Join the ranks of inspiring female founders

#betheboss

Scholarships for women

A scholarship for women who want to be the boss

Look, guys. This is business; nothing personal.

Let’s talk numbers -- just the cold, hard facts.

Did you know… Female founders outperform their male peers?

Have you heard… Female CEOs in the Fortune 1000 drive three times the returns as S&P 500 enterprises run predominantly by men?

Unbelievably… Only 18 percent of all startups have a female founder, and when talking Series A, only 10 percent are female-led. In fact, of the $114 billion in funding given to these startups, only 6 percent of it makes its way to a female-founded startup.

And did you know… Women-owned businesses added 340,000 new jobs between 2007 and 2015 while men-owned businesses cut 1.2 million?

How about this one… Among the most successful companies, men begin their businesses with six times as much capital as women do!

And have you read… Less than five percent of VC dollars go to women-led businesses?

Well, we have, and we believe them to be true. That’s why we’re eager to offer a scholarship exclusively for women who want to execute on their business ideas.

Bhavneet Chahal - GoSkills Co-Founder

As a female founder, I want to encourage other young women, who are thinking about starting up a business, to just give it a go. It doesn’t matter if you fail. You will learn so much, and gain so much more experience than starting at the bottom of the ladder at a large corporate. And if you discover that startup life isn’t for you, you’ll still stand out from other applicants when you re-enter the workforce. It’s a win-win!

What I love about startups: Autonomy over your work, being able to influence the direction of a company or product, pulling together resources and working as a team to make something valuable out of nothing.

I also want to encourage more women to get to leadership positions and strive for the C-suite and board-level roles, whether in a startup or multinational corporate. Advice I’d give to young entrepreneurs is to follow your gut and surround yourself with the smartest people you know.“

Bhavneet Chahal

BHAVNEET CHAHAL
GoSkills Co-Founder

Bhavneet Chahal – GoSkills Co-Founder

Here’s the nitty gritty

Who is eligible?
Any female high-school or college student, who wants to start her own business.
How much is each scholarship worth?
$2,000
How many scholarships are you giving away?
Two scholarships per year
When are the deadlines and award dates?
  • Fall Deadline: Sept. 15 (11:59PM PST)
  • Fall Award Date: Oct. 15
  • Spring Deadline: March 15 (11:59PM PST)
  • Spring Award Date: April 15
How will I know if I won?
Either way, win or don’t win, we‘ll notify all applicants via email on the announcement dates (see above).

Congratulations to our past winners

Love what you read?! Apply already!

To apply, complete the form below and send us a business plan.

To apply, send us a link to your business plan for a business. Include 2-3 sentences (or more, if you need to) on Problem, Solution, Market Opportunity / Competition, Business Model, Go-To-Market Plan and Team. Upload your file to any provider you like (Dropbox, Google drive, etc) and ensure the document can be viewed by those who have the link.

The following conditions apply in addition to GoSkills standard Terms and Privacy policy:

GoSkills will endeavour to treat applicants information and business proposals in confidence, however, GoSkills is not responsible for any proprietary information and/or intellectual property included in your application.

The winner will be notified on October 15 for the Fall Scholarship and on April 15 for the Spring Scholarship. Once notified, we will post the winner’s name and a short description of the winning business idea on our social media accounts, monthly newsletter, and in any other forms of media we may choose at a later date.

  1. Winner selection is not based on financial need, GPA, or demographic criteria.
  2. Scholarship entries are only accepted online through this webpage.
  3. Entrants must submit a completed entry form with all required information.
  4. If any false or misleading information is submitted, the application will be disqualified without notification.