Editor, Author at Women 2.0

Proto-Framing: The UX Of User Experience

Editor22 December 2011

By Brandon D. Finn (Founder, Designer Finn) A lot of people tell me how much they love Balsamiq and Mockingbird for wire framing and mockups of page designs and workflows. But none of them are designers.

I can understand how someone who is more used to a trackpad than a pentab would feel more comfortable with a wireframing tool than Photoshop (PS).

But for those of us who live and breathe the Creative Suite (CS) it seems like an extra, and unnecessary step.

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No Boys Allowed: Women Innovate Mobile Accelerator For Women

Editor21 December 2011

By Sarah Perez (Writer, TechCrunch) Today, a new startup accelerator for women, the Women Innovate Mobile (WIM) Accelerator, is opening its doors for applications. The program will start off small, offering two to five companies seed funding of $18,000, plus mentoring, support, and free office space in New York during the course of its three-month program.

The company was founded by Veronika Sonsev, the co-founder of inSparq and the non-profit Women in Wireless, Deborah Jackson, founder of JumpThru, and business strategist Kelly Hoey.

“Accelerators are dominated by men and

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Women In Mobile Tech: A New Startup Accelerator In NYC

Editor21 December 2011

By Emily Glazer (Writer, Wall Street Journal) When it comes to programs that nurture new startups, women often don’t make the cut. A new “startup accelerator” hopes to combat that gender disparity in at least one booming market: mobile technology.

Women Innovate Mobile opened its application today to startups with a woman founder or co-founder and a product that is related to mobile. The accelerator will offer two to five startups free New York office space, mentoring and coaching, access to venture capitalists and other investors in addition to $18,000 in seed funding, $10,000 worth of product development and design support, and $10,000 worth of mobile marketing promotions.

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Stitching It All Together…

Editor21 December 2011

By Willo O'Brien (Co-Founder & VP of Marketing, Stitch Labs) This year has brought about some incredible developments... both personally, and in my career. One of my main goals has been to find my sweet spot:

Do what I love + Do what comes easily to me + Get paid well for it = My Sweet Spot

My geeky venn diagram

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Are You A/B Testing Your Designs? Quantifying Design Success

Editor21 December 2011

By Laura Klein (Principal, Users Know) The other day, I posted something I strongly believe on Twitter. A few people disagreed. I’d like to address the arguments, and I’d love to hear feedback and counter-arguments in the comments where you have more than 140 characters to tell me I’m wrong.

My original tweet was, “I don't trust designers who don't want their designs a/b tested. They're not interested in knowing if they were wrong.”

Here are some of the real responses that I got

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Why We Need More Women In Open Source: The Founder Gap

Editor21 December 2011

By Valerie Aurora (Co-Founder & Executive Director, Ada Initiative) Look at the founders of any Internet startup, and you’re almost certain to find an open source expert among them.

Take Google, the biggest Internet success story of them all. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin built and ran their brand-new web indexing tool on servers running the open source operating system Linux -- and still do, 13 years and several billion dollars in profits later.

Pick an Internet startup -- Facebook, Zynga,

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Founder Friday Networking Mixers (January 6 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and New York)

Editor20 December 2011

By Sepideh Nasiri (Corporate Sponsorships & Events Director, Women 2.0) Women 2.0 is hosting four Founder Friday networking events for women entrepreneurs and their friends on Friday, January 6, 2012 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Silicon Valley and and New York.

Due to the holidays, Founder Friday Barcelona and Founder Friday Madrid (both in Spain) will not be holding Founder Friday mixers this month -- they will resume in February 2012.

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Where The Ladies At?? #NYCEdition

Editor20 December 2011

By Ellie Cachette (Founder & CEO, ConsumerBell) Editor's note: Thanks to Ellie Cachette for co-hosting Founder Friday New York earlier this month - You can find pictures from Founder Friday New York (December 2011) here. To sign up for next month's Founder Friday New York, click here.

There a lot going on in New York City these days.

I was proudly featured in a New York City startup calendar, which then got picked up by Mashable.

