tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8660417560447834002024-03-06T22:34:23.162-05:00wStartUpAngela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.comBlogger48125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-44471461756154044292012-05-28T09:52:00.001-04:002012-10-09T18:24:05.675-04:00How Start-ups Help Employers Find the Best Job Candidates<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9Zb59q41BCPXUNX5EV4h-SL_d5I4L_D1Y-s3lm1ZDOxZW_4FHeJ139de2ArhzrXn7YE15-zsuSNHvhaGFL-6QmvdLGYpFk5DdyaY0HLqj2R4uAHI_kAZmhhVRkj2j0po-7Tmgb8Or6SZ/s1600/HarQen+CEO+Kelly+Fitzsimmons.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz9Zb59q41BCPXUNX5EV4h-SL_d5I4L_D1Y-s3lm1ZDOxZW_4FHeJ139de2ArhzrXn7YE15-zsuSNHvhaGFL-6QmvdLGYpFk5DdyaY0HLqj2R4uAHI_kAZmhhVRkj2j0po-7Tmgb8Or6SZ/s200/HarQen+CEO+Kelly+Fitzsimmons.jpg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Harqen Ceo Kelly Fitzsimmons</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> </span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> With signs
that the economy is warming up, a bevy of new start ups stand ready to help
companies and employees make the right match. While admitting that during the
recession, “the hiring space was hellacious,” Kelly Fitzsimmons, CEO of Milwaukee-based <a href="http://www.harqen.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">HarQen</b></a>, made good use of the time to improving existing systems and
to work on new products. Founded in
2007, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">HarQen</b> considers itself “a
pioneer in the virtual interview space,” with its application called Voice Advantage
that allows recruiters to use their phones and a simple web-based dashboard to
create and distribute customized, prerecorded phone interview questions. On
their part, job candidates take the
interview at their own convenience by clicking on a link through email or on the
web; they type in a phone number and answer a callback a second later to begin.
Once the interview is completed, recruiters can review the exchange and forward
it to others who play a role in hiring. Hiring managers, says Kelly, like the
product because it is “a real timesaver, eliminating scheduling hassles”. And so do job seekers. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">HarQen</b> reports that 90% of candidates complete the interview within
the first 24 hours and 40% of them take the interviews evenings or weekends. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> This month <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">HarQen</b> takes its technology a step further with the introduction of
its second major product called Symposia which allows people to record meetings, including typical meeting actions, such as agendas,
note taking, and presentations with videos; the content becomes organized while the meeting is underway. Once the meeting ends, meeting participants can
revisit the session, or two minutes of it, catching up on all the nuances of
voice, content, and images for further review or for sharing with colleagues.
CEO Kelly Fitzsimmons says Symposia allows meetings to be “searchable,
analyzable and shareable in all languages at any time because while we seem to meet
a lot, we can’t be in two places at the same time; Symposia is kind of like a
DVR for meetings.” With a “massive portfolio of patents and trade secrets,” <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">HarQen</b> has so far raised close to $8
million from investors; with the help of its new products, it expects predict
revenues will more than double for 2012. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhATn8997yd-b10v3uyEncLksGq4rM39Gs8kZE3Lt8DUFyuZzhGzWHLIjPI8iZfFGjZI-0mtzQUWLwGnTHN3GFCGnQGS43RltxbvT8ZwNOjmPwzMrZpQrsIDmPgsq3T0w2ToZyfOvBB9NdP/s1600/CEO+Danielle+Weinblatt+of+Take+the+Interview.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhATn8997yd-b10v3uyEncLksGq4rM39Gs8kZE3Lt8DUFyuZzhGzWHLIjPI8iZfFGjZI-0mtzQUWLwGnTHN3GFCGnQGS43RltxbvT8ZwNOjmPwzMrZpQrsIDmPgsq3T0w2ToZyfOvBB9NdP/s1600/CEO+Danielle+Weinblatt+of+Take+the+Interview.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CEO-Founder Danielle Weinblatt</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Another company, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Take the Interview</b>, launched last September, allows employers to
screen candidates with asynchronous (not live) video interviews based on
questions they design or choose out of a data base of some 6000 questions.
CEO-Founder Danielle Weinblatt, who dropped out of a Harvard MBA program to
devote time to running the company, says most interviewers “know in the first
few minutes of face to face meeting a candidate whether they want to proceed,
but usually they allow the interview to continue for up to an hour, resulting
in an inefficient process—often with no results.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> <a href="http://www.taketheinterview.com/">Takethe Interview </a>targets companies between 500-5000 employees, to fill
positions, such as salespersons, analysts, customer service personnel or
administrative assistants. Working on a monthly subscription basis, the company
started out by offering its services to
technology companies because “these were the fastest growing companies
once the economy picked up, plus they were open to adapting technology to their
hiring process.” To date, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Take the
Interview</b> has conducted some 9000 interviews and works with over 130
clients, including Compushare, Union Square Ventures, and Boston
University. Though it just began
charging for the service in November, the company expects to generate “substantial
revenues” in 2012, its first full year of operations. With human resource
estimated to be a $14 billion market migrating increasingly to software as
service applications, Danielle says this is “a nascent industry in which we
have just begun to scratch the surface, but by continuing to offer improved
services, my goal is to become one of the top ten players in my industry.”</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCoSCfmNtPR2bXx_Rs4yjp_fB63wy15KVECsW7qYPhpXdFBcNOMXbJpPpLPukbaSB54Go0zRP9ZbhqA1c8gWdLb0-aAbrUuDK3aw32v95p4bGdr7UhuASSjNZepc45h6q5k1DXUM28JCDN/s1600/CEO+Elli+Sharef+of+Hire+Art.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCoSCfmNtPR2bXx_Rs4yjp_fB63wy15KVECsW7qYPhpXdFBcNOMXbJpPpLPukbaSB54Go0zRP9ZbhqA1c8gWdLb0-aAbrUuDK3aw32v95p4bGdr7UhuASSjNZepc45h6q5k1DXUM28JCDN/s200/CEO+Elli+Sharef+of+Hire+Art.png" width="153" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elli Sharif of Hire Art</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> Earlier this year, Elli Sharif co founded <a href="http://www.hireart.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hire Art</b></a>, a company which both sources
and screens candidates by offering recruiters not only video interviews but
also work samples— “our secret sauce”, similar to what candidates may encounter
on the job. Candidates record their
responses to a task, such as analyzing a spread sheet, crafting a part of a
marketing plan, or giving a sales pitch, with video, text, or attachments.
Targeting candidates from 0-5 years out of college, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hire
Art, </b>says Elli, helps solve the problem of employers or employment
services inundated with hundred of
resumes online without any prior screening.
Elli says “we can extract rich data from these work samples and with our
smart matching algorithm then connect promising candidates with employers.” The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hire
Art</b> business model is the same as for an employment agency; it charges charge
an incentive fee when it sources candidates or a monthly subscription fee for employers
who want to use its recruiting software.</span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOU5Z_HqCRGOtk8tNsGqI309KbhJjOofWof5Rzav6GHNpQjXogkrw7ppjoA-xqeQVZBT3RH-847YJkAT3Uo0RLuArOn2mTmcU4zsyfZnLySDNfo9EACdc379bqU2VWDdykom9EWjszAag0/s1600/CEO+Shara+Senderoff+of+Intern+Sushi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOU5Z_HqCRGOtk8tNsGqI309KbhJjOofWof5Rzav6GHNpQjXogkrw7ppjoA-xqeQVZBT3RH-847YJkAT3Uo0RLuArOn2mTmcU4zsyfZnLySDNfo9EACdc379bqU2VWDdykom9EWjszAag0/s320/CEO+Shara+Senderoff+of+Intern+Sushi.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Founder Shara Senderoff of Intern Sushi</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"> And
then there is also help for the often neglected interns—both paid and unpaid. Shara
Senderoff says the idea for a company emerged after she spent “a very
unsatisfactory internship for a production company where I was handed a bottle
of 409 to wash walls.” So in late 2011, she founded <a href="http://www.internsushi.com/"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Intern Sushi</b> </a>(the word sushi is a symbol for a very carefully
presented, quality product) as a platform to help interns land internships and
companies hire them. Based on Shara’s belief that” the key to unlocking career
potential is the ability to communicate your own story,” the site helps interns
prepare and record one minute video resumes and digital profiles, including
tips on how <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">not </i>to present
yourself. Interns find and apply directly
through the site by filling out a “Why Me?” statement, including a video, if
desired. Employers, who have listed from one to over 100 positions on the site,
then contact the candidates to arrange follow up or to make offers. One feature
of the site is tips from experts in the targeted industries, fashion,
entertainment, sports and advertising, to explain what their companies look
for. </span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"> To date, Intern Sushi has posted over 4000
positions and placed over 400 interns. Prospective
interns can use the site for free; with an
upgrade to a premium membership for $8.99 a month, they gain access to
enhanced features, including a 48-hour head start on applying to new listings as
well as the option to make unlimited applications and video uploads,
including company specific videos. Eventually, Shara feels her young interns
which represent the very desirable 18-24 year old demographic will eventually
add to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Intern Sushi</b> revenues through
sponsored advertisements as well as other revenue streams.</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: 10.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt;"> http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/05/23/how-start-ups-help-employers-find-the-best-job-candidates/</span></div>
<div class="Default" style="margin-bottom: 10pt;">
<br /></div>
Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-27407076493231890652012-05-16T19:39:00.000-04:002012-05-28T09:53:50.078-04:00Farming For Agritourism Dollars<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">Farming for
Agritourism Dollars</span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqk5PWQKUxAIBPpuBYUy8Y22ozwn4fWGUy3c62PE7loj6IMQTdXXZ3-LgM_A8x1Yz9Dg8vH847MrWgAz8ocLyOtpy_NTeYseU0-vbn4YTdkFRo6C3vxopKPeO32PMnSl4EMSrl-mD6DBkh/s1600/Jane+Eckert+in+the+orchard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqk5PWQKUxAIBPpuBYUy8Y22ozwn4fWGUy3c62PE7loj6IMQTdXXZ3-LgM_A8x1Yz9Dg8vH847MrWgAz8ocLyOtpy_NTeYseU0-vbn4YTdkFRo6C3vxopKPeO32PMnSl4EMSrl-mD6DBkh/s320/Jane+Eckert+in+the+orchard.jpg" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jane Eckert in the orchard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> A 6<sup>th</sup> generation farmer, Jane
Eckert grew up with a first hand view of the rigors of farm life “where one
night of bad weather can wipe out a year of hard work.” So after picking up a
business degree, she left home to work at Atlantic Richfield in L.A. After several years
in executive marketing positions, Jane decided to help the family fruit farms
in Belleville, Illinois develop agritourism business because “it is very hard
to make living selling wholesale crops.” The farm now features Eckert’s Country Store, which
offers a full line of produce, meats, wines, bakery, and deli products, as well as country favorites such as
preserves, pickles and buckwheat pancake mixes; it also has added a 320-seat restaurant. Because Eckert Farms, currently managed by 5 family members, attracts
some 500,000 customers a year, Jane’s marketing reputation spread quickly. In 2001 she founded Eckert Agrimarketing with a lofty mission
“to help the family farm—the backbone of our country’s heritage-- thrive and
survive in future generations.” </span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> To supplement her agritourism programs, Jane Eckert offers
farmers web site development through Eckert’s Marketing Farm Web Design “to
help them market their products 24/7.”
Her best source of new clients is her many appearances as a speaker for
farm associations and state tourism or commerce departments looking to spur new
business opportunities. Jane has also authored six books on agritourism and
produces DVDs to promote direct farm marketing; she recently created a data
base of farms, called ruralbounty.com, to help farmers market retail
businesses and to assist tourists in finding farms to visit. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> Because farmers are traditionally
conservative, Jane’s advantage was that she was one of them with a track record
based on what she had accomplished at her family farm. With new clients, Jane typically schedules a two-day onsite visit during which she
walks the farm, assessing the condition of buildings and grounds, talks to key
employees, and clarifies the family’s expectations. She then follows up with a
detailed marketing plan with layout, suggesting utilization of various
buildings, product selections, along with a step by step implementation plan. To
date she has worked with over 110 clients, including farms, ranches and
wineries, which offer a variety of retail experiences. The target market is
usually urban families eager to give children a view of the ever vanishing
lives of earlier generations. Not all farmers make the move easily, Jane Eckert
observes, because they are “typically not very good at marketing, nor do they realize
what urban families seek in a farm experience.” </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidIlTV0LOjhkxU79l1ENNDYnMMQO6IDvVchWbNWZ3B702d-FuK_pUMsyIrkezfdzO8F2PkdQu-sQ4lDdFgm37o7DTChp5cYn7-y4c4GGt3rDDeUfn-6PRSQTkyr1kq8EVIyG1MUpKOsq_r/s1600/Becky+Walters+at+work.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidIlTV0LOjhkxU79l1ENNDYnMMQO6IDvVchWbNWZ3B702d-FuK_pUMsyIrkezfdzO8F2PkdQu-sQ4lDdFgm37o7DTChp5cYn7-y4c4GGt3rDDeUfn-6PRSQTkyr1kq8EVIyG1MUpKOsq_r/s320/Becky+Walters+at+work.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Becky Walters at work</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> Often it’s farm women, Jane says, who are
first to recognize the opportunity inherent in what is sometimes called ”agritainment.”
And once they begin the project, the
transformation becomes ambitious-- and sometimes more profitable than farming. One
happy client is Becky Walters who hired Jane after hearing her speak. Becky and her
husband had pretty much given up
on making a living from their traditional crop farm, 30 miles northeast of Wichita, until Becky
caught the “agritourism bug.” She
had already planted a few rows of pumpkins as a hobby, but Jane Eckert “took us
to another level.” Eventually Becky
decided to leave a career managing doctors’ offices to expand their fall pumpkin program into a
year round venture, encouraged by the
knowledge that consumers now spend as much on Halloween as they do on
Christmas. The result is Walters’ Pumpkin Patch which covers 76 acres of the
original 1700-acre Walters farm, and attracts some 30,000 visitors in six weeks
each fall; annually it produces over $250,000 in revenues. For the admission price of $10 per person,
families typically spend the whole day picking pumpkins, enjoying paddle boats
on a pond as well as underground slides,
jumping pillows, a corn bin, a mining
sluice where children sift for fossils or precious stones, topped off with a visit to a Haunted Cannery, “too scary
for children.” Once the patch is closed for the season, Becky stays busy all
year collecting and crafting gourds putting up vegetables and preserves for the
3000 -square foot gift shop; she also overseeing the use of the farm’s covered
pavilion as a wedding venue for which
Becky and her staff provides catering.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGv3pk_X6bHhmsfQ5LxC8FbD59LSpW-jl_-GwPuUEJVAX1dKC93wbBI9RQtGfpO0LCtEiA8JhCbooY-VBv2hAgoNFkHS4uiZ1CUcn8nbKoBMdVkxfU6yMZmPsqxjKrMQZ19UlHZqR7DvCE/s1600/Anna+Lyles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGv3pk_X6bHhmsfQ5LxC8FbD59LSpW-jl_-GwPuUEJVAX1dKC93wbBI9RQtGfpO0LCtEiA8JhCbooY-VBv2hAgoNFkHS4uiZ1CUcn8nbKoBMdVkxfU6yMZmPsqxjKrMQZ19UlHZqR7DvCE/s200/Anna+Lyles.jpg" width="186" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anna Lyles in Mesilla Valley</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> Another
enthusiastic client is Anna Lyles, who
with her husband farms some 2000 acres of chili peppers in Las Cruces, New Mexico
, close to the Mexican border. When her five children were young, Anna asked
her husband to carve out a ten acre corn maze to entertain them. Eventually
word spread and neighbors and schools asked if they could share the farm fun. Gradually
Anna’s primary motivation became converting the farm into an educational opportunity for children “who
had lost all touch with the farm life that provides their daily food.” </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> After meeting Jane Eckert through a
state-sponsored farm program, Anna hired her with the result that she has since expanded her corn maze into the
45-acre Mesilla Valley Farm Maze. The
maze, whose design changes annually, features signposts with educational information and questions
(wrong answers lead children to a dead end so they have to go back to try
again). Anna has also created a 150-seat open air classroom that offers a curriculum
she has developed to meet state educational standards. To date, </span><span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";">Lyles Farms has hosted over 200,000 school children from New
Mexico and Texas. As a result of her efforts, Lyles Farms has been recognized as “the best ag-based
field trip in North America”; in addition, Anna Lyles has been named “Educator of the Year” for the State of New Mexico.
