Editor
My First Hackathon: iOSDevCamp 2012
While I didn’t have a clear output to show for my efforts, I made the complexity of the task apparent. I got to know the people working on projects in the same room. Most importantly, I became inspired to learn more about CSS3. By Veronica Ray (Senior, Duke University)
I’m a rising senior at Duke majoring in Public Policy.
I took my first Computer Science class this past spring and did web development over the summer for Y Combinator startup Jellyfish Art in San Francisco. This fall I’m taking a class on iOS development and another on web application development. I was hired as a part time web developer for Jellyfish Art for the upcoming school year. I will return to the Bay Area when I graduate.
My first hackathon was iOSDevCamp at PayPal/Ebay headquarters on July 20-22, 2012.
... Read More... Did You Really Miss That Opportunity? (Startup Recruiting)
If someone is asking for your services, ask for a partnership opportunity, an equity percentage or simply a return for your effort. By Adriana Galue (Co-Founder, Mint Consulting)
There is a new business model available today. It involves recruiting talent at low or no cost. I know several talented people who are currently “doing internships” at both new and established companies in exchange for “experience”, “recommendation letters” and “peanuts”. I don’t think that this model is sustainable nor do I think that it generates true economic development.
Nowadays, it is extremely important to refine one’s negotiating skills. After having made a plethora of errors by jumping too soon into a deal, these are my recommendations:
... Read More... Zynga Adds Ellen Siminoff To Board Of Directors This Month (Women In The Boardroom)
Ellen Siminoff, founding executive at Yahoo!, joins the all-male board of social gaming company Zynga. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
From the successful Internet campaign to add Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg to the all-male board of directors at the social networking giant (which happened after the company went IPO), to a steady stream of studies and articles touting higher ROI for companies with women on the board, there is a growing awareness of board hegemony making decisions for a heterogeneous society.
Former Yahoo! executive Ellen Siminoff was added Zynga's board of directors this month, the first woman to join the previously all-male board. She will also join the audit committee at Zynga.
... Read More... Get A Better Smartphone Case On Crowdfunding Platform Indiegogo
Entrepreneur Susan Wilson is raising funds for Life-Case on Indiegogo - one week left to fund her! By Amy-Willard Cross (Editor, Vitamin W)
You can’t really walk around with just a phone and a $20 bill. But most phone cases don’t let you stash more than that.
Susan Wilson realized she didn’t want to carry around a purse All-The-Time - especially after she left a rest-stop with her phone but without her wallet with hundreds of dollars in it. Wilson says, "I'm more connected to my phone than my wallet."
So she designed the Life-Case which can hold credits cards, keys, business cards and condoms. Bigger than a wallet, smaller than a purse, it can even hold tampons.
... Read More... Everlasting Entrepreneurship Dreams In Colombia
Since I was a little girl, I always wanted to create and run a successful business. By Lilian Simbaqueba (Founder & CEO, LiSim)
My family says that as a child, I created imaginary corporations that carried out fantastic made-up transactions. After studying systems engineering in Konstanz, Germany, I vowed to return to my country not look look for a job but to generate several of them.
I worked for a multinational company in Hamburg to acquire the knowledge and the economic, relational and conceptual fundamentals necessary to create my own business. This is how, on 1996, 11 years after leaving to Germany, I returned to create LiSim, a company that generates and implements knowledge based on statistical models that foresee mass market consumer behavior.
... Read More... Female Founders To Watch: Enterprise Social Marketing Companies
Social media marketing serving the masses means high-growth startups - creating lots of value and jobs. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
PITCH 2010 Startup Competition finalist Amita Paul pitched Objective Marketer onstage at the November conference. A few months later, Objective Marketer was acquired by Emailvision!
This year, we've seen big exits from social media marketing companies, starting with Buddy Media (co-founded by COO Kass Lazerow) getting acquired by Salesforce for a whopping $689M), Involver was acquired by Oracle while Wildfire Interactive (co-founded by CEO Victoria Ransom) was acquired by Google for $250M.
... Read More... Disruptive Innovation With A Capitol Twist
Externalize the fact that disruption in the marketplace is both necessary and difficult. By Stephanie Sheridan (Founder & Policy Coordinator, Institute for Policy Analysis & Implementation)
Many a crucial moment I find myself sitting in front of my computer or my phone, typing on my Android as I so often do, sometimes, with both my computer and my phone on in front of me, in the middle of one email, text or link follow up. What stops me, what complicates and confuses me is complexity in relationships. Let me try to explain.
