Tag Archives: entrepreneurship

December 13, 2012

Latest trends powering the Innovation Economy


Tony Perkins, organizer and founder of the Venture Summit Silicon Valley.

Target audience: Startups, mature businesses, technology innovators, funders and venture capitalists, marketers.

JD LasicaI‘m just back from the Venture Summit Silicon Valley (“where Big Ideas meets Big Money”). And so here’s a short report from the frontlines of the key players — entrepreneurs, firms and investors — powering the Innovation Economy.

“There is no little kid hoping there’ll be a laptop with Windows 8 under the Christmas tree.”
— Jay Samit of ooVoo

Let’s start with this Flickr set of 51 photos — you’ll recognize some of the speakers, like TechCrunch founder Mike Arrington, AlwaysOn founder Tony Perkins (the conference’s impresario) and other notables from the tech world.

The 250 to 300 folks who turned out at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay were a mix of business executives, VCs and startup founders. I was here to report some highlights for Socialmedia.biz as well as to soak in some wisdom around social data for the geolocation start-up I’ve begun working on, Placely. Continue reading →

November 29, 2012

Practical advice for women entrepreneurs

9 tips to encourage women to take leadership roles in the tech space

Ayelet NoffIn addition to being a founding partner in Socialmedia.biz, I started building the Blonde 2.0 name and educating startups about the importance of social media back in 2006 when almost no one understood what I was talking about. Back then I was a one-woman show. The industry was filled with men — much like it is today.

I had to learn very quickly how to brand myself correctly as a female entrepreneur evangelizing an industry — social media — whose importance was yet to be known and receive recognition in a male-dominated industry. Today Blonde 2.0 is the largest social media agency in Israel with 25 employees.

So how did I do it? I thought I would share some tips and advice with our female readers to encourage more women to step up and take leadership roles in our industry.

1Be confident. To get results, you need to be assertive and confident in your abilities. Don’t doubt your capabilities or opinions just because you’re questioned. Be ready to fight for what you know to be true. Don’t be afraid to roll up your sleeves and get into the arena.
2Show your stuff. Don’t be afraid to flaunt your skills and take credit for your achievements. Don’t let others take your spotlight because you were too shy or stood aside. Show everyone what you’re really made of. Continue reading →