By Kai Freeman (Co-Founder, House of Mikko)
Editor’s note: House of Mikko co-founder Kai Freeman is co-hosting Founder Friday New York on February 3, 2012. FREE RSVP for the event here.
Some days I can hardly believe that this is my life. I am doing what I love. I think back to the days that I sat in my cubicle and wished for something bigger. But I did nothing about it, until one day at work I was told by my manager that I think too much and that I shouldn’t rock the boat. That night I went home and started studying for the GMAT. Read More »
Published on: January 29, 2012 Tags: Barcelona, Instagram, Marta Alonso, Muuby
By Marta Alonso (Founder, Muuby)
Editor’s note: Muuby founder Marta Alonso is co-hosting Founder Friday Barcelona on February 3, 2012. Join the wait list here.
I left college three yaers ago to find my first job as a journalist, and soon began to work as a web consultant at EsadeCreapolis.
I remember perfectly every day that went by, learning new concepts at breakneck speeds. There, I met Ivan Caballero, who a few months later became my business partner and source of inspiration.
Our startup Muuby started as a means of working Read More »
By Laura Yecies (CEO, SugarSync)
A key part of parenting is being a role model for your children. I believe that one of the reasons I have been comfortable with my decision to work full-time while my children are growing up is that that is what I saw my mother do.
I never felt like it was a negative having a mom who worked. In fact I was (am) proud of her and even felt special talking about her work in school and with my friends.
I think its no coincidence that my husband is Read More »
By Joan C. Williams & Rachel Dempsey (Authors, The New Girls’ Network)
The Academy Award nominees came out on Tuesday, and to no one’s surprise, this was not a good year for women in Hollywood. As they have been for the Oscars’ 83-year history, the (non-gendered) prestige categories — Best Picture and Best Director — were dominated by men.
Of the producers for Best Picture nominees currently on the Academy Award website, 14 are men, and three are women. All of the Best Picture nominees are directed by men. So is everyone nominated for a Best Director award. Read More »
Published on: January 27, 2012 Tags: Danielle Fong, Forbes, Inc, Shaherose Charania
By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
This week, Vivek Wadhwa on Inc.com featured and pictured Shaherose Charania in a story titled “The Face of Success: Women And Venture Capital”.
Meanwhile, Women 2.0 PITCH Conference speaker Danielle Fong (pictured, right) is touted in Forbes magazine as a “24-year old wunderkind” and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla said he knew within 15 minutes that he wanted to invest, noting her “off-the-charts brilliance”. Khosla has invested $15M in Danielle’s energy startup.
Asked what the word “success” means on Forbes Read More »
By Danika Patrick (Innovation Lead, AT&T, Foundry)
Join us for a unique night of powerful women and a bunch of laughs!
Join us on Sunday, February 12, 2012 at 7pm @ Microsoft in Mountain View for a PanelProv event. Learn from a diverse panel of women in a range of roles from strategy at Fortune 500 companies to serial entrepreneurs, matched up with a once in a lifetime Improv show based directly on the content created during the panel discussion.
Celebrating women of technology, teamed up with local improvisors to bring you insight and humor about diversity, lifestyle, and pant suits. Read More »
By Erica Virtue (Marketing Coordinator, NY Tech Day)
Calling all women entrepreneurs! NY Tech Day, a revolutionary one-day expo created specifically for New York City-based tech startups, is confirmed for Thursday, April 19, 2012 in the Flatiron District. In line with the openness of the NY tech community, Tech Day is free to attend.
Launching a startup is not an easy process, but Tech Day plans to simplify that by creating an event that benefits startups of all sizes and gives them the opportunity to directly interact with the community. Startups can demo a new Read More »
Published on: January 26, 2012 Tags: 85 Broads, Astia, Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, Microsoft, NAWBO, Raising Funding, Sepideh Nasiri, Sukrutha Raman, WIPP, Women 2.0, Women Entrepreneurs
By Sukrutha Raman Bhadouria (Organizer, Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners)
Earlier this week, I attended a panel discussion about women entrepreneurs at Microsoft’s office. Representatives from Women 2.0, Astia, 85 Broads, Women in Public Policy (WIPP) and National Association for Women Business Owners (NAWBO) talked about best practices and practical advice for women entrepreneurs at this “Your Office, Your Terms” cloud event. Sepideh Nasiri represented Women 2.0 on the informative panel.
I learned a lot about the challenges a woman could face when starting her own company, and how to be prepared for it. Read More »
By Chiu-Ki Chan (Android Developer, Monkey Write)
My resolution this year is to be a public speaker. One of the difficulties in breaking into the speaking circuits is to be aware of conferences six months in advance to meet the call for participation deadlines, so whenever I hear about one, I share it with others.
