Program Overview

Download a copy of your Program Overview here

FOUNDER: This is YOU as the primary participant and point of contact in the women founders program. 

FOUNDER(S): This is you and any / all of your co-founders (gender agnostic!)

FOUNDER(S) + TEAM: This is you and anyone from your team for which the session is relevant and / or interesting!

PRODUCT LEAD | TECHNICAL LEAD | GROWTH/MARKETING LEAD | SALES LEAD: These are members of your team who make key product, technical, or growth decisions for the company.

OPTIONAL: This is anyone on your team for whom the content is relevant. 

Week 1: Welcome / OKRs

12:00PM - 1:30PM ET

Welcome to the Program with Ashley Francisco

[Founder(s) + Team]

Meet your fellow founders, startup teams and the Accelerator team! Learn everything you need to know about what's in store for the next 10 weeks!

2:00PM - 2:30PM ET

[Mandatory] How to Schedule Office Hours with Iran Karimian

[Founder(s) + Team]

This program gives you access to dozens of Google & External mentors with various subject matter expertise. Learn how to schedule office hours with them and get familiar with the GFSA: Women Founders - Technical Advisors Tool.

3:00PM - 4:00PM ET

OKRs Lab with Jason Scott

 [Founder(s) + Team] 

OKR Basics Training Webinar: History, Creating OKRs, OKR Success Factors.

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

OKRs | Working Session #1 with Mentors

[Founder(s) + Team] 

Prepare a draft of your program OKRs with the help of your dedicated Google for Startups Accelerator mentors. (Please set up time with your dedicated mentors for OKR drafting - to be scheduled ideally during this block / before feedback session.)

 

2:00PM - 3:30PM ET

Meal Time! (ft. Startup Showcases) with Ashley Francisco

[Founder] 

Hear from your fellow founders and the companies they have built over a meal!

 

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

[Optional] OKR Office Hours & Feedback with Google Experts

[Founder(s)]

Want a little more time with our facilitators? Join Ashley Francisco, Jason Scott & Sequoyah Patrick for Office Hours!

Note: This is a HOLD for OKR Office Hours & Feedback

Please visit the Technical Advisor Tool to sign up for office hours. 

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

OKRs | Working Session #2 with Mentors 

 [Founder(s) + Team] 

Last call to finalize your program OKRs with the help of your dedicated Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders mentors. (Please set up time with your dedicated mentors for OKR drafting - to be scheduled ideally during this block / before feedback session.) Come to our Friday afternoon session ready to share your 1-2 priority OKRs with the group.

2:00PM - 3:30PM ET

Meal Time! (ft. Startup Showcases) with Ashley Francisco

[Founder] 

Hear from your fellow founders and the companies they have built over a meal!

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

OKR Presentations +  What's Next with Ashley Francisco

[Founder(s)]

“If no one ever knew your OKRs, did they really happen?” We conclude the content of the week with a final presentation of program OKRs by each of our startups... because #accountability.

We will then discuss the following 10 weeks of the program and how to ensure you and your team success in achieving your OKRs. 

 

 

Week 2: Product + Design / UX

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Product Labs: Roadmapping with Sam Legge

[Product Lead] 

How to develop a Product Roadmap

This session will be focused on Product Roadmaps, defining what they are, what
purpose/audience do they serve and going through practical examples of how to build and evolve your roadmap from scratch.

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

[Optional] Product Roadmapping: Office Hours with Google Experts

[Product Lead] 

Want a little more time with our facilitators? Join Sam Legge & Shyam Sheth for Office Hours!

Note: This is a HOLD for Roadmapping Office Hours

Please visit the Technical Advisor Tool to sign up for office hours.

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Design / UX Labs: Design Thinking for Startups with Jenn Pretti

 [Product Lead] 

"Focus on the user and all else will follow.” Building great products first requires getting a deep understanding of the people you are designing for and the challenges they face. Following a people-centered approach to design allows you to build empathy and find innovative and effective ways to meet the needs of your users. This session will teach you the principles of Design Thinking and Google’s approach to innovation.

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

[Optional] Design Thinking: Office Hours with Google Experts

[Product Lead] 

Want a little more time with our facilitators? Join Jenn Pretti and Tim Cruickshank for Office Hours!

Note: This is a HOLD for Design Office Hours

Please visit the Technical Advisor Tool to sign up for office hours.

