@alliworthington @thestilettomom @alizasherman @lizstrauss at Blissdom

Yes, where are the women? WHERE are they?

Well, this past week, at least 500 women were at the Opryland hotel in Nashville, for the Blissdom conference. And yes, I was there as well – co-leading a workshop with THE Aliza Sherman

While I was there, I missed a bunch of blog posts exploring why there were not enough of women leaders and entrepreneurs in IT space.And out at Blissdom, I met a bunch of women entrepreneurs who knew more about the space of online business and advertising than most men I know.  And then, I also heard that women today are starting businesses at twice the rate of men.

Having heard all of that and having a startup myself, how can I NOT jump in here, right?

In his first article in BW, Vivek Wadhwa talks about the similarities between men and women and wonders if societal failure contributes to the lack of women …

Men and women also had similar motivations to launch a business. They shared the desire to build wealth and capitalize on business ideas. Both were drawn by the appeal of the startup culture and always wanted their own company. Neither wanted to work for someone else.

Given all the similarities in background and motivation for men and women entrepreneurs—and the fact that women now outnumber men in universities—we remain perplexed by the dearth of female startup executives.

Evidence suggests that this does not reflect a failure on the part of women but rather a societal failure. Consider the contrast with India, a country that is in many respects more conservative than the U.S. It might therefore be expected to be even less amenable to women in leadership. Yet there, women are rapidly rising through the top ranks of the business community.

( In a later article in techcrunch, he goes into a little more detail into why we are missing women entrepreneurs )

So here are my thoughts and experience regarding this topic  specifically …

When I came to the United States in 1999 and joined Ohio State as a Master’s student in Electrical Engineering, I was exposed to the “Women in Engineering” concept. Honestly, it kind of surprised me – nobody had really ever celebrated the fact that I was a girl and had finished my Engineering Bachelors in India. Yet, in the United States, they celebrated women and their accomplishments ….

As an entrepreneur with a startup looking for funding, I think a few things have been really key in my life to helping me get this far (no, I am not funded yet, so, do fund my startup ) and I cannot see how I would be where I am without each one of these factors. In some sense, I imagine all of these are essential to any woman (with kids especially) if she has to do this whole startup business … (Do note however, that there are PLENTY of women entrepreneurs in the non-tech but online spaces today…..)

As someone in the thick of this, I like to focus on what we can do to be successful ourselves while helping other women (and men ) achieve their own startup/life goals ….I am not looking to change the system -I will try to do that when I become a  VC myself …

So here is what contributed to me and where I am today (startup and all )-

1. my environment growing up – the good part

my dad is an entrepreneur. He failed before he succeeded and did very well.

2. my environment growing up – the bad part

Growing up in India, we could NOT walk down the road at 10 years old without the teasing, cat calling by the boys on the street. I learned early on not to worry about the things on the periphery that do not matter. It made me angry but I did not give a sh*t. SO unless something is really in my way, I do not waste my energy fighting it.

3. Engineering school was infested with women.So really, there was no struggle

I will tell ya, I felt no lesser than the boys here. I was in ECE with super smart women. The Computer Engineering Dept had almost 50% women. We rocked the campus in every way.This was when gender became a non-issue in my life. To fight the real fight, you have to put the gender thing aside. Preconceived notions only deter us from the real goals. With both my Masters in EE and Business, I rarely felt gender was an issue.

