Women 2.0 » Networking women entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley

Women 2.0 Founders Named “Most Influential Women in Technology 2010″ in Fast Company Magazine

But we weren’t the only ones! We recognized a lot of Women 2.0 entrepreneurs on Fast Company’s “Most Influential Women in Technology 2010″ list:

Jen Bekman (Founder, 20×200)
Coming of age during the tech boom, Jen Bekman worked her way up through the online ranks - New York Online, Electric Minds, Netscape, Disney/GO Networks, AOL, Meetup - only to split the scene for what seemed like career derailment. In 2003 she founded her own eponymous brick-and-mortar art gallery … But it was actually a percolator for her next move. Read more at Fast Company.
» Watch the “Women 2.0 In Conversation with Jen Bekman” video here.

Clara Shih (Founder, Hearsay Labs)
She wrote the book on social media marketing - and now it’s used as a textbook at Harvard Business School. Released last April, The Facebook Era is the Bible for businesses wanting to increase their sales and consumer base through social networks. The San Francisco-based startup just raised another round of capital and plans to double its staff soon. Read more at Fast Company.
» Watch the “Women 2.0 In Conversation with Clara Shih” video here.

Claire Boonstra (Co-Founder, Layar)
Trained in civil engineering, Boonstra comes from a technical family and originally wanted to be a designer (she says in an interview that she wanted at one point to make the “Boonstra Bridge”). But when the world of architecture didn’t quite click, she veered into tech, starting at i-mode, an early precursor to cellphone internet browsing. … The idea for Layar was sparked. Read more at Fast Company.
» Claire Boonstra named in “Female Founders to Watch in Mobile”.

Danae Ringlemann (Co-Founder, IndieGoGo)
After years as an equity researcher studying business models of entertainment companies, Ringelmann co-founded IndieGoGo, a crowdfunding Web site for independent films. For filmmakers, IndieGoGo is a way to raise supplemental funds; for contributors - whose donations typically range from $50 to $500 - it’s a way to get perks like a name credit in the film. Read more at Fast Company.
» Listen to the “In Conversation with Danae Ringlemann” podcast here.

Caterina Fake (Co-Founder, Hunch)
Ever wondered where to grab lunch? Or which DVD set to buy? Or even what to wear on — gasp! — a first date? “Just ask Hunch,” says Flickr cofounder Caterina Fake, whose latest startup helps users make decisions by comparing what it knows about them to what it knows about others like them. The site has attracted more than 1.5M users and roughly $12M in funding… Read more at Fast Company.
» Watch the “In Conversation with Caterina Fake” video here.

Annie Chang (Co-Founder, LOLapps)
Don’t be fooled by the name of her startup. Annie Chang is pioneering a very serious business venture. Two years after the launch of LOLapps, Chang has finally published games that approach her ideal: In Band of Heroes, for example, if a user wins a war, every friend who joined his army shares the spoils; in Diva Life, users pair off to “clash” with other high-heeled avatars. Read more at Fast Company.
» Annie Chang spoke at a Women 2.0 event at UC Berkeley here.

Shinyoung Park (Founder, Funji)
In real life, most teens and tweens can’t hit the clubs or crash late-night parties. (We’re ignoring Miley Cyrus.) But on Funji, the first avatar-based social networking app for the iPhone, “they express themselves to friends in a virtual world, whenever and wherever they want,” says creator Shinyoung Park, who was a winner of Facebook’s fbFund competition last year. Read more at Fast Company.
» Watch the Women 2.0 “In Conversation with Shinyoung Park” video here.

Alexis Ringwald (Co-Founder, Valence Energy Group)
At Valence Energy, which she cofounded, Ringwald creates software to help decentralize the power grid into a network of smart microgrids, or communities that consume energy produced nearby and on-site. Eventually, Ringwald hopes to take her work full-circle, bringing microgrid breakthroughs to India, where on-the-grid power can be both inefficient and unreliable. Read more at Fast Company.
» Alexis Ringwald named in “Female Founders Successes of 2009″.

Susan Wu (Co-Founder, Ohai)
The U.S. virtual goods market will jump 60% this year to $1.6 billion, and analysts estimate worldwide annual revenue could reach $10 billion — the equivalent of Hollywood’s 2009 box-office earnings. Founder of online-gaming firm Ohai Susan Wu knew that virtual goods (products that exist only online) made real money, and she went after the digital wares like a hot commodity. Read more at Fast Company.
» Susan Wu named in “Female Founders to Watch in Social Gaming”.

Laura Fitton (Founder, OneForty)
Now she’s flexing her tech-trend-spotting skills once more by founding OneForty, an app store for Twitter. The service catalogues and curates the best extensions and apps for the microblogging service through a community of users who share and rate tools. Fitton has already gathered more than $2M in funding. If anybody can make it work for them, we think it’s you, Laura. Read more at Fast Company.
» Laura Fitton named in “Female Founders Successes of 2009″.

And all that talk about needing more women in venture capital? Cindy is here to help.

Cindy Padnos (Founder, Illuminate Ventures)
Illuminate Ventures is a VC firm focused on early-stage, high-tech investing, with a special interest in supporting women in business. “We invest in great opportunities, period. We try to capture some very interesting - and not very sought after-deals, where other firms don’t recognize the value because it looks different.” Her investing portfolio ranges from Internet advertising and 3D browsing to SaaS applications and SEO management. Read more at Fast Company.

Partner event: TechCrunch Disrupt 2010 & Hack Day

25 Takeaways from TechCrunch Disrupt
By Sumaya Kazi, guest blogger for Women 2.0

TechCrunch’s first “Disrupt” conference, where media meets technology, took place May 26-28, 2010 in New York. Disrupt brought together tech luminaries, big name venture capitalists, notable angel investors, and startups competing to become the next big thing on the TechCrunch stage.

If you weren’t able to make it, TechCrunch has made it available for replay here. If you don’t want to watch 30+ hours of footage, below you’ll find 15 bite-sized highlights and 10 startups worth spotlighting - all in all 25 takeaways from TechCrunch Disrupt. Read More »

Inside scoop: Startup and Venture opportunities

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

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

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

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

Partner event: Women 2.0 Save 20% on Smash Summit

SMASH Summit on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 in San Francisco, CA is an exploration of social media marketing strategies, tactics, tools, and campaigns used by the most successful online companies to acquire and retain customers on search, social, and mobile platforms.

Speakers include Rashmi Sinha (SlideShare), Victoria Ransom (Wildfire), Lisa Marino (RockYou), Cynthia Neiman (Mattel), Laura Fitton (OneForty), Deborah Schultz (Altimeter Group), and La Sandra Brill (Cisco).

Women 2.0 members save 20% off regular price tickets with coupon code “Women2″ here.

Women 2.0 presents “Social Gaming 101″ on April 15

On Thursday, April 15th, 2010, Women 2.0 held “Social Gaming 101″, which featured founders and CEOs of social gaming startups in Pillsbury’s Palo Alto office. The panel shared best practices, tips, tricks, and even pitfalls of designing and implementing social games. Sue Zann Toh (Co-Founder & CFO, The Broth) told war stories from her startup’s early days of fixing bugs and keeping servers running. Sue Zann Toh reminds attendees that you can compete with the “big guys” even if your startup is small by launching early, and developing from there. The Broth’s Barn Buddy, which launched before FarmVille, has grown to 1.7M active daily users amid stiff competition.

Mari Baker (President & CEO, PlayFirst) followed up by demonstrating that the players who enter the market first aren’t necessarily the ones that win the end. “Does anybody remember Netscape or Excite?” Mari Baker asked the crowd. One of her tips was to check out the worst performing games for problems to avoid. Also, Mari Baker added that having a great product is the biggest key to going viral.

