Hello Founder Friday Vancouver! (I'm Coming Home, Coming Home)
Join me in my hometown for Founder Friday Vancouver's Launch on September 21!
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The Right Startup Culture For Me
At startups with more female employees, Nerf battles, wrestling matches and beer guzzling are not the only ways to have fun at the office. By Veronica Ray (Senior, Duke University)
During my summer internship in San Francisco, I began to seriously think about the startup culture that suits me best. I met with other students involved in my internship program on Wednesdays and we had the opportunity to meet with a variety of executives from technology companies in the Bay Area. Russell Glass, CEO of B2B marketing company Bizo, especially inspired me. I wondered why Bizo sounded like an exceptional place to work and other companies didn’t.
Next spring, I will graduate from college and seek a full-time job in a tech startup in San Francisco. These are critical elements in a startup I want to work at and/or found:
... Read More... Some Frequently Asked Questions About Applying To PITCH
Apply to the Women 2.0 PITCH Startup Competition by August 31, 2012 for great prizes! By Rebecca Lipon (Application & Judges Coordinator, PITCH Competition 2012)
Women 2.0 is actively accepting applications for our PITCH 2012 Startup Competition (deadline: August 31, 2012) and we have received many questions from applicants. We have listened to your questions and feedback and lowered the cost of applying to $50 per startup (normally $100).
Here are the most common questions about PITCH and the answers.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have additional questions or concerns - email askpitch@women2.com.
... Read More... How To Launch And Learn With Big Ideas And Small Resources
Properly integrating and utilizing health-related information generated by sensors and genomic technologies presents a tremendous opportunity and I had an idea of how to approach the problem. By Irene Gabashvili (Founder, Aurametrix)
Once upon a time, the path from an idea to a product was possible only through teams of specialized experts spending months or years on prototyping or writing elaborate business plans. Then came the “think small” era, encouraging entrepreneurs to quickly launch on simple ideas and later figure out what to do with them on the go. The business climate is now changing again and entrepreneurs are encouraged to target more ambitious ideas. Should they?
I always liked big ideas. The kind like “it will be done in 10 years” so let’s play in the sandbox. Examples of my projects included artificial intelligence tools for geneticists in the early 90s
... Read More... EduTech Startup Insane Logic And Female Founder Zoe Peden
Insane Logic's co-founders Zoe and Andrew released flagship product MyChoicePad a year ago, targeting schools and the speech and language therapy markets. Since then, MyChoicePad has taken over Zoe’s life. By Sramana Mitra (Founder, One Million By One Million)
Women entrepreneurs abound in the world, but they don’t seem to get the same amount of recognition as their male counterparts. As a serial entrepreneur with a focus on technology, I’m always excited to learn about and, in this case, work with other technology focused female entrepreneurs like Zoe Peden, co-founder of Insane Logic in our One Million by One Million Premium program. Insane Logic is an education technology (EduTech) startup that provides interactive communication products for the education and health sectors.
Zoe Peden spent the first nine years working in the education and academic publishing industry in product
... Read More... Entrepreneur In Chile Launches Two Startups, Hosts Founder Friday Santiago September 7
I always had the desire to create something great from scratch with a big, transcendental social impact.
... Read More... Top 10 Ways 500 Startups Open Doors For Love With Food
The 500 experience has definitely helped us grow in many unimaginable ways, more than I can list... By Aihui Ong (Founder & CEO, Love With Food)
There are so many incubator/accelerator programs in Silicon Valley (e.g. AngelPad, 500 Startups, YC) and each has a different application process, providing different levels of investment in exchange for equity. However, they all share a common trait - they aim to open doors for you, help propel you to the next stage of your startup growth. What they don’t do is spoon-feeding. Hand holding not included.
Love With Food is fortunate to be part of 500 Startups (graduated Feb’12), one of the top 10 startup incubators
... Read More... Crowdfunding – Do You Know Who Your Friends Are?
