Meet The Woman Behind Google’s Multi-Million Dollar Partnerships With Black Founders Around The Globe

Rachael Palmer is behind Google’s partnership strategy with venture capitalists and startups throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Her track record includes the launch of a $2 million fund for Black founders in Europe and a $3 million scheme in Africa, Business Insider reported.

“My role focuses on driving partnerships with the region’s top VCs and startup but also working on initiatives to transform the ecosystem for the better,” Palmer told Insider.

Before she joined Google, she worked at Microsoft and American Express. She spent plenty of time working with small businesses at the latter. As an internal consultant at Google, she “quickly found my back to working within the startup ecosystem”

Every day is different and far from typical, she told Insider.

“I spend some days working closely with founders to understand their business and how we can help them, or with internal product teams discussing opportunities to engage the VC and startup ecosystem,” she said. “Another day might be spent with a VC learning more about their portfolio companies, how we can partner and also what they look for in investments.”

Palmer shared her top five tips for businesses seeking to work with Google.

Keep Google’s users in mind

For startup founders hoping to secure an investment from Google, Palmer’s main tip is to ensure you have something to offer the company’s users.

“I meet many startups that want to get their content or product built into Search,” she said. “However, they often fail to step back and think about what’s in it for our users and how it enhances the product. For a partnership to work, it has to be mutually beneficial to both sides.”

2. Do your company values align with Google’s?

For Palmer, it’s important for her to get to know what’s in “the DNA of a company.”

“I really care about its values and how closely it meshes with Google,” she said. “In a pre-COVID world, I used to enjoy a visit to the offices as you can tell a lot about a company through seeing where and how they work.”

3. Think seriously about diversity

Palmer said about picking venture capitalist business partners, “I obviously care deeply about their ability to pick winners but I also care about their perspective on diversity.”

4. Think locally and globally

Palmer said she’s always been impressed by the go-to market strategies of EMEA-based startups.

“They often establish themselves in their home country then quickly create the blueprint for expansion by becoming really good at localization, developing local partnerships and navigating regulatory situations in different markets.”

5. Expect competition

Large companies like Google have rival founders and interested venture capitalists in numbers. This year’s Black founder initiative is one example.

“In Europe, we had almost 800 applications across 18 countries, almost 3,000 applications across 36 countries in Africa!,” Palmer said.

She explained it’s important to remember “What we are looking for in partners really depends on the type of partnership.”