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Calling all women-led mobile startups!

Any women-led mobile startups out there? Apply for the Mobile Premier Award in Female Entrepreneurship by December 31, 2009 here: http://bit.ly/mpafe

***UPDATE: DEADLINE EXTENDED THROUGH SUNDAY, JANUARY 10, 2010!***

The Mobile Premier Awards recognize the year’s best in Mobile Startup Innovation and are the largest open, global startup competition in the mobile industry. The awards are the point of reference in startup premiers during the Mobile World Congress on February 15, 2010 in Barcelona.

This year’s Mobile Premier Awards bring together the most influential networks in the industry to recognize the best mobile startups of the year in the following categories:

MPA in Innovation for the best overall startup innovation in partnership with MobileMonday.
MPA in Marketing for the best startup in Mobile Marketing.
MPA in Entertainment for the best startup in Mobile Entertainment in partnership with the Mobile Entertainment Forum.
MPA in User Experience for the best startup in Mobile User Experience in partnership with MEX.
MPA in Social Change for the best startup using mobile for social change in partnership with MobileActive.
MPA in Female Entrepreneurship for the best woman-lead mobile startup in partnership with Women 2.0 (that’s us!) and the Women in Mobile Data Association.

There have already been more than 175 submissions for the Mobile Premier Awards. Participation is free and open to any startup with a mobile angle. To sign up, simply create a company profile on dotopen.com and select the awards they want to compete in. Apply by ~~December 31, 2009~~ January 10, 2010 here.

Photo by Anne Helmond of Mobile Dev Camp where some nice mobile widgets were created and some good talks were had on everything from iPhone App Store Rejections to Android Q&A to Mobile Widget Development. (source: Mobile Dev Camp Amsterdam)

The case for mobile: “I would advise learning mobile development. I believe the biggest growth in new dev jobs will be ones that require or are looking for mobile skills. In any case, it make you look like a hot developer. Make a Palm app and put it on the store — your front end skills will come in handy with the WebOS, but it will be considered more “hard core” just cuz it is mobile. Or try out one of the new cross-platform platforms like PhoneGap (Javascript) or Rhodes (Ruby). Or write a BlackBerry or Android native app (both are Java). And blog about every thing you learn and open source your projects on github. If you work on coding a few nights a week (or even just once per week) and blog and twitter as often about what you code, a year from now you will be a hard core developer.” — Sarah Allen (www.ultrasaurus.com)

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Upcoming TEDx events in the Bay Area

TEDx Silicon Valley (TEDxSV) will gather a global community of leading thinkers and doers at Stanford University to discuss Innovations for Social Change on December 12th 2009. Due to an overwhelming response, the first TEDxSV event sold out in less than two hours. You are welcome to sign up for the waitlist here. In the interest of spreading social change for global good, TEDxSV will be streamed live on Ustream.com for the world to watch. More video, interviews, and content will be available following TEDxSV. Use hashtag #tedxsv to chronicle the event.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDxSV is part of a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x=independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provided a license and general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.

Upcoming TEDx events include:

TEDxSoMa in San Francisco’s SOMA district will be a unique experience bringing together innovative ideas and people to grow the collective conscience. The first event will be on January 22nd, 2010. If you are interested in participating in TEDxSoMa events, please complete a membership request here.

TEDxBerkeley will be held on April 3rd, 2010 when 700 remarkable people will descend on the UC Berkeley campus for a full-day immersion of TEDtalks and live presentations by some of the Bay Area’s most accomplished people.

Feel free to share other TEDx events in the comments!

Founder Institute Bay Area Open for Applications

Women 2.0 is partnering with Founder Institute to encourage more women to go through the four-month training program for both new and seasoned entrepreneurs. Next program starts December 9, 2009.

Founder Institute prepares you to lead the next generation of world-class technology companies across a wide range industries, from biotech to Internet. Weekly company-building sessions are guided by experienced CEOs, and are held in the evening to allow participants to keep their day job or develop their companies during business hours. All of the program stakeholders, from the participating founders to the experienced CEO mentors, share in the upside generated by the companies formed during the program. Participants also enjoy free services from three dozen Institute partners, fundraising opportunities at fair market value, and a teamwork-oriented environment to build a company.

Early Admission Applications due November 15, 2009.
Regular Application Deadline is December 2, 2009.

When applying, don’t forget to mention “Women 2.0″ as your referral.

Also posted in Debriefing

This Week: Mobile, Development, Legal, PR

There’s a lot going on this week in and around San Francisco for entrepreneurs and technologists!

Here’s what’s on our radar for the week:

Tuesday, October 13th: Women 2.0 Startup Essentials: Developer Night. Learn about how to develop your product, when to outsource, when to develop yourself.

Wednesday, October 14th: Women 2.0 Startup Essentials: Legal Night. Learn about how to legally set up your company structure, equity and more.

Thursday, October 15th: Women 2.0 Startup Essentials: PR Night. Learn about how to use social media, the press and marketing to tell the world about your product.

Thursday, October 15th: Mobile 2.0 Conference. Get $50 off with coupon code “dotopen”. This is a 2-day event in Mountain View focused on mobile ecosystems, building and monetizing mobile applications and services, and exploring disruptive mobile innovation.

Friday, October 16th: Smaato Mobile Advertising Award Night 2009. Join us at the award night for free by registering here with password “women20″. Network with movers and shakers from the global mobile industry.

Friday, October 16th: Join Women 2.0 Co-Founder and CEO Shaherose Charania at Qualcomm’s “Women’s Leadership: Transforming Technology Environments” for lunch on Friday, October 15th in Santa Clara. This event is hosted by Qualcom Women in Science and Technology in partnership with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE-SCV) and Women 2.0. This is a networking lunch and panel discussion exploring women’s leadership in technology.

