Tag Archives: small business

Finding belonging in LGBTQ+ spaces

The Stonewall Inn, a small bar in New York City where in June of 1969 LGBTQ+ people fought back against years of oppression and abuse, has special meaning for many people, including me. When I moved to New York City in 2007, I lived in the West Village, the neighborhood where the bar is located. I shared many memorable and meaningful nights with newfound friends at Stonewall and other local bars, where we felt a sense of community and belonging. As a minority in most other establishments, it’s hard to explain how comforting it is to walk into a place and feel like you are among your people and not feel othered or insecure. That’s what these bars were to me and millions of others.

The most meaningful one of those Stonewall Inn nights was when I met my future wife, Christine, a digital entrepreneur with her own LGBTQ+ media startup. She also happened to bartend there on Thursday nights. Needless to say, I spent more Thursday nights there then I should have after that, but it was well worth it.

With such fond memories of my time there, I was surprised to learn the Stonewall Inn was almost twice the size it is now when the rebellion took place in 1969. As New York City rents rose, the leaseholders were forced to let part of the building go, which is now 51 Christopher Street.

Google has been committed to preserving and sharing this history of the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement in the U.S. Today, we’re building on our commitment to the LGBTQ+ community with almost $1 million in support from Google and Google.org to Pride Live, an advocacy group dedicated to the fight for LGBTQ+ equality that is working to secure the lease to 51 Christopher Street to reunite the Stonewall Inn and build the Stonewall National Monument Education and Visitor Center. On June 24th, Pride Live will be celebrating the reuniting of the Stonewall Inn, with musical guest Kesha, at their annual “Stonewall Day'' event.

In 2019, through Google.org grants totaling $1.5 million and the tireless work of volunteer Googlers, The LGBT Community Center of New York commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots with the launch of the Stonewall Forever, the first-ever interactive “living monument” dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community and their fight for equal rights.

Within Google, our PRIDE at and Trans at Google employee resource groups continue to grow each year. It’s great to see so many LGBTQ+ Googlers and their allies coming together with their local communities and participating in local Pride marches. For the first time, Googlers will be participating in Baltic Pride, organized by Lithuanian Gay League (a Google.org grantee) in Vilnius. We will showcase a Google Arts & Culture piece about Harvey Milk, who was an LGBTQ+ rights pioneer and of Lithuanian descent.

The mood of this Pride isn’t just celebratory. It’s been another tough year for LGBTQ+ folks and many historically marginalized communities. We see continuing discrimination and violence worldwide, especially against the trans community and for folks at the intersections of Asian and Pacific Islander and Black communities in the U.S. Moreover, many LGBTQ+ refugees in Ukraine remain displaced and overlooked as conflict continues in the region.

Given the challenges facing so many LGBTQ+ people, we are donating to nonprofits that work directly with the community. Googlers will be able to donate to nonprofits during Pride month and Google.org will match their donations to local LGBTQ+ charities around the world. Google.org has also made a critical contribution to OutRight Action International’s Ukraine Emergency Fund. This program is delivering humanitarian support to LGBTQ+ refugees, providing aid to neighboring countries and helping those that have been internally displaced and impacted by conflict. We are also providing donated Search advertising and other tools to nonprofit organizations like GLAAD and The Trevor Project, helping them spread awareness of their critical work and cultivate support for LGBTQ+ communities.

We are also continuing our work on making our products more inclusive and useful for everyone – including the LGBTQ+ community. We heard directly from members of the transgender community that the way Google Photos was resurfacing old Memories was hurtful. So last year we brought in our partners at GLAAD and worked with the trans community and learned how we could make reminiscing with Google Photos more inclusive. This effort led to launching new controls that let users hide photos of certain time periods or people from Google Photos’ Memories feature.

Our products continue to help small businesses owners connect with the LGBTQ+ community. Like helping merchants show their commitment by using the “LGBTQ+ friendly” and "Transgender safespace” attributes on Maps and Search, and our Google Ads products that help businesses connect with users that are looking for products made by companies that match their values.

