Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP has announced its continued support and partnership with Women’s Startup Lab (WSLab) as the organization prepares to launch its third accelerator program for female founders of tech companies.
Procopio, which continues to build on its reputation for representing innovative startups and emerging companies, helped conceptualize and form the WSLab and has been incubating the innovative start-up accelerator since the organization launched in 2013. The firm provides the group office space at no charge, and Roger Rappoport, a Procopio partner who heads the firm’s Emerging Growth & Technologies practice group, serves as both legal counsel and business advisor, donating time as a key member of the WSLab faculty.
Women’s Startup Lab began as a passion project and Meetup Group by CEO and founder Ari Horie, Rappoport’s client. Horie saw the need for a place where women in technology could get together weekly to collaborate, gain access to resources that would develop their leadership skills, accelerate their company’s growth and open the doors to capital. Seeing the immense interest from women entrepreneurs, she shifted her focus to formalizing an accelerator program.
Over the last 15 years, only three percent of start-up companies have been founded by women. The mission of WSLab is to prepare the next generation of female high-tech founders for business success and funding through its 90-day Accelerator program.
WSLab is one of many initiatives Procopio has undertaken in its effort to support the next generation of technology and science-based industries. In San Diego, the firm runs a start-up incubator called LaunchPad and will be hosting its second group of incubator companies starting later this month. It also opened an office in Austin last year, in part, to help connect companies and investors across the “West Tech Triangle,” as well as to support start-ups, entrepreneurs and investors in Mexico and Latin America.
Based in San Diego, Procopio established its Silicon Valley presence in 2012 and has been the primary sponsor of WSLab since the organization launched in 2013. Since that time WSLab has graduated 25 Startup Founders, including two who found successful exits through acquisition as a result of the program.
About Women’s Startup Lab: Women’s Startup Lab is a new accelerator model for women tech founders, empowering female founders to successfully navigate today’s entrepreneurial reality, accelerating their impact and value creation while positioning them to inspire the next generation of technology innovators.