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Partner event: O'Reilly Tools of Change (February 13-15 in NYC)

AngieChang3 December 2011

O’Reilly’s Tools of Change for Publishing Conference (TOC) is happening February 13-15, 2012 in New York City. TOC is where the publishing and tech industries ... Read More...

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YEC Women Q&A: What Business Book Do You Recommend For Early-Stage Female Entrepreneurs?

Editor2 December 2011

By Natalie MacNeil (Co-Founder, YEC Women) The following answers are provided by YEC Women. Co-Founded by Natalie MacNeil and Scott Gerber, YEC Women is an initiative of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs.

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Why You Should Apply To Business Plan Competitions

Editor2 December 2011

By Karen E. Klein (Contributor, Businessweek)

Editor's note: The Women 2.0 PITCH: Startup Competition application deadline has been extended thru December 7, 2011. Apply here.

Entering business contests is a great exercise, not only because you have a chance at gaining cash winnings and outside investment, but for the chance to get expert feedback on your plan and do some networking and marketing on behalf of your company.

“Depending on what’s most important for you and what stage your venture is in, that will indicate which contests you enter and whether you want to use other

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Webgrrls International Holiday Celebration in SF and NYC

Editor2 December 2011

By Nelly Yusupova (CTO, Webgrrls International) The 2011 Holiday Season is fast approaching!

To kick it off we are organizing a dual-city Webgrrls International Holiday Celebration December 6 with the San Francisco Webgrrls and December 7 with the New York City Webgrrls.

When the Webgrrls Community gets together, it becomes an industry event not only about revelry but also about the celebration of the achievements of women in technology and business.

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IDEO Design Consultant Alison Wong And The Story of Gusto (Women 2.0 Startup Weekend)

Editor2 December 2011

By Alison Wong (Participant, Women 2.0 Startup Weekend 2011) I had an idea about creating an online classes service a few weeks before Startup Weekend. My friend and seasoned developer, Dean Mao, also thought it had potential and we started talking about it in more detail. He thought about development, while I conducted user research in the field to gather insights and user needs.

After Dean and I decided we were going to pursue the idea, we realized that Women 2.0 Startup Weekend was coming up and signed up last minute. We hadn't written any code or decided on our business model, so we thought attending would challenge

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Be Your Own Technical Co-Founder (CodeLesson Startup Series)

Editor1 December 2011

By Jeffrey McManus (Co-Founder, CodeLesson) When we started CodeLesson in 2010, we knew that people could benefit from a place online where they could learn to program on a flexible schedule. We figured we'd be most useful in helping people who code for a living stay on top of the latest languages and technologies.

But we were surprised when novice coders asked if we could help them become more technical. In fact, in our first PHP courses, more than one of our students described themselves as startup CEOs.

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Good Intentions Alone Won’t Help Women Rise To The Top

Editor1 December 2011

By Leah Eichler (Contributing Writer, Femmonomics) When Jim Leech took the helm as president and CEO of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in 2007, he inherited an executive team that, except for one member, looked largely like him -- male. The gender balance now tilts the other way, with 5 female members out of 9 on the executive team, including the chairwoman of the board.

“I think that it is a classic mistake to hire in your own image,” Mr. Leech says. “The stereotype of ‘CEO equals male’ doesn’t resonate with me. I’ve been de-conditioned,” he jokes light-heartedly. To explain their success at promoting female talent, Mr. Leech references its in-house mentoring program

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Stop Reading Startup Advice – Learn By Doing!

Editor1 December 2011

By Deena Varshavskaya (Founder & CEO, Wanelo) Startup culture encourages startup advice. Entrepreneurs want to write it. Other entrepreneurs want to read it.

You can read all sorts of things from people who know exactly what they are talking about. Don’t raise funding. Raise as much as you can. Build an amazing product and they will come. NO, don’t worry about your product, just figure out your distribution - it’s the only thing that matters. And so on.

This creates a temptation to learn by reading

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Collaboration Tools For Entrepreneurs To Create, Communicate

Editor1 December 2011

By Sara Rosso (VIP Services Engineer, WordPress)

I created this presentation for entrepreneurs who need online tools to make their ideas happen (I gave it earlier this year at the Professional Women’s Association in Milan).

