Women 2.0

First jobs are killer, good and bad. 

When I got my first job four years ago, I did what I’d long done as a student: my homework. I interviewed everyone I respected about how to be a good worker, how to fit in, add value, etc. I got very good advice. “Work hard.” “Develop a good relationship with your boss.”

But, having never held a job, I didn’t know how to apply that advice. Plus, much of it seemed too subjective, too hard to pin down. Does work hard just mean put in long hours? Produce stellar results? Or both?

I started my job with all of my ambition and best intentions, and almost immediately, I started making mistakes, mistakes that then turned into lessons learned, which I’ve since shared with coworkers and friends as they dive into their first jobs.

In these four fast and furious years, I’ve experienced highs and lows, happy bosses and unhappy ones, and I’m here to tell you: first jobs are killer, good and bad. So, if you’re in your first job, or about to begin your first job, my experience may benefit you. Here’s three things I learned that might help to make your first work experience a success, not only for you, but for your company.

1. Uncover Your Network of Mentors

When you’re new at a job, become a human sponge. Learn everything you can, and learn from everyone you can. At Workday, I was one of the youngest people on my team and part of Generation Workday, a program that’s uniquely designed to nurture, develop, and challenge future leaders, straight out of college.

I found that everyone on my team wanted to help me and they were expected to do that because I was brand new. I even got a formal mentor, which is a best practice at Workday. At first, I met with my mentor daily, then weekly, and I peppered that mentor with questions about my job, my role, expectations, etc. But then I ran out of things to ask him because I didn’t know what kinds of help I needed. He’d ask me about what I needed, but because I hadn’t thought about it, I couldn’t tell him. Soon, he started canceling our meetings. I realized that I wasn’t taking advantage of a valuable resource because I didn’t know how to. So I asked around, and realized I needed to form goals and discuss these with my mentor to make use of his time and this opportunity for me. Not everyone has the opportunity to learn from a formal mentor. At first, I didn’t even think I needed one but he turned out to the best resource possible.

Even if you don’t have a formal mentor, there are probably all kinds of them sitting right next to you.

I learned to watch everyone at work, managers and coworkers alike, and identify those that have what you want, whether it is an actual title or career path or simply a way of being in the workplace. Look for the value that each person offers, and what you can learn from them. There is only so much you can do by yourself, and so much more you can do by leveraging the knowledge and skills of others. The more you put into your relationships, the more you can get out of them.

2. Communicate Early and Often

As a young, inexperienced worker, there might be a tendency to stick your head down, work super hard, and try to take up as little of your manager’s time as possible. This might work in some situations and with some managers. But no matter your manager’s sensibilities, I’ve found that more communication is almost always better, whether face-to-face or via quick messages, and it’s critical to building trust and relationships.

Within my role, as a software development engineer at Workday, there’s one instance that stands out to me where I didn’t communicate fully enough with my boss while working on a bug fix.

I was working on the fix, and then found other problems that slowed me down. I didn’t tell my boss about the other problems, so he thought I was taking too long on the original fix. I was stuck in a working harder, not smarter, mode.

Afterward, I assessed where I’d gone wrong. I looked at the data, the situation, and then I shared that with my manager, too. Since I’d broken the situation down, we were able to have an objective conversation instead of a subjective one. He then understood that I wasn’t dragging my feet, but rather I was someone who was willing and wanting to learn. Going into that last meeting with my boss wasn’t easy, but it was important for me to communicate the entire story of what happened, and by doing so, our relationship deepened. Effective communication is key.

As a first-time employee, I’m convinced that 50 percent of success is about the work you accomplish and the other 50 percent is about how you present yourself.

3. Map Projects to Your Company’s Purpose

Of course, the weeds are where the work gets done. You’ve got to nail your responsibilities, know your stuff, and always look for facts to back up your work and decisions. But every employee, even a new one, is part of a bigger picture.

To help me see the big picture as a software development engineer, I’d write up a simple explanation for myself regarding why any code fix or enhancement was important, what value it added for the customer, and where it was in the code.

That helped me to understand that my work is part of an ecosystem, and my responsibilities contribute to the entire company.

Once, I failed to properly test my code, which then resulted in code delays for other departments across the organization. I was able to get the problem fixed, but I learned how important process was to my company and that the actions of any employee will have ripple effects.

The big picture also applies to what you want from your career. A year ago, I was headed toward what I thought I wanted: a leadership role. But then an exciting, but more horizontal, opportunity arose that I chose. Luckily for me, Workday encourages employees to gain all kinds of workplace experiences and skills. Hopefully, your company does, too. Be willing to consider opportunities and don’t shy away from things that scare you. They might just be what you do next.

About the Author

Our friends at Ellevest have just published a new guide to help women (and men) understand the basics of investing, all in about 20 minutes. It's main goal is to better inform women about how to invest their money, and get the going in as painless a process as possible. It even includes a handy glossary of terms to fend off mansplainers at cocktail parties!

Written by “the most powerful woman on Wall Street,” Ellevest CEO Sallie Krawcheck, The Go-Getter's Guide to Investing is a free click-through guide that strips out the jargon and stuff you don't need to know, and focuses on the five most important things about investing.

The problem's Ellevest has identified:

Women control $14 trillion, or 51% of American personal wealth. 

However, across all age groups, women have considerably less retirement income than men; women are 80% more likely than men to be impoverished at age 65 or older. 

Women live longer than men, make less money than men (gender pay gap), take career breaks, and pay more for comparable products (pink tax). In short, women have less money than men.

Most women don’t invest their money as much as men do, leading to a “gender investing gap.” The average female investor keeps 71% of her investment portfolio in cash.

This puts women at a financial disadvantage compared to men because they are missing out on the potential growth that a diversified, balanced portfolio may provide.

So what keeps women from investing, according to Ellevest?

When they surveyed professional women, and asked them why they haven’t invested yet, one of the top reasons was that they need to do more research so they can understand what they're investing in.

Women want to read a book, take a class, or have some sort of financial education so that they can be informed.

Given the lack of trust for the financial industry, the importance of financial decisions, and that most of the women they talk to are educated and successful, this all makes sense.

However, it becomes a significant barrier to fully investing, because learning about investing is just about as attractive as doing your taxes.

From  qualitative research sessions, we heard a few key things (paraphrased):

“I just want to understand my portfolios and be able to explain how I’m invested when I’m asked about it at a cocktail party.”

“I’ve been trying to teach myself investing for a long time.”

“I want to be sure I have a diverse portfolio...but I don’t have time to be sure I’m allocating things the right way.”

