We're looking for a few good women!
We're delighted to announce that we've joined 40 Forward, an initiative by our partners, Google for Entrepreneurs, to increase the presence and amplify the voice of women entrepreneurs in 40 startup communities throughout the world.
At CoCo, we will be making a deliberate effort to welcome more women into our community. Our goal is to boost our female membership from 35% to 50% in one year!
We'll start by hosting a series of women-focused events, including Unlea(she)d and WoCoCo, which will give us greater opportunities to welcome women into the community. Please join us for these events! We would also appreciate your support in letting the women entrepreneurs you know about our efforts. Read on for more info!
Come to the first-ever Unlea(she)d!
March 20
6-9 p.m.
CoCo Uptown
with Nancy Lyons and Meghan Wilker
Register for free!
Unlea(she)d is a monthly speaker series in which women entrepreneurs and business leaders reflect on their experience in building their companies.
The inaugural Unlea(she)d event, on Feb. 20 at CoCo Uptown, will feature Nancy Lyons and Meghan Wilker, of the Geek Girls Guide and Clockwork Active Media Systems. Unlea(she)d events are free and open to the public.
Get an invite to WoCoCo...
Once a month, the women of CoCo get together for a lunchtime discussion called "WoCoCo." It's an open forum for discussing the experience and challenges of being a woman in business. Each space has its own conversation, linked to the other spaces via Google Hangout.
Want to come? Although it's typically just for CoCo members, you can ask us for an invite or come to Unlea(she)d, where we'll give all attendees an invitation, so they can have a chance to experience the women's community at CoCo first-hand.
When you're ready, join us!
Ultimately, we're hoping that you'll join us as a member and add to the strength and diversity of our community. Did you know we have memberships that begin for as little as $70/month? Learn more!
What's the big deal?
Despite strides in practically every field, women are still terribly underrepresented in technology and startups. Intuitively and experientially, most of us can appreciate what happens when a culture is saturated with too much of any one thing, whether that's gender, race, ethnicity, educational background or any number of cultural biases. The potential for original ideas and approaches to problems is diminished.
Well, it turns out there's more than experiential evidence of this affect, with research showing that women-led companies demonstrably perform better! At CoCo, we've always tried to create a bigger tent. 
We believe there are benefits in creating a community that consists of a diverse array of people undertaking a wide range of efforts. In other words, we host startups, but not just startups. Sure, we have techies, but not only techies. As we have told new members who tell us they want to be around more people just like themselves: "the worst thing we could do for you is let you be surrounded by people just like you."
Over the past 4+ years as a community, we've seen that "big tent" approach pay off. Everyone benefits by having their assumptions challenged and gaining insights from people who have a fundamentally different experience of life.
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