepreneurship. Women 2.0 creates a strong, positive voice that focuses on WHERE WE CAN BE rather than WHERE WE ARE.
Our Strategy
- Network women with other entrepreneurs, experienced executives, and investors;
- Provide direct access to “startup-friendly” resources (financial and non-financial) to launch their company;
- Encourage women to work with and in the field of technology; and
- Educate and present forward-thinking knowledge in entrepreneurship.
Participate in Women 2.0
Monthly Networking events: These are hosted in various locations in Silicon Valley, from the South Bay to San Francisco. Events are agenda-free and focused on future women founders, existing women founders and others in the startup community to network and build authentic relationships.
Jumpstart Your Startup: A 10-week program to help take your idea to business plan to launch! See past Jumpstart Your Startup sessions here.
Napkin Pitch Startup Competition: Each year Women 2.0 celebrates startups with at least one female founder by hosting a Napkin Pitch contest. Teams in Alpha and Beta stage apply online and submit a paper napkin with their startup pitch. Investors review and judge these applications and the top 5 teams pitch live to an audience to gain further feedback. The winner from Pitch Night wins a meeting with an iconic investor and a suite of startup resources. See past Pitch events in 2009, 2008 and 2007.
Women 2.0 Founders
Shaherose is currently at Opinno a global network of incubator spaces, entrepreneurs and investors. At heart she is a mobile and telephony junkie. She’s led new consumer products at Ribbit (BT). Previously, she was Director of Product Management at JAJAH (sold to Telefonica/O2). Prior to that, she was at TiE overseeing governance and operations of 40+ entrepreneurship centers. She aspires to pour her entrepreneurial spirit into launching mobile solutions for emerging economies. Shaherose holds a B.A. in Business Admin from The University of Western Ontario’s Richard Ivey School of Business.
Angie is a startup junkie, product manager, web designer, and above all, an entrepreneur at heart. She has been managing the Women 2.0 brand, marketing, and strategy since 2006. In her free time, she studies the diaspora of tech-savvy and entrepreneurial women and designs cool stuff. In January 2008, Angie launched Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, asking that guys come as the “+1″ for once. Angie holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley.
Shivani is an auditing machine at a Big Four accounting firm, tearing through balance sheets and making sure that everything is in order. When she has some time, she’s reading gossip blogs (and tech blogs, of course) and chilling with friends. She’s also a fan of playing cards - anybody like Gin-Rummy? Shivani holds a B.S. in Business Admin and B.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley.
When Wen-Wen isn’t out and about planning fun events with her friends, she can be found learning about marketing, bikram yoga, shopping, and keeping up with the latest celebrity gossip. Prior to being Renkoo’s Marketing Director, she was part of the marketing team at LinkedIn. Wen-Wen holds a B.A. in Economics from UC Berkeley. She is taking a sabbatical from Women 2.0 activities, and is currently pursuing her MBA from the USC Marshall School of Business.
Women 2.0 Team
“Life’s like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get”. Aihui is always ready to take on any new chocolate of adventures, whether it’s backpacking round the world, launching high-tech startups or skydiving over the Swiss Alps. For now, she’s happily piloting her tech consulting company, EdgiLabs, and in love with Ruby on Rails. The only constant thing is her life is searching for the next chocolate of adventure. Aihui holds a B.S. in Computer Science & Information Systems from the National University of Singapore and an MBA from the University of Warwick Business School.
Arielle is currently a junior at UC Berkeley, where she analyzes consumer behavior and psychology under her independent interdisciplinary major. In between classes, she works as a business development consultant for small businesses and startups that target young people. Her goal is to transform ordinary students into living, breathing entrepreneurs ready to break into startup culture. When she has some extra time, she organizes painting parties with her friends and she shops at vintage stores.
Prior to her role with NCWIT as Entrepreneurial Alliance Program Manager, Baat worked in the tech industry for nearly 10 years. She was a Security Software Specialist at BMC Software, did Business Development for PLYmedia, and started as a webmaster at NCAR. Baat is enthusiastic about launching entrepreneurial women to new heights, as she is avidly involved with Women 2.0. Her last production was a workshop series taking start-up ideas to the next step. Baat holds a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Christine is a Digital Strategist for Ogilvy PR’s 360 Digital Influence Group. In this capacity, she provides strategic digital council and support across Ogilvy’s Consumer Marketing and Technology Practices. As an early adopter of social media, Christine specializes in research-based digital strategy, online community engagement, online media relations, trainings in social media best practices and digitally integrated event execution. Christine holds a bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of California, San Diego.
