Women

After wrapping up work for a national professional women’s organization where I spoke to hundreds of women in all industries, in all levels of their profession, in all areas around the country on a daily basis; attended numerous amazing conferences and special events with panels of female tech founders, entertainment professionals and executives at all levels of their business over the past six months; and read about women who have achieved major success in their fields, I have discovered the following observations to be true about women in business:

As more and more tech startups launch vying for the attention of both consumers and investors, founders are figuring out which niche to serve and which industry to disrupt. Launching in 2012, Moreboats.com has been successful in reinventing the market of a mature boating industry.

This year marked the 10th anniversary of the annual Clinton Global Initiative founded by former president, Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. The event, held in New York City, gathered in a plethora of world leaders, corporate executives and philanthropists. This year’s theme is “Re-imagining Impact,” which Hillary Clinton suggests, “requires leaders who will re-imagine and who will be unafraid to do so and ask themselves, beginning with themselves, hard questions. “

The internet connects us to billions of products online. Online merchandise range from being silly to creative design to daily items. Fair trade is becoming more common, but many of the sites that offer those goods follow a for-profit business model and only a handful follow the non-profit road. Shopping for a Change (SFAC) is one of the few non-profit, fair trade businesses to change and help improve the lives of many in underdeveloped communities.

Meet Nanxi Liu, CEO and a cofounder of Enplug. We discuss the serendipitous circumstances that brought the founding team together (one of the most unique founder stories I’ve heard to date) and move to topics surrounding the future of digital advertising.

How it works: Every time someone connects to your Karma hotspot, both you and the connecting individual get a free 100mb of data to use. You can add additional data online through your account and Wi-Fi connections are always open to encourage sharing.

Men have dominated the world of investment. There were only 22% women who invested in 2012. Natalia Oberti Noguera is on a mission to help change the demographic of investment with her Pipeline Fellowship. Pipeline Fellowship teaches women to become angel investors and become a more powerful and helpful voice in the investment world.

It can be a confusing world to seek funding when you’re just starting out and Silicon Beach Fest (#SBF) was a great place to learn what investors are looking for, meet investors of all levels in a collaborative environment, network with like-minded entrepreneurs, and develop relationships to further your dream and business.

Article after article points out that Los Angeles is on its way to becoming one of the most robust startup communities in the United States. We have seen this growth first hand, and are always impressed by the community’s appetite for learning new age technical skills. A class we produce here at General Assembly called “Intro to the LA Startup Community”, has turned into a series, each time presented by a different prominent person in the startup ecosystem providing a unique perspective on the tech scene in LA.

Katie Rock, the founder of Activyst lives up to her name. She really does rock, and hard. Katie’s journey from corporate lawyer at a top firm to a social good entrepreneur has been a zigzag of twists and turns, luck and tenacity. What began as a pit stop vacation in a third world county, led to an epiphany, which turned into a passionate pursuit, and eventually a new social enterprise company that fundraises to bring sports to girls worldwide through the sale of athletic bags.