2/10/2015 Kristina Moore for Forbes.
Women in STEM are major drivers of the economy, but men continue to be industry leaders. Shaherose Charania is the CEO & Co-Founder of Women 2.0, a pioneering media company focused on increasing the presence of women in technology as leaders, founders, and investors.
Charania along with Angie Chang, Shivani Sopory, and Wen-Wen Lam started Women 2.0 as a side project in 2006, but Charania continued to grow it into a leading resource for tens of thousands of women entrepreneurs and technology professionals around the world. The company administers networking events, conferences, and digital tools.
This week, Women 2.0 will host a sold out crowd of 300+ Silicon Valley women & men tech innovators and investors at its first Women 2.0 Awards event to highlight those innovators and companies who are reshaping the future of tech. Nominees include U.S. Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, Huffington Post President & Editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington, Yahoo! President & CEO Marissa Mayer, IBM Chairwoman & CEO Ginni Rometti, and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
Prior to Women 2.0, Canadian-born Charania led consumer products at Ribbit (acquired by British Telecom) and she was Director of Product Management at Talenthouse and JAJAH (acquired by Telefónica/O2). She is on the board of Good World Solutions and Hacker Dojo. She has also received recognition by Fast Company as one of the Most Powerful Women In Technology and by Glamour as 35 Women Under 35 Who Are Changing the Tech Industry.
I spoke with Charania via phone and email for this interview.
Kristina Moore: What inspired you to launch Women 2.0?
Shaherose Charania: It was actually all unplanned and unexpected. I had just arrived in Silicon Valley in 2005, from Canada…no money, no job, no visa…just an interest in figuring out how to be a part of an exciting technology revolution. Twitter was not yet a thing; there were no smartphones and Facebook was only open to US-based college students. It was a bit of a flat time in the valley, but I was personally ready after finishing University and a year abroad in Spain to make my mark in the world, and I felt tech was the way to do it. I didn’t know [in that moment] what that really meant, I just felt that technology could transform people’s lives.
I had always been fascinated by the story of Grameenphone, an idea by entrepreneur, Iqbal Quadir, in Bangladesh. His premise ‘connectivity leads to productivity’ really sank in for me. When people are connected to each other…to information…they are empowered. They can conduct commerce, they can understand each other and barriers are dropped.
Around that same time, I discovered the work of Jeff Skoll, the first CEO of eBay and a fellow Canadian, who went on to start the Skoll Foundation, where he defined a new type of entrepreneur, the social entrepreneur, defined as ‘society’s change agents and creators of innovations that disrupt the status quo and transform our world for the better.’
This ideal view of being an entrepreneur resonated with me, so, with those two inspirations, I set out to explore Silicon Valley.
I planned to first work at startups to cut my teeth at the process of understanding how to build products and to build a business. In the process, I discovered a more acute problem in my new backyard. How could I possibly focus on ‘helping others through technology’ in other parts of the world where here, in the Mecca of innovation, women were not a part of the discussion, not a part of building, not a part of ideating? I noticed everywhere I looked, women were nearly nonexistent both at big tech companies and startups. I met plenty of women, but most seemed reluctant to take a front seat.
I thought if this industry was going to be the most defining industry of our time and its only role models in the U.S. [were] a Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jack Dorsey, or a Sergey Brin, how are we going to appear to global markets, especially emerging markets, where many women for the last decade are becoming entrepreneurs? Why are there so few women tech leaders in the U.S.? The disconnect was too big for me to not do something about it.
Our discussion started with “there aren’t enough women in the valley” and became Women 2.0, hosting networking events, at first in our own apartments, helping people to connect, ultimately hiring each other, funding each other, and creating startups together. It was in the process of solving the seemingly small problem in front of us that led to bigger meaning and purpose.
Moore: Why is it important to have female founders and what role do they play in the future success of tech?
Charania: Why is it not important?! Of course, we need female founders! That’s happening. It ischanging. Founders are the beginning of innovation and disruption of any change and then they become the culture for the business. The environment becomes no longer about beer pong, but about welcoming other employees, uncovering new ideas, solving a problem, and having the most diverse perspective, all leading a company to further innovation.
via Forbes, Women Of Influence
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