Girls In Tech

by Tiffany Lan

I am a 24-year old San Francisco native and a front runner in The New York Intern Project, a competition to become a summer intern for a New York City Based PR company, Affect Strategies. Applying for this internship was not the conventional task of writing a cover letter, getting recommendations and submitting a resume. I had to submit a Bio to become a Contestant and obtain votes by getting internet users to visit nyinternproject.com and register as a voter. The process has been a truly unique experience in my search for an opportunity in the Public Relations field. I feel this is the beginning of a whole new culture to job hiring. I am writing this Blog to inform everyone that companies may start hosting competitions to highlight qualified applicants and a strong following in your social networks will be a great tool to find voters. Luckily, I have been building my Facebook network since 2005 out of sheer interest in connecting with old friends, and it has worked in my favor to promote my entry. I am the 5th place contender and maintaining my spot in the top six by no more than 50 votes. This race is cutting close and I hope the readers can take 5 minutes out of your day to support me.

I have been utilizing social networks to obtain votes and writing to organizations I have met while working as an intern for a Tech Startup, Grubcrawl.com and a Non Profit Organization, Rocksf.org. I met the Girls in Tech Team at their event: Using PR to Grow Your Startup. This event was extremely informative about the role Public Relations plays in Tech Startups. With a Star Panel of judges, sponsorships by Patxi Pizzeria and  Hint Water, not to mention surprise Guest Speaker Lieutenant Governor, Gavin Newsom this was a night of ‘PR Imitating Life, imitating PR‘.

When the contest ends on April 8, 2011, the top six entries with the most votes will be submitted to a panel of judges. The panel will choose their top 3 favorites and those contestants will fly to New York City for a formal interview.

Tiffany Lan-PR for Non Profits and Tech Startups is my tagline for the competition. Please read my Bio and vote for me by clicking on the link below: http://www.nyinternproject.com/entry/136118?=f1gtgn

You can register as a voter by allowing access to your Facebook account. Or, you can register with an email by clicking the link below:

http://www.nyinternproject.com/auth/register?destination=entry%2F136118

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Since graduating college with a liberal arts degree seven years ago, I had my fair share of jobs in organizations big and small.

At one large Korean conglomerate, I dutifully pushed paper and submitted reports to headquarters. It was hard to see the impact my efforts were making on the company, but I had decent job security and a steady paycheck. At small, young companies, such as the high-growth NYC-based beauty company I once worked at, my voice was heard by my superiors, and my ideas made real, tangible impact on my team’s success. At the conglomerate, the CEO’s word trumped everyone else’s; at the young company, everyone’s opinions mattered, no matter what your title was.

My experiences working in companies large and small helped me to realize that I enjoy working in smaller, younger companies where there is greater growth potential for the company, and by extension, for me.

And now, knowing what I know about the exciting and ever-evolving tech startup field, I’m very excited for the qualified graduates and jobseekers who can attend this Friday’s NYC Startup Job Fair to connect with the hottest young and nimble companies in NYC.  The event will be held at the AOL Ventures office on 770 Broadway (cross street is East 9th St).  It will start at 1PM for engineers and 2:30PM for everyone else (don’t be discouraged if you don’t have a Computer Science background.  There are abundant opportunities for quick thinkers, innovators, and designers).

Alex Horn started NYC Startup Job Fair last year in an attempt to connect job seekers to new and upcoming startups in the NYC area.  He adds, “All the positive feedback we received was inspiring, and the turn-out was far beyond our expectations. This year we are working on bringing the community an even better event, and already 50 startup have applied for booths.”

So if you are a recent graduate or jobseeker jonesing to get in on the startup action, sign up for the Job Fair today!

Tags: AOL Ventures, Job Fair, nyc, startup
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Follow me @AlliStrouse

I recently visited a friend in Seattle, and as he gave me a tour of the city, I also got a lesson in Paul Allen. We took a walk through the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum, founded by Allen, which is dedicated to the history and exploration of both popular music and science fiction. Apparently Allen, a huge music lover and Star Trek fan, thought creating a huge museum dedicated to his two passions would be a cool idea. The museum has everything from E.T. the alien in the (fake) flesh to a Jimi Hendrix exhibit, making it a very cool place to visit.

