Editor
Know a female founder or leader who had a significant accomplishment this year? Nominate them for our 2013 successes list!
By Jessica Schimm (Editorial Assistant, Women 2.0)
This year has been a big year for women in tech. Microsoft appointed a female as the head of the Xbox division, Twitter added a woman to its board of directors after lots of chatter, GM just announced its first female CEO, Marissa Mayer helped grow Yahoo to 800 million monthly active users, attracting more US visitors than Google Inc during July, and that’s only the big companies.
In the startup sphere there is also lots to celebrate! Coursera received $43 million in funding, Eventbrite hit $2B in ticket sales since they started in 2006, PITCH finalist Tiny Post got acquired by Trip Advisor, and Shapeways aligned with mega brand Victoria’s Secret (to name a few).
As the year wraps up, we want to reflect on the success of the female founders and female leaders that are apart of our own community. So nominate a friend or yourself, and help us inspire our community as we head into the New Year.
Are you a female founder or a female leader with a success to celebrate in 2013? Or know of someone?
To join the list of successes, send an email to [email protected] with:
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A 140-character description of an accomplishment in 2013.
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Your full name, startup name or company/organization name, and title.
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Your headshot, a link to your company/startup website, and your Twitter handle (if you have one).
How do I qualify to make the Women 2.0 list of female founder successes?
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You must be a female founder of a technology company, defined as a company with an engineer/technologist on the founding team, or a female leader within the margins of tech.
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A “success” for this list is a company launch, significant product launch, significant milestone reached, angel/venture funding received, admitted to a company board, or similar success.
Female founders and female leaders in tech with successes to celebrate:
Liz Derr (Founder and CEO, Simularity, Inc.)
Launched new big data visual analytics app, finalist in three startup challenges, named a Cool Vendor by CRN, and earned first revenue. Follow her at @LizDerr.
Kathy Tafel (Founder and Principal Engineer, Corpus Collusion)
The Recipe Box just became the #1 paid app in the Food & Drink category on the iPad App Store. We are three women bootstrapping. Follow he at @kathytafel.
Shomila Malik (Head of The Lab at O2/Telefonica UK)
Malik became the first female innovation/technology boss at Telefonica (O2) UK this year and was featured in The Sun’s Fabulous magazine as a Tech pioneer and golden skirt. Follow her at @shomila.
Lynda Brown-Ganzert (Founder & CEO)
Launched mobile health platform that helps patients help each other get better, faster, together using the power of networks and peer support. Follow her @LyndaBrownYVR.
Alison Johnston Rue, (Cofounder & CEO, InstaEDU)
Brought InstaEDU out of beta and announced a $4 million Series A round of funding to help grow InstaEDU’s online tutoring business. Follow her at @ajalison.
Heather Payne (Founder, Ladies Learning Code & HackerYou)
In 2013, Heather Payne – founder of Ladies Learning Code & HackerYou – was named one of Canada’s 100 Most Powerful Women: http://qrt.ca/bgk. Follow her at @heatherpayne.
Laura Michelle Berman (Co-Founder, Melon)
Wearable EEG Melon funded on Kickstarter. More than $1M raised in crowdfunding + angel/vc. IDEO Startup in Res. Boston 25 Under 25. CSQ NextGen10. Follow her at @thelauraberman.
Katie Couric (Global News Anchor, Yahoo!)
Longtime journalist and television host Katie Couric will take the title of Global News Anchor at tech giant Yahoo! Follow her at @katiecouric.
Mary Barra (CEO, General Motors)
Barra will become the CEO of General Motors in January. This makes her the first “female leader of a global automaker.” Follow her at @mtbarra.
Kim Jabal (Board Member, FedEx)
Jabal, who is the CFO of Path and oversees the company’s legal and human resources functions, joined the the board of FedEx in December.
Lara Fitch (Founder & CEO, Strolby)
Launched Strolby, an e-commerce marketplace for distinctive indie shops. First market in Brooklyn & more to come. Follow her at @LaraFitch.
Melissa Thompson (Founder & CEO, TalkSession Inc.)
Launched TalkSession Inc., an online therapy company, in April 2013. Follow her at @bizmelizz.
Allison Lami Sawyer (Co-founder & CEO, Rebellion Photonics)
Won Wall Street Journal “Startup of the Year” and began full scale installations of their Gas Cloud Imaging camera for rig/refinery safety. Follow her at @Rebellionphoton.
Nicole Gardner (COO, Dormify)
Our start-up @dormify closed $2.125M in seed funding in 2013. Follow her at @nicolemgardner.
Majorie Scardino (Board Member, Twitter)
Earlier this December, Scardino was announced as the first female to join Twitter’s board. Scardino previously “led educational publisher Pearson as CEO from 1997 until 2012.”
Emily White (COO, Snapchat)
White, previously the head of Mobile Business Development and Partnerships at Facebook, joined Instagram in April as head of business operations and most recently became the COO of Snapchat.
Julie Larson-Green (Head of Devices, Microsoft)
Larson-Green was appointed to head Microsoft’s Xbox division back in July, and in November was appointed to leading all Windows software and hardware engineering at the tech giant.
Renée James (President, Intel)
James was announced to be the president of Intel in May and according to Venture Beat holds “the highest position a woman has ever held at the world’s largest chip maker.”
