For Women In Computer Science, Tech Is A Golden Opportunity

Google recently released report acknowledging the lack of diversity in their workforce kicked up a storm. The company says, most of its workforce is white (61%) and male (70%). Worse, a mere 17% of Google’s tech workforce is women.

By and large, this is not Google’s fault. It simply reflects the fact that the nation’s education systems have not been able to attract enough women and minorities into their Computer Science programs, hence, for Google (and other tech companies who have similar demographic distributions) there is no supply of trained workers to hire from.

Opportunity in Scarcity
For those women who do have a Computer Science background, this is a golden opportunity. Here are some strategies that you can use to catapult yourself to highly successful careers in the technology industry. Notice none of them actually have anything to do with your actual computer science skills. I am assuming, you have learnt those well, and continue to keep yourself current. These strategies are the extra elements that may get you to a much larger role in the industry:
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How To Navigate The World of ‘Fat Startups’

In the Unicorn series, I have so far written about Tableau Software, FireEye, and RightNow. Of these, while Tableau and RightNow have followed Lean Startup principles, FireEye is definitely what I call a ‘Fat Startup’ that required a lot of early funding to get to market.

While it is true that these days, we focus a lot more on lean startups than startups that require capital to get going, fat startups still play an important role in developing large-scale success stories with significant defensible competitive advantage. In the FireEye article, we saw how Ashar Aziz has used cross-domain innovation to build a business that has scaled to an over $3 billion market cap.

The bulk of the industry has moved away from the ‘fat startup’ category. Investors expect that you will have your product launched, customer acquisition model fleshed out fully, and a team in place before Series A.

However, infrastructure software, hardware, networking, chips – they need capital. Even in cloud software, to build complex technology like personalization and analytics requires some serious investment.

While in the 1M/1M program, we steer people mostly along lean startup paths, I have pondered and investigated the question: How do people fund ‘fat startups’ these days?

I am seeing a few trends:

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Crowdfunding Startups: Opportunities and Bottlenecks

There has been a bit of action for a while now in the crowdfunding world, and certain startups have been able to get themselves off the ground using the Kickstarter / Indiegogo style sites. By and large, these types of financings have gone to companies that are building physical products, digital games, etc. Fundings have also happened for some causes, films, books and art projects that are typically not businesses. Equity crowdfunding has been signed into law in the US through the JOBS Act, but it awaits the SECs directives on the precise rules governing the system. In Europe, it is legal and already in practice. Hopefully, other parts of the world will also start seeing the infrastructure develop shortly.

For our domain of focus, the primary concern is financing digital startups: technology and technology-enabled services. Typically, these are difficult to assess, high-risk companies, and amateur investors from the “crowd” are unlikely to be able to perform adequate due diligence to have a sophisticated investment thesis.

However, there is one category of investors who will have an excellent vantage point from which to assess new ventures.
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How To Fund a ‘Fat Startup’

These days, we focus a lot more on lean startups than startups that require capital to get going. The entire industry has moved away from the ‘fat’ startup category. Investors expect that you will have your product launched, customer acquisition model fleshed out fully, and a team in place before Series A.

However, infrastructure software, hardware, networking, chips – they need capital. Even in cloud software, to build complex technology like personalization and analytics requires some investment.

While in the 1M/1M program, we steer people mostly along lean startup paths, I have pondered and investigated the question: How do people fund the ‘fat startups’ these days?
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Roundtable Recap: February 27 – Confidentiality is Overrated

We had a packed session during this week’s roundtable.

Avaz
First up, we had Ajit Narayanan, a 1M/1M premium member from Chennai, India, pitching Avaz, an autism app for children. Ajit is chalking out his marketing strategy now that he is in the process of wrapping up his funding round.

World Biotechnology
Then, Eugene Disnescu from New York City, pitched World Biotechnology that targets Ethanol producers as its first set of customers. Eugene expressed his concerns about their IP being stolen by potential customers who may also be strategic investors. Well, my take on most of these situations is that confidentiality is overrated. If it’s that easy to steal IP, perhaps there’s no point in doing the business. Most entrepreneurs who get too concerned about protecting IP end up not getting very far with their businesses.
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The Dark Reality of Entrepreneurship

There’s a really good story on Inc. on the dark realities of entrepreneurship. Not the rah rah, everything is so wonderful kind, but the brutal emotional truth: The Psychological Price of Entrepreneurship. Read it.

Successful entrepreneurs achieve hero status in our culture. We idolize the Mark Zuckerbergs and the Elon Musks. And we celebrate the blazingly fast growth of the Inc. 500 companies. But many of those entrepreneurs, like Smith, harbor secret demons: Before they made it big, they struggled through moments of near-debilitating anxiety and despair–times when it seemed everything might crumble.

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Not All Student Entrepreneurs Drop Out

Today’s generation of students has a high exposure to the Internet, smartphones, social and many other technologies from a very young age. It is not uncommon to see college students tinkering with technology, starting digital startups, and making millions (and occasionally even billions). Some drop out of school to build their business, but not all. Some stay on in school to get the best of both worlds.

Today, we are going to look at some such student entrepreneurs that we have worked with.

Jeff Nobbs is the founder and CEO of Extrabux, a highly regarded shopping rewards site monetized via affiliate commissions on online transactions. He co-founded Extrabux as a student at the University of Southern California in 2006. He and his co-founder, Noah Auerhahn, who lived in the same dormitory, worked on the project while they were still at school. Two years later in their junior year, they submitted Extrabux to the USC business plan competition, where it won first place and received $25,000, its first stamp of credibility. That helped them build a team and raise close to a million dollars over the next year. They are now on a run rate of over $10 million and their revenue in 2012 was about $5 million. Read more about how Jeff made Extrabux a success in my interview with him.
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Trend Spotting: Entrepreneurship Inside Corporations

There is a real trend developing right now of corporations becoming crucibles of innovation and entrepreneurship in a systematic way. In this post, I will discuss four specific sub-categories of this trend that we’re seeing, and for all practical purposes, participating in.

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