As our community continues to be under attack both here in the U.S. and abroad, what gives me hope is the work we do across our products and platforms to help the LGBTQ+ community find places where they can feel accepted and safe. I found the Stonewall Inn and I found my wife. So many other establishments, like the Stonewall Inn, play a vital role for many in our community. They are more than just places where we socialize and gather, they bring a life-saving sense of community, belonging and security that everyone deserves.

Meet the entrepreneur connecting Kenyans to healthy food

When Binti Mwallau started Hasanat Ventures, her dairy processing company in Kenya, she expected some resistance from her peers in an industry dominated by men. But she was surprised to run into more skepticism from her customers. Despite her background in finance and biochemistry, many of them questioned her credibility as a woman entrepreneur.

Worried that her gender would affect Hasanat Ventures’ reputation, Binti considered hiring a man as the face of the business. But she eventually decided against it, standing firm in her pride as a solo founder and committed to tearing down the perception that women-run businesses in Africa aren't as successful as those run by men.

“I think we should be challenging the outdated narrative that businesses run by men are guaranteed to be more successful,” Binti says. “Based on research, we've seen that businesses run by women actually perform better. We should use this as an opportunity to prove that as a woman, you do stand a chance to succeed in everything that you do.”

Just as important to Binti as breaking this bias was giving Kenyans more access to affordable nutrition. “I realized that many people couldn’t afford premium yogurt. So we entered the market with a high-quality product that’s affordable for lower and middle-income earners who have become more health-conscious,” she says.

Binti knew she had to drive awareness for her brand, particularly to reach Kenyans who needed convincing about yogurt’s health benefits. So she turned to Google Digital Skills for Africa, which offers virtual classes to help entrepreneurs grow their skills and businesses, and completed a digital marketing course to help her get Hasanat Ventures online.

“After participating in the course, we knew our online presence had to be bigger than just social media,” Binti says. “Now that we have a fully functional website, we are actually getting leads from outside Kenya.”

As part of the course, Binti learned how to use Google Analytics to measure her website’s performance. She could now monitor traffic insights, analyze pageviews and better understand who was visiting her site.

Binti’s determination and passion for her business are showing up in the results. In its first year, Hasanat Ventures supplied over 300 retailers with affordable dairy products. Three years later, it’s grown to support more than 50 farmers and even built its own production facility to keep up with demand.

“I really want to make sure that I am visible and speaking up in spaces women don’t usually have access to,” Binti says. “As Hasanat Ventures continues to grow, I am confident I can help change the perception of African women in business.”

58% of Africa’s entrepreneurs are women. That’s why we’re empowering them with the platform and tools to grow their businesses. Learn more about our #LookMeUp campaign, highlighting Africa’s women entrepreneurs like Binti who are working to break the bias.

This YouTuber wants to bring financial literacy to Africans

Nicolette Mashile wanted to find a more fulfilling career. So in 2016, she resigned from her job as a Client Service Director at a Johannesburg advertising agency. But quitting meant Nicolette was forced to stick to a stricter budget.

She began sharing her money-saving tips on YouTube and it wasn’t long before she noticed her advice resonated with African viewers. Eventually, this South African content creator built a significant following for her candid take on money management, and was invited to join the #YouTubeBlackVoices Creator Class of 2021. This in turn helped herFinancial Bunny YouTube channel garner almost 9 million views.

“I was very frank about money management, how to effectively budget and how to plan your spending. When I saw my YouTube following growing, I knew this personal finance advice was making a real impact and I committed to improving financial literacy in South Africa,” Nicolette says.

This meant finding creative ways to make financial literacy more inclusive and accessible while also removing the stigma attached to discussing personal finance. Nicolette spun her YouTube success into two books — one for adults titled “What’s Your Move,” and another for children, “Coco the Money Bunny.”

