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The numbers: 50,000 attendees, 8 buildings, 5 days. Each year, the mobile ecosystem descends on Barcelona to establish the state of affairs and predict the future. Mobile World Congress brings a buzz to Barcelona and everyone was involved, from the taxi drivers to the nearby cafes, from the metro to the tapas bars.

Startup Lessons Learned unites those interested in what it takes to succeed in building a lean startup. On Friday, April 23rd, 2010 in San Francisco, Startup Lessons Learned will give practitioners and students of the lean startup methodology the opportunity to hear insights from leaders in embracing and deploying the core principles of the lean startup methodology. Women speakers at Startup Lessons Learned are: » Erin McKean (Co-Founder and CEO, Wordnik) » Rashmi Sinha (Co-Founder and CEO, SlideShare) » Clara Shih (Founder and CEO, Hearsay Labs) » Cindy Alvarez (Product Manager, KISSmetrics) » Laura Klein (Principal, Users Know) Women 2.0 members save 20% on Startup Lessons Learned tickets with discount code "WOMEN2".

Ideas are a dime a dozen - how do you know which startup idea to focus on for success? That was exactly what we had in mind when putting together the two-day workshop "Will it launch?" in February 2010, led by serial entrepreneurs David Weekly (Founder & CEO, PBworks) and Poornima Vijayashanker (Founding Engineer, Mint) who communicated their battle plan to quickly assess and iterate on startup ideas.

How to make people more comfortable? Get out of their "shells" and expand beyond their comfort zone on day one so they make instant bonds and connections and perhaps find co-founders or make friendships?

SFimprov, a local amateur group, came up with a solution: Improv! We invited BATS pro improviser Kasey Klemm who taught everyone first thing in the morning how to connect, fail, brainstorm and get to know one another.

We all had tons of fun doing improv, and the energy created sustained us through the weekend.

Our keynote speakers David and Poornima shared their personal journeys and startup experiences and stayed late into Saturday night's wine & cheese social hours to answer numerous Q&A and listen to personal startup/business cases.

Equipped with theory and business case examples from Day 1, we moved into Day 2 with practical application. We were focused on formulating a business idea into a clear and concise 3-minute pitch. Industry experts came to assist with concept and pitch practice - Betty Kayton, Dave McClure, David Ulevitch, Jorge Calderon, Rashmi Sinha and Saad Khan.

After we had enough practice, we gathered again for improv to get the energy up before the night finale - Pitch to the juries Betty Kayton, Dave McClure, David Ulevitch and Rashmi Sinha. This "Improv for presentation" workshop was led by another BATS pro Lisa Rowland with a bit of contribution from Dave McClure. Once again, energy up, lots of smiling faces and we are ready to go.

We had about 40 pitches that afternoon. All received feedback and thought this experience was invaluable. Our attendees who came from NYC and LA appreciated an opportunity to meet with like-minded people, the majority of whom were females and industry leaders. Our panel of experts were impressed with the quality of ideas, pitches and level of preparation!

This is what one of the participants had to say: "[Thanks for] providing a place to meet like-minded individuals. We keep in touch with a number of the women we met at the event. We are awed and inspired by each and every one of them," said Sognya Kesler.

Special thanks to Brent Tam who recorded the workshop! Videos are below:

Final application deadlines for the The Founder Institute's Spring 2010 Paris, Singapore / Asia Pacific, San Diego / Orange County, and Denver / Boulder semesters are approaching. The four-month entrepreneur training program is for both new and seasoned entrepreneurs, and focuses on harvesting people (rather than ideas). Through weekly sessions guided by renowned CEO mentors, the Founder Institute breeds disciplined founders ready to lead the next generation of high-tech companies. Sessions take place at night, so participants are not required to quit their day job or discontinue their studies. Anyone starting a technology company or thinking to become an entrepreneur is invited to apply:

• Apply to Paris! (Deadline to apply is Sunday, March 7th, 2010)
• Apply to Singapore / Southeast Asia! (Deadline to apply is Sunday, March 7th, 2010)
• Apply to San Diego / Orange County! (Deadline to apply is Friday, March 26th, 2010)
• Apply to Denver / Boulder! (Deadline to apply is Sunday, April 4th, 2010)

Did you know 60% of the Women 2.0 executive team are immigrants to the US from places like Canada, Israel, India, Singapore, Belarus? That's 6 out of 10 key members! The Startup Visa, in the end, is about removing barriers to innovation -- designed to attract top global minds, to the US, to launch their companies, create job opportunities and hire local US workers. To support the Startup Visa movement, Shaherose Charania of Women 2.0 went to Washington DC in February 2010 to be political!

