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Grace Hopper Celebration: It’s All About Connections

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By Chiu-Ki Chan (Android Developer, Monkey Write) As I am sitting in the Portland airport waiting for my flight back to San Francisco, I look back at the great times I had at the Grace Hopper Celebration last week. This is my third time attending GHC, and I always come back fully energized. What makes GHC so wonderful? It's all about connections.

Connecting to others like you

It can feel lonely being a woman in a male-dominated field like computer science. Simply being in the same venue with almost 3000 other women sends a very strong signal: you are not alone. As you sit in various sessions, you get to meet people in

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How To Change Your Perception Of Risk

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By Rajashree Karwa (Co-Founder, Velvet Aroma) It's that time of the year again. Yes, it's time to come up with New Year's resolutions!

As a fellow entrepreneurial woman I would like to suggest one, that if truly embraced, should take your career to new heights.

Make a small shift in the way you perceive risk.

"Take risk and you will reap rewards." We've all heard some version of this saying. We've all been told that as women, we need to start taking more risk in our careers. Some even say that

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Blurred Vision: Better Than Blindness

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By Poornima Vijayashanker (Founder & CEO, BizeeBee) Everyone by this point knows that one of the primary tasks of a startup founder is to set the vision for the company. Yes there are additional tasks such as keeping employees motivated, recruiting new talent, and good old fundraising. But for now, let's focus purely on setting the vision. Initially, this is one of the hardest tasks because there are three things that determine the vision:

  • What will the product be?
  • Who will the product be for?
  • How will the product and company be built?
  • Know what you want.

The reason it's so hard to set a vision

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U.S. Government Incubator: The National Science Foundation Innovation Corps

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By Steve Blank (Lecturer, UC Berkeley & Stanford University) Over the last two months the U.S. government has been running one of the most audacious experiments in entrepreneurship since World War II. They launched an incubator for the top scientists and engineers in the U.S.

This week we saw the results. 63 scientists and engineers in 21 teams made 2,000 customer calls in 8 weeks, turning laboratory ideas into formidable startups. 19 of the 21 teams are moving forward in commercializing their technology.

It was an extraordinary effort.

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How Often And When Should We Pivot?

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By Joanne Wilson (Blogger & Angel Investor, Gotham Gal) Women 2.0 has been compiling questions for a book project called 101 Questions About Launching Your Company. Of course all the answers are by female investors, founders and CEOs. Love that!

Here is the question that I chose to answer: How often and when should we pivot?

One of the definitions of pivot is: A person or thing on which something depends or turns; the central or crucial factor.

Pivot is a word frequently used in the startup world.

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Reaching Your Career Peak With Your Dream Job

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By Leah Eichler (Contributing Writer, Femme-O-Nomics)Karen Ramstead, a former retail manager in Calgary, never imagined that one day she would move to a remote northern Alberta community to become a full-time musher. Years ago, in a bid to persuade her to leave the city and move to Grande Prairie, her husband, Mark, bought her a Siberian husky as a bribe. Karen Ramstead, a former retail manager in Calgary, never imagined that one day she would move to a remote northern Alberta community to become a full-time musher. Years ago, in a bid to persuade her to leave the city and move to Grande Prairie, her husband, Mark, bought her a Siberian husky as a bribe.

It sparked a new passion, and she started breeding dogs, turning that one pup into several dozen, which she trained as sled dogs.

Eventually she made the leap from hobby to full-time

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Does Paul Graham Get What He Asks For? [Infographic]

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By Kapil Kale (Co-Founder, GiftRocket) I first came across Paul Graham’s article, Startup Ideas We’d Like To Fund, in a Google search in mid-2010.

Though published two years earlier, I thought the article was the most thorough compilation of problem spaces for startups to tackle anywhere on the web.