During her presentation, Amy Jo Kim (Co-Founder & CEO, Shuffle Brain) shared how she put her PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience to good use in Shuffle Brain to build games that exercise the brain and prevent dementia. Shuffle Brain explored a few monetization models but finally settled on merging with a subscription game site aimed at 50 to 70 year-old users. Nevertheless, Amy Jo Kim believes earned and purchased currency models are the most promising ways to monetize social games this year. With “the free to play/virtual goods [model], you monetize your most avid players the most,” Amy Jo Kim said. Having created some of the most popular social games on FaceBook including Causes, Zombies, and Vampires, panelist Blake Commagere agreed that dual-currency models have brought the best monetization opportunities to his games. “Ads… paid for your servers and kept you from starving.” By acclimating users to purchasing in your game using earned currency, the up-sell to purchasing $1 digital goods is easier.

The entire panel agreed that social games require a different work structure than traditional game titles. Mari Baker reminded the audience that in social games, you will spend more “man hours after launch than before.” Sue Zann Toh agrees, “the real work starts after launch.” Blake Commagere quipped that if “you’re not embarrassed by your product on day one, then you launched too late.”

Additionally, some of the panelists answer additional audience questions below (find their answers under their speaker bios).

Women 2.0 volunteers greet registered attendees with name tags and cupcakes.	Terry Redfield (Founder & CEO, Real Life Plus) and Benjamin Wiles (Associate, Pillsbury Winthrop).
Attendees wrote their names, contact info, and wants/haves on the “Who’s here?” board.	Amy Jo Kim (Co-Founder & CEO, Shuffle Brain) gives a presentation on social gaming.
Mari Baker (President & CEO, PlayFirst) encourages small startups to innovate and capture market share.	Watch a video of Women 2.0’s “Social Gaming 101″ panel highlights on YouTube here.

This Women 2.0 event on social gaming was open to both women and men. Special thanks to Pillsbury for sponsoring this Women 2.0 event, and Shirley Lin (Founder, YoXi123) for driving the program and panel. Julie Blaustein provided event photography, and you can find pictures from the event here.

Watch a video of Women 2.0’s “Social Gaming 101″ panel highlights on YouTube here. Read More »

Female Founders to Watch in Social Gaming

In anticipation of the Women 2.0 event Social Gaming 101 for Fun and Profit on April 15, here are 6 women-founded social gaming startups to watch:

Amy Jo Kim (Co-Founder & CEO, Shufflebrain)
Shufflebrain builds smart games for a connected world. They’ve helped design games including Bejewelled 2, The Sims, and Rock Band. Follow Amy Jo on Twitter!

Emily Greer (Co-Founder & VP of Marketing & Finance, Kongregate)
Kongregate has thousands of free Flash games you can play online. Kongregate also allows users to upload games created in Adobe Flash or Director. Follow Emily on Twitter!

Shanna Tellerman (Founder & CEO, Wild Pockets)
Wild Pockets is building the next generation platform, designed for independent game developers. Follow Shanna on Twitter!

Sue Zann Toh (Co-Founder & CFO, TheBroth)
The Broth is the social game company that makes popular Facebook games, like Barn Buddy. Read Sue Zann’s blog!

Susan Wu (Co-Founder & CEO, Ohai)
Ohai builds massively multiplayer games for everyone. Ohai’s first game is the world’s first major MMO set in the dark world of modern vampires. Follow Susan on Twitter!

Terry Redfield (Founder & CEO, Real Life Plus)
Real Life Plus is creating a virtual world that is fun, immersive, and simple to use. Follow Real Life Plus on Twitter!

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

Tech, Gender, and the Future of Women #greenfest

Women 2.0’s Baat Enosh will be speaking on “Technology, Gender, & the Future of Women in Bay Area Industry” alongside Kaliya Hamlin (Facilitator, She’s Geeky Unconference), Sharon Vosmek (CEO, Astia), and Vivek Wadhwa (Senior Research Associate, Harvard Law School) at the Green Festival on Sunday, April 11th, 2010. The panel starts at 3pm in the SF Concourse Exhibition Center. For more info, click here.

