Vator.tv, a leading social network for entrepreneurs and innovators as well as news and information through VatorNews, has partnered with Girls in Tech to present the AMPLIFY Business Pitch Competition and Conference.   Together, we are hosting our first-ever Amplify Business Pitch Competition – Awarding women-led startups, which will be held at Microsoft Labs on Thursday, November 18th.  With first rounds beginning on November 8th, this event will culminate on the 18th, with those finalists chosen being asked to present their pitch on-stage in front of a panel of VC judges.

15 finalists will present onstage at the Amplify event in November 2010 in San Francisco to an audience of 150 and a panel of experienced entrepreneurs and investors as judges. Presenters will gain visibility, feedback — and perhaps even funding.  All applicable entrants will receive discount passes to the conferences, and runners-up will be given VIP passes.

The keynote speaker for the day with be Esther Dyson, an active angel investor in a variety of start-ups, for-profit and otherwise, around the world. She also operates as the Internet’s court jester, a person of no institutional importance who somehow manages to speak the truth and to be heard when and where it matters. She does business as EDventure, the reclaimed name of the company she owned for 20-odd years before selling it to CNET Networks in 2004.

Judges will include:

• Jorge Calderon, Managing Director, hillView Ventures
• Cathy Brooks, Founder, Other than That
• Noah Doyle, Javelin Venture Partners
• Bambi Francisco Roizen, CEO & Founder, Vator, Inc.
• Adriana Gascoigne, Founder, CEO, Girls in Tech
• Maha Ibriham, General Partner, Canaan
• Anurag Nigam, CEO, BuzzBox
• Cynthia Ringo, DBL Investors
• Bipul Sinha, Principal, Lightspeed Venture Partners

Date: 11/1810
Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm
Where: MICROSOFT LABS, 845 Market Street, San Francisco
Ticket cost: $40

To purchase tickets to attend on the 18th, please go to:  http://gitamplify.eventbrite.com/

Vator.tv

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Launched today, brand-new web browser by former Netscape executive Tim Howes, and Eric Vishria of Opsware is the future in browsing, which pulls in something that is a part of everyone’s lives today:  social. Made for those who are constantly on social sites like Facebook and Twitter, it features unique sidebars which bring all of these to your fingertips on one screen. The company is principally financed by Andreesen Horowitz, Marc Andreesen’s VC firm, who is, incidentally, the former founder of Netscape. “Had we known about Facebook and Twitter and Google back in ’92 or ’93, we would have built them into the browser,” Mr. Andreessen said, referring to Netscape. “This is an opportunity to go back and do it right.”

Per Tim Howes, co-founder and CTO, they are “reinventing the browser for the way we use the web today.”   It is their theory that the way people use the web these days is more for social, as well as for sharing and search. Since it has a whole sidebar dedicated to Facebook and those friends of yours that you choose to put there (whose position can be changed along the vertical axis of your screen as you wish), it purports to make it easy to keep in touch with friends while you’re online, searching or doing whatever you may be doing at the time.  The other side will have your Twitter contacts and most recent tweets.  In this way,  their browser interfaces perfectly with Facebook (and Twitter) making it instantaneous to inform and be informed with friends also logged in, as you find new information while browsing.

For search, when entering a topic into Google, the RockMelt browser not only returns the links of the results, but those web pages as well.  So, a user can see those pages at a glance and click on the one that best fits their need or intrigues them the most.  Like other browsers, RockMelt will be offered free.  They admit that there will be a lot of change in the product to come.  Says Mr. Vishria, “This is the beginning of what we think browsers will look like in the next decade.”  To see a screen shot of how RockMelt actually appears on-screen, click here or here.

To read more & see some early reviews and opinions of RockMelt, see the links below:

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/technology/index.html (source)

http://shar.es/0BL49

http://www.20minutes.fr/article/620117/high-tech-rockmelt-veut-reinventer-navigateur-internet

http://mashable.com/2010/11/08/rockmelt-social-web-browser/

(Quotes courtesy of NYTimes.com and Building 43)

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While most traditional media outlets continue to obsess over the Motor City’s decline and decay, more city residents are turning to the real-time web to spread positive news and myth-bust regional stereotypes.

