It Takes A Sisterhood For Women Entrepreneurs To Succeed

It Takes A Sisterhood For Women Entrepreneurs To Succeed Weve come too far for you to feel alone. Destinys Child, GirlAs a first-time entrepreneur right out of Carnegie Mellon, Shanna Tellerman didnt pay much attention to the paucity of women founders in the startup world.It welches 2005 and she was head-down building her 3D-game design platform, Wild Pockets, which she would end up selling to AutoDesk five years later. As a woman in the male-dominated gaming world, she was certainly unique. But it wasnt until she went to work as aventure capitalistat Google Ventures that she realized how few women were pitching their businesses, and how few women were on the investment side.Thats when I personally got super passionate about connecting women together, she said.Tellerman didnt have a professional network. So, she created oneI started doing these happy hours organically because I wanted women to build authentic relationships. I felt like a lot of the networking events or groups werent necessarily set up in a way where you could build strong bonds.In April 2016, Tellerman decided to move her happy hour to a new schauplatz Park City. Deep in the throes of building her second company, 3D home-design platform Modsy, she invited 50 women from her new network of women entrepreneurs and investors to the sunny and snow-covered slopes of Park City to participate in the citys Thin Air Innovation Festival, a three-day gathering of innovators and influencers from the technology world. One of Tellermans invitees, Joanna McFarland, founder of the Uber-for-kids startup HopSkipDrive, says she felt guilty being out there on the slopes on a Thursday, when she should have been working. Then she reminded herself that this is what the guys do.Men go on golf outings all the time and nobody feels guilty about it, McFarland said. For them, thats work.One of the common themes that emerged from the five years of reporting and over 250 interviews we did for our book, Geek Girl Rising, is the importance of relationships, especially relationships between women. Anyone whos been successful in their careers can attest to the power of networks, friendships, and communities of support.We found this sisterhood in female-focused co-working spaces like HeraHub and The Wing, in accelerator programs like the Womens Startup Lab and MergeLane that support and invest in female founders, in womens groups at companies from Google to Goldman Sachs, and on college campuses, where women in engineering and computer science are coming together to address gender disparities and inspire the next generation of girls in tech. AsShelley Zalis, CEO and Founder of the Girls Lounge, says, A woman alone can be powerful. But collectively, we have an impact.When you find yourself in situations, within your workplace or outside, where you feel alone, or like you dont belong, seek out those networks. Find people who will cheer you on, not bring you down help you get ahead, not hold you back and con nect you with contacts to help you succeed. And if you cant find these networks, do what Tellerman did create your own.Read mora about the sisterhood shaking up the male-dominated world of tech in the new book Geek Girl Rising Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech, in bookstores Tuesday (May 23).--Samantha Walravens is co-author of the book Geek Girl Rising Inside the Sisterhood Shaking Up Tech (St. Martins Press, May 23, 2017).Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women.Join us by reviewing your employer