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Women Techies Unite at SXSW (March 12-16, 2010)

Women 2.0 is going to SXSW March 12th through 16th, 2010! Find our booth #219 at SWSX 2010.

Are you a female Founder with a tech startup?

Let us know and we’d be happy to meet you and announce your attendance to our community. Send an email to foundrtickr@women2.org with your name, title, company, website, logo, and one-line company description. A select few female founders will be selected to be part of the Women 2.0 Founders to Watch at SWSW list.

We will be sharing a booth with a co-op of Women Techies United — The booth occupants include representatives from the Anita Borg Institute, Astia, DevChix, Digital Sistas, LinuxChix, NCWIT, She’s Geeky and Women Who Tech.

Events we are attending at SXSW:

The SXSW Street Food Scavenger Hunt on Saturday, March 13th (11am - 3pm at Brush Square Park)
Come meet FoodSpotting, a mobile startup founded by Alexa Andrzejewski from the Women 2.0 community and a “Jumpstart Your Startup” alumni!

Bumpin Up: Has the Glass Ceiling Ever Smacked You in the Butt?” on March 13th (11am at Hilton E)
Come meet Allyson Kapin, Susan Mernit, Charlene Li, and Deborah Schultz who are leading the session!

Piryxtopia 2010 on Saturday, March 13th (9pm at SpeakEasy)
Women 2.0 is a partner for a fundraiser with the mission of raising 10k for Haiti reconstruction efforts !

VC Reverse Pitch on Sunday, March 14th (9pm at unpublished location)
Women 2.0 will be attending the sold-out event!

The Life Graph: You Are Your Location on Monday, March 15th (12:30pm at Hilton K)
Come meet Clara Shih, Founder of Hearsay Labs and Author of The Facebook Era or at her book signing on Monday, March 15th (3:20pm at South By Bookstore)!

Social Games Level Up! Beyond Farmville and WoW on Monday, March 15th (5pm at 6AB)
Come meet Susan Wu, Co-Founder & CEO of Ohai!

Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator (March 15th and 16th at Hilton)
Come meet Maria Ly, Founder of Skimble at the Accelerator event!


Female Founders to Watch in Mobile

Here are 5 mobile startups (with at least one female founder) to watch:

Lana Hijazi (Co-Founder, Souktel)
Souktel provides SMS based service connecting job seekers and companies in low income communities. Souktel is located in Palestine.

Claudia Poepperl (Co-Founder, Yellix)
Yellix’s Caller ID 3.0 gives real-time status updates of your friends to you during the moment the phone is ringing to allow more contextual conversations. Yellix is located in Austria.

Claire Boonstra (Co-Founder, Layar)
Layar is augmented reality software displaying real time digital information on top of reality through the camera of your mobile phone. Layar is located in the Netherlands.

Silje Vallestad (Founder, Bipper Communications)
Bipper created a safety solution for children’s mobile phones that easily can be used with any phone. Bipper is located in Norway.

Jane Sales (Co-Founder, Flook)
Flook is a location browser for your mobile phone. Flook is located in the United Kingdom.

Do you know more female founders of mobile startups? Let us know in the comments below.

Debriefing 2010 Mobile World Congress (Barcelona)

The numbers: 50,000 attendees, 8 buildings, 5 days. Each year, the mobile ecosystem descends on Barcelona to establish the state of affairs and predict the future. Mobile World Congress brings a buzz to Barcelona and everyone was involved, from the taxi drivers to the nearby cafes, from the metro to the tapas bars.

Before the conference launched on February 15th, 2010, Women 2.0 CEO Shaherose Charania hosted a discussion at Barcelona’s largest startup incubator, Barcelona Activa where she shared consumer technology trends coming from Silicon Valley and the implication and opportunities it presented for the Mobile industry in global markets. » Click here for summary of discussion

Once the Mobile World Congress began, everything was a flurry of meetings where Shaherose had the chance to meet with a number of international early stage startups seeking to come to Silicon Valley, as well as meeting great companies like Nokia and Telefonica who are exploring ways we can be more connected to them in Silicon Valley. And yes, apps were all the rage at the Mobile World Congress as Android and the Nexus One had everyone giddy with excitement of the possibilities, but it was the demos of Windows Mobile 7 that were showstoppers!

Aside from Shaherose’s reporting above, our friend Lisa Whelan also has a great summary of highlights from Mobile World Congress here.

MOBILE PREMIER AWARDS, WOMEN FOUNDERS IN MOBILE: WINNERS ANNOUNCED

In addition to formal conference schedule, a number of community events were held. Women 2.0 participated in honoring to women-led mobile startups at the Mobile Premier Awards, hosted by dotopen and the global chapters of Mobile Mondays. Women 2.0 reviewed applications that came from all corners of the earth for this award. In partnership with the Women in Mobile Data Association, we selected two winners that demonstrated innovation in two strong areas:

MPA for Best Social Impact: Souktel

MPA for Best Consumer “Wow” Factor: Yellix

Layar, the first to market with augmented reality on mobile, received a number of other awards that night and Shaherose was thrilled to finally meet with Claire Boostra, co-founder at Layer.

Full list of MPA winners here. View photos from MPA here.

Deadlines for Founder Institute applications coming up!


