Category Archives: Entrepreneurs

Celebrating International Women’s Day

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March 8, is International Women’s Day. The earliest Women’s Day celebrations were organized in the early twentieth century by commie firebrand types like Germany’s Clara Zetkin and Russia’s Alexandra Kollantai. The purpose was to bring together two great political movements, feminism and socialism, and to pay tribute women’s revolutionary potential. The March 8th date was chosen to commemorate the historic protests that took place on March 8, 1857, when female garment workers in New York City took to the streets to protest low wages and dangerous working conditions. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which killed 146 women in 1911, led to renewed activism that popularlized  International Women’s Day celebrations throughout the world.

Women's Day in Iraq

The Bitcoin Saga Continues

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A young American woman who ran the First Meta bitcoin exchange was found dead in her Singapore apartment last week. Police are investigating the “unnatural death”.  A preliminary police investigation has ruled out foul play, but neighbors told police they suspected Autumn Radtke jumped from an apartment.

First Meta Ltd. issued a statement on its website, saying they were ‘shocked and saddened’ by the news and gave their deepest condolences to Radtke’s family.

The death of the 28-year old followed a tumultuous week for the virtual currency. Mt.Gox, once bitcoin’s largest online exchange filed for bankruptcy after $63 million worth of bitcoin went missing. 

Prices fell sharply, and the day Mt.Gox closed, the cryptocurrency was listed at $565, less than half its value in November.

Neighbor and fellow bitcoin start-up entrepreneur Steve Beauregard lived in the same residential complex as Radtke and said her death wasn’t related to her business. Beauregard is the CEO and founder of GoCoin, a bitcoin processer started in April 2013.

“This wasn’t a bitcoin-related death. She had other things going on in her life. Collectively, there were a lot of small factors. … It appears she picked a permanent solution to a lot of short term problems,” Beauregard told Reuters.

First Meta is an online exchange for virtual currencies and real money, and is funded by Silicon Valley incubator Plug and Play.

Scott Robinson, an employee at Plug and Play, described Radtke as ambitious, “She was a go-getter, she always worked very hard … she stuck out as one of the only women representing bitcoin.”

Like many governments, Singapore doesn’t recognize the legitimacy of the bitcoin currency, and has said they are not legal tender and users should know the risks.

Singapore has long attracted a large expatriate community because of the special tax exemptions it can offer as an independent state and has favorable conditions for start ups.

Radtke moved from California to Singapore in 2012, where previously she worked at a video game currency start-up company. According to her LinkedIn professional profile, she held positions at tech start ups Xfire and Geodelic Systems.

Currencies?

Ageism in the Business World

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This is the type of comment that we have regularly experienced over the years and while it certainly has been grating at times our focus has been on gender equality so the frequently heard age references have rarely received a second thought. Combine this with our Asian backgrounds however and you can expect even more colourful remarks. Some even attempt to justify their comments with a misguided attempt at a compliment “Oh, you Asians have great genes and always look so much younger!” It’s been raised so many times it got us thinking – is ageism the new sexism?

Being asked “Oh my – you’re young aren’t you?!” can be flattering in a social setting, but in a workplace context, it’s not and often infers inexperience or questions your right to participate in the space. The challenge for us is to convince the room we are in fact the expert in our field and command the respect we rightfully deserve.

The 2011 census reported that the average Australian is a 37 year old female, which makes the constant questions surrounding our age even more surprising. Sure we get the odd comment about being a ‘chick’ but more often than not, it’s our age that people feel entitled to question.

Occasionally (depending on your mood) it can be funny. Like when you are a keynote speaker arriving at said event and someone helpfully directs you to the childcare conference next door because you couldn’t possibly be the leadership presenter they were expecting.

Or you enter a room for a high profile function, and staff insist on matching your name against their invitation list. Yet you notice no one else get the same treatment, walking past you and into the function at leisure.

But when a 10 year old girl is adamant that only ‘old men with beards’ can be a politician, it does make you wonder how in this day and age, this myth still exists. Alarmingly, why do the younger generation who arguably have been born into an era of equality still have these antiquated pre-conceived notions?

Perhaps we do not have enough role models to normalise our expectations of who fits certain roles. We know that more often than not, gender and ages still gravitate to certain sectors and jobs. There certainly doesn’t seem to be one simple answer.

So what can we do to combat this little spoken about form of ageism? Well aside from avoiding moisturiser or perhaps dragging a partner and couple of kids everywhere with us to demonstrate our maturity.