Shaherose speaking at Qualcomm this Friday!

Qualcomm Women in Science and Engineering (QWISE) is a women’s development organization with a mission to encourage and support ALL professional women in the community and at Qualcomm to attain high levels of professional achievement and success. QWISE Bay Area, in partnership with Society of Women Engineers (SWE-SCV), Women 2.0 and others, invites you to an empowering and inspiring event on “Transforming Technology Environments”.

What: Women’s Leadership Lunch
When: Friday, Oct 16th 2009, SCL.B-168, from 11am to 3pm
Where: Qualcomm, Bldg. B, 3165 Kifer Road, Santa Clara, CA
Why: Lunch, networking, speakers (including Shaherose Charania,
Co-Founder and CEO of Women 2.0)

RSVP to Rashmi Rao at rashmir@qualcomm.com. Lunch is provided. Read More »

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Women 2.0 Startup Weekend Creates 19 Startups

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF. (August 28-30, 2009) — “It was hot like Africa!” said Shaherose Charania, describing the atmosphere at Women 2.0 Startup Weekend. One of the hottest days of the year in San Francisco, Friday night’s unusually warm weather combined with over 150 individuals packed into sfCube made it clear that the crowd was serious about building something big.

Kicking off Friday night, Tina Seelig (author of What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 and Executive Director of Stanford Technology Ventures Program) moderated a discussion between an expert panel about how they would build a company over a weekend. Jessica Livingston (author of Founders at Work and Founding Partner of Y Combinator), Xochi Birch (co-founder of Bebo – sold to AOL in 2008), Shanna Tellerman (founder and CEO of Sim Ops Studios), Danielle Morrill (Marketing Director of Twilio), and Dan Martell (angel investor) shared their opinions about how to best utilize the short 54 hour time period to build a startup, how to utilize the strengths of each individual, and drew from their experiences to advise the audience on how to build a successful startup.

After the panel discussion, individuals stood in line to pitch their startup ideas to the crowd. There were 40 pitches made on Friday night, ranging from high-tech lingerie to Craigslist for religious groups, from saving the world to saving you from a bad date — or a messy closet! Individuals formed teams around these ideas. In the next few days, there were some mergers and acquisitions between teams and companies. Others teams declared their startup ideas dead on the scene and moved on.

The majority of the Startup Weekend crowd continued to work through Saturday and Sunday with the goal of launching with a demo by Sunday night. Startup Weekend attendees handed over a dozen children to Women 2.0′s childcare initiative services while their hacker moms and dads worked on their startup ideas over the course of the weekend!

Several people picked up a new programming language simply by sitting next to someone who was developing in the language, from Ruby on Rails to database programming in MySQL. Because of the collaborative nature of Women 2.0 Startup Weekend, these individuals could easily ask questions and get help from the more experienced developer, learning a great deal by working alongside an experienced (and benevolent) developer over the course of the weekend.

On Sunday Night, all the remaining teams pitched with PowerPoint presentations and demos of the products they had been working on for the last 54 hours. The quality of the pitches and demos ran the gamut, but what was constant through the 3 hours of pitches and discussion was the excitement from the teams and audience. Every team received a thunderous round of applause for making it through the weekend to Sunday Night Pitch Night.

The big surprise of the night came when angel investor Dan Martell announced he was putting 5k in Foodspotting after watching the Foodspotting team work through the weekend with their ever-growing wall of notes and sketches.

Professional Poke‘s Cindy Alvarez (pictured, right) was congratulated by more than one person for being “preggers and pitching!” — she’s no slouch. The entire Women 2.0 Startup Weekend contingent battled the weekend heat and lack of sleep to build startups — and all are to be commended.

Watch the Sunday Night Pitches for InUrPantry, Foodspotting, Half Writ, and Professional Poke. You can also find and tag these video pitches at the Women 2.0 group on Facebook.

VentureBeat wrote about Foodspotting for their Startup Spotlight on September 2nd, 2009.

Pictures from the event are also on the Women 2.0 Group on Facebook, and check out real-time Twitter search results for the event with #sw20sf.

Sunday Afternoon at Women 2.0 Startup Weekend: Meet Some of the Teams!

By Sunday afternoon, a few teams were too busy working to talk, but others were brave enough to practice their pitch and introduce themselves on camera. The companies featured in this video are (in the following order): Kulstof, Foodspotting, Escape My Date, Gizzy, Geezer Alert, Professional Poke, Half Writ, Twitter Rank, Sulusso, Ultimate Hire, NetNyms, Fork This, and FounderShack.

The following startups launched at Women 2.0 Startup Weekend:

In a sticky social situation? Use Escape My Date to get out of it! Send us a Direct Message (DM) on Twitter, and we’ll ask your friends to help you out. Follow Escape My Date on Twitter!

Half Writ is a social writing site for fiction writers who want to grow creatively through sharing and shaping short stories. Small peer circles provide framing for creative problems, moderation of content and quality, constructive feedback on work. Follow Half Writ on Twitter!

Professional Poke is the smart reminder service that helps you keep your network strong, because it’s easy to add connections to your social network but it’s hard to maintain them. We’ll remind you when and who to contact. We’ll suggest things that they’ll want to read. Your network will think you’re awesome. Follow Professional Poke on Twitter!

Ultimate Hire is your flat fee staffing partner. You tell us what you need. Ultimate Hire delivers fully pre-screened qualified candidates. One small flat fee per candidate you choose to interview. Save time. Save Money. Add quality staff to your company. Follow Ultimate Hire on Twitter!

Foodspotting will be a visual local guide that lets you find dishes, not just restaurants, thanks to foodspotters who report sightings of foods they love. Coming soon to iPhone and Web. Follow Foodspotting on Twitter!