Final application deadlines for the The Founder Institute’s Spring 2010 Paris, Singapore / Asia Pacific, San Diego / Orange County, and Denver / Boulder semesters are approaching. The four-month entrepreneur training program is for both new and seasoned entrepreneurs, and focuses on harvesting people (rather than ideas). Through weekly sessions guided by renowned CEO mentors, the Founder Institute breeds disciplined founders ready to lead the next generation of high-tech companies. Sessions take place at night, so participants are not required to quit their day job or discontinue their studies. Anyone starting a technology company or thinking to become an entrepreneur is invited to apply:

Read More »

Women 2.0 supports the Startup Visa Movement

Did you know 60% of the Women 2.0 executive team are immigrants to the US from places like Canada, Israel, India, Singapore, Belarus? That’s 6 out of 10 key members! The Startup Visa, in the end, is about removing barriers to innovation — designed to attract top global minds, to the US, to launch their companies, create job opportunities and hire local US workers. Read More »

Reverse VC Pitch Party @ SXSW

In an entrepreneur’s world, you constantly sell your idea to VCs. Since some of the best tech startups go to SXSW, VCs are now pitching us. At SXSW, tier one VCs like Benchmark, Bessemer, Austin Ventures and GRP are either co-hosting or attending. Read More »

Innovate!2010 searches for most promising startups

Innovate2010Be part of Guidewire Group’s Innovate!2010 global competition to identify and promote up-and-coming technology and media startups. Guidewire Group is looking for early-stage companies that have what it takes to be named one of the world’s most promising startups. Read More »

Join us February 14-16 for mobile mania in Europe

Will you be at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona? Follow Shaherose Charania’s plancast to see where you can find Women 2.0 while at the congress.

Find Women 2.0 and Ellas 2.0 in Barcelona at:
- Mobile Sunday (Sunday, February 14th, 2010)
- Mobile Premier Awards (Monday, February 15th, 2010) Honoring the Winners for Best Female Entrepreneur in Mobile
- Mobile World Congress (Monday, February 15th through 18th, 2010)

Here is the final program of this years’ Mobile Premier Awards which is coming up this Monday, February 15th, 2010 in Spain. Besides the classic MPA in Innovation live 3-minute pitches, this year the awards will announce the winners of the other awards in collaboration with partners like Women 2.0.

For this year’s event, the keynote presentation is on the story of Admob. The event host will be Mark Palmer, Founder of Maverick Planet Ltd. Check the jury that will choose the winners among the 20 finalists. So what are you waiting for? Book your seat now!

Women 2.0 “Will It Launch?” workshop (Feb. 6-7 in SF)



Ideas are a dime a dozen, and we know talk is cheap. Execution makes you money. So how do you know which startup idea to focus on for success?

Join Women 2.0 for a two-day workshop on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 and Sunday, February 7th, 2010 in Microsoft’s San Francisco office. The “Will It Launch?” workshop will be led by serial entrepreneurs David Weekly (Founder & CEO, PBworks) and Poornima Vijayashanker (Founding Engineer, Mint) who will deploy a battle plan to quickly assess and iterate on startup ideas. We will also be working on perfecting that startup pitch so you leave the workshop armed and ready to find co-founders, customers, investors, volunteers, the like-minded — anyone who will help you launch and or buy your product.

Who should attend:
Future startup founders with ideas, or existing startup founders with ideas already in alpha or beta stage across web, mobile, cleantech or biotech.

You should attend if you:
- Have one idea, but not sure if it’s up to snuff?
- Have so many ideas and not sure which to focus on?
- Have zero ideas but want to learn a methodology for evaluating future ideas? Read More »

Inside scoop: Startup and Venture opportunities

Lay-offs abound, meh. Startups are thriving and incubators are being launched in the Bay Area! The undercurrent of entrepreneurship is creating jobs and we’d like to give you the inside scoop.

Through the personal Women 2.0 network we are sharing a set of job and internship opportunities you wont find anywhere else. These are friends of Women 2.0 seeking to hire the best, so get on it and apply today!

If you are excited about any of the following positions, please drop us an email to jobs@women2.org with the subject line being the company name and position (ie. “Zazengo, Front-end UI Developer”). In the email, say why you want this job, why the company should hire you, a link to your LinkedIn profile, and be sure to attach your resume (ideally in PDF format). We will forward your interest on your behalf to the venture. Good luck!

Do you have a job, internship or sweat-equity opportunity available? Share it with the Women 2.0 community! Read More »

Discounts for O’Reilly Conferences Where 2.0 & MySQL

O’Reilly Where 2.0 (March 30th, 2010 - April 1st, 2010 in San Jose, CA) wants you to become location enabled at Where 2.0 — Where 2.0 is your window into the geospatial industry and beyond, six years running, bringing together the people, projects, and issues building the new technological foundations and creating value in the location industry.

Women 2.0 members save 15% with coupon code “whr10wto” when you register here.

O’Reilly MySQL (April 12th, 2010 - April 15th, 2010 in Santa Clara, CA) brings over 2,000 open source and database enthusiasts together to harness the power of MySQL and celebrate the huge MySQL ecosystem. In just four days, the O’Reilly MySQL Conference & Expo will take your skills and know-how to the next level through expert-led sessions and in-depth tutorials from of some of the most influential companies and projects in the MySQL community.

Women 2.0 members save 15% with coupon code “mys10wto” when you register here.

Green:Net on tech applied to a green mission

At Green:Net 2010 understand the opportunities created when the Internet meets Green. Green:Net 2010 can help you understand how the tools, technologies and innovators of the IT and Internet revolution can be harnessed to further the green agenda. Women 2.0 members receive a $50 discount to Green:Net by registering here.


Green:Net 2010 is April 29, 2010 at Mission Bay Conference Center (San Francisco, CA). Read More »