The presentation “Tools for Entrepreneurs: Create. Collaborate. Communicate.“ started out as a way to explain very technical things to non-technical people, but I quickly realized that most people when approaching technology get intimidated by the “What’s DNS? Do I need a dedicated server?” kind of questions and therefore feel they can’t understand technology.

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Startup Lessons Learned: Dreams, Teams, and Strategies

Editor1 December 2011

By Liza Deyrmenjian (Founder & CEO, Afingo) My initial idea for Afingo was a business-to-business social network for the fashion industry. In 2008, that was the buzz word.

I had a lot to learn, but I was lucky. An angel investor found me and I was on my way. I did what many new technology entrepreneurs do; I built out websites that probably should not have existed and spent a tremendous amount of capital in the process.

The first iteration of Afingo was a social network, and advertising was the only model that made sense to us. We were up against the beast called Facebook.

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Women 2.0 Startup Weekend Had 65% Women Participating In The 54-Hour Hackathon

Editor1 December 2011

By Farrah Moore (Volunteer, Women 2.0 Startup Weekend 2011) The spirit of entrepreneureship echoed throughout the Hatchery offices at the third annual Startup Weekend hosted by Women 2.0.

The spirit of entrepreneureship echoed throughout the Hatchery offices at the third annual Startup Weekend hosted by Women 2.0.

Over 150 up-and-coming tech and biz stars gathered to pitch concepts, gain connections and develop projects aimed to alleviate fiscal or social problems.

65% of participants during the 54-hour challenge were female -- and, not surprisingly, the gender domination influenced the traits of devised ideas. Teams such as Safe Steps, Perfect Beauty and Carbon 38 highlighted the positive effects

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Startup Weekend Pitch Deck Advice From A VC: Can You Answer These Five Questions?

Editor30 November 2011

By Steph Palmeri (Senior Associate, SoftTech VC) Last Sunday, I spend the afternoon meeting and mentoring several of the Women 2.0 Startup Weekend teams.

As an early stage investor at SoftTech VC, I see hundreds of ideas a month so it seemed fitting that I would be spending time with the teams just as many were diving in to construct and perfect their final Startup Weekend pitches for the judges. Their FIVE MINUTE pitches.

Damn. Five minutes goes pretty quick. And after you’ve spent the last 48 hours laser-focused on an idea, five minutes goes faster then a talented VP of Engineering looking for a new gig.

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Serial Entrepreneur Patricia Araque Creates Meaningful EduTech Startups In Spain

Editor30 November 2011

By Patricia Araque (Co-Founder, Ellas 2.0) Editor's note: Patricia Araque is co-hosting Founder Friday Barcelona on December 2, 2011. FREE RSVP for Founder Friday here.

When I was a kid, I used to play to run my own school and write lists of imaginary students. I spent my time between papers and books and toy phones, imagining that I helped children find their paths.

Then I grew up and suddenly forgot my dreams. I chose to study advertising and public relations in college. There were hard years, mostly because I discovered that everything

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Hot Topic on Reddit: XX Chromosome Equals Lower Pay

Editor30 November 2011

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0) How's this for an opening line: "I work for a large multinational tech company, I regularly hire woman for 65% to 75% of what males make. I am sick of it, here is why it happens, and how you can avoid it."

The hot topic on Reddit this week:

Today I finished interviewing my third new hire this month, two of which are women. They both are getting paid substantially less than the man I hired earlier this month, and to be honest I am getting tired of that. I don't set the wages, I just handle negotiations
... Read More...

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How To Be The Next Marissa Mayer (A Great Product Manager)

Editor30 November 2011

By Mollie Vandor (Product Manager, BetterWorks) Think of building a website like building a house.

There’s the engineers, who are akin to construction workers, actually putting the nuts and bolts of the structure together. The site’s designers are like decorators, making sure the house looks and feels put together and polished. And, the marketing team are the real estate agents, making sure the house attracts buyers -- or, users -- and driving up the house’s value as much as possible.

But, before any of that can happen, there has to be an architect. A person with the vision to plan the house out

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