Before coming up with the idea for GiftRocket, we (the founders) treated it like a problem set. We’d methodically work through the list and have late night discussions about

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Apply To The Free 9th Founder Showcase Pitch Competition

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By Jonathan Greechan (Partner, The Founder Institute) Are you a seed-stage startup looking for funding or exposure? Apply to the Founder Showcase Pitch Competition, where previous presenters have raised over $30 million without ever being required to pay a dime. Any company less than two years old with less than $250,000 in funding is eligible, but time is running out.

To apply for your chance to present on-stage, click here. The Application Deadline is December 31, 2011, but the sooner you apply, the longer you have to collect votes. Priya Sheth, Guest Blogger on Women 2.0 and Founder Labs Graduate, made it

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How I Discovered My Niche — And Learned To Work Smart

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By Steph Auteri (Founder, Word Nerd Pro) It’s been four years since I first launched Word Nerd Pro, a one-stop word-nerd shop offering a variety of writing, editing, and coaching services. In those four years, my business has gone through several transformations. In the coming years, it will probably go through several more. But that’s okay. The best way to learn is by doing, and I’ve been learning a lot as I go. In fact, this hands-on education has helped me strengthen my business tremendously.

But as much as I still have to learn, there are some things I’ve finally caught on about:

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Ryan Gosling Wants You To Raise Capital For Your Silicon Valley Startup (And Make It Mobile-Friendly!)

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By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0) Silicon Valley Ryan Gosling is the dream you don't want to wake up from. The more capitalistic sister of the Feminist Ryan Gosling Tumblr, this brand new blog features pictures of Gosling quipping:

"Hey girl. It’s okay you only have 0.001% equity in your company. You are the primary shareholder of my heart." "Hey girl. I definitely think we should stay home tonight and optimize your new website for mobile. I’ll pick up some takeout."

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Hilarious-Parodies Humor TechStars (Holiday Video)

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By Brad Feld (Managing Director, Foundry Group) I hate Christmas music. Hate, hate, hate. Call me Grinch Feld. I don’t care. It just makes me want to poke knitting needles in my ears to stop it. Amy and I were in City Market grocery shopping the other day and at some point I had to go outside and scream. It felt good enough that I was able to go back in the store and finish buying greek yogurt and vegetables.

Yesterday I got a note from David Cohen with an attachment of a parody of The 12 Days of Christmas. At first I almost just archived it on general principle. And then I listened to it. And it was hilarious. I decided that since it was a parody, it got to go in

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What We Learned From The Kauffman Foundation In 2011

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By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0) Women 2.0 and the Kauffman Foundation are together working toward improving the economic welfare of our nation by boosting high-growth entrepreneurs.

This year, the Kauffman Foundation discovered a "jobs leak," illustrated entrepreneurs' contributions and recommended policy reforms for growth. They also looked at research focused on annual startup rates, legal reforms for economic growth and job creation trends.

Here are the highlights from 2011:

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Doing It Right: Harvey Mudd’s Gender-Balanced Computer Science Program (40% Are Women)

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By Jennifer Lindner (Organizer, RailsBridge & Freelance Open Source Developer) What is Harvey Mudd doing so right, you ask? Well, we’ll tell you:

Since 2006, the percentage of female computer science majors has more than tripled, to about 40%.

This is because of revolutionary changes in the program designed to build confidence during the early stages of learning.

Intro to computer science (CS), a requirement for all incoming students, is now broken into three sections -- one for total beginners, one for those with some programming experience and

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47 Is The New 27: An Entrepreneur At Any Age

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By Laura Yecies (CEO, SugarSync) A friend sent me this Forbes article – 30 Under 30 -- with the question -- why the focus on youth? It is a really good question. My first thought when I read the article was where was I and what was I doing before I turned the dreaded 30, after which, implicitly in this article -- one’s accomplishments become theoretically less impressive.

So let’s turn the clock back to just before 30. December 1993 -- I had three children (Adam was born when I was over the hill at 31) ages eight, five and six months. I was working at

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The Women 2.0 Editorial Staff.