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02/03/12 | Uncategorized

Female Founders To Watch: Chief Product Officers

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
Do you remember when serial tech entrepreneur Caterina Fake graced the cover of Newsweek magazine for founding Flickr?

Women are often identified as consumers of market goods, but seldom recognized for their ability to create products – from consumer goods like Giddy Snacks in Whole Foods stores to venture-funded tech startups like Songkick.

We at Women 2.0 are celebrating product innovators that happen to be women on Valentine’s Day – join us for a day of speakers on product innovation. These are women who have built, tested, validated and shipped products – as founder, CEO, CPO, et al.

Here are five women founders driving product at their high-growth, high-tech companies:

Caterina Fake (Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Hunch)
Caterina is co-founder of Hunch, a decision-making site that gets better the more people use it, and Flickr, almost certainly the best photo sharing and management application in the world. Follow her on Twitter at @caterina.

M. Ellen Dudar (Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, FourthWall Media)
An interactive television and advanced advertising enthusiast, Ellen leads the product team at FourthWall Media, shipping Emmy-nominated new media products and coordinating product innovation throughout the company. Follow her on Twitter at @ellendudar.

Julie Yoo (Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Kyruus)
Julie built the first version of Kyruus, a data mining platform. She leads the product team to provide data-driven intelligence and insights for optimal management of physician networks. Kyruus raised $5.5M Series A in 2011. Follow her on Twitter at @julesyoo.

Leah Busque (Founder & Chief Product Officer, TaskRabbit)
An engineer turned entrepreneur, Leah is founder and Chief Product Officer of TaskRabbit, a community of people joining together to get things done. TaskRabbit has raised a total of $22.8M in venture funding. Follow her on Twitter at @labusque.

Michelle You (Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Songkick)
The English and philosophy grad from Columbia founded Songkick, making it easier for fans to go to concerts and is now the second-largest live music website behind LiveNation. Songkick has raised $6.5M in venture funding. Follow her on Twitter at @wreckingball37.

Want to learn about innovative product development? Check out Women 2.0 PITCH Conference on February 14, 2012 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California for a full day of innovative product leadership (including Caterina Fake and Leah Busque listed above) inspiring and educating the next generation of high-growth, high-tech women entrepreneurs.

Product management is an organizational lifecycle function within a company dealing with planning, forecasting, or marketing product(s) at all stages of the product lifecycle.

The Chief Product Officer (CPO) must be strategic and make long-term plans. Interpersonal and communication skills are cited as necessary skills for a CPO, as s/he must work with other executives as well as effectively manage employees.

Photo credit: European Parliament on Flickr.
About the guest blogger: Angie Chang co-founded Women 2.0 in 2006 with Shaherose Charania. She currently serves as Editor-In-Chief of Women 2.0 and is working to mainstream women in entrepreneurship. Previously, Angie held roles in product management, web UI design, and entrepreneurship. In 2008, Angie launched Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, asking that guys come as the “+1” for once. Angie holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Follow her on Twitter at @thisgirlangie.

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