Surbhi Sarna, (Founder & CEO, nVision Medical)
Surbhi is CEO and Founder of nVision Medical. In 2013, she closed a venture-led Series A round of $4.5M to create a device for early detection of ovarian cancer.
Parisa Louie (Founder & CEO, WatchFit )
Launched the new phone app in addition to launching the new web portal with daily contribution from health professionals globally. Raised funding & extended the team in London and Budapest. Follow her at @ParisaLouie.
Caroline Tsay (Vice President of HP Software, Founder and Leader of Pronq)
In nine months at HP, Caroline Tsay has built an entirely new organization, business, brand, and web platform for marketing and selling HP Software online. This new brand and identity is called “Pronq.” Follow her at @jacintatsay.
As President of MakerBot I successfully negotiated our sale to Stratasys, added over 250 employees and led our team to triple our revenue. Follow her at @jennylawton.
Jess Brondo ( Founder & CEO, admittedly)
Met my co-founder, launched my second startup, admittedly, completed ERA, raised our seed round, and got engaged – best year ever! Follow her at @jessbrondo.
Elisa Miller-Out (CEO, Singlebrook)
Built web and mobile software for over 50 organizations to help them scale their impact. Ran programs that empowered 100’s of entrepreneurs. Follow her at @elisamillerout.
Elaina Farnsworth (CEO, Mobile Comply)
Launched Mobile Comply, partnering with CompTIA.org to create the first mobile training and certification for IT professionals. Follow her at @elainafarnswort.
Jess Dang (Founder & Chief Kitchen Cheerleader, Cook Smarts)
Launched a meal planning web-application that’s helping thousands of home cooks live happier, healthier, and smarter in the kitchen. Follow her at @jessydang.
Just two years after Lauren launched Lolabee’s Harvest — an online farmers’ market serving the Bay Area — it was acquired by Good Eggs. Follow her at @Lolabeesharvest.
Tracy Osborn (Founder, WeddingLovely)
Ally Downey (CEO &Founder, weeSpring)
weeSpring launched in Jan and has doubled every quarter since! Since Oct, we’ve seen more new reviews than Amazon on top baby products. Follow her at @allysondowney.
Rita Nguyen (CEO & Co-Founder, SQUAR)Launched Myanmar’s first social network. SQUAR is an open invitation to all of Myanmar’s youth, encouraging them to come online and share the information they find important. Follow her at @moodyrain.
Mallorie Brodie (Co-Founder, Bridgit)
Launched the first construction deficiency management platform in Canada, raised $355k and signed on nine paid beta testers. Follow her at @MalBrodie.
Evelyne White (Co-founder & CEO Bookalokal Inc.)Launched a social platform where people meet through food events: dinners, tastings, tours, classes. She assembled a stellar team, raised capital and continue to keep growing! Follow her at @evelynecwhite.
Angela Cois, (COO & CoFounder, LastRoom)
Went from zero to 100K app installs and from zero to 500 hotel partners in Mexico in less than six months of launching. Follow her at @angiecois.
Dr. Anu Tewary (Director of Product in Data Services, Intuit)
Level Up Analytics, a profitable premier data science firm, was launched in 2012 and acquired by Intuit in Oct 2013. Follow her at @anutewary.
Jennifer Lum (Cofounder & Chief Strategy Officer, Adelphic Inc)In 2013, Adelphic launched our Demand Side Platform, signed industry-first partnerships,obtained our 1st patent, and hired a world-class CEO. Follow her @lum.
Peg Samuel (Founder, Social Diva Media)
Expanded my lifestyle brand into a boutique agency. Working on digital plans for top clients as GRAMMYs, Harry Connick, Jr., and VH1. Spoke at Internet Week NY. In talks of writing book #2. Follow her @socialdiva.
Sola Obayan (Co-founder &CEO, Pavo)
After two years of product development and private beta testing, Pavo launched a mobile app prototype and opened a seed round. Follow her at @solao.
Dorian Ferlauto (Founder & CEO, Elihuu Inc.)
Dorian founded Elihuu.com, a website that is helping grow the resurgence of american manufacturing by connecting designers and manufacturers. Follow her at @dorianjferlauto.
Anna (Mongayt) Counselman, (Co-founder & Head of Operations, Upstart)
Upstart closed a series A, doubled our team, grew investments on our platform to 2.5M, got covered in New Yorker, Time Magazine, CNBC, New York Times, etc… and I became a mom. Follow her at @amongayt.
Reva Minkoff (Founder & President, DigitalGroundUp Inc.)In 2013 I launched DigitalGroundUp. We’ve reached over 350 students, hired our COO, and competed in Techweek Launch and Challenge Cup. Follow her at @nodaybuttoday08.
Laura Roeder (Founder, LKR Social Media)
Named a top 100 under 30 for the second time, honored at the UN. Follow her at @lkr.
Gillian Morris (CEO, Hitlist)Launched @hitlist
Kathryn Minshew (Founder and CEO, The Muse)
Raised $2.3 Million in funding for The Muse, expanded into 15 new markets, hit 1M Unique Monthly Visitors, & appeared on Today Show twice. Follow her at @kmin.