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02/06/12 | Uncategorized

Musings Of A VC In New York: Women Entrepreneurs Festival

By Fred Wilson (Managing Partner, Flatiron Partners & Union Square Ventures)
A few weeks ago, I spent the day at NYU ITP at the Women Entrepreneurs Festival. This is a one day event put on by The Gotham Gal and her friend Nancy Hechinger who is on the faculty at NYU ITP.

In its second year, the WE Festival features a day of panels and talks featuring women entrepreneurs. Men can attend and do, but the stage is filled with women all day long. It’s a very different experience from the typical startup/tech event and I highly recommend it to anyone who is eager to see more women doing startups.

My favorite panel was called “Makers” and featured five women who love to create things and have started companies to pursue their passions as makers. Here’s a video of that panel. The video is 90 minutes, but the presentations are the most important part and they only last for about 35 minutes. The audio isn’t great. I suggest you put on headphones and turn the volume up.

What these five women make clear is that anyone can be an entrepreneur and that women are natural makers and innovators. It is also interesting to see how each of them is using the Internet and technology more broadly to innovate around a product that is physical. There’s a lot to learn from what they are doing.

My oldest daughter, who is a junior in college, was in attendance that day. She was inspired by these women and came away with a sense that the world is full of possibilities for women. That’s the whole point of the WE Festival.

Editor’s note: Find hundreds of women entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley on February 14, 2012 at the Women 2.0 PITCH Conference & Competition at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.
Get your ticket now!

This post was originally posted at Fred Wilson’s blog.

About the guest blogger: Fred Wilson is a Managing Partner at Flatiron Partners and Union Square Ventures. He has been a venture capitalist since 1986, helping people start and build technology companies in New York City . He is the husband of Joanne Wilson, and together they have 3 kids. He loves music, art, yoga, biking, skiing, and golf. That’s a lot of interests for a guy who works 70 hours a week and loves his family. But he makes it work. Follow him on Twitter at @avc.

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