In the startup world, women founders are all too rare: something like 97% of the venture capital money that goes to new startups goes to companies run by men, whose ideas get heard, backed and funded earlier.
Project Entrepreneur - a media partner of Mashable - is kicking off a contest to fix that.
Project Entrepreneur is an initiative from the Rent the Runway Foundation and backed by UBS that is a new venture competition for female entrepreneurs from the founders of Rent the Runway. "Project Entrepreneur is on a mission is to increase the number of women building high-growth, economically impactful companies," the competition says, and asks women, "What will you build?"
It's a "leap of faith" to create a startup, as one attendee at Project Entrepreneur's Austin summit said recently, and to bring those ideas to fruition, women founders need mentorship, support and help.
That's why Project Entrepreneur is looking for good businesses to back and promises a $10,000 grant, a 5-week accelerator program and a one-year mentorship to three women who want to create a startup.
What women can hope to learn: how to get a business off the ground, how to find a co-founder who has technical skills like coding and programming -- like in the video below -- and how to grow with your business. Curious? Apply here, and do it fast, because the deadline is January 8.