2:00PM - 3:30PM ET

How To Become a Great Startup Storyteller with Devan Batavia & Rick Hartwig

[Founder(s)] 

Simply put, storytelling is an essential skill for any founder or CEO.

A story is evocative and clear, blending passion and relevant information. It’s one that helps the listener understand how the world has shifted, the opportunity that has been created, and how we uniquely solve it.

4:00PM - 5:00PM ET

[Optional] Community Building Activity - Life Paths with Ashley Francisco

[Founder] 

Learn about each founder's life path. Come prepared with asks and offers you’ll have for your fellow cohort members throughout the program and beyond! The template for this exercise can be found here; make a copy of slide 2 and build yours!

Week 3: Breakout Week

Mentorship is an integral part of the Accelerator program to help guide you and open opportunities to dive deeper into your specific question and needs. During Breakout Weeks startups can work with their dedicated mentors to reserve office hour slots for invaluable one-on-one sessions with Google experts across a variety of topics - from technical areas like App Engine, Kubernetes, Cloud through to growth strategy, Google Ads, digital marketing, YouTube best practices and more!

 

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Raising Your Next Fundraising Round with Lesley Ross & Leslie Fine

[Founder(s)] 

Raising capital is a discipline that, when mastered, can fuel a startup’s potential; and when ignored, can doom a venture before it starts. Contrary to most of what a young entrepreneur reads, there is a method to the madness of fundraising... and it involves a great deal more than just a pitch deck.

Enjoy The Work has guided more than 150 fundraises, with $800M capital raised totaling a portfolio value of $4.5B. Our group session will cover revealing topics such as the “the 28 questions all investors ask” and what represents a “minimum viable investor funnel.” We will discuss and provide the frameworks from which to construct a successful raise, no matter if your startup is barely off the ground or well beyond product-market-fit.

4:00PM - 5:00PM ET

[Optional] Community Building Activity - Making the Most of your Accelerator Experience with Women Founder Cohort Alumni

[Founder] 

Join us for a panel discussion and Ask Me Anything with some of our 2020 Accelerator Alumni. Hear about their experiences, learnings, best practices - and how to make the most of your Accelerator experience!

Week 4: Tech / Machine Learning

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Tech Labs: GCP 101 + Cost Optimization with Alan Ranciato

[Technical Lead] 

Overview of Google Cloud products and capabilities with a roadmap for startups.

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

Tech Labs: Data Management + Analytics with Mithra Ramesh

[Technical Lead] 

Data is everywhere - from the core of your application to the basis for making business decisions. At Google Cloud we offer a wide portfolio of solutions to help you manage your data securely and efficiently to provide the reliability and performance that you need. We are going to explore the database options and services available and also look at how to organize your transactional data into a data warehouse and turn them into insights for your team.

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Tech Labs: Introduction to Cloud AI/ML with Erik Saarenvirta

[Technical Lead] 

ML Labs introduce startup participants to a design-thinking approach to framing even the most complex machine learning problems facing their business / product. In this first session, we will explore Cloud AI Services: What they are and how to use them.

1:00PM - 2:00PM ET

[Optional] Product Breakout: Kubernetes 101 with Henry Wu

[Technical Lead] 

Introduction to containers and Kubernetes, and the managed Kubernetes service on Google Cloud Platform.

2:00PM - 3:00PM ET

[Optional] Analytics Product Breakout: Looker and BigQuery 101 with Alec Roos

[Technical Lead] 

Organizations that use Looker and BigQuery together will optimize costs, manage demand, and drive better business outcomes. In this session, we will focus on how we can leverage BigQuery and Looker to create a governed, self-service business intelligence platform that will democratize access to your data regardless of technical aptitude. 

3:00PM - 4:00PM ET

[Optional] Product Breakout: Google Workspace with Sandy Jones

[Technical Lead] 

Workspace is a suite of collaboration products designed for fast growing organizations including email, documents, and video conferencing.

Week 5: Mentoring / Office Hours

 

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

How to Win Demo Day with Lesley Ross & Mike Lewis

[Founder(s)]

You’ve dedicated yourself to learning as much as possible during your time in the accelerator. You’ve obsessed about the little stuff, the big stuff, and everything in between. You polished your business where you could and swept other parts out of the way for now. And, of course, you did this all with an eventual goal in mind - to court investors.

