
This blog post was authored by Styliani Pantela.

The Lady Problems Hackathon series aims to make the world a better better place, and HPE was one of the global sponsors! Additionally, the Vertica DataGals group got to participate.
DataGals is the internal Vertica group for women in technology. Shilpa Lawande, the then-Vice President of the Big Data Platform, started DataGals back in 2013. She was inspired by Sheryl Sandberg’s book, Lean In and the rising popularity of the lean in circles. The goal of the group was to provide an informal environment where women can get together, find a source of great mentorship, strong role models, and camaraderie. Over the past 3 years, we have grown a lot and have received a lot of internal support. Vertica is committed to women in tech in general. In fact, in 2015, it was name one of the top 100 best Working Mothers’ Companies (25th year on this list). That is why we were very excited to sponsor the hackathon series.
Lisa Donaghue and Stella Pantela, the Chair and Co-Chair of DataGals had the opportunity to give the keynote at the Lady Series Hackathons in Boston and San Francisco, respectively. They talked about DataGals and how to build data-rich applications. Lisa and Stella interacted with the participants and had a wonderful experience. Lisa commented on the hackathon, Every woman who came to HPE’s table and talked to us was friendly, curious, and a pleasure to talk with.

All teams are invited to apply to the HPE Haven Startup Accelerator to help accelerate Lady Problem solutions getting to market with fewer technology barriers. For more information about the accelerator take a look here: http://bit.ly/Help4Startups

1https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/10-reasons-why-investing-in-women-and-girls-is-so/