Diana is a seasoned software professional. Her latest gig was as Director of Quality Engineering at iPass, where she led a 60+ member global team located in California, Israel and India. Prior to iPass, she was part of the management team at Siebel Systems and a senior consultant with Accenture. In her spare time, Diana serves on the Board of Directors for BRAVO! Club, a group of young professionals dedicated to building a new audience for SF Opera. Diana is thrilled about Women 2.0 bringing talented technical women together to change the world.
Elissa works by day as a powerhouse creative director at Genkii, a mobile entertainment development company. By night, she is a marauding - er, moonlighting freelance illustrator for clients like AMD, Shaspa, and Women 2.0. In her spare time, Elissa draws for Girl vs. Robot, a daily political cartoon and op-ed, and less frequently, updates her portfolio. And yes, she is still for hire. She does not sleep.
Emily became interested in multimedia as a storytelling tool while working on Chicago Public Radio’s global affairs show “Worldview.” She covered theater & arts for Daily Northwestern Magazine and was a health reporter for Cape Times in South Africa. Emily has produced sustainable online & offline communications for an ad agency and helped consumer technology brands grow communities online as digital strategist. She volunteers for SF Women’s Film Festival and blogs for JoshSpear and her arts & culture site Goliblogski. Emily holds a B.S.J. in Journalism from Northwestern.
Esther spends her workday preserving archival moving image materials for a community media arts organization in Los Angeles. She is also a web designer and budding developer, an avid technology enthusiast and general-purpose geek. In her spare time, she enjoys watching films and reading silly things on the Internets. Esther holds a B.A. in Psychology and French from UC Berkeley and an M.A. in Moving Image Archive Studies from UCLA.
Jazmin is the web marketing director for Tekserve, an independent Apple computer store in NYC. She also produces a business mentoring podcast series for women at CrackTheGlass.org. Jazmin is currently moonlighting in iPhone application development and is working towards the initial release of several cross-platform games for her company, LFT Games. Jazmin holds a B.S. in Management Information Systems from SUNY: Empire State College.
Olya helps startups and Fortune 500 companies with strategy and business development. She brought Starbucks to Russia and currently oversees growth for Spinn3r, crawling and search technology, helping to define business model, pricing and operations strategy. Olya is passionate about entrepreneurship and product development. Olya holds an MBA in Information Systems & Technology. She founded and runs an improv group in San Francisco.
Pokin is the co-founder of a GeckoGo - a travel site that wants to make planning travel as fun as actually traveling! Prior to that, she was a Product Manager at the L’Oreal Group in Montreal, the Campbell Soup Company in Hong Kong, and Research In Motion in Waterloo. When she’s not glued to her laptop, she’s probably rock climbing, baking cupcakes, or reading travel guides. Pokin holds a B.A. in Marketing from Simon Fraser University.
Saroj is a senior software developer at Epocrates. Before that she was a founding member & the CTO of Supercool School. You can always catch her scribbling at her blog. Her favorite hobby is to grow her Kiva team. Saroj holds a M.S. in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Yelena was born in Belarus, and recently moved from Midwest to the Bay Area to surround herself with motivated people with similar interests and be involved with the entrepreneurial community. Her experience while with Accenture contributed to shaping Yelena’s outstanding professional tenure and commitment to complete tasks. In 2007, Yelena co-founded Zilpy, a free online rental market facts and analysis service, which quickly established itself as a leading source for accurate US rental data. In her spare time, Yelena loves to plan vacations and to spend time with her family.
Women 2.0 Awards
Women 2.0 Advisory Board
Alka Gupta (VP of Business Development, Retrevo; Founder, The Ojas Group)
Carol Sands (Founder and Managing Member, The Angels’ Forum and The Halo Funds)
Chris Shipley (Founding Partner, Guidewire Group)
Marlene McDaniel (CEO, Lightworks)
Women 2.0 Platinum Sponsors
| Microsoft Startup Zone reveals one of their best-kept secrets - the availability of lots of free software for development, as well as some terrific program and software values for small companies. |  |
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Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP is a full-service law firm with a presence in the world’s major financial and technology centers. Pillsbury counsels on global business and litigation by working in multidisciplinary teams, anticipating trends and offering a 360-degree perspective to complex business and legal issues, and helping clients take greater advantage of new opportunities and better mitigate risk.
