The Woman's Playbook

Brave New Models: High-tech women are reinventing markets, business and startup prototypes

As more women earn top-drawer degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, they’re moving full STEM ahead to leverage that knowledge with startups that break old molds and rethink business. Meet two entrepreneurs with serious tech chops — one in user experience and visual design and the other in chemical engineering. Smartly focused on niche markets, these passionate founders are outmaneuvering big industry guns by using technological tweaks to transform familiar household products: Tina Israni [http://tinaisrani.tumblr.com/]is cofounder of Zoraab [http://www.zoraab.com/], a retail subscription service of men’s accessories and apparel, “founded,” she says, “to disrupt the ecommerce space.” She also is cofounder of Mint Socks, street-art-inspired socks for guys. A user experience designer and writer, Tina does UX/UI consulting and is currently UX designer in residence at General Assembly. [https://generalassemb.ly/] Supriya Hobbs [https://twitter.com/SupriyaHobbs] is cofounder of startup Miss Possible, [https://www.facebook.com/MissPossibleInc] which will manufacture dolls that represent real women in science, along with apps for girls, age 6-10, to play with on-screen. A recent chemical engineering grad, Supriya and cofounder Jenna Eaves just launched a crowdfunding campaign [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/miss-possible-dolls-to-inspire-girls-across-generations]to fund their Marie Curie prototype and science kit.

TechSpeak: How to make sure your hired IT wizards build the site, software and apps you want

Technology may now dominate every facet of business, but most women-led enterprises aren’t founded on tech products. Typically, women still don’t code. That lack of high-level tech often puts women entrepreneurs at the mercy of hired developers. So how do you know what the tech gurus are working on? How do you define the deliverables you expect? And how do you monitor and keep IT pros on track? To provide answers, workshop leader and technology expert Nelly Yusupova developed TechSpeak, [http://www.techspeakforentrepreneurs.com/] a smart bootcamp that teaches non-tech entrepreneurs how to communicate with tech teams. Nelly offers clear, practical ways to effectively oversee and engage a development team, including cautionary red flags to notice and how to catch mistakes early enough to minimize damage. Key to TechSpeak lessons for moving your business forward, says Nelly, is overcoming the fears of failing. “Failure is the biggest opportunity to learn,” she says. Learn to talk TechSpeak with the best of them, with guest: Nelly Yusupova is CTO of  Webgrrls International,  [https://twitter.com/NYCWebgrrlhttp://]chapter leader of NYCWebgrrls, @NYCWebgrrls [https://twitter.com/NYCWebgrrlhttp://], and founder of Digital Woman [http://www.digitalwoman.com/].  Named to Fast Company’s “League of Extraordinary Women,” and the Wall Street Journal’s “Women on the IT Fast Track,” Nelly also is a Web technology consultant, national speaker and creator of TechSpeak for Entrepreneurs and Build Your Social Media Footprint bootcamps

Betting on Vets: A unique public-private program is training ex-military women to start businesses that restart their lives

The country’s nearly 2 million women veterans suffer the same challenges male vets do — isolation, unemployment, work-family pressures, homelessness, adjusting to civilian life, psychological and physical disabilities. And, of course, women vets transition with the burdens of all workingwomen: lower pay for equal work, gender discrimination, lesser opportunities and promotions. Yet most of the resources go to the men. To reinvent the wheel, in 2011, the US Small Business Administration (SBA) [http://www.sba.gov/offices/headquarter/vbd]partnered with Syracuse University to launch a smart, focused, nationwide entrepreneurship program for women vets. Called Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE), [http://whitman.syr.edu/vwise/]  the three-phase program has to date trained over 1,300 female service vets and military spouses – and counting. Its impact has been remarkable in encouraging women vets to steward their fate and realize their dreams. In honor of the Fourth, learn how V-WISE, @VWISEconference, [https://twitter.com/VWISEconference]is reshaping options for women vets, with guests: Noelle Cherubim [https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=105585893&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=suPG&locale=en_US&trk=tyah2&trkInfo=tarId%3A1403976769251%2Ctas%3Anoelle%20cherubim%2Cidx%3A1-1-1]enlisted in the US Army in 2004,motivated by 9/11. She became a nuclear biological chemical operations specialist and, in 2005, was selected for recruiter training, earning numerous awards, especially for recruiting Arabic speakers. After her service and completing the V-WISE program, Noelle, @CherubimArt, [https://twitter.com/CherubimArt] founded Les Artistes De Cherubim (LADC), [http://artistescherubim.org/site/] which uses art to improve cross-cultural communications. Me’Shae Brooks-Rolling, CSEP, CEPF, directs  conferences and special events for IVMF [http://vets.syr.edu/] and V-WISE. [http://whitman.syr.edu/vwise/] She has dual expertise in special events and conference management as well as financial literacy education. As a senior special events coordinator at City Hall in New York during the Giuliani administration, she discovered her passion for financial literacy, and later wrote  “How to Save Money & Organize Your Finances.” [http://www.rollingenterprises.com/]