4. Learning to earn that respect

Working with software and coding was different. I learned that women had to earn respect while men got it by default. And frankly I was okay with it - I hated the disrespect but when I did get the respect it was pretty solid. I will never make sweeping generalizations, but most of the disrespect and/or challenge for my technical skills came from American men while from the Asian men, I mostly I experienced just a wider sense of dismissal (haha right ?) – like I just did not exist. But once I earned the respect, it was all great. And people (women too) who still liked to be jerks, I followed my rule 2

5. My mentors, cheerleaders and supporters are all mostly men and some very very very strong women

The men that challenged me became my mentors and supporters a lot of times. I choose the people that inspire me as my mentors – be it men or women. The women help in the sense that you can relate to a lot. When women help, they do go out of their way to help. And the strong and smart women are smart as hell. But then, I go with the people that inspire – I need both the men and women. I might be discriminated on, but I will NEVER discriminate when I choose my mentors. I need them all

6. And then, my secret society

I read what people say and write – because I relate. These people secretly inspire and keep me going – and they do not need to say or do much in order to do that ….. Aliza Sherman, Mona, Betsy Aoki, Shauna Causey, Tara Hunt, Cathy Brooks, Laura Fitton – all women I relate to in different ways and admire for their strength and passion.

7. The husband

My husband is an essential part of all this.Supporting the family, keeping the kids, working tirelessly to be mommy while I network with the men (really, ask my founderinstitute peers!). Nope, my parents are too old to support me and I cannot imagine anyone else doing this. My husband is my co-founder who works his backside off in the background – yeah, I need this man.

8. That sheer grit.Yeah, I am stubborn like that.

So, what can we do?

So, what is the solution to this “not enough women in tech startups” problem? I think not much – as women we should keep doing what we are doing – pushing the boundaries. This is like yet another perfect problem in a big corporation – one that needs to be hit up both top down and bottom up. And I am certainly in the bottom, so I can and continue to do one of the 3 things below to help (anyone, not just women) while I fight my own battles ….

1. Provide future entrepreneurs a past that inspires and teaches

The girls today need to hear the right stories, get the right inspiration.To really ACT on something like a startup as adults, we need to hear the right stories when we are little girls – not when we are 25. I believe that the seeds to do things like this are sown early on …..

2. A present that supports

Whether we have kids or not, we need men(or someone) that supports us. This is key if we have kids. But if we do not , we still need the men and women to support us for the sake of a strong base. Heck, is an essential ingredient for self esteem. So ask for that support from people willing to give it and do NOT let people take advantage of you. Everyone that I have reached out to and asked for help when I have really needed it have ACTUALLY helped me.

3. A fire deep inside us. We just need it.

If someone has it, I will help them find it. But finally, it has to come from somewhere deep inside THEM.

The articles that sparked my writeup -

Addressing the Derth of Female Entreprenuers by Vivek Wadhwa

A response to Vivek’s article by @Bfeld

You and your VCs have a gender problem by @Vivek Wadhwa (on @techcrunch)

Women Leaders in IT by Healy Jones

I kind of feel boring because I have nothing controversial to say. Perhaps I will come back and edit my post after I have tried to raise $ (but I will succeed, so maybe not ) …. But I do think it is important to BE the change we want to see – and if I kept complaining about the discrimination, I would never get anywhere myself …nor would I get people to change … I do think far more VCs might start funding women if they saw more no nonsense women pitching rather than complaining.There is a LOT of women doing it already ..so watch out now!

What has YOUR experience been? What advice do you have for me?

Last Monday, I started a program with the Founder Institute here in Seattle. I was the LAST person to sign up. And I am glad I did.

Here is a writeup about Founder Institute from another founder (Richard Luck of @bluyah ) attending the institute.

The Founder Institute creates a pool from 3.5% of each company formed as a part of the program and redistrbutes the proceeds from the pool back to each of the  institute(local and central), the mentors and the founders. The institute offers content, mentors (contacts), very smart and driven peer groups, pitch practice and meetings with VCs towards the end of the program. And with any program, what we do with what the institute offers is largely up to us, the founders. Adeo Ressi, said something like that – and if I was in his place, I’d have said the same thing.

You can read a lot about what the program is on the website. But let me tell you what I have as a result of the program in this past week.

1. Day 1 with 3 wonderful mentors. I have not had any further communication with any of the mentors from day 1, but we had fantastic content + inspiration from these three gentlemen. Yes, ongoing conversation and value is up to me, but considering I have a startup WAY close to open beta, I believe I could use their feedback and help!

