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)
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.
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 Martellannounced 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.
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:
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!
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
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
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 ;)
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)
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!
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)
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.
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.
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?
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!
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!
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.
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.
She’s Geeky is an “unconference” on January 30-31st, 2009 in Mountain View, CA for enthusiastic women in technical fields to share their professional interests and passion for geeky things.
What is an unconference? Beginning at 9am each day, we start with a blank wall and create a multi-track conference agenda that is relevant and inspiring to everyone. Rooms are assigned to each topic and participants attend sessions they are interested in. Notes from each session are collected and a book is compiled with all the notes from the conference and distributed to everyone who attends. For a 3-minute peek at last year’s unconference, click here.
To register for She’s Geeky, click here. Register by January 15th and early bird price for one day is $59 or $108 for both days. Use coupon code “women2″ to save 10% on your unconference ticket!
Women 2.0 is proud to be a media sponsor of She’s Geeky.
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!
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
* 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!
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.
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.
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.
This Saturday is the Women 2.0 and Stanford Women in BusinessConference. Hear Rachel Payne of Google.org and Chris Shipley of Guidewire Group discuss the global market and its needs during a fireside chat to start, then Terri Ghio of TBS Connect will lead a panel discussion about entrepreneur experiences and successes. Enjoy an interactive lunch by indulging in a working lunch with movers and shakers in the Silicon Valley! Check out our wiki for lunch leads and their bios.
The afternoon will kick off with a panel of startup founders who are igniting global change, then at 2:30PM the TOP FIVE teams in the Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition are pitching LIVE!
Finalist #1: Koollage (San Francisco, CA)
The Team: Mythili Sankaran, Steve Rhoads, and Geetha Murali
One Line Pitch: A social “mini” blogging and “micro”media platform for the mobile generation.
Finalist #2: Gaiagy (Newton Center, MA)
The Team: Margot Eiran, Kanika Singal, and Rucker Alex
One Line Pitch: Distributor of integrated eco-efficiency products, offering a personalized savings calculator via social networking site applications & other channels.
Finalist #3: Skill Shop (San Francisco, CA)
The Team: Debbie Cheng and Lindsay Tabas
One Line Pitch: Putting the right people on the right projects shouldn’t waste time and money; let SkillShop reduce both these pain points to optimize IT resources.
Finalist #4: WebVet (Chicago, IL)
The Team: Bill Zaccheo and Hope Schultz
One Line Pitch: WebMD for Pets.
Finalist #5: Passive Devices (Denver, CO)
The Team: Kristyn Heath
One Line Pitch: Maker of SnoopTunes, Passive Devices is an advertising company in the consumer electronics space specializing in portable peer to peer music sharing.
Most good business ideas are not germinated from a spreadsheet or powerpoint. All you need is a pen and a cocktail napkin. Doodling is a universal language and visual thinking has created many great companies (e.g. Southwest Airlines). Check out these great doodles on napkins on BusinessWeek, or the cool doodles at thebackofthenapkin.com.
The deadline to enter the Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition is EXTENDED TO APRIL 15, 2008. So pull together a team of at least 50% female representation to be eligible to enter (you can also enter as a solo female entrepreneur) and get started! All submissions will receive written feedback from the judges (read their bios here).
Top 5 finalists present LIVE to the judges at the Women 2.0 and Stanford Women in Business Conference on May 10, 2008 at Stanford. Winner is announced at the end of the conference and scores a meeting with the iconic Esther Dyson, along with a grab bag of legal and PR goodies.
Women 2.0 held Open Mic Session #2: “Meet The Customer Rainmakers” on Thursday, March 6, 2008 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at Ning in Palo Alto, CA, discussing real strategies for customer acquisitions with our esteemed panelists.
» Maria Sipka (Co-Founder and CEO, Linqia)
» Rebecca Weeks (Director of Business Development, RealGirlsMedia)
» Gina Bianchini (Co-Founder and CEO, Ning)
» William Bunker as moderator (Co-Founder and Principal, White Space Ventures)
How do you build a community, a community of communities, and a wine company from the ground up? Each of these entrepreneurs started with a clean slate and today, designed products for their target markets to become recognizable brands in their respective markets. Are you applying to the Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition? Learn from our esteemed speakers practical customer acquisition strategies as you begin your own venture!
Women 2.0 had an intimate lunch with CEOs Joyce Kim of Soompi, and Marleen McDaniel, emeritus of Women.com (bought by NBC) on Saturday, Feb. 23rd in Sun Microsystem’s board room overlooking San Francisco’s streets.
We discussed successful leadership experiences and explored challenging situations and solutions while in the hot seat. This was an exclusive opportunity by Women 2.0 for Women Leaders to start the formation of the “New Girls Club” — and to be part of the next generation of entrepreneurship!
