Recently, Newsweek’s cover story was about an all-too familiar subject: sexism in Silicon Valley. The article asserts that women in the tech landscape are still getting funded at drastically lower rates than men, far too few of us are in venture capital partnerships, and Silicon Valley still suffers from a “bro complex.” The article definitely made some waves across the Internet, with heated responses by TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis and DominateFund’s Ben Parr.
While the story pointed out that yes, the culture of Silicon Valley is changing too slowly (witness last Thursday’s Crunchies Awards, in which all the winners were—you guessed it—men), it also made me want to spotlight the many women who are making enormous strides in this male-dominated industry. Here are just a few:
Linda Avey and Anne Wojcicki, the founders of 23andme, a human genome indexing service that analyzes your genetics through saliva testing. The results are stored online to help you interpret the date, or share with your family and doctors.
Kris Appel, who started Encore Path. Her company developed Tailwind, a device that helps improve arm function and range of motion for people who have suffered strokes or other brain injuries.
Julia Hartz, co-founder and president of Eventbrite, the social commerce platform for ticketing and event management.
Rachna Choundhry and Marcie Harries, co-founders of Popvox, which bridges the gap between the public and members of Congress through the sharing of personal stories and legislative data.
Annalea Krebs, founder of EthicalDeal. It’s like Groupon for people looking for eco-friendly, local bargains.
Moreover, half of Lyft’s top executives are women (your move, Uber) and let’s not forget all of the incredible female investors in the tech world: Aileen Lee at Cowboy Ventures,Kirsten Green at Forerunner, Katherine Barr at MDV, and Renata Quintini at Felicis, to name a handful.
What are your favorite women-run companies? Any female-founded startups we should know about? We love to hear from you. Tweet us @dotcomplicated or email us.
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