• Glenn Kelman, CEO at Redfin
• Dave Parker, CEO at 9Spaces
• Jordan Weisman

2. A super smart peer group – We work in groups at the program. Adeo said we all did incredibly well on the admission tests Regardless, I have a super smart working group that I have already met with once. They are a great set of people that I can finally go into the details of my startup with.

3. 1 and 2 while I raise my kids and my startup - I am a mom. People think I am crazy to have given up a very comfortable and growing job at American Chemical Society to pursue a start-up, but what can I say …. I do a LOT while I bring up my kids and work on my company, all thanks to Pree (my husband), but in the last week, I have had 1 and 2 while he has been away in Europe (for 2 weeks!).

So 1, 2 and 3 are a big deal for me already, but  I am excited about what the future holds. I hope I can make the most of these people and the content going forward.

Is it all worth $600 + 3.5 % of my company?

Ahh, if you know me, you know that I will MAKE IT worth it. There. I rest my case.

AND THEN, WHAT ABOUT MEMETALES?

Okay, let me come clean.  I am guessing Memetales has evolved since the last time I blogged about what it exactly is. It has evolved in it’s value proposition, features and so on. I hear that such kind of evolution and refinement is a good thing though – especially since the core passion or vision remains to be the same – ” To unlock the best in every children’s picture book”. At Memetales, we continue to believe in the richness of picture books and understand that EACH and EVERY BOOK is a door to a whole new magical world – of creativity, imagination, sharing and excitement. The book itself, is the start and not the end of the creative process.

Memetales has a collaboration space to help people get together and build picture books. This collaboration space is a wonderful community where a bunch (>8) of books are close to completion. It took me less than a couple of months, however, to realize that if these books were to be truly celebrated + marketed, what Memetales needs to be is a Marketing platform unlike any other out there. And so, Memetales evolved into the concept it is today. The Collaboration Space will continue to thrive, but I am immersed in building the Marketplace – a much broader PLATFORM, meant to grow, scale and support the marketing of a gazzillion books, complementary content and merchandise around them.

So, here is the essence of Memetales -

Memetales puts the power of  Disney-like media and marketing platform in the hands of every writer, illustrator and small publisher of children’s picture books. Memetales is a children’s picture book platform that enables every single writer, illustrator and publisher work like Disney – by easily publishing their book online and creating rich media and products around their books and characters.

I tweeted this just a couple of hours ago -

I do believe that VERY very soon, everyone is going to put their children’s books online. Now that Disney and Sesame Street are using the channel, how can the others not? Memetales will be THE platform for EVERYONE else – and I hope people see the possibilities and value add provided by Memetales as a platform with  community and tools.

As I talk to some smaller publishers these days, some of them do wonder what value is there in it? I answer that in 2 parts – well, I do think they will lose out by not going online and secondly, how can there NOT be value in putting your book amongst book lovers and letting them talk about it (for a very low cost – even free until Memetales builds the charter library of 500 books!).

So, here is a quick video of Memetales -

So, what are YOU thinking? Does all this make any sense at all?

I was at SocComm. And I picked a bunch of what I call Social Media realities and want to share with you. I follow up each reality with a thought on where the money is in relation to that reality. If you choose one of these ways to monetize Social Media then remember to use the “TRUTH” in your USP(unique selling proposition) somehow. And then, when you get all rich, come back and share some with me and donate some to children’s charities or animal shelters

Do not forget to subscribe to the Geekdance feed for a follow up post on the Monetizing Framework.

1.To make real connections you have to be vulnerable - Jeff Pulver

This is one basic truth. The most important one, I think. Connections online or in real life work only if they are real. And real connections are formed when we give a part of ourselves to the relationship – whether it be helping others, sharing our lives or being vulnerable. Connections are all about trust. And there is no trust developed between two people without sharing and giving. You can fake it for a day but building lasting sustainable relationships online or offline is about being yourself and being vulnerable.