We’ve been busy planning Pitch 2008, and Angie Chang (one of our co-founders) launched the first Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner last night (January 31) at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA. There was much food, drink, and schwag to be had — and plenty of girl geeks with their invited guests.
Over 600 people celebrated girl geeks and watched the panelists discuss building credibility and reputation in technology and business. Katherine Barr (Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures) moderated a discussion between Leah Culver (Co-Founder and Lead Developer, Pownce), Sumaya Kazi (Entrepreneur and Social Media Manager, Sun Microsystems), Irene Au (Director of User Experience, Google), and Rashmi Sinha (CEO, SlideShare).
The panelists’ jobs and roles were diverse, and the variety in personalities and attitudes toward work and life made for a very interesting panel discussion.
Our mission is to increase the number of female founders of technology startups, by enabling entrepreneurs with a network, resources and knowledge to take your startup from an idea to launch. Join the Women 2.0 mailing list here.
Founder Showcase featuring Elon Musk & Jason Calacanis
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010, 4pm - 10pm
Microsoft, Mountain View, CA Women 2.0 members save 15% with coupon code "w20"
See Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo.com, speak at the The Founder Showcase on Tuesday evening, August 3rd in Mountain View, CA. This quarterly start-up pitch and networking event brings together over 275 investors, founders, and members of the press to hear speeches from leading CEOs, and pitches from 10 hot technology start-ups in an open Pitch Competition. Watch as ten of the most promising early-stage companies, as selected by over 14,500 registered CEO Members of TheFunded.com, present their companies to the Silicon Valley elite. A panel of investors will provide critical feedback of the pitches, and the two best companies will face off in a "Showcase Showdown" lightning round to determine the Grand Prize Winner. There is also a networking and table area where investors and start-ups will convene with food and drinks. Tickets start at just $40, but there is a very limited number available. For more information or to apply to the free Pitch Competition, click here.
Yahoo! Girl Geek Dinner
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010, 5:30pm - 8:30pm
Yahoo! HQ, Sunnyvale, CA
Join us for a night of technology, great food and conversation at Yahoo! Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010 (5:30pm - 8:30pm) at Yahoo!’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA! Learn about what’s going on at Yahoo! and network with other girl geeks, including those responsible for designing and building cool Yahoo! products. Hilary Schneider (Yahoo! Americas EVP) will be the keynote speaker, and presentations on Yahoo Query Language (YQL), YUI, web performance, innovation at scale, infinite browse system, and accessibility will be delivered by Yahoo! girl geeks throughout the evening. All registered girl geek will receive a free Yahoo! “Code like a Girl” shirt and sticker at the event. For more info and to RSVP for FREE, click here.
Commonwealth Club presents "Girls Gotta Do Business: The Rising Force of Women Entrepreneurs"
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010, 6pm
SF Club, San Francisco, CA
The exponential growth of women-owned businesses has been in the news. More than a quarter million women in the United States own businesses with revenue exceeding $1M. Demographics have played a role: female empty-nesters, corporate escapees, and the newly laid-off are flexing their entrepreneurial muscle. However, some studies indicate women-owned businesses generate less revenue on average than businesses owned by men. Panelists will explore this issue and more, giving insight on how women entrepreneurs can take it to the next level of success. Panelists include Alison Covarrubias (Co-founder, The Hatch Network, SF), Baat Enosh (Entrepreneur Alliance Program Director, NCWIT; VP of Operations, Women 2.0), Ayesha Mathews-Wadhwa (Director, Savor the Success, SF Bay Area), Julie Abrams (CEO, Women's Initiative for Self Employment). For more info and to register, click here.
SDForum’s Green and Clean Evening Series presents "The Water Crisis: An Update on the Challenges in Water Efficiency and Treatment”
Thursday, August 5th, 2010, 6pm to 8:30pm
Orrick, Menlo Park, CA Women 2.0 members save $5 with coupon code "GREEN05"
The global water crisis continues to be a top priority for consumers, corporations, entrepreneurs, investors and the government. Our panel of experts in these sectors will update us on what is being done in regards to water efficiency and treatment.
Speakers include Anup Jacob (Virgin Green Fund), Bill Kocher (City of Santa Cruz), Bruce Keiser (Cohesive Ventures), Tamin Pechet (Banyan Water LLP), and moderator Mitch Zuklie (Orrick). For more info and to register, click here.