Women want to talk about their investments with friends confidently, or when getting unsolicited advice from others who may “know more.”

Key takeaway: women want to feel informed but don’t have the time to become the expert.

Get the Guide today

Women 2.0 interviews Liana Guzman, SVP of Marketing and Growth at Blockchain.

W2: Blockchain technology is revolutionizing the FinTech industry. Give us an overview for folks who are not yet familiar with Blockchain.

Nearly every major industry has been turned on its head in the last hundred years. The one exception is the 13T Financial Services space which underpins every aspect of both our personal lives and our global community. And block chain technology is the first credible candidate to revolutionize financial systems as we know them today. At it’s core, block chain is a transaction network. Unlike a legacy deployment, a block chain is a globally replicated, secure database. You can think of it as an immutable, permanent and secure spreadsheet in the cloud which de-risks liability thanks to its distributed nature. If one of these nodes goes offline, the rest of the network can continue to confirm transactions without skipping a beat. In fact, the bitcoin blockchain has now been running for 8 years, 365 days a year, without major interruption — a feat no backend banking system can claim. Nearly every major institution - from finance to healthcare, government to consumer product goods - is exploring what that means for them. These big institutions stand to benefit a great deal from the efficiency and transparency and privacy that this technology offers but so does the woman in Afghanistan who for the first time can hold value independent of her father, husband or brother, or the doctor in Venezuela who is watching her bolivar become worthless and worth less every day and can use Bitcoin to store value or the landowner in Cambodia who is one of 70% of people in this world whose land title is flaky and can use this technology to protect his land. This technology can do all of these things and I get to help let people know about that which is a dream.

W2: How did your past experience lead to your role at Blockchain? Any tips for women looking to advance in the FinTech space?

Interestingly, I came to this role with no previous FinTech experience. I spent the previous decade helping build Axiom which ushered in a new era for legal services. During my tenure there, I was able to help disrupt a precedent-bound profession and make nuanced ideas digestible and identifiable. Ultimately, that experience has given me a great foundation from which to help bring block chain technology to the masses.

W2: I heard that you're also involved in philanthropy. What are some initiatives that you're currently excited about?

I am - I had the great fortune to co-found The Pink Agenda when I was 23. I wanted to make a difference but I found that there weren’t many organizations focused on young professionals. We set out to change that, proving that fun and philanthropy aren’t mutually exclusive and raising millions for breast cancer research and awareness along the way. I remain involved in TPA’s work but, these days, I also find myself really focused on and committed to issues that I believe will create a better world for my 2 year old son as he grows. Those issues range from helping Syrian refugees to supporting organizations, like Planned Parenthood and the Environmental Defense Fund, that align with my principles domestically.

W2: What's your morning routine and how do you prepare for a busy day?

I like to know what’s on deck and be sure I’m prepped before turning in for the night so prepping for me starts the night before when I do a quick review of my calendar for the following day and plan what I’m going to wear (which I’ve learned saves me tons of time in the morning). In the morning, I have a 2 year old who acts as a very effective alarm clock. We’re usually up at 7 and, after a quick peek at my phone to make sure there’s nothing urgent going on, my wife and I focus on family time for the next hour. I find that being really present with him in the morning helps me be much more focused on work once I walk out the door. We have breakfast and play or read. Then, at 8, our sitter arrives and I get ready. Luckily, it doesn’t take me long so I’m usually kissing everyone goodbye by 8:15.

W2: What's next for you and how can the Women 2.0 community support your work?

I’m always on the hunt for great women in tech to join our team. If that’s you and you're interested in what we’re building, please reach out. And, of course, please keep telling your stories and supporting one another: ask for what you need, give whatever you can. We have a long way to go in creating greater equity in tech but a collaborative approach to building a better future will make all the difference.

Anyone can have an idea, but turning an idea into a functioning business? That’s the key to success.

If you’re launching a startup, you’ll face inevitable obstacles: time, money, and energy, to name three. However, as daunting as starting a business may be, we’ve come a long way in the past few years. Many tools are now available help move the needle without emptying our bank balances.

When I started my first business, there were no smartphones to facilitate working on the go — and there was an inevitable communication lag. There was no Etsy, Shopify, or WordPress to ease the difficulty of starting a business.

But now, creating a website is easier than ever, and with tools like Venmo, so is managing payments. Plenty of ways exist to connect the idea in your head to the wealth of resources at your fingertips. Here are six platforms to help today’s entrepreneurs create startups that will flourish:

1. Find your audience with social media.

You know this by now: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat can all help a business communicate and grow in seconds. Expensive marketing campaigns may soon become a memory as social influencers continue to gain traction.

Nearly 40 percent of people would purchase on the basis of something they saw on social. Big-name brands like Urban Decay found success by harnessing the power of the internet. Make accounts for your brand on all the major channels and start finding your audience.

2. Develop a unique brand image with 99designs.

Design is beyond important as you start finding your audience. You need a set of aesthetic elements that tell your unique story. And because it takes a person just 2.6 seconds to register a website once it’s loaded, first impressions may be everything.

99designs can help you source designers to come up with the visual basics for your brand, including your logo. This is especially helpful for startups because it allows multiple designers to send you ideas before making a bid on your designer of choice.

3. Jump-start your sales on Etsy.

You won’t know what your product is worth until you start selling it, so try a risk-free launch on Etsy. It’s not only easy, but also financially possible early in your business’s history. Not quite one percent of Etsy sellers needed a loan to launch their online stores.

Designer LeiLei Secor, for example, used Etsy to kick-start her career while paying her way through college so she could get a business degree. Her entrepreneurship earned her a National Federation of Independent Business’ Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

4. Keep everything aboveboard with LegalZoom.

The legal side of starting a business often stops entrepreneurs in their tracks. Make it easy by using a tool like LegalZoom. If you’ve just started, chances are you don’t have the funds to hire a lawyer. LegalZoom helps you draft contracts, register your business, and file for trademark, copyright, and patent protection for a flat annual fee of $300.

5. Create Content with Upwork.

Build up your business’s reputation by creating content with a tool like Upwork. High-quality content attracts seven times the site traffic of sites without it, and businesses with active blogs saw 67 percent of the year’s sales leads.

You can pick from thousands of writers and developers with a wide range of knowledge to help with any content you need, providing you with expert SEO and lead generation tips in the bargain.

6. Use platforms like Fiverr to get things done.

Fiverr offers you the unbeatable ability to “get things done” for your startup beginning at just $5, from business card printing to voiceover recording, without the pain and cost of hiring and systemizing those processes.

