Published on: January 23, 2012 Tags: Cleantech, Danielle Fong, Energy, Energy Storage, Forbes "30 Under 30", Iceland, Lightsail Energy, Nova Scotia, Regenerative Air Energy, Thiel 20 Under 20
By Danielle Fong (Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, LightSail Energy)
Editor’s note: LightSail Energy’s Danielle Fong will be speaking on February 14 at Women 2.0 PITCH Conference & Competition at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. Get your ticket here!
I’ve lived a lifetime this year. It sometimes feels as if so much is happening that one can feel however one chooses. Yet, sometimes, life gives you so much to feel happy about you can’t help but be overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude.
We’ve launched our new website, and finally revealed the technology that we’ve developed and we think is going to change the world — regenerative air energy storage!
LightSail set out to prove that the science of our regenerative air energy storage concept works, and we have answered Read More »
By Hadiyah Mujhid (Co-Founder, Black Founders)
A few weeks ago, I stumbled across an article in the Huffington Post, titled “Art Incubators: How Libraries Offer More Than Books.” The article highlights a project called Library as Incubator that focuses on using libraries as a community resource which support and allow collaboration with artists. The Library as Incubator Project appears to be focus on creative artists, but I believe the same project can be applied to tech entrepreneurs as well.
After reading the article, I was became interested in the possibilities of running a tech incubator from a library. As an bootstrapping entrepreneur, I’ve also taken advantage of coffee shops Read More »
By Karen Song (Developer, Women 2.0 Startup Weekend 2011)
Last weekend, I attended a Hosting Bootcamp in Los Angeles that kicked me into gear. I had originally signed up for Lean Startup Machine weekend, but due to room constraints, the venue was not able to accomodate my team and I decided to jet down to LA instead.
The experience proved to be extremely valuable – and I learned a lot of information that is helping the Stylematic team to deliver wonderful presentations and establish our brand. Incidentally, Stylematic had a slew of presentations due this week. We were invited to speak on a panel at Fashion and Tech SF as well as do a demo rehearsal pitch at Startup Monthly. Read More »
By Rich Schapiro (Reporter, New York Daily News)
When Ellie Cachette started pitching her tech startuup to West Coast investors two years ago, she expected to raise big bucks. Instead, all she got from the roughly 25 all-male investors she met with were dismissive looks and patronizing advice.
“I wouldn’t even finish my sentence, and they’d say I should be a nonprofit,” said Cachette, now 26, who was building a startup designed to help companies manage product recalls. “I found it impossible to raise money.”
So Cachette made a bold decision: She headed to New York to test the waters of the city’s burgeoning tech scene. Read More »
By Rip Empson (Writer, TechCrunch)
Startups and small businesses are the engine of job creation. In the U.S., companies less than five years old created 44 million jobs over the last three decades and, over that time, accounted for all net new jobs created in the U.S. — just ask the White House. Of course, you’d think from reading TechCrunch that all small businesses raise big funding from venture capital. Nope.
The majority don’t raise any kind of venture money or angel investment — most small business owners probably don’t even know any venture capitalists. Read More »
Published on: January 22, 2012 Tags: Astia, Sharon Vosmek, Women Entrepreneurs
By Sharon Vosmek (CEO, Astia)
We are delighted to announce our 2012 Call for Applications for the Astia Global Entrepreneur Program. Astia maintains an unparalleled success rate for the companies it serves and your outreach and referrals play a critical role in propelling women–led innovation.
Please pass along the following information to women–led high–growth startups who you believe can benefit from the access to expertise, capital and opportunity that the Astia global offering provides. Read More »
By Liz Marley (Senior Software Test Pilot, The Omni Group)
“You should get involved in Open Source. It’ll help you network, and practice your skills, and bolster your resumé. And we need more women in Open Source.”
To which I think “Hmm… that sounds complicated, and I don’t know where to start and I’m busy and I’ll get around to it someday.”
Well, Someday showed up yesterday afternoon. I’d like to talk about two reasons why I think Someday showed up, and then I’ll tell you how it went. Read More »
By Leena Rao (Reporter, TechCrunch)
The subscription commerce market is heating up with Birch Box, Kiwi Crate, and others all offering various takes on the monthly box model.
Today, 500 Startups company Love With Food is launching its subscription model, which offers a monthly box to users with tasty, gourmet samples of food.