My friend also drove me through a part of town that he described as “the part of town that Paul Allen owns.” This area is called South Lake Union and at one point was considered the city’s garage, a half-ignored area in Seattle with tired storefronts. However, Allen is now turning South Lake Union around with a plan that calls for 10 million square feet of laboratories, offices, apartments, condominiums, hotels, stores and restaurants. Allen’s developments could bring in 20,000 jobs and turn biotechnology research into an industry that redefines the Seattle economy. There were many other points in my visit where Allen’s name came up, and I’ve only listed two of his many accomplishments and projects since co-founding Microsoft.

However interesting it is to learn about all of the amazing things Allen has done with his wealth, I find it even more interesting to learn how he made his fortune and all of the challenges and rewards that came along the way. For those of you who would also find this interesting, we’re in luck, as Allen is soon to release his memoir “Idea Man: A Memoir by the Cofounder of Microsoft” on April 19. I am very excited for the book release, especially after extensive excerpts were published in the May 2011 issue of Vanity Fair.

Telling from the excerpts, the book brings the reader way back to his high school days when he met Bill Gates at Lakeside School, a private school in Seattle. Allen has a great way of writing from the perspective of the time he is describing. During his high school days, he writes, “Soon I was spending every lunchtime and free period around the Teletype with my fellow aficionados. Others might have found us eccentric, but I didn’t care. I had discovered my calling. I was a programmer.” Can’t we all relate to those times in our youth when we are discovering and learning new things every day and some things just grab a hold of your attention and energy? This same excitement appears again when Allen and Gates get their first opportunity, an open invitation by the MITS company, in Albuquerque, to build a programming language for their new Altair microcomputer. Allen goes into extreme detail about the time and energy put into this project, and he talks in extreme technical detail about the ups and down of the development (most of which the regular reader has no idea what Allen is talking about, but this detail brings home the fact that Allen and Gates were obsessed with every single aspect of this project). Suspense builds for the reader as Allen travels down the Albuquerque to run the program, and Allen takes the reader through his mental thought process as the trip unfolds (Allen repeatedly tells himself, “There’s just no way this is going to work.”). However, we all know that with Allen and Gates, there is a happy ending. “You’re the first guys who came in and showed us something,” he [MITS owner] said. “We want you to draw up a license so we can sell this with the Altair. We can work out the terms later.” I couldn’t stop grinning. Once back at the hotel, I called Bill, who was thrilled with the news. We were in business now, for real; in Harvard parlance, we were golden.” It is a great reading experience, being brought through the mental journey of Allen as he expresses the feelings of self-doubt and dedication that came with this first business success.

We travel with Allen from their first success, to the days when Microsoft is at the top of its game. While Allen and Gates are obviously brilliant people, it becomes obvious that their management styles are extremely different. Allen describes Gates as liking to hash things out in intense, one-on-one discussions, and that he thrived on conflict and isn’t shy about instigating it. While the outside world praises Gates for his management style, Allen doesn’t hesitate to put down his management style “Some said Bill’s management style was a key ingredient in Microsoft’s early success, but that made no sense to me. Why wouldn’t it be more effective to have civil and rational discourse? Why did we need knock-down, drag-out fights? Why not just solve the problem logically and move on?” It is always so fascinating getting the insider perspective, and it proves once again to the outsiders that we really don’t have a clue.

After being diagnosed and treating Stage 1-A Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Allen goes through the thought process of wanting to step away from what seemed to be a very stressful work environment. From the beginning of Allen’s adventure with Gates until his last few months with the company, Allen takes time to discuss specific conversations with Gates dealing with his ownership of the company and how he was continually edged out of more and more share in the company. Allen takes time to show the reader how much these conversations weighed on him, taking breaks numerous times in the memoir to express to the reader how he would ponder how and why Gates approaching him with certain numbers. Allen comes up a few different hypotheses for why Gates offered certain ownership percentages… “He might have argued that the numbers reflected our contributions, but they also exposed the differences between the son of a librarian and the son of a lawyer. I’d been taught that a deal was a deal and your word was your bond. Bill was more flexible; he felt free to renegotiate agreements until they were signed and sealed. There’s a degree of elasticity in any business dealing, a range for what might seem fair, and Bill pushed within that range as hard and as far as he could.” It is fascinating to know that someone like Allen, considered co-founder by the entire world, could feel anything but an equal partner himself.

