U
D

Conversation

the

04/05/12 | Uncategorized

Young And Female In Startup Central: Inc. Interview With Shaherose Charania, A Founder Of Women 2.0

A founder of Women 2.0 explains how the startup scene is evolving for women and offers networking advice for aspiring female founders.
By Jessica Stillman (Writer, Inc.)

Silicon Valley may earn praise for its creativity and dynamism, but rarely is America’s foremost startup hub held up as a model of diversity. The world’s engineers may flock to the area’s startups, but when Shaherose Charania moved to the Valley to explore becoming an entrepreneur several years ago, she often found herself the only woman on product teams and at networking events.

These days, she and a few friends are doing something about this gender imbalance with Women 2.0, an organization that supports female founders and runs a host of women-friendly networking events around the world.

Jessica Stillman spoke with Charania to ask how the startup ecosystem is evolving for women and how young female entrepreneurs can best grow their networks.

Jessica Stillman: Why did you start Women 2.0?
Shaherose Charania: We weren’t planning to start this. It just happened. Back in 2006 I had just located to the Bay Area from Canada. I’d worked a little, but this was going to be my first real place to build a career, and I kind of wanted to start a company. Building a network is one of the first things you should do when you’re thinking about being an entrepreneur, otherwise you’re alone. Someone that I’d met through networking said, “hey, there are three other girls that are pretty cool. You should meet and do something.” He was organizing networking events, and I was always the only girl. It didn’t really bother me, but he introduced me to other girls and we sat down and were like, ‘yeah, it’s kind of weird. We’re always the only girls at these events.

» Read the full article at Inc.

Editor

Editor

The Switch Editorial Team.

Straight to your inbox.

The best content on the future faces of tech and startups.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

SHARE THIS STORY

NEW COHORT STARTS JANUARY 2024

Join the Angel Sessions

Develop strategic relationships, build skills, and increase your deal flow through our global angel group and investing course.

RELATED ARTICLES
[yarpp]