“When I created the books, I had to develop a new website so it was important to identify our different customer types and implement search engine optimization. I needed to do research to understand the target customers and develop the website to meet their needs and Google Ads was a promotional channel I experimented with,” Nicolette added.

But it was the launch of her Save or Spend board game and subsequent app that sparked her shift towards technology.

“I’d successfully leveraged digital media to share financial content, so naturally it made sense to use the power of tech to design an interactive app that could simplify money management in a fun and engaging way,” she says.

Using gamification helped to take away the seriousness around money while also addressing the lack of financial education in South Africa. In a digital era where most Africans own a smartphone rather than a laptop, Nicolette knew a free app would be an accessible tool to teach people about money. Her app has proven popular due in large part to the massive following she has built online since launching her YouTube channel back in 2017.

Nicolette’s also grown her business to include consultancy and coaching, and she relies a lot on Google Meets for some of her sessions.

“My consultancy work with brands and corporate individuals means I use video calling quite often and for this I use Google Meets. I do one-on-one coaching with multiple clients per month and it’s super simple to just send a link and jump on a call because people can log in from anywhere,” she says.

Ultimately, Nicolette hopes to continue empowering her followers by arming them with the tools and skills they need to better manage their money. “I want to keep encouraging South Africans to have the difficult discussions people often avoid around personal finance.”

Fifty-eight percent of Africa’s entrepreneurs are women. That’s why we’re empowering them with the platform and tools to grow their businesses. #LookMeUp is a call for all to #BreakTheBias. Find out more here.

Find your online home with Google Domains, now out of beta

Building your online presence starts with a domain. It’s your online address, your home on the web, and it should be simple to get started. That’s why we launched Google Domains in beta in 2015: to be the easiest place to find, buy and manage a domain. Since then, millions of customers have trusted us with their online home, and we’ve added more tools and features to bring Google’s ease of use, reliability and value to finding and using a domain name.

Today, we’re moving Google Domains out of beta and into general availability in 26 countries. With millions of active registrations, we know how valuable domain names are to customers, and we take seriously the responsibility to provide a service that’s often at the very heart of a business, brand or passion.

As we move out of beta, from now until April 15, we’re offering new and returning users 20% off any single domain registration or transfer-in to Google Domains using the code DOMAINS20 (see discount Terms and Conditions). And if you’re new here, read on to get to know us a bit better.

Here’s what you get when you register with Google Domains.

Tools to build your online presence with Google. With more than 300 domain endings available, you can find a name that's right for your business. Google tools can spread your brand further: Turn people who find you on Google Search and Maps into new customers with a free Business Profile and add custom email and collaboration tools with Workspace. Without coding, create a professional-looking website or online store for free using Google Sites or with premium partners like Wix, Shopify, Squarespace, Weebly and Bluehost. And there are simple integrations with tools like Google Ads and Search Console, so you can reach customers across the web, and track where your visitors are coming from.

The reliability you need. Google Domains provides stable and reliable service. We give you access to high performance DNS, meaning your domain name is easy to access regardless of where your visitors are located. It’s the same infrastructure used by Google. Plus we offer around-the-clock customer support from real people.

Added value with no added cost. Privacy and security features should be standard when you’re creating your online home. Features like 2-Step Verification and one-click DNSSEC bring an added layer of security to your Google Domains account at no additional cost. If you want to keep your information private, we also cover the cost of privacy protection.

Whether they're promoting passion projects, working on a side hustle or dedicating their lives to a cause, our millions of customers have chosen Google Domains because it's good for their businesses — and good for the internet.

A watch company founder looks to the future

In 2014, Randy Williams founded Talley & Twine Watch Company with the desire to create beautiful, high-quality watches at a reasonable price point. Since then, he’s grown the business to 16 employees, has expanded to hundreds of styles and gives back to a variety of nonprofits. Digital tools like Google Ads have been critical to growing his business, helping him efficiently build his brand and connect with customers from across the world. As we celebrate Black-owned businesses this Black History Month, we had a few questions for Randy about how he got started and his advice for other aspiring business owners.