Founded by Eric Ries, Dave McClure, Shervin Pishevar, Brad Feld, Paul Kedrosky, Manu Kumar, and Fred Wilson, Startup Visa raises awareness and affects policy regarding the EB-5 visa, which enables investors from other countries to get a visa in exchange for starting a business in the US with $1M in capital (or $500K for economically targeted areas) and the creation of at least 10 US jobs.

In fact, the tech companies of Google, Yahoo!, and Paypal have one thing in common: Immigrant Founders.

More startup founders, more female founders.

Be part of Guidewire Group’s Innovate!2010 global competition to identify and promote up-and-coming technology and media startups. Guidewire Group is looking for early-stage companies that have what it takes to be named one of the world’s most promising startups.

Green:Net 2010 can help you understand how the tools, technologies and innovators of the IT and Internet revolution can be harnessed to further the green agenda. It is where green and IT meet. Alternative energy gets lots of attention at most green conferences. The GigaOM Network’s Green:Net, is unlike other green technology conferences, offering a specific view on how the computing and Internet revolutions will provide the tools needed to fight climate change. Women 2.0 members save $100 on Green:Net tickets by registering here. Green:Net 2010 is Thursday, April 29th, 2010 at Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.

DEMO is interested in market-ready products, alpha-stage products as well as business plan only initiatives. Contact Matt Marshall (DEMO Executive Producer) or go to www.demo.com for more info and application forms. January 18, 2010 is the deadline to apply to launch or pitch at DEMO Spring 2010. If you have a product in any stage of development in one of the following vertical segments, DEMO wants to hear from you! DEMO Spring 2010 gives you a first-of-its-kind opportunity to present in one of seven industry-specific launch categories: Social and Media, Health and Life Sciences, Clean and Sustaining Technologies, Cloud, Enterprise, Mobile, and Consumer.

Thanks to the Women 2.0 community, we more than doubled the number of women entrepreneurs who applied to the The Founders Institute program (compared to the previous semester). Women 2.0 members save 15% off ticket price by registering here.

The next event, The Founder Showcase on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 5:30pm will be held at Sun Microsystems in Santa Clara, CA by TheFunded.com -- This is an open startup pitch and networking event that highlights the newest cutting-edge businesses and helps innovators gain traction among the Silicon Valley elite.

This has been perhaps one of the more challenging years we've seen. Still, we've been celebrating successes on Twitter at @women2 and below. Are you a female founder with a success to celebrate in 2009? Join the list - here's how:

Give us a sentence description of your accomplishment(s) in 2009, your full name, company name, and company link or relevant article to [email protected]. This list of Female Founders is limited to founders of technology companies (defined as a company with an engineer on the founding team). A "success" for this list is a company launch, significant product launch, significant milestone reached, funding received or similar success.

Catarina Fake (Co-Founder, Hunch; prev. Co-Founder, Flickr) launches Hunch! (more)

Clara Shih (Founder, Hearsay Labs: Author of bestselling book "The Facebook Era") launches Internet company Hearsay Labs! (more)

Patricia Araque (Founder, Ellas 2.0) builds a local team and launches Women 2.0's Official Sister Chapter for Europe Ellas 2.0! (more)

Leila Chirayath Janah (Founder & CEO, Samasource) launches an iPhone app to give work to refugees in the largest camp in the world! (more)

Susan Wu (Founder & CEO, Ohai) launches an online gaming startup is chosen as one of Silicon Valley's 10 most influential people by San Jose Mercury News! (more)

Poornima Vijayashanker (Founding Engineer, Mint) cashes out with Mint, which sold to Intuit for $170M earlier this year, and is now starting her own startup! (more)

Shinyoung Park (Founder, Funji) wins fbFund and launches official service! (more)

Pokin Yeung (Founder, GeckoGo) joins fbFund and relaunches Travel Brain - currently the #1 app for sharing rich travel experiences on Facebook! (more)

Shanna Tellerman (Founder & CEO, WildPockets) raises $3M from SK Telecom and Levensohn Venture Partners! (more) Helen Zhu (Co-Founder & CEO, Chictopia) and Corinne Chan (Co-Founder & CTO, Chictopia) become profitable and launch national campaigns for retailers like Topshop! (more)

Dianna Mullins (Co-Founder & SVP, Glam Media) raises another round of funding and launches Tinker, a micro-blog ad network! (more)

Hope Scultz (Founder, WebVet; Women 2.0 PITCH 2008 Finalist) launches with Microsoft! (more)

Danae Ringlemen (Founder, IndieGoGo) becomes #1 crowd-funding platform for film and opens up to music, art, design, new ventures & other creative ideas! (more)

