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12/06/11 | Uncategorized

3 Tips for Entrepreneurial Women Starting High-Growth Companies

By Shaherose Charania (Co-Founder & CEO, Women 2.0)

Always wanted to be your own boss? Want to be part of the solution and create jobs to boost our economy? Entrepreneurs are America’s greatest asset.

Only by thinking and big with your idea can you build a mammoth company that will create hundreds of much-needed jobs.

Here are 3 tips for entrepreneurial women starting high-growth companies:

#1: Think Big

For example, thinking of building a marketplace for dog owners? Instead, think of building a platform for dog owners, parents who walk children on leashes and in strollers, people who like (insert name of esoteric hobby/lifestyle here)… These interests and small cohorts of people are service by what we call “verticals” and this system that can service all these verticals is called a “platform.” If you build a site for a limited group of people, you won’t be able to grow your business to hire all your friends and their friends.

We at Women 2.0 champion high-growth, high-technology companies. What we mean by high-growth is that the sky is the limit and you shouldn’t limit yourself to just creating a product for a small group of people. You can release your alpha/beta product to a small group, but you should always have the vision of conquering the world with your company.

#2: Do Your Homework

Have you read “Business Model Generation?” Know what the gist of “Lean Startup?” Tested your genius idea with some “Customer Development?” Well, you should. If not, use that magical thing called Google to find out what these buzzwords mean — they’re the entrepreneurial terms of the century so don’t be left behind the times! You want to make sure you use the tried and true ways of starting up. For example, Women 2.0 provides daily knowledge on women-led startups — from tips and tricks, to founder stories. Go ahead and subscribe now for your daily inspiration!

#3: Aim To Disrupt

“Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History” is a famous slogan and now a ubiquitous bumper sticker attributed to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. What this means is to be brave and go after that wild thought in your head — the thought that says “this current way of doing things is broken, and I want to fix it with my startup”. And don’t reinvent the wheel or create a new community website where we all have to sign up for a new account and fill out all this information. Look at the current way things are done, and see where things went wrong — and fix it exactly where it’s broken.

Again, “Business Model Generation” will help you see the big picture and disrupt the process with your new solution. Please don’t champion a new site or mobile app that requires everyone to sign up and invite 10 of your friends to do the same — you can utilize APIs and existing communities and data.

After you’ve successfully navigated these waters and created a working prototype for your startup, join Women 2.0 at the Women 2.0 5th Annual PITCH Conference on February 14, 2012 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.

This post was originally posted at The Young Entrepreneur Council. The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC promotes entrepreneurship as a solution to youth unemployment and underemployment and provides its members with access to tools, mentorship, and resources that support each stage of a business’s development and growth.

About the guest blogger: Shaherose Charania is the Co-Founder and CEO of Women 2.0. She is passionate about open innovation in mobile and telephony startups. She is currently running Founder Labs a pre-team, pre-idea incubator for new mobile startups. Follow her on Twitter at @shaherose.

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland

Anne-Gail Moreland, an intern with Women 2.0, was on the StartupBus. She studies neuroscience at Mount Holyoke College, where she is trying to merge a passion for tech and the brain into a new wave of cognition-based technology

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