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04/17/14 | Uncategorized

Founders to Watch in Oakland

There has been speculation that Oakland is now the new startup hub of the Bay Area and we wanted to see how many female-led startups thrive in that community. 

By Ayesha Rizvi (Editorial Intern, Women 2.0)

We are launching Oakland City Meetup on Thursday, May 1st! Here’s some of the female founders in the community. Know more? Add them in the comments below!

0317853Laurie Peterson (Founder, Build & Imagine)

Build & Imagine creates building toys for girls and boys, getting them interested in building and designing. The company was featured in the San Francisco Chronicle East Bay Edition last year where their product, StoryWalls, was called “an innovative toy to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)” to children of ages 4 to 10. Founder Laurie Peterson is an award-winning toy designer with a Bachelor’s degree from UC San Diego and MBA from UC Berkeley Haas School of Business.

1a63acbDorian J. Ferlauto (CO-Founder & CEO, ELIHUU)

ELIHUU is dedicated to connecting production ready designers to the most suitable manufacturers through an online platform while taking into account quality, funding, terms, timing and the geographical area, making the path for business growth a simple one to follow. CO-Founder Dorian Ferlauto has seven years of valuable experience in industrial design, manufacturing, and product retail. She received her B.A from University of Denver.

253776bRachel English (CO-Founder & Vice President for Customer Success, Frontleaf)

Operating across customer lifecycle, Frontleaf is a software that helps companies drive higher customer lifetime value by generating actionable insights from product usage and other indicators of customer health. CO-Founder Rachel English strongly believes that company and customer success are mutually exclusive. She had 15 years of experience in customer service prior to Frontleaf and is also a birth doula.

3d2e889Lynzi Ziegenhagen (Founder & CEO, Schoolzilla)

By merging data from sources such as attendance, test scores, online learning tools etc, Schoolzilla offers a SaaS data and business intelligence platform that enables teachers, principals, and district leaders to gain insights into academic and operational effectiveness with the sole purpose of increasing student achievement. Prior to Schoolzilla, founder Lynzi Ziegenhagen founded the technology innovation team at Aspire Public Schools in 2008. Lynzi has a degree in Symbolic Systems from Stanford and a master’s degree in Computer Science from the Naval Postgraduate School.

0cb19d3Lauren Barghout (CO-Founder & CEO, Eyegorithm)

Eyegorithm helps mimic the human ability to understand images while enabling software that can automatically segment, label & organize still images and video. The company’s technology extracts visual relevancy, important analytical data that drives decision making for people, businesses and computers. With a Bachelor’s in Physics from Hampshire College in Amherst and a Ph.D and Masters from UC Berkeley, co-founder Lauren Barghout is an expert in the use of fuzzy set theory in representing Visual Gestalts and inventor of the Gestalt-based image segmentation technique that underpins the Eyegorithm image processing system.

2808657Olivia Nava (CO-Founder & CEO, Juabar Design)

Juabar creates charging kiosks powered by a solar photovoltaics (PV) for use in rural and urban areas in East Africa that lack access to electricity. It focuses on offering power for devices that facilitate connectivity such as mobile phones, tablets, laptops among other consumer electronics. CO-Founder Olivia Nava has previously designed HIV programs in Mozambique and promoted food systems through healthcare philanthropy at Tides. She holds a bachelors degree in Classics from UCLA and a MBA in Design Strategy from California College of the Arts.

karimi-gitumaKarimi Gituma (CO-Founder & President, Uzaa Networks)

Uzaa Networks connects local shoppers directly to the local vendors who sell at pop up locations like local Events, Festivals and Farmers markets via the web or iPhone and iPad applications. Born and raised in Nairobi, CO-Founder Karimi Gituma has a bachelor’s degree in Biological Science from UC Irvine, went to Harvard Medical School and then completed her residency at UC San Francisco before she became a part of Uzaa Networks.

Photo by Glenn Halog / flickr.

 

 

Elisa Miller-Out

Elisa Miller-Out

Elisa Miller-Out is currently co-founder of PollQ, a polling software startup and managing partner of Chloe Capital, an early stage investment fund. She also serves on the board of Women 2.0, the leading global media brand for women in tech. Elisa is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Cornell University's Blackstone Launchpad. She's based in Ithaca, NY, but grew up in New Orleans and spent time in New York City as well.

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