Recently I shared the call for participation for FluentConf:
“Are you a JavaScript performance guru? Have you got big ideas and mad JavaScript skills? Do you know the ins and outs of future ECMAScript specifications? Read More »
Published on: January 26, 2012 Tags: Caroline Green, IvanExpert, Mac, PC, Windows PC
By Caroline Green (Director of Business Development, IvanExpert)
If you’re creating a tech startup, how do you decide whether to get a Mac or a Windows PC? Which one will broadcast to potential investors, partners, employees, and customers that you’re the real thing?
Here’s our cheat sheet to the Mac-PC divide for startup tech firms.
Why having a Mac makes you a real tech founder
Three reasons why if you want to be seen as a serious tech founder, you’ve got to go Mac. Read More »
By Janine Popick (Co-Founder & CEO, VerticalResponse)
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably read lots of stories about entrepreneurial teens doing amazing things, from developing a hot new app to spearheading socially or environmentally mindful projects. Here at my company, VerticalResponse, we’ve met or heard about many of these incredible teens through our work with Startup Weekend and Women 2.0.
That’s why I’m thrilled that VerticalResponse is launching the Next Teen Tycoon video contest – we’re searching for tomorrow’s business leaders, today! Read More »
Published on: January 26, 2012 Tags: Pitch
For the past few months, we’ve been working on creating the most impactful full-day innovation conference for Women 2.0 members and their friends — to educate and inspire builders, thinkers and doers.
Here are 6 reasons you should join us on Valentine’s Day for Women 2.0 PITCH Conference:
- Learn from the best product innovation leaders in tech – Flickr, Facebook, ZipCar and more.
- Watch finalists of the Women 2.0 PITCH Startup Competition present to a panel of investors.
- Hear case studies and best practices for building awesome products and business models.
- Check out the Exhibit Hall from 8am to 5pm.
- Speed mentoring at lunchtime! We’ll be taking signups in the morning (first come, first serve).
- Join us for cocktail hour after the conference – sample truffles and wine while networking.
Special Note: If you are bootstrapping, umployed or a student, apply for a deeply discounted ticket.
(We will be granting discounts on need basis, and will notify recipients of discounted tickets by February 1)
Read More »
By Sepideh Nasiri (Director of Sponsorships & Events, Women 2.0)
It wasn’t that long ago that being an employee meant coming in to the office at 9am and having in-person meetings and presentations all day. Not everyone is fit for this kind of role, maybe because their team is not all in one location, they live a long distance from the office, or perhaps they just prefer a job where they don’t have to put in much face time.
Whatever the case may be, there was a problem that needed to be solved – actually getting your work done without being at the office.
Luckily for us, there are now many solutions Read More »
By Cecile Ney (Coordinator, Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards)
Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards is a business plan competition for startups led by women, organized by Cartier in partnership with McKinsey and INSEAD business school.
This social entrepreneurship competition aims at supporting creative, financially sustainable and responsible women-led startups in all countries and industries. We are currently calling for applications phase for our contest and are looking for women leading for-profit responsible enterprises between 1 and 3 years old.
The Award will be given to six laureates who Read More »
By Joyce Chuang (Marketing Coordinator, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP)
For those who have started a company and have seen the challenges first hand, you have an idea of just how much energy and effort goes into creating and building a company. Not only do you have to worry about establishing it, but at some point you’ll have to find investors to fund it, build a team, hire and fire employees, and so much more.
What if someone could provide you with a road map for it all? We can’t, but we can offer some suggestions and advice.
Our panel with Read More »
Published on: January 25, 2012 Tags: Arrington, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Inc, Shaherose Charania, Silicon Valley, TechCrunch, Vinita Gupta, Vivek Wadhwa, Woman Problem, Women 2.0, Women Entrepreneurs
By Vivek Wadhwa (Contributor, Inc)
In my last two articles, I discussed why, based on my research on immigrant entrepreneurs, I believed that Silicon Valley was the world’s greatest meritocracy. That was before I moved to the Valley and learned that this so-called meritocracy is highly imperfect, omitting women, blacks, and Hispanics. When I researched the dearth of women, I could find no explanation.
Women are equally motivated to become entrepreneurs; are equal or more competent at managing businesses; match boys in mathematical achievement; dramatically outnumber Read More »
By Ramit Sethi (Author, I Will Teach You To Be Rich)
Telling a story about Chris Rock helped me earn over $100,000 in scholarship money to attend college. During senior year of high school, my parents — immigrants who raised four kids and didn’t have money to send us to college — encouraged us to apply to every scholarship we could find.