How were you inspired by other Black-owned businesses before founding Talley & Twine?

Seeing other successful Black-owned businesses inspired me by showing me what was possible. Black entrepreneurs are more than business owners; they're leaders in their communities. Seeing them opened my mind and allowed me to be creative and to dream. I'm still inspired daily by the creativity and ingenuity of entrepreneurs from my community.

What do you know now that you wish you had known on Talley & Twine’s first day?

In the beginning stages of starting Talley & Twine, I had no idea of the true power of having a great team around you. The synthesis and growth you can experience with a team versus working solo are unmatched. Knowing what I know now, I would have sought out partners and employees much sooner.

What advice would you give to other aspiring business owners?

View starting a business as a learning process. Allow yourself to be a student of entrepreneurship by synthesizing the lessons you learn along the way. Things won't always go as planned, but view these challenges as building blocks for your personal and professional growth.

  • Two men stand at the intersection of two residential streets named Talley Avenue and Twine Circle

    Randy Williams, Founder & CEO of Talley & Twine, and Eric Heyward, COO of Talley & Twine, stand at the intersection of Talley and Twine streets, the inspiration for the company’s name.

  • A woman works on a watch with a green, black, and red striped watch band

    A woman works on Talley & Twine’s Juneteenth watch.

  • Two men sit at desk looking at a laptop computer showing a YouTube video that shows a person’s hand wearing a watch

    Randy Williams and Eric Heyward watching a Talley & Twine YouTube video

  • Google search results for Talley and Twine watches showing five watches: 2 black, 2 gold, 1 silver

    Google Ads featuring five Talley & Twine watches

What are some of the future plans you have for the brand?

We have plans to launch our first Swiss-made automatic watch this year and we're really excited about it. We also plan to expand our philanthropic efforts to support future entrepreneurs and business leaders. In 2021, we launched the first Talley & Twine business scholarship at my alma mater, Albany State University and we plan to extend that to other historically Black colleges and universities as well.

What makes you most proud to be a business owner?

Hearing from other business owners about how they were inspired to start after hearing Talley & Twine's story makes me the proudest. That means the cycle that inspired me to start continues to multiply and flourish.

Lessons from helping 10 million during the pandemic

2022 marks the third year of the pain of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though we’ve yet to see the long-term impact it will have on how we live, work, study and grow, I’ve never seen a time where technology has been as helpful to as many people as it has been over these last three years.

The same technology that has kept so many going will be key to the economic recovery, but we must also make sure no one is left behind.

In 2015, when I first started this role at Google, the EU released a report highlighting a digital skills gap that threatened to leave a million jobs unfilled. Seeing a unique challenge and opportunity for Google to help, we launched Grow With Google, which aims to help accelerate economic recovery through our technology, tools and training. Through Grow with Google, we’ve trained 88 million people around the world in the skills they need to build their career, launch or grow their own business.

With the onset of the pandemic, we sought to build on these efforts. The acceleration of technology was keeping businesses afloat and helping communities connect — but it also risked leaving some people behind.

So in June 2020 we set ourselves a new target, pledging to help 10 million people and businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) find jobs, digitize and grow by the end of 2021. This important milestone has now been reached, and surpassed.

We approached this challenge by:

Providing businesses with the tools they need to thrive

Research has found 80% of small businesses increased their use of digital tools during the pandemic. So we’ve launched more than 200 new features since March 2020.

For example, with Business Profiles, we made it easier for businesses to manage their presence directly on Google Search and the Google Maps app and connect with customers online. These tools have helped businesses and people adjust and thrive during the pandemic. In fact, boutique French retailer Indira de Paris now attributes 70% of their sales to digital, thanks to these features.