Request your Geeks On A Plane (GOAP) app!

Geeks On A Plane is returning to Asia with a tour that kicks off at the Shanghai World Expo and moves on to Beijing, Seoul and Singapore.

There are only 20 spaces available for the core GOAP group traveling together from San Francisco. But all invited are welcome to join up with GOAP locally at each or all of the cities we visit.

Want to attend?
Request your invitation here.

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

Updated on March 20, 2010 — Baat Enosh from Women 2.0 shares her story from SXSW.

“It was quite the attraction. There wasn’t a woman who walked by (and lots of men too) who didn’t stop to see what it’s all about,” said Baat. Ranging from research to mailing lists, the organizations who participated provide a wide spectrum of tools to raise awareness for women in technology (or lack there of..).

Conversations on the topic of women in tech (both spontaneous and at the panels) addressed the entire pipeline — from teaching K-12 about creating technology (”Duh, it’s like tech for girls”) to finding out “What guys are doing to get more girls in tech”. Some were more useful than others, but at least it is clear that there is a discussion taking place. And many are involved in it! It was refreshing to see the collaboration by the different “women in tech” organizations.

Special thanks to Kaliya Hamlin for such a great initiative. Echoing the thoughts of Sharon Vosmek of Astia: We are all a part of a movement. No one is going to move the needle alone. We need to work with each other to get big results.

Female Founders to Watch in Mobile

The recent 2010 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and the Mobile Premier Awards brought together the global mobile community from carriers to handset manufacturers — and the application developers. The most interesting to Women 2.0 are the innovative startups.

Here are 5 (women-founded) mobile startups making waves around the world to watch:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Debriefing 2010 Mobile World Congress (Barcelona)

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

Save 20% on tickets to Startup Lessons Learned

Startup Lessons Learned unites those interested in what it takes to succeed in building a lean startup. On Friday, April 23rd, 2010 in San Francisco, Startup Lessons Learned will give practitioners and students of the lean startup methodology the opportunity to hear insights from leaders in embracing and deploying the core principles of the lean startup methodology.

Women speakers at Startup Lessons Learned are:
» Erin McKean (Co-Founder and CEO, Wordnik)
» Rashmi Sinha (Co-Founder and CEO, SlideShare)
» Clara Shih (Founder and CEO, Hearsay Labs)
» Cindy Alvarez (Product Manager, KISSmetrics)
» Laura Klein (Principal, Users Know)

Women 2.0 members save 20% on Startup Lessons Learned tickets with discount code “WOMEN2″. Read More »

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

Ideas are a dime a dozen - how do you know which startup idea to focus on for success?

That was exactly what we had in mind when putting together the two-day workshop “Will it launch?” in February 2010, led by serial entrepreneurs David Weekly (Founder & CEO, PBworks) and Poornima Vijayashanker (Founding Engineer, Mint) who communicated their battle plan to quickly assess and iterate on startup ideas.

How to make people more comfortable? Get out of their “shells” and expand beyond their comfort zone on day one so they make instant bonds and connections and perhaps find co-founders or make friendships?

SFimprov, a local amateur group, came up with a solution: Improv! We invited BATS pro improviser Kasey Klemm who taught everyone first thing in the morning how to connect, fail, brainstorm and get to know one another.

We all had tons of fun doing improv, and the energy created sustained us through the weekend.

Our keynote speakers David and Poornima shared their personal journeys and startup experiences and stayed late into Saturday night’s wine & cheese social hours to answer numerous Q&A and listen to personal startup/business cases.

Equipped with theory and business case examples from Day 1, we moved into Day 2 with practical application. We were focused on formulating a business idea into a clear and concise 3-minute pitch. Industry experts came to assist with concept and pitch practice - Betty Kayton, Dave McClure, David Ulevitch, Jorge Calderon, Rashmi Sinha and Saad Khan.

