Written on June 5, 2008 – 12:02 am
Simone Brummelhuis, writing about women on the web
Yesterday, I read in the press that Queen Elisabeth has urged Kate Middleton, Prince William’s bride to be, to get a proper job. Without having decided exactly what she wants to make a career in, so the story goes, she won’t be a viable candidate to take over the Queens position next to Prince William in the future. Her current work is obviously not a serious job according to the Queen. The Queen believes in a modern Monarchy and feels very strongly that the Royals should be leading by example.
Kate announced last September that she was giving up her job as an accessories buyer to become a photographer. She has been working and taking pictures for the website of party company Party Pieces since. That company was founded by her parents, Micheal and Carole Middleton in 1987 and is the UK’s leading online and catalogue party company.
That makes Kate the daughter of a Female Internet Hero, co-founder Carole Middleton. And when Kate takes over the company as a CEO, she will be a Female Internet Hero herself, and thus, leading by example. Just what the Queen wants. But before that, Kate may need some work experience in other internet companies.
I am sure there are many companies interested, but I would love to have her on board in one of my ventures. So the question is: Kate, how can I get in contact with you to offer you a job in the Internet Industry? To offer you the possibility to become a role model als Female Internet Hero yourself?
Or maybe you, as readers, know someone who knows her and so on? I am curious to know whether the six degrees of separation works in this respect? Anyone?
I hope you like that post!
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Written on May 23, 2008 – 4:27 pm
Simone Brummelhuis, writing about women on the web
Visibility is a major thing for start-ups, and one thing to be able to get that is to pitch your company in an event or for an award. Winning an award means media coverage, some times real money and access to investors. There are several competitions in which a start-up can submit its business. Strangely enough, there is no website which lists them all in an overview.., so I had to do some research on the web in order to come up with the following suggestions.
I want to create a complete list of awards here. So if you know of any other awards, please comment on this post so I can add it to the list.
Upcoming competitions
- Accenture Innovation Awards - Dutch companies in media, entertainment or communication that started in the last 3 years can participate.
- The Strands awards - competition for early stage international startups in the area of recommendation technologies with a very appealing price of $100.000.
- CNET Networks UK Business Technology - this competition has some 17 prestigious awards for UK business technology innovators. Final deadline to submit applications is May 31, 2008, but maybe it is enough to become the IT Community Hero of the Year.
- The Startup Awards major competition for UK start-ups in October 2008.
- Vodafone Mobile Clicks for mobile start-up companies to develop new, innovative, creative and technically viable mobile internet products and/or services. Date to be submitted June 25, 2008. Awards during Picnic in October 2008, Amsterdam. Awards of Euro 100,000.
- Google Android Competition, with total monies available of USD 10,000,000.
- Web Marketing Web Awards, in 96 categories, including best websites, to be submitted till June 15, 2008.
- Startup Awards in the UK, including the Online Startup of the Year, Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Innovative Business of the Year. Deadline entry 4 th July 2008.
- London Technology Fund Competition, for potentially high growth seed, start-up early stage technology companies, based in London. Price from 100,000 till 1M Pounds sterling. Deadline 30th June, 2008.
- DEMO GOD AWARDS and the DEMO People’s Choice awards.
Completed competitions
Make sure you set your agenda for next year awards.
- Blackberry Women in Technology awards - Female internet hero Professor Lizbeth Goodman of the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute was named the BlackBerry outstanding woman in technology, while Beatriz Alonso Martinez of Avid Technology Europe Ltd was awarded the ‘Best use of technology within the multimedia industry by a woman’.
- The First Women Awards - UK competition created to acknowledge women who are pioneers in business. Female internet hero Fru Hazlitt, former Managing director, Yahoo UK and now CEO of GCap Media, was one of the price winners in the past.
- 2008 Fast Growth Business Awards - Margeret Manning, CEO of award winning digital communications agency, Reading Room won the Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2008.
- Broos van Erp Price, A Dutch ICT competition with an award of euro 50.000.
- UK Internet Industry Awards
- The Webby Awards, recognizing outstanding Websites in 65+ categories!! Ans also a Webperson of the Year. The Oscars of the Internet.
- Startup Camp, arranged through Speed Geeking sessions during the Camps in SF, London, with an impressive attendee list.
- Plugg Start-up of the Year Award, with the European Focus on web 2.0
- Innovation and Technology awards for Swedish startups.
Tech conference competitions
Written on May 13, 2008 – 3:34 pm
Simone Brummelhuis, writing about women on the web
Already twice at London Coffee Meetup, I have come across female founders of internet startups who would love to have a mentor. Somebody who gives them some guideline without further ado. So I decided to set up an experiment.
Are there any readers of The Next Web who are willing to act as mentor for Chloe Holding? She’s the founder of the very early stage startup Habinki. Read the questions and answers below and let me know!
1. How did you come up with the idea of your start-up?
It was more a question of ‘What did I want to do with my life?’ than finding a new business idea, and starting up a bikini/travel company was exactly what I wanted to do. I had always wanted to set up a business and I had a passion for travel and retail, and it just took a little bit of inspiration to figure out how to make that into a great business.
