Sharpen your founder skills at Startup School
Last year, Hanna Kim, the founder of Grip, a live-streaming e-commerce platform in Korea, graduated from our Google for Startups’ Immersion: Women Founders program. This was an eight-week mentorship program for female founders across the Asia Pacific region. “It’s been really helpful to get insights about business and HR,” Hanna says. “The program made me dream even bigger.” Using her new skills, she is now gearing up to take her startup global.
I work on a team that connects startups with the right people, products and best practices to help them thrive and grow. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to meet many inspiring founders like Hanna, who are eager to learn, and ready to take their startups to the next level. Especially in the last year, I’ve heard from founders that they’re looking for more tools and skills to pivot and scale their startups to face today’s challenges.
Today, we’re launching Startup School — a series of free, hands-on virtual courses for startup founders and their teams around the world. We’ve provided training programs for startups for years, but last year was the first time we fully went digital. Though it had its challenges, I was excited to still be able to connect with and support startups, especially as many of them navigated new obstacles brought about by the global pandemic. Startup School expands on that experience. With this new program, we hope to arm startups to help them tackle the major issues of our region.
The interactive sessions will cover a range of topics, from digital marketing and product knowledge to business strategy. The sessions will be led by Googlers, entrepreneurs and industry leaders from around the world. We will host one training per week for the next 12 weeks, with the first one happening this Wednesday. Participants can choose from a variety of topics, and register for the courses that will best support their goals.
Around the world, I’ve seen startups stepping up to solve new and unforeseen challenges, from an app that provides online sign language to a chatbot service that assists online sellers. This kind of agility and innovative thinking is precisely what we need to face today’s challenges. We are committed to helping startups succeed, and know that their success will help solve community problems and bolster our local economies. If you’re a founder or part of a startup in EMEA, the Americas, or the Asia Pacific region, we hope you’ll register for Startup School now. See you in class!
