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Facebook Engineering: Announcing The Grace Hopper Scholarship

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The Facebook scholarship awards women excelling in computer science with the chance to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference from October 3-6, 2012. By Jocelyn Goldfein (Director of Engineering, Facebook)

This fall, we'll join hundreds of remarkable women in technology in Baltimore, Maryland for our fifth year at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. We're looking forward to tackling this year's theme, "Are We There Yet?" with 25 university and industry Facebook Grace Hopper Scholarship winners.

The Facebook scholarship awards women excelling in computer science with the chance to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference from October 3-6, 2012.

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What Is A Design Product Manager?

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Design Product Managers sit at the intersection between technical and business (engineers and marketers). By Samihah Azim (Design Product Manager, BizeeBee)

This is a question I’m often asked. Sometimes we’re labeled as Product Designers, other times it’s Product Managers, and even other times we’re Product Managers of User Experience. But labels are just that – labels. To fully understand what a Design Product Manager is, I’m going to attempt to summarize below.

Traditionally, Product Managers have either come from engineering (technical PM’s), or they’re more business minded, typically hailing from Marketing (PM’s focused on growth). But what we’re seeing in Silicon Valley is this understanding that users

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Announcing The People’s Choice Prize For PITCH: A Meeting With Prominent NYC Angel Investor Joanne Wilson

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People's Choice Award for PITCH 2012 in November wins a meeting with Joanne Wilson, angel investor! By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

You have five more days - to complete your application for this year's PITCH 2012 Startup Competition - I'm thrilled to announce that prominent NYC angel investor Joanne Wilson has agreed to meet with the People's Choice award winner!

Yes, this means the most popular startup pitching on November 14 (as voted on by the audience) wins a one-on-one meeting with the blogger at Gotham Gal and investor inwomen-led startups including Catchafire, DailyWorth, littleBits and Lover.ly.

Joanne Wilson is heavily involved in helping and investing in startups, especially those run by women.

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Female Entrepreneurial Success Spotlighted By Dell

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The most amazing statistic from the 2012 Dell Women’s Global Entrepreneurship Study is that in India, women entrepreneurs expect a median growth of their business by 90% over the next five years! By Ingrid Vanderveldt (Entrepreneur in Residence, Dell)

Since embarking on my journey to find, promote and distribute sustainable solutions to empower a billion women by 2020, I have never been alone. At every turn, there has been an overwhelming abundance of brilliant minds who are passionately dedicating their professions and lives towards the advancement of women.

Three years ago, the first Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) event in China, changed the course of my life. This was more than just a conference for women, but an event that spotlights female entrepreneurial success and creates an atmosphere

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Meet PITCH 2012 Online Judge Sara Lannin Of Accel Partners

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Meet one of 30+ judges reviewing applications for PITCH - Sara Lannin is a venture partner at Accel. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

You have six more days to finish your application for this year's PITCH 2012 Startup Competition - I'm excited to introduce online application judge Sara Lannin of Accel Partners.

Accel Partners focuses on early stage opportunities in information technology and health care.

Before joining Accel, Sara honed her interest in technology through work experience in product management, corporate communications and social media at OpenTable, Facebook and Yahoo!

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From Actor To CEO – To Pitch Contest!

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To prepare, we watched all the pitches from the last Women 2.0 PITCH Startup Competition and noted not only the questions the judges asked, but also which pitches we liked the best and why. By Kathryn Velvel Jones (Founder & CEO, VirtualArtsTV)

After 16 years as a professional actor/producer, I took a job as Vice President of business development for an online video startup in 2008. I knew an office job was going to be a difficult adjustment, but I also knew that this was a job I had to take.

For those of us who remain actors out of a great love of the work, the lifestyle is mostly grim. I spent my 20s pounding the proverbial pavement (sadly, not a metaphor) until finally I decided that waiting for other people to make my dreams come true wasn't going to cut it anymore. It was time to create my own opportunities.

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How TechGirlz Got Started: Showing Girls What Tech Can Offer

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In 1987, 42% of software developers in America were women. In the 1990s, those numbers dropped. By Tracey Welson-Rossman (Founder, TechGirlz)

TechGirlz was born out of curiosity. After spending the first part of my career working with mostly women in both the childcare and healthcare industries, I moved into the information technology consulting space as one of the founding members of Chariot Solutions, a software and mobile development firm. I was shocked to notice the lack of women in my business meetings and even more shocked at the lack of female developer candidates who passed through our doors.

I began to research in order to gain a better understanding of the issue. In the 1960s, computer science was considered women’s work.

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Female Founders To Watch: PITCH Finalists (Where Are They Now?)

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Women 2.0 PITCH startup competitions finalists continue to impress over the years. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

After the years ago by, we wonder "Where are they now?"

The finalists for the last 5 years of PITCH startup competition have gone to impress us with their mettle and ability to adapt and evolve. Some are still working on the same startup, while some have pivoted or moved on to another venture or business opportunity.

