Nicholas McElroy’s photographs could very well be compared with Bryan Schutmaat’s below. The difference, however, lies in the joyfulness in McElroy’s choice of film and subject. Joyfulness is probably the wrong word, but they lack the neutralness, the homesickness of Schutmaat’s. Anyway, enough comparisons. Check out those landscapes. (Flickr.)
Alina Nikitina, or ‘Nappkin’ as far as the internet is concerned, is a hit. Her images are crisp and cool, and she seems to keep this lighting theme running through all her images. I found her photographs in a couple of issues of Афиша-Мир (Afisha Mir) magazine, the Monocle of Russia. Just look at that backlighting! Be-autiful! (Flickr; Blog.)
A couple days ago, I (Maria) sent out a tweet listing several women-led startups in response to TechCrunch's tweet asking for Twitter list suggestions. That inspired me to write about these female entrepreneurs, what they're starting up, and how they're staying active!
Here are ten female entrepreneurs who rock:
Leila Chirayath Janah of Samasource
Leila is the founder and CEO of Samasource. I've yet to meet Leila but she has a strong online presence and I admire her non-profit work. She's also the winner in the International Business in Development Challenge, the Stanford Social Enterprise Challenge and holds a BA from Harvard University.
Samasource brings dignified, computer-based work to women, youth, and refugees living in poverty. They are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit social business that's in the seed stage after launching mid 2008. Samasource derives its name from the Sanskrit word sama, which means “equal”.
Samasource is also hosting the Samasource GiveWork Charity Gala in San Francsico tomorrow - if you can make it, be sure to get your tickets!
Boxing and jumping rope. A little known fact is that Leila used to teach a girl's boxing class at the East Oakland Boxing Association!
Former Principal at Charles River Venture, Susan is effervescent and driven. She has a lot of fun doing whatever she does. Susan was the former CMO of the Apache Software Foundation and has significant experience in online gaming. It's not too surprising she's taking on Ohai. next.
Ohai builds flash-based massively multiplayer online games (MMOG). They are venture backed by $6M and, with an impressive team, Ohai has just launched! Here's Susan presenting at Le Web about Virtual Goods and Ohai:
Dancing, yoga, rock climbing, snowboarding.
Rashmi is a fearless woman who writes a great blog and shares a candid perspecifve of the challenges for women raising money, She puts her Cognitive Psychology PhD from Brown University to work at Slideshare and within the tech community.
Slideshare is the world's largest presentation sharing community. They launched in 2008 and received $2M in funding.
Unknown (ping me and I'll update this!).
Gina Bianchini of Ning
Gina is a social networking expert who was a former financial analyst for Goldman Sachs and most recently co-founder of Ning with Marc Andressen. She hold a Stanford MBA and she puts it to good use by evangelizing Ning and constently improving an already great product.
Ning is a service provider that lets you build social networks around any interest. Founded in 2004, launched in 2007, Ning has raised $119M in venture funding and has a massive amount of users.
Mountain biking.
Sandy Jen & Elaine Wherry of Meebo
Sandy and Elaine are the co-founders of Meebo. These two females and Seth Sternberg met at during their studies at Stanford. They all co-founded Meebo and continue to solve hard technical challenges.
Meebo is an ajax-based in-browser instant messaging program which supports multiple IM services. They've been around since 2004, raised nearly $40M, and have gained a strong following. As I've mentioned, these ladies are smart and here's Sandy sharing her experiences leading the technical team at Meebo:
Rock climbing and hiking.
Caterina Fake of Hunch & Flickr
Caterina is a fellow Canadian who is most known for co-founding flickr. She's tenacious, passionate about user experience design, and all around fun. I've met Caterina before and her startup life is an interesting one.
Currently, it's Hunch. Hunch a consumer web applicationthat helps users make up their minds. They raised a $2M series A earlier this year. Previously, it was flickr and you all know what happened there.
Regardless, I am a big fan of flickr and you can view a glimpse into my life via my flickrstream.
I've heard she works out at a fitness gym (ping me to update).
Joyce Kim & Susan Kang of Soompi
Joyce Kim and Susan Kang make up the female-duo being Soompi. Joyce is an attorney and was the former co-host of the GigaOM Show on Revision3. Susan builds the technology powering Soompi and is a prominent k-pop enthusiast known widely from Korea, LA to SF. Together they rock my Asian pop world!
Soompi is an Asian focused entertainment site, the largest English-speaking Korean and Asian website about pop, dramas, and celebrities. Back in the late nineties, Susan's original K-pop blog started taking off and, in 2006, Joyce and Susan decided to make it a real business. They are profitable through direct advertising and a premium 'Friends of Soompi' model. Here's a pretty random video they did, all in the name of entertainment:
Hiking, kayaking, rock climbing, skiing.
Vicki is a firm believe of pursuing your passion and working on things that resonate deeply in your heart. I met her back in Canada, when I was working on my wee startup Kiwi Innovations (customized cell phones) and when she was the CEO of the NRG Group and KidsNRG, Canada's premier catalyst and supporter of youth entrepreneurship!
Zazengo is an engagement engine designed to help your company or organization achieve its goals. So far, they've raised an angel round.
Hiking and kayaking. She lives in Santa Cruz by the water - lucky her!
Shinyoung was the first female CEO in Korea, having built an education website, Bebetown, which was acquired by Iconsupe. She's got spunk, is not a follower, and will always be doing something entrepreneurial. Shinyoung attended Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU where she was often found prototyping new ideas such as the original Funji device.
Shinyoung is now the CEO of Funji, a virtual avatar-based mobile community. Funji was funded over the summer by Fbfund.
Walking around the crazy streets of SF.
Jen Bekman of 20x200
It's art, for everyone. 20x200 is an e-commerce site for art collectors. This site champions affordable art and so far they've raised a series A round.
Rock climbing, mountaineering, hiking, yoga, pilates, gymnastics, dancing, and skiing. Follow Maria on Skimble.
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There are a lot more women-led startups that I haven't listed here. For more bios and stories of women-led startups, check out the In Conversation Women 2.0 Video Series and New Power Girls (NPG) on Huffington Post!
