Stories | Page 271 of 432

Confusion Is Your Friend

Editor10 August 2012

The most important life lesson my mathematician father taught me. By Adda Birnir (Co-Founder, Balance Media & Skillcrush)

My dad defies every stereotype of an absent minded math professor - except for the absent minded part, he is that. Otherwise he bears little resemblance to the stereotype: he is good-looking, funny, an avid surfer, and best of all, an amateur poet.

When I graduated from high school my dad gave a toast at my graduation party.

"I look forward to the day Adda sees how useful calculus is and finds that she can use science to help solve the world’s problems," he said.

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Wantworthy, Co-Founded By CEO Lauren McDevitt, Raises $1M Seed Funding

Editor10 August 2012

NYC-based Wantworthy graduates from TechStars, raises seed funding to accelerate product development. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

Wantworthy announced raising $1M in seed funding, led by RRE Ventures, Google Ventures, Quotidian Ventures, and several NYC-area angels also participated.

2011 NYC TechStars graduate Wantworthy aims to help you keep track of everything you want to buy, and is working on a feature to alert you when prices drop. Similar sites for social shopping/bookmarking include Pinterest and Wanelo.

Co-Founder and CEO Lauren McDevitt is a

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Female Founders To Watch: Women With Solid Technical Chops – And Own It

Editor10 August 2012

For a thorough list of technical women founding companies (CTOs, CEOs, VPs of engineering and more), check out this list. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

Of the five finalists for Entrepreneur Magazine's ENTREPRENEUR OF THE YEAR award, there is a female founder - Limor Fried.

The MIT-educated electrical engineer (pictured) started electronics hobbyist company Adafruit Industries to distribute DIY electronics toys like littleBits and Arduino items. Vote for her for "Entrepreneur of the Year" for the eponymous magazine - go on, go do it!

It's been pointed out on Twitter that the recent Mashable list of 44 female founders includes hardly any technical

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Supporting Women In Tech: This Is How You Do It.

Editor10 August 2012

When you’re assessing a space (virtual or otherwise) that you’re interested in being part of, one of the things you look for is evidence of other women’s presence. That’s not the only thing you look for but it matters. By Lauren Bacon (Author, The Boss of You)

I‘ve worked in tech for fifteen years. In those fifteen years, women have remained a small minority in the sector, particularly in technical jobs (read: programmers/engineers/developers). A lot of people I know have bemoaned the numbers, and discussed various ways we might address the gender imbalance, but I haven’t seen a lot of success stories (There are some – don’t get me wrong. Just not a ton.)

A few weeks ago, though, something big and wonderful happened. And it is going to change the ratio.

It happened, by the way, thanks to a bunch of smart

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Women Working And Thriving In The Video Game Industry

Editor10 August 2012

Designer. Programmer. Developer. Producer. Artist. You might be familiar with these roles, but if they don’t appeal to you, there are others — you can still have a career in video games. By Daniela Capistrano (Writer, Current)

Women of all backgrounds have the opportunity to thrive in the video game industry while changing the way that women and people of color are represented in games — but they need the skills, personal habits and networks that will support their career goals.

Students: Do not believe the myth that boys are better than girls in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). It’s not true. And although STEM skills are helpful in the video game industry - and female programmers are needed - you don’t need to know how to code to work in video games (but consider learning

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How Women Lead Differently, And Why It Matters

Editor9 August 2012

Long excluded from traditional power structures, women lead differently than men. Restricted access to resources has made ingenuity a matter of survival for many... By Alyse Nelson (Writer, Fast Company)

Research shows that women direct up to 90% of their income to community infrastructure and improvement, whereas men reinvest 30% to 40% of their income.

The World Bank's 2012 World Development Report finds that women with decision-making power accelerate positive development outcomes, and studies from the World Economic Forum confirm a strong correlation between an increase in gender equality and an increase in gross domestic product per capita.

It's now universally accepted that women

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Recognizing The Gap Between Hype And Reality (Living The Dream)

Editor9 August 2012

We had a grand vision for the company and I believed in Daniel’s ability to execute from the technical side of things and mine to develop a business around it. By Erica Brescia (CEO, BitRock)

One of my first lessons in business came at about the age of 5 after tiring of selling lemonade and bags of baby carrots out of our makeshift stand in my driveway in northern California. My best friend and I decided to try something a little more inventive. We caught a slew of tadpoles in a nearby pond and launched our tadpole stand. Sadly, there were no takers. My father, an entrepreneur himself, took this opportunity to explain the basics of supply and demand.

The desire to start and build my own company has always been a constant in my life. The challenge that I had was that I wasn’t sure exactly what kind of company I wanted to start.

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LaunchBit, Co-Founded By CEO Elizabeth Yin And COO Jennifer Chin, Raises $960K To Grow Ad Network For Email

Editor9 August 2012

A round of seed funding and a planned move to join Las Vegas's burgeoning tech scene were announced. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

The rising popularity of email newsletters as a reliable source of information dissemination - being that social media is very noisy right now - spurred high school best friends Elizabeth Yin and Jennifer Chin to devise a solution for advertising in newsletters - LaunchBit.

