Yesterday I attended a six-hour long conference on tech and entrepreneurship that was different from any I had been to before. Instead of the usual 90% male and 10% female ratio, the floor of the 2Xin Tech conference was filled with women. There were too many to count, but it looked like more than 200 female entrepreneurs had followed the somewhat unusual invitation of Grand Central Tech to spend an afternoon and an evening with a hand-picked group of fellow entrepreneurs and investors.
The idea of a women’s tech conference sounded intriguing and the organizers clearly spent a lot of time thinking about women’s details like unconventional conference food (sushi, fruit, and light snacks), beverages (new sodas, lattes delivered to the table) and thoughtful details like the pashminas that were distributed when the air conditioning became frigid. But we were not there for the goody-bags (though it’s nice to get one 🙂 ) – we were there to learn from 26 amazing female speakers ranging from Gilt to Birchbox to WayUp. And we were here to network with other like-minded founders.
The format worked well for intensive networking. Ten to twelve entrepreneurs were matched with investors, who hosted the group at individual tables in the conference room through the afternoon and then also hosted a private dinner off-site. Nice and unusual. The dinner series alone must have been a major headache to organize–who would go where and why? I ended up going to Gowanus in Brooklyn and learned a lot about the Brooklyn startup scene and work spaces; I also had the most interesting conversations with my fellow diners. So here are, seven things I learned yesterday:
- The conversation is different when women are alone: We talk differently, and are a lot more outspoken, in a room full of females.
- Women need to be comfortable promoting themselves, and their companies. As Kara Swisher said, “The men I meet in Silicon Valley are more confident, the women are more competent.”
- Be customer-centric: WayUp founder Liz Wessel handled every customer service ticket herself to stay on top of product issues. (Wayup is a one-year-old startup and serves 5,000 companies and hundreds of thousands of college students looking for jobs and internships)
- Add resources for what you don’t know: The Zirtual CEO powerfully told the story of how she lost everything because of not looking at financials enough. She recommended: Once you pass $ 15k in revenues, add a dedicated finance person to your team.
- Hire wisely: Gilt founder Alexis Maybank recounted the time when MIT graduates needed to pack boxes in the warehouse to get orders out on time. A startup is well… starting up.
- Trust your gut, don’t second guess. (but see # 4) Especially true for female founders.
- Ask for more: Thanks to our dinner host, Charlie O’Donnell, who noted this advice is especially true for fundraising.