Girls in Tech presents "The Fast Track of Mariam Naficy"
Monday, August 9th, 2010, 6pm - 8:30pm
Nextspace.us, San Francisco, CA
Serial entrepreneur Mariam Naficy shares with us her rapid rise to success fresh out of business school as co-founder and co-CEO of Eve.com. She raised $26 million for her start up venture and sold it for $100 million in her late 20's. Mariam is now pioneering the area of crowd-sourcing design with her new venture, Minted.com, the online retailer of stationery, invitations, and photo cards. She will talk about what she attributes her early success to and what other young (and any age!) women can do to harness their entrepreneurial potential. For more info and to register, click here.
SF Game Developer's Workshops presents "How to Grow your Online Games for massive player engagement and revenue"
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010, 7pm - 9pm
Art Institute of California, San Francisco, CA
Do you want to network with other phenomenal game industry personnel and have a good time? Join us August 10th at 7pm to get an hear Joe Dunn and Josh Rose give you a brain dump download of how they win in the market so you can too. They will cover how they combine creative design, new technology, and platform agnostic virality to create game experiences players crave, share, and keep coming back for. There will be a brief interactive Q&A; between each speaker, so designers and developers can get a chance to get some direct opinions or strategies on some of their own games and businesses. Come party with us after the event to brainstorm, chill, or simply share a beer with awesome fellow game developers, designers, artists, and deal makers. For more info and to register, click here.
FailChat #4: How to Survive Without Funding
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
PariSoma, San Francisco, CA
Many companies today don’t get funded. Considering that, how does a small startup survive tough competition, company growth, and unpredictable markets with virtually zero capital? It definitely happens and to help everyone learn how, we’ve compiled a panel of founders who’ve been there and investors who have seen it happen. We’ll be discussing whether its possible to get by without funding, how to balance the budget if you try, and what problems you are likely to encounter. We’ll also be getting into what tools to use, how to stay lean, stories of what hasn’t worked, and other fundamentals of the self-funded process. For more info and to register, click here.
SF HTML5 presents "Web Forms 2.0 with Estelle Weyl"
Thursday, August 26th, 2010, 7pm - 9pm
San Francisco, CA
This is a FREE event. HTML forms have been the bane of web developers for years. Not anymore! With HTML5 you may learn to love forms. Imagine a day when you can validate a form without any JavaScript. Date pickers, place holder text, pattern matching, required fields, auto focus, error handling, all without JavaScript? That day is not as far off as you think. In this session we'll discuss new to HTML5 form input types and attributes. We can't promise that you'll love creating web forms, but you will gain a new, exciting appreciation. For more info and to register, click here.
Jumpstart Your Startup with Women 2.0!
A unique workshop for women with the next big startup idea, Jumpstart Your Startup is available for aspiring women entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley.
"Jumpstart Your Startup exposed us all to incredible advice, well seasoned speakers and a nurturing environment to help evolve and strengthen our ideas." - Zuzy Martin Lynch, Jumpstart Your Startup participant
"This class was the perfect format to clarify our business idea and perfect our pitch." - Lynnee Jimenez, Jumpstart Your Startup participant
Quotable Quotes
Pitch 2009 is a unique startup competition open to early-stage ventures globally. Eligible startups are in alpha or beta stage, and must have at least one female founder. Deadline to apply: April 10th, 2009.
"A recession is the best time to start a company. The opportunity cost is low, hiring good people is relatively easy, rent and equipment are cheap (sometimes free) and established competitors are focused on reducing costs & staying in business, not on innovation. The key is being in a good position when the economy picks back up."
- Rebecca Lynn
Principal, Morgenthaler Ventures
"Some of the best products and services come out of some of the worst times. In the early 1990s, tens of millions of dollars had gone down the drain in a futile effort to develop 'pen computing' (early phase of mobile computing) and a recession was shriveling the economic outlook."
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”.
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. 
Gizzy helps friends give and get the right gift.
CSRware Inc.
LumaMed LLC
Giddy Inc.
GenGreen
GiftAloft LLC
(1) GRAND PRIZE:
(2) PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD:
(3) VENTUREBEAT’S BEST MEDIA STORY AWARD:
(4) YOUNOODLE BEST IDEA AWARD:
Are you a founder looking for feedback or funding?
Annie Chang (Co-Founder, 
Edith Yeung (Founder, 
Donielle Buie (Founding Partner, 
Hazel Grace Dircksen (Founder, 
Alison Covarrubias (Owner, 
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 
Join us at the 
Dr. Jwala Karnik (JwalaCo).
Tiffany von Emmel (Dreamfish).
Current SWIB girls with the founder of SWIB.
Pokin Yeung and Shaherose Charania (Women 2.0) with Alka Gupta (Ojas Group).
We’ve been busy planning Pitch 2008, and Angie Chang (one of our co-founders) launched the first 
