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05/10/12 | Uncategorized

Why Would A Geek Girl Want To Attend TiECon?

Entrepreneurship is perfect for women – whether single or married, with or without children! Here’s why.
By Gargi Nalawade (Founder & CEO, Sepalz)

Successes such as Instagram have the whole developer community up in restless excitement. At least 2 developers approached me the day the Instagram acquisition was announced.

“I’d like to talk to you about becoming an entrepreneur,” one said.

“I’d like to know how exactly to become an entrepreneur and what it takes,” said another.

Looking at Instagram and the 12 people team that made millions in a few months is giving them a rush. They need to do something, especially being surrounded by the startup frenzy in the Silicon Valley.

Entrepreneurship – What It Takes

Many an engineer have I heard around me say, “If we don’t do this, living here in the Silicon Valley, abound with all the eco-system, the support system, the psychology, the talent – then where else?” This is the right time, the right economy, the right place and everyone wants a ride on the startup train.

Despite the rosy successes and all, it takes quite a lot to be an entrepreneur. The startup game is a game of speed, calculation and timing the judgement calls you make – what people to hire, who to pick for your founding team, who to partner with, when and how much to take to market, when to raise funds and if you are lucky like Instagram and many others before, when and whether to sell.

The entrepreneurship panel at this year’s TiEcon will give you food for thought, asking “Do you have what it takes?”

Entrepreneurship for Women

Entrepreneurship is perfect for women – whether single or married, with or without children! And here is why.

Well for one, the clich̩ Рthat women are great multi-taskers. The initial stages of entrepreneurship are filled with long hours and hard work. No different from being an engineer on a deadline, joining a new company and having to prove yourself under tight deadlines. But running your startup gives women a chance to control their own lives, their own time and they can pretty much choose Рwhen to spend time with children and when to work.

More importantly, entrepreneurship for women a destroys the myths of the glass ceiling, any gender socialization – and it is your technical, social and business skills that are on the line. There is no limit to your creativity. The market does not see whether the product has been created by a man or a woman and does not compensate and discriminate based on gender. It is fair, blind like the justice goddess and at the same time unforgiving. You reap what you sow, you are judged and rewarded based on your skill, talent, business acumen, innovation and speed.

Entrepreneurship – What Goes Into Making Your Startup A Success

If you are on the entrepreneurial track, there are many things that go into making your startup or the one you work for, a success. Whether to bootstrap, or take money from angels or VCs, for instance. How to take your product to market and create a buzz, for another. A startup isn’t a one man or a one woman show. It is about a team with the perfect complementary skill-sets with the right timing that can pull it off.

So, how do you build your winning team or judge whether you are part of that winning startup team? Once your startup is off the ground, does it have the belts and buckles in place for the journey up the hockey stick curve? Or will it crash and burn and be left behind by that agile, lithe competitor? There is a lot that goes into building and driving the explosive hockey-stick growth.

If you are young, right out of or in school/college and wondering how you could start a company and/or build a product – there is the young entrepreneur’s guide to getting started doling out advice on it, at the TiE Youth Forum panel at this year’s Tiecon.

For The Geek In Us

“What if I’m not a wannabe entrepreneur,” you ask. “What if I love coding and diving deep down into architectures, building things, designing them and don’t want anything to do with business?” This year’s TiEcon fuels the developer’s passion and knowledge as well. It has the latest emerging trends and opportunities for everyone – be it social, mobile, energy, life sciences or cloud.

What The Star Foretell

This year’s TiECon 2012 (May 18 – 19, 2012 in Santa Clara, CA) also has some amazing keynotes. In one of the keynotes, Dr. Vishal Sikka, Head of Technology at SAP, talks about innovation without disruption. Cisco SVP Carlos Dominguez talks about how to survive, lead and thrive in the real world.

In his keynote, Dr. Deepak Chopra, MD, talks about prosperity and leadership. And finally, the star keynote tells the story of how innovation was ignited in India, which has led to the Internet revolution there and the new booming economy that we see there today. Telling the story is Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Infrastructure and Innovations.

At the TieCon Expo you will find 100 or so startups displaying their latest products and innovations. And in the corridors of the convention, you will find endless opportunities to Network and talk to the smartest of entrepreneurs, investors, passionate developers who are on the cutting edge of technology. A boundless, priceless opportunity to connect, network, learn, grow and prosper…

This post was originally posted at TiECon 2012.

About the guest blogger: Gargi Nalawade is the Founder and CEO of Sepalz, a social intelligence platform (8 patents) for intelligent targeted networking between individuals and businesses. Gargi started her career with a marketing stint, worked for several years as a technical (routing) architect at Cisco and has authored 26 USPTO patents. She blogs at The Social Evolution. Follow her on Twitter at @Astra_9.

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