40 Weeks chronicles your life with a journal that reads more like a book than a blog. Record your history as it happens… or at your own pace! Live it. Write it. Share it.

Kulstof is an on-demand carbon management platform that helps higher education administrators and students accurately measure and report on greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts. Kulstof provides students with a view into their own carbon footprints, creating an opportunity to increase awareness and participation in sustainability initiatives. Follow Kulstof on Twitter!

Sulusso is redefining sustainable luxury. All designers have one thing in common – a commitment to social and environmental responsibility. Follow Sulusso on Twitter!

Flockpile comes from the old saying “birds of a feather flock together”. Use the Flock Finder tool to easily find local faith based groups, places of worship and events that are of interest to you. Essentially we make it easy for you to find our flock. Follow Flockpile on Twitter!

NetNyms are the usernames you use on web accounts. Between your work, home and projects you already have hundreds of accounts, usernames, passwords etc. Imagine adding more accounts for a new domain or brand. NetNyms makes it easy for you to claim, surf, monitor and manage them. Follow NetNyms on Twitter!

Wardrobe Shuffle is coming soon to your browser and phone to help you get dressed every day. Because life is too short to be stuck in the closet. Follow Wardrobe Shuffle on Twitter!

I Give A Damn network provides the tools to mobilize your friends to volunteer.

CodeShare is online code editing and sharing.

Twelescope is Twitter, at a glance. Follow Twelescope on Twitter!

ForkThis is creative collaboration for the post-scarcity century.

Gizzy helps friends give and get the right gift.

In Ur Pantry iz in ur pantry counting ur food stuffs.

Companies we are missing logos and descriptions for: KarmaCompass and Geezer Alert.

For more coverage of Women 2.0 Startup Weekend, visit Startup Weekend’s page for the event here.

Also posted in Blog, Startup Weekend Comments (17)

Demystifying Government and Stimulus Funding for Your Startup – September 9th Workshop

Are you having trouble finding an investor for your startup? You know, you don’t have to rely on VCs and angel investors to give you cash. There are ways the government can fund your startup. Yes, the government.

Join Women 2.0 for an informative night of Demystifying Government and Stimulus Funding for Your Startup. We will be meeting in San Francisco at Citizen Space on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 starting 6:30pm to discuss alternative methods of funding your business.

Let’s demystify government and stimulus funding. Discussion topics will include:
» What is available to women-owned, minority-owned businesses
» Step-by-step instructions and examples on how to apply to the funds and loans
» SBA and SBIR loans
» Who can use the stimulus money from the government
» State and local incentives for locating companies in low-and-mid income areas

Speakers:
» Jill Fishbein (Partner, Carr & Ferrell)
» Cynthia Ringo (Managing Partner, DBL Investors)

Also posted in Business, Workshops Comments (8)

Register for Women 2.0 Startup Weekend: August 28-30

Women 2.0 joins forces with Startup Weekend this August 28th – 30th, 2009! We provide the space and brain fuel — you bring the energy and innovation to build something big over the weekend. Sign up now for your spot at Startup Weekend!

Maybe you have an idea, maybe you don’t?
Maybe you started a startup before, maybe you haven’t?
Maybe you are a developer, a designer, a do-er?
Please join us for Startup Weekend August 28-30, 2009.

What is Women 2.0 Startup Weekend? Much like a bar camp, you build something exciting over the weekend. Come to Startup Weekend to find an idea that resonates with you, join a team, and build! Startup Weekend is a place to test ideas, contribute to ideas, and meet potential founders. We are bringing together the most innovative, talented, and out-of-the-box entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. How it works: Teams form Friday night, companies develop product(s) and/or service(s) through Saturday, and company pitches are delivered on Sunday.

Also posted in Business, Debriefing, Media, Media Training, Startup Weekend Comments (23)

August 26th: Pearls of Wisdom Panel w/ Microsoft

Join Women 2.0 for Pearls of Wisdom from Successful Women Leaders. This is a free event hosted by Silicon Valley Women @ Microsoft and BizSpark on Wednesday, August 26th, 2009 from 6pm to 8:30pm. We will be having a panel discussion with Silicon Valley leaders, followed by Q&A and networking.

Panelists:
» Karen Northup (CEO, Corefino)
» Shanna Tellerman (CEO, Sim Ops Studios)
» Kim Polese (CEO, SpikeSource)

Moderator:
» Tina Seelig (Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program)

This FREE event at Microsoft is co-hosted by Women 2.0,
Astia, TiE Women’s Forum, and SDForum.

Schedule for Wednesday, August 26, 2009:
6:00pm – Networking
7:00pm – Silicon Valley Women @ Microsoft Intro, Partner introductions
7:15pm – Microsoft BizSpark overview
7:25pm – Panel Discussion with Q&A afterwards

Also posted in Events

July 23rd Meetup @ OSCON in San Jose

Update: Doors will open at 5:30pm instead of 6:30pm. See you at OSCON!

Also posted in Debriefing Comments (1)

Women 2.0 June 25th Monthly Mixer @ LOLapps in SF

Join Women 2.0 at LOLapps for our monthly mixer on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.

Are you a guy interested in attending this Women 2.0 event?
Bring along a female to attend and register as her “+1″.

Wine and cheese will be provided. Bring your business cards!

LOLapps is located at 116 New Montgomery (Ste. 812) in San Francisco (map)

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Women 2.0 Visits Barcelona! June 18th Startup Meetup

Join the Women 2.0 Startup Meetup on the heals of Mobile 2.0, Hit Barcelona, and 22@Barcelona. Are you going to these conferences? Tweet at Women 2.0 (@women2) if you are attending.