Julie Greenberg (Founder, Jobnob) launches JobNob to connect and empower the job-seeker market! (more)

Alexa Andrzejewski (Founder, Foodspotting; Women 2.0 Jumpstart Your Startup Graduate) launches Foodspotting Alpha in November 2009 with over 3750 foods spotted! (more)

Maria Sipka (Founder, Linqia) launches platform with 230 social networks registering! (more)

Arielle Scott (VP Marketing, Indinero) and Jessica Mah (Founder, Indinero) launch accounting software for small business! (more)

Silvia Console Battilana (Co-Founder, Auctionomics) launches auction software company with world auction expert Paul Milgrom! (more)

Alexis Ringwald (Co-Founder & Director of Business Development, Valence Energy) launches Valence (more)

Suzanne Xie (Co-Founder & CEO, Weardrobe) gets acquired by Like.com in November 2009 and is also a winner of the 2009 fbFund competition. (more)

Susan Kang and Joyce Kim (Co-Founders, Soompi) launch fan clubs! (more)

Huijun Zhou Ring (CEO, YiGene/5iDNA) brings happiness of DNA service to 1 billion Chinese! (more)

Jane Nu Zhang (President, Silk Wings Aviation) reads a book, takes a flight lesson, and starts Silk Wings Aviation! (more)

Laura Fitton (Founder, One Forty) launches and raises $2.4M! (more)

Claire Boonstra (Founder, Layar) leads the mobile world with Augmented Reality with Layar, later in the year mashes up with location-based advertising! (more)

Travis Alber (Founder, BookGlutton) launches e-commerce on e-book social network! (more)

Anju Mathew (Co-Founder, LumaMed; Women 2.0's Pitch 2009 Winner) cuts health care costs and saves people from skin cancer with the launch of LumaMed! (more)

Charisse McAuliffe (Founder, GenGreenLife; PITCH 2009 Finalist) merges with Vancouver based 3rdWhale Mobile and launches the 'Find Green' mobile app across 3 platforms! (more)

Rashmi Sinha (Founder & CEO, Slideshare) launches SlideShare for businesses - premium services for the SlideShare community! (more)

Mathilde Pignol (Founder, ZipZap Play) attracts cute animals, users and revenue with the launch of Happy Habitat! (more)

Ninas Alastruey (Founder, The Channer) launches to bring long-tail TV content to your mobile phone, and moves from Barcelona to Silicon Valley! (more)

Shruti Challa and Amara Humphry (Co-Founders, Tribal Atmosphere) launch Tribal Atmosphere (GoTribal) and GoHappi! (more)

Jessica Emmerich (Founder, The Dead Hub/The Live Hub AKA "The Hubs") launches social media marketing site and grows reader base at her music media site, The Dead Hub! (more)

Priya Narasimhan (Founder & CEO, YinzCam) builds mobile live streaming solutions for other sports fans as well as mobile 311 apps to help city governments and empower residents! (more)

Natalie Gordon (Co-Founder, Lenguajero) launches language learning community where people meet to practice conversational Spanish and English! (more)

Shaherose Charania (Co-Founder, Women 2.0) cashes out a little with Telefonica's acquisition of JAJAH where she was Director of Product Management and Marketing! (more)

Rachael Chong (Founder & CEO, Catchafire) completes pilot program for web-based service connecting volunteering professionals with non-profits that need skilled volunteers! (more)

Leah Busque (Founder, RunMyErrand) develops 100% of the website, which helps individuals and SMBs in a community outsource their tasks and deliveries! (more)

Michelle Bonat (Founder & CEO, RumbaFish) launches at DEMO and is named top 10 most innovative app companies by IDC! (more)

Andrea Chang (Co-Founder & CEO) and Gabi Barragan (Co-Founder & COO, Braingig) connect graduate students in the sciences with those seeking their expertise! (more)

Danielle Fong (Co-Founder & Chief Scientist, LightSailEnergy) raises funding for inexpensive, efficient energy storage systems in the plan to make the world's electrical grid green! (more)

Suzanne Perkins (Co-Founder & CEO, Answers for Elders) receives funding and builds private beta for social site and portal targeting boomers seeking answers for their elderly parents! (more)

Maria Trullàs (Founder & CEO, Cuponeo) launches free mobile coupons in Barcelona via SMS in July 2009 and will soon launch in other main Spanish cities! (more)

Arlyn Davich (Founder & CEO, PayPerks) launches perks platform rewarding usage of paperless payment solutions, wins Columbia Business School Lang Fund for Entrepreneurship! (more)

Christine Lemke (Co-Founder & COO, Sense Networks) raises another round of funding from Intel Capital for one of the world’s most intriguing startups according to BusinessWeek! (more)

