Uncategorized

article placeholder

Interview with LOLapps Co-Founder and Head of UX Annie Chang

Editor

Editor's note: LOLapps co-founder and head of user experience Annie Chang talks to Women 2.0 about her startup, one of the fastest growing social companies with over 1MM user generated applications and 4 very large social games.Women 2.0: How did you get started on LOLapps? Annie Chang: I sat in the audience as Mark Zuckerberg announced the new Facebook platform in May 2007, and I was inspired. Many web applications that I had pondered building, as well as several projects that I had worked on previously, required

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Notes from Bloomberg Empowered Entrepreneur Summit in NYC

Editor

By Carol Massar (Co-Anchor of "Street Smart", Bloomberg TV) It was fun to be a part of the Bloomberg Empowered Entrepreneur summit in New York City, an event in partnership with Women 2.0, among others.

There were some great takeaways, including momentum to the idea that going public is not the endgame for young companies. We continue to hear that from different venues.

Today, EDventure Holdings' Esther Dyson was

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Women 2.0 Celebrates 5 Years of Growth and Inspiration

Editor

By Shaherose Charania (Co-Founder & CEO, Women 2.0) I moved to Silicon Valley in 2005 and almost always was the only woman in the room at business, technology or entrepreneurship networking events.

Then one day, I met a guy named Noah Kagan who introduced me to a few awesome women he knew. He said, “I want you to meet these women, I think you should do something together.” He booked a room at the Palo Alto Facebook office for us where he worked; and without any formal security clearance (this was back in 2005), we the founders of Women 2.0 met, talked and conceived the

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

When Should You Pivot, Jump, or Shoot? (LaunchBit)

Editor

By Elizabeth Yin (Co-Founder, LaunchBit) "Pivot" is probably the most overused word in the startup community. Everyone is pivoting his/her company from this to that. So how do you know when you should pivot your company slightly, jump to a completely new business idea altogether, or just shoot for the moon with what you have?

My friend Rishi recently wrote a post about how he thinks many entrepreneurs pivot too early -- they don't give their businesses enough time to prove or disprove its hypotheses. I think he writes a very fair post -- it does take

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

From Finance to Fashion (and Acquisition) and Now… Food!

Editor

By Suzanne Xie (Co-Founder & CEO, Lollihop) I got the idea for my first company, Weardrobe, in college when I developed an obsession with spreadsheets and tracking my closet for purposes of efficiency. It wasn't much of a surprise when I joined the world of finance after college to work with Excel some more. After a year at Goldman Sachs, I had some extra time after-hours, and the spreadsheet seemed like a fun project to pick back up.

We originally started Weardrobe to give girls a virtual closet, similar to the one Cher had in the movie Clueless. In less than a month, we created a functioning site

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

How To Change the Way People Behave (Startup Lesson Learned)

Editor

By Helen Belogolova (Co-Founder & CEO, Venuetastic) A lot of times with a startup, what you really hope to do is change how someone makes a decision -- whether a purchase decision, a what-tool-to-use-for-a-specific-purpose decision, or a how-do-i-know-i-can-trust-this-tool decision.

Most of the time, changing the way someone behaves is very difficult, especially if you’re dealing with spending money. People get used to making decisions a certain way and breaking those habits is our task as startup founders. Understanding how people make those decisions and how to break those habits is hard, but

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Networking as a Woman (A Man’s Perspective)

Editor

By Larry Chiang (CEO, Duck9 & Stanford University EIR) I see patterns. Pattern recognition is a critical skill set for VCs to master. The pattern I see is that networking as a tall Asian engineer with Supermodel looks is uber similar to how a female founder should network. We both can't get to and meet contacts if there is a slew of people just monopolizing our time (because they want to bang us).

You see, I say the things that others won't say (or write). I risk this because in my opinion, there are some insights I have that others do not. We as women need to play with the idea of...

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Women 2.0 Startup Weekend (November 18-20 in San Francisco)

Editor

By Angie Chang & Christina Gunarto (Organizers, Women 2.0 Startup Weekend) Women 2.0 and Startup Weekend are partnering on November 18 - 20, 2011 at The Hatchery in San Francisco, CA for Women 2.0 Startup Weekend! We provide the co-working space and brain fuel, and you bring the energy and innovation to build something big over the weekend. Both men and women are invited to get your ticket for Women 2.0 Startup Weekend now! Maybe you have an idea, maybe you don't? Maybe you started a startup before, maybe you haven't? Maybe you are a developer, a designer, a do-er? Bring an idea, or just yourself! Come to join a team and start a project (or company) over the weekend. We will be hacking and building for 54 hours!

... Read More...
Uncategorized1 min read
article placeholder

Ideas on Smartphone and Handset Innovation

Editor

By Liz Kerton (President, Telecom Council of Silicon Valley) Mobile devices are increasingly at the center of our lives, and these connected wonders are taking on increasing roles in organizing, entertaining, connecting, and updating us. The technologies that are put into these devices continue to stretch their functions, improve their usability, and make last year's phone look obsolete.

The finished products are often first shown at CES, but the technologies that make the whole product are first shopped around Silicon Valley by the usual cadre of entrepreneurs and R&D groups.

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Bringing Together Women Who Code in the Bay Area

Editor

By Sasha Laundy (Founder, Women Who Code) I love startups and the vibrant technical community in the Bay Area. While many men were friendly and helpful to me, I grew tired of being the only technical woman at event after event. I craved a space -— just one night a month! —- where I wasn’t the only one. Where I didn’t constantly have to prove myself with every introduction, and where I could see what other technical women were accomplishing. So I launched Women Who Code.

Two months later, I have been overwhelmed by the community response. More than 300 women have joined

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read
article placeholder

Can Product “Disruption” Become a New Paradigm?

Editor

By Sarah Tavel (Senior Associate, Bessemer Venture Partners) Facebook is an incredible company, and it’s incredible for many, many reasons. But one of the things that most impresses and amazes me is Facebook’s relentless reinvention. The company has disrupted its product, and therefore its users, on multiple occasions. I’m sure everyone remembers the backlash Facebook weathered when it launched its newsfeed. And of course, we’re still less than a month into Facebook’s newest disruption, this time to its profile page.

Facebook is in rare company. Microsoft, to its credit, disrupted its Office product suite by introducing the ribbon (which was probably a great change for my mom, but drives me

... Read More...
Uncategorized0 min read