Are you a female entrepreneur or small business person who launched something new in 2009? Let's chronicle your successes and celebrate them. Use the form to add the following: your full name, company name, company link or relevant article and twitter name. We'll share the results across the web.

Are you a woman or part of a women led team interested in applying to a tech incubator?

Pink Garage Mentors are experienced founders, VCs and C-level execs who will read your application pre-submission, help you refine it, and provide virtual coaching to serious applicants.

If you would like a mentor for your summer 2009 TechStars and/or yCombinator application, email pinkgaragementors at gmail.com with a copy of your application and we will match you with a mentor.

We have a great team of experienced start-up CEOs, women execs and female VCs who have volunteered to do this; we all want to help women get ahead in tech and business and this is a starting place, (And yes, ycombinator and TechStars both know and are fine with it).

I'll keep posting updates on this project, but if you know people we can help, spread the word.

Earlier this month, I participated in a Silicon Valley junto lunch(which I really enjoyed) on the topic of failure. That experience drive the desire to do this session at She's Geeky.

How did it go?

We had about 35 women in a room, in a circle, talking about failure (and we created a safe space for that talk, agreeing we would not blog or twitter identifable details or names).

Some of the themes that emerged from the group:

• Failure can be either something you feel and do, so something others feel--and that you have no control over.
• One of the hard things about failure is managing others' expectations, along with your own.
• Without being willing to fail, there is no risk, without risk, no edge and much slower growth.
• How does women's perfectionism tap into reactions about failure?
• Don' t we need to evolve to the point where for us--like little kids learning to walk--multiple failures are accepted and we move on from them?
• There is no test of whether you are good enough to do something, just do it.
• You learn from every failure, even if it hurts like hell.
• One fear of failure is being exposed and ridiculed in public, or by your family/friends.
• Another is hating yourself for what you could have done differently, or could have done better.
• Blame and shame are things to get past; you learn ALOT from not succeeding

There were a number of personal stories and lots of intense discussion; this was such a good dialogue, thank you all!

She's Geeky is a powerful conference for me because it is one of the few events that bring women together who are truly technical (as well as geeky), and cuts across niche-specific organizations, as well.
In Silicon Valley, like the rest of the world, women engineers, QA leads, product developers, front end engineers and even PMP/technical project manager leads are a minority--it's far more common for the women who are working to be in marketing, visual design, or what is considered a "softer" area. Of course, that in turn leads more people to assume those jobs are what women do, and that the other skills are out of their range.

So this conference is an affirmation of women's skills, and of diversity--and it is also a place to talk honestly, in the unconference format.  Someone I know has asked to co-lead a session with me on transparency and identity, a topic I have written and talked about a lot, and if people are interested, we can definitely do that session.

The topic I would like to talk about though, is failure. A few weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to join Ben Casnocha and members of the Silicon Valley Junto at a lunch where failure was the topic, and it was a great discussion--one I am excited to have with more people, and with more women (as it turned out, I was the only woman who made the lunch I attended).

Some of the junto questions and items to think about have kept my attention:

• What behaviors and attitudes tend to lead to failure?
• What are the best practices for dealing with failure when it happens?
• How can we handle our emotions and maximize what we can learn from failure?

I'm interested in doing a session on this, maybe on Saturday.

There's an informal list of proposed topics on the wiki---and a list of attendees here

As magazines crumble, online media networks gain in value, with women's networks as one of the hottest areas (reflecting the on-going, but not quick enough move of brand advertisers in CPG from print to web). 

Now Meredith Publishing, which acquired a stake in Real Girls Media Network, publishers of Divine Caroline, has re-organized the company to create the Meredith Women's Network, a roll up of their sites for Better Homes & Gardens, Ladies Home Journal, Fitness, More,, The Parents Network, and a bevy of new BG spin-outs, including the soon to launch Mixing Bowl, a food and lifestyle site.

The full network reaches 15 million uniques a month, enough to stack up against the competition for advertisers--and audience--from iVillage/BlogHer/NBCi, Yahoo's Shine, the Glam and Sugar networks, and whatever Hearst is doing.

Of course, the topics and themes of this effort are nothing new--but the continually every-heating up push for eyeballs and revenue seems to continually intensify as legacy brands get pushed toward the box canyons of the web, where audiences are fickle and targeting and ROI are merciless.

