Girls In Tech

“Now who says fashion isn’t an intellectual discipline?” Jennine asks her readers who are devoted to Coveted. Not many would disagree that there’s much to be said about Cynthia Rowley’s resort collection, or if anyone will be gutsy enough to rock a head dress, and how a buy/sell/trade store can be a treasure chest of finds. Although Jennine advises, “… it’s not worth it to buy used Forever21…even though I have done it.”

She is not a designer at Karl Lagerfeld’s studio writing from lofty industry knowledge. Her honesty, candor, and some self deprecating humor has pulled readers into her world of fashion which is relevant, relate-able, and fun. Her captivating and witty writing style along with her knowledge of the industry (mainly through being a shopaholic and world traveler) makes readers feel like they are like minded fashionistas too with the same realities. “I knew I wanted to wear makeup as long as I could remember, but applying it was always another story.”

Jennine has taken a life long passion and grown it through the beautiful, intricate, and accessible world of technology. The Coveted has been featured on Glamour, IQONs, Modepass, and Pronto and she has since founded the Independent Fashion Bloggers Network. It is what can happen when you combine passion, talent, and technology and it could be you! Fashion Police and Fashion Criminals alike will benefit from learning about Jennine’s path to blogging success.

She has a chronic dilemma though “….muffin top! Every time I wear jeans, it always boils down to a choice between muffin top or saggy bottom.” Jennine’s dedication to denim has inspired another blog called Eat Sleep Denim. Where will this end? What is the future for Jennine? How will she scale her business? I’m excited to find the answers at the Girls in Tech event July 21^st. Are you?

A special thanks to our hosts Sandbox Suites, Bay Area’s premier provider of affordable, flexible, on-demand shared office space for entrepreneurs, independent professionals and small businesses.  What better place to corral a group of budding entrepreneurs?

Blogger Spotlight: Jennine Jacob of The Coveted

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (PT)

Sandbox Suites 123 10th Street, San Francisco

Get all the details and buy your tickets now by clicking HERE

Tags: Bloggers, blogging, designers, eat sleep denim, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, fashion, fashionista, glamour, San Francisco, shopping, Terra Khachooni, The Coveted, women in tech, writer, writers
Posted in Girls In Tech, San Francisco, Silicon Valley | 2 Comments »

Minted is a venture-backed social commerce company, crowd-sourcing graphic designs and content from a global design community and selling those as printed paper products initially focused on the $10 billion stationery, invitations, and cards market. Minted was founded by Mariam Naficy, a successful serial entrepreneur, and has been featured in such magazines as Real Simple, Modern Bride, Food & Wine; and InStyle Weddings; and on the Today Show and the Early Show.  Minted has raised financing from IDG Ventures SF and from several prominent angel investors, including Ben Elowitz, the founder of BlueNile, Toby Lenk, the founder of EToys, and Jeremy Stoppelman, the founder and CEO of Yelp.

Their mission is to: to allow consumers to discover design genius from all over the globe, providing an opportunity for designers to
build their careers on merit alone.   They crowd-source the freshest designs on paper through bi-monthly design competitions. Designers
submit, and the Minted community votes to tell us what to sell. We enable the best designs to surface based on community interaction.  We are very impressed with this refreshing, innovative approach to design and marketing a brand!

Located in San Francisco and launched in 2008, Minted uses the best technology in creating a simple yet interactive experience for their consumers.  Since all of their cards are fully customizable, this lends towards much creativity not only for them but for the person purchasing the cards for their own occasion.  It is an ever-growing business.

Three cheers to Ms. Naficy for her innovation in founding this unique, cutting-edge design company!

http://www.minted.com/
(For more on the Minted, please stay tuned for our future GIT spotlight.)

Tags: crowd-source, graphic design
Posted in All Chapters | 1 Comment »

Calling all GIT LA members interested in the intersection of music and new media – you’ve been officially invited to attend the Digital Music LA Meetup next Tuesday in Venice.  

There will be food, drink, business networking (of course), news announcements, and Q&As with musician Ephraim Cohen and iPhone Application Developer BlueHaze

This event offers individuals representing all parts of the music ecosystem including labels, agencies, artists, technology companies, service providers, and promoters the opportunity to meet, network and do business with fellow LA-based music industry members.

Held at the Air Conditioned Supper Club in Venice, this month’s event will feature a Q&A with Ephraim Cohen, which will provide insights into how the internationally-rising young rock star has managed to become both a successful artist and business brand. Attendees will learn about tools, business approaches and management techniques that have helped him get featured on MTV, MTV Japan, BBC Radio, Fox TV and in Billboard magazine.

Also at the event will be representatives of BlueHaze, a technology company that specializes in building the latest online and mobile tools for the music industry. BlueHaze will lead a discussion on mobile music apps as essential marketing, fan engagement and revenue generating asset for artists, brands, festivals and other music-related properties.

The meetup starts at 630pm, and you can register at dmlajune2010.eventbrite.com.