We have also launched new features on Search and Google Maps enabling restaurants to inform customers they now do delivery — or for local stores to say they offer curbside pick-up. People can now find this information on Search and Maps for more than six million restaurants and retailers in Europe. To help retailers to connect with more customers, we made it free for retailers to list their products on the Shopping tab throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. To help retailers stand out online, in over 10 EMEA markets, we launched tailored recommendations for every business with our new tool, Local Opportunity Finder.

Supporting people and businesses to learn new digital skills

To make the most of the digital opportunities available to them, people and businesses need the right skills. Across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as part of our Grow with Google efforts, we focused on providing digital skills training.

We have worked alongside partners to launch initiatives aimed at supporting local businesses and communities to make the digital transition. With the German Retail Association (HDE) we launched the ZukunftHandel initiative, which has provided over 70,000 retailers with coaching and other support.

Long before the coronavirus, it was clear the jobs of the future would require anew set of digital skills. McKinsey now estimates that more than 25% of people may need to transition new jobs because of the pandemic. In response, we launched new Google Career Certificates to help people reskill for roles in high-growth areas such as IT support, project management, data analytics or UX design. People like Jelena in the UK have also benefited from the 100,000 scholarships we are providing in partnership with local governmental and non-governmental organizations. Jelena participated in a Project Management course from the Google Career Certificate program and is now a digital project coordinator for various charitable initiatives.

A picture of in Jelena Stephenson in Serbia who completed the Project Management course from the Google Career Certificate programme

A picture of in Jelena Stephenson in Serbia who completed the Project Management course from the Google Career Certificate programme

From our experience we feel there are five key lessons to share as we all continue the journey to economic growth and recovery in 2022.

1. The digital transition will continue at pace in 2022.

The future will be about businesses having the right skills and using the full range of digital tools to take advantage of the opportunities technology presents. Research has found that small businesses in Europe with a sophisticated use of digital tools were able to build a “digital safety net” during the pandemic, resulting in 80% better sales and 60% better revenue. For example, German fashion company das schöne leben ran their first in-house Search campaign during the pandemic and has tripled their direct online orders with customers of all ages throughout Germany.

2. Obtaining new skills will support the transition and expand the digital opportunity to more

Research by Google and McKinsey from 2020 shows that more than 90 million people in EMEA may need to learn new skills for future jobs, and that some people will need to change careers entirely. The past two years have only accelerated those changes further. Our work has provided us with numerous examples of businesses and individuals making the most of this opportunity. Noemi in Italy learned new skills so she could help local small businesses to digitize and grow, while Alba in Madrid used her Career Certificate to secure a job in IT support. Our Grow with Google and Career Certificate programs will continue to provide people with these skills.

3. For lasting impact, we must ensure that this opportunity is open to all

The pandemic has reinforced growing inequalities both between economies and within them. We know certain groups are more impacted than others: those without a college degree, ethinic minorities and women. To address this, we need new ways of thinking. We know that digital skills and tools, with the right support, can unlock everyone’s potential. In our efforts, we have seen countless examples of this — from Ibrahim in Italy, to the many women-owned businesses using Google tools across Europe. We will continue to work hard to reach everyone and will continue to work with a diverse group of organizations like MExoxo in Greece, which supports women, refugees and LGBTQ+ women in entrepreneurship.

4. Current challenges call for greater collaboration between organizations, communities and governments.

Partnerships have been the cornerstone of our work in supporting communities and governments. In France, working in partnership with Pole Emploi in some regions has helped job seekers identify gaps in digital skills and ways to access them. In 2022, expanding the digital opportunity and driving digitization should see this work continue. This will require continued collaboration on policy efforts, such as those led by the European Commission, as well as careful consideration of the regulations that will support a digital-led recovery.