For more on the calendar, visit Only In The Alley.

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Tips & Tricks: Five Fun Ways To Ruin Your Startup

Editor20 December 2011

By Laura Klein (Principal, Users Know) So, you’re interested in ruining your startup. At least, that’s what it seems like based on a lot of decisions I see some companies making.

Let’s talk about some of those terrible decisions that really hurt startups.

#1 -- Hire Big Thinkers

Here’s the thing about Big Thinkers or people who describe themselves as Big Picture People. They don’t execute.

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Timing Is Everything, And More Eternal Truths Of Entrepreneurship

Editor20 December 2011

By Margaret Wallace (Founder & CEO, Playmatics) Over the past few years, I have had many opportunities to speak with up-and-coming entrepreneurs, both in San Francisco and in New York City. I get as much out of it as I hope they get. I enjoy sharing my knowledge and experience in founding startups and raising investment money. I also find a lot of inspiration from all of the creative and visionary people I meet along the way.

On Friday, December 2, 2011, I was fortunate to be asked to co-host a Women 2.0 Founder Friday event along with fellow entrepreneur Ellie Cachette and Women 2.0’s Jazmin Hupp.

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Would You Like To Mentor And Inspire A Team Of High School Girls?

Editor20 December 2011

By Jennifer Arguello (Product Manager, Mozilla & Mentor, Technovation Challenge) Are your successes in life due to other people helping you? Do you wish you had more role models growing up to show you what you know now? Would you like to inspire the next generation of female high-tech leaders?

If you answered yes to these questions, then you should consider becoming a Technovation Challenge mentor.

The mission of the Technovation Challenge is to promote women in technology by giving girls the skills and confidence

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Startuphood And Parenthood: Not For The Faint Of Heart

Editor20 December 2011

By Christine Tsai (Partner, 500 Startups) Editor's note: In June 2011, Dave McClure said "women founders or co-founders are probably 20-25% of the [500 Startups] portfolio." We thank 500 Startups for being supportive of Women 2.0 and women entrepreneurs in general over the years.

Parenthood is the closest thing I’ve found to entrepreneurship. Looks cool from the outside but can be really messy inside. Everyone has advice, you work like a dog, the highs are amazing and lows horrendous, and it is the best thing ever.

A 500 Startups company founder emailed me this recently and I found it to be the best analogy I’ve heard in a long time.

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Know Your Users: Quantitative Research VS. Qualitative Research

Editor20 December 2011

By Laura Klein (Principal, Users Know) I have written about qualitative vs quantitative research before, but I still get a lot of questions about it. To answer some of those questions, I want to do a bit of a deeper dive here and give a few examples to help startups answer the key question.

To be clear, that key question is “when should I use qualitative research, and when should I use quantitative research for the best results?” Another way of looking at this is, “when should I be listening to users, and when should I just be shipping code and looking at the metrics?”

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Where Are The Women In Forbes “30 Under 30”?

Editor19 December 2011

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0) This morning, Forbes announced their annual "30 Under 30" lists, launching a cavalcade of public congratulations for the named, and also leaving many women in tech wondering "where are the women?" in Forbes lists?

24-year old Danielle Fong holds top billing in the "30 Under 30" for energy (and will be speaking at Women 2.0's PITCH Conference). In the "30 Under 30" for social & mobile, 29-year old Clara Shih (Co-Founder, Hearsay Social) announced her seat on Starbuck's board last week. No doubt women are blazing trails in technology, business and innovation.

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104 Million New Female Entrepreneurs In 59 Countries

Editor19 December 2011

By Simone Brummelhuis (Founder, TheNextWomen) Necessity drives women to start their own businesses in developing countries, new research from Babson College finds. In more-developed countries, 72% of women started businesses because they saw an opportunity for entrepreneurship.

The findings, reported in the Babson Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2010 Women's Report, show that more than 104 million women between the ages of 18 and 64 were involved in starting new businesses in 59 countries in 2010. In addition, as of 2010, another 83 million women had owned their own businesses for at least three years.

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