Karen Comas: Strategic Partnerships, US Hispanic & LATAM, Facebook
Age: 29
About: With years of experience as the Director of Social Media for Telemundo, Karen Comas brought her expertise to Facebook and Instagram last fall. She works in strategic partnerships for Facebook's U.S. Hispanic and Latin American markets.
What people are saying about her: “Formerly at Telemundo and now Facebook, she’s shaping how Latinas (and the rest of us) will engage with technology in the next 10 years.”
Tiffany Pham: Founder & CEO, MOGUL
Age: 27
About: Tiffany Pham founded MOGUL, a worldwide platform connecting women to top trending content, including articles, videos, jobs, events, and products that are personalized to their interests. By curating content from third parties, producing original content, and enabling users to also contribute, the platform empowers women to share knowledge and discover new opportunities around the world they would otherwise not have access to.
As the lead developer at MOGUL, Tiffany built the first version of the platform herself using Ruby on Rails. Tiffany is also an award-winning film producer. Previously Director of Business Development at CBS, Tiffany Pham handled strategic initiatives and partnerships for 150 digital properties for CBS TV and radio stations.
Vanessa Hurst: Founder/CEO, CodeMontage; founder, Developers for Good; co-founder, Girl Develop It
Age: 27
About: Vanessa Hurst cofounded "Girl Develop It" with the goal of giving women a safe place to learn about technology, with low cost classes, that were accessible and judgment-free. She founded Developers for Good to bring motivated technologists of all skill levels together with social entrepreneurs so they can improve the world together. And her most recent venture, CodeMontage, empowers people to learn code by pairing them with open social innovation technology projects.
What people are saying about her: "Vanessa is an amazing advocate for Women in Technology, and has done an incredible job of making the world a better place by enabling technologists to connect with each other and help social causes with their skills. Vanessa has an incredible, positive energy and speaks at many technical and social good conferences. "
Meredith Perry: Founder and CEO, uBeam
Age: 25
About: When Meredith Perry was an astrobiology student at the University of Pennsylvania, she one day showed up to class with a dead laptop and no power cord. She was so annoyed that she ended up creating a solution — in the form of a wireless charging system called uBeam. Fast forward three years, and Perry's company now has $1.7 million in seed funding from big-name investors like Marissa Mayer and Andreessen Horowitz.
uBeam technology converts electricity to sound and sends it through the air via ultrasound. A receiver catches the sound waves and converts them back to electricity to wirelessly charge devices in the room.
Sara Mauskopf: ?Product Management, Postmates
Age: 29
About: Sara Mauskopf joined on-demand delivery company Postmates this summer to build and run its Product Management team. Postmates currently does over 20,000 deliveries a week in 12 markets across the U.S.
Before coming to Postmates, Mauskopf was the Group Product Manager at Twitter. She was the Product Lead for Photos & Media on Twitter, the team responsible for the production, consumption and engagement experience around photos and other forms of media. Mauskopf previously led the Discovery team, which included content and user recommendations, trends and personalization. Prior to that, she was the Product Lead for twitter.com, and was responsible for a major user interface redesign. And before that, she was the Partner Technology Manager at YouTube/Google. At YouTube, she worked on music partnerships, and most notably launched VEVO. At Google she worked on large AdSense partnerships, most notably MySpace.
Divya Nag: Special Projects, Apple
Age: 22
About: Divya Nag joined a research and development team at Apple earlier this year to focus on an unspecified medical and healthcare product, Reuters reported in May. Previously, Divya was the founder of StartX Med, a Stanford-based startup accelerator. She's got a background in medical technologies and FDA approvals, and could be a huge asset to Apple.
What people are saying about her: "She’s a complete and total badass."
Samantha John: Cofounder and CTO, Hopscotch
Age: 28
About: Samantha John is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer at Hopscotch, an app that teaches kids how to code. During its first week, Hopscotch was downloaded 20,000 times. Before coming to Hopscotch, Samantha was a developer at Pivotal Labs. In the last year at Hopscotch, John has closed a $1.2 million round of seed funding. Hopscotch, under Samantha's leadership, released version 2.0 in spring 2014 to tremendous press — including a feature at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference. The app has seen a 6x growth in its user base and the company has grown its team from 2 to 8.
