 From around the globe, it's theCUBE with digital coverage of AWS Public Sector Online. Brought to you by Amazon Web Services. Well, and welcome back to theCUBE's virtual coverage of AWS Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit Online. I'm John Furrier, your host. We have a great guest. Cube alumni, Kate Goodall, Halcyon co-founder and CEO. Also known as the Halcyon House in the DC area. Kate, great to see you. Thanks for coming on Virtual League. You too. Thanks for having me, John. We can't be there in person. Normally we're in person by RAIM. We're going to these events. We can't do it this year because of COVID and the pandemic. But this topic that I'm proud to talk to you about is by RAIM Women Intensive Program and just diversity in the global tech scene in general. So first, tell us what's going on with the 2021 by RAIM Women's Intensive Initiative. Yeah, absolutely. As you know, Halcyon Incubator has been running for about seven years now. We've welcomed during that time over 150 entrepreneurs through our full-time fellowship program, which you were there, John. You saw, you know, it's a really unique program that includes residents in a house in Georgetown so that people really get to sort of form a community. But the full-time residential program isn't the right fit for entrepreneurs. So we also offer these intensive Halcyon Incubator programs for early-stage social entrepreneurs from different parts of the world and in different industries and sectors. AWS has been an amazing partner both for the full-time fellowship program and for many of these intensives, including one that was focused earlier this year on entrepreneurs in opportunity zones in our very own city. But this new intensive partnership is designed specifically to support tech-oriented social enterprise startups that are founded by women and based in Bahrain. So it sits really nicely at this intersection of Halcyon's goal of supporting entrepreneurs who are often underserved or underrepresented. And AWS is a very clearly stated goal of diversifying leadership in tech. I was there last year in person in Bahrain and I went to the women's diversity breakfast and I'm like, this is exciting. And I had to give up my seat, there was so many people, there was high demand. So I want to ask you, what is this program hope to achieve in the intensive initiative? Yeah, I mean, there's certain things that we're always seeking to achieve in supporting and serving sort of the brightest minds and the best ideas in social enterprise. And in many ways, this one is no different. But we are really looking to find some incredible startups in Bahrain, applications for the program start today. And we'll be measuring the success of the program on a number of factors. As we always do, ultimately it's the number of jobs that get created, the quality and quantity of the impact of the startups. And ultimately, revenue and dollars raised, all of the things that you would measure a successful business by. So we're just really excited to find some incredible ventures that fit really well in the selection criteria. And we'll be looking to everyone to help spread the word about this great opportunity. Cole, congratulations on your new program. I want to ask you specifically, if you can give some examples of the kinds of startups you're hoping to attract. So as you look at the candidates, what's going to be the criteria you mentioned as a criteria, what jumps off the page in your mind? Yeah, so we want people that really understand why, you know, why are they starting that business? And ideally people that have a really good idea for a rapidly scaling tech startup that also has a double bottom line attached to it. So something whereby the business model succeeds in scales and achieves, so too with the impact that is inherent in that model. You know, some examples from just past cohorts at Halcyon, you know, we've had most recently an incredible entrepreneur that came out of the US prison system and was really interested in reducing recidivism and worked on a tech startup that allows families to communicate with incarcerated loved ones through a tech platform where you can convert your text to a loved one into a postcard that then can be sent into the system because obviously people aren't allowed to communicate through cell phones when they're incarcerated. So that's a good example of something where, you know, the profit and impact really scale themselves. You know, similarly from just this, you know, recent cohorts, we had a founder who herself suffered from pulmonary hypertension and she created a really great wearable device that can attach to your ear. It looks just like an earring. It's quite fashionable actually. I want one. And it lets you know how your oxygen level is because she just didn't have access to something that was that easy and wearable but needed to monitor her oxygen level. Turns out that's actually really a useful piece of technology during COVID. So, you know, we're looking for people that are thinking about healthcare, thinking about the environment, thinking about education and creating a sustainable business model that will help them to scale that idea. I want to get into the whole social entrepreneurship conversation. It's a really great one. I want to unpack that. But let's stay on this program. It's super exciting. How do people get involved? I mean, you know, it's open, but there's some