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My Voicemail From Virginia “Ginni” Rometty in 2002

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By Tereza Nemessanyi (Co-Founder & CEO, Honestly Now) One afternoon in 2002, the red light turned on on my office phone -- I had a voicemail.

That morning, IBM had announced its acquisition of PWC Consulting, which was the largest acquisition in the history of IBM. I'd worked on one part of the PWC Consulting side of the deal. There was talk of some hotshot woman from IBM who led the whole thing.

Got to admit -- feelings were mixed.

On one hand, many of us were highly skeptical

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Interview with Author Naomi Fine of Positively Confidential

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By Pemo Theodore (Founder, EZebis) Showcase your startup in the Positively Confidential competition -- The 3 best video pitches (no longer than 1 mnute) by women entrepreneurs showcasing your startup and why you would benefit from a complementary copy of "Positively Confidential".

Get cracking and post your video pitch on YouTube, tag it with "Positively Confidential Pitch Competition" and send the URL before the end of October to info at ezebis (dot com).

This is a fabulous chance to showcase your startup and

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Why (Almost) Everything Women Are Told About Work Is Wrong

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By Joan C. Williams & Rachel Dempsey (Authors, The New Girls' Network) It's not your fault. That's the message of the career advice book Rachel and I are working on together, and that's the message of this new report from nonprofit research group Catalyst.

Despite all the advice women receive telling them that they fall behind men in the workplace because they don't ask for raises; because they don't network; because they don't promote themselves, it turns out that women actually do all of these things, as much as or more than men. The problem isn't us, it's them.

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3 Big Ways Women Leverage Their Strengths at Startup Weekend

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By Maris McEdward (Community Manager, Startup Weekend) Taking the plunge into entrepreneurship is daunting, to say the least. It can be even more daunting for women since tech entrepreneurship is still a man’s world in many ways. For example, women are outnumbered by men 4:1 at the average Startup Weekend event.

Fortunately, Women 2.0 Startup Weekends have seen gender parity in the attendees of these events, producing startups such as Foodspotting, Saygent and HomeCookMe.

Luckily, appearances can be deceiving.

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Growing Kabam From 4 Founders to 500 Employees (Going Big)

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By Holly Liu (Co-Founder, Kabam) My social gaming startup Kabam has just raised $85MM in Series D funding from Google Ventures, totaling ~$125MM raised to date. Kabam has 4 offices worldwide and 500 employees, so it feels like we've come a long way -- but still have so much more to go.

Sometimes I think about how we got here, and how much further do we still have to go with the startup? Are we still a startup? What is the end game?

Here are my big three startup lessons learned from Kabam:

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Partner event: pii2011 Venture Forum in Silicon Valley (Nov. 15)

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The pii2011 Venture Forum is a new event from the team behind the Privacy Identity Innovation conference -- the only tech conference that looks at how data is being created, shared, collected and secured; where innovation is heading in areas like mobile apps, social media and location-based services -- and what it means for the future of digital identity, trust and reputation. The pii2011 Venture Forum will bring together an exclusive group of executives, entrepreneurs, investors and analysts to explore the market for personal information. Women 2.0 memebers save 20% with discount code "Women2" when you register here.

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“A Million Isn’t Cool…” – Market Traction and Getting There

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By Ashwini Nadkarni (Founder, Appguppy) “A million isn’t cool. You know what’s cool, a billion.” It was the line that raised the bar for entrepreneurs everywhere on the meaning of traction. It certainly did for my startup Appguppy.

You hear the t-word bandied about all the time in the entrepreneurial community. It’s the golden ticket to getting venture funding for your company when you don’t have a couple of startup sales already under your belt.

But have you ever had the experience of pitching

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Entrepreneurship: Art of Moving Past Other People’s Objections

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By Thursday Bram (Blogger, Grow Smart Business) There aren’t a lot of people who object to the idea of being an entrepreneur. The idea of running a company, making a cool million or two and moving to your own personal island (which is how a lot of us would like entrepreneurship to work) is hard to object to on any level. Of course, that’s the ideal. As entrepreneurs we do put in the hours and work hard -— I’ve yet to be offered my own personal island.

But even when the description of the work involved is more accurate, very few people object to the idea that they should, personally, be entrepreneurs. Rather, the problems creep in

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Two Tough Questions From Women in Tech at Startup Weekend

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By Janine Popick (Co-Founder & CEO, VerticalResponse) At a recent Startup Weekend, an impromptu gathering with young women in tech brought up some interesting questions.

My e-mail marketing company, VerticalResponse, recently partnered with Startup Weekend, an amazing event where entrepreneurs get a little over two days to come up with an idea, pitch it to a crowd and work on one of about 20 ideas selected by their peers.

Participants choose whether or not they want to participate on any of the 20 teams, and they start to

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Why I (Used to) Hate Pink-Collar Startups

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By Anneke Jong (Contributing Writer, The Daily Muse) It looked like a regular tweet, but it was actually a tiny cyber-tantrum.

It all started when a friend sent me a link to the trailer for Bloomberg TV’s new series TechStars. Based on the tech startup incubator of the same name, the reality show follows 10 teams of entrepreneurs as they draft business plans, receive coaching from top tech executives, and eventually pitch their ideas to a room full of investors.

But of the scores of advisors and investors shown

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Lack of Focus (Startup Lesson Learned)

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By Jennifer Toney (Founder & CEO, WeMakeItSafer) When Cass asked if I would be willing to write a post for FailCon, I was honored and pleased to oblige. WeMakeItSafer was part of the very first FailCon demo pit. Back then, we weren’t much more than an idea. I remember showing up to the conference very “underdressed” with our poster-board and alpha (read: not pretty) website.

Soon after, we began blazing a trail, or make that two trails. Our goal was, and is, to be an information hub for manufacturers, retailers and consumers –- a place where important information gets to the people who need it in a timely manner without compromising

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Take Our Daughters to Tech Events (Change The Ratio)

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By CV Harquail (Blogger, Authentic Organizations) What is the best, purest way to get more girls interested in tech (and more women employed in tech)?

Get them deeply interested in what tech can do and what problems tech can help us solve.

When girls (and boys) become genuinely interested and genuinely curious, they will pursue careers in tech not because ‘that’s where the jobs are” or because “that’s what smart people do”, but because that’s what they *want* to do.

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15 Female Founders and CEOs to Watch at the Springboard 2011

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By Amy Millman (Co-Founder & President, Springboard Enterprises) Last week, Mark Suster and Gina Bianchini called attention to some of the most frequently asked questions when it comes to women in tech: “Why Aren’t There More Female Entrepreneurs?” and “Is there a Female Mark Zuckerburg?”

Whenever this happens, we know Women 2.0 will respond with a list of female founders to watch.

This time, we thought we'd help by announcing 15 female founders of digital media and technology companies

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