The MONEY? Can you find ways to let people be vulnerable and feel comfortable? Can you create communities for sharing? Can you act as a liaison between a product and the market and find ways to establish trust between them? Can you create the next twitter that will let people all over the world connect and form real connections? If you can do one of these you got yourself a business model

Jeff Pulver does this well. With live-tagging, his breakfast sessions and conferences such as this one, he brings together people and lets them open up, interact and be vulnerable.

2. ABC – Always Be Connecting – Chris Brogan

I cannot seem to connect in order to connect because of a strong belief that I need to believe in everything I do to be able to do it. And until I heard Chis Brogan talk, my head and heart were in disagreement about “always connecting”. Watching Chris Brogan, I learned that we should be connecting all the time because the connections are what define his space. Because we are the medium. By connecting all the time, we are keeping the medium alive. Adding value by participating in the fabric of social communications.

The MONEY? Can you get people to connect? Can you do what it takes to join the links? When there are 10 people in the room, how do you get them to talk? Can you teach people the secret to connect ALL the time. And how do you sustain those connections? How do you make it ongoing?  Not easy, but that is exactly why there is the money in the space.

3. We all have vested interests and social media allows us to promote them to each other. We all have our own truths. – Fred Wilson

ME: I think twitter is so widely successful because most people are there for business – to connect and to promote themselves. We all have our own truths and anyone who is setting out to prove that there is one universal truth is just wasting his/her time. I think it is time for all of us to say what Fred said and move on about our business. It is good to remember though that while we all have our truths, the best way to promote ourselves and our own truths is by helping others promote their truths. I know this sounds like an inspiration blog stuff – but I confuse my blogs sometimes.

The MONEY? – Can you let people share their truth and feel valued? Facebook added newsfeeds(to make money) and since then I have discovered some real activists amongst my connections there. Fred Wilson talked about Boxee(he has a stake in it). He says we don’t care about channels anymore – which is true. Do I care if a program I like is on NBC or ABC ? Not really (unless I have a stake in those companies myself). I have to agree with Fred when he says what really matters to me is what other people I connect with are watching/reading/liking. So if you can help people share their truth, you are in business. I do hope I can do this with Memetales. So far it seems to be working well. I am excited and guess what – my truth has morphed into the truths of the people in the Memetales Community. Their cause becomes mine. I am loving it.I hope it works

4. Not everyone is just sharing and caring. @JeffJarvis makes $ selling books; @Garyvee makes $ selling wine …(but) Wealth  is more than just money. Attention and Intention are great wealth engines – Shelley Pamer

If we want to monetize on what is out there today, we have to focus on what creates “value”. Always be very aware of what “value” means to YOUR target market. Can you help people create value of some sorts. Don’t focus on just money. explore any value you can deliver (pretty much the premise of this post). If you deliver here, you can create you own space.

The MONEY - Are you a blogger and can you help bloggers write? Are you a teacher and can you help teachers teach in a new space (online for example)? Did you start your business and can you help small businesses take off? If you can help people focus on their passion by taking the hard work out of figuring out what they find hard (what is not their focus), then you have some ways to make money. People want to focus on their passions, so see how you can do that.

5. Life is a beta. Make mistakes – make them well. - Jeff Jarvis

Jeff Jarvis called life a beta. So true. So so true. Don’t wait for the day you feel perfect and ready. You will never start making money that way. You will never start doing what you love. It is time to play along and make mistakes. The web lets us do that. It is time to take advantage of that.

The MONEY? This truth can make you money by saving you LOTS of it. Making mistakes does not make money directly, but it creates a great path towards making money. It is also a wonderful way to save money. I have been an open business at Memetales from day 1. If you have a question and I have the answer – I tell you. This approach has been wonderful and it has started working in the other direction too. If people in the community have an idea then they speak up. I have been getting some awesome ideas for Memetales from the community. And I really would not get such ideas even if I paid big bucks for it. And will I make mistakes along the way? I hope to apologize when I do and move on. I am a real person just like anyone else, right?