Here are female founders who have placed as finalists for the Women 2.0 PITCH startup competitions, and gone on to a variety of impressive and interesting things:

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On Alchemy And Finding Your Personal Legend

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"And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." – The Alchemist By Courtney Powell (Founder & CEO, PublikDemand)

I met a guy at 5th and Brazos once. I was walking back to my office from lunch and he was jogging. He said he had seen me before and that he felt compelled to talk to me.

Normally I would have dismissed his comment as a super lame pick-up line but for whatever reason he seemed normal and I thought I recalled seeing him once before in the Greek restaurant I frequented. We became friends but eventually lost touch as life happened.

Four years later, I ran into him again in East Austin.

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Starting Up, Startups And Anxiety

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After five years of fear of the unknown, constant ruminations of worst-case scenarios and low tolerance for stress, I thought it might be a good idea to start a company(!). By Solome Tibebu (Founder & CEO, Cognific)

“In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” - Bill Cosby

As I struggled with coming up with a sassy title for this guest blog post, it brought me to some very familiar feelings. While at a much lesser extent than other times in my life, preparing to write this article bought about familiar sensations - feelings of inability, stress, avoidance and despair. However, anxiety topped the list.

Throughout middle and high school, I suffered from a severe anxiety disorder including panic attacks and OCD.

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Develop Your Voice As An Engineer, A Speaker

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Editor's note: A longer version of the guest blogger's "Develop Your Voice" talk will be presented at the Grace Hopper Celebration (October 3-6 in Baltimore). By Chiu-Ki Chan (Founder & Developer, Monkey Write)

When I first started working, I was happily learning all kinds of new stuff: source control, working in a team, unit testing, etc, etc. After two years or so, I felt quite comfortable as a software engineer, but I had no idea how to grow further.

Voice is an interesting word because it encompasses so many things. It's your vision, your direction, what you believe in and what you stand for. Voice also implies that it needs to projected, that you need to let other people know what you are trying to do.

I have discovered that the most important thing is

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PITCH Online Judge: David Weekly, Founder Of Mexican.VC

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Apply to PITCH NYC to get in front of investor eyeballs like David Weekly, serial entrepreneur and investor. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

With one week left to submit your application for this year's PITCH 2012 Startup Competition - I'm excited to introduce online application judge David Weekly, founder of PBworks, SuperHappyDevHouse, Hacker Dojo Mexican.VC (acquired by 500 Startups recently) and currently serves as CEO at Gaston Labs.

David likes to start things and enjoys giving talks and advice to save early-stage entrepreneurs time from making the same mistakes. He is happy to advise and easy to reach. As he says, "I'll enjoy meeting you. I'll try to help you. That's the Silicon Valley way. I won't expect a favor in return, but I will expect you to help someone else."

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The Right Startup Culture For Me

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At startups with more female employees, Nerf battles, wrestling matches and beer guzzling are not the only ways to have fun at the office. By Veronica Ray (Senior, Duke University)

During my summer internship in San Francisco, I began to seriously think about the startup culture that suits me best. I met with other students involved in my internship program on Wednesdays and we had the opportunity to meet with a variety of executives from technology companies in the Bay Area. Russell Glass, CEO of B2B marketing company Bizo, especially inspired me. I wondered why Bizo sounded like an exceptional place to work and other companies didn’t.

Next spring, I will graduate from college and seek a full-time job in a tech startup in San Francisco. These are critical elements in a startup I want to work at and/or found:

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Some Frequently Asked Questions About Applying To PITCH

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Apply to the Women 2.0 PITCH Startup Competition by August 31, 2012 for great prizes! By Rebecca Lipon (Application & Judges Coordinator, PITCH Competition 2012)

Women 2.0 is actively accepting applications for our PITCH 2012 Startup Competition (deadline: August 31, 2012) and we have received many questions from applicants. We have listened to your questions and feedback and lowered the cost of applying to $50 per startup (normally $100).

Here are the most common questions about PITCH and the answers.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have additional questions or concerns - email [email protected].

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How To Launch And Learn With Big Ideas And Small Resources

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Properly integrating and utilizing health-related information generated by sensors and genomic technologies presents a tremendous opportunity and I had an idea of how to approach the problem. By Irene Gabashvili (Founder, Aurametrix)

Once upon a time, the path from an idea to a product was possible only through teams of specialized experts spending months or years on prototyping or writing elaborate business plans. Then came the “think small” era, encouraging entrepreneurs to quickly launch on simple ideas and later figure out what to do with them on the go. The business climate is now changing again and entrepreneurs are encouraged to target more ambitious ideas. Should they?

I always liked big ideas. The kind like “it will be done in 10 years” so let’s play in the sandbox. Examples of my projects included artificial intelligence tools for geneticists in the early 90s

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