Women in tech are changing the game. And not just because they make up an ever-growing and increasingly important slice of the field as more people are comfortable talking about it.
Their innovative and progressive ideas are leading to real and positive change. And these women in tech are leading by example.
From growing tech startups to founders looking for venture capital, women leaders in the technology industry are leveling the playing field against male founders. We see more female founder CEOs in the tech space year by year, and numbers are only expected to grow.
They’re doing their jobs with passion and purpose. So, without further ado, let’s dive into these female-led companies.
Female Founders in Tech Startups by the Numbers
After decades of climbing the corporate ladder, these women in tech decided to take a leap and start their own companies.
These women are doing it all – from finance to fashion to energy and more. And they’re not alone. They’ve created some of the biggest successes in Silicon Valley. According to a recent study by Babson College, women entrepreneurs have founded 23% of new venture-backed companies since 2005.
There is still a long way to go before we reach equality in the workplace, but these women in tech are leading the charge. Women now make up 27% of our engineering workforce in the US, increasing from 18% just 3 years ago. But that’s not enough when you consider how many brilliant minds are out there.
Gina Bianchini, Founder of Mighty Networks
Gina Bianchini was a co-founder of Ning, which was supposed to be Facebook for business. Ning, the social network for small businesses and entrepreneurs, is now Mighty Networks – an all-in-one community platform where business owners can host memberships, courses, and events to build and scale their audience.
Gina still acts as CEO and executive chairman of the company and has taken it from a social media site to a mobile app development platform, emphasizing empowering entrepreneurs to launch successful companies.
Melanie Perkins, Founder of Canva
Melanie Perkins is the Founder of Canva and has been named one of the most influential women in tech. Her company offers free graphic design software downloaded more than 20 million times.
At just 24 years old, Melanie had an idea for a design tool that would be available to anyone with a computer. She believed that by making graphic design software easy and accessible to everyone, she could democratize creativity and change the world.
The power of this technology lies in its simplicity, as it can be used by people who have no prior knowledge of graphic design or design tools. Melanie’s vision was realized when she decided to pursue her own venture and create something that wasn’t already out there.
Sandy Lerner, Founder of Cisco
Sandy Lerner and her long-time partner Len Bosack founded Cisco Systems in 1984. At the time, they were making hardware for local area networks (LANs).
Interestingly, their original goal was to start a company that would provide operating systems for these new LANs. But when they formalized the company in 1984, they decided to focus on hardware. 38 years later, the company’s valuation is nearly $215 billion, earning $49 billion dollars in revenue in 2021.
Diane Greene, Founder of VMWare
Diane Greene, the founder of VMWare, is a Silicon Valley icon. In the late 1990s, she spearheaded the development of VMware to provide virtualization infrastructure for companies who wanted to run more than one operating system on the same machine.
That little company eventually went public and was acquired by EMC for $635 million in 2003. Now, Greene is doing it again as we see her leading Google’s cloud business. Greene is part of a generation of women who saw an opportunity in tech and didn’t let societal expectations stop them from pursuing their ambition to change the game.
From Google’s small but growing cloud computing division to VMware’s ability to help companies operate seamlessly across different operating systems, Greene has been at the forefront of significant changes in technology that have changed how businesses operate.
Alicia Thomas, Founder of DIBS
If you haven’t heard of Alicia Thomas, founder of DIBS, you’re about to. Thomas is a serial entrepreneur and the CEO of DIBS, a tech company that has revolutionized the way we buy things. DIBS allows customers to buy anything with the tap of their finger or by speaking a voice command.
The company also offers an innovative rewards program that incentivizes customers to purchase more. Thomas is on a mission to provide her customers with easy access to high-quality products at affordable prices. She started DIBS after noticing that the time it took customers to make a purchase decision was longer than desirable because they had too many options available to them online.
Jessica Livingston, Founder of Y Combinator
Jessica Livingston and her co-founders at Y Combinator changed the game when they launched in 2005. Twice a year, Y Combinator opens a new cohort of companies for a 3-month intensive program where they focus solely on building their business and positioning themselves for investment. Each company accepted into the cohort receives $500,000 and completes the program by pitching their business at a Demo Day. Since its inception in 2005, Y Combinator has grown to more than 7,000 founders in its community and funded over 3,000 startups – the total of which have a combined valuation of $600B.
Livingston offers advice to female founders, helping them build their network of successful women in tech. It was for this reason that she also created a Female Founders Conference program – to provide a space for female startup founders to grow their businesses and networks. In addition, she’s been influential in recruiting more women entrepreneurs into Y Combinator’s company-building program.
Lynda Weinman, Founder of Lynda.com
Lynda Weinman is the founder of Lynda.com, an online education company that offers video courses on web design, web development, and other creative skills. She’s been a leading figure in the tech industry since she founded her company back in 1995, along with being one of the first successful female tech founders and creators. You may recognize the platform as it was acquired by LinkedIn in 2015. Since then, the social platform has been adding Lynda.com’s videos to its educational content site – LinkedIn Learning.
Leah Busque, Founder of TaskRabbit
Leah Busque is the founder of TaskRabbit. The idea came to Leah after she moved to Silicon Valley and couldn’t find a house-sitter. She realized that there was an untapped demand for busy founders and professionals who would prefer to pay to have jobs done by other people on their behalf.
Her company has since become one of the largest online task marketplaces, where you can find someone to help with tasks from grocery shopping to assembling furniture to cleaning out your gutters with just a few clicks.