I live and work in Washington, DC - in Dupont Circle, to be exact. I consider this the best neighborhood in the entire world. Why I bear such fondness for my neighborhood is that I can live, work and play all around the topics that I care deeply about: urban sustainability, macro and micro economic policy, private sector development
... Read More... Getaround, Founded By Jessica Scorpio, Raises $13.9M Series A
Jessica Scorpio's cleantech startup raises funding to solve car overpopulation and change the world. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
"Like Airbnb for cars" - social carsharing marketplace Getaround announced raising $13.9M in Series A funding today led by Menlo Ventures. In the list of investors includes Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. Getaround was founded by Jessica Scorpio who also serves as director of marketing.
Getaround's vision is "to make the world a better place through the power of disruptive technology, movements and ideas with a focus on collaborative consumption and sustainability."
Congrats to Jessica Scorpio and the Getaround team
... Read More... Interns To The Rescue At Startups!
How and why startups should use this valuable resource. By Florence Lowe (Founder & CEO, SQBlueSky)
Conventional wisdom would say that we don’t have the time to train and manage a bunch of young ‘uns - we are trying to start and build a company!
Interns can make a HUGE difference to any startup. Here at SQBlueSky, a fledgling fin-tech startup based in Dallas, TX, we have a bunch of interns spending their summer with us. They have helped us establish our social media presence, develop content, do financial modeling and valuation and create new marketing campaigns
... Read More... Women 2.0 Discount On San Francisco General Assembly Classes (Taught By Clare Baley, Anna Pereira And Poornima Vijayashanker)
Save 10% on General Assembly's classes in San Francisco with discount code "women2". Women 2.0 has partnered with General Assembly to offer a 10% discount on classes popping up in San Francisco this summer!
Mobile apps are hot. If you are interested in learning the basics of Android development, the Writing Your First Android App class on Wednesday, August 8 (6:30pm - 8pm) is for you! Clare Bayley, a product engineer at Hattery Labs, will teach you how to build a fully functional Android application - what software to use, how to architect your app's life cycle and how to run your app on a device.
UC Berkeley Ph.D candidate Anna Pereira will be teaching
... Read More... How A Writer Found E-Commerce – And A Hub For Social Good
Designed Good co-founders Katy Gathright and Imran Khoja are in San Francisco this week until August 3. They would love to meet with anyone who would like to give advice, talk about collaborating, or chat about design and social good. By Katy Gathright (Co-Founder & Creative Director, Designed Good)
I graduated from Williams College in June having thought (and wished) for four years that I would be a writer. I’d been writing essays, articles, blogs and fiction throughout college, but I could never picture myself being a journalist or novelist right after graduation. It wasn’t until a few months ago, when I chose to dive into social entrepreneurship and my co-founder Imran’s idea for a business, that I envisioned a completely new way to write.
Our business is called Designed Good – a play on bad grammar that my English major self is actually quite happy with. When I think about great design, I think about the architecture slides
... Read More... Mom By Day, New Entrepreneur By Night
In many ways, I parallel MoxTree to having another child. By Victoria Oldridge (Founder, MoxTree)
My name is Victoria. I am wife to one, mom to a three year old and one year old by day and entrepreneur by night and anywhere in between! In a previous life, I was in consulting/sales for the medical device industry. When my son was young, I left the industry but my business wheels kept turning. The more I immersed myself in taking note of the ways in which moms were connecting, the more I was struck by the fact that this could be happening in a much more efficient way.
Having a child is a great starting point in forming mom-connections but there's a lot more to add to our interests and goals list...
... Read More... Toronto-Based ShopLocket, Co-Founded By Katherine Hague, Raises $1M Seed Funding For E-Commerce Disruption
The $1M seed round for ShopLocket includes participation from Peter Thiel's Fund Valar Ventures. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
Three months after launching, ShopLocket raised $1M in seed funding from Rho Canada Ventures, Valar Ventures, BDC Capital, Relay Ventures, Extreme Venture Partners and private investors.
Co-founder and CEO Katherine Hague aims to change the way consumers buy and sell products online. She said "e-commerce will not longer be reserved for marketplaces and storefronts. Instead, products will find us - on blogs, websites and in our newsfeeds, just as naturally as the videos and photos we share today."
Previously, Katherine was a Shopify theme developer
... Read More... Join Stripe For A Saturday Hackathon In San Francisco: Beginners Welcome!
You provide the project, or start one with other coders who are attending. Your goal for the day should be to walk away having built something cool. By Greg Brockman (Engineer, Stripe)
This weekend, Stripe will be running The Hacker in the Rye, a hackathon of self-discovery at the Stripe office on Saturday, August 4 in San Francisco.
In contrast to the typical all-night frenzy of most hackathons, Stripe wants to make hacking collaborative, relaxing, and enjoyable. Whether you are looking to start a new project with other engineers or have a project you’ve been trying to find time to work on, this is the hackathon for you. Our team will be there to help you improve your engineering skills or chat with you about your latest projects.
... Read More...