This week, LaunchBit announced on TechCrunch raising $960k in seed funding from 500 Startups, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s VegasTech Fund and others.

Women 2.0 talked to Elizabeth Yin about the fundraising process and her tips for entrepreneurs:

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Crowdsourcing Empowers Answer Underground App For Improved College Learning

Editor9 August 2012

Our college-aged children are addicted to their mobile phones. They text thousands of times monthly, and even surf their devices to look up information during class. By Sallie Severns (Founder, Answer Underground)

Let’s face this cell phone addiction. It's not going away. We must harvest it to empower students to better their grades – by providing students free homework help regardless of location or economic situation.

That's why this spring I launched the Answer Underground iPhone app, a powerful crowdsourcing tool that literally puts fellow students and professors in one's hip pocket. Answer Underground is based on the idea that collaboration is fundamental to the learning experience. And the metrics

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Affectiva, Co-Founded By CTO Rana El Kaliouby And Rosalind Picard, Raises $12M Series C

Editor8 August 2012

Commercializing new technology by working with graduate students and professors is a good way to start building a business. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

Spun out of MIT Media Lab, Affectiva provides emotion measurement and communications technology for marketers and clinical researchers. Affectiva products include Q (a wearable biosensor wristband) and Affdex (facial expression recognition technology). Affectiva raised $12M last month, raising a total of $20M to date.

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College Interns At Startup Companies

Editor8 August 2012

As women in startups, we are highly under represented and as the theme of the 2012 Olympics, women of this generation of startups need to pass on the torch. By Asia Quan (Marketing & Business Development Associate, HealthSouk)

As college students, we are the leaders of tomorrow. We are also leaders of today when offered the opportunity. Our outlook brings about the most advanced and unique ideas.

Startups create and develop products off of the most innovative ideas. This makes startups and college students the perfect match.

Here are the reasons startups need college students - and college students need startups:

First of all, startups need college students as their consumers. As college students, we constantly use the newest

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Care.com CEO Sheila Lirio Marcelo Raises $50M Series E Funding

Editor8 August 2012

Institutional Venture Partners and others invest $50M in Care.com, founded by Sheila Lirio Marcelo. By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

PITCH 2012 conference speaker Sheila Lirio Marcelo, CEO of Care.com, raised $50M in Series E funding led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) with participation from existing investors Matrix Partners, NEA and Trinity Ventures. IVP's General Partner Sandy Miller joins the board of Care.com as a result of the additional funding.

To date, Care.com has raised $101M in venture funding since being founded in 2006 by CEO Sheila Lirio Marcelo. The TechCrunch funding announcement whispers of a coming IPO for Care.com which will be exciting...

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7 Tips For Accelerating The Rise Of Female Business Executives

Editor8 August 2012

From Mojiva's women executives, tips for success in the world of go-getting business. By Amy Vale (VP of Global Research and Strategic Communications, Mojiva)

There’s been a lot of conversation around Marissa Mayer’s CEO appointment at Yahoo! Beyond her pregnant status or predictions on performance, one trend seems to be taking root - the glass ceiling is being chipped away at an accelerating pace these days with high profile positions leading the way. But, what about the everyday achievements of women in tech?

Mojiva, a mobile-first global advertising display company offering both a mobile ad network (Mojiva), and a mobile ad-serving platform (Mocean Mobile), is a company that has not one or two, but seven female executives at the helm.

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Geek Squad Exec: What Happens If More Of Our Innovators Are Women?

Editor7 August 2012

"At every camp we bring on instructors and helpers - usually about 40 Best Buy employees per camp - who are local employees and get to work with kids and people from their own communities," Moira Hardek says. By Ann Bednarz (Contributor, Network World)

"Technology is great, but what happens if more of our innovators are women? Or come from economically disadvantaged areas?" says Moira Hardek, who's senior manager of Geek Squad Academy. "The tech field as a whole definitely needs a different point of view, it needs new innovators, and it needs its innovators to look different from the innovators we've seen in the past."

To put on the camps, Hardek works year-round with a core team of six people who create content and plan the logistics of each venue. During the summer months, she adds another 10 to 12 field employees who travel with the team and help run the camps.

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Building The Business Case For Online And Mobile Privacy

Editor7 August 2012

1 in 3 have entirely stopped doing business with certain online companies due to privacy concerns. By Alexandra Ross (Senior Counsel, Paragon Legal)

Do online and mobile businesses that utilize robust privacy and security practices enjoy a competitive advantage? In these areas of technology where clear legal guidance is still emerging, how should companies make strategic decisions regarding their privacy practices? Well, a few recent privacy studies may help answer these questions and build the business case for privacy.

Over the past several years, we’ve seen regulators, privacy watchdog groups and the press focus their attention on privacy. Now, more aware and educated consumers are determining how and when to engage with business in part based on their level of trust

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