By Khalida Sarwari
An online search for how to return to the workforce after a long absence will turn up article after article with tips and strategies on getting up to speed. But navigating the waters of employment with a résumè gap can still be a daunting experience. Farah Chadwick believes she has a solution to that problem.
The Saratoga resident founded a business last year that helps educated, professional women transition back to work with startups in Silicon Valley on a project or part-time basis. Called Startup-Pairup, the company provides women around the world, regardless of their background, with access to startups that are underfunded and under-resourced and need help to reach their goals.
“This is not a problem that will go away,” Chadwick said. “There will always be women who will go away to start a family. I just want a company that addresses this, and there’s no company that addresses this head on.”
Chadwick is a mother of two and 20-year Silicon Valley veteran. In the 1990s, she started her own company where she provided technical training to engineers at such companies as Cisco, HP, Oracle and Intel. She then got married and paused her career to start a family. Once her children became older, she started thinking about transitioning back into the workforce, not realizing how challenging that would be.
“I didn’t want to compete with the 20-year-olds and I didn’t want to work retail,” Chadwick said. “I just wanted to use my skills and experience where I feel like I am contributing in a meaningful way.”
Before starting Startup-Pairup, she worked on a volunteer basis for a company called Blue Seed. There, she said, she learned all there is to know about startups, a sector she found herself gravitating toward for its selection of roles and flexibility.
“I thought to myself, ‘My goodness, this is an amazing fit for women like me–those who want to work on a part-time basis and still manage their family life,'” she said.
When Blue Seed offered her an equity position six months later, Chadwick declined the offer to create StartUp-Pairup. As Chadwick was developing her company this year, an opportunity came along to enter her business model in the Silicon Valley StartUp Cup, a regional competition that provides an outlet for entrepreneurs who want to take an idea to market or grow an existing new business. After giving a seven-minute pitch to a panel of judges in the first round last month, Chadwick was selected as one of 12 semifinalists to advance to the second round, which will be held Sept. 11 at Crea- TV in San Jose.
In between the rounds, each entrepreneur receives coaching from business experts in sessions held at West Valley College and they advance based on how much they’ve integrated that feedback into their business model.
Chadwick said the advice she has received in the StartUp Cup competition so far has been invaluable.
“I think it’s fantastic,” she said.
Visit siliconvalley.startupcup.com to see a complete list of semi-finalists.
