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Women In Business Challenge Finalist Kosi Yankey (Nuba Foods)

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Increasing employment and reducing poverty is something Nuba Foods is deeply committed too also, with the number of employees expected to quadruple to 16 by 2014. By Joëlle Payet (Marketing & Communications Coordinator, BiD Network)

Since 2009, the Women in Business Challenge has provided support, coaching, visibility and finance to over 600 entrepreneurial women in emerging economies. This year, five outstanding applicants were selected from almost 300 and, chosen on account of their potential for growth and the overall quality of their business plans, will receive coaching from professionals before having the opportunity to meet face-to-face with high end investors at the Growing SMEs event at The Hague in November.

Every week, we will be focusing on one of these five women, whose experiences are as varied as they are inspirational.

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Breaking Out Of The Prison Cycle Into Entrepreneurship

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More than 43 businesses have been started by Prison Entrepreneurship Program graduates — representing nearly 15% of the program's graduates, which is a higher business start rate than either Harvard or Stanford Business School alumni. By Catherine Rohr (Founder, Prison Entrepreneurship Program)

T-shirts get printed every day — some in huge warehouses, others in mom-and-pop startups. On this day, A Perfect Print is delivering an order of t-shirts to the headquarters of a large corporation in the Dallas area. Sounds perfectly normal, right? Free enterprise, capitalism, and the pursuit of happiness — so what's the big deal?

The big deal is that the entrepreneur in the driver's seat of this van isn't your typical business owner. In fact, if you look past the ink stains and lacquer, you'll find that, somewhere in the past, James Gorman, entrepreneur, was James Gorman, convicted felon.

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Key Takeaways From Intel’s Inaugural Girl Geek Dinner

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Add value. Don't "act like a boy" and shout out. But don't just sit there and raise your hand either. James tells us: Adjust how you're showing up, but don't stop showing up. By Emily Gonzales (CTO, Bookigee)

At Wednesday's Intel Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner, there was no shortage of sensory overload for the tech geeks like myself who were present. From exciting demos of future products to fascinating facts in the Intel museum, there was plenty to take in while enjoying delicious food and great drinks with like-minded professional women in tech. Without a doubt, the highlight was hearing directly from the speakers, the female technology rock stars of Intel themselves.

Here's what I learned from them:

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A Growing Angel Investment Trend – “The Mommy Investor”

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Rather than turning to traditional at-home employment or entrepreneurship, moms now have an opportunity to begin leveraging their own money and their marketplace knowledge to make money with their minds, instead of their sweat. By Lacey Moler (Co-Founder, Belly Ballot)

Many moms have probably considered starting their own business or finding a job that will allow them to work from home. As children age, moms often find more free time on their hands, or perhaps there are financial pressures, which have made extra income a necessity. In last 10 years, moms have been incredibly successful at closing the mom/professional gap. In fact, stay-at-home moms have created some of the most successful digital blogs, publications, and startups.

But where do we go from here? What other opportunities are available for the aspiring professional mom with diapers in one hand, and a business plan in the other?

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Positive Conflict

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I never saw conflict as a bad or negative thing. For me, conflict is a way to put everything on the table for comprehensive clear discussion. By Heather Schlegel (Founder & CEO, The Purple Tornado)

There's this idea that any kind of conflict is bad, is something to be shied away from. To avoid at all costs. I don't think anyone particularly likes an argument, but to me, passionate conversations, arguments and even conflict are a healthy part of interpersonal communications.

My favorite "conflict" story comes from working with my favorite Dev team. The team was full of amazing genius software engineers. We were a small company building brand new technology and our small set of users didn't yet get the full understanding of how to use this new paradigm. A cross-functional team met

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Female Founders To Watch: Teaching Children On Your iPad

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There are probably more women innovating on the iPad to educate the next generation. Let us know about these women and their companies/products in the comments below. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

Angry Birds on an iPhone or iPad used to be a good babysitter, but don't you want to educate your children while they play on your iPad?

Introducing a host of female-founded startups working to make the iPad experience for your child an educational one. These female founders range from moms to business executives, from programmers to creative types. There is no "type" for edutech entrepreneurs innovating on the iPad.

Here are female founders building apps and readers for children's entertainment AND education:

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Behind The Scenes Of A Seed Round: Creating A Pipeline, Urgency And 100% (The Hustle)

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The only way to encourage investors to invest today is to create urgency — create a possibility that there may not be a chance to invest later. By Elizabeth Yin (Co-Founder & CEO, LaunchBit)

Every TechCrunch article makes raising a round look easy, but behind most rounds, it’s a real uphill battle. I struggled with deciding to write about our fundraising story, because I’m a fairly private person. But, since I know so many people trying to raise a seed round right now, I thought this might be able to help a little.

500 Demo Day

Last week, we announced our first birthday at LaunchBit, an ad network for email, as well as our seed round of funding at LaunchBit.

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Partner Event: Ideas Are Worthless (September 6 In SF)

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Black Founders events are open to entrepreneurs of all races and encourages all interested to attend.Black Founders hosts Ideas Are Worthless on Thursday, September 6, 2012 in San Francisco, CA. The all-day conference features Michael Seibel (Founder of SocialCam), Steve Blank (Author of 4 Steps To The Epiphany), Charles Hudson (Venture Partner at SoftTech VC), Angela Benton (Founder of NewMe Accelerator), Ann Winblad (Partner of Hummer Winblad) and many more.

Women 2.0 members save 20% when registering with discount code "women2".

Entrepreneurs taking part in the conference will benefit

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Hackathons Change Your Life. Seriously.

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The beauty of a virtual hackathon is that you can still have a life. No need to find childcare, reschedule your dentist appointment or not have time to grocery shop. A virtual hack is all about hacking in your free time! By Agnes Lam (Founder, CoderCharts) & Pamela Day (Founder, PocketScience Labs)

I know that might sound a bit dramatic, but it is true. Ask anyone who has participated and you will discover that it is like nothing else.

A group of people, often strangers, coming together to make something from nothing, solving problems, working together, pushing their skills - improving their skills, and having a blast.

It can be a bit frustrating if you live outside of a geography which provides a constant stream to choose from. The solution? A virtual hackathon!

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Doing Good For The World… Effectively

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It’s time for our "feel-good" sector to seriously step up to the impact maximization plate. By Andrea Abel (Co-Founder, International Policy Research & Evaluation Group)

Let’s face it, when it comes to devoting careers, time and energy into the non-profit, foundation/aid sector, women are leading the way. In the US for example, 73% of all non-profit staff is female.

But when it comes to efficiency and effectiveness, this sector lags miles behind the traditionally male-dominated private sector. For years, the stereotype for organizations operating in the sector has been a ‘heart-is-in-the-right-place but loosey-goosey culture’, at which people throw money more to make themselves feel good, and less because they actually think they will do good.

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Is Coding For Women?

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I’m afraid that women may fall into the trap of thinking that it is harder than it actually is and thus approach it with an expectation that they can only scratch the surface and cannot go deeper. By Jane Wang (Hacker, Hacker School)

Why you ask?

David Albert, a co-founder at Hacker School, a program that is targeting towards 50% female enrollment, says software engineering requires less pedigree than other competitive professions, because a degree says less about how good someone is as a programmer than his or her code.

It’s hard to argue with good code. True to the Hacker Ethic, software engineering is a field for real meritocracy.

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