Welcome to Demo Day! Demo Day is a right of passage for any founding team. Show up well and it can serve as an accelerant for the months and years ahead. It's a prime time to meet investors, partners and new recruits. But show up unprepared and it could become a regret you’ll carry with you straight to the therapist’s couch.

4:00PM - 5:00PM ET

[Optional] Mid-Program OKR Check In with Ashley Francisco

[Founder(s)]

Mid-program OKR check in... because #accountability. Let’s walk through an effective way to think about checking in and grading OKRs mid-cycle. 

2:00PM - 3:00PM ET

Leadership Lunch Series: Intro to Corporate Development and Corporate Venture Capital with Pauline Cristofari, Katelin Jabbari & Amy Arora & Sonal Somaiya

[Founder]

Join the women of Alphabet Corp Dev in an open session to get to know the corporate acquisition and venture world and learn best practices for engagement and tools for managing an acquisition or investment from idea to post-close.

2:00PM - 4:00PM ET

AI SharkTank with Peter Norvig - Dir. of AI Research, Google

[Founder(s)/Technical Lead] 

In “AI SharkTank", each founder / technical lead team will select one (1) representative to present a 3-min overview of their proposed AI/ML solution / use case - followed by 3-min of Q&A / feedback from Peter Norvig. Peter will focus his feedback on actionable insights from his experience and takeaways for each of our founding teams to refine their implementation of AI/ML.

Week 6: Growth / Business 

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Fundamentals of Advertising on Google with Juana Mahadik

[Growth/Marketing Lead] 

This interactive one day training covers digital marketing fundamentals, and how to use Google Ads and Analytics products to reach your business goals. The Growth Lab is led by product experts from the Google Business team, and covers growth marketing fundamentals, paid search, YouTube, apps, analytics, and mobile strategy.

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

Google Analytics with Jonny Silberman

[Growth/Marketing Lead]

As a founder you've invested countless hours in validating that your offering solves a problem for your customers. Learn how to continue that process with Google Analytics so that you can uncover how your customers are engaging with you, and how to more efficiently reach them.

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Market Expansion & International Export with Srushti Sawant

[Growth/Marketing Lead]  

Join us as we walk through a framework for international expansion including a walk-through of new Google tools, best practices and case studies. Opportunity for live Q&A following the content to answer any questions you may have about entering new markets.

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

Building your Brand Through Digital Marketing with Jamie Gargatsougias

[Growth/Marketing Lead]  

We will share several tips and guidance on how to effectively build your brand through your most important channel: digital. She will go through the different aspects of brand guidelines and how to adapt these to the different digital platforms and media in order to keep a strong, unified online storytelling.

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

GFS Sales Academy Session #1 with Accelerate Performance Sales Consulting Team

[Sales Lead]  

Google for Startups Sales Academy focuses on preparing your sales leadership for excellence. With sessions tailored to the Accelerator cohort, these sessions will focus on helping you to achieve your startup’s upcoming sales targets.

 

Session 1 - Client Centricity: In this training you'll learn and practice how to think and communicate in a way that's most focused on your clients' interests. You'll also learn and begin to apply the THRIVE sales process for founders. Please take a moment to watch this short video lesson you're going to learn FBB (feature-bridge-benefit). FBB is a simple formulaic approach to help you communicate in a benefit-oriented way that makes sense for your customer. Here is the worksheet to go along with the prep video. Here is the workbook for the live session (no need to complete it ahead of time).

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

GFS Sales Academy Session #2 with Accelerate Performance Sales Consulting Team

[Sales Lead]  

Google for Startups Sales Academy focuses on preparing your sales leadership for excellence. With sessions tailored to the Accelerator cohort, these sessions will focus on helping you to achieve your startup’s upcoming sales targets.

Week 7: Office Hours / Mentor Sessions

Mentorship is an integral part of the Accelerator program to help guide you and open opportunities to dive deeper into your specific question and needs. During Breakout Weeks startups can work with their dedicated mentors to reserve office hour slots for invaluable one-on-one sessions with Google experts across a variety of topics - from technical areas like App Engine, Kubernetes, Cloud through to growth strategy, Google Ads, digital marketing, YouTube best practices and more!

1:00PM - 2:00PM ET

Building for Billions with Annie Jean-Baptiste

[Founder(s) + Team] 

Product Inclusion is the practice of bringing an inclusive lens throughout the entire development and design process to build products for the world. Come learn about the business case for inclusion and actionable steps you can take to bring an inclusive and equitable lens to your work.

