Sam, who leads a team of ex-founders and investors at AWS, brings a wealth of experience from his background in banking, capital markets, and fintech. His role at AWS involves steering startups and venture capital funds in sectors like Fintech, Healthcare, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) towards innovative solutions and growth.

Addressing the gender disparity in the UK tech sector, where only 34.2% of companies incorporated in 2022 had a woman director, AWS launched the Startups Women’s Demo Week.

Sam explains: "We launched the AWS Startups Women’s Demo Week to increase the visibility of women-led startups, facilitate valuable business connections, and ultimately create a more inclusive, equitable, and innovative tech industry."

The AWS Activate programme plays a crucial role in levelling the playing field for startups as Sam shares: "AWS has democratised access to cloud to enable founders to pursue their ideas and build innovative solutions regardless of their background. We create a level playing field for startups to compete with other companies in their sectors. For example, the AWS Activate programme has helped thousands of early-stage startups including women-founded UK companies such as Dressipi, Hertility, Streetbees, and Unitary to start, scale, and grow their businesses using the Cloud.”

The AWS Women’s Demo Day addresses the decline in venture funding for women-led startups. "With a tighter capital market, women-led startups have faced a significant decline in venture funding globally. In 2020, only 2.3% of global VC funding went to women-only founded startups," Sam notes. This event connects women-led startups with investors and resources to help accelerate their businesses.

Beyond technology, AWS also enables startups to innovate and reach the market faster.

"AWS supports startups with strategic business support, from helping them to build their unique products to providing access to funding, partners, and potential customers," Sam elaborates. The AWS Emerging Technologies Accelerator, designed for pre-seed to series A startups, offers technical expertise, fundraising tools, and business strategy sessions.

In the fintech sector, AWS has been instrumental for companies like Tide and Stripe. "Using the cloud gives them the agility and security to innovate at speed and scale," Sam states, highlighting Starling Bank and Snoop as examples of successful integration with AWS.

Sam also highlights the broad impact of AWS on startups globally. "AWS is enabling over 280,000 startups to innovate and transform to benefit people, places, and societies all around the world." Deliveroo and Peanut are notable examples of startups that have leveraged AWS for their growth and expansion.

Furthermore, AWS has initiated several programmes to support female founders. The AI bootcamp programme provides hands-on AI support to female-owned AI startups. The 'Pitching Better' workshop series, based on Dr. Laura Huang's research, helps founders overcome bias in fundraising. AWS Elevate focuses on media training and communications for early-stage underinvested founders.

In collaboration with investors and organisations like Sie Ventures, AWS is creating opportunities for underinvested founders.

"AWS also works closely with investors in the startup tech community to help create opportunities for underinvested founders," Sam mentions, illustrating AWS's comprehensive support for fostering an inclusive tech environment.

Through these initiatives, AWS is not only offering technological solutions but is also providing strategic business support and access to networks and resources, paving the way for a more inclusive and equitable tech industry.