After we had enough practice, we gathered again for improv to get the energy up before the night finale - Pitch to the juries Betty Kayton, Dave McClure, David Ulevitch and Rashmi Sinha. This “Improv for presentation” workshop was led by another BATS pro Lisa Rowland with a bit of contribution from Dave McClure. Once again, energy up, lots of smiling faces and we are ready to go.

We had about 40 pitches that afternoon. All received feedback and thought this experience was invaluable. Our attendees who came from NYC and LA appreciated an opportunity to meet with like-minded people, the majority of whom were females and industry leaders. Our panel of experts were impressed with the quality of ideas, pitches and level of preparation!

This is what one of the participants had to say: “[Thanks for] providing a place to meet like-minded individuals. We keep in touch with a number of the women we met at the event. We are awed and inspired by each and every one of them,” said Sognya Kesler.

Special thanks to Brent Tam who recorded the workshop! Videos are below:

Deadlines for Founder Institute applications coming up!

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

Apply to Paris! (Deadline to apply is Sunday, March 7th, 2010)
Apply to Singapore / Southeast Asia! (Deadline to apply is Sunday, March 7th, 2010)
Apply to San Diego / Orange County! (Deadline to apply is Friday, March 26th, 2010)
Apply to Denver / Boulder! (Deadline to apply is Sunday, April 4th, 2010)

Women 2.0 supports the Startup Visa Movement

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

To support the Startup Visa movement, Shaherose Charania of Women 2.0 went to Washington DC in February 2010 to be political!

Founded by Eric Ries, Dave McClure, Shervin Pishevar, Brad Feld, Paul Kedrosky, Manu Kumar, and Fred Wilson, Startup Visa raises awareness and affects policy regarding the EB-5 visa, which enables investors from other countries to get a visa in exchange for starting a business in the US with $1M in capital (or $500K for economically targeted areas) and the creation of at least 10 US jobs.

In fact, the tech companies of Google, Yahoo!, and Paypal have one thing in common: Immigrant Founders.

More startup founders, more female founders. Read More »

Innovate!2010 searches for most promising startups

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

Partner event: GigaOm’s Green:Net 2010

Green:Net 2010 can help you understand how the tools, technologies and innovators of the IT and Internet revolution can be harnessed to further the green agenda. It is where green and IT meet. Alternative energy gets lots of attention at most green conferences. The GigaOM Network’s Green:Net, is unlike other green technology conferences, offering a specific view on how the computing and Internet revolutions will provide the tools needed to fight climate change.

Women 2.0 members save $100 on Green:Net tickets by registering here. Green:Net 2010 is Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco. Read More »

Join us February 14-16 for mobile mania in Europe

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

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

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

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

Discounts for O’Reilly Conferences Where 2.0 & MySQL

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

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

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

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

DEMO Spring 2010: Application Deadline 1/18

DEMO is interested in market-ready products, alpha-stage products as well as business plan only initiatives. Contact Matt Marshall (DEMO Executive Producer) or go to www.demo.com for more info and application forms. January 18, 2010 is the deadline to apply to launch or pitch at DEMO Spring 2010.

If you have a product in any stage of development in one of the following vertical segments, DEMO wants to hear from you! DEMO Spring 2010 gives you a first-of-its-kind opportunity to present in one of seven industry-specific launch categories: Social and Media, Health and Life Sciences, Clean and Sustaining Technologies, Cloud, Enterprise, Mobile, and Consumer. Read More »

Founder Showcase by TheFunded.com (1/14)

Thanks to the Women 2.0 community, we more than doubled the number of women entrepreneurs who applied to the The Founders Institute program (compared to the previous semester).

Women 2.0 members save 15% off ticket price by registering here.