Women 2.0 Visits Barcelona – Startup Meetup Goes EURO!
Thursday, June 18th, 2009, 7pm – 9pm
At GranFoc in Barcelona, Spain (get directions)

This is a FREE event for women & men, aspiring & current tech entrepreneurs.

Who says we can only have Women 2.0 networking events only in Silicon Valley? We are coming to you! In a partnership with Gild International to connect entrepreneurs in Barcelona, join Women 2.0 for a Barcelona Startup Meetup and hear about the innovation happening in Silicon Valley and Barcelona. Come learn about Women 2.0, our annual Pitch Startup Competition, and more to help you launch your startup. Bring your innovative ideas and business cards to meet local and visiting entrepreneurs.

Meet such esteemed entrepreneurs as Maria Sipka from Linqia and Shaherose Charania from Women 2.0! Karen Reith, co-founder of Gild, will be joining as well.

Women 2.0 Co-Founder & CEO Shaherose Charania is speaking at the 22@Barcelona Update Breakfast on Thursday, June 18th at 8am. 22@Update Breakfast is the new meeting and exchange point of innovative ideas which is hold every month in the innovative district — an opportunity to know the last trends in innovation and to exchange experiences with professionals and managers related to knowledge-based economy.

UPDATE: Shaherose shares her experience in Barcelona below

Bustling Barcelona Brings Entrepreneurial Energy

Thursday, July 9, 2009 (San Francisco, CA) — My visit to Barcelona was a perfect balance of meeting old friends and exploring the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. The twisting streets, savory tapas, cafe con leches, and comforting energy remained unchanged from when I lived in Spain five years ago. But I also discovered a *new* Barcelona this visit — a bustling one bringing in entrepreneurial energy from all corners of the globe.

I met with the new Barcelona: a mix of local, British, German, French, Portuguese, Australian technology entrepreneurs. It was interesting to hear their thoughts on our backyard, including a local Spanish entrepreneur: “I’ll be moving to Silicon Valley now that my product is ready, and I have thousands of users here in Europe” and a visiting British entrepreneur: “I hope to move to Silicon Valley one day, what is it like?”.

During my talk at 22@ I highlighted the differences between what I call a “Lifestyle 2.0″ company; the kind of startup that investors always look at me and say “They don’t need funding, tell them to bootstrap, build, release, iterate and make money from day-one.” Content heavy sites, social networking sites, mobile applications often fall into this category and are big part of the Women 2.0 community. Then you find the disruptive innovations, development heavy startups, often light on the business model, much fewer these days. Then of course there is that needle in the haystack, the next Google, *needing* VC money to scale operations and truly innovate on their current product and/or go global.

While at 22@Barcelona, Mobile 2.0 and HIT Barcelona, I shared my experience here in the Silicon Valley, including when and why a VC is the right fit or when to strongly consider bootstrapping depending on the type of startup.

After visiting various government-funded incubators and meeting with some startups…I’d go back to Barcelona! Why?

Incubate quietly, save on costs
Barcelona Activa, 22@Barcelona, and other government funded incubators welcome international entrepreneurs! With less Silicon Valley hype, it’s a great place to build, create and incubate your startup while keeping costs low. Office space is offered and talented developers from Spain and around Europe are ready to create with you (lower cost than the US).

Already in the market? Reach new markets and still save on costs
The government organization and similar services such as Opinno help you set up shop in Barcelona and access new global markets for growth. Access Europe, Africa, and more. Barcelona can become your hub.

Dream and ideate in solitude
Beach, sangria and warm, beautiful people. The perfect studio for dreaming up the next big idea!
Barcelona, a personal favorite is now a realistic, low(er) cost entrepreneurial ecosystem for some. Thinking of going? Let me know, I’d be happy to share my insights. Or maybe I’ll meet you there ;)

Links

Also posted in Debriefing Comments (8)

Pitch 2009 Finalists Announced, Pitching LIVE May 7!

Join Women 2.0 for Pitch Night on Thursday, May 7th, 2009 beginning 6pm at Microsoft in San Francisco. Watch Pitch 2009 finalists pitch live to a panel of investors and executives, vote for your favorite startup, and meet the entrepreneurial community at Women 2.0′s Pitch Night. Get your ticket to Pitch 2009 today!

Presenting Finalists:

CSRware Inc.
Carbon & Energy Business Intelligence SaaS software
measures, quantifies & models corporate costs & actions
to address growing market demand.
Presenting: Karen Alonardo (Founder & EVP of Business Development)

LumaMed LLC
Innovations in cancer imaging, early detection and treatment.
Presenting: Dr. Shabbir Bambot and Anju Mathew (Co-Founders)

Giddy Inc.
Think Cracker Jack meets Whole Foods.
83% of parents are dissatisfied with existing kids’ snacks.
We’re making healthy snacks fun with snacktivities!
Presenting: Sally Schoenfeld and Jill Friedman (Co-Founders)

GenGreen
GenGreen is the preeminent aggregator of environmental
content online. We house the largest directory of green
businesses and organizations in the United States.
Presenting: Charisse McAuliffe (Founder & CEO)

GiftAloft LLC
GiftAloft generates revenue for airlines and airports,
gifts for passengers, and trackable, tactile, advertising methods
for consumer advertisers.
Presenting: Celine Tessier North (CEO) and Daniel T. North (COO)

Live Judging Panel:

Christine Herron Principal, First Round Capital	Eric Eldon Writer, VentureBeat
Georges Harik Principal, Better Planet Investments	Mark Jacobsen Managing Director, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures
Rebecca Lynn Principal, Morgenthaler Ventures	Sheila Gulati General Manager, Microsoft

At Pitch Night, the audience participates as we will award a total of FOUR prizes:

(1) GRAND PRIZE:
Our live judges will select one team to win the prized investor meeting with Michael Moritz of Sequoia, along with office space, marketing services, legal support and more.

