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 views of these successful women.
None of them are victims.
- 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.
- Julia Hartz, Co-founder of Eventbrite: Julia co-founded Eventbrite with her husband Kevin, and they have together built a Unicorn company.
- Amy Pressman, Co-founder of Medallia: Amy also co-founded Medallia with her husband Borge, and they have together built a Unicorn company.
- 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.
- 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.
- Kerry Cooper, CEO of Choose Energy: Kerry was recruited by Kleiner Perkins to come and run Choose Energy. She has raised additional funding since.
- Victoria Ransom, CEO of Wildfire: Victoria and her husband Alain co-founded Wildfire and sold it to Google for $350 million.
- Clara Shih, CEO of Hearsay Social: Clara has raised money from Sequoia and others.
- Carol Realini, former CEO Obopay and Chordiant Software: Carol has raised a lot of venture capital throughout her career.
- 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.
Photo credit: Ignite New Zealand/Flickr.com.