There’s never been a better time to be an entrepreneur. You have all the tools you need to beat the odds and turn your idea into the next big thing.

Women 2.0 Interviews Yahoo Senior Director of Strategy & Operations: Stacey Monn-Vudrag.

What are some of the key things you focus on when building a great team?

First, design the right foundation for your organizational structure. I’m very much of the mindset that the best outcomes come from first designing the structure and then finding the right individuals to fill the needed roles (rather than designing an organization around individuals). Ideally, you fill the most senior positions first, build a solid leadership team, and empower those leaders to be able to hire the members of their teams.

For senior leadership roles, external relationships are often important, so I look for individuals who have both the technical and leadership skills as well as solid industry contacts. In hiring junior candidates, I look for strong foundational skills and a passion for learning. For example, someone who has just graduated from business school has the foundation, but isn’t necessarily going to have significant domain expertise or work experience.  However, “strong athletes” have the ability to learn and grow in the role. Across the board, it is important to spot and hire people that have the potential to be star performers.

What strategies do you use for recruiting the best talent?

I don’t wait for talent to find us.  I leverage my network of contacts both internally and externally, and I value recommendations that come from other well-regarded colleagues.  I recruit internally by reaching out to strong performers who are looking for change and who I think would be strong additions to our team. Lastly, I’m proactive on LinkedIn and reach out directly to individuals with strong backgrounds. Those individuals may ultimately be the right candidates or can refer others.

At the interview level, I try to understand the candidate’s short and long-term professional goals. From my perspective, one of the biggest missteps in hiring is when there are misaligned expectations around the scope of the role and opportunities for growth.  It is important to be honest about what the role entails and not misrepresent the role just to get a candidate to accept a position.

Once you've hired a strong team member, how do you keep them engaged?

You've identified a key piece of the puzzle. Finding and hiring strong talent is just the opening volley. Once a new employee is on-board, managers have to ensure that she is working on meaningful projects that matter to the company and provide her with opportunities to continue her career growth. This could include providing her the ability to take on an expanded scope or larger team, challenging projects, opportunities to present to senior executives, and speaking opportunities at conferences.

What's the most challenging team dynamic you've encountered and how did you address it?

I joined Ian Weingarten as Chief of Staff when he assumed responsibility for the Corporate Development and Partnerships team. The first thing that we did was restructure the organization. We started with the foundation and identified what roles were needed. We then determined who on the existing team would staff these opportunities and where we would bring on new hires. Inevitably, we had to make hard decisions when it came to eliminating duplicative roles, which was difficult for the organization at large. We made the process collaborative and solicited feedback from our leadership team as opposed to making unilateral decisions. This went a long way in making our leadership team feel respected and valued in the decision-making process.

What's the best productivity hack you've found?

As Chief of Staff, I wear a lot of hats, have many deliverables and have to manage expectations from several members of our leadership team. For me, the most important tool has been learning to be a master of Essentialism, a concept coined by Greg McKeown. Essentialism is the concept of doing more by doing less and not feeling that we have to do everything that is on our plates. I have learned to focus on things that make the greatest impact and, in doing so, make trade-offs and de-prioritize things that don’t. This sounds easy, but it’s incredibly difficult as it also means having to be okay with saying “no” to some things—some of which are important—as there are other more critical items that need attention.

What's next for you and how can our community support you in your work?

I’m very fortunate to have an interesting and challenging role. I love what I do as well as the people who I work with each day. I'm always interested in connecting with talented professionals in Business Development and Partner Management as well as with other business leaders.

Good ideas don’t sell themselves.  Janet Holmgren shares her strategies for becoming a more effective communicator and developing your executive presence.

There are many myths about leadership, including that savvy ideas or smart work equate to success. The truth is: communication that influences, motivates, and inspires others to take action is a critical skill of an effective executive and leader.

How Do You Become a More Effective Communicator?

Understand the context

In professional settings, there are expectations of what will be communicated, how it will be communicated, and how to listen for the essential message. The most effective leaders know how to read the context and shape their message to succeed with the right audience, at the right moment.

You can’t do it alone.

Communication is a two-way street. Practical experience and feedback from others is crucial to determine the effectiveness of your communication strategies and your voice. You are responsible for other people’s understanding of your ideas.

There are 3 common stumbling blocks to executive communication that can be overcome with knowledge and practice. Common issues are:

1. Talking too fast.

You may be afraid that you won’t get every thought out, but you will lose your listener if you speak too fast or fail to be clear and straightforward. Know the message you want your listener to leave with and keep it front and center.

2. Using “Upspeak”

You may end statements with a rising intonation with the assumption that you are inviting the listener in. Upspeak can be effective if used strategically; however, in standard practice, it tends to undermine  your credibility.

3. Waiting too long to get into the mix.

Often this boils down to not having a good plan for ‘interruption,’ or a good strategy for regaining the ‘floor’ if you have been interrupted.

Strong communication skills will help you create positive impact in your organization.

If want to learn more about effective communication techniques and get hands-on practice and feedback, join me on February 10 at Cooper in my Developing Executive Presence Masterclass in San Francisco. 20% off code: Women2twenty

Women 2.0 Interviews Susan Danziger, Founder of Ziggeo, the Cloud-Based Embeddable Video Recorder / Player.

W2: What inspired you to start Ziggeo?

A few years ago, we were building a recruitment platform that let candidates record videos for employers to view. We figured the video feature would be easy to add — we’d just use an existing off-the-shelf, embeddable video recorder/player API. Turns out that video API technology didn’t exist. We couldn’t believe it. So we had to build our own. It took us months and months — and the technology is super complicated. We figured if we had this problem, others must have it as well. That was our “aha” moment. We launched Ziggeo’s video API  that others could use — and closed our original recruitment platform to focus on being a pure technology business. 

W2: What type of customers do you serve?  

Recruitment platforms of course love our technology, given our background. However, any platform, website or app looking to embed a video recorder or video player can use our technology. They might use them to integrate video messages, video profiles or video reviews/testimonials (for e.g. e-commerce sites). Other examples include brands that want to capture video stories from their communities; educational platforms looking to capture student videos or crowdfunding sites like Crowdrise looking to use video as an engagement tool.  

W2: Tell us a little about how your product works.

We have an API and SDKs for iOS and Android that let you insert a video recorder and/or a video player right into your website or app. You can easily record videos from your audience or community and then either keep the videos private or curate them and make them public. We have some neat tools like being able to add Instagram-like filters, so your videos become cartoons, or you can brand the videos with your logo before launching. The videos are also searchable via images or words used.  