(2) PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD:
You will vote based on the five pitches you will see presented at the event — use your mobile phone to select the People’s Choice Award for Women 2.0 — powered by MOZES.

(3) VENTUREBEAT’S BEST MEDIA STORY AWARD:
This award will be selected by VentureBeat writer Eric Eldon.
(4) YOUNOODLE BEST IDEA AWARD:
YouNoodle is Women 2.0′s startup network. Join the Women 2.0 Group on YouNoodle to follow your favorite startup idea. The startup with the most followers wins. VOTE NOW!

SCHEDULE:

6:00pm – Networking & Drinks
7:00pm – Welcome to Pitch Night 2009!
7:20pm – Introduction of the Final Five Teams
7:30pm – Pitch 2009 Finalists Live Pitches
9:10pm – Awards (The People’s Choice, VentureBeat’s Best Media Story, YouNoodle Best Idea)
9:20pm – Grand Prize Winner of Pitch Night 2009 Announced
9:30pm – Celebrations!

» Get your ticket now for Pitch Night 2009 (LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE)

Pitch Night is an event open to both women and men — we invite anyone with a passion for entrepreneurship and innovation to join us for Pitch 2009.

A BIG THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS:

Also posted in Angel Investors, Awards, Business, Events, Investors Comments (1)

Women 2.0 Co-Works with Co-Founders on March 29

Join Women 2.0 at Citizen Space for an interactive co-working session on Sunday, March 29th, 2009 from 1pm to 4pm.

Are you a guy interested in attending this Women 2.0 event?
Bring along a female co-founder or core team member to attend.

Tired of working by yourself and having no one next to you to bounce ideas off?
Bring your laptop, power cord, and your startup stories! There will be Red Bull and snacks flowing all day to keep productivity up, as well as lots of women entrepreneurs to provide feedback on your startup idea, prototype, or beta.

Citizen Space is located at 425 2nd Street, #100 in San Francisco, CA (map)

Women 2.0′s Co-Working with Co-Founders event on March 29th kicks off a week
of exciting Web 2.0 Expo activities — see their events page for a full listing, read their blog, or follow @w2e on Twitter. Receive 35% off any registration package for Web 2.0 Expo with coupon code websf09btd12.

Also posted in Events Comments (1)

Join us on March 3rd for “Pitch 101″ in Palo Alto

Are you a founder looking for feedback or funding?
Planning on entering Pitch 2009 but don’t know how?
Women 2.0 brings you the best resources for
perfecting your pitch and refining your business idea.

Join us on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto for Pitch 101: Applying to Women 2.0′s Startup Competition.

Get feedback from startup executives and investors:
» Georges Harik (Principal, Better Planet Investments)
» Rebecca Lynn (Principal, Morgenthaler Ventures)
» Betty Kayton (Founder and CEO, InnovativeCFO)

This is a workshop on what to do (and what NOT to do) in applying to Pitch 2009.Aihui Ong (Pitch 2009 Coordinator, Women 2.0) will go over the Angelsoft application process.

Also posted in Awards, Debriefing, Events

Women 2.0 + Startup Weekend II = (April 3-5, 2009)

Join Women 2.0 and Startup Weekend II for the weekend of April 3-5, 2009 in San Francisco!

Startup Weekend recruits developers, business managers, startup enthusiasts, marketing gurus, graphic artists, and others to join us and build communities, companies, and projects.

We are inviting the Women 2.0 community to test their startup ideas at the coming Startup Weekend! Are you ready for Pitch 2009?

Comments (2)

Girl Geek Dinner: Thursday, January 29 w/ She’s Geeky

Join us as we celebrate the one-year anniversary of Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners and kick-off the She’s Geeky unconference with a Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner on Thursday, January 29th, 2009.

For Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner #3, we are going “no-host” and asking everyone to chip in $20 for dinner at Ming’s in Palo Alto. Get your ticket online by 3PM on Tuesday, January 27th — NO WALK-INS.

The first 200 women to register will receive a shiny Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner mug! We have Girl Geek Dinner schwag for everyone, but are encouraging early registrations with nifty mugs — make your office co-workers jealous with your geek schwag!

Comments (1)

January 2009 Women 2.0 Mixer & Book Swap!

Join Women 2.0 for drinks and a book swap on Wednesday, January 28th, 2009 from 7pm to 9pm at Citizen Space (425 2nd Street, Ste. 300, San Francisco, CA – map). Tell us the best book you read in 2008, and what you are eager to read in 2009. Be sure to bring your business/tech/entrepreneurship books to swap for other Women 2.0 members’ books!

Get $5 off a regular price ticket if you bring at least one business/technology/entrepreneurship book to trade!

Our special guests:

Tara Hunt, The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business
Tara is co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Citizen Agency, an Internet consultancy specializing in community-centric strategies around product research, design, development and marketing. She has over 11 years experience in web design, 8 years in online marketing, and over 4 years of blogging on HorsePigCow. Tara is the author of The Whuffie Factor (coming mid-2009), an insightful and practical guide to connecting with the online communities that matter to your business in ways that enrich both.
Sramana Mitra, Entrepreneur Journeys Volume 1
Sramana is a Silicon Valley based serial entrepreneur who founded three companies after earning her master’s degree from MIT. She is a strategy consultant who has worked with some 75 companies, a weekly columnist for Forbes, and author of the widely syndicated business blog Sramana Mitra on Strategy. In her book, she spotlights a diverse group of innovative entrepreneur CEOs and analyzes and discusses how they got their high-tech start-ups off the ground.
Clara Shih, The Facebook Era: Tap Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach More People, and Sell More Stuff
Clara runs the AppExchange product line at Salesforce.com and is the creator of Faceconnector, the first business application on Facebook. Previously, Clara worked in strategy and business operations at Google and as a software developer at Microsoft. Through case studies and CEO interviews, Clara’s book paints a vision of how businesses can transform their sales, marketing, recruiting, and product development initiatives through use of online social networks. Clara was a finalist in the 2007 Women 2.0 Pitch Startup Competition!