Anna Roth: ?Product Marketing Manager, Microsoft
Age: 24
About: As a Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft, Anna Roth uses math and statistics to help people understand how technology actually affects their daily lives, which is not as easy as it might sound. Anna helps Microsoft's engineers talk to the public directly about their work, bridging the connection between the technical side of the company with its consumers.
What people are saying about her: "As a psychologist, my field has been helped immensely by people like Dan Ariely and Barry Schwartz, who are scientists that can talk about the work they do in a compelling way. Tech needs the same – we have to talk directly about our work in a way that everyday people can respond to, and Anna runs a program (among other things) that seeks to do just that."
Tracy Chou: Senior Engineer, Pinterest
Age: 26
About: Tracy Chou is a senior engineer at Pinterest, and has contributed greatly to the company's growth. She has previously interned at Facebook and Google. Before coming to Pinterest, Tracy turned down an offer to work at Facebook — she became the second engineer at Quora instead. Tracy's project "Where are the numbers?" is an effort to hold tech giants accountable for their diversity statistics. Tracy has also served as mentor at Hackbright Academy.
Billie Whitehouse: Cofounder, Wearable Experiments
Age: 27
About: Billie Whitehouse is the creative force behind Wearable Experiments, a company that designs garments with built-in technology. Along with cofounder Ben Moir, Whitehouse created Wearable Experiments after designing a promotional line for Durex called “Fundawear,” underwear with built-in vibrators controlled by an app on your phone. They haven’t taken money from investors quite yet.
Alexandra Keating: CEO, DWNLD
Age: 29
About: Alexandra Keating is no stranger to the tech landscape. At 29, she's the CEO of DWNLD, a startup that turns websites and social media feeds into beautiful, responsive apps. Alexandra oversees an impressive team of engineers from Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Tumblr, Facebook and Rent the Runway. Previously, she was the Vice President of Marketing at Thrillist Media Group where she was instrumental in the company's 500 percent year-on-year growth. At 20, she was the founder and CEO of GoFundraise, providing non-profits with an online fundraising platform that she helped grow as one of the largest fundraising platforms in Australia.
Sara Haider: ?Android Engineer, Secret
Age: 28
About: Sara Haider is the Android engineering lead at Secret, the social network that lets you share anonymously with friends. Previously, Sara spent over four years on Twitter's engineering team, working on Twitter for Android and as the technical lead on Vine for Android. She's also an adviser for Girls Who Code, a nonprofit seeking to close the gender gap in STEM industries, and she is a strong proponent of technical education for girls. She also advises startups in Silicon Valley, New York City, and Toronto.
Kelsey Falter: Founder, Poptip
Age: 24
About: Before founding Poptip, Kelsey Falter was a Notre Dame student working on a website that allowed creative people to collaborate together in real time. She submitted an application to TechStars and left college just a few credits shy of a degree. Today, PopTip, a service that provides instant feedback for companies through polls conducted on social media, has raised $2.4 million, been acquired by Palantir Technologies in July.
Lina Chen and Naomi Ladizinsky: Founders, Nix Hydra
Age: 28
About: Nix Hydra, an LA-based company that makes mobile games for young women, is a rare find in the male dominated gaming industry. Their debut game, Egg Baby, has about 10 million downloads with zero marketing spend. Both founders are young women themselves and Yale graduates. They recently raised a $5 million round of funding from the same investors behind Zynga and Harmonix.
Logan McClure: Business Development, Palantir
Age: 28
About: Logan McClure works in Business Development at Palantir Technologies. Earlier in 2014, Palantir raised $390.4 million in private equity. Before coming to Palantir, McClure was the head of the TED Fellows program, where she supported the more than 300 TED fellows and coached them on their presentations at TED conferences.
What people are saying about her: "Logan is redefining success by combining her ambitious achievements with an infectious and warm form of leadership that sets a standard for all of us as we grow into our careers."
