Mariana Costa Checa discusses Laboratoria and how her organization is both creating opportunities for women to succeed and increasing equity in tech. While starting a web development company, Mariana and her co-founders noticed that a large number of web developers were self-taught, and there were very few women working in the industry. Back in her native Peru, after many years in the US, she was inspired by this reality to start Laboratoria, an organization which aims to provide web development training to women and help them launch careers in tech. With centers in Peru, Colombia, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico, Laboratoria is expanding opportunities for women in Latin America’s growing digital economy, transforming lives and the industry itself. Since 2015, more than 2,400 women have graduated from the program, and over 85% have been placed in full-time positions — more than doubling their incomes. To help increase equity in the technology sector, Google.org has been working with Laboratoria since 2016 to create opportunities for women to build extraordinary careers in tech and shape Latin America’s future. To date, Laboratoria has received over $2.4M in grants from Google.org, along with a Google.org Fellowship in which 11 Googlers helped to enhance the front-end development and UX designer curricula. Mariana was featured in Google.org’s first-ever Leaders to Watch list, which provides recognition, financial support, and mentorship to remarkable nonprofit leaders who are meeting the needs of their communities. Mariana is the co-founder and CEO at Laboratoria. For her work as a social entrepreneur she has been named one of Peru’s leading innovators by MIT, and had the honor of sharing a panel with President Obama at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit. Aside from her work at Laboratoria, Mariana is involved in multiple initiatives that promote the growth of social entrepreneurship in Peru, including acting as a Board member at Angel Ventures Peru (seed stage fund) and Kunan (entrepreneurial ecosystem builder). Prior to starting Laboratoria, Mariana worked in development programs through Latin America as a Project Manager at the Organization of American States. She holds a BSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Columbia University. Learn more about Laboratoria here: https://www.laboratoria.la/en. Moderated by Rosalva Gallardo Valencia.