Since I’m a big weirdo, I built a system that allowed me to apply to over 60 scholarships in a few weeks (I’ve detailed parts of the system I used to get so many college scholarships).
The largest scholarship I received had an extensive Read More »
Published on: January 25, 2012 Tags: Jazmin Hupp, Startup Weekend, Tips & Tricks
By Jazmin Hupp (Director of Awesome, Tekserve)
Startup Weekends and Hackathons are held all over the world.
Check out the Startup Weekend event list and signup for their mailing list. If you’re unsure about participating your first time around, contact the local organizers and offer to volunteer for the weekend.
Here are 4 reasons why you should attend Startup Weekend:
Read More »
By Dyuman Bhatt (CEO, Red Seraphim)
Just after college, I took my first job in retail sales as a part of a management training program. While there was a lot to learn, one issue that stood out was the inescapable daily reality of sexual harassment.
The company did its best to train its managers and entry level employees to deal with the matter, but there was no sense of prevention. For almost all women working there, it wasn’t a matter of if they would be sexually harassed, but more a matter of when. Sometimes, it was a sleazy customer asking, Read More »
By Susana Garcia-Robles (Principal Investment Officer, MIF Early Stage Equity Group)
Established in 1993 as part of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) was created to develop effective approaches to advance private sector development, improve the business environment and support micro and small enterprises in order to promote economic growth and poverty reduction in the Latin American and Caribbean regions (LAC).
Drawing upon a resource base of $ 2.2 billion in assets, the MIF works with governments, NGOs and financial intermediaries, using a range of instruments including Read More »
Published on: January 24, 2012 Tags: BlogFrog, Bridget Brennan, E-Commerce, Ger Stengel, Guiding The Way for Ambitious Women Entrepreneurs, Holly Hamann, Spark Box Toys, Stacey Debroff, startups, Ventureneer
By Geri Stengel (President, Ventureneer)
In the early days of online shopping, when most of the products sold were computers, software, music, and consumer electronics, men ruled e-commerce. That may be changing now that product choices have expanded to everything from cosmetics to shoes to toys. Just as women dominant shopping in the brick-and-mortar world (women account for 85% of all consumer purchases), they will dominant shopping in the online world.
Mass e-commerce sites such as Amazon and eBay will always have a place in e-commerce, just as Walmart does Read More »
By Heddi Cundle (Founder & CEO, myTab)
Earlier this month, I was in New York City. Now, I used to live in New York in the 90s when New York was still testing my inner strength by making me dodge flying bullets and knives in the not-so-pretty Meatpacking District. No one from Manhattan would venture over the Brooklyn Bridge (do I need a passport?) and certainly no female in business was truly on my side while I worked day and night in the music industry.
So over the past 10 years, since I’ve lived on the West Coast, I’ve only been to New York three times. The first was quite an eye opener – the city had been cleaned up (thanks Giuliani, for Read More »
Published on: January 23, 2012 Tags: Alexa Andrzejewski, Angie Chang, Foodspotting, Julia Hu, Kiwi Crate, LARK, Leah Busque, Microsoft, TaskRabbit, Women Entrepreneurs
By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
San Francisco is teaming with women who have the technological know-how to solve daily problems. These innovative solutions apply to all fronts and industries, ranging from:
- Finding new dishes instead of restaurants (Foodspotting)
- Getting kid-friendly entertainment delivered to your door (Kiwi Crate)
- Leveraging the quantified self for self-improvement (LARK)
- Maximizing efficiency (TaskRabbit)
What do these these female-founded startups have in common? Women entrepreneurs have found Read More »
By Bryce Roberts (Co-Founder & Managing Director, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures)
As investor FOMO and entrepreneurial access to capital have increased, so too has the level of entitlement to that capital. Swap the trophy for a seed round, and that’s directionally where things are headed in startupland. Everyone gets a seed round. Everyone gets to be CEO. Everyone starts a billion dollar company. Everyone can be the next Zuckerberg.
Just as with the kids lying on psychiatrist’s couches above, eventually the founders will come into contact with the real world. But the bullies on the playground they were protected from will now be unhappy customers. The encouraging teacher will be Read More »
By Betsy Aoki (Senior Program/Product Manager, Bing)
I first met Lori Anne Wardi, a vice president at .CO, during a Geeks on a Plane tour of Asia last fall. While on the shuttle to and from various startup accelerators and meeting spots, we chatted about the wacky dot-com 90s and how things have changed (and stayed the same) in startupland since those days. More consumers know what a domain name is now but people are still faced with the dilemma of how to fund and shape their new companies. And, just like the 90s, there is still a marked shortage of women tech entrepreneurs.
To that end, I’d like to offer up a resource that will be useful to men and women startup founders – the Bing Booster Read More »