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Women 2.0 Community Sponsors
| Bottlenotes is both a customized wine club service offering five different wine clubs based on personal taste preferences, and a wine retail website offering wines from some of the best producers in the world. And coming soon: Bottlenotes Events, a corporate and consumer wine special events service. |  |
| Hiball Energy is offered in 4 fantastic flavors: Lemon Lime, Wild Berry, Orange and the new Grapefruit. HiBall Energy also created a special energy mixer - HiBall Energy Club Soda & HiBall Energy Tonic Water. These drinks have the same great taste as traditional club soda and tonic water but with the added energy boost from the addition of taurine, guarana, ginseng, B-vitamins and caffeine as well. |  |
| Outside the Cube is a group of powerful and influential entrepreneurs and professionals looking for more than a place to work and a place to meet. Whether an entrepreneur or professional, you can only improve with solid professional connections especially in today’s unstable economy. Members groups include mom/dad entrepreneurs, freelancers, green, and consultants. |  |
Women 2.0 Affiliates
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Astia accelerates the funding and growth of companies through programs that are designed for start-ups at all stages, and is supported by Astia’s Advisor Network (over 70 former and current CEOs and 100 investors).
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Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners are informal dinners featuring women speakers. Speakers vary on topics from technical to business, or even on women and tech issues (such as mentoring). The events are varied, the reach vast, and for those who are making steps towards encouraging women into and to stay in the IT industry around the world.
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femtalent is an innovative equal opportunities initiative promoted by the Network of Science and Technology Parks of Catalonia (XPCAT) under the management of 22@Barcelona and with the technical collaboration of the ENRED company to foster the presence and the role of women in the XPCAT.
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Ladies Who Launch is the first company to define entrepreneurship as a lifestyle choice and connect women online and in person to foster creativity, community, and support.
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TheNextWomen is an online news magazine and community focused on women business leaders, entrepreneurs and investors. We have several channels: The NextWomen website (business magazine, news, database, online community), The NextWomen Events (offline community) and The NextWomen Fund & Consultancy. Started in October 2008, the magazine has profiled many Female Business Heroes, making them notable and quotable, built up a huge following, run many successful and sold-out events, such as networking events, high-profile kitchen dinners, and funding & pitching events.
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NCWIT (National Center for Women and Information Technology) hosts an Entrepreneurial Alliance that brings together representatives from more than 20 established entrepreneurial organizations who understand the factors associated with entrepreneurial success. The EA’s work will address the causes and possible interventions concerning the small number of women involved in starting businesses, filing patents, and transferring technology in the IT field as its member organizations work to increase women’s representation.
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SF Ruby Workshops are free Ruby on Rails workshops for women and their friends in San Francisco. Whether you’re a complete programming novice or an experienced developer, please join us and learn Ruby! Workshops run every six weeks, so check out the website and sign up for the mailing list to join the next free Ruby on Rails class for women. Sarah Mei and Sarah Allen are working to increase the number of female Ruby developers in the San Francisco area. Part of that initiative is a series of outreach workshops for women who want to learn Ruby on Rails. These workshops are free, and men are welcome to attend as the +1 of a woman who’s taking the class. So guys – I know you’ve got a woman in your life who you’ve always thought would make a great programmer. Convince her to sign up and you can come along too!
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Springboard Enterprises is the go-to organization for information about and support for emerging growth ventures led by women with the goal of connecting women entrepreneurs and investors. Springboard educates, showcases and supports women entrepreneurs as they seek capital and build their businesses.
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Springworks is a mission based venture incubator that provides promising entrepreneurs a community and resource that will prepare them for raising capital and/or strategic organic growth.
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Startup Weekend is a 54 hour startup event that provides networking, resources, and incentives for individuals and teams to go from idea to launch. Get connected with local developers, innovators and entrepreneurs. Build community, start startups. Startup Weekend was founded in 2007 by Andrew Hyde with the concept of a conference focusing on learning by creating.
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VCTaskforce is the premier “go-to” organization for investors. We address the crucial issues and concerns in the venture community and produce workshops, roundtable meetings and panel events that provide tactical and strategic insights and information for both investors and portfolio companies.
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W2Wlink is the premier community dedicated to professional women, helping you get to where you’re going – faster. We provide you expert knowledge, tools to overcome obstacles, and connection with others in our online groups.