Tara Hunt talks about her book “The Whuffie Factor” at the book swap and mixer.
Mingling with wine and books in hand.	Clara Shih talks about her Facebook book.
Shaherose Charania (Women 2.0) works the mic — she knows how to energize an entrepreneurial crowd!
Sramana Mitra chats with Women 2.0 members.	The Women 2.0 entrepreneurial book swap was a hit!

Special thanks to Julie Blausten for taking the pictures you see here and more at Women 2.0′s Flickr group.

Also posted in Awards, Debriefing, Events

December 2008 BizSpark Launch Party

With over 400 in attendance at the swanky Microsoft BizSpark Launch Party on December 16th, 2008 in San Francisco, Women 2.0 came out in full force to join the celebration!

At the San Francisco BizSpark Launch Party, Shaherose announced onstage to the startup community the new Women 2.0 workshop series Jumpstart Your Startup and the Women 2.0 Startup Competition – Pitch 2009. Deadline to enter is April 10th, 2009!

Did you know that as a BizSpark Network Partner, Women 2.0 can sponsor your startup to receive development tools, platform technologies, and production licenses through Microsoft’s BizSpark program? Here’s how.

Also posted in Community Service, Media

We will be at the UC Berkeley campus on Nov 18th!

So You Wanna Start A Startup?

Women 2.0 has partnered with Berkeley’s Women in Business and internshipIN to bring you the first Women 2.0 event on the UC Berkeley campus for November 18th!

Join us on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 7pm in UC Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union building in the Tan Oak room on the 4th floor.

Learn from five women entrepreneurs in various industries and hear how they transformed a few simple ideas into remarkable businesses!
Get students excited about your company or project with a short 1 min introductions.
Meet enthusiastic Berkeley students and potentially leave with a new co-founder or intern for your team!

Looking for an intern or new hires? Interested in sharing your entrepreneurial experiences with students? Looking to get more connected with the Berkeley startup community?

Event sponsored by Berkeley Women in Business

Speaker Bios:

Annie Chang (Co-Founder, LOLapps)
Annie is Co-Founder of LOLapps, provider of custom applications spanning pop culture, entertainment, and a variety of special interests for Facebook and other social networking platforms. Headquartered in San Francisco, LOLapps raised $4.5 million in venture funding earlier this year. Annie started her career as a computer scientist at Adobe and then moved over to product management and product design at BitTorrent. In her spare time, she enjoys bike riding in Marin and daydreaming about scuba diving in Thailand. Annie’s been helping to promote women in technology since her college days, where she managed communications for the Society of Women Engineers at Cal. Annie holds a BS in EECS from UC Berkeley.

Edith Yeung (Founder, SFentrepreneur; Co-Founder, Clue Market, Inc.;
Executive Producer, BizTechDay)
Edith founded SFentrepreneur to connect the entrepreneurship community across the greater Bay Area. She also co-founded Clue Market, a social networking and marketing company. Most recently, Edith was the executive producer of BiztechDay – a technology bootcamp for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Prior to starting all these fun projects, Edith spent 9 years in the software and consulting industry and built a successful career working with companies including AT&T Wireless, Cisco Systems, Ariba, American Management Systems, Siebel, Oracle Symantec, Telstra Australia, Matav Hungary Telecom, Autodesk, Taiwan Semi-conductor just to name a few. Check out Edith’s BiztechDay interview on Comcast/CNN.

Donielle Buie (Founding Partner, Gutsy Partners)
Donielle founded Gutsy Partners because of her passion for entrepreneurship and her belief in the power of the entrepreneur to change society. She saw that many people had the motivation and skills to start a business but unfortunately had gotten “stuck” in the planning, start-up, and growth process because they were trying to do it all by themselves. She has recently taught two 8-week entrepreneurship courses at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship and has hosted workshops, including Leadership at the Start of Your Business. Donielle holds a BS in Biomechanical Engineering and an MA in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies from Stanford University. At Stanford, Donielle was selected for the prestigious Mayfield Fellows Program focusing on high technology entrepreneurship. Through the program, she worked at Evant, a San Francisco based software startup. This experience sparked her passion for entrepreneurship!

Hazel Grace Dircksen (Founder, Socialbees Strategy)
A consultant and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, Hazel Grace helps companies leverage social networking tools to reach new audiences. Her most recent company Socialbees Strategy has already crafted Facebook business pages and ads for more than twenty companies in its pre-launch stage. Prior to Socialbees, Hazel Grace was an award-winning fashion designer and launched FashionIV, a social fashion site that was a Facebook Developer Platform launch partner at F8 ’07 through the San Francisco Ladies Who Launch Incubator. She went on to become the Ladies Who Launch Silicon Valley leader and San Francisco co-leader where she helps female entrepreneurs grow businesses. When she’s not working on a project for one of her many clients, you can find Hazel Grace on MySpace (member at the 500,000 mark), Yelp (Elite member for the past three years), Facebook (first GEO network user – ask about her top secret Facebook account!), and Twitter, just to name a few.

