10 Women Leaders of VC-Funded Companies

As I wrote in my recent article, 10 Must Read Posts on Women and Entrepreneurship, I am concerned that the public discourse on feminism is veering in a victim-oriented direction, something I don’t care for.

As a follow-up to that post, I would like to introduce you to ten women who have raised venture capital as a founder CEO, a co-founder, or a non-founder CEO. In each case, I have linked to a detailed interview discussion I have had with the person, so that you can really dive into the points of view of these successful women.

None of them are victims.

1. Therese Tucker, CEO of Blackline Systems: Therese bootstrapped her company to more than $10 million in revenue before raising the first funding. The company is a billion dollar Unicorn now.
2. Julia Hartz, Co-founder of Eventbrite: Julia co-founded Eventbrite with her husband Kevin, and they have together built a Unicorn company.
3. Amy Pressman, Co-founder of Medallia: Amy also co-founded Medallia with her husband Borge, and they have together built a Unicorn company.
4. Jodie Fox, CEO of Shoes of Prey: Jodie is Australian. She bootstrapped Shoes of Prey and then moved to New York, raising money from Sequoia.
5. Ilana Stern, CEO of Weddington Way: Ilana validated her e-commerce concept in the San Francisco Bay Area and has raised several rounds of venture capital right here.
6. Kerry Cooper, CEO of Choose Energy: Kerry was recruited by Kleiner Perkins to come and run Choose Energy. She has raised additional funding since.
7. Victoria Ransom, CEO of Wildfire: Victoria and her husband Alain co-founded Wildfire and sold it to Google for $350 million.
8. Clara Shih, CEO of Hearsay Social: Clara has raised money from Sequoia and others.
9. Carol Realini, former CEO Obopay and Chordiant Software: Carol has raised a lot of venture capital throughout her career.
10. Judy Estrin, Co-founder of 3Com: Judy was way ahead of her time, and I have never heard her complain about gender bias in Silicon Valley.

This doesn’t mean it isn’t a tough road.

Entrepreneurship itself is a tough road, for men or for women.

But these women are traveling that tough road.

I conclude with a short video that Women 2.0 published back in 2008, where I shared a message for women entrepreneurs: