Hip SF "femme" tech founders
This type of article makes me blow chunks, but for those who care:
http://www.modernluxury.com/san-francisco/story/where-the-female-mark-zuckerberg
Once upon a time I did say hopefully the new Zuck will be female but frankly I think women can do better.
Still waiting.
You're right that the article makes me gag when it talks about the power of networking:
Organizations like Women 2.0, Astia, and the Founders Institute are also playing an important role, and the focus on networking is paying off big-time. Veteran Googler Sukhinder Singh Cassidy met Accel Partners’ Theresia Gouw Ranzetta during the dot-com era, and they stayed in touch, bonding over shared life experiences like getting married and having kids. When Singh Cassidy decided to launch Joyus, which helps businesses sell their wares using video, Gouw Ranzetta was one of the first people she called. Similarly, when longtime retail executive Susan Feldman was looking for a partner to start One Kings Lane, BlogHer cofounder Lisa Stone connected her with Alison Pincus, a digital marketing and business development executive (and wife of Zynga’s Mark Pincus), who became Feldman’s cofounder and chief strategy officer.
Neither of these networking examples are gender-specific, nor did they depend on organizations like Women 2.0, Astia, and Founders Institute.
Frankly it still seems like we would get more mileage out of changing parents' attitudes about girls.
“Meanwhile, the “pink collar” brouhaha misses the bigger picture: an impressive array of women-founded startups that have nothing remotely girlie about them.”
That was at least one salvageable insight from a piece in, after all, a magazine named Modern Luxury — that there was a mini-backlash against women running startups so visibly focused on women as the market (fashion, babies, home)…
You're right, there are a lot more female founders now, and they're focused on many different markets.
It's still incredibly hard to start a company. It's awesome to see more people going for it, and I wonder if the greater number of founders will lead to a greater number of successes.
I actually really liked the article- it was not as sophisticated or as insightful as it could have been in digging into the real dynamics of the Silicon Valley entrepreneur environment and I do not think that Busque was a great example to center the entire article around. (Also, her stepping down as CEO seemed like a mature thing to do- not a gender trend (although Aaron from Box.net's attitude might be a guy attitude thing!) But regardless, especially for Modern Luxury, I found the article had a lot of great points about female entrepreneurs in the Valley and the emphasis on attempting to take gender stereotypes out of market choice. Personally, as a female entrepreneur tackling a market that no other woman would want to, I still have admiration for women who start companies in the shopping and beauty space- they should not be discredited for selecting markets that excite them personally- they are the ones who see the opportunities and trends and we should applaud them taking the leap of starting a company and respect them regardless of the target market and if it is "girlie"
What I LOVE is Aileen's point she has emphasized in the past- how much more active women are online, thus making them an ideal target demographic and no one knows the needs of a female user base better than a female entrepreneur. Women are big spenders and consumers and a lot of those market opportunities are in "girlie" as well as gender-neutral spaces and is exciting to see female entrepreneurs tackling them both!
Jen, thanks for your insightful comment... it did make me read the article again more carefully, and you're right that there are some good points. I have to respectfully disagree with you on Busque stepping down as CEO though: Zuckerberg would NEVER have stepped down for Sheryl Sandberg. He's still CEO, bitches! :)
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