To Paris With Love


    Girls in Tech Paris and Orange are hosting the 4th annual European Lady Pitch Night in Paris on the 23rd September, and they want to see the Nordics well represented. We’re told they’ve received nearly 100 hundred entries from 15 countries across Europe, but only three from the Nordics. I’m sure we can boost that.

    There are a few criteria that startups applying for the competition must meet to successfully enter. Firstly they must be head quartered in Europe, which makes sense for a European competition. Secondly they need to have at least one female co-founder, again for an organisation all about the ‘engagement, education and empowerment of influential women in technology’ that’s a no brainer. Finally the start up must be operational for a period of time between six to thirty six months, so you can’t just go founding a company now to win some stuff.

    Check all those boxes and then you can begin to think about whether the competition’s prizes are worth competing for. There’s no cash prize on offer here, at least one hasn’t been announced yet, so for those struggling with their cash flow you might need to keep looking. However if it’s exposure your start up needs then I think this pitching event might be worth competing for.

    Five finalists will be selected to pitch at the final in Paris after being interviewed over the phone, it should also be noted that this will all be in English. Those finalists will receive tickets to attend Europe’s top tech conferences, including Dublin Web Summit, LeWeb, Europas, with more to be announced. The winner gets all that, plus demo space and in select cases speaker/presentation opportunities for Europe’s top tech conferences, again including Dublin Web Summit, LeWeb, Europas and more. Plus there are still additional prizes are to be announced as well apparently.

    The deadline for applications has been extended from its original date to the 23rd July to give more time for women to apply. So if you’re reading this and you think that your start up qualifies, or you have a friend whose would, spread the word. We’d love to hear that a lot more Nordic start ups have joined the competition. Exposure and free demo booth space at a number of Europe’s leading tech conferences would be a benefit to any budding start up.

    You can follow this link to the application page for the competition.