Hillary Clinton pressed the flesh with the Downtown digerati yesterday and for the first time laid out her plans for sustaining the growth of Silicon Alley.
“What we need is a New Girl Network to compete with the Old Boy Network, and this is a start,” said the Senate candidate, speaking in front of 500 entrepreneurs at the Women in Silicon Alley conference. Stressing the need for equal access to capital, she said she knew how many great ideas died in the parking lots of banks.
Clinton’s main proposals included:
* Federal help to set up a women-centered business incubator, modeled after the Three Guineas Foundation in the Women’s Technology Cluster in San Francisco. In that model 2 percent of equity goes to philanthropic efforts.
* Broadband wiring of schools and colleges – as opposed to sporadic donations of computers from the private sector.
* One-stop technology centers, especially upstate, where downsized workers from other industries can get access to technology, training and job networks.
More generally, Clinton called for better access to credit for women and equal rights to stock options, as well as equal pay for women in .coms.
“The wiring of the country with broadband Internet access is as important now as electrifying the country was in the 1930s,” she said, adding that “Tech Bonds” could be issued to help with infrastructure and education financing.
Clinton, who met with 10 Silicon Alley CEOs last week as part of her “listening tour,” was warmly received.
“I’ve met her three times now,” said Cecilia Pagkalinawan, CEO of BoutiqueY3K.com. “I like it that she incorporates the issues I raised into her speech.”