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Get That First Order – And Get It Right!

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By Amrita Rao (Founder & CEO, TreasureYourArt) So you’ve done everything your entrepreneurship professor at business school taught you to do. You’ve done your numbers, run your models, spent months getting that perfect website up and running, emailed everyone you know (and many you don’t), and in your excitement, you’ve even printed Business Cards with your name, followed by that coveted Founder and CEO title.

But now what? Where is that first order? Why is it taking so long? Have I done something wrong? Should I do more?

Starting your own business has many benefits –

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Friday Roundup: The Numbers (Facebook, Boards & 500 Startups)

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By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0) This week, we learned the numbers behind Facebook's impending IPO - and that COO Sheryl Sandberg is Facebook's highest paid employee, earning $30.8M last year.

The all-male board of Facebook makes you wonder why a company serving a user base of at least 50% women has no female representation on the board. We told ourselves that women board directors can build value and bring win-win strategies to the table - let's #changetheratio here.

Women make up half the world population, but

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Good Tools Have Verb-Based Interfaces

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By Gina Trapani (Creator, ThinkUp & Todo.txt Apps) I've switched to an iPhone as my primary mobile device because I'm dogfooding my new iOS app. Coming off of three straight years of Android, one of the toughest parts of the transition was losing the applications drawer.

My new iPhone had so many screens of icons, all perfectly aligned in a grid, every one with rounded corners, all equal visual weight, nary a widget in site! I got dizzy swiping across the carousel of apps trying to find the one I needed.

I decided to get all my apps onto 1 or 2 homescreens

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Invention And She’s Geeky 2012

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By Anna Billstrom (Developer, Momentus Media) I really want to find this picture of my great-grandfather standing in front of his car, that has a license plate with a big circle cut out of the center. He’s showing off his invention. A way of keeping your car from being stolen. You take the center of the license out with you when you leave the car. Ta-da.

Inventing things is so much fun! OK blog post is done.

Alright, more background: She’s Geeky is an “unconference” that is, a loosely self-organized conference based on

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How To Build Prototypes Without Technical Chops

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The best part about prototyping with paper, Post-Its, and PowerPoint, was that not a single line of code had to be written, yet I get feedback for my minimal viable product. By Andrea Lo (Founder, Piggybackr)

The purpose of a prototype is to cut down on the time spent building out a product so you can focus on figuring out what people want.

Having a prototype from day one gives you authentic user feedback - because you are able to immediately

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“Sit With Me” Campaign Taking Place February 14 (Photoshoot)

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By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)Facebook had a red chair at their Silicon Valley headquarters and invited people to stop by and have a seat. Over 80 Facebook employees had their pictures taken “sitting” in the red chair as a statement of solidarity for women in technology.

What Is The Red Chair?

The Sit with Me campaign encourages women and men to "sit" to take a stand and validate women in technology, recognizing them for the important role they play in creating new technology.

We are excited to see Sheryl Sandberg has sat in the red chair.

In last year's Barnard commencement speech, Sheryl challenged women to be more ambitious and encouraged the young women to sit down and lean in:

"If all young women start to lean in, we can close the ambition gap right here, right now, if every single one of you leans in. Leadership belongs to those who take it. Leadership starts with you.” She reminded women to “take a page from men and own their own success.”

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Black Founders Is For White People

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By Hadiyah Mujhid (Co-Founder, Black Founders) So if it isn’t obvious, I want to clarify that the title of this post is just a catch-title. But I also want to clarify that the organization Black Founders is not just for black people. In fact, the organization is created for all. This statement does not take away from the mission of “increasing the number of successful black entrepreneurs in technology”. But an attempt to uncover the broader purpose of organizations that are founded in diversity and equality.

I attended a couple of startup networking events this week. Typical protocol at these events is to introduce who you are and

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Why I Admire High-Growth, High-Tech Entrepreneurs, As A Former Non-Profit Person

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By Heather McGough (Founder, Urbanity Events) For years, I was so caught up in my non-profit bubble that I didn’t realize I was managing and growing a “cool startup” in San Francisco.

What I learned is that I thrive in this atmosphere and crave what Silicon Valley startups are made of: ass-kicking.

I morphed from my non-profit bubble and merged into the world of powerful women entrepreneurs, startups and tech.

Here are five reasons I admire high-growth, high-tech

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20 Angel Investors-In-Training To Invest In Your Business Soon

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By Simone Brummelhuis (Founder, TheNextWomen) A new group of angel investors are entering the world of informal investments.

The Pipeline Fellowship - which trains women philanthropists to become angel investors through education, mentoring, and practice - has just announced its 2012 NYC Pipeline Fellowship class:

Fradel Barber Fradel is the Visionary Entrepreneur and Director of Expansion World Financial Group. She is a member of the Leadership Network of World Financial Group — a group of hand selected individuals

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Plain Numbers Of Women In Tech: A Look At Venture Capital Today

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By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0) A post by Whitney Hess is making the rounds in New York's circle of women entrepreneurs in technology titled "The plain numbers about women in tech – The VCs".

She takes an empirical look at the gender ratio of venture capital firms focusing on early-stage funding, that have funded over "brand name" startups, and have funds worth over $100 million.

Here are the more positive numbers for VC firms funding high-profile early-stage startups:

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Kindara Founder Shares 5 Pearls Of Wisdom (Lessons Learned)

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By Kati Bicknell (Co-Founder, Kindara) I'm the co-founder of Kindara. Our mission is to provide women with a full solution (hardware, software, support and education) that makes the Symptothermal Method of fertility management easier than ever before.

We graduated from the New York Spring 2011 Founder Institute at the top of our class, and recently closed a Friends and Family round of funding. I’m a member of the Society for Menstrual Cycle Research and one of the few women in the country being trained as a Fertility Awareness Educator.

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4 Secrets To Building (Or Rebuilding) A Great Team

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By Julia Hu (Founder & CEO, LARK) You are always building, and rebuilding a great team. It is never in stasis - even when you are not hiring you are tweaking roles to better fit people within your company, or partnering with strategic partners, or letting people go.

At the end of the day, your team is first (or a close second) in what makes your business successful. But, it’s definitely first in line for how happy you are everyday when you are slaving away on building something new.

Here are four lessons that I have discovered

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How Changes In The Patent Office May Affect Your Business

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By Manali V. Dighe (Intellectual Property Attorney, Borton Petrini) Patents are integral for innovation. On the one hand, patents promote disclosure of new and useful inventions. On the other hand, as a "payment" for disclosure, the patent owner gets the exclusive right to make, use, sell, or offer to sell the invention. Patent law will be experiencing arguably its biggest reform to date.

On September 16, 2011, President Obama signed a landmark patent reform act, the America Invents Act. Some changes will go into effect immediately, and some will go into effect 12 or 18 months from the date of enactment.

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