W2: What’s the best productivity hack you’ve found? 

I follow what I call the “Magic Number 30”.  Each day I make 30 points of contact with folks outside our company — maybe to customers, potential customers, partners, even old friends or folks in my network. I write each contact down in a notebook — numbered 1 to 30— and I don’t go to sleep without reaching that magic number. Sometimes I have to force myself to stay awake (26, 27, 28, 29, 30). Those contacts let me stay in touch with customers, keep up my contacts and force me to reach out to others (which has led to lots of new opportunities). 30 contacts a day really add up: it’s 150 each week (I only do this weekdays) and 600 a month. I’ve used this hack throughout my career, whether for job-hunting, client development or customer outreach.  

W2: What’s next for you and your company and where do you need support?  

We’re continuing to innovate on both the technology and product front to ensure that we remain the leaders of video APIs. On the personal front, I continue to support female founders and work to ensure that female founders are in the spotlight as much as possible. Re: needing support, we’re planning Video Hack Day for March 11th in NYC and would love help spreading the word. We want to get lots of female hackers out there. It's free to sign up! 

Susan Danziger is the founder/CEO of Ziggeo, a video API named "best API for video recording and playback" by API World 2016. She was named a Woman of Influence 2016 and won the 2016 SmartCEO Brava Award. She previously founded Video Hack Day, and DailyLit. Susan speaks four languages (English, German, French and Italian) and loves to travel the world. She is based in NYC.

Women 2.0 interviews Michelle Suwannukul, Director of Culture and Engagement at Instacart, about her strategies for reducing unconscious bias and building a diverse team.

"By diversity, we mean race, gender, sexual orientation and also diversity of thought. The more opinions and backgrounds we have coming to the table, the more we’re able to make better decisions." -- Michelle Suwannukul

W2: What are key strategies for avoiding unconscious bias in the hiring process?

There are three main things we do.

One is to insure that our career site is inclusive. We're doing a revamp now that will be going up soon. We're taking the original job site and making sure that there are photos of people from different backgrounds. We want to highlight what it’s really like here. We highlight an array of perks and benefits that don’t just speak to one type of person.

We did unconscious bias training during the company retreat this summer. The workshop was led by Paradigm. Many people had never really thought about unconscious bias before, so it was transformational for several team members.

During the hiring process, we make sure that the interview plans for each role are well thought out. We do an intake on what the role is and what competencies and skills are needed. We define a "culture add" interview, so hiring decisions are not just based on an opinion of whether you like the person. We have values that we assess for each candidate. We call it "culture add" rather than "culture fit" because we're looking at values, but we’re also not confined by these values. It's not just about fitting the candidate into who we are now, but about what kind of new perspectives that person can bring to the company that also work well with our current values.

W2: How do you make job postings more inclusive?

We went through this process when we looked over the careers site. We took a look to make sure there was no problematic language in the descriptions. For instance, ping pong tables and video games are viewed as a perk for some, but we needed to make sure the site also spoke to people who are not into video games. We also wanted to share information about our initiatives such as our diverse employee resource groups, our maternity and paternity leave and more. We made sure the language was appealing to all genders.

W2: How do you retain the best talent and what are you doing to create a more inclusive culture at Instacart?

We are doing a few things. One is that we’re a data driven company. We do engagement surveys. We’ve revamped the whole process. Twice a year, we do a long form engagement survey with about 60 questions. It’s a lot, but it helps us understand how we’re doing on multiple levels. We find out what people think of their manager, the team, and the culture. Do they think we’re diverse enough? Then, during the year we do shorter pulse polling surveys in Slack on areas where we weren’t doing as well. For instance, if the company was lukewarm on whether we were building diverse enough teams, then we would do a shorter survey to measure initiatives we were doing to push diversity. We can breakdown the engagement surveys by demographic groups, gender, and more to understand whether some groups are doing better than others. It provides good macro and micro level data for us.

We review pay as well to make sure we maintain equity in those practices. We went through a hyper growth period and we were concerned about avoiding unconscious bias. We made sure to provide benefits that were attractive to everyone. We offered more comprehensive maternity and paternity leave.

We've been keeping up with the growing employee base and are growing our employee resource groups. We have some very active ones. For instance, there's Women@ for women, Rainbow Carrots for the LBGTQ community, Baby Carrots for parents and more. There's a carrot in our logo, so many of the groups have carrot-themed names and logos. The Women@ group is sponsoring a negotiation workshop for the whole company, not just for women. We're also helping them with hosting a ChangeMaker chat--in which they bring ChangeMaker women in to give talks. Julie Hanna from Kiva is coming to speak with us and we're excited about that! We support the groups, but they also take on most of the initiatives themselves. 

W2: What's next for Instacart and how can the Women2.0 community offer support?

We have a culture goal for the company ever quarter, in addition to economic and business related goals. One of them recently involved rewriting the values. Now we're working on transparency. Information can be hard to find sometimes. We want to build a more inclusive company and communicate well between leadership and the team and within teams. We want to make sure we provide easy access to information for everyone.

We also want to continue to work on diversity across the company. By diversity, we mean race, gender, sexual orientation and also diversity of thought. The more opinions and backgrounds we have coming to the table, the more we’re able to make better decisions. We’re working towards that by encouraging our employee resource groups and getting our team out there in the community.

In terms of how the Women 2.0 community can help, we’re hiring for a lot of roles this year and would love to get applications from folks in the Women 2.0 community. We want more women and more diverse people in our company as we grow.

For the next four weeks, we will outline how to help you reach your goal and raise capital through a successful, reward-based crowdfunding campaign. First, follow these five critical steps to start securing funding for your venture.

By Carolyn M. Brown

Crowdfunding has had its share of success stories. Fundraisers have secured millions to develop everything from hotels and electric cars, to devices that track lost wallets to creative film projects. Along with offering a chance to bypass the loan process, crowdfunding presents an opportunity to interface directly with your customer base and offer advanced previews or other goods in exchange for a monetary donation.

There are rewards-based crowdfunding sites—like GoFundMe, RocketHub, and KickStarter—that enable you to give perks to donors, like t-shirts or first dibs on the up-and-coming product. There’s also equity crowdfunding portals, in which you not only offer perks, but give company shares in exchange for capital. The popular fundraising site IndieGoGo recently partnered with Micro Ventures, an online venture capital platform, to offer equity-based crowdfunding.

While crowdfunding can be a viable option for raising funds for your business or launching a new product, in order to achieve success with this process, you need to familiarize yourself with some facts about crowdfunding and learn some of the best practices utilized to operate this type of funding medium.