Big company managers, male and female alike, think women's family commitments will interfere with their ability to perform executive level jobs says a recent study from the University of Illinois at Chicago's College of Business Administration.  Additionally, the managers saw men as a better fit for the company's senior roles than they did the "softer" women, regardless of skill level.

For this reason, not surprisingly, studies also report what we already know--that women are cycling out of fulltime corporate positions fairly quickly so they can create meaningful, paid work that has that other quality multi-taskers and jugglers prize so highly--flexibility.

Or, to put it another way, even if you're a well-paid female exec, at a certain point does the combination of corporate slog (which knows no gender), male-dominated and male-centric environment (the usual in many industries) and lack of flexibility lead to the code words "fuck it" ?

And to starting a business of your own? Seems that way.

Have you seen the twits asking if you're going to Blissdom? Or whether you're saving it for BlogHer, instead?

 Curious as to what this Blissdom was, I poked around and discovered that Blissdom is a blogging conference for women, to be held this February for the second time in Nashville, Tennessee.

Looking at the web page, Blissdom takes more than a little inspiration from BlogHer's conference energy--only with two significant differences--Blissdom has a strong Christian faith-based subtheme--and has Walmart as a sponsor.

Sponsored by some Nashville bloggers (would they call themselves girls? I'm not sure), February's Blissdom '09 is a repeat of  October's Blissdom '08.  This conference started life as a plans for a local party after the BlogHer business tour stop in Nashville, but turned into a day-long event after BlogHer cut back the tour, eliminating the Nashville meet-up.

Now, Allison Worthington, aka Mrs. Fussypants, and her partner Barbara Jones, aka one2onenetwork are calling in the tribe to Nashville for a lingerie and Cosmo-tinged party that Carrie Bradshaw and her gang of pals would surely enjoy (if they were moms of 5 with their own businesses, a relationship with their lord Jesus Christ, and blogs and blog-based businesses of their own, that is.)

The conference pitch is to come to Nashville for fun and fellowship  and "learn from other women about building your blog, your brand, and your business while achieving bliss in those other areas that are so important too: being a mom, a wife, and being true to yourself."

So here's the thing:

• Would I, an irreverent New York Jew transplanted to the Bay area, feel comfortable at Blissdom?
  
• Could I too be a Belle of Blissdom?
  
• Or would my life as a Bella strike me from the lists?
  
• Would the fact I don't have small kids, or a husband annoyingly but charmingly underfoot a home, deter me from feeling welcomed at this conference? 
  

And how about that Jesus thing? If God's grace comes with a cross on it, would I feel welcomed?

While it's clear the conference wants to bring into people by the boatload who aspire to Allison Worthington's ability to balance  "her magazine, her mommy blog, her photo jewelry business, five young sons and a wonderful husband with lots of coffee and God's grace,"  it might also be true that this conference isn't interested in attracting people who doesn't fit that model, including childless and single people, LGBT ers and people of color who don't fit the demo.

On the other hand, this might be the just the women's blogging audience that  Walmart is looking for. Maybe Walmart has funded Momtourage (iVillage) and Blissdom( this event) because these are their people.

(Of course if that means the more  diverse group at BlogHer just isn't, it will make me want to scream loudly for at least an hour.)

Short version: Am I the only one who gets the vibe that Blissdom is ground zero for the post-sorority, married with children version of SATC with blogging?

Or am I just being Mrs. Crankpants this morning?

(Update: I'm not angry about this at all. I think it's fine for everyone to organize into whatever affinity groups ring true for them, and I respect all beliefs and religions, At the same time, this is the first women's blogging group I've run into where many of the organizers list both having kids, being a good wife, and their Christian faith as key to their lives--and while it makes perfectly good sense--it's also, uh, surprising, especially with Walmart forking out $$ so fast and all.)

Update 2: Mom 2.0 Summit, another niche conference in a rapidly crowding category.

Allyson Kapin of Women Who Tech is planning an April 2009 Women Who Tech TeleSummit and is seeking looking for panel suggestions by February 7th.Who would you like to hear speak? What should they speak about? Ideas can be sent in right here.

Allyson says "We have already had some great panel ideas coming in from women like Deanna Zandt who submitted a panel on "What Shirky Didn't Tell Us: Gender and Organizing without Organizations" and Rashmi Sinha, CEO of Slide Share who submitted another panel on "Running A Startup."

Just heard that Foodzie, the online marketplace and community for artisan foods, has gotten $1MM in funding from Jeff Clavier, First Round Capital, and a set of angel investors.

