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02/21/12 | Uncategorized

The Coolest Startups In America (Featuring Women Entrepreneurs)

By Doreen Bloch (Author, The Coolest Startups in America)
I am ecstatic to debut on Women 2.0 the launch of my first book, The Coolest Startups in America.

Women 2.0 is a revered space online to inform people about accomplishments by women in the startup community; through my book, I bring a similar mission to the offline world – informing mainstream audiences, who may be new to the world of innovation, all about the incredible startups all around the US and why they should care.

I left Financial Services six months ago to create The Coolest Startups in America. Why write a book on startups? Let me explain.

First, while I was busy participating in the amazing startup community (specifically, helping at SecondMarket with the auctions for stocks of Facebook Inc. and other top private companies), my friends in traditional industries would always ask me: “What’s the next big thing?” Some of them had heard of TechCrunch or VentureBeat, but keeping up with thousands of blog posts every month was overwhelming to them and the technical jargon too intimidating.

After a bit of research, I saw that there were no compact resources introducing people to the startup scene and giving them the need-to-know details: which startups are noteworthy, why are they cool, and how do you use them. I wrote The Coolest Startups in America to be that guide — it’s the book for seasoned executives to take on their next business trips, as well as the book for new and willing technophiles whose interests are piqued by entrepreneurship.

Each startup in my book is wow-worthy. The Coolest Startups in America organizes these upstarts into fun, topical categories (like “Super Heroes” for the social-minded startups and “Lean Machines” for all the startups related to productivity) and includes dozens of interviews with startup CEOs, government officials, entrepreneur thought-leaders, academics and more.

The second reason I wanted to write this book was to share my ideas on entrepreneurship. Did you know that women write only about 10% of the world’s top business books? More troubling, the ratio has been stagnant for over 15 years, despite the gains women have made in the workplace. In fact, last month, there were no women writers on the Business best-seller lists at all.

I believe growing the number of women in business thought-leadership will help with the effort to bring more women to corporate leadership. After all, ideas shape businesses, and if women’s ideas on business do not reaching top mindshare, how will women reach the top of business ranks? Women 2.0 is a critical outlet for growing the female voice within business literature. I hope that my book, beyond bettering the ratio of female bylines on business books over the coming months, will also inspire more women business writers… and founders.

I could not finish this post without giving you a hint of some of the incredible female founders whose companies are included in The Coolest Startups in America. Of course, Leah Busque’s TaskRabbit is featured. I absolutely loved interviewing Busque; she is inspiring. You’ll have to pick up a copy of the book to read her sage advice on creating marketplace businesses.

The Coolest Startups in America will also introduce you to Sarah McIlroy, the founder of Fashion Playtes, who started her business after leaving a secure job while leading a household with three young children. Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey launched biotech startup 23andMe, Adriann Wanner founded evoJets, Jennifer Hyman and Jenny Fleiss created the fabulous Rent the Runway, and Rachael Chong of Catchafire and Lesley Pyle of Hire My Mom are also included. That’s a pretty awesome lineup and I can’t wait to write future editions of The Coolest Startups in America where more of you will be spotlighted.

Pick up a copy of The Coolest Startups in America for yourself and a friend today. It retails on Amazon.com for $18.00 in Paperback and $9.99 on Kindle. If you have any questions, leave comments below and I’ll try to answer them. Thank you for your support and I hope you’ll love Volume 1 of The Coolest Startups in America!

Editor’s note: Got a question for our guest blogger? Leave a message in the comments below.
About the guest blogger: Doreen Bloch is the author of The Coolest Startups in America, and Founder and CEO of Poshly (launching in 2012). Doreen is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, where she was awarded the Jack Larson Fellowship for Entrepreneurship & Innovation. Doreen is a member of the Young Entrepreneur Council, and she regularly contributes to Forbes Women, The Huffington Post and more. Follow her on Twitter at @DoreenBloch.

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