This 30-day challenge to help you launch a successful, reward-based crowdfunding campaign. Over the next four weeks, we will post content that will outline some steps you can to take to reach your goal and raise much needed capital for your venture.

Read the rest of the story on Black Enterprise here.

Black female computer scientist is recognized with high honors.

By Samara Lynn

Valerie E. Taylor, a computer science professor at Texas A&M, has been named a 2016 Fellow by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Taylor is one of 53 ACM members honored for their contributions to computer science. She is being lauded for her “leadership in broadening participation in computing.”

At Texas A&M, Taylor serves as senior associate dean for academic affairs and is a Royce E. Wisenbaker Professor. Her areas of computer science research include high-performance computing as well as performance analysis and modeling of parallel and distributed applications.

Read the rest of the story on Black Enterprise here.

Once a hub for progressive women, now the Facebook group has turned into mostly postings of daily good deeds—and some sisters don't like it.

By Samara Lynn

If you are a regular Facebook-er, you are probably aware of the Facebook group that was formed just before the presidential election—it’s called Pantsuit Nation.

Libby Chamberlain founded the group in October of this year. The New York Times reports from an interview with Chamberlain, “She had formed the Facebook group to create a space to celebrate the historic possibility of the first female president. The response, she said, reflected a need for positivity during a cynical, often dispiriting, campaign.”

In just over two months, the group has almost 4 million members. Even more impressive; it’s a secret, closed group—another member has to add you.

Read the rest of the story on Black Enterprise here.

Tarah Wheeler, Website Security Czar from Symantec opens up about the process of writing her book: Women in Tech.

W2: What inspired you to write this book?

I wrote it because no one had written it for me. I realized how much advice I needed that wasn’t available earlier in my career. Also, I had experience doing many interviews and short-term gigs in technology as a contractor in a way that not many other women had experienced. I had more data points.

I realized that women interviewing in the tech market needed to adopt a different persona and stance to get hired in tech jobs. What interests me is: Why did that happen? Why did I need to take an uncomfortably aggressive stance to get hired? I’m a social scientist, so I was fascinated by why women had to present themselves in this certain way to get hired in tech. I’m not saying it’s right, but it worked. It was effective.

I think that as we go forward, hiring managers are going to start respecting the differences in idea creation and ideation that women bring to technology. That has not yet happened enough in this field.

W2: What was one thing that surprised you during the process of researching and writing the book?

The biggest thing that surprised me about writing this book was how many women experience this deep emotional relief on finding out that they weren’t alone. I was writing this because I thought of it as an advice book from multiple perspectives. I didn’t realize how much women would emotionally connect in knowing that they’re not alone. No one is going to have everything completely in common with everyone else, but most people can find something to relate to in the stories from the book. It’s structured as a journey through a technology career--interspersed with quotes from different women along the way. Not all of us have kids or got a Computer Science degree. In fact, only two of the women featured in the book had CS degrees. There are so many different paths.

W2: What's a takeaway from the book that you would like to share with our community?

I definitely want women to understand that there are so many doors in and out of technology. You can step in and out of this field by doing marketing, art, programming, english, and math. Technology is not the bookcase; it’s the screwdriver. It’s not the be-all and end-all. It’s the method you use to get to your goals, whether you want to create beauty, poetry, math or journalism. Women should have just as much access to those tools as everyone else.

I also wanted to mention that Women 2.0 is blessed with a great co-founder in Angie Chang. [Angie is featured in the book.] She is an inspiration to me. All of the women featured in the book have very different backgrounds, but Angie Chang’s experience of coming from a Taiwanese immigrant family and of going to Berkeley--Her experiences here are just extraordinary to me.

The authors in this book need to be front and center. It’s not just about me. Each and every one of us has a different experience in tech. Your experience is no less valid if you don’t have a CS degree. Are there challenges? Absolutely. However, we want everyone to understand they are not alone.

This book is for everyone. It’s not just a story for women in tech, but a story of women in tech. I would love to see men read it as well. It can help the male hiring managers to understand why women aren’t making it through their hiring process. It can be for the employee who just got a diversity initiative dropped on their desk. This is how you learn.

It’s not just the straight, white, upper-class women in tech book. The book is about women of color, women from other countries, queer women, and transgender women. Women of every faith, belief, educational standard and family structure are featured. I’m deeply proud of it. You can find yourself in this book--Now go find yourself in technology.

"I recently spoke with young women at UC Berkeley who read "Women in Tech" the book in a class led by Aileen Iniquez. Many of the students felt reassured when I spoke about careers as non-linear. It's hard to plan a career in tech - you have to get an internship or first job at a company that may not be your 'dream company'. Maybe you have a goal of working for a consumer tech product like Fitbit. There are many opportunities in tech if you can open your mind to opportunities in enterprise companies, security companies, analytics companies, storage companies, hardware companies, etc. After a few years in the industry, you will be able to have a better perspective and network to find another opportunity. Perhaps a tech giant is your goal, or perhaps you will be ready to start a company! Providing students with the long view, as a mentor or guest speaker, is helpful in relieving the anxiety of a job search."  --Angie Chang, Co-Founder Women 2.0 and Contributor to Women in Tech.

W2: How can the Women 2.0 community support your work?

I don’t want you to support me, but do support each other. Now, go donate to Black Girls Code!

Editor's Note: For follow up reading, here are some other women authored tech books.

Women 2.0 interviews Stephanie Sarka, founder of 1 Atelier. #HolidayGiftIdea W2: What inspired you to start this company?

1 Atelier was born out of a need to create a bag that was emblematic of me. In a marketplace flush with logos and high markups, no one was truly exploring a platform that would not only allow for complete customization, but in essence, empower the consumer to become the tastemaker. 1 Atelier represents the intersection of aspiration and inspiration; these are not just custom handbags - they reflect the individuality of the women who create them. “Luxury inspired by my life.”

My prior experience also influenced me in starting the company. Having been an early part of Coach’s incredible growth, and then co-founder of GoTo.com (we invented the Paid Search model that today powers Google), it became clear that there was an opportunity to bring my two experiences together to create a completely different kind of consumer brand by leveraging technology to support a rapidly changing marketplace in a way that no one else could.  

