Are you female?
Are you an app developer?
Are you a founder or entrepreneur?
If you answered yes to all of the above, then you may qualify for Apple’s all-new Entrepreneur Camp. The first-of-its-kind program is set to offer an intensive technology lab, specialized support, ongoing mentoring and more in an effort to help women-led businesses leverage technology to make a meaningful impact for their customers.
In a statement released about the Camp, Apple CEO Tim Cook said: “Apple is committed to helping more women assume leadership roles across the tech sector and beyond. We’re proud to help cultivate female leadership in the app development community with the new Apple Entrepreneur Camp, and were inspired both by the incredible work that’s already happening, and what’s sure to come.”
Investor, founder, and CEO of Mighty Networks, Gina Bianchini, described the Camp as a program that matters. “The new Entrepreneur Camp says Apple wants to invest its expertise in a different, richer, more diverse range of app developers and product experts in a meaningful way, and that is a big deal for the industry,” Bianchini said.
Apple Entrepreneur Camp sessions are set to be held once a quarter, with each session comprising participants from 20 companies. The first session, however, will include participants from only 10 companies.
Once a company is accepted, they will have the opportunity to send three attendees to Cupertino, California to take part in the Camp which will be held at Apple’s campus. For two weeks, they will receive one-on-one code-level assistance with Apple engineers, as well as attend sessions on design, technology and App Store marketing. Even after the Camp is over, participants will receive ongoing guidance and support from an Apple Developer representative. They will also receive a one-year membership in the Apple Developer Program, access to the Apple Developer Camp Alumni Forum, and two tickets to the following year’s Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).
To be eligible for the program, there are a few requirements that must be met:
- The business must be app-driven
- It must be female-founded, co-founded or led
- It must have at least one woman on the development team
- It must have a working app or prototype and desire to leverage Apple technologies to benefit its mission
Apple explained its reason for launching the Camp in a press release:
“Female entrepreneurs continue to face challenges obtaining funding, training, and support in the VC landscape–receiving $1.9 billion in funding in 2017 compared to $83.1 billion for men. Despite such obstacles, women-owned businesses are growing more than two times faster than the US national average, with women-led tech startups delivering a 35 percent higher return on investment than tech startups led by men.”
The first session of the Apple Entrepreneur Camp is set to run from January 28 to February 8, 2019. Future Camp dates will launch on April 1, July 22, and October 14. Applications are now being accepted. For more information on the Apple Entrepreneur Camp or to apply, visit developer.apple.com/entrepreneur-camp.
