This week on Microsoft Unboxed, our hosts Sonia and Colleen focus on female founders and Microsoft’s efforts to better engage women in tech. To kick off the episode, Colleen shares about the Female Founders Competition developed by M12 in partnership with Mayfield, a 50-year-old venture capital fund and Pivotal Ventures, a Melinda Gates company. The Female Founders Competition will distribute $6 million to four female entrepreneurs in SaaS (Software as a Service) and deep tech. Colleen explains why venture capital is so important for seed-stage companies, and shares that women still get disproportionately less access to venture capital funding. In fact, last year, only 2.3 percent of all venture capital dollars went to companies founded solely by women. The competition runs until December 15 and submissions can be entered at www.femalefounderscomp.com.

Then, Sonia shares about the podcast she hosts along with Colleen: Women in Business and Technology. The podcast features interviews with different women in business and Sonia shares some of the highlights from their episodes. You can listen to the podcast here: www.wibt.com.

Microsoft Unboxed is a weekly YouTube series from Microsoft, hosted by Sonia Dara and Colleen O’Brien. We’ll look at Microsoft’s latest technology, and the people and stories behind the tech. Tune in every Thursday at 9AM PT for new episodes.