Posted in Events, Los Angeles | 1 Comment »

There are many organizations (such as our very own GIT and others–Women 2.0, Astia, Springboard, etc…) gaining steam and a substantial following to encourage and empower women in technology as well as being entrepreneurs. However, even in spite of our efforts, there is still a long ways to go…

Even though we are building a foundation of resources and linking common interests among women, there are only a handful of women taking on the risky challenge of entrepreneurship. In my previous role, working as an Investment Analyst at OpenView Venture Partners, I encountered this first hand. I spoke with over 1,000 per year but only about 1% of those were women. This anecdote also holds for venture-backed tech start ups where only 8% were created by women even though females run 40% of private businesses in the US. An article from a few months back fully examines the makeup of the female tech scene. The data from the article suggests that of these female, venture backed start ups, most use substantially less capital and historically have had good exits.

So, what’s the deal if the ladies are pulling their weight? Well, the article partially points to education and the disparity in engineering or hard science degrees between men and women as well as the additional difficulties in fundraising for women. However, we still see plenty of male entrepreneurs less an engineering background that founded a tech company, and even though there may be additional issues fundraising, there are still not enough women even making the pitch. So, why are women not taking leap into the entrepreneurial pool?

So, I guess I’ll throw out there those questions that I am not really supposed to ask—uh oh!

Or are women just not that great at being entrepreneurs? Few people are examining these aspects of the issue, but one, somewhat controversial yet fascinating entrepreneur, Cyan Banister of Zivity has no problems putting it out there…literally… She wrote a message to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch explaining that ‘women stink as entrepreneurs’ and ‘are too risk averse and nurturing by nature’. We all sort of know that women on average tend to be more nurturing and a bit more risk averse, and there are some scientific studies that support these ideas. It’s unclear if these attributes are biological or societal, but regardless this could be a factor in the lack of entrepreneurial ladies.

If risk aversion and a nurturing disposition are the biggest reasons that the ladies are not getting out there, then do we need to fix this or can we reconcile the two?

If the issue is societal, we all need to keep pushing forward and encouraging women to take that leap but if it is genetic, well… let me know anyone finds some gene therapy. Regardless, if we can just take that leap, women can leverage risk averse and nurturing traits to build successful start ups…

Posted in Girls In Tech | 4 Comments »

Join GIT LA on the roof at the gorgeous Hotel Erwin in Venice for sunset cocktails, networking and more.

Enjoy $5 GITinis and an amazing rooftop view of west LA while mixing and mingling with some of LA’s best and brightest. Check in with your favorite GIT LA friends, meet some of our new members and celebrate summer with a great crowd of men and women from all sectors of the social media, tech, entertainment and business scenes in LA.

Space is limited, so RSVP early at http://gitsummer2010.eventbrite.com/to guarantee your spot. The mixer starts at 7pm and goes until around 11. Hope to see you there!

Tags: cocktails, event, mixer, networking, social media
Posted in Events, Los Angeles | 4 Comments »

Why do we click with some people and not with others?

On July 14th, Girls in Tech San Francisco is glad to announce we will host bestselling authors Ori and Rom Brafman to discuss their book CLICK: The Magic of Instant Connections. They will explain research across psychology, behavioral economics, neuroscience and sociology to unravel this mystery at the heart of romantic, sexual and friend relationships.

They look to science to explore:

* What happens in our brains when we click with someone?
* How we can accelerate clicking with someone we would like to get attached to?
* How to predict what type of person we might click with?
* What we should do after we click with someone to maintain chemistry for an enduring relationship?
* How clicking with someone elevates our performance in everything including success at work?

Date: July 14, 2010
Time: 6:00 – 8:00pm
Place: MySpace Offices – 625 Second St.

San Francisco, 92107

Ticket cost: $10

RSVP, here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/731351492

We hope to see you there!

(Photo credit: RandomHouse.com)

Tags: CLICK, neurological Connection, Ori Brafman, Rom Brafman
Posted in All Chapters, Events, San Francisco | 1 Comment »

You may remember that in my last blog entry I informed our readers that many lawyers are now using blogs as a marketing tool to promote themselves, their law firms, and their expertise.  The typical employment law blog, however, is usually far from interesting.  They often include items such as riveting summaries of the latest wage and hour cases and settlements along with “helpful” tips.  I can summarize an example for you here: Wal-Mart agrees to pay $86 million to settle wage and hour claims for alleged failure to pay former California workers for overtime and unused vacation pay.  (See In re Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Wage and Hour Litigation.) To avoid class actions like the one filed against Walmart, it is important to make sure your company policies are up to date with current law.  Your employment lawyer can help you avoid Wal-Mart’s mistakes.  YAWN!  