W2: How are you using technology to revolutionize the handbag industry? We are using technology and data-driven intelligence to build a scalable, extensible and capital efficient business that is disrupting the luxury goods value chain at every step. From faster, more efficient product design and development to unique and targeted multi-point marketing and sales to our transformative online customization experience - we’ve just scratched the surface!  We are leveraging technology to completely redefine the luxury experience by rewriting the relationships people have with the brands and products they buy.   W2: What’s your morning routine? My 3-year old daughter and I wake up around 6 AM to play.  We then have our breakfast and both get dressed for the day.  I leave the house at around 8:15 to be at the office no later than 9 AM.  I generally work straight through lunch as I need to optimize my time as a working mother.    W2: Tell us about a typical day at your company. I love walking into our atelier each morning. It is a sun-drenched space in the Garment District where we run the business and manufacture our handbags. I have the incredible privilege of working with very special people who all bring very unique talents to our mission.  Everyday starts with a visit with Luis our head craftsman - usually over Cuban coffee. We chat briefly about all sorts of things including our families and then review what is on the production plan for the day to make sure he has a straight path with his team. After that, each day is different but a large portion of most days includes a quick touch base with the members of our team, refining and communicating our strategy and priorities, recruiting, and speaking to potential partners and investors.  I leave around 5 PM most night to spend time with my 3-year old daughter, and once she is asleep, I generally work again from around 8 pm until well past midnight.

W2: What’s next for you and your company and where do you need help or support? 2017 is all about scaling the business and building the brand. We have had a very successful beta where we demonstrated that we are definitely meeting an unmet need - we’ve had a very strong response to our product and the entire customization experience. We are forging ahead with retail partnerships, are tapping into relevant influencer networks and will be raising additional funds to drive growth.  Needless to say, introductions to relevant investors are always good and purchasing your own unique one-of-a-kind handbag on 1Atelier.com is good as well!

Stephanie Sarka is founder of 1 Atelier, a custom handbag platform that empowers the consumer to become the tastemaker. Initially following a traditional path to Goldman Sachs, she soon realized she was a builder, not a banker. After getting her MBA at Harvard, she worked for Lew Frankfort at Coach for seven years, where she earned her stripes as a “merchant” and an “operator” and held numerous leadership positions where she led the successful re-launch of Mark Cross, the American luxury goods brand. Stephanie was a co-founder of Overture (formerly GoTo), one of the first hugely successful Internet companies that invented the paid search business model, growing it to almost $1 billion in revenue in 4 years. Since then, she has been actively engaged in the burgeoning NYC startup community as an entrepreneur, investor and advisor.

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Nanda Krish, CEO of Wisewire shares must-read tips for getting girls involved with STEM.

In September 2016, Matt Frye took a photo at a Kansas City, Missouri, library highlighting the difference between Girls' Life magazine and Boys' Life magazine. The cover of the former had headlines about fashion, hair, and first kisses. The latter's cover featured the headline "Explore Your Future" with articles about how to become an astronaut, artist, chef, and more.

The difference was dramatic and shocking, so much so that the photo quickly went viral. Even in 2016, nearly a century after women gained the right to vote, in an era when women have occupied and continue to occupy some of the most prominent positions in the world in areas including politics, science, engineering, art, humanities, and more, popular culture continues to push beauty tips and hairstyles over ambition, self-confidence, and education.

As Frye’s photo underscored, such messages in pop culture are troubling in their potential influence on young women. Although women occupy prominent positions and pursue a wide variety of career paths, they still don’t occupy enough of these positions relative to male peers or pursue certain career paths in high enough numbers. The disparity for both careers and education is seen most acutely in STEM fields.  According to a 2015 survey, women represent only 12% of the workforce in STEM areas like civil engineering; the numbers are slightly better in other specialties (women comprise 39% of chemists, for example), but still not equal with their male counterparts. A 2015 survey of higher-education degrees demonstrated similar ratios across a variety of STEM majors.

What is the answer to closing the gender gap? How do we encourage women to apply their talents and intellect toward careers in science, technology, engineering, and math? Exposing girls to STEM between the ages of 8 and 11 is a great place to start. Exposure and immersion at this critical time can help establish a number of points:

●      That it is socially acceptable to enjoy STEM.

●      That it is normal for girls to excel in science and math classes as they approach middle school and high school.

●      That STEM is interesting and engaging and a discipline to be taken into consideration when planning for college and beyond.

It's easy to think “What's the big deal? No one's stopping girls from going into STEM.” While technically true, institutional sexism still abounds in STEM, dissuading girls from fully exploring their opportunities. Parents are encouraged to help children consider their career paths and academic specialties at pre-teen ages, with greater focus as they enter high school. With the way popular culture tends to focus on hair and makeup rather than education and science, it's easy for girls to have a blind spot to STEM, or even have negative (“that’s uncool”) associations with it . That means that a lot of future female scientists might be dropping out of the race before it even begins. Of course, not every girl will choose a career in STEM no matter the supports and encouragement in place, but knowing the option is there—and knowing how STEM truly is part of everything, particularly in the modern digital age—is something that we as a society owe them.

Studies have shown that workforce diversity is more than just a social ideal; it's good for business, too. The economic trickle-down impacts all areas of a business and its industry. Brand reputations benefit from diversity, and diversity also acts like a magnet for the hiring pool at large—more people want to work for a diverse company than one that is homogenous. Diversity opens up more marketing avenues, which then lead to increased exposure across new channels. Internally, diversity can lead to different perspectives and more creative solutions, which then push innovation forward. All of these elements can combine for a more successful company, which then opens the door to employing more people and offering more engagement.

From a global perspective, the idea of normalizing STEM for girls increases the potential for new, groundbreaking ideas to be posited and developed. The more great minds there are thinking about and working in STEM fields, the more likely it is that major advances in medicine, technology, and engineering will occur; women could play a key role in increasing the numbers of professionals in STEM overall and thus the speed and efficacy of such innovations. President Barack Obama recognized this in a 2013 speech on encouraging girls in STEM: “We’ve got half the population that is way underrepresented in (STEM) fields and that means that we’ve got a whole bunch of talent…not being encouraged the way they need to.” For every Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in our modern history, imagine what we have missed out on simply because opportunities for women have not been as plentiful. The implications for STEM innovation are literally world-changing and could affect economies, healthcare, and ways of life around the world.

How Can We Engage Girls In STEM?

The need to engage girls in STEM is clear, both socially and economically. So how can we accomplish this?

Exposure: Think back to the example of Girls’ Life magazine above. For girls reading this, the message is clear: hair, clothing, being pretty, and boyfriends are the things they should be focus on. But what if the Girls’ Life cover featured a young woman participating in a coding competition? What if it focused on scientific career paths or tips for acing that calculus exam? Shifts like this can make a huge difference in how girls perceive themselves, their interests, and their futures.