</span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> But Anna makes sure her farm offers plenty
of family fun too. A visit offers tourists hayrides, a playground with five
giant slides, a pumpkin patch, and a farm
store, stocked with jams and jellies. With admission of $10 for adults and $8 for
children, the Mesilla Valley
maze attracts 50,000 visitors each fall, who add about $250,000 to farm
revenues. Anna takes particular pride in her ability to host a fall harvest in
a desert where “we don’t have crisp fall
air or frost on our pumpkins; in fact, the temperature is typically in the 90’s
in October!” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> For the future, Jane Eckert is very optimistic
about the growth of agritourism especially set against a backdrop of the nationwide
vogue for local and organic foods. Increasingly, Jane notes, ‘urban parents
want their children to experience a life their grandparents knew firsthand or
simply to understand where their food comes from.” And she knows just where to
send them! </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/04/30/women-farmers-are-making-bank-in-agritourism/</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif";"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-92000770291617045322012-04-18T11:24:00.000-04:002012-05-16T19:29:39.386-04:00Mother and Daughter Entrepreneurs Build A Health Food Chain<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Mother and Daughter Entrepreneurs Build A Health Food Chain</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgegU0ACsiI-UNMDv8FykkZ0IaTPFW9C4c4xqA0RnXHjQaVCbGi2wZEDwg0iyN61bEZc7revGAWgF3p2Q4OJ3uyGWlsX0R1dcEWQcU442RRvf_phbZK9OWFb2KyuF7N875QzKRVP2y6mbpU/s1600/Green+Acres+store.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgegU0ACsiI-UNMDv8FykkZ0IaTPFW9C4c4xqA0RnXHjQaVCbGi2wZEDwg0iyN61bEZc7revGAWgF3p2Q4OJ3uyGWlsX0R1dcEWQcU442RRvf_phbZK9OWFb2KyuF7N875QzKRVP2y6mbpU/s320/Green+Acres+store.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Green Acres in Wichita Kansas</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> As Barbara Hoffmann likes to say, her vision for <a href="http://www.greenacres.com/">Green Acres</a>, a small Midwestern chain of organic and natural food stores, grew out of her aching back. Born into an entrepreneurial family who started a wholesale plant business, Barbara first transformed her family business into an interior landscaping business, Tropical Designs, providing plants and trees for offices and shopping malls. But after years of heavy lifting of plants, Barbara developed chronic back pain and underwent several surgeries which didn’t solve her problems. Finally, she took matters into her own hands and began to find relief in alternative treatments, diet changes, and nutritional supplements. The deeper she waded into the growing area of healthy eating and therapeutic supplements, she realized she had stumbled onto a concept—building better health—that she wanted to convert into a business. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> After purchasing land that had been a horse farm, Barbara Hoffmann built and opened her first retail outlet, called Green Acres in 1994, offering mainly several brands of vitamins and supplements along with a few grocery staples. It is located in an upscale area of Wichita, Kansas into what has turned into Bradley Fair, a “lifestyle” shopping mall which features a park like setting with walking paths, monuments, and lakes so that customers can feed birds or attend concerts before or after shopping or patronizing the restaurants. For many years she maintained a showroom for Tropical Designs, which has grown into the biggest interior landscaping business in the region with some 400 clients. But when Green Acres expanded for the second time as few years ago to its present footprint of 12,500 square feet, f she moved the plant design business to another location. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Green Acres is now a medium sized organic and all natural foods store that not only sells products but teaches customers how their products lead to better health, based on Barbara’s conviction that “food is our best medicine.” Originally the store served as an alternative to weekly grocery shopping at the large supermarket chain, the highest grossing food store in the area, right across the street. But overtime Green Acres has become a shopping destination as I expanded its product mix with a lot of specialty foods, a deli and baked goods—about 10,000 SKUs, always sticking to its store mantra of no refined sugars, pesticides, chemical preservatives, or hydrogenated oils. The vitamin and supplement business, which now includes a house Green Acres brand, also continues to grow, currently accounting for about one-third of revenues.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcukJWECyxUB-Syt9JYOY67AZ2p9we2X5PdqaA0jy6kxeCT8bPj0phxvHDVhhh3TdcuLrWePGVik6YL3snEWYNz2AR4x_PEXGqPrzmL1KWOY3QvGGRgpId3GIn59sR_byWX7UTV518FXcl/s1600/Barbara+and+Shannon+Hoffmann.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcukJWECyxUB-Syt9JYOY67AZ2p9we2X5PdqaA0jy6kxeCT8bPj0phxvHDVhhh3TdcuLrWePGVik6YL3snEWYNz2AR4x_PEXGqPrzmL1KWOY3QvGGRgpId3GIn59sR_byWX7UTV518FXcl/s320/Barbara+and+Shannon+Hoffmann.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barbara and Shannon Hoffmann</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Joining Barbara in the business six years ago was her daughter Shannon who says she first learned to become an entrepreneur “at age 4, because my mom’s business and passion affected every part of our lives so I never saw any boundaries between work and home.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">But nonetheless Shannon didn’t take a straight path into the family business. After picking up a degree in Entrepreneurial Management at Wharton, Shannon moved to California to take some acting classes and soon was recruited as a sales person for natural products trade shows; later on she started a sales division for a supplements company, “giving me a great background in the supply side of the business.” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> When Shannon eventually returned to Kansas, her mother seized on her daughter’s secret ambition to become an actress by creating and producing a radio show about health to showcase the Green Acres commitment to natural foods-- and to entice customers into the store. For six years, Shannon, along with Matt Murray, a store manager and partner, hosted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Health Talk with Matt and Shannon. </i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i> Syndicated nationally to 50 stations, the show brought in acclaimed authors and manufacturers in the health and natural foods area and helped spread the Green Acres philosophy. </span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixFI5JNKBUR7s_fkm0Qi2XqLVvY5q1Z7D3VW_yUacLYZs6NoqElK2thHlkE7qMj83IvnqozpaD23xJjmle_SZs0yAoAQPZOmzg7lB05rQurzvutpwSr3j72QRbgdopvH2V0qG_aKAAxhu-/s1600/Shannon+Hoffmann+at+Green+Acres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixFI5JNKBUR7s_fkm0Qi2XqLVvY5q1Z7D3VW_yUacLYZs6NoqElK2thHlkE7qMj83IvnqozpaD23xJjmle_SZs0yAoAQPZOmzg7lB05rQurzvutpwSr3j72QRbgdopvH2V0qG_aKAAxhu-/s200/Shannon+Hoffmann+at+Green+Acres.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shannon Checks in Kansas City store</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Once the radio program ended, Shannon felt ready to open a new link in the Green Acres chain in Kansas City in 2006—just as the economic slowdown began. Shannon says opening the store, located in Briarcliff Village in the upscale Northland area of Kansas City, as the economic slowdown began was “a humbling experience,” which tested her commitment to the Green Acres model. But she perservered as she adapted to slightly different customer demands for specialty foods. Since 2009 her store has operationally shown a profit, though she continued to pay off bank loans which financed her opening; today the store is profitable with revenues currently up 12%, anticipated to reach $3.5 million in 2012. The larger Green Acres store in Wichita is up 20% for the last three years (despite the expansion) and expects revenues of $5 million this year.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> With the rise of some much larger competitors, Barbara Hoffmann attributes the success of the Green Acres stores to its basic product integrity along with its heavy emphasis on customer education and community outreach. Both Green Acres stores host regular product demos and cooking classes. Barbara says the Wichita store produces 8 large events a year, provides live music on weekends, and a farmer’s market every Saturday. Whenever it invites well known figures in medicine or nutrition, Green Acres rents space in a nearby hotel to accommodate the hundreds of customers who show up. For an upcoming 18<sup>th</sup> anniversary celebration Barbara estimates they will have 1000 people come through the store—in a metropolitan community of just over 600,000!.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Within a few months, Green Acres in Wichita will face competition from a new vitamin store and a Fresh Market. But Barbara feels confident that if she focuses on her niche which is the natural foods and supplements with a heavy helping of education and community-oriented events, Green Acres will continue to thrive. Shannon adds that she sees a growing market in the aging baby boomer “who seek more energy, fewer wrinkles, and want to empty out the medicine chest in favor of healthful supplements.” As staple health foods such as soy and organic milk go mainstream, Green Acres will continue to introduce more gluten free, sprouted, raw and vegan products along with an expanded line of beauty products. <br />
Currently, the mother–daughter team are now planning for a third opening in Tulsa, Oklahoma in July. Shannon says “it’s the first time we won’t have a family member on the spot, but her Dad, John Hoffmann, an active partner, has been working on information systems that will allow them to duplicate what has worked so well in Wichita and Kansas City.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Does Barbara Hoffmann have another start up in the works? Daughter Shannon reports that her mother has become interested in matching blood testing by professionals to identify vitamin and mineral levels required and the formulating customized supplements. But she says the family has already made clear that “if my mother wants to start another company, it will have to be a sole proprietorship!” </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span><br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_793710513"><span style="font-family: Verdana;">http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/04/16/mother-and-daughter-entrepreneurs-build-a-health-food-chain/</span></a><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com66tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-18542200774835578732012-03-23T14:47:00.001-04:002012-04-18T11:25:21.612-04:00Finding the Next Generation of Art Buyers and Collectors--Online<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKkhvMGn-LcN3Ka6OB-mAPJA8c9iHLtxt_nMY5jOm7gkQVOi1nb3DXbH3GJQn4EgxfDxOwNJp5z45OvGrYG_btzp0-nlW8UL1YpGYvjL-WynGfLXcX_Hp7aYmOAzNhM2TSeFTso-f9Ip74/s1600/Jen+Bekman+by++Paul+Costello.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKkhvMGn-LcN3Ka6OB-mAPJA8c9iHLtxt_nMY5jOm7gkQVOi1nb3DXbH3GJQn4EgxfDxOwNJp5z45OvGrYG_btzp0-nlW8UL1YpGYvjL-WynGfLXcX_Hp7aYmOAzNhM2TSeFTso-f9Ip74/s320/Jen+Bekman+by++Paul+Costello.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jen Bekman at work: credit: Paul Costello</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> In 2003, when Jen Bekman opened an art gallery near the Bowery in Manhattan, she admits she had never bought art, though she always wanted to. But once she started living with art, she really enjoyed it. Soon her mission grew to something more than decorating her own walls. In short, she wanted “to democratize art. My business arose out of frustration. I realized that the reason I had never bought art was that no one had ever tried to sell it to me.” But one of Jen’s early observations about customers is that they “came with a lot of baggage about buying art. They saw it as an intimidating experience. They had the means because I saw them in my gallery with expensive clothes and accessories; they just felt at a loss about how to make an art purchase. I wanted everyone to enjoy art, but I couldn’t’ reach everyone just with my gallery.”</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> So her next big step, in 2007, was to found a company, <a href="http://20x200.com/">20x200</a>, to sell prints online, making good use of her tech background. A native New Yorker, Jen attended Stuyvesant and Hunter College, and then steadily racked up an impressive career directing community and content development for internet companies, such as Netscape, Disney/Go Networks and eventually Meetup, where she was VP of User Development.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Well aware of the emotional baggage she found in some of her gallery collectors, Jen knew she had to help her online customers along. A few times a week she writes chatty newsletters introducing new artists; she also allows viewers to browse the site through several filters from colors to style of art. A big feature of the site is its transparency. “Customers,” she observes, “are nervous about buying art: Who sets the price? Can they resell? Can they return? We’re open to all their concerns.” To reassure buyers, they receive an artist-signed and numbered certificate that ensures the print is part of an exclusive edition created with the artist. “What’s important,” Jen feels, “is that we’re not a faceless monolith to customers.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> An equally important 20x200 mission: to help emerging artists sustain themselves. “Part of my goal from the beginning,” Jen Bekman says, “was to create opportunities for artists and to show respect for their career choice too.” One way is her twice-a-year international competition, “Hey, Hot Shot!” which attracts thousands of artists at all stages of their careers. Ten photographers a year—5 from each round of competition-- are selected to participate in a two-week exhibition at the Jen Bekman Galley in NYC; they also receive $500 honoraria. The Grand Prize winner gets $10,000 along with a full length solo exhibition and two years of representation at the Gallery. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Whenever 20x200 identifies promising new artists, known or unknown, the company works with them to select works suitable for printing. “The problem for us is never supply,” Jen says. The company covers all upfront costs, including printing, (prints are offered in various sizes, framed and unframed) so the artist doesn’t have to put up anything before a sale. When a work sells, after deducting production costs, 20x200 splits the proceeds with artists on a 50-50 basis. Typically artists remain on the site until their edition is sold, but in some cases 20x200 has printed as many as 15 editions of the same artist. “Our goal,” Jen states, “is to create a benevolent ecosystem both for artists and for customers.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> And apparently a successful business model too! Since setting up the 20x200 site in 2007, Jen has sold over 170,000 prints, from 275 artists, “though I’m looking forward to selling 10 million.” Prints can be bought for as little as $24 or as much as $10,000. With her gallery and her online company Jen expects to generate revenues of over $7 million in 2012. </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4yE_tTiOelnBNY0NN2GXH4icCw_6VVxqVvSBEUOBBrFFwkSy4ZFy352b9z_FYYLrs_kHcWIb5sG9ziIAKvGRgMVw0bsVabfIN4bqPHgi7q4MpO2Hp3kFPgWvY9ioQU1l9-YVHiIDPS-d/s1600/Catherine+Levene+in+front+of+a+piece+by+Nick+Cave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy4yE_tTiOelnBNY0NN2GXH4icCw_6VVxqVvSBEUOBBrFFwkSy4ZFy352b9z_FYYLrs_kHcWIb5sG9ziIAKvGRgMVw0bsVabfIN4bqPHgi7q4MpO2Hp3kFPgWvY9ioQU1l9-YVHiIDPS-d/s320/Catherine+Levene+in+front+of+a+piece+by+Nick+Cave.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Catherine Levene with piece by Nick Cave</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> A newer entry in the online art world, <a href="http://www.artspace.com/">Artspace.com</a>, launched in 2011, takes a different approach. CEO and Co founder Catherine Levene works with galleries to allow her to showcase their best contemporary artists—both unique pieces and limited editions by established and emerging artists – for Artspace’s more than 70,000 international online viewers.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Another rich source of contemporary art for Artspace is established art museums, such as the Guggenheim and Whitney in New York and the Institutes of Contemporary Art in Boston and Philadelphia, which often commission pieces by contemporary artists, then look to sell them to fund other art projects. By collaborating with Artspace, museums reach a larger audience of buyers, beyond their own members or directors. Artspace also collaborates directly with artists. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> As a result, Artspace gives its members access to the work of some of the best galleries, museums and artists’ studios in the world. For its role, Artspace receives a commission, though the majority of the proceeds go to the artists or institutions who are sellers. Prices generally range from $200 to $30,000, though earlier this month Artspace sold a Jenny Holzer bench to a German collector for $125,000. In its short existence Artspace has racked up sales in 40 states and in 20 countries.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> CEO Catherine Levene comes to her role with 15 years of experience with internet companies, most recently as COO of Daily Candy. When Comcast bought the company, Catherine left and took a year off to travel in India and then wound up in Madrid studying art history. But she attributes her earliest interest in art to “my grandmother in Binghamton who did a little collecting and got me to engage in art.” Once Catherine arrived home in NYC, she was introduced to her co founder Chris Vroom, an investment analyst who had also founded the non-profit Artadia to support artists. Backed by $3.7 mil from angels and venture capitalists, Catherine says both she and Chris “had the same vision in wanting to support artists and then to figure out a way to merge art with e-commerce.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> One successful technique has been Artspace’s weekly “private sales” offering subscribers special access to a curated group of art works at discounted prices for only a week. Surprisingly, Catherine notes, “While we thought the hardest challenge was to get work from museums and galleries, finding sources of art has gone very well, very fast. Our bigger challenge has been the technology platform—putting everything onto the site in the quickest, most effective way. What we aim for is a community of both buyers and artists so that collectors stay engaged on a 24/7 basis. We see a big opportunity ahead of us.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/03/19/finding-the-next-generation-of-art-buyers-and-collectors-online/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/03/19/finding-the-next-generation-of-art-buyers-and-collectors-online/</a> </span><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-35102762481645327802012-03-07T11:23:00.002-05:002012-03-23T14:48:00.495-04:00Goat Farms, Wool and Making a Business Of What You Love<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4xhXuNy-7iTfynniRjlTHnVeWG1YqLuj2ePbZl0TTMfoPt02_A1nms3pe8aZHmSD7Kt3MMUFbG3rzE3i5acNwus5DOt3ESpE6GiodaVHvt39XraUvvSjG2_H8Kk9ep68HZzIBYNTsmTb/s1600/Laura+Zander.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh4xhXuNy-7iTfynniRjlTHnVeWG1YqLuj2ePbZl0TTMfoPt02_A1nms3pe8aZHmSD7Kt3MMUFbG3rzE3i5acNwus5DOt3ESpE6GiodaVHvt39XraUvvSjG2_H8Kk9ep68HZzIBYNTsmTb/s320/Laura+Zander.jpg" width="231" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Laura Zander Amidst Her Yarns</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">It’s getting easier to make a living doing what you really enjoy. Especially since there seem to be enough customers who can afford to indulge their taste for artisanal or handcrafted products. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Jimmy Beans Wool was founded in 2002 by software engineer Laura Zander who, afraid of losing work during the slump in Silicon Valley, decided to move to Truckee, California, near Lake Tahoe. Spending a lot of time in the car on weekend ski trips Laura had become obsessed with knitting. When she took a part time job building a website for a graphics designer, she sold an ad to a local hand- dyed Yarn Company, which sparked the idea for what has become <a href="http://www.jimmybeanswool.com/">Jimmy Beans Wool</a>. A shop built around her knitting hobby seemed like a good idea, and with their tech backgrounds, Laura, with her husband Doug, figured in time they could extend their reach with an internet business. They invested $30,000 of their own money in a 500-square foot retail store offering coffee to the knitters too. And customers came and loved the yarns and the service.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Today, ten years later, after dropping the coffee, Jimmy Beans Wool (Jimmy is Laura’s nickname and beans were for the coffee) offers knitters around the world a wide selection of the finest yarns and knitting supplies available. With more than 98% of revenues derived from internet sales, Jimmy Beans Wool customers are spread across the US, Canada, Australia, with a recent order from Uzbekistan too. The company imports yarns from South America, Turkey and Italy. Revenues have been increasing by 30%, every year, and are expected to exceed $7 million in 2012.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Laura Zander attributes her success to timing because she started the company when “magazines were filled with pictures of Sarah Jessica Parker, Cameron Diaz and other celebrities knitting.” Then too scarves were in vogue , so a group of Lake Tahoe women would pop in and spend $100-$500 on yarns to take home to knit into scarves. But the other ingredient in Jimmy Beans’ success is customer engagement, which has won the company several awards. Along with her tag line, “your local yarn store—online,” Laura writes bimonthly newsletters keeping her online customers informed of trends and fashions; her site also offers 1100 free instructional videos, helping customers with everything from the practical, such as how to turn a heel, to the more exotic, such as how to do Tunisian crochet. In addition, all the instruction is explained in simple, encouraging words which make a customer feel she is asking a good friend for help. Whenever there is a question about an order, or a pattern, customer service is a click or phone call away—always answered promptly by a friendly voice. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Her demographic, Laura notes, consists of 25-65-year old women nationwide but especially in cities “where people don’t have time to shop or easy access to yarn stores.” Recently, she moved the company into a 20,000 square foot space in a light industrial area of Reno; though she still has a retail space in a shopping mall in Reno, the expanded warehouse space houses all 40 employees who handle the inventory, distribution and shipping, along with allowing some extra space for retail. Laura’s human resource “rule” is that “every new employee starts at the bottom by pulling orders.” It’s a good way, she says, of “teaching hires that every job is vitally important to our business.” It also gives both new employees, and Laura, a chance to see what people are best at. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> For future growth, Jimmy Beans Wool plans to venture into fabrics, especially for quilting, which Laura says is an even bigger potential market. Plus “50% of knitters also sew” and some “back to basics hipsters” have come on the scene with beautiful fabrics Laura is happy to offer on her site. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> When Louisa Conrad married Lucas Farrell in 2010, wedding guests were encouraged to give gifts to help her and her new husband make a foray into goat farming. “We wound up with enough money to put together our first small herd and some milk cans, shinier than I’ve ever seen on any other farm.” A Middlebury College graduate, Louisa had originally planned on a career as an artist-teacher, but after a stint as intern at Blue Ledge Farm, a goat farm in Leicester, Vermont, Louisa began to think about how much she loved farm life which started feeling like a high concept art piece. “It seemed like a more raw version of life, ” Louisa says, “ that very much pulses with the weather, with our water buckets often frozen in the morning, the tractors hesitant to start-up, the moon just setting. Plus we just fell in love with goats and their strong personalities.” </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhatHnijXUvnGW62jcJVl6dUF5xE0FdiI2f1kEzCx3-wq7TlsfziMetpcYKbdzu5Sowu8j6hILGraSQHv_sN72ol3ZKQarLKwgAIOaLp1SdfeDzFEi1Xo1zf4G-Ni_jG8Bwncbo7kRFJGh3/s1600/Louisa+Conrad+with+her+flock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhatHnijXUvnGW62jcJVl6dUF5xE0FdiI2f1kEzCx3-wq7TlsfziMetpcYKbdzu5Sowu8j6hILGraSQHv_sN72ol3ZKQarLKwgAIOaLp1SdfeDzFEi1Xo1zf4G-Ni_jG8Bwncbo7kRFJGh3/s320/Louisa+Conrad+with+her+flock.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Louisa Conrad With Her Herd</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Her company, <a href="http://bigpicturefarm.com/">Big Picture Farm</a>, is located on 43 acres about 17 miles north of Brattleboro, Vermont. Currently, the only structure on her land is a lean-to to shelter the goats, but a barn is in the works. After morning milking, Louisa spends the rest of her day housed in a regional incubator in Brattleboro, working on her first product—goat milk caramels, lightly dusted with sea salt. After weeks of experimenting with chemical composition, Louise started test marketing her first product at local farm markets. Though she still makes some cheese, she decided to work more on what she calls “farmstead confections” to sell as gifts “to leave me some room for creativity in the presentation.” ( The package label includes Louisa’s drawing of a goat). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> To boost her online sales, Louisa also targets specialty cheese stores nationwide. Two early adopters have been <a href="http://www.murrayscheese.com/">Murray’s Cheese</a> and <a href="http://www.zabars.com/">Zabar’s</a>, high end specialty stores in New York City. Capitalizing on the farm origins, Louisa soon plans to code each package for mobile phones to allow consumers to see a short video of the goat on the day it was milked for the caramels the customer is eating!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Last month, Big Picture Farms was awarded a grant of about $49,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its “value added agricultural innovation.” With her government funds, Louisa plans to hire additional confectioners, so she can experiment with caramels with chocolate coatings or spices, starting with chai. Though Louisa admits she simply enjoys living a holistic life, she now finally has begun to envision the possibility of financial success and sustainability for Big Picture Farm. Again, nature stands ready to give her a boost in the next few weeks-- when “my 12 girls give birth to more kids.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/03/06/goat-farms-wool-and-making-a-living-at-what-you-love/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/03/06/goat-farms-wool-and-making-a-living-at-what-you-love/</a> </span></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-12418431459243422442012-02-23T15:38:00.001-05:002012-03-07T11:24:13.395-05:00Providing Security--- for Both War and Peace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie-8Y_XKY2ob186dV8hDXmFFnnaxBFEkMwd1PCaSPUcn-aBdKaYs43pbT2Suq5ntHhpQilIBajy5XgFac15pDsQ1uEwGxx1OqbhWyh1Pj2T2-N1ignImnfzdc5XlZ6-Fc4_zDmZpon7gJh/s1600/CEO+Stephanie+Point+of+P2P+Global+Security.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie-8Y_XKY2ob186dV8hDXmFFnnaxBFEkMwd1PCaSPUcn-aBdKaYs43pbT2Suq5ntHhpQilIBajy5XgFac15pDsQ1uEwGxx1OqbhWyh1Pj2T2-N1ignImnfzdc5XlZ6-Fc4_zDmZpon7gJh/s200/CEO+Stephanie+Point+of+P2P+Global+Security.jpg" width="190" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CEO Stephanie Point</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Stephanie Point, CEO of <a href="http://p2pgsi.net/">Point 2 Point Global Security, (P2P)</a> prides herself on her highly trained teams who provide customized security services to protect people and assets for both private companies and government agencies. Among the several government agencies she serves is the Department of Homeland Security. During 2008-09, for example, P2P completed 189 flights transporting high level felons back to their home countries in South America. Each flight, for which P2P contracted 737 jets including flight staff and pilots, required 14 security officers and one manager. Once the DHS deposited detainees at a given airport for departure, a P2P security team met them to process their paperwork; it also took custody of the detainees for the duration of their travel; upon arrival in their destination cities, P2P released the detainees into the custody of local authorities. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Security is a natural business choice for Stephanie who spent nearly a decade as a top level L.A. homicide detective working everything from narcotics to street patrol in the high crime South Central area. But one day as she was leaving a court house after delivering a search warrant, she slipped and “blew her knee out” which required six surgeries and ultimately forced her to retire. Her next stint was as Vice President for a company that protected jewelry executives as they transported their wares. After four years, Stephanie decided “I could do it better. I saw that companies in this area didn’t treat people well or pay them well enough.” In 2004, 48-year old Stephanie founded Point to Point Global Security. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> While the business prospered during the first few years, once the recession hit, P2P, based in Phoenix, Maryland, saw its revenues cut in half. But Stephanie Point took an unusual tack: she decided to work on building her company from the inside to move away from heavy reliance on subcontractors. She pays her employees 25-30% more than her competitors and “even though I made less for awhile, they made more.” The result, she proudly observes, is that her turnover rate, in an industry known for high turnover, is less than 5% nationwide. “My best management practice,’ she notes, “is hiring really smart people and treating them with respect.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> To supplement her staff of 230 employees, many of whom have top security clearances, Stephanie has on call some 8500 active or recently retired law enforcement officers. She estimates she gets about 15% of revenues from government agencies, such as FEMA which has called on her to secure “assets” following emergency disasters. The rest of her revenues comes from large companies, such as the hospitality, banking and financial industries, who require security protection for personnel, property and special events. One recent uptick to her business has resulted from the Occupy Wall Street protests which have pushed companies to increase security protection. Another growth industry is energy: oil and gas companies ask P2P to protect their “critical infrastructure,” so deemed by the U.S. Patriot Act. Even schools now require more security officers. Stephanie’s firm provides “a safe environment” for the children who attend the 10 Texans Can Academies, which offer a second chance to “at risk” high schoolers who have struggled in traditional schools. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> With ever tightening security requirements, business prospects are bright. Stephanie’s goal for P2P is to double current revenues to $25 million for 2012. Does she see any prospective exits on the horizon? “I’ll think about selling when we employ 2000 and hit revenues of $100 million. I love growing this business,” though she admits to “missing the kids” she used to protect when she was on patrol in South Central L.A. “But now I have the pleasure of hiring law enforcement professionals to add to family incomes.”</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9iAX2PExO74mbKrXhQyBpy3lFPAuQEw1-uFIjXif5pB2lq3hVKHDOsnjZ8-gqPgsCd1rAj57LOcB7tVhnHc8T6L_kYvROAoNloDsnlbmmygdCJgK8CVyNlIsUHuehHr3P4r2BRlwtEOr8/s1600/Lani+Hay+Vists+a+Navy+Seal+Training+Base.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9iAX2PExO74mbKrXhQyBpy3lFPAuQEw1-uFIjXif5pB2lq3hVKHDOsnjZ8-gqPgsCd1rAj57LOcB7tVhnHc8T6L_kYvROAoNloDsnlbmmygdCJgK8CVyNlIsUHuehHr3P4r2BRlwtEOr8/s320/Lani+Hay+Vists+a+Navy+Seal+Training+Base.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lani Hay at a Navy Seal Training Base </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Lani Hay,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> who along with Stephanie Point, is among the winners of Ernst and Young’s 2011 Entrepreneurial Winning Women program,</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14pt;"></span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> always wanted to be a fighter pilot. But in her last year at the US Naval Academy, where she received a B.S. in mathematics, when they “scrubbed” her lifelong medical records, they discovered Lani has an allergy to bee stings, so she was disqualified from piloting planes. Instead she became an air intelligence officer, based in Hawaii, analyzing and disseminating intelligence for squadron air crews. Lani has a special interest in technology. For example, “helped pioneer the transmission of live video feeds from aircraft to intelligence centers on the ground</span><span style="color: #1f497d; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> to speed up the process, compared to relying on satellites.”</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> When 36-year old Lani Hay, the daughter of a Vietnamese immigrant mother, left active duty in 2002, she started her civilian career as a consultant while she was completing an MBA at the College of William and Mary. In 2003, she founded <a href="http://lmt-inc.com/">Landmark Technology Inc(LMT)</a>to provide “mission essential” national security services. One company specialty is to help the military protect service members against IED attacks. Lani also helps the military develop tools to gain a better understanding of terrorist networks, so they can disrupt them. Sometimes that requires hiring anthropologists with knowledge of local culture, other times veterans who analyze</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"> data.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Lani sees as her mission “ integrating technology into usable intelligence.” So her company spends a lot of time charting trends, based on simulation models, similar to what financial analysts do, but in a military-political context.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Even though the US military has begun pulling troops back, Lani remains confident her business will grow for two reasons: she thinks the IED threat will continue and thinks her services will shift to civilian agencies. For example, recently, the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, asked LMT to provide the classroom set-up for curriculum and instructors in cultural immersion, language training, and country briefings for the diplomatic corps. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> For 2011, with about 200 fulltime employees, LMT reported revenues of around $30 million. Within two years, Lani predicts she will “hit 50 million, though I won’t be satisfied until I reach $100 million, probably within 5 years.” Recently, LMT, based in Vienna, Virginia, added a film production division </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;">to </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">support the government and military through training videos; Lani also wants to develop some inspirational programming; one project in the works is a television series that focuses on the critical role of women in</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">the Special Forces. Lani believes the US should lift the combat exclusion policy completely, because “it will help us get the job done.” What motivates her and her staff, is that her clients start their days by reading the latest incident and casualty reports. “That focuses us on the mission and on how what we do translates into saving lives.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/02/17/providing-security-for-both-war-and-peace/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/02/17/providing-security-for-both-war-and-peace/</a> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-41105532517655734072012-01-24T13:29:00.001-05:002012-02-23T15:38:51.037-05:00Taking An Exit Doesn't Always Mean Good Bye<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQmIn2zKpfgh3VgIbzESLfAGEmVie_xy7IKwh_V45llCIHKpaaUh02KWAjwNGYf6u8veMifAZ0xQz8Mr7ua02449X1uegIb9cAmDb4ZGpigoXEA-S7gFnQp6_c9pNoM8OKbWPigfH3bFS5/s1600/Leslie+Blodgett+at+work.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQmIn2zKpfgh3VgIbzESLfAGEmVie_xy7IKwh_V45llCIHKpaaUh02KWAjwNGYf6u8veMifAZ0xQz8Mr7ua02449X1uegIb9cAmDb4ZGpigoXEA-S7gFnQp6_c9pNoM8OKbWPigfH3bFS5/s320/Leslie+Blodgett+at+work.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leslie Blodgett at work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Two years ago, w</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">hen Leslie Blodgett, CEO of <a href="http://www.bareescentuals.com/">Bare Escentuals,</a> first received an acquisition offer of $1.7 billion from <a href="http://www.shiseido.com/">Shiseido</a>, Japan’s largest cosmetic company, she was well aware that the deal hinged on her remaining in her role. But she also knew that after 16 years as CEO, she wanted to pull back for awhile to focus again on the creative end of the business. After convincing Shiseido executives that her COO could handily step into her shoes, she literally “pulled the title executive chairman out of a hat,” and the deal was signed; she reports to the COO of Global Business at Shiseido. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> After a career in product development at Neutrogena and Max Factor, Leslie Blodgett became CEO of Bare Escentuals in 1994 when it was little more than a bath and body retailer in Northern California but with an unusual product—a mineral or powder based makeup line. While Leslie liked the idea of mineral products—fine powder the consistency of confectioner’s sugar, she quickly realized the shades available didn’t match real complexions. So she relaunched the line as bareMinerals, with eye shadows , blushes, foundations and brushes-- and started staying up nights worrying about how to market, racking up a lot of hours watching the shopping networks.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Her late night rituals paid off. In 1997 she was offered a slot on the QVC home shopping channel and quickly sold $45,000-- all of her inventory. Eventually she was selling $1.4 million of product an hour! She quickly noticed from the feedback on her appearances that women had lots of questions about the product, so she began to respond personally to letters and emails, and sometimes made house calls too. “What I realize,” Leslie says, “is when you touch a woman’s face a few minutes after you meet her, you form an emotional bond; it’s powerful stuff. You have to hire people who love people, and you have to take care of your customers. Sometimes they come to you after a bout of cancer or an emotional trauma, so what we do is not superficial kind of stuff that only helps women look good for their husbands. We’re helping women feel good about themselves.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Leslie also strengthened her distribution network. Instead of drug stores or traditional department stores, she sold through company boutiques, and in specialty cosmetics stores like Sephora and Ulta, and continued on QVC, the TV shopping channel. In 2006, San Francisco-based Bare Escentuals went public shortly after its sales had jumped over 60% for the first half of the year. But soon after the IPO, Bare Escentuals felt the pressure of the economic crunch which capped consumer spending. “While we didn’t go looking for Shiseido,” Leslie notes, “we were looking for better inroads into Asia. Shiseido has been in business in Asia for 130 years with distribution in 69 countries, so it makes perfect sense.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> After 24-years of running the company, Leslie now is back to branding and product development, “ like I was doing 20 years ago. What I like is that I finally have the time to spend more time with customers and employees. Now that I’m back where I started, I realize I’ve been missing some of the fun.” She also has more perspective. Recently, while reviewing the photos for a new ad campaign, “something bothered me,” she admits. What bothered her were that all the photos for the ads were of models and had been retouched. “They looked fake, and that’s not who we are,” Leslie concluded. Naturally, the photo shoot was redone; so while Leslie Blodgett may no longer be CEO, she retains plenty of authority to call the shots about how the company she built appears to its consumers.</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmMJsjnOPbpleswFEwa63dajaQ2H5wTFUHqwvfCI86gRSLaEMjTidNm11KvD0ozlkVOvEjOu48oWY34EkJy2wcCLPUspK8Y6AIwdN1NNUOPoo2fAM65XGzbk2JVgPhKl-ixlB5R82hXP9e/s1600/Shanna+Tellerman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmMJsjnOPbpleswFEwa63dajaQ2H5wTFUHqwvfCI86gRSLaEMjTidNm11KvD0ozlkVOvEjOu48oWY34EkJy2wcCLPUspK8Y6AIwdN1NNUOPoo2fAM65XGzbk2JVgPhKl-ixlB5R82hXP9e/s320/Shanna+Tellerman.jpg" width="204" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shanna talks with her team</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Shanna Tellerman’s move up and out was more rapid. She laid the foundations for a company while she was still a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon Technology Entertainment Center, applying gaming techniques to real world use. Soon she had a real world customer: following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the New York Fire Department saw its ranks decimated but its responsibilities exploding. Shanna and her colleagues developed a training program to allow Fire Department instructors, who were not tech savvy, set up and control interactive video game scenarios. Fire department recruits then interact with the scenarios and respond to emergency situations, much like participating in a multiplayer video game. The program was so successful that in 2006 Shanna spun her company, Sim Ops Studios, out of Carnegie Mellon to commercialize the software for emergency responders. Soon she realized the platform she had developed had broader applications and could allow anyone to create 3D interactive environments, for games, training education, and military simulations.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> In 2008, Shanna moved from Pittsburgh to Silicon Valley to be closer to investors and potential partners. By then her company, funded by $3.4 million from angel and venture capitalists, had changed names to Wild Pockets ; it offered a free,web-based game engine to “transform a process that used to be prohibitively expensive and limited to experts, into a platform that is easier, faster, and cheaper to use without the need for outside experts.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> In 2010, when one of her investors introduced her to the director of engineering at <a href="http://www.autodesk.com/">Auto Desk</a>, a 3D computer-aided design company, Shanna remembers, “we just clicked, even though at that point I had no thoughts of selling. We just talked about the possibilities of the 3D platform.” But she admits that in those early conversations, “I realized this is a company I would feel real good about joining. They still have the same passion and enthusiasm I feel, even though they have 7000 employees.” Later that year Autodesk bought Wild Pockets, but asked Shanna to join the company as Product Line Manager. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> In retrospect, 29-year old Shanna says she really “didn’t know what terms she could have asked for during the acquisition,” except that she insisted her Wild Pockets team be allowed to remain in Pittsburgh, though Shanna now works in San Francisco headquarters. So far, a corporate job suits her needs: “It’s much less bureaucratic than I thought.” Plus, she adds, “the weight of the whole company is not on my shoulders anymore. I don’t have that life and death feeling with every decision I make. In a big company any product has the potential to be huge, but something else you don’t know about might be even bigger.” On the other hand, Shanna muses, “I like running really fast so I still probably have another startup or two in me.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/01/24/taking-an-exit-but-not-saying-good-bye/">Forbes Woman</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-24806429909283736082012-01-10T18:40:00.002-05:002012-01-24T13:32:29.891-05:00High Tech "Pipe Cleaners and Popsicle Sticks"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZqyOG1CzkGNnk2lPhZ21YRNnpdh9FF81VPOWoAphSCRzmwDh87Yi-cnNbvqN5APgSYIRKdt6JKqpZPpwmiqB2hPNYgYEAlFR2zV-h1KcqI9gCcLYLUq5lwMzzlDhH8ma2pecP1YBglgA/s1600/Ayah+Bdeir+plays+with+her+kit++++photo+credit+Zack+DeZon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixZqyOG1CzkGNnk2lPhZ21YRNnpdh9FF81VPOWoAphSCRzmwDh87Yi-cnNbvqN5APgSYIRKdt6JKqpZPpwmiqB2hPNYgYEAlFR2zV-h1KcqI9gCcLYLUq5lwMzzlDhH8ma2pecP1YBglgA/s400/Ayah+Bdeir+plays+with+her+kit++++photo+credit+Zack+DeZon.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ayah Bedeir Playing with her kit Photo courtesy of Zack DeZon</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16pt;"><span class="msoDel"><del cite="mailto:Angela" datetime="2012-01-09T14:20"></del></span></span></b><br />
<br />