3:30 - 5:00pm ET

Responsible AI: Putting Values into Practice with Sara Tangdall

[Technical Lead/Product Lead] 

This interactive talk will focus on key learnings and best practices related to responsible AI development. It will provide an overview of how Google has put its AI Principles into practice and what our approach is to responsible AI.

2:00PM - 3:00PM ET

Leadership Lunch Series with Sabrina Geremia

[Founder] 

Sabrina Geremia sharing her personal experience as the VP & Country Manager for Google Canada in a casual, Ask-Me-Anything lunchtime session.

Week 8: People & Leadership

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Leaders Lab: Effective Founders with Jeremy Neuner and Lucero Tagle

[Founder(s)] 

Leaders Lab helps founders explore their leadership style and understand why it's never too early to think about leadership, culture, and values in your startup.

What makes an effective founder? To kick off Leadership Week, Jeremy will lead a discussion on what we’ve learned in helping hundreds of the most promising startup founders across the world deal with their toughest people challenges.

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

Leaders Lab: Working Session

[Founder(s)] 

Blocking off time for you to complete some independent exercises and reflection before our Day 2 sessions.

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Leaders Lab: Session 1 with Lucero Tegale

[Founder(s)]

Leaders Lab helps founders explore their leadership style and understand why it's never too early to think about leadership, culture, and values in your startup.

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

Leaders Lab: Session 2 with Jeremy Neuner  

[Founder(s)]

Leaders Lab helps founders explore their leadership style and understand why it's never too early to think about leadership, culture, and values in your startup.

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Actionable Ideas for Building Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with Melisa Seah

[Founder(s) + Team] 

This session walks you through a philosophy and action plan for creating inclusive teams and products.

Week 9: Mentoring / Office Hours

Mentorship is an integral part of the Accelerator program to help guide you and open opportunities to dive deeper into your specific question and needs. During Breakout Weeks startups can work with their dedicated mentors to reserve office hour slots for invaluable one-on-one sessions with Google experts across a variety of topics - from technical areas like App Engine, Kubernetes, Cloud through to growth strategy, Google Ads, digital marketing, YouTube best practices and more!

 

12:00PM - 1:00PM ET

Fundamentals of Advertising on Google - Part 2 with Juana Mahadik

[Growth/Marketing Lead]  

Part two of this interactive training covers digital marketing fundamentals, and how to use Google Ads and Analytics products to reach your business goals. The Growth Lab is led by product experts from the Google Business team, and covers growth marketing fundamentals, paid search, YouTube, apps, analytics, and mobile strategy.

4:00PM - 5:00PM ET

[Optional] Community Building Activity - Startup Trivia with Iran Karimian

[Founder] 

Remember startup showcases in week one? Well now it’s time to put your listening skills to the test! Join us as we play a game of Startup Trivia and try to recall facts about your fellow startups!

Week 10: Graduation 

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

OKRs | Working Sessions with Mentors

[Founder(s) + Team] 

Grade your program OKRs with the help of your dedicated Google for Startups Accelerator mentors. (Please set up time with your dedicated mentors for OKR grading - to be scheduled ideally during this block / before feedback session.)

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

Media Training 101 with Wendy Manton

 [Founder(s)] 

In this session, you'll get a general overview of the Canadian media landscape, learn the basics of succinctly delivering your company narrative and tips on interview techniques and how to work best with journalists.

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

OKRs | Presentation + Final Debriefing

[Founder(s)] 

“If no one ever knew your OKRs, did they really happen?” We conclude the program with a final Debriefing & Retrospective of Program OKRs - Review Scoring, Assess Learnings, and Celebrating Wins.

12:30PM - 2:00PM ET

Virtual Demo Day Viewing Party 

[Founder(s) + Team] 

We are excited to have you join us for our DEMO DAY VIEWING PARTY! No need to join if you'd prefer to watch on our own, but for those of us who'd like to enjoy watching the session together - let's tune in and enjoy a fun time behind the scenes together!

3:30PM - 5:00PM ET

Graduation

[Founder(s) + Team] 

And with that, the Google for Startups Accelerator Women Founders cohort 2 comes to a close! Join us for some final celebrations, well deserved callouts, and an overview of how you can stay connected with Google ongoing.