Here’s how it works. Through monthly sample boxes, which are $14 per month with free shipping, Love With Food includes 5 or more gourmet tasty bites. The model gives people a way to find and taste samples of new foods before they buy full-size orders. Read More »
By Joanne Wilson (Blogger & Angel Investor, Gotham Gal)
I love this post because it was sent to me from a young man who was behind the camera, not an attendee and not a woman. It is a great read…and I thank Dekunle for sending this to me:
I’m a 22 year-old male and the women’s entrepreneurship festival that took place at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Program last Wednesday turned out to be a huge source of inspiration for me. I hope I don’t lose an street credibility for that statement but let me preface my thoughts on the event by explaining exactly why Read More »
By Oscia Wilson (Founder & CEO, Boiled Architecture)
Five months ago, I became an entrepreneur. After pulling the trigger on my dream, I wanted to learn from and bond with other women who had made their own leaps of faith. Strangely enough, I had a hard time finding a conference or retreat in California that wasn’t specifically for tech startups or venture capital funded structures. This didn’t seem right to me. Don’t the rest of us also need to round out our skills, find mentors, and get support?
So I took it upon myself to organize just such an event. The Retreat for Entrepreneurial Women is a three-day event Read More »
Published on: January 20, 2012 Tags: Crunchies, TechCrunch, Ticket Giveaway, Twitter
By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
WIN A FREE TICKET to the Crunchies Awards. Join us this year for the Crunchies, awarded on January 31 in San Francisco.
Here’s how to win a free ticket to “the Oscars for the Internet”:
Step 1: Follow us on Twitter at @women2
Step 2: Tweet this from your Twitter account:
Read More »
Published on: January 20, 2012 Tags: Friday Roundup
By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
This week, we watched SOPA protests literally black out the Internet while the #wefestival tweets allowed a glimpse into a powerhouese event in New York. Meanwhile in San Francisco, the Health Innovation Summit demonstrated that a gender-balanced tech conference speaker rosters can be done – without women objectified as booth babes – ahem, CES. Moving forward – please nominate your favorite social entrepreneur for BusinessWeek’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs. Catch Women 2.0 on February 3 at a Founder Friday near you, and on Valentine’s Day for the PITCH Conference at the Computer History Museum! Read More »
Published on: January 20, 2012 Tags: Alt12 Apps, Amy Sheng, Angie Chang, Anne DeGheest, Cellscope, Curious, Elation, Habit Labs, halle tecco, Health Innovation Summit, HealthTech, HealthTech Capital, Jen McCabe, Jennifer Wong, Julia Hu, Kyna Fong, LARK, Linda Avey, LUMOback, Maria Ly, Monisha Perkash, rock health, Skimble
By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
Rock Health hosted the 2012 Health Innovation Summit in San Francisco this week, showcasing a remarkably gender-balanced set of interdisciplinary innovators in the burgeoning health/tech space.
As keynote speaker Mitch Kapor stated, “It is possible to go up the learning curve yourself without the basics of the domain you’re in.” The health tech space is still very new, he reminded the audience, and recommended for early entrepreneurs to educate yourself of the ecosystem, overcome your fears and find a way to “dive in” – find advisors that know about the space, can help you learn, and figure out how to build the right partnerships. Read More »
By BJ Wishinsky (Community Manager, Anita Borg Institute for Women in Technology)
The 12th annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC) has opened its Call for Participation.
The annual conference, presented by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, is the world’s largest gathering of women in computing.
The Grace Hopper Celebration will take place from October 3 – 6, 2012 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland.
This year’s theme “Are We There Yet?” Read More »
Published on: January 20, 2012 Tags: AboutOne, CES, Joanne Lang, Tip & Tricks, Tradeshow
By Joanne Lang (Founder & CEO, AboutOne)
I spent the last week in Las Vegas, promoting the announcement of AboutOne’s latest release at the Consumer Electronics Association’s (CEA) 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
We chose to attend CES for our announcement because it’s the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow and attracts the “who’s who” of the technology industry. This conference provided us with myriad opportunities to connect with traditional and new media, potential partners, and prospective customers. As I wait for my red-eye flight home, I want to share my lessons learned about being an exhibitor at this amazing event. Read More »
Published on: January 19, 2012
By Jennifer Turliuk (Founder, Founder2Founder)
After about 4 months spent in the San Francisco Bay Area getting to know the entrepreneurial scene, it hit me.
If you name almost any famous tech entrepreneur in the Valley, during my time here, I’ve either seen them speak and met them in person, had a meeting one-on-one with them and interviewed them to learn from them, or spent between 1-5 days shadowing them. And then I realized – not everyone in the world has had this opportunity. But maybe they’d like to hear about it.