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16pt;"> </span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> After an accomplished educational background in computer engineering in her native Lebanon, Ayah Bdeir felt she was on the wrong track. “My parents and teachers always encouraged me to take more and more science because I was good at it, but I really didn’t enjoy it. It seemed too abstract for me; too many equations and formulas.” But then she was accepted in the US as a graduate student in the Media Lab at M.I.T.where she had a light bulb moment: she discovered a world where she could combine her technology skills with the creativity she feels she had suppressed for so long.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> But immediately after completing her M.I.T. Master’s Degree in 2004, real life intervened. Ayah had to get a job to support herself-- her “first job in the real world after 21 years of studying.” Ironically, she became a software consultant for a finance company where her creativity was limited to designing software packages for investment instruments for hedge funds, banks and venture capitalists. After two years, she won one of four fellowships offered by Manhattan-based <a href="http://www.eyebeam.org/">Eyebeam</a>, an arts and technology incubator that provides a fertile context and state-of-the-art tools for digital research and experimentation for fellows “to address major issues and concerns of our time”. Besides workspace, the fellowship provided Ayah with a stipend, which she supplemented with freelance work, so she could devote herself to her own projects. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> For the next two years, Ayah experimented with an idea that had long challenged her: to make science more tangible, more understandable, and more exciting both for children and adults. She wanted to make something, a product she could touch and see, growing out of her experience at M.I.T. where her research group was part of a community focused on small scale manufacturing. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> The result is <a href="http://www.littlebits.cc/">littleBits</a>, a company 29-year old Ayah founded last September. The company offers a variety of kits made up of modules, about the size of Lego bricks, for prototyping or for playing. The modules, which can be snapped together by means of small magnets to make larger circuits, have unique functions, such as light, sound, sensors, buttons, motors. No soldering, no wiring, no programming on computers is required to make the tiny circuit boards work; just snap and play and make things happen. Ayah likes to call her little circuits similar to the “popsicle sticks and pipe cleaners we used to use for crafts.” By this past Christmas, Ayah had found two parts manufacturers, one in China, the other in California, and managed to assemble 3000 starter kits priced at $89.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Among her first investors was Joi Ito, through his fund Neoteny Labs, who is executive director of the Media Lab at M.I.T. which first sparked Ayah’s creative quest, and Nicholas Negroponte, a pioneer of computer-aided design, founder of the M.I.T. Media Lab and also founder and chairman of the One Laptop Per Child association. She also has attracted the interest of some telecom pioneers in the Arab world, such Taha Mikati and Fadi Ghandour, CEO of Aramex, the first Arab company to go public in the US, though she maintains majority ownership of her company.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> About a month after she introduced littleBits, Ayah got word that the Museum of Modern Art had added littleBits to its permanent collection, “snuggled,” Ayah fantasizes, “between Picasso and the innovative Post Its.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Ayah has positioned littleBits as an interactive educational toy for children and adults who may want to make a prototype or simply understand more about how things they use in the everyday work. Ayah notes that studies show consumers, often including children, spend over 7 hours a day on technological devices, but don’t know how they work or how to make any of them solve particular problems. The goal of littleBits, says Ayah, “is to convert passive consumers with very little technology know-how into thinkers and problems solvers”. What can you create with these little circuits? Examples include a solar powered desk lamp; a pulsing bike light; a temperature controlled desk fan that goes on and off depending on the temperature. And to delight kids, “a parent’s alarm” or sensor which rings a bell to alert them when an adult is about to enter their room! It’s even possible to create an environmental sensor to go off in the presence of carbon monoxide as a kind of prototype, though of course the kit sensor is a miniature version of what is required to protect your home. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Currently, Ayah is herself installed in COLLAB, a tech incubator in lower Manhattan; in the last two months she has added six to her staff, including electronic, industrial and production managers. Her goal is to develop some 30 additional modules and to expand her manufacturing capability. Her marketing strategy is to target educational institutions so she can bring littleBits to schools, after-school program and universities to teach electricity or physics, and other hard to visualize concepts. “These tool kits," Ayah says, “bridge the gap between the electronic devices everyone uses and the abstract science they learn in school. I think this approach will encourage more students, and especially girls who often shy away from science subjects though they are major consumers of electronics. My littleBits blurs the boundary between a toy and a tool kit with practical." </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2012/01/10/making-science-fun-with-high-tech-popsicle-sticks-and-pipe-cleaners/">Forbes Woman</a></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-46652295479533768572012-01-03T09:10:00.002-05:002012-01-10T18:48:03.495-05:00Guest Blog: How to Get Started with Public Relations<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_TFD2q5ktpzhIyRN4kMiWw1nB1wrzv7XYZcoATCvw0cUMNyap18fw0D3wN2PKX2IV35VV_2NfcB5pMHv3EKdNsUAUW8WbEs5PTpNqpnGHksaatIEsMVvhdDcc_D8Pl4rkq_QeLD40a_b/s1600/Marcy+Fleisher.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-_TFD2q5ktpzhIyRN4kMiWw1nB1wrzv7XYZcoATCvw0cUMNyap18fw0D3wN2PKX2IV35VV_2NfcB5pMHv3EKdNsUAUW8WbEs5PTpNqpnGHksaatIEsMVvhdDcc_D8Pl4rkq_QeLD40a_b/s200/Marcy+Fleisher.jpg" width="133" /></a><i>Marcy Fleisher is the founder and president of Fleisher Communications Group, a firm based in Columbus, Ohio that specializes in Earned Media. <a href="http://www.fleishercommunicationsgroup.com/">FleisherCommunications Group</a> represents a diverse clientele including a leading green energy firm, a leader in the health care technology field, and various professionals who turn to Fleisher for their PR needs. Prior to starting her own firm, Marcy spent more than 15 years as a TV reporter, earning a number of awards including an Emmy. She can be reached at marcy@teamfleisher.com. Here are her tips for starter uppers:</i><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><i><br />
</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b>MAPPING OUT YOUR PR STRATEGY</b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">Every business can benefit from a comprehensive communications strategy. But it is my experience that women owned businesses are the last to turn to a PR pro for help, maybe because as women we are used to handling so many different things at once? Regardless, women owned businesses would benefit from a communications plan which starts with earned media: here's how to get started:</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b>Earned Media </b></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">Earned media is the media exposure you don’t buy but earn the hard way or because you deserve it. It’s favorable publicity gained through editorial influence; it can be the very best way to create awareness, build momentum, increase credibility, produce buzz and generate business. In fact when earned media is done well I believe its value far outweighs advertising, which is why we recommend it be a part of every comprehensive communications strategy.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">What is your story?</b></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">Figure out what your story is. How is your company unique? Any special narrative about how you got started that others can identify with? What do you provide that competitors don’t? Are you solving a problem or providing a solution that others are looking for? Do you have an approach that is unconventional? Answering questions like these will help you determine your company’s story/angle which is what you your PR pro needs to know to pitch your company.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Who do you pitch to?</b></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">It’s important to determine who your audience is. Are you trying to reach potential clients, investors or prospective strategic partners? Maybe it’s a combination of all three. Whatever you determine, figure out how to reach these audiences. Are they on-line, do they read the local or national newspapers or trade publications? Can you find potential clients on social networking sites? </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Should I do my own pitching?</b></li>
</ul><div class="ListParagraphCxSpFirst">If you are running, building or launching a business, you’ve probably got plenty to do. Your time is not well-spent mining story ideas or finding the angles that will resonate with reporters. Nor is it prudent to spend the time it often takes to follow up with reporters as they work their way through your pitch. Sometimes there’s a very long lead time from the pitch to the publication and follow up is essential so the piece doesn’t get lost. When you are running a business, time management is key. Spending time on an area outside of your expertise can be costly. A PR pro can easily help you through the process. </div><div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Setting the budget</b></li>
</ul><div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle"> Back in the day, PR professionals typically charged a retainer, a monthly payment for a pre-determined set of deliverables. But times have changed so that now you can often structure a payment schedule that works best for you. My company, for example, offers clients everything from what we call Risk Free PR, which means you pay only if we secure “earned media” as well as the more typical retainer structure. Either way, determine the budget you are comfortable with at the onset and then be sure to ask for all options. And if you are on a Risk Free PR payment structure, be sure to specify what the maximum number of placements will cost you. This ensures there are no surprises when the bill does arrive. </div><div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">How do I determine the ROI on my PR?</b></li>
</ul><div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle">This can be tricky. Sometimes it is obvious. The story runs, the phone rings. But it isn’t always this way. You can measure a placements “reach” by analyzing circulation, audience, unique visitors, and other similar analytics. And you can certainly valuate your PR costs by comparing “earned media” to ad rates. But perhaps the better measurement is the sense you get that your message is being heard. Are people talking about you, clicking on the website, emailing with questions, liking the Facebook page? While not scientific, all of these can provide an overall feel for the campaign’s effectiveness.</div><div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Finally, give a PR strategy time to work, but don’t write it in stone</b>.</li>
</ul><div class="ListParagraphCxSpLast">Clients often ask how long will it take before I know if my communications strategy is effective? There is no definite answer. The truth is time is what the strategy often needs. We typically advise our clients to give a PR campaign at least 6 months and as long as a year before measuring its success. But a strategy should always have some built in flexibility so it can be tweaked along the way. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="ListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="ListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto;"><br />
</div><div class="ListParagraphCxSpLast"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i></i></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-65422247040206775532011-12-13T12:29:00.001-05:002012-01-03T09:13:06.895-05:00Breaking Down Barriers for Women in Tech<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd_Sv7haOZdECeMcIZWum3U7-CNuwA8cxq_YddNH0YyWhyphenhyphens-gWq389GCsIKLs3oFiKzqzgd_yhpDNrilMLnYBFGQRulYYQYd5uxnbgnyvkG9SwKeP1UbjX3FbvppvWiQO7-s36OYkNbCW4/s1600/Dr.+Maria+Klawe+Chats+with+Students.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd_Sv7haOZdECeMcIZWum3U7-CNuwA8cxq_YddNH0YyWhyphenhyphens-gWq389GCsIKLs3oFiKzqzgd_yhpDNrilMLnYBFGQRulYYQYd5uxnbgnyvkG9SwKeP1UbjX3FbvppvWiQO7-s36OYkNbCW4/s320/Dr.+Maria+Klawe+Chats+with+Students.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Klawe chats with students</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Against a background of persistent high unemployment, tech jobs go begging. These days even traditional retailers seek engineers to upgrade their websites as online sales skyrocket. Facebook recently announced a major presence in New York searching for East Coast tech talent. The shortage of graduates in what is known as STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math, has become a national problem, drawing the attention of the White House last fall which sponsored its first ever science fair. But even when brainy high school kids gravitate toward STEM courses, their interest often wanes in college. One stubbornly undeveloped group who represent a minority in almost all areas of STEM is women. But a nationally recognized computer scientist, mathematician and educator is determined to reverse the trend. When Dr. Maria Klawe (pronounced Kla Vay) became president of <a href="http://www.hmc.edu/">Harvey Mudd College </a>in Southern California five years ago, she embarked on a strategic effort, similar to an overhaul she led at Princeton in her former position there as Dean of Engineering, to increase the presence of women in STEM fields. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> At Harvey Mudd, one of the Claremont Colleges, Dr. Klawe’s strategy has already produced dramatic results. When she arrived, 33% of the student body was female, but only 10% of computer science majors were female. Today, 42% of the student body is female, and 40% major in computer science. Females majoring in engineering now account for 37%, and in physics their number is just over 20%. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Dr. Klawe knows the problem first hand. As she quips, her resume has been “full of firsts” for about 23 years. Before a stint as Head of the Department of Computer Science at the <a href="http://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a>, she spent eight years at IBM, ending up as manager at IBM of Mathematics and the Related Computer Science Department at their <a href="http://www.almaden.ibm.com/">AlmadenResearch Center</a>; she then served Dean of Science at the University of British Columbia before she was recruited by Princeton. Currently, she also serves as one of ten members of the board of Microsoft. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> But she feels lucky to be president of Harvey Mudd, “a haven of geeky, science-tech kids who face a more challenging curriculum than at much bigger institutions,” she notes. Her strategic plan for STEM gender equality works on several fronts. The first project was to make recruiting materials more female friendly and supportive. “We wanted to make clear,” Dr. Klawe says, “that we like well-roundedness, so we are interested in dancers and poets and musicians, who are also unusually good at math and science. We’ve also eliminated hazing and have become very good at nurturing.” Other changes include a curriculum revision, a program of paid research projects starting the summer after freshman year, and participation of women at national tech conferences.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> The reluctance of women to enter STEM fields seems to have deep roots-- which often don’t disappear even in the face of success. One of Dr. Kale’s favorite topics is what she calls The Imposter Syndrome. “Even women who get into MIT, and major in engineering,” she says, “often continue to second guess themselves, worrying that success was a mistake. So the first time they get a B on an exam, they switch to a major in the humanities. Yet males can get all C’s and think they’re doing great. It’s just normal for males to overestimate their success and for women to worry that they don’t deserve to be where they are. That insecurity often haunts them into their professional lives.”</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlaACYYtl7nh0HSzVr-6av66u0bB6yM6H59boT8WOJz3daL_ayRTzrdgxEw2JoOdOAlYI6Omkf3kS7tGCG26PZTon_u5pYVIPDJ4V-B7OEE09-XJZFjEB2Xk5-VCgi9PVeP3P7oIVVy5os/s1600/Professor+Alvarado+in+the+classroom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlaACYYtl7nh0HSzVr-6av66u0bB6yM6H59boT8WOJz3daL_ayRTzrdgxEw2JoOdOAlYI6Omkf3kS7tGCG26PZTon_u5pYVIPDJ4V-B7OEE09-XJZFjEB2Xk5-VCgi9PVeP3P7oIVVy5os/s320/Professor+Alvarado+in+the+classroom.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Alvarado at work</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> One professor who helped Dr. Klawe tackle the disparity by revamping the Harvey Mudd introductory computer science course is Christine Alvarado, an MIT PhD grad, who admits she had to learn how to navigate the “cultural divide” between men and women in science once she understood “you don’t have to stay up all night and work seven days a week to succeed because that’s not what I’m about.” Collaborating with three other CS faculty members, Professor Alvarado changed the first year programming course based on Java, “which was frankly just not very practical,” to a more collaborative, problem solving course to offer students “creative opportunities to do what computer scientists really do.” It teaches the Python language which is easier to apply to Web development and develops skills that can be applied to engineering, math and other subjects. Also, the course is now divided into sections so that students who are experienced in programming don’t discourage less experienced but equally talented classmates. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Another strategy with big impact, says Professor Alvarado, is taking first year students to attend the <a href="http://www.gracehopper.org/">Grace HopperCelebration</a>, an annual conference of thousands of female computer scientists which showcases successful women scientists. “It’s really helpful,” says Professor Alvarado, “for very young women to see women on the stage participating in panels discussing how they can manage their careers and maintain a sense of balance in their lives.” Once the most despised course, says Dr. Klawe, “Introduction to Computer Science is now the most loved.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> What gives a small college like Harvey Mudd with a total enrollment of only 750 students, the courage and determination to take on national problems of gender inequality in the sciences? Dr. Klawe credits her faculty because “we’re the only place in the country where you can teach this quality of student—we’re competitive with <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">MIT,</a> <a href="http://www.caltech.edu/">Caltech</a> and <a href="http://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford</a>—and be rewarded for teaching. That’s not to say we don’t value research, but if you’re a crummy teacher, I can tell you that you won’t get tenure here.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> But the Harvey Mudd model is not lost on bigger institutions, which lose an alarming number of STEM majors after tough introductory courses. <a href="http://www.duke.edu/">Duke</a>, <a href="http://www.berkeley.edu/">University of Californiaat Berkeley,</a> and <a href="http://www.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern</a> are already adopting some of the Mudd strategies. Meanwhile, Dr. Klawe mission continues, as she speaks out on the importance of gender equality at other universities, companies and industry events—whenever she is not rolling around campus on her beloved skateboard chatting up students.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2011/12/12/how-one-college-president-is-breaking-down-barriers-for-women-in-tech/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2011/12/12/how-one-college-president-is-breaking-down-barriers-for-women-in-tech/</a> </span></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-40562666541015089382011-11-29T18:18:00.002-05:002011-12-13T12:30:27.949-05:00Changing Course But Swimming Back from Katrina<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">While disasters often spawn opportunity in their wake, Katrina’s devastation was so profound that it reshaped the psyche of New Orleans residents, including its entrepreneurs.</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLCqQqtPIMV98KG2w3HRLtisEmi9cQqp6JkKvivFgOoE174VQQANyjOmnVYjZ1y6VOeEFbC2cWP1Ar1-WhFBfqb1DmJYLObgzxtyaEncG3V3yhaHifGXlYoipcrgpVh5RIuFNa-aTVuZJ/s1600/Suzanne+Mestayer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwLCqQqtPIMV98KG2w3HRLtisEmi9cQqp6JkKvivFgOoE174VQQANyjOmnVYjZ1y6VOeEFbC2cWP1Ar1-WhFBfqb1DmJYLObgzxtyaEncG3V3yhaHifGXlYoipcrgpVh5RIuFNa-aTVuZJ/s200/Suzanne+Mestayer.jpg" width="153" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Suzanne Mestayer of ThirtyNorth</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> After the big storm, one Louisiana native, Suzanne Mestayer, who had lived in New Orleans for 38 years, changed professional course. After racking up an impressive corporate career, as the ninth woman partner in Arthur Andersen, president for four markets in Louisiana for Regions Bank, (formerly Am South), and executive vice president for wealth management of First NBC/First Commerce, she decided to become an entrepreneur. The storm, she says, “changed my perspective on what I wanted to do. I just wanted to get back to being closer to clients than my corporate responsibilities allowed.” So in 2010, she acquired a majority ownership and the CEO title for <a href="http://www.thirtynorth.com/">ThirtyNorth Investments</a>, an investment advisory firm, founded and based only in Baton Rouge. Suzanne moved headquarters to New Orleans, but now has clients in 12 states. For this year alone, she has increased assets under management by 20%. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> For Suzanne, the biggest difference in being an entrepreneur is “there is no buffer. I am on the line personally, and I certainly take to heart how my decisions work out.” She also welcomes the opportunity to participate in the rebirth of New Orleans. “Counter to the rest of the country,” she noted, “New Orleans is on the upswing; young people from all over the country view it as a frontier that provides opportunities that don’t exist anywhere else. Plus the city has such a rich creative cultural background that it seemed important to develop business that was integral to its renewal.”</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7EUGXYqiVaEWOFl_JlbBTweyxB5RXQFkfi0KvOeWXjBVYyWUOfhHSQodUrQ_67fCEZYwgeynVXNPjI9pfwk0fT5UzBZvxAlevD7H-hQml7mL0yyf7yr4Q7xIX6XbtNw3LSdpC7aHKE9gm/s1600/Simone+Bruni.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7EUGXYqiVaEWOFl_JlbBTweyxB5RXQFkfi0KvOeWXjBVYyWUOfhHSQodUrQ_67fCEZYwgeynVXNPjI9pfwk0fT5UzBZvxAlevD7H-hQml7mL0yyf7yr4Q7xIX6XbtNw3LSdpC7aHKE9gm/s320/Simone+Bruni.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Simone Bruni, the Demo Diva</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> CEO Simone Bruni had a deep emotional reaction to Katrina too, but her approach to renewing New Orleans was literal: after her own home was destroyed and rebuilt, she started a demolition business, the <a href="http://www.demodiva.com/">Demo Diva Demolition Company, </a>to take down homes destroyed by Katrina. Her first investment was $180 spent on business cards and yard signs which she put on empty lots to advertise her services. “But then,” she continues, “instead of contracting work out, I fell in love with demolition and purchased my first excavator, a Volvo, and painted it hot pink.” In turn, Volvo folks then invited her to attend the World Demolition Summit in Amsterdam “where I learned a lot about how exciting this industry is.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> But soon after her start up, the going got rough. Simone says “whenever I made public bids, my contracts were thrown out. It’s an entrenched business and industry people saw me as a joke.” But, on the other hand, Simone realized the “seasoned guys who dominated the business could also help me” because they usually left sites without notice. She then asked the owners of the demolished plots if she could plant her signs on their lawns, and “they always said yes.” Simone also bought 25 dumpsters which she painted hot pink to become “mobile billboards for me as we moved them around the city.” Within five years, Demo Diva has tripled its revenues; to date she has demolished some 2000 homes, and along the way learned “the art of flood work insurance navigation,” which she sees as a foot in the door to build a disaster discovery business, beyond New Orleans. She also sees opportunities for Demo Diva in the blighted housing market, but the next step is “purchase of an 18-wheel tractor and low boy trailer along with a yard to park it in.” </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmuj01NT5EhGDaxNC3nwsGxLHEm0-d967oPHplAogbFFKRCHI5qtfLNwKHC1fqXLhP_V1liYzesIP6ClN4lzlhz3ai9VFYt1nzMLsmj0zX8BLsPLDik36RQ6i4h3EP68M3C4M6m9fLSfaf/s1600/Angela+O%2527Byrne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmuj01NT5EhGDaxNC3nwsGxLHEm0-d967oPHplAogbFFKRCHI5qtfLNwKHC1fqXLhP_V1liYzesIP6ClN4lzlhz3ai9VFYt1nzMLsmj0zX8BLsPLDik36RQ6i4h3EP68M3C4M6m9fLSfaf/s200/Angela+O%2527Byrne.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Angela O'Byrne of Perez</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Since 2000, Angela O’Byrne, has been President of <a href="http://www.e-perez.com/">Perez</a>, an architectural, engineering and design firm. Born in Cali, Columbia, Angela O’Byrne spent over a decade working for two multinational architectural firms in New York City before joining the New Orleans-based Perez organization, eventually buying out the second generation owners when they retired. “My choice was to be unemployed or become the owner,” she notes. Katrina, and the recession, sharply shrank her business, so Angela changed course by marketing in other locations, spending, she admits, “six times the money on marketing to get back half the work.” Her firm has designed a casino in Michigan, a resort in the Caribbean, marine housing in Iraq, a hospital and other military facilities in Afghanistan, and a US embassy in the African nation, Burkina Faso.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Angela O’Byrne’s philosophy is to “chase clients rather than projects because we are willing to do anything, such as roofs or maintenance, business other firms often turn down. But over time we expect the good will can help us expand our services to these clients.” Still deeply committed to New Orleans, her firm has designed dozens of schools, hospitals and churches in her hometown; recently she was selected to design a site to commemorate the desegregation of New Orleans public schools. Angela is also a co-founder of Citiworks, a non profit dedicated to the long term rebuilding of New Orleans. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLbWmywz1Kur-D-SpmlrsGArcP8hUkKSGMF48FBk28IPE2zDRhPSYVbPqSKzLnbxMQYHnDhe2YlDFHtPssUCU2tQcG3AS6nucX1EVGibnyJqr3KHvZexEvRs2599GuDVeodidPevdztwBG/s1600/Alexa+Pulitzer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLbWmywz1Kur-D-SpmlrsGArcP8hUkKSGMF48FBk28IPE2zDRhPSYVbPqSKzLnbxMQYHnDhe2YlDFHtPssUCU2tQcG3AS6nucX1EVGibnyJqr3KHvZexEvRs2599GuDVeodidPevdztwBG/s200/Alexa+Pulitzer.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alexa Pultizer</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Another native New Orleanian with deep entrepreneurial roots is <a href="http://alexapulitzer.com/">Alexa Pulitzer,</a> who creates collections of stationery with elegant classical motifs for high profile customers ranging from Anthropologie to Tory Burch. Her stationery is also available online and in high end retailers both nationally and internationally. While Alexa proudly announces she does 90% of her printing in New Orleans (10% in Maine), the downside of her local commitment was that she lost her printing presses when Katrina hit. But over the past six years, she started over and her business has doubled in the past three years; recently she added Bergdorf Goodman to her client list, thanks to her own ingenuity. Last Thanksgiving Day she had a handwritten note delivered to the home of the ex-chairman of Bergdorf’s board of directors. The result: Alexa Pulitzer stationery is offered in the current Bergdorf Christmas catalog as well as in the gift department of its New York store.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2011/11/29/changing-course-but-swimming-back-from-katrina/">Forbes Woman</a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-42636652933235312472011-11-17T15:00:00.002-05:002011-11-29T18:21:32.468-05:00The Post Katrina Entrepreneurs<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">New Orleans</span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> is coming back strong. After sustaining the disaster of Hurricane Katrina, the national economic recession, and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans today shows significant signs of rebounding, thanks to key reforms in education, criminal justice, and local government policies. Among its most noteworthy accomplishments, according to a recent Brookings Institute Report, its entrepreneurial activity is currently 40% above the national average.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Not surprised by the flurry of fledgling companies, Tim Williamson, Co-founder and CEO of <a href="http://ideavillage.org/">The Idea Village</a>, a non profit formed to identify, support and retain entrepreneurial talent in New Orleans, says that “when Katrina hit, New Orleans became <a name='more'></a>start up city. Everyone was an entrepreneur overnight because we all had to rebuild houses, neighborhoods, networks-- with limited resources. As a result, leaders came out of the woodwork, fracturing the insular networks that had characterized New Orleans for some time. Almost overnight New Orleans became a globally funded city.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Capitalizing on the infusion of local and outside support, The Idea Village, offers start ups a business acceleration program, collaborative entrepreneurial hubs, and investment capital as well as access to funds. Since its founding in 2002, Idea Village has supported 1100 entrepreneurs who have created over 1000 local jobs, generating annual revenues of $82 million.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> After Katrina, The Idea Village capitalized on the renewed interest in the revival of an economic base for New Orleans by launching an annual Entrepreneur Season, starting with a competition each summer to identify early stage, high impact entrepreneurs. From several hundred entries, about 20 companies are invited each October to join a six month program that provides access to strategic consulting, mentors, and capital. In addition, a variety of educational programs are available to all local entrepreneurs who register. The training culminates in Entrepreneur Week (March 10-16, 2012) which brings together entrepreneurs, investors, local business and civic leaders as well as MBA students from top business schools who provide assistance to the fledgling New Orleans start ups through a host of events. Tim Williamson says between October and March “ about 500 New Orleans entrepreneurs will receive over $1million in resources from a global network of CEOs, corporations, universities and investors.”</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0RcBwSE5H4BqZwLX7KSrN4mwHnqepvLqK1x0zyG7DWvm1iwIyE-dLOhP0BrwQFoQ7Ej_dZhg9IiMrAdIwx7NFv6tFpTybkJWphQHLjq3zlqD38ltxjpcfnttDKHjaIIwo-XuyTbFUciW4/s1600/Jen+Schnidman+Medbery.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0RcBwSE5H4BqZwLX7KSrN4mwHnqepvLqK1x0zyG7DWvm1iwIyE-dLOhP0BrwQFoQ7Ej_dZhg9IiMrAdIwx7NFv6tFpTybkJWphQHLjq3zlqD38ltxjpcfnttDKHjaIIwo-XuyTbFUciW4/s200/Jen+Schnidman+Medbery.jpeg" width="189" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jen Schnidman Medbery</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> One of 2010’s winners is Jennifer Schnidman Medbery, CEO of Drop the Chalk, who originally moved to the Mississippi Delta with Teach for America. After the hurricane, she was invited to help found Sci Academy, a charter school in New Orleans. While she enjoyed teaching in what she calls “a hotbed of progressive educational reform,” she also noticed that the energetic principal and teachers lacked reliable ways to measure student progress. A computer science graduate of Columbia University, Jen says her passion for technology, along with a grant from Idea Village, encouraged her launch a company to develop software, she calls <a href="http://kickboardforteachers.com/">Kickboard</a>, to track student performance. With input based on notes from teachers, the program then analyzes the data on student behavior and skills looking for patterns that can assist teachers to encourage improvement. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> One of a welter of assessment tools, Kickboard’s competitive edge, says Jen, lies in its ability to cater to the standards, culture and curriculum of specific schools--creating a customized student data management system for each client. Besides, Jen’s software provides “real time data, because principals do not want to waste a year by relying on annual assessments.” To date, Jen’s program has been purchased on a subscription basis by over 50 schools in New Orleans, and as far away as New York and Alaska. With ten employees, she is now focusing on building a team to support her growing client base. </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9rC_1UhU6F7ZSKLYO9aGkZ2uzoDk3pBV6gWS3_wmkmE4vJLBIuXZQQlCsesO8WDtn13A2g75V2KZKcUpYPnte9wzl9iqKCpjpQDJO0Jqi5w2UZVtJR_uDiOiFa_A8rGTh-TWCJpy0KNk0/s1600/Kay+Morrison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9rC_1UhU6F7ZSKLYO9aGkZ2uzoDk3pBV6gWS3_wmkmE4vJLBIuXZQQlCsesO8WDtn13A2g75V2KZKcUpYPnte9wzl9iqKCpjpQDJO0Jqi5w2UZVtJR_uDiOiFa_A8rGTh-TWCJpy0KNk0/s200/Kay+Morrison.jpg" width="131" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kay Morrison</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Another recent Idea Village competition winner is Kay Morrison, founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.theoccasionalwife.com/">The Occasional Wife,</a> a service which “empowers women by allowing them to do what they want to do while my company takes care of the rest of their lives,” from organizing moves to setting up home offices, hanging pictures, planning events, purchasing tickets, or arranging travel.Post Katrina, Kay Morrison observes, “the entrepreneurial world has been crazy vibrant down here. It certainly triggered my business. My family and I lived in four states after the storm. Formerly a Global Accounts Director for Starwood, Kay said she was overwhelmed by a desire “to save the reputation of my city.” She organized Occasional Wife in 2006, and has since opened two retail outlets in New Orleans to showcase her services and the streamlined products she uses to organize people’s lives. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> One satisfied customer is Sally Kenney, executive director of Newcomb College Institute of Tulane, who, after her appointment, hired Occasional Wife to help her organize her home and offices. She told Kay, “your company gives me a competitive edge in my new position by freeing up time I would have spent on mundane activities, thus allowing me to concentrate on my professional responsibilities.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Kay says as she hires women to work for her, she adds services based on whatever skills they bring to the company. “I think of my company as an incubator of women,” she observes. Anticipating revenues of $700,000 for 2011, Kay’s next move is to go national through franchising arrangements. Recently she expanded her services to Austin, Texas. Her philosophy is “I don’t pick locations, but I do pick people with good marketing skills who understand how to work under pressure.”</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_UYW31h4f2kdRmUMvpb5C9aiCnIH2Geni_kxSPQPZSyVJUC8JlsLW5-KrVBbk3-4dLzXB86971IcdZrfAbkH21h5KJ5rvVo-fd-EUkPuc54_PnrUxslMXgFOLpvNlXNGrpHmtFpOmJBqT/s1600/Francine++Ballard++of+DesignerSocial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_UYW31h4f2kdRmUMvpb5C9aiCnIH2Geni_kxSPQPZSyVJUC8JlsLW5-KrVBbk3-4dLzXB86971IcdZrfAbkH21h5KJ5rvVo-fd-EUkPuc54_PnrUxslMXgFOLpvNlXNGrpHmtFpOmJBqT/s320/Francine++Ballard++of+DesignerSocial.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Francine Ballard</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Among the three women selected last month to participate in the 2012 Entrepreneurship Season at Idea Village is former New Yorker Francine Ballard who left the fashion world a few years ago to move to New Orleans with her husband who wanted to migrate home. As a former advertising director of Lucky and fashion director of InStyle, Francine launched <a href="http://www.designersocial.com/">DesignerSocial</a>, an online forum and marketplace for new and pre-owned accessories. Along with sales items, Francine includes fashion industry tips and gossip for her 20,000 email subscribers. With minimum outside funding to date, sales since the 2009 launch have already topped $500,000, proving perhaps you can—or should-- go home again!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> First appeared in <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2011/11/17/after-katrina-an-entrepreneurial-boom-in-new-orleans/">Forbes Woman</a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16pt;"></span></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-22469198312302618572011-11-08T15:19:00.002-05:002011-11-13T11:57:20.130-05:00French-American Entrepreneurial Contest!<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12pt;">Sponsored jointly by the Club 600 and the French-American Chamber of Commerce (FACC), the fourth annual <a href="http://www.faea-us.com/">French-American Entrepreneurship Competition </a>is currently accepting entries through December 31, 2011. Established in 2008, the program seeks to help young French entrepreneurs succeed in the United States. To apply, entrepreneurs must submit business plans for review by a panel of members with expertise in many industries. Criteria include profit- seeking projects, operating in prelaunch or startup phase, in and for the US market. The 2011 winner will receive a $10,000 cash prize along with a 12-month coaching package, including strategic, legal, accounting and financial advice, from industry experts. Last year’s winner, Céline Legros, former corporate lawyer and cooking enthusiast, launched a pastry catering business, Les Canelés de Céline, whose clients now include Louis Vuitton, Clarins, and the Nespresso boutiques. </span>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-9177537400360118542011-10-31T17:01:00.003-04:002011-11-17T15:00:53.862-05:00Training 10,000 Global Women Entrepreneurs<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 18pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Recently the 5000<sup>th</sup> woman enrolled in a $100 million, 5-year campaign launched by <a href="http://www.10000women.org/">Goldman Sachs</a> in 2008 to provide business and management education to 10,000 underserved women around the world. The program was designed in response to research postulating that investment in women has a significant multiplier effect. Senior GS global economist Sandra Lawson, in a report called “Women Hold Up Half the Sky,” concludes that female education is linked to higher productivity, higher return on investment, higher agricultural yields and a more favorable demographic structure.” Furthermore, Lawson summarizes that narrowing the gender gap in employment in the Bric countries (Brazil, India and China) and the N-11 (including Bangladesh, Egypt and Pakistan) “could push income per capita 14% higher by 2020.”<a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Currently active in 22 countries, The 10,000 women program is coordinated by a network of over 75 local academic and NGO partners. Interest has been so strong that admission rates are comparable to the world’s most selective MBA programs. For example, the first class in Kigali, Rwanda had 600 applicants for 60 positions; similarly in China the admission rate was 10%, out of 1000 who applied. To qualify, women must have run established businesses for two years with a minimum of 5 employees. Generally, the women enroll in local certificate programs ranging from 5 weeks to six months, including courses on writing business plans, strategic planning and accessing capital. Sometimes to accommodate cultural and individual needs, the courses are arranged for evenings and weekends. According to Goldman Sachs Vice President and program director, Noa Meyer, “These courses, both the information and especially the confidence and network they provide, have been game changers for thousands of women.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu0W8iKfpc1evrrVOK6r6R3AtB6HuKIv8axN4GlQ5FjumBuweL2tXWj6Wzhte-NhqrBkKH13ivhsqtX_4HNv7a-cYQT2oG4O5Ft3ohbGO0TcAtO7kAHlaCF04XxngrD13I9KrL5MM1z2d_/s1600/Divya+Keshav.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu0W8iKfpc1evrrVOK6r6R3AtB6HuKIv8axN4GlQ5FjumBuweL2tXWj6Wzhte-NhqrBkKH13ivhsqtX_4HNv7a-cYQT2oG4O5Ft3ohbGO0TcAtO7kAHlaCF04XxngrD13I9KrL5MM1z2d_/s200/Divya+Keshav.jpg" width="156" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Divya Keshav</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> When her father decided to retire in 2008, one recent graduate Divya Keshav stepped up to take over her father’s printing business, <a href="http://krishnaprinternational.com/">Krishna Printernational,</a> a manufacturer of self adhesive labels for companies in the pharmaceutical, aviation, consumer durable, and garment industries. Previously she had been working as a project quality control manager for Indiamart, designing websites for major companies. She was selected for the 10,000 Women Program after responding to a newspaper ad, and says the program “worked wonders for me. It turned me around both professionally and personally with classroom courses and on the job training with follow up support from mentors.” Divya says the biggest value is that the program “gives women entrepreneurs needed confidence by honing our business skills, creating a strong network as well as providing mentors.” As a result, Divya has breathed new life into Krishna, growing revenues 100% in the past year and adding new employees for a total of 26. Now her goal is to scale the business with a clear view to “making the company a preferred vendor in all industries and also the best place to work for employees.” In addition, the program encouraged Divya to “pay it back” which led her to organize an NGO called Fragrance to work with disadvantaged communities in her native New Delhi.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhBneTquE-TTL-UO99GNz5viQCNvMyuREw8KC4mLCE5SIw2cBUhIJd92yHh1rsDXi0g2hEny3OtN4Cl0-_W62ryTDB79-xCDZlAs6McfMzdTOaHU_RLSJ0PbTkNQJPNRh0opb69H8W3MJ/s1600/Rasha+Lotfy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhBneTquE-TTL-UO99GNz5viQCNvMyuREw8KC4mLCE5SIw2cBUhIJd92yHh1rsDXi0g2hEny3OtN4Cl0-_W62ryTDB79-xCDZlAs6McfMzdTOaHU_RLSJ0PbTkNQJPNRh0opb69H8W3MJ/s320/Rasha+Lotfy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rasha Lotfy</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> In Egypt, Rasha Lotfy, a former accountant, founded <a href="http://afnanstore.com/">Afnan</a> (Arabic for “talents”) in 2007 to sell traditional Egyptian arts and handicrafts produced by Bedouin artisans from villages throughout Egypt. Besides a show room in Cairo, Rasha is developing an online business both for crafts and for cotton and linen exports. Through the 10,000 Women program, which lasted about 7 weeks for a total of 200 hours, Rasha learned how to create a business plan and build a website to market her brand. She also set up a small factory, located in the Siwa Oasis, where 20 local women embroider traditional motifs on bags and scarves and other fabrics. Because of her interest in the advancement of women, she too is currently starting an NGO called Alensan which helps children learn to paint and make handcrafted products; it also teaches women, including Sudanese refugees, how to produce home accessories for sale. Rasha credits the 10,000 Women program with “helping me think outside of the box to develop my brand. It also inspired me to do more outside of my business to improve the plight of women.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFl3L-YJwcevMwySaw5QJt_AGa7-da7Rn6d-B-EmnCqQKLMDTrRemlB40lNWSE95fKR3LMzWREkbLrF5_EqB4d7hVjwPUwbXQKqoxMD38EfL_3lgmnJO9EeO7vTmfaYHq-vF9E8HgkLpnQ/s1600/Ayo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFl3L-YJwcevMwySaw5QJt_AGa7-da7Rn6d-B-EmnCqQKLMDTrRemlB40lNWSE95fKR3LMzWREkbLrF5_EqB4d7hVjwPUwbXQKqoxMD38EfL_3lgmnJO9EeO7vTmfaYHq-vF9E8HgkLpnQ/s200/Ayo.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ayodeji Megbope</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> One of the earlier graduates of the program, Ayodeji Megbope started a catering company, <a href="http://noleft-overs.com/">No Left-Overs.com</a>, for both individuals and corporations in Lagos shortly after she resigned as a school secretary in 2006, but it didn’t take off as she had hoped. One night for a dinner party in her home she cooked a delicious bean cake wrapped in banana leaves, called moinmoin, a popular Nigerian dish. Her sister- in- law immediately placed an order followed by other family and friends who loved her version. While Ayo understood she had the makings of a business that could grow by word or mouth, her bigger problem was “”I was unable to sell myself, much less my product.” After joining the 10,000 Women program, she enrolled in the Lagos Business School where she learned to manage cash flow and operations. “Frankly, I was an overwhelmed business woman when I was selected for the program.” After six months of training, Ayo says she learned to network to continue to help refine her skills. Now she caters corporations and sells through retail outlets and online her expanded menu of soups and stews and other traditional meals; she also sells lunch packs to schools. She stays in touch with others in the group for which she proudly says “I have become a leader because I want to help other women entrepreneurs.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> In the research supporting the 10,000 women program economist Sandra Lawson concludes that educating women affects not only one family but the entire community. So far the 5000 women who have completed the program no doubt agree with her message that when women are economically empowered, all of society benefits. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Appeared in Forbes: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2011/10/31/training-10000-future-women-entrepreneurs/">http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2011/10/31/training-10000-future-women-entrepreneurs/</a></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-88454653592177796622011-10-20T13:35:00.001-04:002011-10-31T16:45:21.815-04:00Marketing Musts for Start Ups<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Both Anita Brearton and Sheryl Schultz (more below) are seasoned marketing professionals who have devoted their careers to launching ventures. Below is a distillation, based on several conversations, of the advice they often give clients at the earliest stage of the formation of new companies. </span><b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 16pt;"></span></i></b></div><ul><li><i><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> </span></i><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Make marketing central to your vision for your company.</span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Too many entrepreneurs give little or no thought to a marketing strategy. They focus instead on products or the size of the market opportunity without defining the marketing strategy and sales plan that will help them capitalize on the opportunity. When they pitch investors, the marketing slide is an afterthought, and often consists of one bullet point, usually social media. Right from the start, you need a marketer at the table along with the founder and product developer or tech team.<a name='more'></a></span></li>
</ul><div class="NoSpacing" style="margin-left: 9pt;"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Start with a one sentence description of what your company is and what it does. </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">It will help customers and investors understand who you are and why you’re useful. And be sure your identity is credible and meaningful to customers.<b><span style="color: red;"></span></b></span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 9pt;"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Putting a website up too early is starting in the middle. The message document must come first. </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Don’t spend time on company names, taglines, logos until you have developed your positioning.<b><span style="color: red;"></span></b></span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Begin with a stake in the ground! </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Work hard from day one on developing your corporate positioning. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Who are your customers? What problem do you solve for them? How do you solve it better than your competition? How do you want your customers and the market at large to think about your company? Where do you have the opportunity to be a market leader? </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;">If founders don’t have marketing skills, themselves, they often confuse tactics, such as public relations or paid search, with marketing strategy. Media coverage can be extremely valuable, but only if it communicates your message. Think about marketing as a conversation with your prospective customers, but don’t talk until you know what you really want to say. If the company positioning is confused or unfocused, customers and investors will also be confused because the company hasn’t defined its core message. If you don’t have a marketing strategy, you don’t have a business.</span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"></span></b></li>
</ul><div class="NoSpacing"><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span></div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Hire a marketing professional who is both strategic and tactical, a hands-on marketer. </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">You want someone who is both a strategic thinker and willing to put hands on the keyboard, someone who can actually do the wireframe for the website, still willing to get dirty hands. Once you are ready to execute your marketing strategy, you require help with synthesizing the information and research, which an experienced professional can do. This process is a grind because there will be barrels of information about the industry or about the competition, but you have to absorb it all so you can develop a distinct position in the market. </span></li>
