Second Tuesdays at 12 pm PST

This is a free virtual event.

Your NetWORK It! goal is simple: make at least one new connection you want to continue after the call. During this 60-minute virtual networking experience, you’ll participate in small-group conversations with women business owners, introduce yourself and your business and explore a featured networking question designed to create useful conversation. You don’t need to spend your networking time collecting contact information. Participating attendees receive the contact list after the event so you can focus on the conversations that matter. Come ready to connect. Leave having made your connection.

Register

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Hosted by Silicon Valley SBDC x Cloudtech x AWS

Thursday, November 12th
11:00 am – 2:30 pm

Fee: No Fee

Location: Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto, CA

In partnership with AWS and Cloudtech, this competition is designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs access the funding and expert guidance needed to bring AI-driven ideas to life. If you have an AI-driven idea, prototype, or project, this is your chance to showcase it in front of judges, peers, and industry leaders with the opportunity to receive up to $25,000 in AWS partner funding to explore and implement AI and cloud solutions that can help your business scale.

As part of our mission at the Silicon Valley Small Business Development Center (SBDC), we are always looking for ways to connect small businesses with the capital, technical resources, and expert support they need to scale.

At the Silicon Valley SBDC, we know that access to capital, technology resources, and expert mentorship are often the biggest barriers to growth for small businesses. This competition removes those barriers by connecting you directly with the people and resources that can accelerate your vision.

This competition is ideal for small businesses, startups, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs who are looking to integrate AI into their operations to improve efficiency and growth, need funding and technical resources to bring an AI concept to life, or want to connect with cloud and AI experts who can help refine their business strategy.

As a participant, you will have access to:

• Up to $25,000 in AWS partner funding and expert guidance to implement AI
• Present directly to AWS and AI leaders
• Tailored feedback in a focused, high-value setting
• Network with AWS and Cloudtech experts to explore AI-powered growth
• Refreshments and light bites provided

REGISTER

The post GEN AI Pitch Competition appeared first on NAWBO Silicon Valley.

Every 2nd Thursday at 2 pm PST

Make progress on what matters in your business! Empower Hour brings women business owners together in small, peer-led conversations to think through what’s happening in their businesses, gain fresh perspective and decide what comes next. Each session features a business-focused question. Then, join a small group of NAWBO members to explore what it means for your business, exchange experiences and perspectives and turn the conversation into something you can put to work. Attend the sessions that work for you. Because the small-group experience begins together, plan to join at the start and participate for the full hour.

Non-members—please attend up to two times before deciding if NAWBO is the right community for you.

REGISTER

The post NAWBO Empower Hour appeared first on NAWBO Silicon Valley.

Thursday, November 12th, 4:00 – 5:30 PM

This is a free event.

Policy IS Your Business. You Belong in the Conversation.

Decisions made in Sacramento can affect how you hire, access capital, serve your customers, protect your employees, and grow your business. Yet too many women business owners are left trying to understand new laws only after the decisions have already been made.

It is time to enter the conversation earlier.

Learn: Turn your knowledge into advocacy

You have listened. You have learned. Now it is time to lead. Our final session brings Listen, Learn, and Lead together so you can understand policy and confidently shape it.

Policies can affect how you hire, access capital, adopt technology, protect your employees, and grow your business. But you do not have to feel powerless while decisions are being made. You need knowledge, the right tools, and a community that keeps you connected to the conversation.

That is why NAWBO California exists. When women business owners are informed and connected, we can move beyond reacting to decisions and begin helping shape them.

Lead is the final session in NAWBO California’s three-part Policy to Power Advocacy Education Series.

Led by Dr. Tara Lynn Gray, NAWBO California Advocacy Chair and former Director of the California Office of the Small Business Advocate (CalOSBA) during Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration, this session will help women business owners move from understanding policy to confidently influencing it.

Register

The post Policy to Power: Lead appeared first on NAWBO Silicon Valley.

Friday, November 13th, 2026
3:00 – 5:00 pm

Fee: No Fee

Location: Dr. Martin Luther King Library (SJPL Workspace, 3rd Fl)
150 E San Fernando Street, San Jose, CA 95112

**Free parking with validation is available at the Fourth Street Garage (44 S 4th St. San Jose, CA 95112)**

Join us for an exclusive, two-hour in-person workshop designed to transform how you view and manage your company’s financial health: Ten decisions every business leader needs to understand, measure, and improve.

Through real-world benchmarks and practical frameworks, this workshop exposes the hidden variables that separate fragile revenue from sustainable wealth. You will walk away with an actionable blueprint to test your growth stories against reality, identify single points of failure, and accurately price risk before taking on major commitments.

Key topics by law:

1. You Cannot Fix What You Hide – Clean financial inventory: cash, debt, margins, obligations, owner pay, and what the business can actually afford.

2. Displaying Wealth Consumes It – Separate spending that creates strength from spending that signals success: office, vehicles, tools, branding, lifestyle, and unnecessary fixed costs.

3. A Number Alone Will Lie to You – Interpret revenue, growth, headcount, profit, followers, and cash through context: trend, benchmark, margin, risk, and alternative use of capital.

4. Accuracy Emerges from Error – Build a monthly forecast, compare actuals to expectations, and use the variance to improve decisions instead of avoiding uncertainty.