All women who have experienced this type of interrogation over their perceived age and implied lack of experience need to tackle this issue head on. When someone next queries your age and how you could possibly have enough experience to be doing what you are doing, ask them why your age is relevant. Better yet, ask them how old they are. Or perhaps suggest they may want your weight and dress size next? No? Well the questions are just as inappropriate.

And it’s not all doom and gloom. For every person that scornfully queries your age, someone else not only marvels at it, they applaud you.

Ageism?

Crowdfunding for International Women’s Day

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In celebration of International Women’s Day, Indiegogo will launch an initiative to promote and support campaigns that empower women. Beginning March 3rd, Indiegogo will engage in partnerships, host events and showcase campaigns in health, entertainment, cause and technology on each day of the week. On the first day of the initiative, Indiegogo will give $1 for every $25 raised by partnering campaigns–with no limit.

“Our International Women’s Day initiative will seek to further expand the opportunities we work to provide women each and every day. International Women’s Day is perfectly aligned with Indiegogo’s global reach and mission of democratizing funding for all, and I am thrilled to support the movement.”

In order to qualify as an International Women’s Day partner on Indiegogo, campaigns must be either female-led, support a female individual or advocate for a non-profit, organization or company that identifies as empowering women. Anyone can launch a campaign for International Women’s Day through March 8.  Details here.

Indiegogo’s equal opportunity platform continues to play a crucial role in supporting women with approximately 47 percent of fully-funded campaigns on Indiegogo being run by women. Compared to the 13 percent of female-owned businesses that receive venture capital funding, women are nearly four times more successful when crowdfunding than raising capital through traditional means. Indiegogo’s participation in International Women’s Day marks the platform’s ongoing celebration of achievements made by women, and for women, around the world.

“As a female entrepreneur, I know first-hand the difficulty that can accompany being a woman looking to turn a dream into a reality,” said Indiegogo Founder and Chief Development Officer Danae Ringelmann. “Our International Women’s Day initiative will seek to further expand the opportunities we work to provide women each and every day. International Women’s Day is perfectly aligned with Indiegogo’s global reach and mission of democratizing funding for all, and I am thrilled to support the movement.”

The weeklong celebration for International Women’s Day on Indiegogo includes the following:

  • March 3: Indiegogo providing $1 for every $25 contributed to campaigns associated with #WomensDay
  • March 4: “Women in Health” showcase of campaigns
  • March 5: “Women in Entertainment” showcase of campaigns
  • March 6: “Women for Change” showcase of campaigns
  • March 7: “Women in Technology” showcase of campaigns
  • March 8: International Women’s Day 2014

Crowdfunding

Top 10 Emerging Technologies That Will Reshape the Future

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WEFSmarter drugs, super-light cars and computers operated by thought among 10 breakthroughs highlighted
The World Economic Forum’s Wef Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies is composed of top experts on new technologies around the world, representing both the academic and business world.  WEF GAC EmergingTechnologies

Body-adapted Wearable Electronics
Grid-scale Electricity Storage
Nanowire Lithium-ion Batteries
RNA-based Therapeutics
Quantified Self (Predictive Analytics)
Nanostructured Carbon Composites
Mining Metals from Desalination Brine
Screenless Display
Human Microbiome Therapeutics
Brain-computer Interfaces

Future Technologies

Innovation, Technology and the 21st Century

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Christine LagardeAs I am just returning from Sydney’s G-20 meeting, I would like to share with you our views on the global economic situation. While unemployment is too high, public and private debt are too high, and global growth is too low relative to potential, we certainly see some economic momentum in the works—global economic growth of 3¾ percent this year, rising to 4  percent next year. This latest pickup of growth is largely due to positive developments among the advanced countries—certainly in the US, but also in Japan and the Euro Area.Innovation, Technology and the 21st Century

 

IWF

The Balancing Act: Sales and the Customer

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The trick as promoted successfully by some training firms is to make the salesperson comfortable with his pitch: personalizing the pitch and helping it sit well in her voice and her set of beliefs.  Consider also the customer.  Instead of a bank saying, ‘We lend you money,” they might say, “We help you pay when you don’t have cash on hand.”  Instead of suggesting that a customer save, they might say, “We reduce our fees so you can save.”  Matching a Bank’s Needs with the Customer’s

Customer Satisfaction