While Allen is tough on Gates in many ways, he gives him many compliments along the way as well. “Each time I brought an idea to Bill, he would pop my balloon. “That would take a bunch of people and a lot of money,” he’d say. Or “That sounds really complicated. We’re not hardware gurus, Paul,” he’d remind me. “What we know is software.” And he was right. My ideas were ahead of their time or beyond our scope or both. It was ridiculous to think that two young guys in Boston could beat IBM on its own turf. Bill’s reality checks stopped us from wasting time in areas where we had scant chance of success.”

What Allen and Gates accomplished is an amazing feat, and this novel proves that there is no easy path to such tremendous success. We all see Paul Allen as a tremendously successful person who has and does amazing things with his fortune (philanthropic and business ventures), but this books focuses us in much closer than that. We see the world from Allen’s perspective and begin to understand what goes through the mind of someone who is building a revolutionary company in a revolutionary field. I find it fascinating, emotional, joyous and at times a bit sad. Allen did leave the company he helped build because he had to, not because he truly wanted to. I’m just glad that Allen decided to share his journey with the world, inspiring new entrepreneurs to have the same energy and focus as Allen and Gates had in their early days and to expect the bumpy road that comes with growing a great company.

Follow me @AlliStrouse

Posted in Girls In Tech | 3 Comments »

Are you still a little reluctant or curious about Google’s announcement this past week regarding their newly launched ‘+1,’  a feature that allows users to recommend web content and ads to others in a similar manner to Facebook’s “Like” button?

Well, if you are, you would absolutely not be alone…

Google’s official company announcement left many questions still unanswered. Two of the greatest, most concerning  ones are: 1) how will this now affect user privacy (something Google and others, like Facebook, have been battling with on a daily basis);  and 2) how will this impact the interactive and digital advertising industries, alike?

(Click to see Google explaining '+1' )

To share his opinion on the Google +1 announcement, digital media entrepreneur Dale Carr, CEO of LeadBolt, ( a leading online advertising agency, with a content locking gateway and web monetization platform) recently had this to say:

“Brilliant in concept (although admittedly very similar to the Facebook ‘like’ button), it aims to harness the power of social conscience through what I like to call “Social Generated Content”. There is no better way of aggregating user behavior than through freely volunteered actions and user recommendations. The way Google wishes to use it though suffers from the same difficulties they have with ranking search results – the desire for unscrupulous parties trying to ‘game’ the system in a way to make certain recommendations appear more popular than they should (similar to the click fraud issues they struggle with in their ad sense program). Add to that the fact that realistically users who click on ads and are satisfied with the web page they land on are not inclined to click the back button to ‘rate’ an ad or search result. If it was a negative experience they would be more likely to give feedback.”

“All in all, the hurdles +1 needs to overcome before it can become a trusted popularity rating mechanism are many, and the attempt by Google to meter, analyze, and collect data on every click and then tie it to a personalized account and indeed have this shared amongst other users poses the age old problem of data privacy. Whether +1 can rise above the challenges first presented remains to be seen.” — Dale Carr

That’s Google’s ‘+1,’ one opinion of it.  I say, why not? — The more information I can get from my online friends about links and products, the better.  It is not like they have a Michelin or a 5-Star rating.  Consumers will know what kind of weight to give it.  And if the privacy issues are a concern, one can simply not use the feature.

• What do you think of  the new Google +1?  Like it or dislike it?

• Do you think there is room or an already obvious place for Google in the social web environment?

(Note:  The opinions above are those of Mr. Carr, the author, not necessarily of Girls in Tech.)

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Want to get a start in journalism?  Wish you could launch your own website based on your latest big idea and get $12,00o funding to get it started?  Check out New Women’s Media Entreprenuers (NMWE).

NMWE is a unique initiative addressing opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism by spotlighting their ingenuity and entrepreneurial abilities. Pilot projects will show what can be done. Research will tell what more then to do.  Additionally, an awards program and summit will showcase women’s creative ideas.

So, where does the $12,000 in funding come in?

