City of Berkeley's Office of Economic Development Launches Event to Promote Diversity in Startups

BERKELEY, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2015 - PRLog -- The City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development (OED) and Localwise are proud to announce that they are working together to help startups build both their businesses and the Berkeley community.

In the last four years, Berkeley has solidified its position as a startup hub. In 2011 OED counted 100 in startups in Berkeley. Today startups in Berkeley number 300. Growth has been accompanied by job creation. Since 2014, there has been a 23% increase in jobs available in Berkeley startups.

Localwise (https://www.localwisejobs.com), an online job market based in Berkeley, has helped over 100 Berkeley locals find jobs at Berkeley-based startups in the last half year. Localwise operates from SkyDeck, a UC-Berkeley affiliated startup accelerator. At SkyDeck alone, over 15 startups have used Localwise’s service to hire over 50 employees.

“We’ve been thrilled by the quantity and quality of jobs created by Berkeley startups. Moreover, it’s been surprising how many non-technical jobs have been created. We’ve helped startups hire sales teams, customer support staff, office administrators, marketing professionals, and more. Berkeley’s community is rich with talent, making Berkeley an increasingly popular destination for startups,” said Ben Hamlin, Localwise’s Co-Founder.

Together the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development and Localwise seek to build on Berkeley’s startup momentum. On January 28th, 2016, the two entities will co-host the Berkeley Startup Job Fair (http://bit.ly/berkstartups) at NextSpace, a co-working space in Berkeley. The event will showcase many of Berkeley’s most innovative startups and the local talent that helps these companies grow.

The job fair will also include community stakeholders such as Women Who Code, CodeBerkeley and Latin@s in Tech, illustrating that talent comes from all parts of a community. “Diversity is instrumental not only to growing profitable companies, but also sustainable communities,” said Maya Tobias, Localwise’s Co-Founder.

“Startups cite recruiting as a key challenge. The Office of Economic Development is excited to work with Localwise to address that gap in an inclusive way. As Berkeley becomes a more important tech hub, our goal is to create a foundation of inclusivity. Coordinating with Localwise and other community leaders working on tech diversity helps to dramatically accelerate our efforts in this arena.” said Jennifer Cogley of the City of Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development.