Alison Covarrubias (Owner, Business Legs; Director, San Francisco Chapter of Ladies Who Launch)
After working in technology sales for several years, Alison discovered that the corporate life was not her calling and made the decision to embark on her entrepreneurial career. She launched herself and her business when she joined Ladies Who Launch as the leader and director for the San Francisco chapter. Ladies Who Launch is a national organization of women who embrace creativity and entrepreneurism as a lifestyle and support each other both on-line and in-person. Her own business, Business Legs, offers start up consulting services with an emphasis on strategic planning and marketing confidence for women entrepreneurs. She is passionate about helping women live their entrepreneurial dreams and will stop at nothing to spread the entrepreneurial bug to anyone and everyone considering starting a business. Alison holds a BA in Speech Communication from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Directions and Campus Map

Get directions on Google
(cross-streets: Telegraph & Bancroft)
Parking lots: Student Union Garage (on Bancroft west of Telegraph), West Anna Head Lot (Telegraph & Channing), and RSF Garage (in the Gold Section on Bancroft at Ellsworth).
The event will be held in the MLK Student Union’s Tan Oak room located on the 4th floor.

The MLK Student Union building on Sather Plaza.

Save a Tree!

We are promoting the use of electronic programs and printing less paper programs for Women 2.0 events. Try viewing our Koollage pod for this event on your mobile phone by clicking here.

Also posted in Community Service Comments (1)

The Finance Crisis and Your Startup – Oct 7th

Busy running your startup but wondering how the financial crisis will impact your business? How does the future for startups seeking funding? Is this a good time to launch your dream venture? We will discuss the current financial crisis and its impact on the startup world at the Institute for the Future (IFTF) in Palo Alto on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. IFTF will demo the Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game: Superstruct before the panel event.

Panelists:
» Shai Goldman (Director for Venture Exchange, SVB Capital)
» Rebecca Lynn (Principal, Morgenthaler Ventures)
» Prasanna Krishnan (Associate, Draper Fisher Jurvetson)
» Betty Kayton (CFO, high tech startups & early stage firms)
» Greg Schmid (Director, Managing Uncertainty Group)

Moderator:
» Jill E. Fishbein (Partner, Carr & Ferrell LLP)

Event sponsored by SVB Capital:

From left: Jill Fishbein (Partner, Carr & Ferrell), Prasanna Krishnan (Associate, Draper Fisher Jurvetson), Shai Goldman (Director for Venture Exchange, SVB Capital), Rebecca Lynn (Principal, Morgenthaler Ventures), and Betty Kayton (CFO, high tech startups & early stage firms).

The event was blogged at Wall Street Journal as “VCs Ask Start-Ups: What’s Your Worst-Case Scenario?”. Blogger Gwen Bell turned her live Tweets from the event into a blog post titled “Economy Got You Poppin’ Pills?: VC Advice for Your Startup (+ 5 Strategies for Thriving!)”.Gwen Bell also live-Tweeted the event.

Also posted in Awards, Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, Business, Community Service, Debriefing, Events, Investors, Media, Media Training, Savings Comments (2)

“Startups Helping Startups” August Mixer

Join us at the YouNoodle office in San Francisco for some food, wine, good people, and demos from YouNoodle about the platform and their new Startup Predictor!

Come find out about the supportive ecosystem that exists in San Francisco for startups at the Women 2.0 and YouNoodle event “Startups Helping Startups”. Are you a startup helping startups? Share your wares with our entrepreneurial community.

We are gathering on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008 at 6:30PM at the YouNoodle office at 101 South Park, San Francisco, CA (map)

YouNoodle is providing food and wine, but feel free to bring some of your own! The event is FULL – you must be on the list of registered guests to attend this sold-out soiree!

Also posted in Awards, Events Comments (1)

July 2008 Wine & Cheese Mixer in San Francisco

* Meet interesting young women who are into entrepreneurship, technology, and/or business.
* Learn about resources that we all have within the Women 2.0 community, and beyond..
* Trade stories about living and working in the startup/entrepreneur/tech world.

We are gathering on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 7PM in a private San Francisco residence.

Please email women2.0@gmail.com with subject line “July 2008 Wine Mixer” to receive an invite with location and directions. If you’re on the Women 2.0 mailing list, you should receive this info via email.

We will provide wine and cheese, but feel free to bring some of your own!

Hope to see you then,

The Women 2.0 Team (San Francisco)

Comments (6)

Friday the 13th Social with Zynga!

We are having our monthly meetup this Friday the 13th at Z Lounge (Zynga’s office) in San Francisco from 6pm to 9 pm. Stop by for good food, the magical words “open bar”, a slamming DJ, and to meet and mingle.

We will be joined by Zynga, a social gaming and Facebook apps company, and the Social Gaming Summit post-conference party crowd.

Hope to see you there!

– The teams at Women 2.0 and Zynga

(Who’s coming? Facebook event listing is here.)

Also posted in Events

Beyond the Spark Conference Wrap-Up

Stanford, California – May 10, 2008 – Entrepreneurs and VCs gathered on the grassy lawn of the Stanford Golf Course for the 2008 Women 2.0 and Stanford Women in Business Conference Beyond the Spark: Entrepreneurship Redefined. The conference included panel discussions, an interactive lunch with Silicon Valley movers and shakers, and an afternoon session with Pitch 2008 Finalists. We boasted 300+ entrepreneurs, investors, students, and a special visitor – June Sarpong, top television personality and producer from the UK (MTV UK, T4, and more) and campaigner for the HRH The Prince’s Trust. She is building an influential political and lifestyle platform and will be joining the entrepreneurial ecosystem in LA.

Team Koollage won the 2008 Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition, scoring a private meeting with Esther Dyson and business services worth over $15,0000. Team Gaiagy walked away with the People’s Choice Award, as voted by the audience with their cell phones. TechCrunch covered Pitch 2008 here.
Podcasts of all panels, speakers, and competition finalists are available here.