Sukrutha Raman Bhadouria: Senior Quality Engineer at Salesforce, Managing Director of Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners
Age: 29
About: When Sukuthra Raman Bhadouria isn't busy as an engineer for Salesforce, she's overseeing the successful Bay Area chapter of Girl Geek Dinner, which hosts two or three events per month — each event has between 1,000 and 2,000 people signing up for 100 to 200 spots. Facebook, Twitter, and Intel are among the companies that have hosted Girl Geek Dinners, informal dinners where women (and men!) in STEM can get together to talk tech.
What people are saying about her: "The huge success of these dinners is due to Sukrutha's diligent work in working with the companies to host the events, getting the word out there, and her commitment to ensuring each event has relevant speakers and a great vibe. In addition she writes a weekly blog #SFWITWednesday , where she highlights articles related to women in tech, and also writes her own articles. She is especially passionate about highlighting other amazing women in tech, and is a great supporter of the technical women community."
Elena Kvochko: Cyber Resilience Partnership Lead, World Economic Forum
Age: 27
About: Elena Kvochko's work in cyber security is keeping companies like Visa, Salesforce, and Deloitte safe from hackers around the world. She manages the Partnership for Cyber Resilience – a global information sharing and cooperation mechanism on cyber security –at the World Economic Forum in New York.
What people are saying about her: "In the time of the lowest government credibility and an overwhelming dependence of all businesses on the Internet, this work is of crucial importance to protect businesses and customers globally. Elena is an outstanding, value-driven individual committed to working to change the lives of people through technology."
Lisa Falzone: Cofounder and CEO, Revel Systems
Age: 29
About: Lisa Falzone is the co-founder and CEO of Revel Systems, a sales and inventory company. Revel Systems has an iPad POS system for retailers and restaurants that rivals Square. Lisa has helped grow the team at the four-year-old company from less than 100 employees to 200 in the past year. She's also been responsible for leading the company from to month after month of record new highs.
What people are saying about her: "Lisa is a shining new light in the world of POS and in the world of women leaders. Not only is she CEO but also a founder who has created this amazing company. She just runs right though the challenges and comes out on top each time."
Jessica Scorpio: Co-founder and Director of Marketing, Getaround
Age: 27
About: Jessica Scorpio is the founder and Director of Marketing for Getaround, an app that lets you rent cars from people around you. Getaround won TechCrunch Disrupt NY, and most recently raised $13.9 million in a round of funding from investors like Marissa Mayer and Innovation Endeavors. Before founding Getaround, Scorpio was the founder and CEO of IDEAL, a networking organization for young Canadian professionals.
Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg: Cofounders, theSkimm
Age: 28 and 27
About: Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg met while studying abroad in college, and quit their jobs at NBC in 2012 to launch theSkimm. It's a newsletter startup that delivers chunks of the most important news stories to your inbox every morning. theSkimm was initially bootstrapped, but raised a $1.4 million round of seed funding from investors like AFSquare ,Five Island Ventures, Richard Greenfield, and RRE Ventures in April 2014.
Carly Strife: Cofounder, BarkBox
Age: 28
About: A love of canines led Carly Strife to co-found BarkBox, a monthly food and treat delivery service for pets. Previously, Strife was an Operations Manager for ridesharing service Uber. In July, BarkBox raised $15 million from City National Bank, Vast Ventures, CAA Ventures, Daher Capital, Slow Ventures, Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, Lerer Ventures, BoxGroup, RRE Ventures, and Resolute.vc.
Ana Martinez: Senior Software Engineer, Zendesk
Age: 27
About: Martinez began her career at Zendesk right after graduating from Carnegie Mellon, demonstrating her engineering skills right off the bat. For her first project, she was responsible for translating Zendesk’s administrative and agent panels into languages besides English, which allowed Zendesk to expand internationally. Following this project’s major success, she was responsible for developing Zendesk's internationalization infrastructure.
What people are saying about her: "Ana is a shining example of how women in the tech industry are accomplishing big things."