J-Lab, The Institute for Interactive Journalism and the McCormick Foundation are seeking to fund four women-led projects that will rock the world of journalism.

We will fund individuals who have original ideas to create new websites, mobile news services or other entrepreneurial initiatives that offer interactive opportunities to engage, inspire and improve news and information in a geographic community or a community of interest.

The McCormick New Media Women Entrepreneurs program will give one-time funding of $12,000 to women who have the vision, skills and experience to launch a new venture. These can be solo ideas or team projects spearheaded by women.

The deadline for applications is Monday, April 4 (which we realize is tomorrow, but wanted to pass this on for anyone out there who already has an idea percolating!) For more information, please visit www.newmediawomen.org .

Tags: journalism, new media, NWME, Women Entrepreneurs, women in technology
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Assistant Editor of Mashable.com, Erica Swallow mentions a San Franciscan Contestant, Tiffany Lan and her potential in The New York Intern Project.

March 31, 2011-San Francisco, CA – In these challenging economic times, companies are working harder than ever to build the strongest team. With a new set of undergraduates entering the market every year, businesses are finding new tactics to sift through the applications.  The New York based PR Company, Affect Strategies is looking for a summer intern and is pushing potential candidates to market themselves by hosting a competition! The competition is held all day long over the internet portals of Nyinternproject.com.  Each contestant must obtain votes by getting internet users to visit nyinternproject.com and register as a voter.  The New York Intern Project is ending its successful run on April 11, 2011 and a San Franciscan Public Relations Intern is 4th place in the running- Tiffany Lan- PR for Non Profits and Tech Startups.

“Tiffany brings real experience and passion to the table,” says Swallow. “These are two assets that are difficult to find in an intern.”

Erica Swallow, the Assistant Editor of Mashable.com shared her opinions on Tiffany Lan as a Leading contestant on techaffect.com, a Tech Blog by Affect Strategies.  She is one of the judges who will be choosing three contestants out of the top six entries with the most votes who will then get to fly to New York City for a formal interview.

“I am reaching out to organizations and networks I’ve built relationships with to support me.  I’m using the strategies I’ve learned in my PR internships for Grubcrawl.com and Rocksf.org to promote my entry in the contest. I’ve also utilized social media to the max and I hope it works in my favor!” –Tiffany Lan

She is leading as the 4th place contestant with 156 votes away from being in 1st place. You can Read Tiffany’s Bio and vote for her at:http://www.nyinternproject.com/entry/136118?=f1gtgn

You can register as a voter by allowing access to your Facebook account. Or, you can register with an email by clicking the link below:

http://www.nyinternproject.com/auth/register?destination=entry%2F136118

About Tiffany
Tiffany Lan utilizes her experience in Public Relations by working with Non-profits to obtain sponsorships with event planning and media outreach.  Contact her via Twitter: Tlan815. or at  lan.tiffanye@gmail.com

Tags: girls in tech, NY Intern Project, PR
Posted in All Chapters, Girls In Tech | 2 Comments »

Global Technology Symposium was held on March 23- 25 in Menlo Park, California. The symposium was served to promote and educate Russian and American companies and VCs in the area of  technology.

For Russian tech companies, Silicon Valley is the center of the world for innovation, entrepreneurial investment opportunities and technological progress. President of Russia, Mr. Medvedev, is eager to develop Russia’s impact in technology for growth in its economy. His previous visit to Stanford in the summer of 2010, clearly indicates the necessity of collaboration between Russian (Scolkovo based program) and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs in the area of high-tech experience, management and planning in order to modernize Russia’s economy.

Mr.Sitnikov, Director of International Development at the Skolkovo Foundation, announced the launch of the Russian Innovation Center at the 8th Annual Global Technology Symposium. This is the leading investment conference on venture capital, technology, and entrepreneurship in emerging markets. “Russia as a Cradle for Innovation” was the theme for the first day of the conference (www.usrts.org).

President Obama has identified entrepreneurship as “an area…where America can share our experience as a society that empowers the inventor and the innovator.” I am glad that Global Technology Symposium brought together innovators from Russia and United States. However, I noticed that 95 percent of the participants were males. I hope next year we will see more women-entrepreneurs. Maybe Russia needs a program like Girls in Tech to support women in technology to advance Russia’s progress?

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