That’s exactly why the 140 Characters Conference (#140Conf) recently stopped in Detroit, a city home to a unique and extensive digital community that’s still growing. As Jeremiah Staes (@digitalvision) pointed out during his presentation, Detroit is mentioned five times more than McDonald’s in the micro-blogging space.

Taking the city’s image back

From lawn-mowing gangs and apps for Internet addiction, the Mitten’s Twitterati are using the social web for social good.

Here’s a quick look at some of the cool things Detroiters have got cooking and talked about at #140Conf:

The microhood

Jerry Paffendorf (@WELLO) helped create Loveland, a micro real estate start-up in which people purchase real land in Detroit by the square inch and, by default, join a network of inchvestors. Paffendorf invited event attendees to become Internet Movie Database producers for Eric Proxulb’s (@ericproxlu) upcoming movie Lemonade Detroit by purchasing frames of it.

#Backchannel 2.0

Local TV news anchor Stephen Clark (@sclarkwxyz) engages in two-way conversation with his viewers during his newscasts through Twitter. Not only does he interact with them in real-time by using the hashtag “#backchannel”, but he challenges them to pitch him, and the #backchannel community, with positive news story ideas.

Good jams

Home to big names like Kid Rock, Eminem, Madonna; not to mention one of the largest electronic music festivals in the world, Detroit Rock City is known for giving rise to good ear candy. Music enthusiasts like Hubert Sawyers (@hubertgam) are doing what they can to keep Detroit’s music scene fresh and emerging by helping local artists leverage the tech community for promotion and play of their beats and talents.

Entrepreneurship

Whether you’re into comic books or fashion, unwavering persistence and unmatched passion will help you get where you want to be, challenged conference organizer Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver). Make your dreams come true, encouraged Ryan Doyle, a Michigander who is doing just that by helping other people’s dreams come true by way of his nonprofit start-up company Live to Give Foundation (@livetogive).

We’ll be hearing more about how new businesses are sprouting up around Michigan at upcoming conference, aptly named, Michigan Emerging. This event has been featured by and will be taking place during Global Entrepreneurship Week. Detroit Startup Weekend will also be occurring the same week, and hopes to bring the region’s creative flock together to launch new companies in 54 hours.

Keep up with these and other Detroit-area conferences and tech updates by following @GITDet on Twitter.

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"Winnie Winster" (aka Kaplan)

Social games have gained rampant popularity among the female population within the past year. In fact, the recent 2010 Social Games Research revealed that an average American gamer is a 43-year-old woman! The link between close friendships and greater mental acuity is one indicator that people live healthier, more fulfilling lives when they have positive social interactions with others.

Michelle Kaplan, mother of four and co-founder of Winster.com, a social gaming site that offers companionship, social bonding and mental stimulation, came up with the concept for Winster when she realized there weren’t any non-competitive games online that nurtured friendships and positive social interaction. Combining the fun of online games with a web-based social network, Winster is helping women strengthen their own social networks to lead more rewarding lives.What sets Winster apart from other game sites is that players cooperate, rather than compete, to win prizes. The more they help each other, the faster they win. Winster.com caters to adult women who play online games for social purposes, just as knitting or bridge clubs did for previous generations of women and seniors. Players can create a profile and maintain a list of friends that they can easily find and join in game rooms.

By combining cooperative games with a web-based social network, the social gaming site is helping people strengthen their network of friends to lead more rewarding lives. Studies show that people who are more socially engaged and mentally stimulated stay sharper longer. Since its launch in the fall of 2004, the social gaming site has attracted over two million players, consisting mostly of middle-aged female gamers.

I had the chance to ask Michelle, personally, some questions on how she came about starting Winster:

Did you always want to get into gaming &/or what have been your other influences in the technology sector?