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Women 2.0 Premier Media Sponsors
| AlwaysOn is transforming the media business by providing its readers with an open and participatory editorial environment. |  |
| GigaOm is one of the leading daily online news reads for the key influencers in the emerging technology market place, delivering technology news, analysis and opinions on topics ranging from broadband and online games to Web 2.0. |  |
| O’Reilly media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its technology books, online services, magazines, research, and tech conferences. |  |
| TechCrunch is a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies. |  |
| VentureBeat provides insider news and information about private companies and the venture capital that fuels them. |  |
| Web 2.0 Expo features the most innovative and successful Internet industry figures and companies providing attendees with examples of business models, development paradigms, and design strategies to enable mainstream businesses and new arrivals to the Web 2.0 world to take advantage of this new generation of services and opportunities. |  |
Women 2.0 Media Partners
| The CulturalConnect, an award-winning online media company, publishes five weekly e-magazines filled with must-read profiles of the professional world’s often overlooked population of driven, innovative, progressive and successful under-35 leaders to an expansive subscriber base of up-and-coming young professionals in over 100 countries. |  |
| Mashable, world’s largest blog focused exclusively on social networks, puts your brand in front of the most tech-savvy early adopters, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, influencers, Web 2.0 aficionados and technology journalists. |  |
| Real Girls Media is a venture capital funded media network with two products. The first is an advertising network that provides publishers and bloggers increased revenue through ads from Fortune 500 brands, as well as increased traffic through a content exchange. The second product is a web community called DivineCaroline. |  |
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Invincibelle is a premium site for women who live and work in a multicultural world, bringing trusted and relevant content to accelerate personal and professional growth of women worldwide.
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Women 2.0 Events
Starting with a Women 2.0 Conference in April 2006 celebrating Internet startups founders who happen to be women, Women 2.0 has held everything from conferences to panel discussions with accomplished businesswomen, entrepreneurs, and Internet heroes. Wine and cheese mixers are held regularly. An annual business plan competition culminates in a Pitch Night when finalists present their best pitches to a judging panel of VC and executives.
April 2006
“Starting a Startup” Women 2.0 Conference (Palo Alto, CA)
» Mary Hodder (Founder and CEO, Dabble)
» Jessica Hardwick (Founder and CEO, SwapThing)
» Elaine Wherry (Co-Founder and Developer, Meebo)
» Sandy Jen (Co-Founder and Developer, Meebo)
» Joyce Park (Founder, Renkoo)
» Emily Chang (Co-Founder, IdeaCodes)
July 2006
Bowling 2.0 Series (Palo Alto, CA)
August 2006
Poolside Summer Party with Meetro (Sunnyvale, CA)
November 2006
“Converting your Passion into a Real Business” Panel (Palo Alto, CA)
» Liz Gannes (Reporter, GigaOM)
» Nick Douglas (Reporter, Gawker Media)
» Shannon McClenaghan (President, JimmyJane)
» Amy Andersen (Founder and CEO, LinxDating)
» Christopher Surdi (Co-Founder and President, Global Educational Program)
» Michael Cerda (CEO, Jangl)
» Moderator: Ariel Poler (CEO, TextMarks)
January 2007
Wine and Cheese Networking (Palo Alto, CA)
February 2007
Wine and Cheese Networking (San Francisco, CA)
» Rebecca Young (Startup Coach)
March 2007
Web 2.0 Expo Exhibition (San Francisco, CA)
Pitch 2007 (San Francisco, CA)
» Carol Sands (Founder and Managing Member, The Angels’ Forum)
» David Stern (Partner, Clearstone Venture Partners)
» Lara Druyan (Partner, Allegis Capital)
» Marianne Wu (Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures)
» Marleen McDaniel (Emeritus CEO, Women.com)
» Shannon McClenaghan (President, JimmyJane)
» Sharon Vosmek (CEO, Astia)
» Tami Zhu (VP of Business Development, AOL New Ventures)
» Venky Ganesan (Managing Director, Globespan Venture Partners)
May 2007
Spring BBQ Mixer (Palo Alto, CA)
June 2007
Pub Night Mixer (San Francisco, CA)
July 2007
Garden Party Mixer (Atherton, CA)
» Katherine Barr (Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures)
» Rachel Cook (Co-Founder, Minti)
August 2007
Wine and Cheese Networking (San Francisco, CA)
October 2007
Wine and Cheese Networking (San Francisco, CA)
November 2007
Intrapreneurship Fireside Chat (Sunnyvale, CA)
» Nina Bhatti (Scientist, HP Labs)
» Cynthia Johanson (Product Manager, Yahoo!)