Normalization: For years, STEM materials have seemed at best nerdy and at worst otherworldly or incomprehensible. This created a negative stigma around STEM, despite the fact that it's part of our everyday life through modern day essentials and conveniences like Wi-Fi, smartphones, and wearables. From a curriculum perspective, normalization can defeat this stigma by weaving STEM lessons into other disciplines. For example, mathematics and music are deeply intertwined; physics provides the foundation for much of visual art. The challenge for teachers is to make these connections in clear, natural, and accessible ways.

Engagement: Much of learning takes place outside of the classroom. By forging partnerships with professional organizations and companies in the STEM field, schools and youth organizations can help girls develop an understanding of what STEM looks like in the real world. These partnerships can result in a range of academic and hands-on experiences:  job shadowing, interviews, tutoring, lab tours, mentorship programs, assistantship or research opportunities, and more. Dedicated programs, like after school coding workshops, science fairs and competitions, and engineering camps, can also help maintain girls’ interest in STEM beyond the walls of a school.

A New Normal

Engaging girls in STEM can benefit the entire planet. To truly maximize the cultural, social, and economic benefits of girls’ involvement in STEM, it must become the new normal. That starts with exposing a generation of girls to STEM from a young age so that no stigma of alienation or difficulty is ever established with STEM subjects. This is an organic and dynamic process, but educators can lead the charge by integrating STEM across the curriculum, creating both a sense of familiarity and a spirit of discovery. Then, when girls begin considering their future, countless new doors will be opened—and everyone will reap the rewards.

Women 2.0 interviews Sarika Batra from Lavish Life.

W2: What inspired you to start this company? 

I was always fascinated with how successful trailblazers were able to run multi-million dollar companies, travel on business, have a family and look great simultaneously. Each aspect of their life seemed perfectly managed. I have always struggled with maintaining high energy myself and being entrenched in my business left little time for health and wellness.

I interviewed several of these great minds to find out what makes them who they are and the one thing that stood out was their unwavering positive mindset and relentless energy for life. I felt like people really needed to hear the secret sauce behind this mindset for success and the physical energy needed to make ideas turn to reality. What I realized is that most successful people had a morning and wellness routine which was unbreakable and uncompromising.

I feel like most of us go through life putting ourselves, our wellness and mindset second and are living life tired and exhausted, and always wanting more energy and the desire to feel better.  I immediately fell in love with the wellness industry and knew this would be my next venture. 

I have always loved beauty products and I truly believe that if you look great you will start feeling great and everything falls into place after that. On this mission to provide only safe and effective natural beauty products along with expert knowledge, I spoke with so many amazing founders who put passion and love into each and every ingredient. Just as we watch what we eat, watching what we put on our bodies is equally important.

Lavish Life has curated 20 brands for our launch that are safe, effective and luxurious. These products are designed to pamper all of your senses and make you feel radiant and healthy. We couple these products with daily expert tips for the mind body and soul. We believe that inner and outer beauty are equally important. I can’t get away from my media bug, so we have set up a platform which uses video marketing to educate people on why these powerful ingredients from nature are so effective. Beauty is my starting point. I plan to expand into other wellness sectors as we progress and become the trusted destination for luxurious, wellness related products from around the world. I am proud of our curated brands. Each and every founder has such an incredible story and the products are amazing. 

W2: How did you go about building your team? 

When building a team it’s important to find people with complementary skill sets and amazing attitudes. I would take a positive attitude with the desire to learn over someone more experienced with a bad attitude any day. One thing I have learned along my journey of entrepreneurship is that the vibe and energy in the office during the early days is extremely important. Quickly get rid of negativity and find those special gems that have the skills you need, the right attitude and the energy to do whatever it takes to make it work. I personally love working with amazing, smart women and have built my team with female professionals in synergistic sectors that have the mindset for success. Not that I am opposed to hiring men-- I will as the company grows. 

W2: What's a typical day like at your company?

These days it’s crazy! We all meet in the morning and start the day analyzing our business and what changes we can make to create a better user experience and increase revenues. From there we move on into our individual tasks for the day. By the afternoon we take vendor meetings, discuss marketing and PR strategies and regroup our thoughts for the day. By late afternoon we are shipping packages and continuing our tasks for the day. I encourage the team to take moments for eating healthy, yoga, face masks and early morning workouts. Startups can be stressful as we find ourselves waking up at 4:30am to get on a call with the web team in India almost every day of the week. On weekends we are shooting videos and writing scripts so taking those moments for yourself is very important. 

W2: What's one thing that surprised you during the process of starting the company?

People. People surprise me. The hardest part to any entrepreneurial journey is raising funds. It’s an ongoing process and you deal with all sorts of personality types when dealing with investors for your company. My advice is to learn to adapt to different personality types, never sell yourself short and be ready to walk away from a bad deal. Never make deals out of desperation and know your value as an entrepreneur. Listen with your gut and know when it’s just not right. If your intuition is telling you not to take it. Do not take it. Something better will come along. Just keep moving forward. 

W2: What are you reading or listening to right now?

A few things: 

In the morning I read a passage from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali for daily inspiration. 

In the evenings I am reading The Good Gut by Justin and Erica Sonnenburg. The gut seems to be a hot topic these days!

W2: What's your advice for budding women entrepreneurs?  

If you have that burning desire to create real change in the world, then go for it. It won’t be easy. At times you will wonder if you made a mistake taking this path. Always look for the little miracles and follow your gut and keep moving. Living a life with struggles and successes is so much more rewarding than floating through an easy life, leaving your dreams behind. Take a stab at life-- It’s worth it! We are meant to live, struggle, cry, feel bliss, know what it’s like to build something with our own hands in this long journey called life. 

W2: What’s next for you and your company and where do you need help or support?

We just launched a week ago, so we are focused on finding a formula that works! We plan to expand to other wellness related products such as wellness retreats, teas, candles, juices, organic fashion and more. As all entrepreneurs, we need support in developing great partnerships (such as Women 2.0) and in finding amazing team members. Soon we will be ready for our series A. We are excited about that!

Sarika Batra is the Founder and CEO of Lavish Life-- a company slated to change the wellness industry by educating the masses through creative video marketing and curated safe, effective products. Founder, producer, and host of Andaaz TV, Sarika has interviewed many of today’s greatest minds. Showcasing the experiences of these visionary people revealed to her the unique stories of each individual and how the world can benefit from listening to thought provoking inspirational content.  Now entering its sixth season, Andaaz TV is the first US based South Asian show on Sony Entertainment Television,  and airs in over 150 countries. She is one of the few TV hosts that produces and creates her own show. Sarika is a story teller by nature and believes good content can lift the human spirit and create real change. She is on a mission to educate millions of people on inner and outer beauty with Lavish Life. @AndaazTV @WeAreLavishLife

Jill Krasny from Credit.com shares sound financial and business advice from interviews with women in tech.

