women in any biz

This past week I had the pleasure of attending a cocktail party geared towards women and networking.  The event was put together by Sara Holubek who had aggregated quite a list of interesting women in the tech space.  The evening was titled "Field Guide to Founders, Influencers and Dealmakers of Tech NYC." 

At first glance, I wasn't sure I was going to attend.  Yet, Erin Newkirk, who is the CEO and entrepreneur behind Red Stamp decided she would come in for the event.  I figured I would join her.  BTW, look for a complete new Red Stamp launch sometime very soon. Something I am very excited about. 

Sara asked me for a bio on Sunday night and asked if I would be a dealmaker.  I figured why not.  I wrote my bio since I did not have one.  Little did I know that by sending my bio in and saying yes that I would participate and be a special guest.  I was taken off guard at the party when Sara announced that we would be hearing from our special guests including Tereza Nemessanyi and Rachel Sklar.  Certainly in good company. The only time I am thinking to myself, "oh my god, what am I going to say?"

So when it was my turn to step up to the plate and talk, I gave a brief intro on how I became in involved with the tech industry and moved into how many incredible women are doing great things that we don't even talk about.  Let's focus on the postive not the negative.  There are product developers, there are VP's of marketing, there are women starting bakeries, there are women in tech start-ups.  I could go on and on but in reality there are many women who are intrical parts of many organizations and many women who are entrepreneurs that we never even hear about.  I also said that tech is just a platform.  There are food businesses, jewelry businesses, correspondence businesses that are not tech businesses per se but they are built on tech platforms and social media is completely integrated into each and every company.  The last thing I spoke about is being a woman.  Women think differently, women network differently, women are, well, just different than a man and they should be. 

The one thing that certainly separates us is that only women can bear children and that alone creates a whole other set of issues.  That issue alone is one of the reasons women get on the ramp and then get off the ramp and then get back on the ramp again and perhaps decide to get off again.  We are able to create incredible careers for ourselves as we get back on the ramp because we can reinvent ourselves and go into something that we never thought we would have 10 years prior.  At the end of the day, my advice was to follow your hearts and follow your dreams.  Do what makes you happy.  If you are starting a business and find that every investor you speak with doesn't get what you are doing, then they are the wrong investor.  You want people who get you and get the business so they can help you grow.  Maybe it is a life style business maybe it is a huge business but creating something that makes you get up every morning and get excited….you really can't ask for anything more than that.