White House to host startup Demo Day to boost ‘inclusive entrepreneurship’

The White House announced Wednesday that it will be hosting a startup demo day highlighting minority-owned and geographically diverse ventures this summer. In a blog post, Director of the National Economic Council Jeff Zients and U.S. CTO Megan Smith said:

To maintain our lead as the best place on the planet to start and scale a great company, we must ensure that vibrant startup ecosystems emerge in every corner of America and that all Americans, including those underrepresented in entrepreneurship like women and people of color, are both encouraged and able to fully contribute their entrepreneurial talents and access resources.

Participate
When it comes to “inclusive entrepreneurship,”  Smith and Zients added, “the economic argument is as compelling as the moral one.” Here’s an interesting statistic: “in the decade between 1997 and 2007, minority-owned firms grew four times faster than their non-minority-owned counterparts,” they wrote.
The White House Demo Day will be centered around five themes:

1. Growing Local Innovation Economies
2. Training Startup-Ready Students
3. Expanding On-Ramps to Entrepreneurship
4. Connecting Diverse Talent to Capital
5. Local Open Gatherings

Universities, foundations, companies, accelerators or other organizations implicated in entrepreneurship can apply to participate here. Recommend a candidate here.
On Monday, President Barack Obama had also announced the “TechHire” initiative. The plan will redirect $100 million from company fees for the H-1B visa program into partnerships to hire and train low-skilled workers in software development jobs. More details here.