The next event, The Founder Showcase on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 5:30pm will be held at Sun Microsystems in Santa Clara, CA by TheFunded.com — This is an open startup pitch and networking event that highlights the newest cutting-edge businesses and helps innovators gain traction among the Silicon Valley elite. Read More »

Women 2.0’s Female Founder Successes of 2009

This has been perhaps one of the more challenging years we’ve seen. Still, we’ve been celebrating successes on Twitter at @women2 and below.

Are you a female founder with a success to celebrate in 2009? Join the list - here’s how:

Give us a sentence description of your accomplishment(s) in 2009, your full name, company name, and company link or relevant article to foundrtickr@women2.org. This list of Female Founders is limited to founders of technology companies (defined as a company with an engineer on the founding team). A “success” for this list is a company launch, significant product launch, significant milestone reached, funding received or similar success.

Catarina Fake (Co-Founder, Hunch; prev. Co-Founder, Flickr) launches Hunch! (more)

Clara Shih (Founder, Hearsay Labs: Author of bestselling book “The Facebook Era”) launches Internet company Hearsay Labs! (more)

Patricia Araque (Founder, Ellas 2.0) builds a local team and launches Women 2.0’s Official Sister Chapter for Europe Ellas 2.0! (more)

Leila Chirayath Janah (Founder & CEO, Samasource) launches an iPhone app to give work to refugees in the largest camp in the world! (more)

Susan Wu (Founder & CEO, Ohai) launches an online gaming startup is chosen as one of Silicon Valley’s 10 most influential people by San Jose Mercury News! (more)

Poornima Vijayashanker (Founding Engineer, Mint) cashes out with Mint, which sold to Intuit for $170M earlier this year, and is now starting her own startup! (more)

Shinyoung Park (Founder, Funji) wins fbFund and launches official service! (more)

Pokin Yeung (Founder, GeckoGo) joins fbFund and relaunches Travel Brain - currently the #1 app for sharing rich travel experiences on Facebook! (more)

Shanna Tellerman (Founder & CEO, WildPockets) raises $3M from SK Telecom and Levensohn Venture Partners! (more)

Helen Zhu (Co-Founder & CEO, Chictopia) and Corinne Chan (Co-Founder & CTO, Chictopia) become profitable and launch national campaigns for retailers like Topshop! (more)

Dianna Mullins (Co-Founder & SVP, Glam Media) raises another round of funding and launches Tinker, a micro-blog ad network! (more)

Maria Ly (Co-Founder, Skimble) goes out on a limb with the Founder Institute and launches Skimble! (more)

Hope Scultz (Founder, WebVet; Women 2.0 PITCH 2008 Finalist) launches with Microsoft! (more)

Danae Ringlemen (Founder, IndieGoGo) becomes #1 crowd-funding platform for film and opens up to music, art, design, new ventures & other creative ideas! (more)

Julie Greenberg (Founder, Jobnob) launches JobNob to connect and empower the job-seeker market! (more)

Alexa Andrzejewski (Founder, Foodspotting; Women 2.0 Jumpstart Your Startup Graduate) launches Foodspotting Alpha in November 2009 with over 3750 foods spotted! (more)

Maria Sipka (Founder, Linqia) launches platform with 230 social networks registering! (more)

Arielle Scott (VP Marketing, Indinero) and Jessica Mah (Founder, Indinero) launch accounting software for small business! (more)

Silvia Console Battilana (Co-Founder, Auctionomics) launches auction software company with world auction expert Paul Milgrom! (more)

Alexis Ringwald (Co-Founder & Director of Business Development, Valence Energy) launches Valence (more)

Suzanne Xie (Co-Founder & CEO, Weardrobe) gets acquired by Like.com in November 2009 and is also a winner of the 2009 fbFund competition. (more)

Susan Kang and Joyce Kim (Co-Founders, Soompi) launch fan clubs! (more)

Huijun Zhou Ring (CEO, YiGene/5iDNA) brings happiness of DNA service to 1 billion Chinese! (more)

Jane Nu Zhang (President, Silk Wings Aviation) reads a book, takes a flight lesson, and starts Silk Wings Aviation! (more)