Thankfully, Mark Tosh, employment lawyer and Chief Legal Officer of Manpower Inc.’s* North America Operations, has created a better kind of legal “blawg” – the Manpower Employment Blawg.  Highlights from the “blawg” include: Tosh’s weekly legal analysis of NBC’s “The Office”, covering both serious issues and seriously funny jokes; regular contests for readers and webinar viewers to win prizes by spotting fake laws and missed legal issues from his “Office” analyses; a link to the best lawyer jokes; and Tosh, himself, playing Elvis in the video “How To Hire If You Want To Get Fired.”

In addition to providing witty and interesting content, Tosh’s “blawg” also provides a credible and reliable source of informative legal tips and resources for executives and human resources professionals, including “cheat sheets” on numerous employment laws, legal news updates, a sample social media policy for the workplace, and a great piece on “Why You Should Care About Employment Law.” You can also follow the Manpower Employment Blawg on Twitter at @manpowerblawg.

Meredith D. Williams is an employment lawyer in Los Angeles, California and a partner at Miller | Williams LLP, an employment litigation and counseling law firm, providing businesses of all sizes, as well as selected employees, experienced and cost-effective legal services in a wide range of employment-related litigation and counseling matters, including matters involving discrimination, harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour issues.

Contact Meredith at mwilliams@millerwilliamslaw.com

*Manpower Inc. is a world-wide recruiting, staffing, and human resources consulting firm headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Tags: Blawg, Blog, employment law, girls in tech, legal, Los Angeles, Manpower Inc., Mark Tosh, Meredith D Williams, Miller Williams, nbc, The Office, Wal-Mart
Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | 1 Comment »

What: Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital bonding Europe & Silicon Valley

When: June 27-30, 2010

Who: Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Venture Capitalists

Where: Viareggio, Italy

An International Event!

To find out more about the future of global innovation and get your entrepreneurial fiber fired up, you need to be at the Partners for Growth & Innovation conferences! These unique experiences will bring you not only practical business wisdom but also a worldwide network of exceptional professionals with who you actually really connected with…

June 27-30, 2010: Join our inaugural Partners for Growth & Innovation conference in Tuscany to meet and share with venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and innovators from the USA and Europe! Hurry up! Reserve your spot today!

Girls in Tech receive 50% off with the registration code “GIT”.  Hope to see you there!

Posted in Girls In Tech | No Comments »

The Social Developer Summit, produced by mediabistro.com and Nick O’Neill, founder of All Facebook and Social Times, will be a series of technical conversations about programming the social layer of applications.  On June 29 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, leading developers, engineers, and programmers will unite to discuss solutions and best practices for building applications in the rapidly expanding social web economy.

Sessions cover scaling social analytics, optimizing the monetization funnel, the future of relational databases, continuous deployment, engagement and more.

Speakers include:

• Luke Rajlich, Architect Engineer, FarmVille
• Arin Sarkissian, Core Infrastructure Team Lead, Digg.com
• Jia Shen, CTO & Founder, RockYou
• Brett Durrett, VP of Engineering and Operations, IMVU
• Leah Culver, Co-Founder/Lead Developer, Pownce & iPhone Developer for Plancast
• Jason Oberfest, VP Social Applications, ngmoco
• Mike Malone, Infrastructure Engineer, SimpleGeo
• John Smart, Chief Architect, Zoosk

For the most up-to-date list, see the Social Developer Summit website.  So, join in!

* Get your 15% off with code SDSGIT!

Tags: Christine Oneto, Developers, MediaBistro
Posted in San Francisco | 1 Comment »

Girls in Tech would like to congratulate the winner and Sony Online Entertainment for their G.I.R.L. Scholarship program for instilling encouragement for more women to get into the tech/gaming industry. They recently announced: Sylvia Liu of Milpitas, California, has been granted their 3rd annual $10,000 scholarship!

Since its inception, the scholarship program has been successful in encouraging students to pursue career paths in the creative and applied arts, ultimately resulting in the development of video games that are more enticing for women to play. Liu is an entertainment design student at Art Center College in Pasadena, California.  She has not only been awarded the $10,000  to be applied toward her tuition, but also the chance to take on a paid internship for up to 10 weeks at Sony Online Entertainment’s San Diego headquarters.  (Talk about hands-on experience!)

Says Liu, “I worked hard on my submission and am very proud of what I accomplished for this competition. This opportunity will help me a long way in my career so I can’t wait to get started!”  She was one of over 100 applicants who entered to win the scholarship and were asked to submit artwork for characters designed as if they would be included in some of the company’s new game titles.   An essay pertaining to their view of women in the gaming industry was also part of their submittals.  One of the former scholarship winners actually still works for Sony Online, following her internship at their Seattle office!  Thus, Sony Online has been staying involved in nurturing women in the tech field in a big way.  Kudos to all!

To learn more about the G.I.R.L. program, Follow G.I.R.L. on Twitter, or join G.I.R.L. on Facebook.

(Photo credit: Sony Online G.I.R.L.)

Tags: gaming, girls in tech, scholarship
Posted in All Chapters, Silicon Valley | 1 Comment »