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By Mary Lou Jepsen (Founder & CEO, Pixel Qi) I fell in love with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) which I co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer for years. I realized that if we could pull off the OLPC project, or even a small fraction of it – we could change everything. I personally also realized that I could have incredibly more impact trying to do this than being a professor at MIT and so I gave that up.

I spent time in Asia to realize the design and convince large manufacturers of the world to make my product — the $100 laptop -- to make a profound impact on children in any country, especially the developing world. There the reality is so stark in some of the worst countries where, for example, about one-third of the paid teachers do not show up, and approximately another one-third of the paid teachers are illiterate. In such cases as these the solution isn’t better teacher training. The solution is more radical: leverage the kids. . Kids are smart, they are motivated, and can learn a lot. OLPC gave them access to information and communication to fill in the large gaps in their education.

Every child in Uruguay has one of our laptops, the OLPC “XO” machines, about half the children in Peru, and there are large deployments in Afghanistan, and more than 30 other countries.

We ended up touching a nerve in the industry, competing with the likes of Intel and Microsoft. There is something about the sincerest form of flattery being imitation, and it is from this kind of imitation of the “$100 laptop” that the netbook emerged in late 2007 and became the fastest growing IT product category ever recorded (faster than the more recent rise of tablets even). But of course, the price point of the netbook was double of what we were able to achieve on the OLPC laptop, but most importantly, the power consumption was 10-20 times higher. Consider that in third world countries, access to electricity is difficult and without a low power device human and solar power become prohibitively expensive. Do you want your batteries to last longer or not so long? I asked that question to thousands of people and I have only heard one answer — guess which one. This technology is proven.

I wanted to bring this technology across many products to give all people more access, while also helping people across the digital divide and making greener electronics. By making more of something you can also make it less expensive. And so I founded Pixel Qi.

Leverage As A Woman Entrepreneur

I started Pixel Qi with dual headquarters in Silicon Valley and Taipei. While I intended to spend a third to a half of my time in Asia, I didn’t intend to move to Asia. But, when the bottom fell out in the financial crises I did move here (Taipei) to make Pixel Qi happen. 90% of the world’s devices are designed in Taipei, not Cupertino. To fit in to the local culture, you have to become involved in a lot of discussions and lots of dinners too, it requires a constant presence. I think women have an advantage in that historically they have been accepted as much less threatening in foreign cultures than men. From my experience as a woman in technology throughout my entire career: they remember you and they underestimate you.