criteria. You mentioned the startups you're looking for, changing the world double bottom line. How do people get involved? Really excited you asked that because I, you know, I hope that some people that are watching can help us. Certainly going to the homepage of our website, housinghouse.org. If anyone knows any great social entrepreneurs in Bahrain, please let them know and help us spread the word. Really happy to be working with AWS and startup Bahrain to do so. But we want to, you know, make it as, as far and wide as possible. So both for people that are interested in applying to the program and also people that are interested in helping because we always pull together a boss network of mentors and advisors and investors to really make the program as robust as possible. They should, I would encourage everyone to reach out and get in touch either through the website or at Halcyon inspires on social media so that our team can get back to you. Final question is, how will the selection process work? And when will the winners be? So partnering with AWS and startup Bahrain to select the best startup ventures. They'll be notified in December and the program will begin virtually in January. And what do the winners get? They get money, do they get mentoring? Can you talk about the package? So every incubator program is a little bit different but generally they all get some serious training an assigned mentor, a specific skills series that's bespoke to that intensive and those founders needs. But more than likely this one will include as they all do, ways to plan to acquire customers, ways to improve your business model and make good projections, ways to think about investment and how to understand investment and get investment should you need to. So it'll have all of that along with marketing and branding and how to measure impact but then also some bespoke things. Once we know exactly what the founders needs are and then some very bespoke advisors and mentors in accordance with those needs. And really nurturing that startup and that project to getting some traction and hopefully track into some funding vehicles. I imagine, right? Is that part of the program? Absolutely, absolutely. And access to DC's great landscape when it comes to this kind of thing both in terms of sort of the institutions that are here and the investment that is here and all of them will also of course receive AWS Cloud computing credits and technical support which we found to be profoundly helpful for all of our tech startups or tech-enabled startups. Yeah, I think one of that's one of the things that people don't realize there's some free credits out there as well. Take advantage of those. That's awesome. And I love how this ecosystem nurturing here when I was in Bahrain, I noticed that very young demographics, changing demographics, diversity is huge. But like here in North America and all around the world the lack of diversity in the tech sector has been a big conversation. It's always happening. These impact-driven businesses actually can solve two things. You're doing a program that impacts the diversity as well as solves the problem of diversity. Talk about double bottom line. Can you talk about this diversity? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think it's interesting because we all know that diverse teams outperform. We all understand the imperative to do that. But you're right. It's not just a US problem or Bahrain problem. It's a global problem. And I think one of the ways to solve it is to go early because we know that women founders and founders of color and other marginalized founders start businesses roughly at the same rate but they generally don't grow as big and they don't often get as much investment. In fact, the investment numbers are quite stark in terms of who receives venture capital. So we know that there's a lot left to disrupt but we also know that if we're going to solve the problems that we all face right now that we need the whole population involved in solving it. So we're really interested in creating a much better ecosystem everywhere for women founders. And we know that that requires the support of everyone regardless of gender and background and lived experience. So it is an imperative but it's also a tremendous opportunity to get more people involved. And Bahrain's got some incredible women and some great resources and pieces of the ecosystem already in place to I think really be a leader in this area. Yeah, start up Bahrain too. You mentioned that they have a great program there. They're really there to help the entrepreneur. And I think the key here and I want to get your reaction to this is that not only is that important to get off the ground and having someone to be around and be in a community that fosters the kind of innovation thinking and getting started, great. But you've had a very successful program at the Halcyon House, HalcyonHouse.org as you mentioned in the URL. You've had success but you've been physically in DC. What have you learned from the Halcyon House success that you're applying that could be applied for others to learn? Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there. I mean, we've had, as I mentioned about 150 fellows come through our doors and they've gone on to create over 1,800 jobs around the world, receive $150 million in funding, which for early stage social ventures is a really good mark of success. And they've gone on to impact lives of more than 2.5 million people around the world. So our hope for this program is that, we'll be able to help empower these founders in Bahrain to do exactly those things and to be able to scale their ventures to create that impact. We've learned a lot about what these startups need that goes beyond just sort of the office space and sort of traditional incubator offerings that they need a really strong community around them to celebrate their successes and also to help them with their lows. Entrepreneurship is a very rocky journey and so that community becomes really, really important. So we know a lot about building supportive nurturing community. We also know that women when they go to get investment are going to receive 70% more prevention questions. And this is even from women venture capitalists, right? They just venture capitalists are creatures of habit and they generally will just look at the patterns, successes and trends that they've had and repeat those. So they're going to be looking for the same types of people that they funded in the past which are traditionally young white males. And so we know that just by virtue of the system that we all live in and what it's implanted in all of us that women are going to receive more questions about the risk of their business, many, many more than they will about the opportunity. So how do we train women for that landscape? How do we train them to answer the questions about the risk realistically and fairly, but pivot so that they get the same opportunity as a male entrepreneur, perhaps to answer questions about the ceiling as well as the floor. Yeah, and address it straight up and understand the criteria and having that confidence. And I think that the great news is that we're all changing and we're all open to it. And there's more funds now like this and your leadership is just- I love that point, John. I think that everyone's eyes are open, right? And I can say that with a really strong sense of conviction that like 2020 is a great year for acknowledging this problem and for I think a lot of joint motivation to really properly address it. So I'm actually feeling really optimistic about it. And we're at a cultural crossroad. Everyone kind of knows it. You're seeing it play out on the big stage of the world. And again, your leadership has been doing this. And I want to get your thoughts on this because you mentioned entrepreneurship, the ups and downs. Some call it a roller coaster, highs and lows. You have great days and you have really, really bad days. And it's even compounded when you're not in the pattern matching world of what people are seeing if you're a woman or under a person, minority or group. I got to ask you the question around mental health because one of the things, especially with COVID is having that community because the ups and downs swings are important that people maintain their confidence and mentors and community add value there. Can you talk about that important piece of the equation because it plays a big role. It's often not talked about much. It is talked now more than ever before, but still not enough. There's community there. It's having the support. Yeah, I really can. We talk about it a lot at Halcyon and what people need to prioritize their mental health as they grow a business. And ultimately, if you're not doing a good job of that, your business will not succeed because your team wouldn't be healthy and it compounds. So it's really imperative. And it does take a toll on founders and entrepreneurs, I think in higher degrees and it does in the general population because a small crack can become a chasm if people are not careful. And everyone knows, even if you're super passionate about something, putting in 20 hours a day, every day, continuously is eventually gonna catch up with you. So you have to create healthy habits from the beginning for you and your team. And certainly during COVID, we've seen some of those things exacerbated due to isolation. So that community piece becomes really, really important. I don't think she would mind me saying, so I'm going to mention that one of our previous entrepreneurs, Anne Yang, brilliant, brilliant woman actually did a great piece. You can just Google Anne Yang, entrepreneur depression, mental health, and it'll come up for you, but just a really candid expose on what it is like to be an entrepreneur that perhaps struggles with mental health. Yeah, it's super important. And I got to say, I really love your work. I've always been an admirer of the Halcyon mission and the people behind it at the Halcyon House. And now you're taking it to Bahrain with an intensive kind of program. It's a global landscape. Final word, Kate, what should people know about this program? Summarize it real quick. We're just super happy to be reaching out and supporting a greater number of talented founders from the Middle East with all that Bahrain and our partners, Startup Bahrain and AWS have to offer. We love to expand our work, to serve more and more entrepreneurs and we couldn't be more excited to support these women. We're in an upward, better time now than ever. It's going to be a big change happening, big cultural change. You're a part of it. Thank you for joining me on this new segment. Great to see you. Really appreciate it. Thank you. I'm John Furrier here at the Cube Virtual covering AWS public sector online. Thanks for watching.