The vast majority of successful campaigns raise small amounts of money from large amounts of people. By Susan Quinn (Co-Founder & CEO, ToutSuite Social Club) Ok, I have a lot of friends. I love a LOT of people. Entire towns full of people, as a matter of fact. And nothing makes me happier or more fulfilled than cooking a hearty feast for them, or sabering a bottle of bubbles in the backyard, or showing up with makings for bacon-infused Bloody Marys when a friend is down, or splurging, occasionally, on a storied bottle of wine for a special pal’s birthday regardless of expense. Car broke down? I’ll be right there. Lost your wallet? Here’s $20 bucks. After over a year pitching angels and VCs on our startup ToutSuite Social Club and hearing the ubiquitous Has-Potential-But-Too-Early response, we launched a crowdfunding campaign
... Read More... Sherpaa, Co-Founded By COO Cheryl Swirnow, Raises $1.8M To Help SMBs Find Better Health Insurance
Brooklyn-based healthtech startup raises venture capital to disrupt the $2.5 trillion healthcare industry. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
Brooklyn-based healthtech startup Sherpaa provides personalized medical advice and/or routes you to the medical professional as necessary. Sherpa announced raising $1.8M last week from investors including O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures (its first healthtech investment), First Round Capital and Collaborative Fund.
Sherpaa was co-founded by Cheryl Swirnow, who spent the last 10 years in human resources helping companies choose and manage their healthcare plans. With Sherpaa, technology will facilitate smartphone conversations between doctors and patients
... Read More... This Is What An Angel Investor Looks Like – Sara Weinheimer
Women 2.0 profiles women angel investors in our "This Is What An Angel Investor Looks Like" series. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
Los Angeles-based angel investor Sara Weinheimer finances women-led startups, with a keen interest in social media and cleantech. She has invested in about a dozen women-led companies through her participation in the Golden Seeds angel investor network and is an LP in the Golden Seeds Fund II.
She established the southern California chapter for the Golden Seeds angel investor network investing exclusively in women-led early stage companies. At Golden Seeds, she manages deal flow, mentors and advises female-led startups, leads deals, finances
... Read More... When Talking To Users Saves You Time
Jane’s team then had a similar conversation with other customers and potential customers. The product team gladly put the much smaller Feature X, minus the expensive live video feature, onto their product roadmap. They also left out a few other parts of Feature X that didn't solve actual user problems... By Laura Klein (Principal, Users Know)
I mentor a few young designers, which is great, because not only do I know exactly who I want to hire when I’m building a team, but they also share interesting stories about their current companies.
I was speaking with one of them a couple of weeks ago, and she shared a story that sounded incredibly familiar. I think this happens to all designers who work with a sales force at some point.
The designer, whom we will call Jane, is working on the user experience for an enterprise product for hiring managers.
... Read More... Women Entrepreneurs: Get Certified As A "Woman-Owned Small Business" (WOSB)
By using alternative ways to bring in funds, you don’t have to eat ramen and you can maintain control of your company during its formative stage. Being a WMBE g... Read More...
Women Entrepreneurs: Get Certified As A “Woman-Owned Small Business” (WOSB)
By using alternative ways to bring in funds, you don’t have to eat ramen and you can maintain control of your company during its formative stage. Being a WMBE gives you more leverage. By Catheryne Nicholson (Co-Founder & CEO, MommaZoo)
Hey women founders, do you know that if you own and control 51% or more of your company, you can qualify as a woman-owned business? And if you are also a small-business owner, you should consider getting certified as a woman-owned small business (WOSB).
Why does a certification matter? Because it can be profitable.
Many U.S. federal government agencies, large enterprises and utilities have revenue set aside for diverse small businesses. For example, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued GO156 which mandates
... Read More... Meet PITCH NYC Online Judge Laurel Touby, A Successful Entrepreneur-Turned-Investor
After exiting her company, Laurel began advising select seed-stage startups and investing in others. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
With just over a week left to submit your application for this year's PITCH NYC 2012 Startup Competition - I'm excited to introduce online application judge Laurel Touby of Mediabistro fame.
She is active in the NYC startup community, having founded Mediabistro and as CEO, pulled the company through two recessions, pivoted, managed growth with minimal resources - and sold the company for $23M earlier this year.
After exiting her company, Laurel began advising select seed-stage startups and investing in others.
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