Tech jobs are growing rapidly in the United States, but women still risk being left behind. According to Girls Who Code, a national nonprofit dedicated to closing the field’s gender gap, this problem may actually be worsening with time.

For women who work in computing in particular, Girls Who Code proves that the rift between men and women’s success has only deepened since the 1980s — from women comprising 37% of all computer science graduates in 1984 to only 18% in 2016.

So how can women business owners handle the problem? By choosing to arm themselves with the right information and advice from fellow females in the field. Here, a couple of successful businesswomen offer advice for succeeding in the tech sector as first-time entrepreneurs.

1. Ask for More Capital

“Tech, more than any other startup area, requires intense capital investment,” said Amy Baxter, the Atlanta medical doctor behind Buzzy, a bee-shaped pain blocker. “Women tend to be more debt averse,” she said, “which compounds the problem of scarce funding for women. When a female CEO is trying to be lean and frugal, the perceived timidity may be less attractive to investors than a speculative ask for 10 times the funding. It's easier to get more than less.”

Of course, asking for funding isn’t always so simple, especially when you’re just starting out. To that end, the experts we spoke with recommended staying frugal and building your credit. If you’re new to the world of credit or have a thin file, a secured credit card, which requires a deposit, may be a good place to start, as these credit card issuers generally report activity to the three major bureaus. (Just remember, it’s wise to keep your debt levels low and make payments on time.) Alternatively, if your credit is in good shape, business credit cards may offer a way to keep your business afloat before you land funding.

2. Build Strategic Relationships

“Startup culture is very risky, you’re always out of money, and you have to go really fast,” said Hannah Chung, the Providence, Rhode Island-based founder of Jerry the Bear, an interactive plush toy for children with Type 1 diabetes. It’s important to build strong relationships. Baxter recommended “picking three to four ideal co-development partners,” who can teach you the market and offer pointers for honing your product.

3. Change the Conversation

“I think as a young entrepreneur, you can be perceived as not having enough experience,” said Chung, who launched her first company, Design for America, when she was only 19. “You kind of have to prove yourself, to speak in a way so that age is not a barrier for you.”

Chung also said minority women like herself will come across challenges when addressing diversity. The question is, “How can you drive a conversation that may seem uncomfortable?” she said. This thinking applies when deciding how to market, design your product, conduct your research and so on. Chung said to ask yourself, “Are we being diverse? If not, how can we change that?”

4. Find Mentors, Nurture Relationships

“Nurture your relationships with your mentors. Find people in your specific area who have been there and done it enough to be able to recognize patterns, and stick with them,” advised Baxter of Buzzy. Just make an effort not to ask for advice more often than you provide updates — no one wants to look needy, she said.

5. Tailor Your Pitch  

“You need to understand your audience really well,” Chung advised. “In our case, we might be talking to medical experts, or we might be talking to parents. I don’t think there’s one pitch for all, you really need to tailor your pitch to those people.”

When delivering your pitch, Chung said it helps to have a “bucket of information” that you can draw from as needed. Think of this bucket as a library of sentences and stories, she said. “This will give some variety to your pitch,” she said, and make you sound like less of a robot.

Rallying support for women-led tech start ups is crucial to the current and future success of the industry. To confront the myriad complexities of climate change and the global challenges and opportunities facing us all today, more women in the workplace is essential. Take the advice we’ve offered and use it to build and amplify your own success.

Innovate UK spotlights Joyeeta Das from Gyana through their inspiring women in innovation series. 

Every so often an inspiring woman lights up the tech industry and the rest of us can do little more than pay attention and take note. It’s women like this who are shaping the business and wider world around us. This is why we wanted to shine a spotlight on Joyeeta Das, an inspiring innovator and CEO of Gyana.

Joyeeta’s Story

From training as an engineer in India, Joyeeta saw the difficulties of being a woman in the industry from an early age. She noticed that a woman’s involvement in class discussions were always viewed as slightly irregular. This didn’t dissuade her from following through on her aspirations and she later landed a job at Cisco. She went on to found Anahata Life before completing an MBA at the University of Oxford. It was whilst studying at Oxford that she came up with the concept of Gyana which would later see her selected for two Innovate UK entrepreneur missions to the US.

What is Gyana?

Gyana concerns itself with information search, but not as you may expect. The company attempts to bring AI and big data to consumers in a way that’s both affordable and accessible. The technology brings together information from social media, traffic/news updates, and weather to present a unique perspective about any given area. This will show what’s trending, what people are concerned about and even tell us the emotional ‘vibe’ of a place.

With this type of platform, the more data that’s put into it, the more understanding we’ll achieve. Ultimately, this will benefit consumers, the government and individual businesses in truly understanding specific areas and demographics.

Innovation, Technology, Big Data and a Bucket Load of Inspiration

What is it about Joyeeta that we find to be so inspiring? The truth is, her enthusiasm for her work is infectious. She’s always held resolute and determined to see her company succeed even when its future was less than certain. Her team share this quality too.

There have been times when the entire Gyana team were forced to work without pay after an investor dropped out. Joyeeta knew the implications of this and sought new investment with fierce tenacity. In January 2015 she secured that funding, by November 2015 she had secured an extra £1.5 million. By the following January, her team expanded to 15 and by July 2016 the product was launched.

What Advice Can Joyeeta Offer Us?

Joyeeta has some seriously strong advice for any entrepreneur or innovator who finds themselves struggling:

“You won’t be the best thing since sliced bread, ever. There’s obviously someone better than you, was better, will be better. That’s not the point, you don’t have to be the best. You just have to get through today, breathe. Tomorrow morning you won’t be feeling this way and you can get back to normal.”

As one of Innovate UK’s women in innovation ambassadors, Joyeeta Das regularly offers to help, mentor and support aspiring female entrepreneurs.

Story submitted by Charles Morley and Innovate UK. Innovate UK works with people, companies and partner organizations to find and drive the science and technology innovations that will grow the UK economy. It has helped more than 7,600 organisations with projects estimated to add more than £11.5 billion to the UK economy and create 55,000 extra new jobs.

If you’re interested in seeing more videos from the women in innovation series, subscribe to Innovate UK’s YouTube channel here.