5. The green economy will be the bedrock of the present and future.

The pandemic has demonstrated our collective ability to tackle major challenges — but coronavirus is not the only crisis we are facing. As we look to recover from the pandemic, the same focus must be given to fighting the climate crisis. Entrepreneurs are already working with governments and organizations to develop the technologies capable of addressing this challenge. Through theGoogle for Startups Accelerator: Sustainable Development Goals Project 2030 and anchoring over €2 billion of green infrastructure investments in Europe by 2025, we are backing those who are striving to find these solutions. We also want to help businesses and individuals make the right choices, working with SolarPower Europe’s #SolarWorks program to raise awareness of the diverse range of careers available in solar as well as promoting sustainable choices through the products we provide. In the U.K. we have worked with Planet Mark to offer training to help small businesses their journey towards sustainability.

The pandemic has presented enormous challenges to communities and economies across the world. While difficult work is still required to respond to and recover from the public health crisis, our work in helping 10 million people and businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa to find jobs, digitize and grow has underlined to me that there are also enormous opportunities. The future we need to build is an inclusive, sustainable and digitally accelerated one — and we are here to play our part.

Today is the .day

Today, Google Registry is launching the .day top-level domain — a secure domain that brings attention to any day. In honor of the days coming up in this new year, we've rounded up 22 of our favorite .day websites:

Bring attention to a cause you care about

These nonprofit organizations are using their .day domains to raise awareness around specific issues or causes that help make the world a better place for everyone.

1. Wildlife.day by World Wildlife Fund

2. Accessibility.day by GAAD Foundation

3. Freedom.day by International Justice Mission

4. Tues.day by Giving Tuesday

5. Rednose.day by Comic Relief

6. SesameStreet.day by Sesame Street

7. Transvisibility.day by Human Rights Campaign

8. Veterans.day by Team Rubicon

9. Equalpay.day by National Women’s Law Center

10. MLK.day by NAACP

11. NativeNonprofit.day by Native Ways Federation

Amplify your brand or persona

Whether you’re a company building a brand or an influencer growing a fanbase, .day is a great way to register a memorable domain that promotes your message.

12. Nutella.day by Ferrero

13. Felicia.day by Felicia Day

14. Magic.day by Justin Willman

15. Wedding.day by The Knot Worldwide

16. Valentines.day by FTD

Build your community

The .day domain ending makes it easy to find short, memorable domain names, which make it even easier for your communities to find your website.

17. Community.day by Niantic

18. Braille.day by National Federation of the Blind

19. Easter.day by YouVersion

20. Ramadan.day by Yaqeen Institute

21. Yoga.day by Hindu American Foundation

22. HolocaustRemembrance.day by World Jewish Congress

Starting today, you can register your own .day domain as part of our Early Access Program for an additional one-time fee. This fee decreases according to a daily schedule through the end of January. On February 1 at 8:00 am Pacific time, .day domains will be publicly available at a base annual price through your registrar of choice. To learn more about pricing and our participating partners, visit new.day.

Will you celebrate because it is your birth.day, diwali.day, or just because it is fri.day? Will you engage more deeply with your community? No matter what you do today, we hope you’ll seize your .day domain and make it a great experience.

Read Article

Do something new with whats.new

More than 200 .new domains are now live, providing shortcuts to common tasks within apps like Medium, Asana, and GitHub.

Read Article

Read Article

Hello, .dev!

Today we’re introducing .dev, the latest top-level domain (TLD) from Google Registry, offering secure domains for developers and technology.

Read Article

Read Article

Introducing .app, a more secure home for apps on the web

Today we’re announcing .app, the newest top-level domain (TLD) from Google Registry, created specifically for apps and app developers.

Read Article

10 startups strengthening New York City’s comeback

For a city that never sleeps, New York City became eerily quiet when the COVID-19 pandemic hit last year. The city’s unemployment rate jumped from 3.8% to 20% between April and May 2020, leaving more than 570,000 New Yorkers without work. While the unemployment rate has decreased since the pandemic’s peak, at approximately 9.4% it is still nearly three times higher than pre-COVID 19 and nearly twice the national average. Further, employment cuts and new hiring have not been evenly felt across industries; while the tech industry boomed throughout the pandemic, the lights on Broadway remained dark for months and small businesses across the city continued to struggle to stay afloat. New York City needed help.

