Inside a Startup Bootcamp That's Addressing Silicon Valley's Diversity Divide

The Startup Institute is a bootcamp for individuals looking to shift careers into the startup world. It offers classes that are meant to both provide technical skill and install the less quantifiable skill of being able to thrive in startup culture.

Classes are offered on four tracks: web development, web design, marketing, and sales. The Institute has also made diversity a key part of its mission. Since 2012, the Startup Institute's classes have been 41 percent women and 35 percent students of color. And diversity is hard-coded into the curriculum and how they operate. Diane Hessan, Startup Institute's new CEO also explains that whenever Startup Institute expands to new cities -- as it just did to Berlin and London -- that the first cohort of students in every track attend for free. In addition to being good promotion, that also lets Startup Institute be selective in who it admits, rather than just who can afford it. "We're able to pick diversity," says Hessan. "We get to think about who we want to be the flagship class."