Innovating Women

"As someone whose family has been dedicated to advancing women’s careers for one and a half centuries (in 1868 my great-grandmother started the first school in Europe to provide higher education for girls and ran it with her daughter—my grandmother—for seventy years), I am excited by Vivek's compelling book which shines a light on the remarkable achievements of brilliant and pioneering women in today's world." —Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author and futurist, Director of Engineering at Google "Women are increasingly integral to entrepreneurship and innovation—the lynchpins of individual economic independence and dynamic economic growth. Through sharing their stories, experiences, and advice, the women in this book at once inspire and instruct anyone interested in learning how to uplift women innovators and entrepreneurs. In examining the challenges woman face in entrepreneurship, the authors call on us to promote a dynamic, and fair, innovation environment." —Wendy Guillies, acting president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation "When I first met Vivek he had just produced his seminal research on the dearth of women in Silicon Valley that his wife's keen observation at TechCrunch had spurred. The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur, published in November 2009, served as critical validation for much of what we intuitively knew and had already implemented at Astia. The reality that Vivek uncovered is profound and serves as critical myth busting: that women high growth entrepreneurs are more like their male counterparts than different. Armed with this understanding, Astia is about fixing the ecosystem, rather than fixing the women. Our goal during our 15 years has been to change the way our ecosystem looks at and evaluates high potential organizations. We stand with the contributors of Innovating Women when we say, we want more recognition of and investment in a super potential and high performing group of entrepreneurs—women entrepreneurs. We see women leaders as integral participants in inclusive, high performing entrepreneurial teams—without them, success is more difficult. Innovating Women brings voice to this and many other entrepreneurial truths. It is a must read for the innovation economy—an economy in desperate need of innovation" —Sharon Vosmek, CEO, Astia