</ul><div class="NoSpacing" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Get out in the marketplace! </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">When companies do positioning work, they often do it in the confines of a windowless conference room. Get out in the market to see the customers, to view your competitors and their marketing strategy first hand, to familiarize yourself with the industry. You may find out your tagline looks like everyone else’s. By concentrating on an internal focus without taking a broad view, it’s easy to set up straw man position which won’t hold up in the real world.</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"></span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Look for a launching point. </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Find opportunities to showcase what you do, especially when you’re in a crowded market. For example, one company we have worked with, Crimson Hexagon, which analyzes consumer opinions created in social media, monitored Obama’s first State of the Union speech for CNN; after that, the company name constantly appeared whenever their data was cited. The election provided a crucial launch point for them. </span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Marketing start ups requires hard work and constant refinement. </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">It’s not the same as marketing for more mature companies because you have no brand awareness; there isn’t any budget; you often don’t have people resources; the CEO may or may not have marketing experience. But whether it’s a technology, medical science, internet or consumer company, your ideas will go nowhere without a comprehensive marketing strategy. Take the time to forge one early on.</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"><br />
</span></div><ul><li><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">Once you create a marketing plan, commit to it. </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;">It’s not enough to hire a good marketer or come up with a marketing plan unless you’re willing to spend several hours a week to sit down to discuss the execution. Good marketing professionals demand commitment from the highest level. It may be hard for first time entrepreneurs to communicate or get their minds around their businesses, so when you hire the skills you lack, you have to be prepared to listen.</span></li>
</ul><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bo6XaZARivXWQq3tFuIBwKfQrJc4jf1R0AfF47SfT91sVc_FLvO5_5zE1OzWjaRJiR8h9hrCdNwU2lfTsuQLOPev0XxhyfyZn-wkLqPCgcPASSiich5DBCB5b3TitAQ4yCQhEIGfvVZG/s1600/Anita+Brearton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9bo6XaZARivXWQq3tFuIBwKfQrJc4jf1R0AfF47SfT91sVc_FLvO5_5zE1OzWjaRJiR8h9hrCdNwU2lfTsuQLOPev0XxhyfyZn-wkLqPCgcPASSiich5DBCB5b3TitAQ4yCQhEIGfvVZG/s200/Anita+Brearton.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anita Brearton</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="NoSpacing"><b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;">Anita Brearton</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;"> has had an extensive career driving the market strategy for early stage technology companies, including Cascade Communication and Sycamore Networks. Currently, Anita is a board member of the Angel Capital Association and the Massachusetts Technology Development Council; she is a managing director of Golden Seeds, and founder of Women’s Entrepreneurial Council in Boston, a super organization to coordinate groups, providing a powerful Boston-based ecosystem for women entrepreneurs. </span></i></div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div><div class="NoSpacing"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="NoSpacing"><i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;"></span></i></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV4x7xOBbfsZ9M8-vWg7k2dVnWzVjV94fH-W5WuFpKhYBddisuQzBQTaJz4uViE8zYRCTZY57zMg4yZtEgGKUuKQqkbDlzIcNH0GAirpi5CJwHx74oaz837qg6RS2af6jCCeOLH3DiAddr/s1600/Sheryl+Schultz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV4x7xOBbfsZ9M8-vWg7k2dVnWzVjV94fH-W5WuFpKhYBddisuQzBQTaJz4uViE8zYRCTZY57zMg4yZtEgGKUuKQqkbDlzIcNH0GAirpi5CJwHx74oaz837qg6RS2af6jCCeOLH3DiAddr/s200/Sheryl+Schultz.jpg" width="151" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheryl Schultz</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;">Sheryl Schultz</span></i></b><i><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 9pt;"> has spent over 30 years working with start ups, as marketer, board advisor, mentor and investor. She founded SRS Associates to provide communications and market strategy consulting to dozens of telecommunications companies, and took 20 companies from inception through successful IPO or acquisition, including Acme Packet, ArrowPoint Communications, Sonus Networks and Wellfleet Communications. She is a Golden Seeds managing director, and a board member of Crimson Hexagon and The Capital Network. She is also co-founder of The Women’s Entrepreneurial Council.</span></i></div><div class="NoSpacing"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-1425448073926783182011-10-04T16:43:00.001-04:002011-10-20T13:36:00.297-04:00THE BUSINESS OF FITNESS<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIRgMQNCbh46CGOU_JewUyfNKgGUgKilRJzHHOPpGnXuIxiGRwV7uUgvbPhrV5GTdRNHAF05ip19R3jdNtOvtU5jDErgjVJmfc9wnuFD7GwmAbhn2-TacGN4ppyNfl-WyqGL2lBUB7Fwe/s1600/Annbeth+Eschbach+of+Exhale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVIRgMQNCbh46CGOU_JewUyfNKgGUgKilRJzHHOPpGnXuIxiGRwV7uUgvbPhrV5GTdRNHAF05ip19R3jdNtOvtU5jDErgjVJmfc9wnuFD7GwmAbhn2-TacGN4ppyNfl-WyqGL2lBUB7Fwe/s200/Annbeth+Eschbach+of+Exhale.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Annbeth Eschbach of exhale</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> After a long career of managing high-end spas across the country, in 2002 Annbeth Eschbach noticed a trend. With more women working in high powered jobs, trying to balance home and work life, she spotted a need for “urban spas,” so that women could de-stress or get fit a few hours a week rather than spending a week at a destination spa. As the daughter of a renowned kidney specialist who devoted his life to healing, Annbeth also wanted to emphasize a “holistic approach to transformation and healing moving away from beauty and pampering.” She also recognized high level of investor interest in the spa space. So she put together a business plan and model for a company called <a href="http://www.exhalespa.com/"><b>exhale</b></a>, to offer relaxation, wellness, and fitness through yoga, core classes, spa therapies and wellness programs. A private equity firm stepped up to fund her; she remains Founder and CEO with a minority equity stake.<a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Today the <b>exhale </b>brand operates in 18 units in 9 cities with 1400 employees. Following the 2008 economic decline, when the traditional spa market reported sharp declines, <b>exhale</b> entered an active expansion phase. Specifically <b>exhale</b> partnered with the hospitality and real estate industry to house spas in upscale hotels, such as Gansevoort in New York, Epic in Miami and Fairmont in California. For the past two years, revenues have grown over 20% a year. Annbeth, who besides her daily yoga and core fusion class recently added ice hockey to her exercise regimen to impress her thirteen-year old son, has also developed successful retail space in her spas, which generate revenues of $1500 per square foot. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Looking ahead, Annbeth Eschbach plans more brick and mortar expansion, including global growth, continued development of the apparel business, a bigger internet play, as well as potential licensing of the <b>exhale</b> brand. “We have built a brand in the wellness and fitness space, which is different from the traditional fitness business, so I see lots of arms and legs to our future growth.”</span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJjTid796XBVStMBLcpZ1qoRDz06iXrwiI4YNZdyeb2kpoeQfG6ykNoOjavBdCCTduymZjo4VAuoJp68kGMUsgqMvo2LdFrcjn4UoshT6VZG9oECa3iRx-lzrFUmLl5zZ2vmy2XWzXTWVH/s1600/Julie+Rice+and+Elizabeth+Cutler+of+Soul+Cycle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJjTid796XBVStMBLcpZ1qoRDz06iXrwiI4YNZdyeb2kpoeQfG6ykNoOjavBdCCTduymZjo4VAuoJp68kGMUsgqMvo2LdFrcjn4UoshT6VZG9oECa3iRx-lzrFUmLl5zZ2vmy2XWzXTWVH/s200/Julie+Rice+and+Elizabeth+Cutler+of+Soul+Cycle.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler of Soul Cycle</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> The sport of spinning, or cycling on indoor bicycles, has also gone boutique. Elizabeth Cutler and Julie Rice saw something lacking in the fitness market: a venue for cardio fitness that was both effective and fun which led to the founding of <a href="http://www.soul-cycle.com/"><b>Soul Cycle</b></a> in 2006. Elizabeth Cutler had been a real estate broker with good financial savvy who also had a practice in jin shin jyutsu, a Japanese method for releasing tension, in Telluride. When she had her first child and moved to New York, she met longtime cycling instructor Ruth Zukerman, and Julie Rice, a talent agent recently transplanted from California, who, like Elizabeth, also had a 5-month old baby. With their shared vision for more fun in exercise, something they didn’t find in New York, the three clicked over lunch and with “a little bit of divine intervention” in 2006 opened their first studio, which they found on Craig’s List, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Elizabeth herself supplied the majority of funding for their start up, thanks to her successful investment in Izze, a fruit juice company purchased by Pepsi. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> When the <b>Soul Cycle</b> partners arrived to set up shop, they were hit with the news that they couldn’t put up a sign on the landmarked building, so they bought a rickshaw on eBay, spray-painted it in Soul Cycle’s signature silver and yellow with an arrow pointing to their front door, a ploy that continued to cost them daily parking tickets. “I knew if we could just get a 100 people in our door to see what we were offering, the word would spread,” Elizabeth predicted. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Apparently the rickshaw did the trick. <b>Soul Cycle</b> offers customers a 45- minute high energy spinning session on stationery bikes, 40-70 per darkened room, with candlelight, energizing music and dynamic teachers which creates what Julie calls “a healthy night club experience.” Classes cost $32 a session. With eight locations in Manhattan, the Hamptons and Westchester. Elizabeth Cutler, who oversees business development, while Julie supervises programs and teacher training, projects <b>Soul Cycle</b> will soon open studios, in Hollywood and Los Angeles, and expand to over 40 locations in the next five years. To help fuel expansion, this past spring <b>Soul Cycle</b> was acquired by Equinox, a fitness gym with over 51 locations throughout the US, although Soul Cycle will continue to operate separately with Julie and Elizabeth remaining as heads to oversee further expansion. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgifjhc51xJZ2-bTWYixh-LjzuXizWhvQ8tg_G8YgR6XEzNlGnTMVkebPeEdJ6O0F_6RoyzaLQnUvTE4MhyBX3nMclqR2zNFm2-ndHVTZcalSl2HWI1EH7kOiZlmKnWwjfCUdDOh0aE7Wd2/s1600/Ruth+Zukerman+of+Flywheel.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgifjhc51xJZ2-bTWYixh-LjzuXizWhvQ8tg_G8YgR6XEzNlGnTMVkebPeEdJ6O0F_6RoyzaLQnUvTE4MhyBX3nMclqR2zNFm2-ndHVTZcalSl2HWI1EH7kOiZlmKnWwjfCUdDOh0aE7Wd2/s200/Ruth+Zukerman+of+Flywheel.jpeg" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ruth Zukerman of Flywheel </td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> Meanwhile, in early 2007 Ruth Zukerman, ceded her equity position in Soul Cycle to her two other partners, but stayed on as a teacher for the next few years. But in 2010, backed by equity partners, she started a competitive cycle business, <a href="http://www.flywheelsports.com/"><b>Flywheel Sports</b></a>. Now with seven studios in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Chicago and Boca Raton. Ruth, who started her professional career as a modern dancer, prides herself on her emotionally charged classes, with “choreography calibrated to the music.” Additionally, her studios, which have a stadium-architecture with three tiers so that students have unobstructed views of the instructor, feature technology monitors on each bike to measure resistance levels and speeds. An optional incentive is a wide screen that ranks the top ten female and male ten cyclists within the group. Ruth says that her best advertisement are customers who see results in pounds lost or strength gained because “we are an authentic athletic experience with good customer service; for example, reservations can be made online and check in is done through computers to eliminate waiting in line.” By the end of 2011, <b>Flywheel</b> will open three more studios, then expects to double locations in 2012. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> With the cost of pricey urban real estate, fast changing trends, a fragmented market, plus the challenges of running a high service business, the fitness business faces many hurdles. Let the competition begin!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com66tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-2442137288164776922011-09-19T16:32:00.001-04:002011-10-04T16:44:54.345-04:00Changing Hats: Lawyers Turned Entrepreneurs<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> At a meeting in Silicon Valley one day seven years ago, when securities lawyer Ali Wing heard herself criticizing her client’s revenue model, she knew the time had come to change hats. The daughter of a Montana land investor in a family of nine children, including five adopted siblings, Ali says “we were all raised to conquer the world.” After attending Lewis and Clark College in Portland, she went to work at nearby Nike for eight years, picking up valuable marketing skills. Then she left to get an MBA because “I wanted more finance.” She also thought a professional law degree could help because “I was from a working class family background and wanted every advantage in my pocket.” At Northwestern she picked up a combined business law degree and in 1997 joined Silcon Valley law firm Gunderson Dettmer, whose clients fund fledgling businesses. When founding partner, now mentor, Bob Gunderson, first recruited her, he had told her “I would be happy to have you as a lawyer or a client.” </span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuOEcdMbQKWcY9J-MmXW3ifUUjCy1_0exilfVWLK671y1vC_2tR99eTJujfdfB-Ck3w0fMXaFaMVrMtpft9IUUw2MCwOF2JAhrkd3noKlrb6Nw0HMxiIyvAqTMXeZOopkC9Br4O03lmQFK/s1600/Ali+Wing+giggle+CEO-Founder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuOEcdMbQKWcY9J-MmXW3ifUUjCy1_0exilfVWLK671y1vC_2tR99eTJujfdfB-Ck3w0fMXaFaMVrMtpft9IUUw2MCwOF2JAhrkd3noKlrb6Nw0HMxiIyvAqTMXeZOopkC9Br4O03lmQFK/s320/Ali+Wing+giggle+CEO-Founder.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Founder CEO Ali Wing</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> When Ali first left law for business, she became marketing head at Gazoontite, a retailer of allergy products, But soon she became attracted by the opportunities presented by the growing demographic of older parents. So in 2003 she launched her company, <a href="http://www.giggle.com/">Giggle</a>, in San Francisco, to provide information, organic clothing, equipment, and smarter products for babies, along with customized services to make it easier when you become new parents. Now with products and services available both online and in 15 retail outlets around the country, Giggle offers customers personal shoppers, a baby registry, and various gear guides along with, as one recent customer commented, “a very cool aesthetic which appeals to professional women.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Now based in New York, with a corporate staff of 40 and some 120 employees in the field, Ali Wing says “we’re currently in expansion mode building out an executive team.” Results make her point: last year overall sales were up 35%, with catalog and web sales skyrocketing by 70%. Ali sees herself as brand CEO and considers herself “atypically operational. I’m not a serial entrepreneur, but I do have global domination plans for Giggle. It may take a long time to build big plays, but I have the work ethic and tenacity to prevail, though I am also quick to delegate when I have the right team.”<a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> But Ali Wing is just one of a host of former lawyers turned entrepreneurs who value their legal training but were lured by opportunities they couldn’t resist. Jessica Eaves Mathews, based in Albuquerque, found her calling on a golf course. In her 16 years as a successful commercial litigator and business lawyer, she frequently was invited to golf outings with male colleagues. But she was always frustrated with the dress options for women golfers: “I saw that men could wear on the golf course what they wore to work, maybe a pair of khakis and a nice sports shirt; they look very put together. But for women the choices were limited to shapeless golf shirts and skorts (short skirts with shorts), inappropriate for business. I also hated missing out on conversations and dealmaking when I had to change from work dress into those terrible old- fashioned outfits, then change again before I could join the guys for a drink in the club house.” So her company Grace and Game was born-- twice! “I first launched the line 13 years ago,” Jessica admits,” but I didn’t know what I was doing because most lawyers are not business people.” Along the way she got some experience running a small construction company and loved the challenge of building a business. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> In 2008, while she was playing golf in Hawaii in what she calls another “mini man’s outfit,” Jessica decided to relaunch <a href="http://www.graceandgame.com/">Grace and Game</a> , to provide chic, luxurious clothing, made of sustainable fabrics for women golfers that they can also wear to work or to dinner as well as on the golf course. Her clothing, manufactured totally in the US, is available online and soon in high end golf shops, spas and boutiques in the West. Jessica believes women are the biggest untapped market in the golf industry,” because so many of them have been put off by the “boxey or cutesy look.” Her ultimate goal is to add the non golfing world as target customers by offering her line to major department stores, like Neiman and Nordstrom. Her career change wasn’t painful for Jessica because she still uses her legal, analytical skills but she loves being an entrepreneur more. “Unlike most successful women lawyers, I no longer have to leave 80% of myself at the door to become successful.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> As a former Manhattan assistant district attorney, Chloe Epstein’s conversion to entrepreneurship occurred when she had children and couldn’t find frozen treats for her kids that didn’t contain “mysterious ingredients.” So she concocted a dairy-lactose-, glucose- free product made only with fruit, filtered water and a touch of cane sugar, instead of fructose or corn syrup. By self financing with two partners, Chloe leased a store on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and bought soft serve machines at $20,000 each. Now her company, <a href="http://www.softservefruitco.com/">The Soft Serve Fruit Company</a>, has since opened a flagship store near Union Square and a pop up store in the Hamptons. Looking ahead, Chloe hopes to grow nationally, “now that we know our snack is not just a mommy-kid product. It appeals to younger guys, especially athletes, and to anyone looking for healthy frozen desserts.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Liz Lambert was fighting street crime in Manhattan for a few years before she decided to move home to Texas. While working for the state attorney general, she fell in love with an old wreck of a hotel, the San Jose, in a “changing neighborhood” in Austin. Once she bought it in 1995, she thought she could “ keep practicing law and renovate the hotel, but it didn’t work out that way.” So she left law and became a hotel developer. Today she serves as Chief Creative Officer for her company, <a href="http://www.bunkhousemgmt.com/">Bunkhouse Management</a> which owns and operates four hotels, throughout Texas, including the now successful Hotel San Jose, each with its own aesthetic. Though her legal training has been a big help,Liz loves working for herself, and especially exploring “my creative side.” One current project. El Cosmico on 18-acres in Marfa, Texas consists of vintage trailers, safari tents, teepees and yurts; besides offbeat accommodations, it also serves as a venue for artistic events. Does she ever miss New York? “ Sure, I wish I could magically takeownership of the renowned Chelsea Hotel, but maybe instead I’ll settle for doing a well- designed low priced chain someplace in the West.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">If you are a lawyer turned entrepreneur, please tell us your story by clicking on comment!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-40437836700943973222011-09-08T12:04:00.001-04:002011-09-19T16:35:17.466-04:00Emerging Global Entrepreneurs<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Many years ago in Tanzania when Susan Mashibe was four years old, she remembers watching her parents take off in an airplane while she was left behind with her grandmother. “At that point,” she determined, “I decided if I knew how to fly, I would never be left behind again.” Years later after getting a degree in aviation management from Western Michigan University and becoming an FAA-certified commercial pilot, Susan planned to get a job as a pilot for a US airline. But 9/11 intervened, after which the aviation industry contracted and restrictions on hiring non natives tightened. So Susan Mashibe returned to her home in Tanzania to explore a niche in the airline industry there. In 2002, Susan used all her savings to rent a small office in the Dar es Salaam airport to start her company, TanJet, which provides technical and logistical support to visiting private jets throughout Africa. Her first client was Jacob Zuma, currently president of South Africa, who was on a visit to Tanzania. In 2007 Susan added a 70,000 square foot hangar in Kilamanjaro where she co-founded the Kilimanjaro Aviation Logistics Centre, a company that processes landing and over flight clearances for private jets through Africa. More recently, she opened her third office on the shores of Lake Victoria. She is also an aircraft maintenance engineer who can service jet engines. Last spring Susan was selected along with 25 other women leaders from emerging countries to participate in the 6th annual Fortune/State Department Global Women Mentoring Partnership, a public private partnership with the State Dept’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit and Vital Voices Global Partnership. <a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> After an orientation week in Washington, Susan Mashibe flew to Google headquarters in Mountain View to meet her mentor there, Marissa Mayer, VP, Maps, Local, and Location Services, and shadowed her (and lived with her) for three weeks. Susan says her goals were to learn how to structure her organization better by delegating work so she could concentrate on how to scale. “What Marissa taught me,” Susan says, “is to hire smart people who get things done. I saw how important it was to have a healthy team, but to be willing to dismiss bad apples before they contaminate the team. You also have to nurture your team well.” As she shadowed her Google mentor, Susan was impressed by how Marissa balanced family and work life and how actively she engaged in community activities. “I now see,” Susan observes, “that the US doesn’t wait for the government to fund everything. That’s a new concept for us but as a result of this program I see that part of my company’s responsibility is to give back to our community.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> And of course good business often arises out of community engagement. Susan Mashibe has agreed to help Google map Tanzania, but she plans to do it by working with the computer department at the University of Dar es Salaam to give students and professors experience in working with Google. On her part, Marissa Mayer observes that after working with Susan she realized that “leadership challenges are the same across countries and cultures.