For many of the TechStars mentors and companies, Foodzie was a favorite--not only because of the yummy chocolates that kept appearing, but because Rob, Emily and Nick are such driven, passionate people with such a good vision. If likeability is one of the factors in funding start-ups, this team could have walked out with $25MM, and yet, their ability to execute fast and well is obvious, so it's not just likeability that leads to $1MM in funding.

My secret hope is that having west coast investors moves them from Boulder to the Bay area in the next year; while Boulder is cool, having Emily O around would be superb.

Congrats, everyone!

"Hire me to help them get on track. Just one example: Whoopi Goldberg is the only women of color on the masthead, and she hasn't bothered to fill in her profile. Of course, that gets "read" as them saying, at the last minute, "Oh, we'd better get Whoopi, cause we'll drop a big piece of the audience if we're all white." (Well, guess what, ladies?  The whole dern rest of the country is actually serious about pluralism!  [Ms. Tomlin's support of Richard Prior earns her a lifetime street cred on this issue.]) 

And of course, they've already dropped the Asian demo -- and trust me, that's where their lack of inclusion will hurt them, cause my Asian-American friends drop more cash at Tiffany's and on designer bling bling than anyone else I know.  As to today's blunder of talking about how they "confuse" their "hired help" with "friends," oh, well, where do you even start with that? Hire me. I'm worth my weight in gold."

Wowowow community member  Mugsy Peabody, talking with Marketing Diva Toby Bloomburg about the community on the site, which seems to have an active role despite NO interaction with the founders.

Susan sez: I love the world we are in, where community members know their power. Go, Mugsy!

"The ability to see what'll happen next is a trait that's been common among many of the great entrepreneurs and business people I know and have met. (snip)...It's something I've found especially consistent among New Power Girls. They have that Murdoch-esque sixth sense, and most of all, they're not afraid to leverage it.

--Patricia Handschiegel, writing on Huffington Post about the traits of women entrepreneurs, particularly the go with your instincts (but still check the data) thing.

--

Wowowow, the upscale, post-70s web site for todays' women, over 50 division, raised a reported $1.MM from Bob Pittman and the other shrewd (and wealthy) graybeards at Pittman's The Pilot Group (n top of a previous from the oh so affluent founders.). If you recall, Pilot is the funder that bought (and recently sold The Daily Candy), proving early on that someone was willing to fund media plays on the next a few years ago.

This is thrilling news to me because it proves VCs are closely watching the success(and explosive trajectory) of BlogHer and looking for other properties that can deliver those highly prized female decision makers. Wowowow is so upscale I don't know that it will speak to the folks in the heartland, but with the big, shiny names and the liberal tone, it's certainly got sparkle.
Peter Kafka  quotes Wowowo was saying they had 600,000 unique visitors in November, 10 months after it launched. Even if they're buying SEM traffic to get those numbers. they're a good, strong start.

"One noticeable difference from last year was the increased number of women on Man KCrew. It was pretty rad working with so many strong, competent, and creative women. We represented many different fields of vocations including small business owners, biologists, photographers, comic book illustrators, yoga teachers, and pyrotechnic artists. The Rosie the Riveters of the aughts!"
--Crafter Nifer, blogging about her June 08 trip to BlackRockCity to prep and build the man.

For a piece I am writing for the end of the year, I'd like to hear from people about who are the women entrepreneurs they admire--name, company, and why.  We're not only talking tech here, but all areas--manufacturing, design, services, media, etc.

For the purpose of this piece, let's define an entrepreneur as someone who starts and or leads a business where they are a clear driver of its development and growth; one critera for fitting this list will be whether their specific actions have driven revenue, audience acquisition, social change, or other success metrics.

Please email me at smernit at gmail dot com with suggestions; I'll acknowledge everyone who contributes suggestions who includes a working email address and/or URL.

"t's all part of a big boom that has been growing across the country: The new modern women's entrepreneur. Women who aren't just interested in taking a slice of the corporate pie, but owning the pie, the bakery and the manufacturing company that supplies it -- and are making it happen. Fueled in part by strong mothers from the Working Girl era of the 80s and power women role models like Oprah Winfrey, and Hilary Clinton, women today are more driven than ever.

Only this time around, we don't just want to work at a company. We want mogul status, and we're working for it."

--the marvelous and talented and so dead on right Patricia Handschliegel, putting her own lavish LA spin on something I am seeing all across the country--women wanting to run their own business and now doing it for themselves.