I have always worked in the high tech field and that has been an area of focus for me, but I honestly didn’t have a clue that I would start a gaming site!   My husband and I worked on an online auction company (Onsale.com) and that is where I first experienced how customers’ reactions dramatically impacted the success of a website.  It was incredibly competitive and people were addicted!

Winster, on the other hand, is the opposite side of the coin in that it is cooperative and non-competitive, but people are just as passionate.  It is really nice to see that we are providing a positive social experience for our players!

Where does she see the company going in terms of new products (games)/add-ons/or further expansion?

We are always looking at ways to create more connections between our players and of course we apply technology to strengthen those connections.  So we will be adding new features and new cooperative games.  We also continue to explore new options for prizes, and partnerships that add value for our players.  We definitely have some new things in the works!

What have some of the big “wins” for the company been?

We have had several business “wins” from closing several rounds of VC funding to reaching milestones like 1,000,000 registered users, but, for me, some of the real “wins” are the stories of peoples’ lives who have been changed on our site.  From the woman who credits Winster for providing her with an unexpected lifeline during a medical crisis to childhood friends who reconnected on Winster after 40 years and got engaged.   We get hundreds of emails a week from players with inspiring stories like these.

What is the one thing (besides being more social–which we know is the key) that you hope people will gain from the company’s games?

We hope our users live happier and healthier lives after joining the Winster community.  Many of our players join our community with little or no friends, and start to develop trust through cooperative gameplay by engaging in real-time conversations, and some even take it a step further by communicating off-line via phone or face-to-face. Once they are comfortable, they begin to share personal life experiences, recommendations and offer empathy for each other, creating a strong bond unmatched by any other gaming website. With new friends from all over the country, we strive to provide our dedicated players a life-changing experience that improves the quality of their lives, both emotionally and physically.

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If you are like me, you may wonder:  I cannot travel abroad to help flood or earthquake victims, but what can I do from home?  Well, here’s your chance. The International Museum of Women, as part of their Economica global program are conducting a survey in which they need input from women like you!  Read about their effort and how you can join in, below:

Take a Survey for I.M.O.W. and Support the Pakistan relief efforts

We need your input! If you haven’t already taken the Economica: Women and the Global Economy online exhibition survey, this is your last chance. Take just 10 minutes to fill out this brief online survey, and your participation will help support our sisters in Pakistan!

For every person who completes the survey, I.M.O.W will donate $1* to the Global Fund for Women’s Crisis Fund for Pakistan to support women in Pakistan who are still recovering from the devastating floods that occurred earlier this year. 20 million people have been impacted. The Global Fund for Women’s Crisis Fund for Pakistan provides emergency support for women’s organizations in the country to rebuild communities where people are newly homeless and without food.

We value your input. Please help a good cause and support I.M.O.W.!   Take the survey, now.

(content via IMOW.org – Not initiated by Girls in Tech)

Tags: Christine Oneto, girls in tech, IMOW, International Museum of Women, The Global Fund for Women's Crisis Fund for Pakistan
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Do you use twitter to help promote your business? Wondering how you can leverage it even more? I recently discovered this great twitter-centric app that helps you do just that.  And, since the so many of us have become so twitter-centric, this is a service that I think would be beneficial to take a look at in depth.  However, here’s a brief run-down.

Tap11 is the Twitter business intelligence service for companies to monitor, engage, measure, and grow their audience. It combines all the features of a top Twitter client with a powerful analytics engine.  Of its many benefits, it allows you to:

• Monitor Your Brand

• Focus on Important Conversations

• Measure the Results

• Work as a Team

• Broadcast Beyond Twitter

Twitter recently selected Tap11 as one of the Top 6 apps at Chirp, where the judging panel viewed Tap11 as the “Omniture of the real-time web.” Over 500 major brands and marketers are currently in private trial with Tap11 — If that doesn’t show its promise, I don’t know what does!

For more information on how to use it in your business, or to request a free trial, click on the Tap11 link above.  Then, come back and post a comment to this post to tell us how it worked for you!