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Another mentor in the program is Julie Winskie, Global President, Clients for Porter Novelli, a subsidiary of OMNICOM; Julie was paired with Ethnie Miller Simpson, co-managing director and founder of BRANDZ Avenue, a Kingston, Jamaica- based marketing company focused on building global brands. “What I learned during my second year in the program,” Julie notes, “is that it’s the students who really become the teachers. I’m constantly amazed by the work ethic of these women. Besides, they often have a longer term perspective because they have mountains in front of them, but they know those mountains will be there tomorrow. Also, they are so deeply rooted in their cultures, aware of the political realities in their regions, and very communal in their thinking. Many of these women create a powerful revolution just by the fact that they are working at such high levels.” </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj99vAGHbSlEmkACdgn_n4tTCTq6Ttcehi06Le4kxZA5kuOiH7IvF4pXNzTSm0XwohUIm2MD2zy3NJs8LuHNgVnJ-kL73QvE-N7UH5ERCTnSYDRqAw1nJPu1Gn-qPf6kw-bXY_bxeeHUihW/s1600/Julie++Winskie+and+Ethnie++Miller+Simpson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj99vAGHbSlEmkACdgn_n4tTCTq6Ttcehi06Le4kxZA5kuOiH7IvF4pXNzTSm0XwohUIm2MD2zy3NJs8LuHNgVnJ-kL73QvE-N7UH5ERCTnSYDRqAw1nJPu1Gn-qPf6kw-bXY_bxeeHUihW/s200/Julie++Winskie+and+Ethnie++Miller+Simpson.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Julie Winskie and Ethnie Miller Simpson</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> The challenge for Julie’s mentee, Ethnie Miller Simpson was to validate her business concept and to streamline her client list. She also needed help identifying publicity opportunities for the company that reflects her brand. A former teacher and trainer, Ethnie says she had shied away from media attention for herself, but the team at Porter Novelli helped me understand that I could develop a point of view so that I would become the “go to” person and known in my industry for our particular marketing approach, without focusing on me. After working with Julie and other Porter Novelli executives, I see the opportunity for organic growth for my clients by helping them associate themselves with concepts their consumers embrace, such as sustainability, and not just products.”</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> What impressed Ethnie about Julie Winskie’s leadership was “how inclusive and open she is; she listens and asks questions in meetings. But then she subtly weaves everything she hears into a decision.” Julie turned to Ethnie for her depth of experience in training because in a former position, Ethnie had created a “corporate university” for a telecom company. For Porter Novelli, Ethnie suggested making training more user friendly. For middle management, Ethnie notes, “it’s fine to have an electronic training manual, but you have to encourage learning in bite size formats to engage employees.” Ethnie also left her mark on one of Porter Novelli’s “Thirsty Thursday” social events by suggesting the addition of Reggae music one night with a menu of jerked chicken, salt fish fritters and Red Strip beer!</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Julie Winskie admits she’d like to repeat her mentoring experience. “These women make me see how myopic we can be. They are from emerging countries, but they have that doesn’t mean they have tertiary thinking because they work in third world markets. In my experience these women bring great clarity and perspective and valuable philosophic approaches to business, which can benefit us.” </span><span style="color: black; font-family: Verdana;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-2673045503374933382011-08-24T17:06:00.001-04:002011-09-08T12:08:17.917-04:00When Powerful Women in the World Unite!<div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">"What young entrepreneur would not want the opportunity to mingle with giants in the business?" asks Madiha Sultan, CEO of <a href="http://www.lalschocolate.com/">Lals Chocolates</a>, a luxury chocolate business based in Karachi, Pakistan which she founded with her mother in 2006. Her company has retail outlets in Karachi and Lahore and has developed a successful corporate gift program for holidays. Madiha was one of 26 women selected earlier this year to participate in the Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women's Mentoring Partnership. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Madiha's mentor was Kathleen Vaughan, Executive Vice President for <a href="http://www.wellsfargo.com/">Wells Fargo </a>Wholesale Mortgage Division, who says one of her motivations in signing up to mentor global women is to show them "the most important factor is not 'me' but the village in which we work, which then becomes a confidence booster. I want these women to see what is possible by meeting with many successful women who manage risk and make tough decisions. Madiha very much wants to be a free woman charting her own destiny in a culture that makes it difficult; we're here to show her options." <a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> On her part, Madiha left her three week shadowing experience with Kathleen, and various other mentors she was introduced to, with some clear ideas of the importance of strategy and ideas for developing an export business, but most of all, she says she learned "you don't have to be an aggressive, obnoxious person to get ahead. I now see my own management style is an advantage."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Madiha Sultan's group of 26 emerging women leaders gathered in Washington in May for orientation before going on to spend three weeks with their mentors throughout the U.S. Since the program began in 2006, about 220 women in senior positions at companies including Google, Time Inc, Walmart, American Express, Accenture, and Dow Chemical, as well as law and financial firms, have mentored 174 women from 42 countries. To apply, the women from emerging nations must be between the ages of 25-43 and speak fluent English; they must either run their own businesses, work in management positions, or run nongovernmental organizations. This fall, applications will be accepted for the 2012 program; recruitment is processed through embassies in designated participating countries. For general information, here's a <a href="http://exchanges.state.gov/citizens/professionals/fortunepartnership.html">link</a>:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwJ9jW6U-FlEXa30kpErE8FD3PCEPWKekNyoqYVIkRLbzjWEi4jnvHPylYauhUWFuYw6nu2BXkWRR8W0lQf3PowOS3tPn8fyuqjizpaiN2T32kG_RalWZr3Uxj8cGwHhtT73nZ-BqmKZVh/s1600/Lola+Scotta+and+Kathleen+Vaughan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwJ9jW6U-FlEXa30kpErE8FD3PCEPWKekNyoqYVIkRLbzjWEi4jnvHPylYauhUWFuYw6nu2BXkWRR8W0lQf3PowOS3tPn8fyuqjizpaiN2T32kG_RalWZr3Uxj8cGwHhtT73nZ-BqmKZVh/s200/Lola+Scotta+and+Kathleen+Vaughan.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lola Scotta and Kathleen Vaughan</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Another of Kathleen Vaughan's mentees, Lola Scotta from Buenos Aires, says participation in the program gave her the encouragement to accept a promotion she was subsequently offered as field marketing manager for SAB Miller, the second largest beer company in the world, for which she has responsibility for 4 countries in South America. Lola says when men are offered promotions, "they say yes, even if the position is more challenging. With me I always hesitate because I'm not sure if I can do it. After the program I knew I could do it. "Someday Lola hopes to start a business magazine. She stays in touch weekly with Kathleen Vaughan, her U.S. mentor, who says she soon realized "Lola had the gusto to do more." Lola observes "it was so exciting to sit in on meetings with Kathleen to see how she could be so sensitive but yet very focused. She has broadened my perspective on what I am capable of. It was awesome."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0IH5R0TmJu81GykHd4Y0SxFqWtvmRAXy05LJyUq3C6P5EMZMEl5pY0_DAulPs9jtD1-r3YM8oxDd-IJxnFxHgH5v2shEJ0IepJiMtViDPTZP9ElLdNLP32Qy7Ooq3TAomM88ho0VRDSd-/s1600/Gaelle+Pierre+and+Kathi+Lutton+with+credit.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="135" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0IH5R0TmJu81GykHd4Y0SxFqWtvmRAXy05LJyUq3C6P5EMZMEl5pY0_DAulPs9jtD1-r3YM8oxDd-IJxnFxHgH5v2shEJ0IepJiMtViDPTZP9ElLdNLP32Qy7Ooq3TAomM88ho0VRDSd-/s200/Gaelle+Pierre+and+Kathi+Lutton+with+credit.bmp" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gaelle Pierre and Kathi Lutton</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Program mentors seems to share the awe. Kathi Lutton, a lead litigation partner at <a href="http://www.fr.com/">Fish & Richardson,</a> the country's largest intellectual property law firm, asked herself "how could I not be a mentor? Mentoring women leaders across the globe seems right for the times." One of her first mentees, Susan Rammekwa runs an orphanage in South Africa for 200 children whose parents have died from HIV/Aids. After being mentored by Kathi and co mentors Megan Smith and Susan Wojcicki of Google who connected her to a network of some 50 women in Silicon Valley, Susan determined to make her orphanage self-sustaining; upon her return, she organized village women to sew garments for her children and next to sell the garments within the community to make money to support her orphanage. She has also begun operating a bakery with a bread machine purchased through contributions from her U.S. network. Another mentee of the Silicon Valley threesome, is Gaelle Pierre, co-founder of a technology company in Port Au Prince, Haiti as well as founder of a cactus and orchids business which makes liquors and jams. Recently, Gaelle, pictured below with Kathi, founded a foundation to empower children and young adults to become entrepreneurs. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> A foremost objective of the global women's program is to "pay forward" or to encourage the women to empower other women in their countries upon their return. Manal Elattir from Rabat, Morocco founded an NGO, called <a href="http://www.imdadse.org/">IMDAD</a> (Arabic for support) to motivate young people and women to become innovative social entrepreneurs by starting out working within their communities. For a recent project,Manal organized a caravan of 23 village women from Southern Morocco, where the literacy rate for women is 89 percent, who left their homes for a week to talk to women in other villages to discuss possibilities for marketing artisanal crafts. The hardest part, says Manal, was convincing husbands to let them leave. Ultimately, Manal hopes the women will eventually form cooperatives to market their crafts beyond their village boundaries.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Kathi Lutton, who also mentored Manal, observes "Manal was so receptive with an instinctive grasp of how to connect so that after she was here for a few days, she started setting up her own meetings to connect with other women." Manal says the program "made me realize I had an obligation, because I had the capacity to communicate business skills, to put some structure around my ideas. My mentors taught me how to market my social enterprise and how to reach potential partners and sponsors. Manal's next goal is to get an MBA to hone her financial skills to help her programs become self-supporting. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Madiha Sultan adds, "They really hammer in how important it is to give back to our communities. Besides expanding her chocolate business, Madiha has started an adult literacy and numeracy program. Professionally, she is a member of the Karachi Women's Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "I want to do the same thing for the young girls in Pakistan," says Madiha, "that Kathleen Vaughan, and the people she introduced me to, did for me."<b> </b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-4371265080941785812011-08-08T14:35:00.001-04:002011-08-17T15:57:28.299-04:00Guest Post:: When Social Media Is NOT the Answer!<div style="text-align: left;"></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcaB4ek6q6i0mYSt6DnHwd2RtzHFQGd5ap6EEAnFKWb76Uo95903MVjA21S54pza_C57idyYVXk9lHjREdWn3lW8RNhHK76BEv60JR_F9FawHPOjjWluCqmTb_OB-Eh2JYg6TeN0SYkDJR/s1600/Cathy+Eckstein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br />
</a><i><b><span style="font-style: normal;"> </span></b> </i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><i>Starting her career as a CPA with Deloitte, marketing guru Cathy Eckstein has had 25 years of strategic planning and marketing experience with organizations ranging from startups to global Fortune 500 companies; she has worked across a variety of industries, including technology, energy, consumer goods/services, retailing and not-for-profits, including such brands as Kellogg and Clorox. Most recently, Cathy was Chief Marketing Officer of Insight Enterprises, a global company providing technology solutions to businesses and public sector organizations. She drove development and implementation of the company’s first five-year strategic plan, which, resulted in expansion from three countries to a presence throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, leading to revenue growth of 60% over three years. Cathy also served as Senior Vice President, Marketing at Ingram Micro, a $30 billion distributor of technology equipment and solutions Earlier this spring, Cathy founded Cornerstone CMO, based in Tuscon, Arizona, to provide project-based strategic marketing to businesses. Here are her views on social media:</i></div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Social Media: Not for Everyone!</span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">These days most <span class="msoDel"><del cite="mailto:ceckstein" datetime="2011-07-22T08:23"></del></span>business leaders feel “guilted” into developing a multi-faceted social media strategy, even though it’s not the answer for all of them. Of course, social media can be a very important component of a brand or company marketing plan. However, like all elements of a plan, social media must be evaluated for its ability to contribute to overall goals and objectives. In many cases it is not<span class="msoIns"><ins cite="mailto:ceckstein" datetime="2011-07-22T08:23"></ins></span> the most effective choice.<a name='more'></a> It’s also not free! It is easy to think of social media as being the most cost effective way to go to market as much of the media itself is indeed no cost. However, there is a tremendous resource investment required to do social media well. Content must be relevant, current and constantly updated. That takes time from highly qualified resources – time taken away from other projects and initiatives.</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The key is to develop a strategic plan and supporting marketing strategy; then you have to evaluate the relevance of all elements of the marketing plan, including social media.</span></div><div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Here are some key considerations: </span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Who is my target?</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Are they active participants in social media? Do they rely on social media channels to gather information to help them make decisions, particularly decisions related to my product or service? If you are trying to reach CEOs and sell them an expensive consulting service, chances are that they will not be convinced by tweets.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormalCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0pt;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">What are my goals?</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> What are the major steps to reach those business goals? Is social media the best way to accomplish these goals?</span></li>
</ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Which elements of social media are important for my business?</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> For a professional services business, LinkedIn may offer a good first step. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/" name="_GoBack"></a> Developing a strong LinkedIn profile and fully leveraging connections can get you off to a great start. Follow up <span class="msoDel"><del cite="mailto:ceckstein" datetime="2011-07-22T08:25"></del></span>with a blog to establish your expertise. For a consumer goods or services company, creative use of Facebook and Twitter may do wonders to build a brand image. View the various components of social media independently and find those that are right for your situation.</span></li>
</ul><ul><li><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></span><b><span style="font-family: Arial;">Is social media the best investment?</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial;"> What is the true cost of social media? Will an agency’s support be needed? What resources are required to implement the social media plan? Will the such an investment provide a <span class="msoDel"><del cite="mailto:ceckstein" datetime="2011-07-22T08:25"></del></span>strong return.?</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Bottom line: as with all business strategies, <span class="msoDel"><del cite="mailto:ceckstein" datetime="2011-07-22T08:26"></del></span>the decision to invest in social media must be done with an eye to ensuring it is the best investment of time, money and resources.</span> </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-25748733730355560592011-07-22T15:52:00.001-04:002011-08-08T14:36:50.400-04:00Back To School for Startups Too! <style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3j55kmKk2bvsM99ZB9V-W7IW-ePl17bRlhofq3QrQB5alNouhjtpiIfFFItSYpTPPQbYWdeT1LAukCMhPQNyPWwwpBPcsIaFSLRy8hzflByOkxr0OcYnClJUN6Va36yVFGNUe11ZKV6LY/s1600/Taste+of+Crete+Esther+Psarakis+Hillsborough+Patch+%25284%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3j55kmKk2bvsM99ZB9V-W7IW-ePl17bRlhofq3QrQB5alNouhjtpiIfFFItSYpTPPQbYWdeT1LAukCMhPQNyPWwwpBPcsIaFSLRy8hzflByOkxr0OcYnClJUN6Va36yVFGNUe11ZKV6LY/s1600/Taste+of+Crete+Esther+Psarakis+Hillsborough+Patch+%25284%2529.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Esther from Taste of Crete</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">In 2004, Esther Psarakis founded her imported specialty foods company, Taste of Crete, out of her love for Greece. She married a Greek, and very quickly embraced the language, the culture, the religion and the food she tasted on many visits to the family farm on the Island of Crete. Before long, she was importing olive oil from the family’s olive groves and selling wine cookies named for and based on her mother in law’s recipe, both online and in a retail store in Hillsborough, New Jersey. While the business got off to a strong start within a couple of years, once the Euro soared and the US recession began to hit specialty food businesses hard, Esther decided to go back to school for help. But she didn’t have to enroll to find the answers to her business problems. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Instead she applied to the Business Ventures Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University, a capstone course in the MBA program in which students group into small teams to provide strategic consulting for New Jersey companies who apply for help. The program operates in the fall at the Madison campus and at Teaneck for the spring semester. The goal is to offer innovative entrepreneurial thinking and strategic analysis for a wide range of problems. Each semester some 16 companies make their pitch for help and after much discussion of the challenges, the students, who have already fulfilled various finance and marketing requirements, select two or three companies to work with. Last spring Taste of Crete was tackled by a team of three. Team leader, Ruta Shah who already had an MBA from India in finance before enrolling in the Fairleigh Dickinson MBA program, observed, after hearing Esther’s pitch, “She had problems in all areas so it seemed like we could do a lot.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzBQyrWbq4CSfOYtAX8KnIVM7kLjQcDtTIzQRMjLzk2jzsiJxS0ipL-1AZImmXsQmWtxWb_6CwJiR63Wro39S_4LjjLHCS9zFxmhfoMz54w0abdqwH4YWP_QxKpKzGawG0mPuT6OHNgFv/s1600/Taste+of+Crete+products+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXzBQyrWbq4CSfOYtAX8KnIVM7kLjQcDtTIzQRMjLzk2jzsiJxS0ipL-1AZImmXsQmWtxWb_6CwJiR63Wro39S_4LjjLHCS9zFxmhfoMz54w0abdqwH4YWP_QxKpKzGawG0mPuT6OHNgFv/s200/Taste+of+Crete+products+.jpg" width="150" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> And, according to Esther, a lot they did. After listening to her explanation of her needs, the students spent weeks researching her industry and competitors and conducting customer surveys to put together a strategic action plan to respond to company goals. To solve the rising costs of imports, the student pushed Esther away from importing to producing Greek products here under the Taste of Crete brand. She also switched to a cheaper baker so that her cookies could be sold in greater volume. While her mother in law’s name, Evangelia, is still on the cookies, Esther now offers the products to larger outlets like supermarkets. She also agreed with the student’s advice to develop more of a bakery/café alongside her gourmet food store and to revamp her website, once she raises more capital. The lesson for her student team leader, Ruta Shah, was that “you have to work with the resources you have but you can implement a marketing plan in many stages.” Ruta adds, “this was the best course I have even taken.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Both course professors, Lindsey Greene Barrett and Gina Tedesco came to the course first as students and entrepreneurs themselves. Gina admitted her first question was “can you really teach entrepreneurship?” But now after four years of teaching, she says “ I see now the tools we teach are valid for anything you do. The goal is the process by which you find solutions to business problems. It’s the questions they learn to ask rather than the answers that enlighten.” Her colleague Lindsey Barrett adds that something as simple as customer surveys are extremely important: “Some companies haven’t asked such basic questions as what are our customers looking for; who are they?”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> The students actually were the customers for one company who came calling last spring. Flat World Knowledge was founded in 2007 to solve the problem of expensive textbooks. The company offer online or cheap versions of textbooks or chapters to students, giving professors the option to create customized versions or study guides to meet curriculum needs. Marketing VP Amanda Chin says she sought out the Ventures program to get “the perspective of students as well as access to their networks.” What the students told her, according to team leader Cecilia DeGennaro, now an assistant merchandising manager at Party City, was that Flatworld was “focusing on sales and marketing to professors rather than to students who in turn were thinking that because the product was free, it can’t be good.” Cecilia says the program “taught me how important it is to avoid tunnel vision by looking at a company objectively.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> The program is also very cost effective. Marc Rothenberg, founder/ceo of Intercept Silver and Jewelry Care, a company that distributes and manufactures products to protect silver from tarnishing, says he couldn’t have afforded to pay for the quality business plan his team provided. “I had been in business for 5 years and wanted to get to the next level. My student team was phenomenal, plus I got the benefit of guidance from their professors who had also run companies!” His team advised Mark to launch a consumer brand, which he has already implemented, called Tarnish Tamer, which consists of pouches or other products to protect giftware, hollowware or jewelry; he expects this line will “triple our business within a few years.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> The entrepreneurs stay in touch with their student consultants and often return to the Business Ventures Program as mentors. Entrepreneur-professor Gina Tedesco says each term this is “the most dreaded course because it’s so much work, but that’s why it attracts the most dedicated students.” And it also forces the entrepreneurs to come out of the trenches of running their business to focus on how to grow with the benefits of thorough market research and informed outside perspectives-- provided by enthusiastic, informed students.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-74688419944586013672011-07-11T18:49:00.001-04:002011-07-22T15:48:25.721-04:00Why Pitching Investors Sometimes Misfires<div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> According to a recent report from the Center for Venture Research at the University of New Hampshire, women-owned ventures account for 20% of entrepreneurs seeking capital, though only 13 % of them actually receive funds, lagging behind the overall rate by about 5%. One crucial step in seeking capital is “The Pitch.” Recently two seasoned women investors shared their experience about why some pitches don’t persuade investors to write checks. