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Call for Applications & Nominations: Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women

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By Melissa R. Taylor (Entrepreneurial Winning Women Program Manager, Ernst & Young) Are you a woman entrepreneur with big plans, and the vision and passion for growing your company?

Do you know a dynamic woman entrepreneur who is on track to create a multi-hundred million or billion-dollar enterprise?

If so, we encourage you to apply or to nominate an outstanding entrepreneur for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurial Winning Women program. The competitive award and leadership program is designed to connect high-potential women entrepreneurs with the advisors, resources and insights they need to become market leaders. Winners will:

  • Join an elite network of the country’s best high-growth companies and entrepreneurs
  • Participate in a customized program designed to accelerate and sustain business growth
  • On a complimentary basis, attend the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum 2011, the country’s most prestigious gathering of high-growth companies, November 9-13 in Palm Springs, CA

Eligibility: Applicants are women CEOs who have founded their companies within the last 10 years and have achieved at least $1 million in revenue in each of the past two.

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How to Survive and Thrive Post-Startup Failure

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By Kaitlin Pike (Marketing & Community Manager, Web 2.0 Expo) If you’re founding or running a startup, there’s a bit of an open secret I need to share with you: You’re going to experience some painful failures. Not necessarily as dramatic as a complete company shut down, but as you grow into a more experienced entrepreneur, you’ll certainly bump into some awful scenarios.Epic Fail

Thankfully, you’re not the first founder to come across these challenges. I recently spoke with three veterans of the startup scene who offered poignant pieces of advice for up-and-coming founders: Cass Phillipps, executive producer of FailCon and founder of the now-defunct startup Trogger; Leah Busque, founder and CEO of TaskRabbit; and Edith Yeung, founder of BizTechDay and SFEntrepreneur.

Here are six ways to prevent, prepare for, or survive epic failure (and thus keep your sanity) --

Expect some failure – and be prepared for a total flop.

Cass Phillipps of FailCon recommends putting checkpoints in place as an objective means of showing how well (or poorly) things are going. On top of this measurement plan, consider what actions you should take well in advance if things start to slide:

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Frenemies: Why Competition is Good for your Startup

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By Rebecca Woodcock (Co-Founder, Cake Health) Two weeks ago, my startup co-founder and I launched Cake Health's private beta on TechCrunch.

Around that time, Cake Health's competition in the healthcare space led us to have a conversation about why such competition was a good thing.

Learning about a competitor can initially feel like impending doom, but having that competition was the best thing to happen to our startup. Here's why:

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What You Can Make in a 6-Hour iPhone App Intro Class

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By Bess Ho (Mobile Architect, Archimedes Ventures) I regularly teach classes on iPhone development for all levels. Here are some students who took a class called "iOS SDK for Beginners", a 6-hour class held in Mountain View. The next class is on "iOS SDK for Intermediates - Design Concepts" this Saturday, May 28 in Mountain View.

Ayesha Ahmed is Co-Founder and CEO of Flocking Apps, creating iPhone and iPad applications. Ayesha had no Objective-C / iOS experience or any coding background outside of creating basic HTML pages. She took the one-day iOS SDK Development class "to get a better understanding of the technical aspects of iPhone App development. Having this coding experience has helped me develop a much deeper understanding of the complexities of the app world. At the end of the class, my teammates and I collaborated to create our first app."

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Want A Mentor? Do Your Homework First

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By Nilofer Merchant (Contributing Writer, Harvard Business Review) A CEO of a software company reaches out to me recently, and asks me to take a 20-minute meeting to review his strategy/execution software. Sounds low-key, right? I put forth a requirement to do the meeting. I also implied he could show me how his software fit into a model. But he said “No, thanks”. And disappeared. I find his behavior odd, don’t you? But at one level, I don’t find it odd at all.

He was unwilling to do the homework to do a successful meeting. He had no idea what he wanted. He asked for an unrealistic timeframe to create any real value. He was simply trolling for meetings, which maybe gave him the illusion of progress, but I’m darn sure he’s not making actual progress.

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It’s All in the Family with Club ChicaCircle

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By Pauline Molinari and Lynnee Jimenez (Co-Founders, Club ChicaCircle) Late Night Launching Across the Miles

It's midnight and we are on fire catching up on site content, product roadmaps and strategic partnership opportunities for our new site for crafty pre-teen girls and their moms. Despite a full day of other work, family priorities and limited sleep, we are finding our second wind as we see our passion come to life through our online village.

Lynnee and I are two sisters working virtually across the miles (Palo Alto and Mission Viejo, CA) despite traditional guidance to not launch with a family member. We have endured through life events, the departure of a friend / co-founder, and bootstrapping strains.

We've done all the "right" things needed to start a business, now only to realize how much more important it is to just move forward quickly. We're sharing our story so you can find comfort in launching your own business without a fully funded base in place and to reinforce the importance of expanding your network.

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From Ideas to Apps at the BeMyApp Weekend

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By Vera Glavova (Organizer, BeMyApp WeekEnd) It’s been roughly 3 months since I stood in front of 100 strangers and hosted my first tech event. Today, some of them are my buddies and great supporters. I’m over my stage fright as I know I’ll see familiar faces next time I grab the mic and open BeMyApp Weekend.

My Addiction: Organizing Hackathons

The most rewarding thing about organizing hackathon events is the interaction with people who are capable of building on the spot from scratch. Seeing the progress of something that kick-starts as a 60-second idea pitch and 48 hours later turns into a working app is staggering and addictive, hence once I did it I was hooked. Another inspiring aspect of bringing folks with different vocations and skill-sets together is the "click". That special click one nearly hears when a few people fit so perfectly together as a team, you wonder if they have known each other forever.

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