5. Present Decisions Create Exponential Future Impact – Recurring pricing, margin, debt, hiring, churn, customer-quality, and reinvestment decisions compound through the business.

6. Potential Is a Story; Cash Flow Is Reality – Test every growth story against cash timing, working capital, debt service, owner stress, and operating capacity.

7. The Only Worthwhile Risks Command Incremental Expected Rewards – Price major risks before leases, loans, hiring, inventory, product launches, or expansion. Upside must be incremental and downside must be survivable.

8. Concentration Creates Unnecessary Fragility – Identify single points of failure: one customer, one supplier, one platform, one lender, one employee, one owner, or one source of demand.

9. Every Yes Has a Casualty – Use opportunity cost and a hurdle rate before adding customers, products, obligations, marketing channels, hires, or commitments.

10. Success Hardens into Constraints – Review whether old systems, founder habits, informal approvals, legacy pricing, and identity-based decisions are now limiting the next stage.

Additional Resources: Free courses, calculators, templates, guides, and practice materials are available at the course.

REGISTER

The post The 10 Laws of Finance for Business Owners appeared first on NAWBO Silicon Valley.

November 17th, 2026 | 12:00 pm

This is a free virtual event. Members and non-members welcome.

Interested in being our next spotlighted member? Email Tonia Chagnon at tchagnon@nawbo.org to learn more!

Experience your NAWBO community! Virtual Connections is more than another online meeting—it’s your place to experience the NAWBO community. Join NAWBO members each month for genuine conversation, shared experiences and meaningful connection. You’ll get to know the people behind the businesses, hear real stories from fellow business owners, exchange ideas and perspectives, celebrate what’s happening in our community and stay connected to what’s happening across NAWBO. Come once and you’ll find a welcoming community and a conversation worth having. Come back, and something even better happens—you begin to know people, and they begin to know you. Come for the conversation. Come back for the community.

Register

The post Monthly Virtual Connections appeared first on NAWBO Silicon Valley.

Thursday, November 19th, 2026
3:00 – 5:00 pm

Fee: No Fee

Location: Dr. Martin Luther King Library (SJPL Workspace, 3rd Fl)
150 E San Fernando Street, San Jose, CA 95112

**Free parking with validation is available at the Fourth Street Garage (44 S 4th St. San Jose, CA 95112)**

This workshop provides you with the tools and confidence to run your finances for decision-making with ease.

Presented by Bizzaly in partnership with Silicon Valley SBDC – Northern CA Network. This in-person training workshop helps small business owners cut through AI hype and put it to work on real financial tasks.

Attendees will leave with a repeatable prompting framework and a set of ready-to-use prompts for budgeting, forecasting, cash flow analysis, and fundraising – plus a clear sense of where AI helps most and where a human still needs to check the work.

Nationally, 76% of small businesses now use AI in some form, and 91% of those using it report a revenue boost – yet most owners still don’t feel confident using it for anything beyond drafting text.

1. What Is AI?

• Demystifying artificial intelligence and large language models
• How today’s AI tools actually work – and where the industry stands right now

2. How to Use AI Effectively

• The CLEAR prompt method: Context, Lens, Expected Outcome, Assets, Review
• A repeatable framework for getting usable results on the first try

3. AI for Finance

• Forecasting – modeling best-case, worst-case, and likely revenue scenarios
• Budgeting – drafting a starter budget and categorizing expenses in minutes
• Cash flow analysis – spotting trends and risks before they become a crisis
• Fundraising – drafting pitch narratives and prepping for investor Q&A
• Grant writing – turning your facts into a funder-ready narrative
• Guardrails – what to verify, and what never to paste into a chat window

This workshop is brought to you by the Bizzaly team – your business ally for putting AI to work smarter.

REGISTER

The post Finance with AI for Small Business Owners appeared first on NAWBO Silicon Valley.

The Power of Appreciation

Recognizing what matters.
Building what’s next.

Thursday, November 19th
5:30 – 7:30 PM

Join NAWBO Silicon Valley for an evening that celebrates the leadership, relationships, and entrepreneurial spirit that bring us together, and the people who help our businesses grow.

How can you use your experience, influence, or connections to help another woman business owner succeed?

What’s Waiting for You!

• An Inspiring Speaker
• Appetizers and Beverages
• Round Table Discussions
• Inspiring Readings
• Raffle Prizes
• No-host Bar

Enjoy great conversation and an inspiring speaker (to be announced).

Registration link and more details coming soon!!

The post Save the Date! The Power of Appreciation appeared first on NAWBO Silicon Valley.

November 20th, 1:00 PM

Have questions about membership benefits?
Find out more about your NAWBO & NAWBO SV member benefits, including events, programming and opportunities to increase your company’s visibility.

Launch Zoom

The post New Member Onboarding appeared first on NAWBO Silicon Valley.

Second Tuesdays at 12 pm PST

This is a free virtual event.

Your NetWORK It! goal is simple: make at least one new connection you want to continue after the call. During this 60-minute virtual networking experience, you’ll participate in small-group conversations with women business owners, introduce yourself and your business and explore a featured networking question designed to create useful conversation. You don’t need to spend your networking time collecting contact information. Participating attendees receive the contact list after the event so you can focus on the conversations that matter. Come ready to connect. Leave having made your connection.

Register

The post NetWORK It! appeared first on NAWBO Silicon Valley.