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"></span></b><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> A recognized spokesperson for the technological entrepreneurship community in Silicon Valley, Heidi has achieved success both as an entrepreneur and as a venture capitalist. Currently a faculty member of Stanford University, Heidi served as VP for Apple Computer, and as a co-founder and CEO of T/Maker Company, a developer and publisher of personal computer software. Heidi was a managing director of Mobius Venture Capital which had $2 billion under management. Currently, She serves on the board of TiVo and Prysm and Springboard Enterprises.</span></i></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifEz9KuLMA2qE1qU1z3AYZ2ZxflrVoBQb7sJM_K4PPWNmt8rxygWMM4bcPwyXTz6snsXU1wDSURidD_nP8FboptyORVDvf7ZUTfy5aEfsrUF-n3ziEGKoi0RFPw2ziqZokQOYXiVPtA2A7/s1600/Heidi+Roizen+pix.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifEz9KuLMA2qE1qU1z3AYZ2ZxflrVoBQb7sJM_K4PPWNmt8rxygWMM4bcPwyXTz6snsXU1wDSURidD_nP8FboptyORVDvf7ZUTfy5aEfsrUF-n3ziEGKoi0RFPw2ziqZokQOYXiVPtA2A7/s1600/Heidi+Roizen+pix.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heidi Roizen</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Here are Heidi Roizen’s top pet pitch peeves.<a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Don’t expect to turn a blind date into a marriage proposal in one go round</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. Your job when you pitch is to convince investors to start a process by figuring out who you are and whether you can accomplish what you promise. Don’t overwhelm with power points. State articulately in two or three sentences what problem you can solve <b>not</b> by recounting your entire resume but by explaining, for example, a relevant experience that led you to start your company. </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Own your numbers!</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> Don’t be content to think of yourself as the big idea person. You have to understand in detail how much your product costs, how many minutes it takes to make a sale. Delegating your numbers is like trying to get fit by sending someone else to the gym to do your workouts. The blood of your company is the numbers—be sure it’s your blood too. </span><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Don’t hire relatives and best friends</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. Of course, there are times when that work out as it has at Google or Sun Microsystems, but always look for the best person for your company. If your Uncle Henry is an estates lawyer, he’s not the ideal person to sort out patents or even help with a business plan.</span><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Don’t overpromise in the near term and under promise in the long term</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. Investors are mostly worried about costs in the short term; they want to understand how you plan to lay the foundation or construct your business. For the long-term, they are hoping for big hits which they don’t expect in the first year or two. </span><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Show investors a product they can touch and feel</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> or a mock up or a video or audio of your product. Then stay in touch with the investors. Be persistent and polite. But, take the initiative to make something happen if they don’t respond after the first go round. </span><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></b></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Judy Robinett</span></b><i><span style="font-size: 11pt;">: An active member of a growing high tech corridor in Salt Lake City, Utah, Judy has 30 years of executive business experience with Fortune 300 companies, and also with startups and turnarounds. From 2000-2008, Judy served as CEO of Medical Discoveries, Inc, a publicly traded developmental biotech venture. Trained as a social worker, Judy now devotes her energy to consulting on strategic plans and financing for newly emerging companies. A managing director of Golden Seeds, she remains an active investor in startup companies, particularly in life sciences or high-tech, often taking Board positions to guide the strategy to market.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Here is Judy’s list of do’s and don’ts: </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxrx9Q50YCjIurmRB9da5hjXCgFXGd19vXaiGSlf7MIcKvJdLDQbqR3_Xc6gIB8VuK7OR25T8P_f5OqoiqyPLRXQCVf2uTzkJc1mS8Xhbuu9Pyr1whI10EdPB9I-nHP3AZAhj_VEw3kkc/s1600/JUdy+Robinett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxrx9Q50YCjIurmRB9da5hjXCgFXGd19vXaiGSlf7MIcKvJdLDQbqR3_Xc6gIB8VuK7OR25T8P_f5OqoiqyPLRXQCVf2uTzkJc1mS8Xhbuu9Pyr1whI10EdPB9I-nHP3AZAhj_VEw3kkc/s1600/JUdy+Robinett.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Treat investors as customers</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. The product they are buying is you and your company, so they want to know what they will get for their money. Too many entrepreneurs are so in love with their projects that they forget that money has value. If you describe your funding strategy from where you are now to how much you need to reach certain milestones, you appear more credible. With $1 mil, maybe you can build infrastructure, hire a team and secure patents, but to get a revenue stream going, you will need more money. Be conservative about what you promise so you can meet or beat expectations. </span><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Show signs that you understand that it takes a team to get to the next level</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. Be sure you don’t just want to be calling all the shots; focus instead on how to be successful. Early stage investing carries great risk so investors bet mostly on the character of the entrepreneur. It’s up to you to show that you value their money and that you want them to act as mentors and open doors for you. </span><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Create a strong customer acquisition model</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">; too many entrepreneurs have blind spots about how they will grow. How much does it cost to acquire a customer? What is the size of your segments, and what are your channels for reaching them? If entrepreneurs say they have no competition, it’s safe to assume there is no market for what they are selling. Ideas are easy; it’s execution that counts.</span><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Count on glitches along the way</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. It’s never a straight line to success, so investors want to hear assumptions about “what if.” These assumptions show the quality of your thinking. Anybody can produce great spread sheets with hockey stick numbers; hitting them is the hard part.</span><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.75in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 16pt;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">Understand that good relationships with investors are key</span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">. Remember that the path is “know me, like me, trust me.” Numbers alone don’t make an investment. Funding is a relatively small world so it’s imperative that entrepreneurs be truthful, transparent and congenial in all their dealings. Burning bridges with one investor can cut off multiple sources because of their extensive networks.</span><b><span style="font-size: 16pt;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-22665925688449943472011-06-27T09:21:00.003-04:002011-07-05T14:10:57.813-04:00Legal Tools for Entrepreneurs<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) }
</style><br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhes5fb0GppdOKxaGeuDVem63wbuTsSXoU6d42gG1Kgy812bPNm9st3IVMYgG0__eUXJmANIpRTvrQIutZ61MulH5hS1MYtHf1G0r7F94Rt4YA70l7y4mkMj-dz0YoIDPYK3v5hEd-nJ3Qo/s1600/Nina+Kaufman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhes5fb0GppdOKxaGeuDVem63wbuTsSXoU6d42gG1Kgy812bPNm9st3IVMYgG0__eUXJmANIpRTvrQIutZ61MulH5hS1MYtHf1G0r7F94Rt4YA70l7y4mkMj-dz0YoIDPYK3v5hEd-nJ3Qo/s1600/Nina+Kaufman.jpg" /></a><b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Recently the Small Business Administration selected lawyer Nina Kaufman as its Women in Business Champion of the Year, for the region including NY and New Jersey. For over 20 years Nina has created a unique niche for herself both as a legal advisor to and advocate of women’s businesses. She identifies her professional mission as “demystifying legal mumbo jumbo” for small entrepreneurs so they won’t be intimidated. A client describes Nina’s mission simply as “preventing small companies from crashing and burning.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> With an M.A. from the London School of Economics and a law degree from Boston University, Nina has practiced law for about twenty years but admits her first unsuccessful foray was with a partner who left her holding a significant amount of debt. “I still have war wounds,” she admits, “but I now view them as a badge of honor, because I have learned to move forward on my own.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Because as a sole practitioner, she is limited by the number of hours in her work day, Nina has borrowed a page from the entrepreneurs she counsels.<a name='more'></a> She extends her reach through regularly creating and marketing “information products “—audio or digital courses and resources on basic issues facing small businesses, available on her website: askthebusinesslawyer.com. The courses, which range in price from $27 to $197, cover topics such as The Entrepreneur’s PreNup on how to choose business partners wisely, “How to Train Your Clients to Pay You,” and “Common Contract Pitfalls.” A prolific writer, Nina also has her own blog and a weekly e-zine called Lex Appeal; she frequently speaks and offers workshops to promote women entrepreneurs. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/kuVuPjrU1Ik?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Many clients purchase these info products to bone up on basic legal facts before they engage Nina directly. Dawn Fotopulos, a consultant who runs a website called <a href="http://bestsmallbizhelp.com/">BestSmallBizHelp.com</a>, providing training videos for small business owners, says “Nina’s reasonably priced courses give me the background I need to ask her the right questions when we talk.” She adds, “while Nina is a brilliant lawyer, who works with me to develop terms when I negotiate with clients or subcontractors, she also openly tells me when I don’t need her to solve an issue and generously refers me to more reasonably priced resources.” Dawn adds, “Entrepreneurs often work 18-hour days; they are not living lush lives; every penny they make they usually pour back into their businesses. Nina’s technique is to become a true collaborator to help you make your business viable.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> One popular arrangement Nina Kaufman offers entrepreneurs is a “flat fee” which basically asks clients to deposit an agreed upon sum in an escrow account which they can draw down as needed. One entrepreneur who welcomes this arrangement is Lena West, founder of <a href="http://www.xynomedia.com/">xynoMedia</a> which advises small business on the strategic use of social media. Lena also uses Nina’s digital products because “you can’t’ get this level of experienced counsel in such a clear format anywhere” and then calls for a one on one session if she needs direct contact. Lena appreciates that Nina is “always willing to hear you out and never steam rolls you into a position. She’s not court- hungry and tries to keep her clients away from litigation.” On the other hand, “she knows her stuff and can be tough. When a client expanded the scope of services by $30,000 but balked at paying the additional costs, Nina negotiated the additional payments within a couple of weeks.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> What are some mistakes that good legal advice helps small entrepreneurs avoid? Here are some problems that top Nina’s list: </span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Choosing business structure that can inhibit your company’s growth </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Not protecting valuable intellectual property </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Rushing into deals or partnerships without seeking out advisors or negotiating realistic terms</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Having too many slow- or no- paying clients on the books </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;">Frequent disputes with clients, partners, and contractors</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.25in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> One entrepreneur, Kathy Canfield Shepard who founded <a href="http://www.canfielddesignstudios.com/">Canfield Design Studios</a> in New York City to help arts groups with marketing and website services, has worked with Nina since she incorporated in 2001. Since then, Kathy, a professional French horn player, admits, “Nina has gotten me out of quite a few jams. But she always does it very diplomatically so that it’s a win-win every time for both sides. Nina also refers me to her network for other services, such as accounting; she even taught me how to get copyrighted by myself to save on legal bills.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Another client, Rosemary Bova, founder of <a href="http://www.bovaenterprises.com/">BovaEnterprises </a>which provides executive advisory services and organizational analyses for such clients as American Express, GE, and Langone NYU Medical Center has worked with Nina for twelve years. What she appreciates is that Nina “teaches her clients how to use her services effectively. Rosemary keeps Nina’s “inexpensive and informative” booklets on her shelf and then calls her if she wants to supplement that advice. “Often,” Rosemary says, “attorneys tell you how they think you should handle a situation. Nina asks you how you want to be represented. She listens carefully, but then tells you if you are asking too much.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> Maybe one secret to Nina Kaufman’s widely praised people skills and client satisfaction lies in one of her sidelines; she has performed as a stand-up comedian at downtown New York clubs. Her rationale: by integrating humor into her talking points, she can help make issues come alive so that her clients can enjoy learning the process. Longtime client Rosemary Bova thinks her comic talents just make Nina an integrated professional; by bringing together the many facets of herself --legal, marketing, social media, and publishing skills, along with her warmth and wry humor, she has carved out a new vein in the legal mine.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-87617186480123691412011-06-12T17:58:00.001-04:002011-06-14T16:47:57.219-04:00Last Call for Winning Women!<div style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">June 30th is the deadline for the Ernst &Young Winning Women Competition, a </span><span style="font-size: small;"> national competition and leadership program designed for women entrepreneurs to accelerate the growth of their businesses.</span><span style="font-size: small;">This program is designed to help women entrepreneurs scale their companies by providing them with one-to-one business advice and "insider access" to Ernst & Young's unparalleled networks of established entrepreneurs, high-growth company CEOs, investors and advisors. This includes participation at the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum® 2011, the country’s most prestigious gathering of high-growth companies, November 9-13 in Palm Springs, CA (<a href="http://www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum" title="blocked::http://www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum"><span style="color: blue;" title="blocked::http://www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum"><u title="blocked::http://www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum">www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum</u></span></a></span><span style="font-size: small;">)</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/CQKDq4ol2WQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;">Applicants are women CEOs who have founded their companies within the past 10 years and have reported at least $1 million in revenue during each of the past two. Typical applicant company revenue ranges from $1 million up to approximately $20 million annually. <i>To learn more, how to apply or how to nominate another deserving woman entrepreneur, visit </i></span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.ey.com/us/entrepreneurialwinningwomen" title="blocked::http://www.ey.com/us/entrepreneurialwinningwomen"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial;" title="blocked::http://www.ey.com/us/entrepreneurialwinningwomen"><i title="blocked::http://www.ey.com/us/entrepreneurialwinningwomen"><u title="blocked::http://www.ey.com/us/entrepreneurialwinningwomen">www.ey.com/us/entrepreneurialwinningwomen</u></i></span></a></span> <br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"> </span>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-866041756044783400.post-75643515875732926622011-06-03T11:38:00.002-04:002011-06-09T13:16:53.556-04:00GIrl Tech Inventors and Mentors<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgzdtSy0XMJot-YWcXc_ryGbPBHksBlNuVoKpUJpCDjEEoAWxhEIVvpXHGfTFUAI_C49zl8dsL4QqB77KBmabgOI_yFvgTin03aYJpO4uAlaMt-gT9Bv0QT4pcK3kQpA_42v_M9O4pqmf/s1600/Technovation+NYC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLgzdtSy0XMJot-YWcXc_ryGbPBHksBlNuVoKpUJpCDjEEoAWxhEIVvpXHGfTFUAI_C49zl8dsL4QqB77KBmabgOI_yFvgTin03aYJpO4uAlaMt-gT9Bv0QT4pcK3kQpA_42v_M9O4pqmf/s1600/Technovation+NYC.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hail NYC Team credit C Colon</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 11pt;">One night in May the premises of AOL in downtown NYC vibrated with the chatty energy and nerves of 47 teen age girls from 17 local high schools getting ready to pitch their newly created apps to a group of four judges from the worlds of both technology and venture capital. The Technovation Challenge pitch night, the first on the East Coast, was the culmination of a three month program, matching high school girls with high tech mentors from local industry and universities to create mobile phone app prototypes using Google’s App Inventor for Android. The teams met weekly for three hour sessions at Google’s New York offices. Early support for the program came from the US Office of Naval Research seeking solutions to a crisis in recruiting sufficient tech savvy professionals.<a name='more'></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0IkOGOkAuIXsy_7skC47uwmuVlSwEB-OG-jTQbfg3jnSjqPIV71ZvGEFewGomSILJ6EmiqNQZhfW3XJ86KZPISpOi5FsFIQVUBK6VmvOd9gCd-VLWRD-rJTsjIfAytb2DDGcwlUyiAHl/s1600/Hail+NYC+++with+credit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV0IkOGOkAuIXsy_7skC47uwmuVlSwEB-OG-jTQbfg3jnSjqPIV71ZvGEFewGomSILJ6EmiqNQZhfW3XJ86KZPISpOi5FsFIQVUBK6VmvOd9gCd-VLWRD-rJTsjIfAytb2DDGcwlUyiAHl/s200/Hail+NYC+++with+credit.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> The winning team created a product called HailNYC to help both passengers and drivers find each other efficiently so they can both navigate the city at a safer and faster rate. Both drivers and passengers open maps on their apps; passengers request a driver at a specific location which alerts drivers who consult maps with dots indicating locations of waiting passengers. Drivers then notify passengers that they are on the way. One member of the winning team, Sharnice Ottley, a senior at Boys and Girls High School, says the idea occurred to the team when they brainstormed the problems of getting around New York City. While Sharnice “jumped at the chance” to participate in the program, the process “really got our brains churning and showed us how to design our app. I learned, for example, that to make the graphics we had envisioned, we had to do a lot of math. This wasn’t the kind of chalk and talk education I am used to; besides creating technology, we had to do marketing research so we could come up with a good business plan.” Team mentor Tamar Shinar, a post doctorate fellow at NYU’s Courant Institute, says that what surprised her was her team’s deep engagement in a process which was so different from their more passive, routine school work. She observes, “They showed an amazing amount of persistence and patience for three months to get to the end line.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> Their victory gave all members of the winning team an android tablet, donated by Dell, along with an all expense paid trip to San Francisco a week later to participate in the national Technovation Challenge where they placed third, competing against five other wining teams. Technovation Challenge Founder, Anuranjita Tewary, currently a senior data scientist at Linked In, started the program two years ago after spending a weekend with a program called Startup Weekend which paired professionals for an intense weekend of bringing an idea to launch with a prototype. Despite her math and physics degree from MIT and a PhD in applied physics from Stanford followed by good jobs at Microsoft and Ad Mob, Anu remained a successful scientist who had never considered she could start, or become CEO of, a company. The Startup Weekend, she says, “made me think if I had had this experience early on, my outlook on life would have been as different as I pursued my career.” So she left her job to develop the Technovation Program for underprivileged girls around the Bay Area, relying heavily on her network to bring in mentors, instructors and coaches for the girls. “I wanted to show these girls not to use computer science only as a tool, but to learn to program so they can create products that become tools.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> Because she had little experience in the non profit world, Anu folded her program into Iridescent Learning, a non profit educational organization in Los Angeles founded by Tara Chklovski, an aerospace engineer and former school principal. Currently Iridescent stimulates interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for about 8000 underprivileged students and their families with a number of programs including Summer Engineering Boot Camp, Family Science Program and Science Studios in Los Angeles and New York. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> In her opening remarks at Pitch Night NYC, current executive director of Irisdescent, New York, Erika Allison, formerly a Dow engineer who has initiated several engineering programs for high school girls, told the assembled girls and their families that because there is a critical shortage of women in technology, the goal of the Challenge is to inspire girls to see themselves not just as users but as inventors and designers of technology. After the event Erika admits, “I was completely blown away by all that these 47 girls mastered in just 12 weeks along with the level of detail in both their apps and their business plans, including market research. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> Another New York Technovation mentor, Vanessa Hurst, a data base engineer for Paperless Post which provides customized formal invitations online, says since her days as a computer science major at the University of Virginia, she has been aware of the under representation of women in computer science. Working with her Technovation to develop an app that allows people to monitor their personal recycling habits, Vanessa was amazed “at how capable the girls were, but then how easily they got caught up in the tango of timidity so that no one wanted to step up, even when she had a great idea because she didn’t want to take the credit.” Vanessa continues, “Besides teaching the girls technical skills like programming and product design, the Challenge also provided a psychological journey for the girls to believe they can do anything</span><span class="apple-style-span"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.”</span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/n5hs-R-64qQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div>Angela Haineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04137120764863806792noreply@blogger.com26