Tania Boler, Founder of Elvie
Tania Boler, Founder of Elvie creates products to make women’s lives easier. Elvie is focused on sexual wellness for women, which includes an exercise program, childbirth recovery, and more.
She was inspired to start Elvie while pregnant and after discovering the difficulties that come along with running a company and having a baby. While pregnancy is a beautiful, life-changing experience, it is not without significant challenges. Thankfully, Elvie exists to help these women with some of their woes.
Elvie provides physical therapy in the form of exercises you can do from the comfort of your own home or office, so you don’t need to spend time driving there or paying out of pocket for expensive equipment. This has been revolutionary for many postpartum moms struggling with pelvic floor weakness after giving birth, as they can now continue with the exercises they need at their convenience and pace.
Boler has made it her mission to help other moms live better by taking care of themselves, and her Elvie product line is expanding every year as new problems arise within this population.
Sheena Allen, Founder of CapWay
Sheena Allen is committed to the vast undertaking of creating an inclusive financial system to help individuals and families build generational wealth. She recognized that this was a massive problem for Black and brown communities.
CapWay is a new digital banking model that helps people transact, save, invest, and build credit. It helps to empower individuals with knowledge on how to achieve a successful financial future.
Sheena started by slowly getting into tech and eventually building five apps. While this gave her a lot of knowledge about start-ups and the world of tech and networking, she knew she wanted to do more from the start.
“I had a vision from the beginning of really changing the financial future for what I hoped would be billions of people. I saw this being a global company and changing many lives all over the world,” says Sheena.
Jessica Matthews, Founder and CEO of Uncharted Power
Jessica Matthews had a mission to tackle the power problem prevalent in underserved communities. This drive led to the creation of Uncharted Power, a renewable energy startup.
Matthews has a great mind for business and a deep understanding of the demand for renewable energy. This combination has helped her grow an amazingly successful company.
Among the company’s Board of Directors is Magic Johnson whose role is to help grow the company throughout America.
Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder of Bumble
Whitney Wolfe Herd is a force to be reckoned with. After being ousted from Tinder in 2014 after a conflict with her co-founder, she went on to found Bumble, which is the only dating app where women have complete control over their online dating experience.
Whitney has been a strong advocate for women’s rights within the tech industry, and that advocacy has turned into action. She launched The Bumble Foundation to provide young girls with opportunities they may not otherwise have access to.
Bumble is also committed to diversity by making sure all levels of the company reflect the diverse communities around them. Women make up 73% of their leadership team.
Alice Zhang, Co-Founder of Verge Genomics
Verge Genomics is a startup that uses advanced DNA sequencing technology to provide personalized health reports. Zhang, the company’s co-founder and CEO says her goal is to make healthcare more affordable for everyone and to save lives by making it easier for people to get tested.
The company offers personalized health reports using advanced DNA sequencing technology at an affordable price. Zhang is committed to making healthcare more affordable for everyone. She also wants Verge Genomics to help save lives by making it easier for people to get tested by providing accurate information about the risks they may face.
Sukhi Jutla, Founder of Market Orders
Sukhi Jutla has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. She’s also never been afraid to speak her mind. She founded Market Orders, a financial technology company that automates investment management for everyday people.
What started as a side project for Sukhi when she was pregnant with her first child has become one of the most successful startups in London, and it’s not stopping there. Market Orders is revolutionizing how financial services are delivered by providing low-cost, automated investment management. With its patented smart algorithms, users can set their risk tolerance and watch as Market Orders automatically adjust their portfolio to meet those needs while minimizing fees and taxes.
Sukhi is also committed to ensuring women of color are on equal footing with their male counterparts.
Ida Tin, Founder of Clue
Ida Tin, Founder of Clue, is not your average tech founder. She didn’t start in the industry until she was already 30 years old and had a Ph.D. in mathematics. But her success has been remarkable.
“In the beginning, I just wanted to be a programmer and have the technical skills,” she says. “Now I realize that actually solving problems that affect people is much more interesting than just being good at math problems.”
Clue is a fertility app that tracks a woman’s period and makes it easy for her to understand what might be happening to her body. It also gives women access to helpful content on sexual health and contraception. “It’s really important to make our apps as non-intrusive as possible,” Tin says. “We don’t want to bombard them with information about pregnancy or contraception; we just want to show them useful things when they need it.”
Clue has also partnered with UNFPA. This allows women who need reproductive services but may live in rural areas without access to hospitals or clinics an opportunity to learn more about available options without fear of stigma or judgment.
Julia Hartz, Co-Founder of Eventbrite
Julia Hartz is the Co-Founder of Eventbrite. She started Eventbrite with her husband, Kevin Hartz, and their college friend, Renaud Visage, making it easier to sell out on events.
Final Thoughts
Women in tech are changing the game. And not just because they make up an ever-growing and increasingly important slice of the field as more people are comfortable talking about it. They’re changing the game because their innovative and progressive ideas lead to real and positive change. And these women in tech are leading by example. They’re not just doing their jobs. They’re doing theirs with passion and purpose. They’re making a difference.
Black Women Talk Tech
In 2017, we did not have a roadmap or playbook on how to successfully build your business to a billion-dollar valuation, so we created one. That is how Black Women Talk Tech began.
We created a tech conference designed specifically for Black women entrepreneurs in order to create an environment where they would be seen, heard, and invested in.
Today, our sole purpose is to help Black female entrepreneurs dream big by building billion-dollar businesses or scalable companies that grow exponentially over time.