In the spring of 2021, as New York City was just beginning to vaccinate large segments of its population, Google for Startups, Tech:NYC and my team at Cornell Tech discussed ways to help the city’s economy bounce back. How could we bring our tools to the industries that were struggling the most?

Together, we launched the NYC Recovery Challenge, a new program designed to showcase how we can use tech to help support job creation for New York’s small business and job seeker community. Laser-focused on job creation and retention in New York City, only startups from across the five boroughs were eligible, with a preference for companies building solutions for industries and New Yorkers hit hard by the pandemic. We formed a community advisory committee from across the city to help evaluate the finalists.

More than 170 New York-based startups applied for the NYC Recovery Challenge. Please join me in congratulating the ten companies selected to be NYC Recovery Challenge Fellows:

In addition to mentorship and one-on-one support, the top three finalists also receive up to $100,000 in no-strings-attached funding to accelerate their business. Manhattan-based first-prize winner, Guava, is a banking hub for Black small business owners that connects founders to equitable financial products and a digital community. Runners-up include Long Island City-based startup Coverr, a financial services tool for independent contractors, and Brooklyn-based Shifterr, a digital marketplace connecting hospitality industry employers to independent shift workers seeking gigs.

In addition to the three cash prize winners, the other seven companies selected reflect the distinct opportunities digital technology provides to better connect workers, employers and communities across the city. These startups range from companies that focus on supporting workers with autism and a mobility company dedicated to eliminating transit deserts, to an AI-powered online community marketplace connecting people to bodegas and novel solutions to identify, bridge and ease access to social services and government resources.

All 10 fellows' companies use digital technology to strengthen a diverse range of formal and informal networks in the city. Strong, dense and diverse networks are the foundation of urban living, constantly fueling creativity, invention and innovation. It’s inspiring to see founders using the power of technology, the strength of our networks and the resiliency of our communities to supercharge New York City’s continued recovery.

Creating new digital businesses with Qaya

When Google moved to “work from home” due to COVID-19 in 2020, I was a Founder-in-Residence in Area 120, Google’s incubator for experimental products. I had spent the prior two years in Area 120 developing Kormo, a jobs marketplace for the “next billion users” in India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. With time at home to revisit my passion for music and writing, I had a chance to reflect on my belief in creator entrepreneurship, and how to make it part of what I built next.

After spending time with dozens of creators, we consistently heard that building a digital creator business is time-consuming and difficult. This sparked a new project idea: Qaya, a product that provides web storefronts for creators who want to sell products and services directly to their audiences. Today, as part of Area 120, we are announcing Qaya’s U.S. beta launch.

This animation shows a Qaya creator’s storefront on both mobile and desktop. The screens show the storefront home, along with the creator’s selected profile links and products.

Qaya is a small and agile team dedicated to helping creators build businesses on the web. Our project began with a simple idea: creators are the next generation of entrepreneurs. As the CEOs of their own businesses, they need the same commercial tools as any successful founder. Since we began live testing in early 2021, we’ve learned a lot from creators on Qaya, their fans and other creator economy projects.

Creators on Qaya sell everything from trapeze workout guides to wellness training videos, photo filters, beat packs, ASMR read-alouds, productivity templates, knitting patterns and much more. We support pay-gated and free products, with tipping, subscription and other monetization types coming soon.

Alt text: A mobile view of a creator's product detail page on Qaya. The page shows information about the product, including contents and price.

Creators use Qaya as the hub for their business activity across the web. Many link to their Qaya storefronts from their social media bios, and showcase digital products they upload or products and services hosted on other sites. We provide custom yourname.channel or qaya.store/your-name URLs, with payment functionality built in.

