Maestro Market Asked Four Female Leaders For Their Thoughts
It is no secret that the field of technology is dominated by men, and as a woman getting ahead and breaking the glass ceiling in the tech world has has been a challenge for most. However, as leaders like Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and Marissa Mayer of Yahoo make headlines they prove that the glass is beginning to shatter — albeit one shard at a time — and opportunities for women in tech are opening up. The team at Maestro Market wanted to know what other female leaders in the tech space are thinking about what is in store for 2013 and reached out to four female leaders in technology for their thoughts.
Girls Get Geekier by Launching More Companies, Developing Mentoring Pipelines, and Building Financial Know
Monica Flores, Web Developer
While women still have far to go in terms of reaching employment and salary equity, the field of information technology and in particular digital entrepreneurship opportunities abound for motivated, smart, and savvy women who are bold in identifying — and acting upon — new ideas. Women can come up with an idea, build a team, and create a minimum viable product for launch, all online, with the leanest of funding. The quickest entry into this world is through being mentored and finding a support network of other ”girl geeks” through national resources like Girls in Tech, AngelList, Ladies Who Launch, Little Pink Book, or Make Mine a Million (TM). Part of the drive to women’s entrepreneurial success is built on women’s desire to increase their financial knowledge by using tools like Mint.com and LearnVest.com to provide accountability and tracking, and through individual and group efforts to achieve money mastery.
Opportunities Across The Value Chain
Caryn Effron, Angel Investor and Social Entrepreneur
Caryn Effron, Angel Investor and Social Entrepreneur
The exciting trend around women in technology is that opportunities are being addressed across the value chain. The next generation of engineers is cultivated through initiatives like Girls Who Code, helping young girls identify tech as a fascinating, fun discipline. In the career realm, groups like Girls in Tech and Women 2.0 equip women with tools, skills, and confidence in technical and entrepreneurial careers. Leading tech companies like Google and Twitter have been financially supportive, plus their female engineer groups serve as mentors and examples to girls and women alike. Female entrepreneurs have benefitted from accelerators and mentorship-driven programs like Women Innovate Mobile. Finally, great progress has been made in developing female investors, with angel networks like 37Angels. Organizations like Astia, Golden Seeds, and Springboard Enterprises focus on funding female-led startups. In fact, NewsOnWomen reports that women entrepreneurs and CEO’s have raised nearly $1B in funds for startups in 2012. There is always more progress to be made. However, I’ve noticed in the past year that many females in tech find it encouraging that issues and solutions are being addressed across skills, mentorship, experience, and funding layers of the tech ecosystem.
2013: Women in Tech a Powerful Force
Liz King, CEO, Chief Event Specialist, Liz King Events
Women in Tech are going to be a powerful force in 2013. As we find more ways to gather as a community, we will gather in strength as well. To date, the tech industry has been dominated by men, but the women in the industry are learning to lean on one another for support and their skillsets are finding more visibility across the board. 2013 is the time for more women-led tech startups and a higher profile of successful female entrepreneurs and technology professionals.
Less Fashion & More Empowerment
Claudia Chan, Women’s Lifestyle Expert, Entrepreneur & Advisor (https://maestromarket.com/Claudia-Chan-1008)
The last few years have been full of tech start-ups focused on fashion, but as we venture into 2013, I’m seeing a shift in women-led tech companies from fashion-focused to empowerment-centered. Women are launching brands to help other women in areas of their lifestyle. From Cristina Carlino’s ArchetypeMe, which works to make your life more efficiently tailored to your interests, to Reshma Saujani’s Girls Who Code, which introduces programing and coding to the next generation of girls, to Caroline Ghosn and Amanda Pouchot’s Levo League, which helps elevate your career, it’s a holistic movement that’s insisting on style and substance.
Female Led Commerce and Content Companies are Paving The Way For Native Advertising
Alexandra Keating, Marketing @ Thrillist
Advertisers are more and more interested in native advertising, which integrates high-quality content into the organic experience of an online platform. Native advertising is leading to marketers paying higher rates in order to advertise while delivering relevant content on commerce based websites. Women focused commerce websites have been the most successful in building content models around their websites and in turn are now reaping the benefits of the beautiful advertising platforms they have incidentally created.
