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Success Largely a Matter of Hanging on After Others Have Let Go

By Mara Lewis (Co-Founder & CEO, stopped.at) Entrepreneurs often get asked how many times they’ve failed. It's a typical question in Silicon Valley and one that most of us answer by listing how many startups we’ve built (and how many startups we’ve buried). Failed startups are like entrepreneurial battle scars. The more you fail, the more bad ass you come across... but the real question we should be asking is –- how long did you keep trying before you gave up?

It’s easy to engineer a prototype, test the market potential, and if it doesn’t get above the noise in the first few months -–

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Partner event: App Developers Conference and Hackathon

App Developers Conference (ADC) and Hackathon are taking place October 26-27, 2011 in Santa Clara, CA. The conference addresses key components of app development, discovery and revenue. Coverage focuses on apps for mobile devices and tablets. More than 50 speakers from Pandora, Walmart, Smule, Samsung, AT&T, Churn Labs, Netflix, Nissan, Nielson, BMW, Pulse, Microsoft, OpenFeint, Qualcomm, Intel Capital, lolapps and others are participating. Save $100 with discount code "women2vip".

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Rebuttal to Penelope Trunk: Redefining Life’s Blueprint

By Heidi Isern (Contributing Writer, Women 2.0) I live in an amazing ecosystem of women who defy convention, reinvent the rules, and passionately take risks to better the world around them.

This isn’t everyone’s habitat and the team at Women 2.0 brought it to my attention. We were sent "A Blueprint for a Woman’s Life” by Penelope Trunk. It wasn’t any blueprint I wanted, nor a doctrine I wanted the women I care about to pay attention to. Perhaps she wrote it to incite controversy and its natural follower, dear ol’ fame. Perhaps she really believes

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Black Founders Host Pitch Party (September 8 in San Francisco)

By Nnena Ukuku (Co-Founder & CEO, Black Founders) What is a Pitch Party?

A Pitch Party is a chance for founders to practice their pitch and receive feedback from investors.

Confirmed investors in attendance will include Gwen Edwards (Golden Seeds), Nancy Pfund (DBL Investors), Cameron Lester (Azure Capital Partners), and Bryce Roberts (O'Reilly AlphaTech Ventures).

You can register for the event here. We have slots for 10 entrepreneurs to pitch for 3 minutes each.

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Fostering More Female Tech Entrepreneurs

By Ellen Lee (Contributing Writer, Intuit Blog) When it comes to women working in Silicon Valley technology businesses -— particularly women at the helm — the numbers remain painfully small.

Less than 5 percent of tech startups are founded by female entrepreneurs, estimates Shaherose Charania, co-founder and CEO of Women 2.0, an organization that helps foster female tech entrepreneurs.

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Serial Entrepreneur Reframes “Having It All” (Work/Life Balance)

By Monisha Perkash (Co-Founder & CEO, LUMOback) “You can have it all, just not at the same time.”

These were the words of advice from a well-intentioned mentor who was trying to help me figure out how to pursue an entrepreneurial career and also start a family.

I knew she was trying to be reassuring, but I bristled at her words. To start with, I disliked being told that there were any limits to what I could pursue. Further, I wondered, if your 30s are when

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Why Speed Networking is Better than Speed Dating

By Melissa Fudor (Program Manager, Women in Wireless) Whether you're looking for Mr. Right or to meet "the right people", the goal behind speed networking and speed dating is pretty much the same -- to make connections and build relationships in the shortest amount of time. But adding names to your rolodex rather than your little black book may not only be a better use of your time but a lot easier too.

Here are the top three reasons why speed networking is better than speed dating:

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(Video) The Evolution of Pitching Onstage as a Startup CEO

By Ellie Cachette (Founder, ConsumerBell) At the BlogHer conference, I ran into the Director of BlogWorld Expo and told her how much time I've taken into pitching. "You're kidding!" she exclaimed.

No. From rewriting logic flow of my pitch, to studying my body language, my phrases, tones, colors I wore... We would film me presenting to team members late in the office and employees got to chose which facts or tidbits they liked the most.

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Mobile Future Forward? The Next 5 Years in Mobile in One Day

By Chetan Sharma (President, Chetan Sharma Consulting) The global mobile industry is the most vibrant and the fastest growing industry. Just look at the 2011 numbers -- $1.3 Trillion in industry revenue, more than $300 Billion in data revenues, more than 6 Billion subscriptions, more than 1.6 Billion devices sold, almost 500 Million smartphones sold. The mobile ecosystem has become much more dynamic, lightning fast paced, and breathtakingly unpredictable.

Mobile Future Forward on September 12 in Seattle, Washington is a premier mobile thought-leadership summit that attracts the industry leaders, innovators, and doers to brainstorm

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Partner event: WIE Symposium (September 18-19 in NYC)

On September 18 and 19, 2011 in New York City, Sarah Brown, Arianna Huffington and Donna Karan will host the annual WIE Symposium (Women: Inspiration & Enterprise). Designed to inspire and empower the next generation of women leaders, the dynamic women’s conference is timed to coincide with the Clinton Global Initiative and the UN General Assembly. The event features powerful speakers, lively panels and an inspirational awards ceremony. Women 2.0 members save $100 on an early bird tickets with discount code "WIE2587" (expires August 29).

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Learn How To Build an iPhone App and Game for Only $124

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0) Due to high demand, we're bringing back the great deal for Bess Ho's popular "Learn how to program an iPhone or iPad app" online class -- and we're throwing in another class on building an iPhone game into the deal.

For a limited time only, get both classes for only $124 (regular price $349). Sign up to Learn to Build iPhone & iPad Apps in 4 Weeks with Bess Ho -- This online course includes 60+ lectures, 17 videos, source codes and hands-on exercises for each section. Learn at your own pace and convenience online!

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Finding the Big Idea – 4 Lessons From a Serial Entrepreneur

By Monisha Perkash (Co-Founder & CEO, LUMOback) After selling my first start-up TuitionCoach, I knew that I would someday want to launch and grow another company that I really believed in. My challenge, however, was that I didn’t have the Big Idea. Then I learned about an intriguing pre-team, pre-idea startup incubator program called Runway, backed by Eric Schmidt’s Innovation Endeavors venture fund. This chance to work with a diverse and talented team over 6 months to explore bold business opportunities just sounded too good to pass up. So I applied, thankfully got in, took the plunge and became a member of Runway’s first class of entrepreneurs.

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Why Product Management is Perfect for Aspiring Entrepreneurs (Big vs. Small Companies)

By Katie Corner (Product Manager, BOKU) It’s an age old feeling for aspiring entrepreneurs: I’m not ready to start my own company... yet. In the meantime, what is the most valuable next step? Join a big, stable company to learn the best processes and ship high-impact products? Join a startup to learn the classic mistakes and manage a high-growth product?

I found myself in this exact situation when trying to pick a full-time job out of college. I had enjoyed a couple product management (PM) internships at Microsoft and Google, and enjoyed my time at these giants. Yet I couldn’t turn off that little voice in my head: maybe I should check out startups too?

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What I Wish I Would Have Known about Equity and Wealth Creation

By Sara Holoubek (Founder & CEO, Luminary Labs) I’ll get right to the point. I believe strongly in intentional conversations, and it is high time that we have an intentional conversation about equity.

As others have noted, we are in the midst of a revolution, and women are taking to entrepreneurship in unprecedented numbers. Newly inspired, they line up for classes on user experience, product management and installing a web framework.

The current conversation is ebullient, and there is endless knowledge sharing around mentorship, perseverance, gender

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