So I started writing about my experiences Read More »
Published on: January 19, 2012
Watch as the Top Finalists of the 2012 Women 2.0 PITCH Startup Competition present LIVE –
Ten teams with at least one female co-founder will take the stage on February 14 at the Women 2.0 PITCH Conference and present their best pitch in front of a panel of investors for prizes. Read More »
By Brittany Haas (Co-Founder, Something Borrowed NY)
I am miserable since I’m missing out on the #wefestival going on right now. I was accepted…and elated! What a wonderful opportunity to learn from my idols and meet with other aspiring entrepreneurs.
Unfortunately, I’m heading off to Paris on Friday with my full-time company for market. We’ve been swamped here (…we’re talking 9am-1am days swamped) and it would be totally irresponsible of me to take off a day, just two days before we jump on a plane and have 2 full on crazy, busy weeks.
Enter the boo/hisses here… I know… nobody feels bad Read More »
By Sonia Kapadia (Founder & CEO, Taste Savant)
While I’ve been working on my startup, I’ve received a lot of advice, some good, and some bad. One of the pieces of advice most people mention is to “move fast.”
Time is of the essence and everyday that you haven’t launched is an opportunity for your competition to get stronger, and a lost opportunity to learn from your users. And so, that’s what I’ve been doing — moving fast.
Here is the downside to moving fast, you make a lot of mistakes. Here is the upside, you learn from those mistakes quickly and move Read More »
Published on: January 19, 2012 Tags: Boston, Dave McClure, Facebook Fund, fbFund, Four Hour Work Week, Leah Busque, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Startup Lessons Learned, TaskRabbit, Tim Ferriss
By Leah Busque (Founder, TaskRabbit)
Editor’s note: Vote Leah Busque for TechCrunch’s Founder of the Year!
It was Friday and it had been a long week. I was back in Boston after spending the last two weeks in Palo Alto, participating in the Facebook Fund program (fbFund).
Over the past 12 weeks, in fact, I was flying back and forth between Boston and San Francisco, alternating weeks on each coast. My company TaskRabbit (RunMyErrand.com at the time) was up and running in Boston, and I was splitting my time between the two cities in order to get the most out of the fbFund incubator program while continuing to grow my business in Boston. Read More »
By Anna Billstrom (Developer, Momentus Media)
At first, doing a “Hello World” was quite easy.
The hardest part was learning Eclipse (for Mac):
- Open Eclipse and don’t worry about opening a project, on the left hand side will be all of your “workspace” projects.
- Running (the play button) does an automatic build.
- Mouseover red squiggly underlines to find build errors.
I lost one of my panes, and that took forever to learn how to open again. Read More »
By Alicia Liu (Product Manager/Mobile Developer, Select Start)
You’re probably frustrated by Stop SOPA Day today, your work is going slow because Wikipedia is blacked out, and you can’t amuse yourself because Reddit is out too, and you’ve already signed Google’s petition, what’s left to do? You can read about another reason to despise the big media companies (if trying to censor the Internet wasn’t reason enough).
I finally watched the Sundance documentary Miss Representation. Everyone should watch this. Girls, boys, women, and men.
Read More »
By Clara Brenner & Julie Lein (Co-Chairs, MIT Sloan Women in Management Conference)
We make up 3% of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Our startups secure only 9% of venture capital funding. And we still earn, on average, 76 cents for every dollar a man earns for the same job. Overwhelmingly, women are not rising to the top.
The theme of the 2012 MIT Sloan Women in Management Conference is “innovating through adversity.” In addition to celebrating the successes of women, the conference will pose hard-hitting questions about the systemic gender inequalities that still exist in business today. Read More »
Published on: January 18, 2012 Tags: Black Founders, Lobbying, Nnena Ukuku, Stop SOPA
By Nnena Ukuku (Co-Founder, Black Founders)
I encourage everyone to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). However, we can not consider our “duty” done to society if SOPA does not pass — we must push on.
The tech community must become more involved in politics past SOPA. Otherwise, the tech community will be fighting many more battles greater than SOPA with varying degrees of success.
Read More »
By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
Editor’s note: Christina Brodbeck will a judge on February 14, 2012 at the Women 2.0 PITCH Conference – get your ticket now!
Ezebis‘s Pemo Theodore interviewed Christina Brodbeck about angel investing and startups. The full interview is on Ezebis but we’ve extracted the parts about angel investing, women-led ventures and how to get into an accelerator program below:
Ezebis: I know that you’re an investor as well as an entrepreneur. Could you tell me what you’re interested in Read More »