Jennie Lees (Founder, Affect Labs) launches FestBuzz this year for her Edinburgh-based data intelligence startup! (more)

Six months pregnant, Michelle Crames (Co-Founder & CEO, giiv) raises seed funding from Eric Schmidt, launches, then raises Series A when her daughter is 3 months old! (more)

Victoria Ransom (Founder & CEO, Wildfire) leads Wildfire to profitability in a year, builds an impressive client list, and wins FbFund twice! (more)

Jen McCabe (Founder & CEO, Contagion Health) launches Get Up and Move!, a social motivation app and microfitness exchange on Twitter! (more)

Emily Greer (Co-Founder, Kongregate) reaches 20k games uploaded, 8 million monthly unique visitors, and launches Konduit app platform for social games! (more)

Vicki Saunders (Founder & CEO, Zazengo) works with Walmart on a global employee-engagement program using Zazengo's white-label platform and launches Facebook app Hopenhagen! (more)

Unha Engels (Co-Founder & Creative Director, Curious Brain) launches guitar learning app which shot to top 5 in app store's music category within a few weeks and still remains in top 10! (more)

Margot Eiran (Founder & CEO, HomeEnergySaver) launches! (more)

Julia Hartz (Co-Founder and President, Eventbrite) secures $6.5M in funding from Sequoia Capital and welcomes Roelof Botha to the board of directors! (more)

Jessica Jackley and Dana Mauriello (Co-Founders, ProFounder) launch in August to help SMBs raise seed and growth capital through crowdfunding! (more)

Christina Brodbeck (Co-Founder & CEO, Pickv & Founding Team Member, YouTube) launches Pickv in alpha and angel invests in Heyzap! (more)

Annie Chang (Co-Founder, Lolapps) launches social gaming platform of games and applications on Facebook, entertaining over 44M unique users per month! (more)

Jen Bekman (Founder, 20x200) closes a Series A round led by True Ventures; other investors include Founder Collective, Ron Conway, and Scott Heiferman! (more)

Stephanie Renda (Founder & CEO of a German-American startup in mobile b2b apps) receives funding and launches apps, including MemberScout for Lufthansa frequent flyers program! (more)

Caroline Dahllöf and Carolyn Uy (Co-Founders, Lyn And Line) launch educational story apps for pre-school kids for Android and iPhone, starting with The Rescue of Ginger! (more)

Kelly Fitzsimmons (Co-Founder & CEO, HarQen) raises $2.7M and successfully launches VoiceScreener - TiVo(TM) for interviews) - to the staffing and recruiting space! (more)

Laura Valverde García (Co-Founder & CEO, Beecoder) launches software development company making Ruby on Rails apps, the last product integrating Shopify with Facebook! (more)

Michele Colucci (Founder & CEO, MyLawsuit) launches social empowerment network connecting those who have lawsuits with lawyers who take their cases for contingency fees! (more)

Diana Hage (CEO, RFID Global Solution; Founder, Quantum Leap Technologies) launches Visi-Trac software for real time visibility of assets and supply chains, and grows 30% in 2009! (more)

Promise Phelon (Founder & CEO, UpMo) raises over $2M in private investment and creates strategic channel partnerships for online career management service! (more)

Tina Bean (Co-Founder & VP of Sales and Marketing, VisiStat) launches product for her real-time analytics company that provides B2B Website Caller ID, called LeadCaster! (more)

Keara Schwartz (Founder & President, Share Some Sugar) launches online service that finds someone in your neighborhood willing to lend you something that you need! (more)

Cathy Edwards (Co-Founder & CTO, Chomp) worked on an app to show users relevant & personalized iPhone apps; officially announced on January 6, 2010! (more)

Other Related Awesomeness: Sarah Allen and Sarah Mei (Co-Founders, RailsBridge) launch free Ruby classes with SF Ruby and taught over 200 women and girls (and some men!) how to program in Ruby! (more)

Wendy Lea (CEO, Get Satisfaction) joins Get Satisfaction and talks to Women 2.0! (more)

Rebecca Weeks Watson (Founding executive, Real Girls Network) grows RGM to over 5M monthly users, and joins the founding executive team of gWallet! (more)

Maya Baratz (Product Manager, MTV) joins MTV and writes for the Huffington Post! (more)

Emily Goligoski (Strategic Programs Manager, Federated Media) joins FM and launches Ignite for Women Innovators -- and also starts writing for the Huffington Post! (more)

Jazmin Hupp (Web Sales & Marketing, Tekserve) launches Tekserve’s Web Store, bringing NYC’s famous Mac & iPod dealer online! (more)