The vision of the conference was to ignite and inspire – to expand what we know and what we expect from ourselves and our peers. Through the stories of an esteemed panel of speakers (Google.org, d.light design, Market For a Change, allvoices, and many more), we learned how to think and execute beyond Facebook apps and social networks to find NEW ways to make millions while positively affecting change.

Inside the white tent, napkin submissions for the Business Plan Competition lined a wall. Chris Shipley asked aloud: “Business plans or prayer flags?”

Chris Shipley (Guidewire Group) has an early morning fireside chat with Rachel Payne (Google.org).	Rachel Payne (Google.org) fields many questions from the audience about Google.org.
Dr. Maggie Haersch (VOICEMAP), Dr. Jwala Karnik (JawalCo), Pat McEntee (AuxoGlobal), and Amy Love (Protégé Performance Group) are on the morning’s panel assembled by SWIB.	Amy Love (former CEO of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs) encourages entrepreneurs to be proactive and be heard.
Afternoon panel: Erica Estrada (d.light design), Amra Tareen (allvoices), and Leila Chirayath (Market for Change).	Erica Estrada (d.light design) holds up the $25 solar-powered flashlight that illuminates homes in developing third-world countries.
Melanie Swan (MS Futures Group) moderates the afternoon panel.	Erica Estrada (d.light design) inspires the audience to do good. She regularly conducts field work in places like India, China, and Burma.
At lunch, each table had one or two “lunch leads” — entrepreneurial movers and shakers in the Silicon Valley.
Karen Hartline (CommunityNext), Katherine Barr (Mohr Davidow Ventures), and Angie Chang (Women 2.0).	Jeni Diaz and Roseanne Wincek (imthemusic) with Mary Wallace (Wallace Productions).
The judging panel lines up in front of the stage to hear the pitches from the five finalists of the 2008 Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition.
Mythili Sankaran (Koollage) pitches.	Margot Eiran (Gaiagy) pitches.
Debbie Cheng and Lindsay Tabas (Skill Shop) pitch.	Hope Schultz and Bill Zaccheo (WebVet) pitch.
Kristyn Heath (Passive Devices) pitches.	The judges voted Koollage winner of the 2008 Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition!
The audience used Mozes to vote for the “People’s Choice Award”, which went to Gaiagy.
How to vote using Mozes.	Winner of the People’s Choice Award – Gaiagy!
Hope Schultz (WebVet) talks to Joanne Wan (GigaOm).	Shannon McClenaghan (Jimmyjane), Sharon Vosmek (Astia), and Dana Florescu (Oracle).
Dr. Jwala Karnik (JwalaCo).	Artise Hardy (Strategic Analytics), Aihui Ong (Women 2.0), and June Sarpong (The Prince’s Trust).
Lindsay Tabas and Debbie Cheng (Skill Shop).	Tiffany von Emmel (Dreamfish).
Rachel Payne (Google.org) and Leila Chirayath (Market for Change).	Patricia Roller (frog design) is also a member of the Angels’ Forum.
Maya Baratz (MochiMedia) and friends.	Marleen McDaniel (Women.com).
Audree Halasz (dutchy) with friend.	Leila Chirayath (Market for Change) and Alice Wang (FTVentures).
Susan Lucas-Conwell (SD Forum).	Mitchell Tsai (Spiritual Business Companions) and Amra Tareen (allvoices).
Aihui Ong and Shaherose Charania (Women 2.0).	Current SWIB girls with the founder of SWIB.
Despite sharing the same last name, Angie Chang and Annie Chang (LOLapps) are not related.	Pokin Yeung and Shaherose Charania (Women 2.0) with Alka Gupta (Ojas Group).

Pictures are from the photo galleries of Shirley Lin, Mitchell Tsai, and Angie Chang with permission. Please go to their galleries to find more pictures from the event. If you took pictures from the event and would like to share them, please use the tag women2.0 on Flickr or leave a comment below.

Also posted in Awards, Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, Community Service, Debriefing, Media Training Comments (12)

Mixers

Calling all women-led mobile startups!

Upcoming TEDx events in the Bay Area

Founder Institute Bay Area Open for Applications

This Week: Mobile, Development, Legal, PR

Shaherose speaking at Qualcomm this Friday!

Women 2.0 Startup Weekend Creates 19 Startups

Sunday Afternoon at Women 2.0 Startup Weekend: Meet Some of the Teams!

The following startups launched at Women 2.0 Startup Weekend:

Demystifying Government and Stimulus Funding for Your Startup – September 9th Workshop

Register for Women 2.0 Startup Weekend: August 28-30

August 26th: Pearls of Wisdom Panel w/ Microsoft

July 23rd Meetup @ OSCON in San Jose

Women 2.0 June 25th Monthly Mixer @ LOLapps in SF

Women 2.0 Visits Barcelona! June 18th Startup Meetup

Pitch 2009 Finalists Announced, Pitching LIVE May 7!

Women 2.0 Co-Works with Co-Founders on March 29

Join us on March 3rd for “Pitch 101″ in Palo Alto

Women 2.0 + Startup Weekend II = (April 3-5, 2009)

Girl Geek Dinner: Thursday, January 29 w/ She’s Geeky

January 2009 Women 2.0 Mixer & Book Swap!

December 2008 BizSpark Launch Party

We will be at the UC Berkeley campus on Nov 18th!

The Finance Crisis and Your Startup – Oct 7th

“Startups Helping Startups” August Mixer

July 2008 Wine & Cheese Mixer in San Francisco

Friday the 13th Social with Zynga!

Beyond the Spark Conference Wrap-Up

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