Each company receives market rate office space with shared facilities, as well as management assistance and mentoring to enhance its success. The central objective of the WTC is to facilitate access to capital to women entrepreneurs. While the rate of new business formation by women has grown at a rapid rate, barriers to access to capital persist as a systemic problem for women entrepreneurs. Growth in the non-service sector exceeds all others, and capital is a key ingredient to startup success in this sector. The National Foundation of Women Business Owners reports that of the nearly 8 million women owned businesses in the United States, only one percent have used venture capital financing.
Technology companies represent the majority of venture capital deals.
Over 30 percent of all newly formed women owned businesses are in the technology based sector. Our goal is to develop the WTC as a model for breaking structural and cultural barriers by accelerating the growth, reducing the perceived risk, and facilitating access to angel and venture capital financing for women technology entrepreneurs. A second major objective of the WTC is educating entrepreneurs to give back to the community. The WTC planned to establish a culture and value system of giving back, influencing entrepreneurs in the formative stages of their businesses. WTC graduates would establish a pattern of philanthropy.