Gigi Wang

AMAZING free resource for technology startups in California brought to you by California Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz)! Check out the $100K grants, technical assistance, and resources available at 13 innovation accelerators across the State. Dr. Tara Lynn Gray Trelynd Bradley E. Kaina Pereira Vivian Shimoyama Wade Martin Sunstone Cities https://lnkd.in/g4QpPrhE

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From UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) to Kwara Classrooms: Launching Digital Entrepreneurship & STEAM AI Education in Schools. Over the past few months, I have been actively learning & participating in the #FounderDojoImo Accelerator Program delivered by the UC Berkeley Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology (SCET) and US Market Access Center, a global program focused on building innovation-driven founders. Being the only founder selected from Nigeria’s North Central region, the experience exposed me to global frameworks for technology innovation, entrepreneurship education, and ecosystem building. One question kept coming to my mind throughout the program: How do we bring these global innovation frameworks into our local schools and communities? Today, I am excited to share an important milestone. After a productive stakeholder engagement meeting with the #KwaraState Ministry of Education, Tech2grassroots Africa has received approval to begin the implementation of a Digital Entrepreneurship Curriculum across schools in Kwara State. This initiative will run through the Digital Innovation Schools Nigeria (DISN) program. The Pilot Phase Begins We are starting with a pilot across 50 selected schools in Kwara State: • 20 Public Schools • 30 Private Schools The program will begin in a few days with a one-week Edu-Tech Workshop for Educators at the #EducationResourceCenter, where we will train teachers who will serve as STEAM AI educators and innovation mentors. These trained teachers will then be deployed into schools by the third term to launch STEAM AI Innovators Clubs. What This Program Will Deliver Through the DISN Ed-Tech Partners Biuda, #Learnoguage we aim to: • Train teachers to deliver Digital Entrepreneurship education • Launch STEAM AI Innovators Clubs in schools • Provide Digital Foundation training for 50,000 students • Connect schools to global Ed-Tech solutions and learning tools • Equip educators with cutting-edge STEAM AI resources. The goal is simple: Move students from technology consumers to technology creators. We are also working with Ed-Tech partners to support schools with modern learning solutions. Across Africa, millions of students graduate every year without the skills required for the digital economy. Teachers are often expected to prepare students for the future without the training, tools, or support systems needed to deliver results. You can support this project in your state or region. Comment DISN Support and I will send you a DM #kwarastateministryofeducation #Kwarastategovernment #Nigeriafederalministryofeducation #Universalbasiceducation #GIZNigeria #CCHub #Unesco #WorldBank

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**The Power of Community-Driven Innovation in Connectivity** Tristan Thompson's partnership with World Mobile to launch Uplift showcases how innovative solutions can transform network accessibility. By enabling local hosts, or "AirNode operators," to profit from their community's network, this model not only incentivizes participation but also empowers neighborhoods to take charge of their connectivity needs. At ElevenX Capital, we believe that community-focused initiatives can significantly drive both social impact and investment returns. How can we further leverage local initiatives in the tech space to create sustainable growth? #investing #innovation #venturecapital #entrepreneurship

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Had a great time at DC Startup & Tech Week (Formerly DC Startup Week) moderating a panel with Scott Christensen (Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund (CBSCF) , Faith Davis (Exelon) and Bill McNulty (NextEra Energy Investments), convened by the great C'pher Gresham. Here's a quick recap: 1) The panelists were phenomenal - a mixture of corporate, state and foundation-backed VC's all focusing on climate. They're actively funding companies across a range of sectors - e.g. nature-based solutions, energy + AI, water, etc. Point being, we were lucky to have experts with such broad purviews. 2) The current climate could be pushing at least some climate VC's to focus on software and move away from hardware, at least temporarily. This type of capital may indeed just be better suited for software companies at this juncture. It also reflects the fact that certain segments of the climate-tech market are just more mature than others - e.g. software performs best once the hardware and the business case around it are solid, then it becomes and optimization and efficiency game. 3) Founders need to target "must-solve" climate problems from the investor lens. In other words, yes there's a sea of climate challenges where startups can be additive. However, in this environment, few of these areas are attracting meaningful capital. There's nothing wrong with tackling problem areas that are under-invested, we need this in spades. However, for those trying to get capital in the door, realize the constraints that come with targeting problems that investors just aren't prioritizing. 4) Look to funders overseas. The EU, where so much climate finance, policy and general expertise has come from, could be playing a much more important role. I'd also argue that Gulf countries like KSA and UAE are going to be critical here too, not to mention China, of course. 5) We need mentoring and coaching to be at an all-time high. With so much uncertainty, networks/communities where both founders and investors can learn from/lean on each other have never been more important. The panel/audience was a nice microcosm of the types of support networks we need to be actively building. Big thanks again to C'pher, Faith, Scott and Bill, as well as the whole DC Startup + Tech Week team. Til next year!

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Mary Lou Jepsen holds nearly 300 patents. She founded four companies. And led hardware at Facebook, Google, Intel, and Oculus. Let’s rewind. In 1995, Jepsen co-founded MicroDisplay, where she pioneered components that would later power VR, AR, HDTVs, and smartphones. She led the full stack: from ASICs and optics to manufacturing strategy. Next came a senior technical role at Philips, where she contributed to early LED breakthroughs now found in billions of devices. In 2004, she joined Intel, becoming CTO of the Display Division, where she architected the company's next-gen HDTV efforts. But her name became globally recognized in 2005, when she co-founded One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). A global movement to bring ultra-affordable computers to children in low- and middle-income countries. The result: a ripple effect that led Google’s CEO to later call the Chromebook “the grandchild of OLPC.” Then, Jepsen spun out the OLPC display tech into a new company: Pixel Qi. A fabless display firm focused on low-power, sunlight-readable screens for mobile devices. While typical tablet screens ate up 90% of a device’s power, Pixel Qi’s designs slashed consumption by 10x. Her next move took her into the heart of Silicon Valley innovation: Google X. There, she reported directly to Sergey Brin. She led programs across Google’s consumer electronics and display hardware divisions, including Google Glass. By 2015, she had joined Facebook/Oculus as Executive Director of Engineering. She spearheaded the move from OLED to liquid crystal systems in Oculus Quest 2. Invented foveated AR vision with a 180° field of view. And built Facebook’s first brain-computer interface team. But, in 2016, she decided to start over. She founded Openwater, a medical tech startup whose mission is to replace the functionality of MRI machines with wearable, low-cost electronics—and use them to treat disease, not just diagnose it. Her devices use infrared holography and low-intensity focused ultrasound. And in preclinical and clinical testing, Openwater’s tech achieved near 50% remission rates in patients with severe depression, through ultrasound harmonics that calmed overfiring neurons. All 68 of Openwater’s patents? Free to use. All hardware schematics? Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0. All software? AGPL open source. In 2024, she raised $54M to scale Openwater’s technology platform into a fully open medical system that could slash the cost of diagnostics and care around the world. Mary Lou has won every award in sight: TIME 100 most influential people, CNN Top 10 Thinkers, Forbes Top 50 Women in Tech, and more. She’s not in the business of moonshots. She’s in the business of moon landings. 💡 In 2025, I’m sharing 365 stories of women entrepreneurs in 365 days. Follow Justine Juillard for daily #femalefounder spotlights.

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It was an honour to present at #FII9 in Riyadh last week. As AI models continue to scale and workload demands surge, datacenter networking must evolve. Optical technologies will play a defining role. At Salience Labs, we’re building on years of breakthrough research to develop advanced optical switching solutions that address this growing infrastructure bottleneck.

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