Launch Labs: New biz boot camps are accelerating opportunities for women-led companies

Across the country, a new breed of incubators and accelerators has sprung up to support women who are starting or growing a business. These female-friendly biz labs, both commercial and academic, embrace next-generation role models, P2P collaboration, access to funders, digital tools and, most of all, strategic blueprints that bolster women’s innovation. The June 26 show spotlights how the new labs take participants from idea to market and put the pedal to the mettle for women entrepreneurs. We’ll hear from two women with hands-on experience at a high-profile women’s accelerator: Susan G. Duffy [http://www.babson.edu/academics/centers/cwel/about/team/pages/duffy-susan.aspx] directs the Babson College Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership [http://www.babson.edu/Academics/centers/cwel/Pages/home.aspx], a learning lab for women. Expert in teaching entrepreneurship, management and organizational behavior, Susan, @SusanGDuffy [https://twitter.com/susangduffy], has also been an assistant professor at Simmons College and Executive Director of the International Council for Small Business at George Washington University. Before entering academia, she was co-owner of a commercial construction company and owned and operated a Chinese restaurant franchise. Brittany Lo [https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=99321955&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=V_lQ&locale=en_US&srchid=783521403038669842&srchindex=1&srchtotal=6&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A783521403038669842%2CVSRPtargetId%3A99321955%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary], a freelance makeup artist, is a recent graduate of the Women Innovating Now (WIN) [http://www.babson.edu/Academics/centers/cwel/educational-programs/Pages/win-lab.aspx] accelerator lab at Babson. She is launching Beautini, a makeup bar that uses all-natural cosmetics for high-quality and convenient makeovers. Brittany is seeking funding to open doors in NYC and a pop-up shop in a NY fitness center.

Alpha Girls: Women in tech are leading the pack and reshaping feminine role models

Stories of women being harassed, hit on, passed over and put down continue to roil through the industry — even as more women work on technology’s cutting edges. It’s clear that men are hardly throwing down the welcome mat. In fact, women in technology are leaving the industry at a staggering 56% rate, and usually just as they hit mid-level careers — that is, when their talent is most valuable in an industry desperate to hire more experts. At the same time, women themselves are wrestling with how to deal, how to get ahead and, overwhelmingly, how to integrate life and family into the 24/7 maelstrom. On June 19, we lift the lid off the simmering controversies to look at women who code, with guests: Sabrina Majeed, @Sabrina [https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=sabrina%20majeed], is a product designer at BuzzFeed, an online social news and entertainment company. She recently joined eight women colleagues to post About Feminism [http://womansplaybook.com/upcoming-show/aboutfeminism.me], a call to action for the industry to rethink its attitudes and behavior. Ashley J. Swartz, @RedFuryNYC [https://twitter.com/RedFuryNYC], is the founder of Furious-Minds [http://www.furious-minds.com/], an advertising technology collective that focuses on the changing business models and ad technologies of TV and online video. Her company helps startups deliver revenue and accelerate to market in the landscapes of TV 2.0, online video and television and digital automation.