Mobile and desktop renderings of the Qaya page for a creator named Jamie Chung.

We also developed customer management and analytics tools that creators use to connect with their fans and understand sales and content performance.

A creator's Qaya dashboard, containing stats on products and sales over time.

Lastly, we know it’s important for creators to grow their audiences. So we’ve started to integrate with other Google products, including YouTube’s Merch Shelf. If you’re an eligible YouTube creator, you can now promote products from Qaya directly below videos on your YouTube channel.

This image shows a creator using Qaya and the YouTube Merch Shelf simultaneously. The creator's products appear on YouTube, under their videos. Consumers can click through to learn more or buy on Qaya.

We’re focused on the U.S. today, but hope to bring Qaya to more countries soon. And, we’re exploring ways to support creators as they experiment with other types of digital goods.

Google has always invested in creators, from publishers on the early internet to YouTubers today. Our goal with Qaya is to explore new ways to continue this work: giving creators tools to build successful, owner-operated businesses on the web.

If you’re a creator and you’d like to work together, you can request an invitation from Qaya’s site.

Google for Startups Sales Academy boosts Florida businesses

As a native Floridian — born, raised and currently building a business in West Palm Beach — I see the Sunshine State as a place bursting with possibilities. So many people want to be here, so why leave? As more entrepreneurs and investors relocate from traditional tech hubs to emerging startup ecosystems, Florida — with our tropical climate, diverse population and lack of state income tax — has suddenly become a business hotspot. While Florida’s tech industry isn’t as established as San Francisco or New York, Miami startups raised close to $1 billion in venture funding in 2020 alone — and shows no signs of slowing post-pandemic.

Although it was not always the case, there is now a great deal of support for entrepreneurs in my hometown and in my county. The first grant I ever received opened many doors for my company, and in turn I am doing the same for other small business owners.

Born out of my own losses, failures and successes, my company, The Leadership Haven Resource Center, has provided leadership and business development training in Florida and beyond for more than five years. To date, we’ve helped hundreds of small business owners develop leadership skills rooted in what I call the ABCDs: accountability, balance, consistency and determination.

One of the top challenges I hear from the entrepreneurs I work with — and have experienced myself — is how difficult it can be to acquire new customers and partners when you’re getting started. So I was thrilled to learn about Google for Startups Sales Academy in Florida, a seven-week program designed to equip founders with critical sales skills that they can use to drive business success. This fall, I joined 11 other founders from across the state for a series of weekly virtual lessons on customer growth and revenue topics facilitated by Google mentors and subject matter experts. The classes were based on Google for Startups’ signature “THRIVE” sales strategy, including how to ask better questions, how to handle objections and how to expand relationships and trust over time.

When the Sales Academy kicked off, I was in the midst of planning my company’s annual Reignite Florida Small Business Leadership Summit, I set a goal to learn ways to engage and connect with prospective partners for the summit, without giving in to my fears before I started. When I rolled out early bird ticket sales after the Google for Startups mentorship, I started selling out almost immediately, largely because I felt more assertive going into these conversations. To date, I have secured more than seven partners by using the skills I learned through Sales Academy.

As a coach and a consultant, it has been my job to help founders and entrepreneurs realize their full potential. Many business owners are used to seeing things and doing things one way, so I assist organizations and corporations with not just seeing the big picture but switching canvases and starting a whole new picture. Google for Startups Sales Academy turned on that switch for me and my business by helping me gain the skills I needed to achieve my own mission. Looking ahead to 2022, I hope to use these new tactics to secure a brick-and-mortar office to host workshops and to travel to different states beyond Florida to do what I love.

Sales Academy also inspired me to make a promise to myself: to never allow anyone to make me feel like an employee ever again. I am an investor, and a contributor, and tools like my newfound confidence ensure that I never allow anyone to diminish my gifts. Five years after deciding to dedicate 100% of my time to growing my business, I am starting to see all that me and my company can be.