"Because women spend 30% more time on social networking sites than men and, in a given month, made 61% of total U.S. online purchases, according to a 2010 study by comScore, female entrepreneurs are in an ideal position to recognize market opportunities and start businesses that meet their needs and the needs of their female friends."

Pamela Ryckman's Fortune article points out that there are many new web companies started by women, among them: Blip.tv, Fashism, Foodspotting, Gilt Group, LearnVest, Mediabistro, ModCloth, and Paperless Post. (You can count PandaWhale among that group too!)

See also Women 2.0's Shaherose Charania interviewed about this subject:

It's the best and most reliable way....plus time saving.

I take it you're referring to online purchases.

Actually, there are many 106 Miles companies with women founders.

Among them: AdNectar, Apply in the Sky, Atelier Partners, Bard, BizeeBee, Cake Health, Campfire Labs, ChickRx, Citrus Lane, ConsumerBell, Cooked.It, Crave, Dabble, Dish It, Double Impact, Ecobold, EventBrite, Fffabulous, Founder Dating, GetAround, Gobble, Grubly, Hackers & Founders, Lollihop, Minted, Ning, Notori.us, PandaWhale, Piccolo, Pinchd, Project H, Project J, RNDVoo, Secret Society of Women, Skout, Sorced, TaskRabbit, Toothie, Tripping, Wordnik, and Zerply.

See also: list of 106 Miles startups.

Hopefully the new Mark Zuckerberg will be female.

See also: What are the pros and cons in having a female web developer in an early stage startup?

In our first Hackers & Founders Co-op session, Tripping has a female CEO/founder, and Zerply has a woman on the founding team. We were really excited that two out of our six companies had female founders. Almost half of our speakers at our weekly dinners were women. That wasn't on purpose, it just turned out that way.

Hackers & Founders itself has a female founder. I think she's fab.

I think she's fab, too, Jonathan. And the overall trend seems to be going in the right direction!

Thanks for mentioning Tripping and I agree that Laura from H&F ROCKS!

Grace Hopper was one of the first computer scientists. She invented the concept of programming languages.

It is not a coincidence that her name is close to grasshopper. As in Kung Fu:

This reminds of a video that Grasshopper (the company) created about entrepreneurs -

Jen, that entrepreneurs can change the world video is awesome. Thanks for sharing!!

Thanks for Posting Adam! That's awesome! :)

You are very welcome, Michelle. I'm a big fan of Women 2.0, too. You should check them out.

40% of gamers are women

I would not have guessed it was that high. I'm thinking the Wii and Facebook games have made that number higher in recent years.

I did see a survey of women on Facebook that said that 85 percent of women felt that their Facebook "friends" used the site to brag or overshare, and specifically found it irritating when people complained all the time, shared unsolicited political opinions and boasted about "seemingly perfect lives."

It's hard to imagine Facebook without those behaviors, but I concur that that would be a better Facebook. :)

Would it be? Not to be contrarian, but most people share about their seemingly perfect lives only because they want their friends to give them a virtual pat on their back. Who else but your friends can tell you that you looked fabulous at your cousin's wedding, or to congratulate you on a recent promotion etc. I like that about fbook :)

So the f in fbook stands for "flatter me please"? ;)

Totally :)

I read a report that said that women game in huge numbers, but the kinds of games that women play tend to be different. Women are much more likely to be casual gamers than men, and play in shorter bursts rather than extended sessions of World of War Crack

For me, the most interesting part of the Lifetime survey of women gamers is that they don't in general travel in wolfpacks like Warcraft encourages.

83% of women gamers prefer to play on their own.

Great post, Adam. I do count PandaWhale but not Gilt. Gilt was really started by Kevin Ryan (founder of DoubleClick).

Thanks Lara! Interesting, Gilt's team page says Alexis and Alexandra were founders, too.

Of course it does. Marketing works. :)

There's a fine line between Gilt and guilt.

Adam, I'm curious about the title of this convo. Do you think it'd still be a true statement if you removed the first word, or the first two? I do - but am unsure if it's increasingly true - I mean, haven't peers always been the best source of good advice?

John, you're right.

The title specifically comes from the Fortune article that noticed a trend that more women are starting Web companies these days.