Jewel Burks Solomon, the head of Google for Startups in the U.S., announced Thursday that Louisville-based Weathercheck has been selected to participate in the Google for Startups Accelerator: Black Founders.
WeatherCheck, 201 East Jefferson Street, Suite 315 in Louisville, monitors properties for hail damage so that insurance carriers, mortgage companies and property owners can take action.
Out of hundreds of applicants, 12 black-led startups made the cut for Google’s first U.S. based accelerator program, where they’ll virtually tackle technical and business development related challenges with the help of Google experts. Read more here.
“Louisville is an up and coming startup community,” said Jason Scott, head of developer ecosystem in the U.S. for Google. “Weathercheck embodies the community’s entrepreneurial spirit and uses technology for good — helping their users understand when they can use insurance for weather damage to their homes.”
In addition, as people look for ways to support the black community, there’s been a surge in searches for black-owned businesses nationally, and in Louisville. To help consumers identify the local businesses they want to support, Solomon shared that Google is partnering with the U.S. Black Chambers Inc., to launch a black-owned business attribute on Google Search and Maps.
Starting Thursday, merchants in the U.S. with a verified Business Profile on Google can add a black-owned business attribute to their profile.
Head of Google for Startups in the U.S.: Jewel Burks Solomon
Solomon works to level the playing field for diverse startup founders and communities by connecting them with the best that Google’s products, connections and best practice has to offer.
In addition to her role at Google, Solomon is an advocate for representation in and access to the technology industry. She currently serves as managing partner at Collab Capital, an investment fund to connect black founders to the financial and social capital they need to build profitable businesses.
From 2013-16 Solomon was CEO and co-founder of Partpic, a startup that was acquired by Amazon, which streamlines the purchase of maintenance and repair parts using computer vision. Before founding Partpic, Solomon served in management, enterprise sales, and strategic diversity roles at McMaster-Carr Industrial Supply and Google Inc.
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