December 2007
Media Training Session (San Francisco, CA)
» Sue Kwon (Reporter, CBS News)
January 2008
Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner #1 (Mountain View, CA)
February 2008
Meet the CEOs Open Mic Session (San Francisco, CA)
» Marleen McDaniel (Emeritus CEO, Women.com)
» Joyce Kim (CEO, Soompi)
March 2008
Meet the CEOs Open Mic Session (San Francisco, CA)
» Maria Sipka (Co-Founder and CEO, Linqia)
» Rebecca Weeks (Director of Business Development, RealGirlsMedia)
» Gina Bianchini (Co-Founder and CEO, Ning)
» William Bunker (Co-Founder and Principal, White Space Ventures)
May 2008
Beyond the Spark - Women 2.0 and Stanford Women in Business Conference (Palo Alto, CA)
» Rachel Payne (Founding Member, Google.org)
» Chris Shipley (Director, Guidewire Group)
» Erica Estrada (Product Engineer, d.light design)
» Sanjit Biswas (Co-Founder and CEO, Meraki)
» Amra Tareen (Founder, allvoices)
» Leila Chirayath (Founder and CEO, Market for Change)
» Melanie Swan (Futurist, MS Futures)
June 2008
Women 2.0 and Zynga Social (San Francisco, CA)
July 2008
Wine and Cheese Networking (San Francisco, CA)
August 2008
“Startups Helping Startups” Mixer with YouNoodle (San Francisco, CA)
September 2008
Speak with Angels (Palo Alto, CA)
» Patricia Roller (Member, The Angels’ Forum; Co-Founder, frog design)
» Georges Harik (Angel Investor; Former Director of Googlettes, Google)
» Carol Sands (Founder and Managing Member, The Halo Fund)
October 2008
Keeping Your Startup Cool During The Financial Meltdown (Palo Alto, CA)
» Shai Goldman (Director for Venture Exchange, SVB Capital)
» Rebecca Lynn (Principal, Morgenthaler Ventures)
» Prasanna Krishnan (Associate, Draper Fisher Jurvetson)
» Betty Kayton (CFO, high tech startups & early stage firms)
» Greg Schmid (Director, Managing Uncertainty Group)
» Jill E. Fishbein (Partner, Carr & Ferrell LLP)
Music Makers and Technology Shakers (San Francisco, CA)
» Angelina Moysov (Singer / Songerwriter, Persephones Bees)
» Lucia Iman (Top-selling artist, SellaBand)
» Pim Betist (Founder and Creative Director, SellaBand)
» Celia Hirschman (Commentator, KCRW’s “On the Beat”)
» Cecily Mak (Senior Counsel, Real Networks and Rhapsody)
» Jay Durgan (President, Raiden Holdings; Former Head of Business Development, Warner Music)
» Elise Nordling (Music Director and DJ, Indie Pop Rocks!)
November 2008
So You Wanna Start A Company (Berkeley, CA)
» Annie Chang (Co-Founder, LOLapps)
» Edith Yeung (Founder, SFentrepreneur; Co-Founder, Clue Market, Inc.; Executive Producer, BizTechDay)
» Donielle Buie (Founding Partner, Gutsy Partners)
» Hazel Grace Dircksen (Founder, Socialbees Strategy)
» Alison Covarrubias (Owner, Business Legs; Director, San Francisco Chapter of Ladies Who Launch)
December 2008
Women 2.0 Joins BizSpark Launch Party (San Francisco, CA)
January 2009
Women 2.0 Book Swap and Mixer (San Francisco, CA)
» Tara Hunt (Author, The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business)
» Sramana Mitra (Author, Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 1)
» Clara Shih (Author, The Facebook Era: Tap Online Social Networks to Build Better Products)
March 2009
Pitch 101: Applying to Women 2.0’s Startup Competition (Palo Alto, CA)
» Georges Harik (Principal, Better Planet Investments)
» Rebecca Lynn (Principal, Morgenthaler Ventures)
» Betty Kayton (Founder and CEO, InnovativeCFO)
» Aihui Ong (Executive Managing Director of Pitch, Women 2.0)
Women 2.0 VC & Entrepreneur Roundtable (San Francisco, CA)
» Christine Herron (Principal, First Round Capital)
» David Hornik (Partner, August Capital)
April 2009
Women 2.0 Co-Working with Co-Founders (San Francisco, CA)
May 2009
Women 2.0 Pitch Night (San Francisco, CA)
June 2009
Women 2.0 Visits Barcelona - Startup Meetup Goes EURO! (Barcelona, Spain)
Women 2.0 Mixer at LOLapps (San Francisco, CA)
July 2009
Women 2.0 Mixer for Women in Open-Source and Entrepreneurship (San Jose, CA)
August 2009
Women 2.0 Pearls of Wisdom Panel at Microsoft (Mountain View, CA)
Women 2.0 Startup Weekend (San Francisco, CA)
September 2009
Demystifying Government and Stimulus Funding for Your Startup