6. Making a human connection, at the end of the day, that’s what social is all- Kenny Miller, EVP, MTV Networks Global Digital Media

There is nothing more to say, is there? Kenny Miller said it well. When I stayed home after I quit my job and moved cross country, I started an inspiration blog. To put down everything in my head. But what ended up happenning was real connections.

The MONEY? -Real connections give you a wonderful opportunity to better you social proof because of the trust element due to the human connections. Word of mouth works wonders to build a strong brand – especially when your business is taking off or you are in trouble. You can certainly make a LOT of money if you can teach someone or a company how to make a :”human connection” as opposed to a “connection solely for maketing purposes”. Can companies and brands do that? And how? In a world where people primarily communicate over virtual channels, how do we figure out how to make a human connection?

7. Be passionate about helping/community.  – Katja Presnal on the panel by  Lindsay Maines, Katja Presnal, Audrey McClelland, Beth Feldman

Katja is such a great example of success doing what you love. She is what she called a perfect example of “promotion through anti-promotion”. I call this “pull” vs “push”. You do not promote yourself – instead you project yourself as a helpful person involved in community and truly connect people and do it long enough and people will start thinking of you as a connector. It is hard work wither way – so you might as well promote yourself by helping others rather than just markeing yourself directly.

The MONEY? - I don’t have to say anything here. There are enough and more people that have done this and proven that the money will follow. Choose who you want to help and go for it. Help them for free while you have a steady stream of income and very soon you will quit your full time job because people  will want to pay for your help.

8. If you are not doing what you are passionate about, you are an idiot -Gary Vaynerchuk, Wine Library TV

GaryVee truly rocks. When he talks, you cannot NOT listen. Although there were parts fo his talk that I would have not agreed with, there was no point challenging him – he was passionate and he was speaking his truth. And I have to say – if you watch Gary speak live, you will realize, even if you are doing something you trulyl love, that there is more of yourself that you can give to what you are doing. This guy shook me up.

The MONEY? - There are 2 parts to the story – do what you love but be smart about it. Doing what you love is great but you will not make the money unless you create value and tell your buyer (either explicitly or implicitly) why they should buy from you and not anyone else. Be smart about executing it and find a partner with a business head .

9. Fans (People) crave authentic interaction- Laura Roeder

Laura is a gentle soul. She drew our attention towards the fact that it does not matter if you are a celebrity or a normal person. Everyone craves authentic interaction. This is no great secret.

The MONEY? The target for this service is the “rich and famous”. If you (or somebody) is already in business and making money figure out how you can be authentic in your interactons and grow your business – at evry touch point – on your blog, in your advertising material, in every email and in every conversation. Teach the stars, the heroes, the celebrities how to maintain an authentic channels for interaction and help them share their wealth with you

10. Listen to your employees. There is a marketplace of ideas within the company. – Peter Hirschberg, co-founder + Chairman,The Conversation Group

This is so true. Just like Shelly Palmer brought our attention to the fact that not all wealth = money, not all satisfaction comes from money. A big part of the satisfaction in life comes from getting feedback, appreciation and being concerned. So when you have a problem in your organization and you think you cannot fix it without bringing the next big consultant and paying him big bucks, think again. We have incredibly talented people who are passionate in our own organizations. Think of what you can give them if you cannot give money. Yes, money goes a long way but money alone does nothing. A little money and a LOT of something can produce big results. Talk to your employees and community. Let them come up with the ideas to fix problems.

The MONEY? – With this attitude built into your orgnizational management from day 1, you are all set to make smart financial decisions all along. You will save money and build an organization with a higher collectuve satsfaction. And the company will belong to the commuity – and believe me, you do not want it any other way!

What are your thoughts? Questions?