Laura Fitton (Founder, One Forty) launches and raises $2.4M! (more)

Claire Boonstra (Founder, Layar) leads the mobile world with Augmented Reality with Layar, later in the year mashes up with location-based advertising! (more)

Travis Alber (Founder, BookGlutton) launches e-commerce on e-book social network! (more)

Anju Mathew (Co-Founder, LumaMed; Women 2.0’s Pitch 2009 Winner) cuts health care costs and saves people from skin cancer with the launch of LumaMed! (more)

Charisse McAuliffe (Founder, GenGreenLife; PITCH 2009 Finalist) merges with Vancouver based 3rdWhale Mobile and launches the ‘Find Green’ mobile app across 3 platforms! (more)

Rashmi Sinha (Founder & CEO, Slideshare) launches SlideShare for businesses - premium services for the SlideShare community! (more)

Mathilde Pignol (Founder, ZipZap Play) attracts cute animals, users and revenue with the launch of Happy Habitat! (more)

Ninas Alastruey (Founder, The Channer) launches to bring long-tail TV content to your mobile phone, and moves from Barcelona to Silicon Valley! (more)

Shruti Challa and Amara Humphry (Co-Founders, Tribal Atmosphere) launch Tribal Atmosphere (GoTribal) and GoHappi! (more)

Jessica Emmerich (Founder, The Dead Hub/The Live Hub AKA “The Hubs”) launches social media marketing site and grows reader base at her music media site, The Dead Hub! (more)

Priya Narasimhan (Founder & CEO, YinzCam) builds mobile live streaming solutions for other sports fans as well as mobile 311 apps to help city governments and empower residents! (more)

Natalie Gordon (Co-Founder, Lenguajero) launches language learning community where people meet to practice conversational Spanish and English! (more)

Shaherose Charania (Co-Founder, Women 2.0) cashes out a little with Telefonica’s acquisition of JAJAH where she was Director of Product Management and Marketing! (more)

Rachael Chong (Founder & CEO, Catchafire) completes pilot program for web-based service connecting volunteering professionals with non-profits that need skilled volunteers! (more)

Leah Busque (Founder, RunMyErrand) develops 100% of the website, which helps individuals and SMBs in a community outsource their tasks and deliveries! (more)

Michelle Bonat (Founder & CEO, RumbaFish) launches at DEMO and is named top 10 most innovative app companies by IDC! (more)

Andrea Chang (Co-Founder & CEO) and Gabi Barragan (Co-Founder & COO, Braingig) connect graduate students in the sciences with those seeking their expertise! (more)

Danielle Fong (Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, LightSailEnergy) raises funding for inexpensive, efficient energy storage systems in the plan to make the world’s electrical grid green! (more)

Suzanne Perkins (Co-Founder & CEO, Answers for Elders) receives funding and builds private beta for social site and portal targeting boomers seeking answers for their elderly parents! (more)

Maria Trullàs (Founder & CEO, Cuponeo) launches free mobile coupons in Barcelona via SMS in July 2009 and will soon launch in other main Spanish cities! (more)

Arlyn Davich (Founder & CEO, PayPerks) launches perks platform rewarding usage of paperless payment solutions, wins Columbia Business School Lang Fund for Entrepreneurship! (more)

Christine Lemke (Co-Founder & COO, Sense Networks) raises another round of funding from Intel Capital for one of the world’s most intriguing startups according to BusinessWeek! (more)

Jennie Lees (Founder, Affect Labs) launches FestBuzz this year for her Edinburgh-based data intelligence startup! (more)

Six months pregnant, Michelle Crames (Co-Founder & CEO, giiv) raises seed funding from Eric Schmidt, launches, then raises Series A when her daughter is 3 months old! (more)

Victoria Ransom (Founder & CEO, Wildfire) leads Wildfire to profitability in a year, builds an impressive client list, and wins FbFund twice! (more)