2. How far are you with the set up of the start-up?
I have secured funding via a loan with the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme backed by the government, I have incorporated the company, developed the branding, and begun marketing and selling my brand. The bikinis are on their way from Brazil to arrive in June and the website is currently in development.
3. What is your goal with the company
I want to create a brand which young people associate with and are inspired by. I can see many opportunities in the future in terms of developing new product lines and focusing more on the travel industry, in terms of places to go ‘in your bikini’.
4. What was your biggest challenge during the development process?
Without any doubt the biggest challenge so far has been to make the decision and find the strength of mind to do something very different, which your peers, friends and family may not understand or support. It was about realising that I wanted to do this so much that it actually didn’t matter what anyone else thought, or what advice people gave me, and that the faith and passion I had for building businesses was strong enough to set out on a path on my own. I think part of the definition of being an entrepreneur is to do what everyone else says ‘will never work’.
5. Who are your advisers?
My close friends, a core group of girls (and a few boys) who have shown a real interest and passion for what I am doing. They have offered advice, often on a daily basis, on some tricky issues, and I hope that in the not-too-distant future some of these people will come and work for the business.
6. Why do you need a mentor, for which activities and for which period of time?
I would like someone who has been through a similar experience of setting up a business from scratch, and who has been successful. I would be interested in any kind of communication that would be convenient for them. Even an email exchange every couple of weeks or once a month would be great, or even just to have the opportunity to talk on the phone for half an hour as a one-off, so that I could talk through some core-issues. I think about raising capital, and how to expand, or…. recover from a major business crisis. It would also be useful to gain recommendations of advisors, software, consultants to use.
7. What type of mentor you think would you benefit from?
Ideally someone who has built a consumer retail business, but more importantly someone that has set up a business from absolutely nothing and knows how difficult it is to raise capital and live on nothing but air.
8. What does the mentor gain from mentoring you?
I think that the ideal mentor would enjoy doing this as they would enjoy helping someone embarking on a similar venture as they had. In the future I would be keen to do the same. However, on another level, a successful businessperson and investor may be interested in financing small businesses or may be interested in gaining access to a network of young entrepreneurs and listening to their business ideas.
Interested? Leave a comment below or drop Ernst-Jan a line. I hope the experiment will be a success!
Written on May 11, 2008 – 8:41 am
Simone Brummelhuis, writing about women on the web
The Netherlands may be known as a liberal country with equal opportunities for men and women, but somehow we managed that in terms of women in the board room, we are doing not so well. While in the United States almost one out of five corporate officers are women, in Europe the female to male ratio on company boards is not even one to twenty. And in Holland it is even less….. However, Norway has set the agenda by imposing a minimum female mandatory quota of 40% in company-boards. And guess what: it works! Heleen Mees of women-on-top and Marieke Bax of Topbrainstorm have urged companies and our government to do the same over here. I support this. It makes sound economic sense. Moreover, studies show that companies with more women in senior management are more profitable than those with few women at the top.
With these developments taking place, let’s see which female internet heroes in The Netherlands can act as such role model and fulfill the quota. Indeed, these women can bring entrepreneurial internet knowledge into the board room.
Female internet heroes are strongly represented in media, such as Marianne Zwagerman, director of Dutch Telegraaf Media Group and Lara Ankersmit, director of telegraaf.nl., the second largest news site in the Netherlands with a strong user generated content component. Dutch Dragon Den’s Annemarie van Gaal, is founder of AM Media but more known as a keen investor in media companies like bright.nl.
In more technological driven companies, serial entrepreneur Christine Karman springs to mind, who is founder of Zaphod and member of the advisory board of Technika10, an organisation who provides science and technology classes to girls. Also, I point out CEO Petra van Schayik of Compumatica, founder and CEO Karen Loeffen of Libersy and Jacqueline Smit, country manager of MSN. Although how come that Microsoft is organizing an event, the Dev Days, with no single female speaker?
Some very popular sites were founded or led by women, such as weekendjeweg by CEO Marianne Baars, which was sold to Holidaybreak, kieskeurig.nl by founder Janet Sellis, which was sold to Sanoma and directwonen.nl by founder and CEO Yvonne Swaans who went to the Alternative Investment Market at the London Stock Exchange.
Good catch are also some international female internet heroes living and working in The Netherlands, such as CEO Nancy McKinstrey of Wolters Kluwer, ranked in the top ten of the most powerful women in Europe by The Financial Times and founder Marina Tognetti of Myngle, com, a startup global marketplace in language education.
So who said that we cannot fulfill the quota?
Yesterday, I read in the press that Queen Elisabeth has urged Kate Middleton, Prince William’s bride to be, to get a proper job. Without having decided exactly what she wants to make a career in, so the story goes, she won’t be a viable candidate to take over the Queens position next to Prince William in the future. Her current work is obviously not a serious job according to the Queen. The Queen believes in a modern Monarchy and feels very strongly that the Royals should be leading by example.
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