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We like to think that the US is one of the most progressive countries in the world,especially in relations to human rights and labor diversity. We are proud that currently women make up more than half the workforce. However, a recent Calvert’s study shows that females continue to be significantly underrepresented on corporate boards and in C-level executive positions.  They study 100 companies and found out that “non-white, non-male officers are rare.  Over half—56 companies—in the S&P 100 have no female and/or minority representation in their highest paid executive positions”.

According to Forbes magazine, women account for only 3% of the CEOs at the helm of the biggest 500 U.S. companies, and that number hasn’t budged over the last three years.

What accounts for this?

Most of the companies do not disclose demographic data of their employees. Therefore, there is no knowledge about a company profile in terms of race, ethnicity and gender. The Calvert report found that 37% of the S&P 100 companies disclose no demographic data on employees, such as race, ethnicity and gender. Only 8 companies disclose full EEO-1 data, that is, a full breakdown of the workforce by race and gender across employment categories.

Therefore, if there is no disclosure, there is no accountability!

The lead author of the Calvert report and analyst, Aditi Mohapatra said:  “We are concerned about the lack of disclosure, because data is critical to demonstrating progress in female and minority representation”.

Recent study by Catalyst.com shows that progressive companies understand the impact of gender and race diversity on the bottom line. “Companies with the highest percentage of women in top management have a financial performance that is 35 percent higher than companies with the lowest percentage of female managers”.

Barbara J. Krumsiek, President & CEO of Calvert Group, Ltd. thinks that “Without a pipeline of female and minority executives in highly-paid, highly responsible positions, it will be very difficult to achieve board diversity, which is critical to strong governance and good management.”

However, for some corporations with old minded thinking it is hard to admit that a high level of diversity brings a higher Return on Investment and added significant value to their shareholders. Therefore, an evaluation of the effectiveness of diversity initiatives is crucial for maintaining profitability.

Fortunately, there are a few companies that lead the diversity movement. They model a behavior of progressive thinking that leads to financial success.  Among the top-scoring companies were Chevron Corp., Citigroup Inc., Coca-Cola Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Sara Lee Corp.

For a full copy of the Calvert 2010 report, click here

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Wannabe entrepreneurs will unite and descend upon Wayne State campus in Detroit next weekend with the hopes of forming the next big ‘tech’ company. Designers, developers, social media experts, and business minded folks will spend 54 hours hunkered down in TechTown, Detroit’s research and technology park, for Detroit’s Second Annual Startup Weekend.

On Friday, November 12th, participants will gather to crowd source ideas. Groups of 4-10 people are formed around the most popular company ideas, and the remainder of the weekend is spent coming up with a business plan, marketing plan, and the structure of a working company. At the end of the day Sunday, November 14th, the groups present their now functioning businesses to a panel of expert judges, and a winner is selected. This year, the winning team will receive $5,000 courtesy of the Business Accelerator Network for Southeast Michigan to put towards their newly formed company, or to spend in any way they choose.

The cost to attend is $75, $40 for students, and $20 to view the judging on Sunday if you can’t make it for the entire weekend. The price includes meals and drinks for the entire weekend. You can register to attend on the Startup Weekend Detroit website.

I was able to attend the event as a judge last year and will be going this year as a participant. It’s incredibly fun, and the innovative ideas that are generated are outstanding. I highly suggest coming out to be a part of all the fun and action. Girls in Tech Detroit members will be at the event live blogging at Detroit.StartupWeekend.org and tweeting from @GITDet on Twitter so you can follow along. Hope to see you all there!

Tags: designers, Detroit, Developers, entrepreneurs, startup weekend, techtown
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It’s both exhilarating and exhausting to be part of a start-up. Informal, creative work environments. Being more than just a cog in a wheel. Long nights. Wearing too many hats. The promise of becoming the next Google, Facebook or Twitter.

Running a start-up is also hazardous from an employment law perspective. Start-up companies often have informal work environments, young employees, no human resources professionals, and leaders with little experience running the administrative side of a business.