Jen McCabe (Founder & CEO, Contagion Health) launches Get Up and Move!, a social motivation app and microfitness exchange on Twitter! (more)

Emily Greer (Co-Founder, Kongregate) reaches 20k games uploaded, 8 million monthly unique visitors, and launches Konduit app platform for social games! (more)

Vicki Saunders (Founder & CEO, Zazengo) works with Walmart on a global employee-engagement program using Zazengo’s white-label platform and launches Facebook app Hopenhagen! (more)

Unha Engels (Co-Founder & Creative Director, Curious Brain) launches guitar learning app which shot to top 5 in app store’s music category within a few weeks and still remains in top 10! (more)

Margot Eiran (Founder & CEO, HomeEnergySaver) launches! (more)

Julia Hartz (Co-Founder and President, Eventbrite) secures $6.5M in funding from Sequoia Capital and welcomes Roelof Botha to the board of directors! (more)

Jessica Jackley and Dana Mauriello (Co-Founders, ProFounder) launch in August to help SMBs raise seed and growth capital through crowdfunding! (more)

Christina Brodbeck (Co-Founder & CEO, Pickv & Founding Team Member, YouTube) launches Pickv in alpha and angel invests in Heyzap! (more)

Annie Chang (Co-Founder, Lolapps) launches social gaming platform of games and applications on Facebook, entertaining over 44M unique users per month! (more)

Stephanie Renda (Founder & CEO of a German-American startup in mobile b2b apps) receives funding and launches apps, including MemberScout for Lufthansa frequent flyers program! (more)

Caroline Dahllöf and Carolyn Uy (Co-Founders, Lyn And Line) launch educational story apps for pre-school kids for Android and iPhone, starting with The Rescue of Ginger! (more)

Kelly Fitzsimmons (Co-Founder & CEO, HarQen) raises $2.7M and successfully launches VoiceScreener - TiVo(TM) for interviews) - to the staffing and recruiting space! (more)

Laura Valverde García (Co-Founder & CEO, Beecoder) launches software development company making Ruby on Rails apps, the last product integrating Shopify with Facebook! (more)

Michele Colucci (Founder & CEO, MyLawsuit) launches social empowerment network connecting those who have lawsuits with lawyers who take their cases for contingency fees! (more)

Diana Hage (CEO, RFID Global Solution; Founder, Quantum Leap Technologies) launches Visi-Trac software for real time visibility of assets and supply chains, and grows 30% in 2009! (more)

Promise Phelon (Founder & CEO, UpMo) raises over $2M in private investment and creates strategic channel partnerships for online career management service! (more)

Tina Bean (Co-Founder & VP of Sales and Marketing, VisiStat) launches product for her real-time analytics company that provides B2B Website Caller ID, called LeadCaster! (more)

Keara Schwartz (Founder & President, Share Some Sugar) launches online service that finds someone in your neighborhood willing to lend you something that you need! (more)

Cathy Edwards (Co-Founder & CTO, Chomp) worked on an app to show users relevant & personalized iPhone apps; officially announced on January 6, 2010! (more)

Other Related Awesomeness:

Sarah Allen and Sarah Mei (Co-Founders, RailsBridge) launch free Ruby classes with SF Ruby and taught over 200 women and girls (and some men!) how to program in Ruby! (more)

Wendy Lea (CEO, Get Satisfaction) joins Get Satisfaction and talks to Women 2.0! (more)

Rebecca Weeks Watson (Founding executive, Real Girls Network) grows RGM to over 5M monthly users, and joins the founding executive team of gWallet! (more)

Maya Baratz (Product Manager, MTV) joins MTV and writes for the Huffington Post! (more)

Emily Goligoski (Strategic Programs Manager, Federated Media) joins FM and launches Ignite for Women Innovators — and also starts writing for the Huffington Post! (more)

Jazmin Hupp (Web Sales & Marketing, Tekserve) launches Tekserve’s Web Store, bringing NYC’s famous Mac & iPod dealer online! (more)

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)

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.