Women Who Tech Women’s Startup Challenge

SIRUM's Kiah Williams wins big (Photo via Women Who Tech)

​This past month, Hack the Hood staffers and youth went to to the Women’s Startup Challenge held at LinkedIn on June 14. 

We were thrilled to see two Hack the Hood friends and women entrepreneurs of color, Stephanie Lampkin ofBlendoor and Kiah Williams of SIRUM, win the top prizes in the competition. Kiah and her team won a cash prize of of $50,000, donated by Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist and craigconnects, to help fund development of  SIRUM, a “match.com” for unused, unexpired medicine which matches it with people in need. Stephanie and Blendoor were one of three start-ups that won the “People’s Choice” award-- $360,000 in cloud services and a spot in a Global Entrepreneur Program.

Our young folks got a chance to talk with Stephanie, an engineer who created Blendoor, a blind recruiting app for job recruiters that hides the candidate’s name and photo to circumvent unconscious bias and facilitate diversity. It's a conversation and experience they won't soon forget!