Misunderstanding the Law Can Cause Budgeting Problems and Lead to Lawsuits

Start-ups often involve few employees, so many start-up entrepreneurs don’t bother to worry much about employment laws or workplace policies. Pretty soon, business starts moving along fast and the company needs people ASAP. You hire an employee here, another one there, and suddenly you’ve got 10 people over night, including 8 computer programmers and an assistant.

Are You Properly Paying Your Computer Programmers?

With only one employee, you are subject to state and federal wage and hour laws. Now you have 10 and 8 of them are computer programmers. Computer programmers are commonly misclassified as exempt employees, so it’s important that you make sure yours are being paid correctly in order to budget properly and avoid lawsuits for back pay (which are likely to come after your start-up hits it big).

Can You Afford The Overtime?

Let’s say you were paying your computer programmers a fixed salary – $2,000 every two weeks – and thought that you didn’t need to pay them overtime. These these programmers have worked for you for 2 years (we’ll pretend they didn’t take any time off for vacation for the sake of simplification), each averaging a 65 hour a week. During your third year, you finally have some extra cash and have grown bigger, so you decide it’s time to get some employment law advice. Turns out your programmers are not exempt employees and you should have been paying them each an hourly rate and overtime pay, including 1 1/2 times their regular rate for hours worked over 8 in a day and 2 times their regular rate for hours worked over 12 in a day (you know there were at least a few). One of these programmers finds out and sues you for back pay (which he has 3 years to do). Now you owe him at least $55,380 in back pay, plus interest! (And I didn’t even include the legal fees you paid to help you deal with this situation.) But wait – that was 8 computer programmers you had and this is a small company. The first guy tells the other programmers and now you owe at total of at least $443,040 … YIKES!

Overtime Exemption Classifications are Tricky

Maybe you already knew all about this issue. But are you sure you properly understood the overtime exemptions? Overtime exemption analysis is tricky - for example, most administrative assistants do not qualify for the “administrative exemption.” The analysis is based on nuanced case law, as well as the actual day-to-day job duties of your employees, which often differ from the duties listed in job descriptions which formed the basis for your exemption analysis. In addition, California law is more strict that federal law and applies a slightly different test, so a job that is classified as exempt under federal law may not be exempt under California law Many well-intentioned employers have been caught off guard and you don’t want to be one of them. On the flip side, many ill-intentioned employers who think they can fudge this issue get caught – don’t be one of those either.

Meredith D. Williams is an employment law attorney in Los Angeles; she can be reached at mwilliams@millerwilliamslaw.com or @MerEsqLA.

Tags: California employment laws, computer programmers, entrepreneurs, Girls in Tech Los Angeles, Meredith D Williams, start-ups, wage laws
Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | No Comments »

To date, the Founder Institute has launched over 190 technology companies in 10 cities worldwide – many of which have been founded by women, such as Skimble, Memetales, WhatsFun, and many more. Is yours next?  Applications are closing soon for Winter Semesters in Silicon Valley, Houston, Seattle and Boston.

This 4-month startup accelerator program provides structured training to launch an enduring technology company, in a teamwork-oriented environment where everyone participates in a shared equity pool. In addition, sessions take place once a week at night, so you are not required to quit your day job.

Their great Winter 2010 Mentors include:

- Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO of Mint.com;

- Heather Harde, CEO of TechCrunch

- Gina Bianchini, Co-founder, Ning

- Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin;

- Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo;

- Phil Libin, CEO of Evernote;

- Phillip Kaplan, Co-Founder of Blippy;

- Jeffrey Dachis, Co-Founder of Razorfish;

- Adeo Ressi, Founder of the Founder Institute;

- and many more.

Anyone starting a technology company or thinking to become an entrepreneur should apply. It only takes a few minutes, and you don’t even need an idea – just a passion to create a great technology company.- Apply to Silicon Valley by Nov. 7th

- Apply to Houston by Nov. 7th

- Apply to Seattle by Nov. 21st

- Apply to Boston by Jan. 16th

For more information, click here.

Tags: Founder Institute, start-up, technology, The Funded
Posted in Boston, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Silicon Valley | No Comments »