Put your thoughts in the comments or @thinkmaya on twitter and we can talk about how YOU can make money in the social media space

photo credit: udono

The new year is here and I am already officially overwhelmed. A lot has happened over the past few weeks – a lot of work amidst a lot of relaxation! But I have to tell you that if you are anything like me, then taking time off when you work for yourself is most often more stressful than working your backside off. And if your life a home is consumed by 2 little ones, then don’t even bother taking time off

Jokes apart, here are a few updates for you. Community is the biggest thing for Memetales and collaboration is the key idea behind it. I have made some BIG leaps in that respect.

1. Memetales is now live.

It does not have a lot but it does have a space for people to sign up for beta and the Memetales Newsletter. This is big since I do not have to point people to any other space when I talk about Memetales. I simply send them over to http://www.memetales.com. This blog is great to document my journey, but from a brand perspective it was way too confusing for a new comer (as I learnt from my home grown branding exercise that I will talk about in an upcoming post).

2. We now have a Memetales newsletter!

Go sign up for the newsletter HERE. Again, it will be one piece of communication that will help me keep the community together. This is where I plan to introduce people, share our accomplishments and share the details regarding the growth of Memetales. I think of it as my special weekly coffee time with the Memetales community – where I can share special moments of my life and the life of Memetales.

3. We have a group on Facebook.

I am thrilled about this for this is a set of REAL people that believe in and support Memetales. THEY are Memetales and I HEART them. And yes, I am grateful to each of them.

4. I have a Collaboration Template for authors/illustrators

Authors and illusrators will now start to collaborate using this template. Since traditionally, publishers choose a story and use their own illustrators, I am not really aware of an existing collaboration template that we can re-use. My present plan is to use this template now and modify it as we see appropriate down the road. The first few collaborations will also give me the sense for the “business-process” so as help me validate the software design aspect of Memetales. I am excited for the real work to start!

So what do you think? Any feedback for me?
photo credit: Jason Pratt

If you are a parent/author/writer/book-lover or illustrator and would like to participate in the beta for Memetales, send me an email at maya@memetales.com or fill the signup form

I am starting to get really excited as I have started to hear from quite a few nice people. These people want to participate in the Memetales beta by sharing their stories/illustrations for children!I have collected some useful information for myself and for these wonderful people!

As with pretty much any website, content is the main aspect of Memetales. Memetales will provide a marketplace for writers and illustrators, but first and foremost we WANT it to be a library for books. A go to place for parents and kids – to find stories written for kids and written by people that are truly inspired by children. A place that people will come back to again and again because the best and most inspired stories are right here!

As I started to dig into some small stories I had written a few months ago myself, I started to think about where I or anyone on Memetales would go for a little inspiration and some how-to pointers with respect to writing children’s picture books. I found some and thought I should share them here.

Before I share them I want to state that Memetales is not a publisher. It is a website that will help create, share and market picture books. Memetales will not refuse to put any book on the website. Everyone is welcome to share any books they create. Infact, that is what we want! Free flow of creativity. If you were inspired to tell a story then there is someone that wants to hear it. It is not about what sells, it is about what is inspired. The links presented here are pointers. Personally, I work with my inspiration and take reasonable lessons from the folk more experienced than I am.  The kids who read the books will determine what they like and what they don’t – and perhaps with time, we will all learn a lot more. But for starters, here are the links. Note that if your goal is to be “spotted” by publishers then presenting your stories and illustrations in a classy and professional manner will certainly help!

“Of all the different categories of children’s books a writer has to choose from,
picture books are probably the most difficult to master. Because the texts are
short (usually 32 book pages), each word is important. With longer books, a
weak paragraph can go undetected, but in a picture book a few unwieldy
sentences will kill the story”
There is a lot of information about what you should think about while writing your first draft and editing it as well. It is a simple yet resourceful e-book. I am not sure I can give you the link here, but you can get your copy if you register at this location.