Published on: May 22, 2013 – 11:00 am
Companies that persist in picturing early adopters as exclusively male are missing out on massive business opportunities, claims Sephora’s CMO.
By Jessica Stillman (Editor, Women 2.0)
Who’s the stereotypical early adopter of tech innovations? For the answer look no further than satirical Tumblr ‘White Guys Wearing Google Glass.’ This white dude image might not be correct (in fact an African-American man is apparently one of the most prolific Google Glass testers, and plenty of women are trying it if not necessarily loving it) but it is the kneejerk picture that pops into many heads when they hear the phrase.
But not only is that image of early adopters totally wrong, writes Sephora CMO Julie Bornstein on Business Insider this week, it’s also terrible business. Read More »
Published on: May 17, 2013 – 3:00 pm
When I consider my earlier career as a teacher, my stint at b-school, and my time working at Google, I see the struggle to stay committed to my core values at points along my journey. Trusting that path has now made it possible for me to pursue a career as a mission-driven entrepreneur; Zoobean is the pinnacle of aligning my values with my work.
By Jordan Lloyd Bookey (Chief Mom and Co-Founder at Zoobean)
As a girl living in Des Moines, IA, I was one of a small handful of Jewish kids in my community. My parents exposed us to many places and people, and instilled a sense of belonging in us. Still, my sisters and I grew up knowing what it meant to feel different from the mainstream. Fast forward to my first job as a 7th grade teacher at a school in Washington, DC, where I met my husband, a Black man born and raised in the city. We were young and in love, so that helped, but you might imagine that the road wasn’t an easy one! Even as we explored our differences as a couple and personal experiences growing up, we grew to deeply value the importance of feeling included and loved in all aspects of one another’s lives.
Read More »
Published on: May 17, 2013 – 11:00 am
I thought I was joining a regular hack, where programmers, developers, and designers came together to beat the clock as well as each other. But Hack the Barbican is no usual hackathon.
By Sophie Drouet
A couple of weeks ago, the Stemettes headed to East London for a weekend of adventure at Hack the Barbican: Bazaar, a prelude to the launch of an “experimental playground” this summer that will explore the boundaries between arts, technology and entrepreneurship. Read More »
Published on: May 16, 2013 – 11:53 am
“Why San Francisco?” Why not start a company in a place where the cost of living is lower and real estate prices make you feel like an extra zero was left out.
By Dr. Danielle Applestone (CEO, Otherfab)
I love to be in the factory. I love thinking about what can be made via which method, in what quantity, at what cost, and how fast? I am CEO of a hardware company that makes desktop CNC machines, and I am frighteningly close to having a fully staffed and humming production line in the Mission District of San Francisco. My team is amazing, our Kickstarter campaign is going swimmingly, but yesterday I was asked: “Why San Francisco?” Why not start a company in a place where the cost of living is lower and real estate prices make you feel like an extra zero was left out. Read More »
Published on: May 15, 2013 – 8:00 am
Yes, it’s a field that many perceive as being dominated by men, but I think that women bring a unique perspective as well as many strengths to the product world.
By Kate Hare (Chief Product Officer, Photobucket)
I’ve been in product management for over 16 years and I would not want to do anything else. Why? I love the excitement of analyzing people and how they use technology, and then building something entirely new in order to make their lives better. Read More »
Published on: May 15, 2013 – 6:00 am
How one open source software community massively increased female participation, and what other organizations can learn from their efforts.
By Marina Zhurakhinskaya (Senior Software Engineer, Red Hat)
The GNOME community develops a free and open source software desktop and many popular applications for it. Software developers, user experience and graphic designers, documentation writers, translators, community managers and evangelists from around the world collaborate on the project. Behind each half-yearly release, there are about one thousand volunteers and employees of GNOME-supporting companies. Red Hat, where I work, is one of the biggest supporters.
A few years ago, in July of 2009, I attended GUADEC, the GNOME Users and Developers European Conference. Of approximately 160 attendees, I was one of only seven women. Of the software developers working on the entire GNOME project at the time, one of only three. Read More »
Published on: May 14, 2013 – 1:11 pm
“It was a good opportunity to get more into a Ruby on Rails,” says Karen Keasler. “Ruby is a pretty easy- to- read language – it’s more like reading sentences and can be a lot less intimidating. I think it’s a great opportunity for women to get in and see that coding is hard, but not impossible.”
By Rachel Lehmann-Haupt (Editor, Women 2.0)
Code Fellows, a Seattle-based coding boot camp that guarantees a $60,000 tech job after graduation, has announced the launch of a women-only Ruby on Rails Boot camp in an effort to address the widening gender gap in the coding trade. The new boot camp will start in early July. Read More »
Published on: May 8, 2013 – 6:00 am
How technology and Minimum Viable Product tests can (and can’t) help a fashion company succeed.
By Julia Kastner (Founder & CEO, Eva & Paul)
My final year at Harvard Business School, just weeks before graduation, I got into a debate with Eric Reis, author of The Lean Startup, about whether or not I could make a “lean” pair of jeans.
Eric is a main proponent of the growing lean startup movement that believes that companies should experiment with and validate business ideas before seeking large amounts of initial funding. Eric argued that I should be able to fully test my jeans BEFORE making an actual physical pair – that I could get enough customer feedback ahead of time to understand what my customers really want. Read More »
Published on: May 7, 2013 – 8:00 am
A female founder explains how technology is shaking up the film industry and how women are participating in the distribution revolution.
By Celeste North (Founder, NuFlick)
Film has always been related to technology. Since the invention of the Zoetrope to the 4DX, the film industry relies on technological development to continually sell a more interesting film-watching experience.
Unfortunately, in distribution these changes have moved more slowly and many filmmakers still see traditional distribution as the only way to monetize their work and be seen by a vast audience. They choose to have a traditional run in festivals followed by theatrical release and then VOD/DVD. But the public has changed and, in most cases, they are unwilling to wait six months to watch what they want to see now. Read More »
Published on: May 7, 2013 – 7:00 am
The sharing economy has gained some high-profile backers recently. A female UX expert offers tips on how to design for it.
By Jessica Stillman (Editor, Women 2.0)
The sharing economy may sound like an idea out of a hippie commune, but since the runaway success of Zipcar and Airbnb, the movement towards collaborative consumption has gotten support from some high-profile folks who are more likely to be seen in board rooms that Birkenstocks.
Here’s Y Combinator partner Paul Graham on Twitter recently Read More »
