President Obama knows all the right questions to ask tech startups. At the White House Demo Day on Tuesday, he asked more than a dozen startup founders about their companies, how they were raising money, what kind of revenue plan they had and all the other questions a savvy investor might ask about young startups. He seemed particularly enamored of Jerry the Bear, a teddy bear designed to help young children with diabetes learn about how to manage the disease, but even less cuddly startup ideas seemed to excite him, and he was enthusiastic about what the future might hold.
"We've got to make sure we're taking full advantage of this moment."
"There's never been a better time to launch an idea or bring it to scale right here in the United States, right now," President Obama said. "But we've got to make sure we're taking full advantage of this moment."
The more than 30 companies and close to 100 entrepreneurs hosted at the White House were deliberately picked to showcase how diverse that moment should be according to the president. Women and minorities were heavily featured in a way that the president wants to make more common in the tech industry as a whole.
Right now, women lead only about 3 percent of VC-backed startups, and only 1 percent of them have black leadership. In connection with the Demo Day event, major tech companies like Xerox and Box have committed to start imitating the NFL's Rooney Rule—where at least one woman and one member of an ethnic minority must be interviewed for any executive position. More than 40 venture capital firms made their own pledges to increase diversity, including Andreessen Horowitz, Intel Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers. Locally, the Demo Day announcement also highlighted Steve Case's upcoming Rise of the Rest bus tour to find startups in less well-known tech hubs and tech incubator 1776's pledge to track and encourage diversity among its member companies.
"The next Steve Jobs might be named Stephanie or Esteban," President Obama said.
