My job when I go to any conference is to hunt down companies that have either one female founder or are female-focused. I don’t just look for what these companies are creating; I look for who the founders are. It’s always interesting for me to meet female entrepreneurs who have adapted to the unbalanced markers of Silicon Valley. Yes, there are those that feel the need to become what Silicon Valley wants. That’s overworked, unbalanced, unhappy but covertly RICH woman. And by rich, I mean FILTHY RICH – quietly and kind of secretly. Yes, that’s kind of the scene here. Others don’t subscribe to that philosophy, they want social consciousness around anything they create. It is possible to create socially conscious profitable companies. And No. Capitalism is not bad. Making money is good if you’re not swindling people while you’re doing it.
Ok, so back to the Launch Festival. Now that you know what I was looking for, you’ll be happy to know, I found it.
Meet….
1. The Women’s Start Up Lab
Founder and CEO Ari Horie built Women’s Start-Up lab to give women tools to not only create companies but also be successful at those companies once they were built. The lab offers everything from how to build a pitch to media training. I really love the collaborative, helpful approach. It’s good to see these women have no problem with mentoring and guiding women to success. Their ideology seems to be, we can all do this together.
2. Abbey Post
Abbey Post is addressing a major problem in online shopping. Not all women are the same size and there are a lot of women who are left out of the online shopping experience. Plus size women can now have ‘made to measure’ dresses, and don’t get discouraged you skinny model types, you can have your dresses made to measure as well. I just happened to be sitting next to the founder of Abbey Post at the Launch Festival. I had met her team earlier in the pit and loved the approach to target a whole audience of women who were being underserved. (Welcome to being a woman.)
3. Naia Health, Inc.
Husband and wife team Janica and Jeff Alvarez built an incredible product for moms with new babies. The product is a smaller, high performance breast pump that is not only quieter but more comfortable. Janica also told me there is a big data play here as the machine is able to record the quality of the breast milk and how much is being pumped. This is an exciting first step to learning more about how a woman’s body works after pregnancy to promote health for her and the baby. Not only does Janica have patents around this new technology she is fundraising to bring the product to market. I have no doubts that we’ll be seeing this incredible new product anywhere you can buy breast pumps. Check it out at Naia Health.
Photo courtesy of plantronicsgermany
I was happy to meet some great women doing some great things. The thing that I must complain about, because it doesn’t seem to change quick enough, is the lack of women on the main stage. It’s obvious from this list (and this is only a few I really liked) that women are doing some great things, so what’s the problem guys?