Other Heroes
Either
the entrepreneurs are getting younger or I am just getting older. Truth
is the key to Curisma is having a smart, focused, trend
spotter, gadget geek at the head of this company. I first met Fatma at an
event that matched entrepreneurs with angel investors. The concept of the
company piqued my interest and I went home and played around with the
site. You can get a little addicted discovering new products.
Nellie Akalp is a passionate entrepreneur, small business
advocate and mother of four.
As CEO of CorpNet.com, an online legal document filing service, Nellie helps small US business owners form an LLC or incorporate a business to start their ventures off the right way.
Nellie has been in the industry since 1997 and throughout her career has created over 100,000 business formations. Nellie and her husband (who is also her business partner) founded MyCorporation.com, which they sold to Intuit in 2005. They started CorpNet.com in 2009.
You can find Nellie on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
We spoke to Nellie about why she's passionate about helping entrepreneurs; about why small business owners should form a business structure; and why as CEO she still loves answering the phone.
In the words of Fast Company, Nora
Abousteit is a "rare leader who can pull together technology,
publishing, and fashion, and inspire people".
Nora recently founded Kollabora.com, a social marketplace for craft and hobby supplies with multiple maker communities. Kollabora will launch in the first quarter of 2012 with fashion forward DIY projects in jewelry, knitting, and sewing.
With a love for interaction and innovative technology, before starting Kollabora, Nora reinvented an old sewing magazine into the DIY fashion community BurdaStyle.com, with over 700,000 members; now an icon in the sewing community.
Nora began her career at German power-publisher Hubert Burda Media and is part of the founding team of the DLD (Digital Life Design) conference.
Silvia de Tommaso is the President of A ITAARTE, a stone, interior décor and jewellery company in São Paolo.
The
UK’s largest female business community, everywoman, has announced the
2012 finalists in the everywoman in Technology Awards, once
again uncovering the UK’s most successful and talented
women working within the technology sector. And our own founder Simone Brummelhuis of The NextWomen is again part of the jury.
These
awards, now in their second year, highlight the achievements of women excelling
in this industry, in order to encourage more to see it as a rewarding career
choice.
Despite increases in the number of women entering the workforce over the past few decades, recent figures show that the number employed within the IT and telecoms sector has decreased. Although 47% of the UK workforce is female, only 18% of IT & Telecoms professionals are female, down from 22% in 2001*.
Virginia Poly
is the founder and President of Poly Placements, one of Canada’s
fastest-growing recruitment solutions companies.
Poly Placements has earned a lot of recognition in the past couple of years –the PROFIT HOT50, PROFIT W100, Branham300, the RBC Canadian Woman Entrepreneur Deloitte Startup Award 2010, and, most recently, one of the Toronto Star’s ‘10 To Watch in 2011’.
Before starting Poly in 2006, Virginia spent more than 10 years as a top-producing sales professional and trainer in IT, getting to know a wide variety of organizations from the inside out.
Virginia launched Poly Placements with a simple mandate: The ROI of Happiness. Happy clients and happy candidates means reduced time-to-hire, reduced recruiting costs, reduced turnover – and, ultimately, a better bottom line.
Elizabeth Galton is a celebrated British creative talent. Creative Director of Links of London for two and
a half years, Elizabeth was credited with successfully modernising the
brand’s design direction and steering the company through the next stage of growth and design evolution at the
forefront of the
British jewellery retail
scene.
As a Board member she contributed to taking the turnover from £45 million in 2006 to £79 million in 2009 and was responsible for directing store design, advertising campaigns and the full creative portfolio.
In 2010, Elizabeth was named in ‘Who’s Who of Britain’s Business Elite’ and was nominated for the ‘Women to Watch’ Award; a cultural leadership programme celebrating the achievements of some of the most ambitious and talented women in the cultural and creative industries. Her reputation grew globally as Creative Director of Links of London with profile pieces in publications such as Elle Japan and Vogue.
Heidi Messer, Co-Founder, Collective[i]: Dream Big, Recruit the Right People, Stay Focused & Execute
Heidi
Messer is Co-founder and Chairman of Collective[i]™,
a cloud-based business intelligence platform that enables
business leaders to answer their toughest questions through big data analysis. Heidi is also Co-Founder and CEO of World
Evolved, a global investment and expansion platform.
Prior to Collective[i]™and World Evolved, Hiedi and her brother, Stephen Messer, co-founded LinkShare Corporation, which is host to one of the world’s largest online affiliate networks. Heidi and her brother built and managed LinkShare until its sale to Rakuten for $425 million in 2005.
Recognized as an authority on online marketing, Heidi is a frequent speaker at major industry events. She is often referenced in written trade publications and has appeared on national television and radio programs.
The following is an address I gave to the second Women Entrepreneurs
Festival, held on January 17-18th of this year.
This year we chose the theme "making it" for the Women Entrepreneurs
Festival. A maker is a person who creates something. Women tend to create
businesses that fill a void in their lives. As women we tend to have this
desire to take care of others. It is innate. It isn't surprising that a woman
invented the stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, ironing board, liquid paper,
Scotchguard, the Apgar test, disposable diapers, fire escapes, and of course
chocolate chip cookies.
There were many other innovations that came from women but we weren't allowed to file for our own patents until 1840. How crazy is that? No doubt we have come pretty far since then.
Mandy Haberman is a UK entrepreneur and inventor of the AnywayUp
Cup®, the world’s first non-spill cup for children. She was recognised by HM
Queen Elizabeth as a ‘Pioneer to the Life of the Nation’ in 2003 and named
‘British Female Inventor of the Year’ in 2000.
Mandy had her hands full being a full-time wife and mother of two. However, when her third child Emily was born with Stickler’s Syndrome, a congenital condition that made it difficult for her to suck and feed properly, Mandy realised that she was going to have to find a solution if she wanted to bring her baby home from hospital.
Frustratingly Mandy discovered that there were no products on the market that helped babies with sucking problems to feed. She decided that she had no other option but to invent a solution. She began improvising with pieces of rubber and elastic bands at her kitchen table and managed to create a device that enabled Emily to feed. Mandy became determined to produce a proper prototype that would help other families too. After writing to hundreds of organisations for help, Mandy raised £20,000 to get a proper prototype made. She set up her own firm and began marketing the Haberman Feeder by mail order to hospitals and parents, helping the families of other children with similar conditions to Emily. The Haberman Feeder is now used in hospitals worldwide.
Upcoming Events
24 Feb 2012 - 13:00 - 17:00Amsterdam, Netherlands
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