Izzie Lerer: Cofounder and editor-at-large, The Dodo
Age: 29
About: Earlier in 2014, Izzie founded The Dodo, a website focused on content about animals that launched in late January. In September, The Dodo raised a $4.68 million Series A funding round led by Discovery, with participation from investors SoftBank Capital, Sterling Equities, Greycroft Partners, and RRE Ventures.
The Dodo previously received $2 million in seed funding from Greycroft, Softbank Capital, Sterling Equities, and RRE. Izzie's father Ken co-founded the Huffington Post, and her brother Ben co-founded Thrillist. The Lerer family also started Lerer Ventures, a venture capital firm that has invested in 185 companies since its inception a few years ago. Izzie is also currently getting her PhD in philosophy from Columbia — not surprisingly, her dissertation deals with the relationship between people and animals.
Kegan Schouwenburg: Cofounder and CEO, Sols
Age: 29
About: Kegan Schouwenburg's startup Sols makes orthopedic shoe insoles cool by 3D printing them. When she was Director of Operations and Industrial Engineering at 3D printery Shapeways, she got the idea for Sols while walking around the factory floor in her black leather platform boots. In April, Sols raised $6.4 million from Grape Arbor VC, FundersGuild, Felicis Ventures, Rothenberg Ventures, RRE Ventures, Lux Capital, and Founders Fund.
Michelle Zatlyn: Cofounder, CloudFlare
Age: 29
About: Though she initially wanted to be a doctor when she was younger, it's a good thing Michelle Zatlyn changed her mind. Zatlyn is the co-founder of CloudFlare, a service that makes your website better. It keeps it safe from online threats, makes your pages load faster, and increases your search engine optimization. CloudFlare raised $50 million in December 2013 from investors Greenspring Associates, Pelion Venture Partners, Union Square Ventures, New Enterprise Associates, and Venrock.
Whitney Wolfe: Cofounder and former vice-president of marketing, Tinder
Age: 26
About: Whitney Wolfe is the only female cofounder of a major social network. Wolfe came up with Tinder's name, and was also responsible for marketing the app on college campuses, which led to crazy growth for Tinder.
Wolfe resigned from Tinder in April 2014 after filing a lawsuit against Tinder co-founders Justin Mateen and Sean Rad, who she alleges sexually harassed her. In September, she settled the case for an undisclosed amount. Wolfe worked for customer loyalty startup Cardify, but she joined Tinder in 2012 when it pivoted from Cardify.
Kate Ward: Managing Editor, Bustle
Age: 29
About: Kate Ward heads up the editorial staff at Bustle, entrepreneur Bryan Goldberg's news startup for women. In one year, Kate has hired — and now manages — a team of 22 people, a staff built woman by woman. Before landing at Bustle, Kate had served as the Executive Editor of Hollywood.com and as an editor and writer for Entertainment Weekly.
Kayla Tausche: Anchor, CNBC's Squawk Alley
Age: 28
About: In May, Kayla Tausche became a co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Alley, alongside Carl Quintanilla and Jon Fortt. Since joining CNBC in 2011, she's also appeared on Squawk box, Squawk on the Street, and Power Lunch. Kayla has covered major tech stories, including Facebook's IPO and the News Corp phone hacking scandal. A seasoned reporter, Kayla previously had stints at Bloomberg, the Associated Press, and DealReporter.
Jessica Richman: CEO and cofounder, UBiome
Age: Under 30
About: Jessica Richman is the co-founder and CEO of uBiome, a biotech startup focused on researching microbiomes inside the human body. Y Combinator alum uBiome was financed by crowdfunding — its 2013 IndieGogo campaign raised $351,193 of its $100,000 goal. In August, uBiome raised $4.5 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz. Before co-founding uBiome, Richman had stints at companies like Google, McKinsey, and Lehman Brothers.
Libby Leffler: Strategic partnerships manager, Facebook
Age: 28
About: Libby Leffler initially joined Facebook in 2008, serving as a "business lead" to Sheryl Sandberg. Libby helped coordinate Sandberg's public appearances and assisted on other projects. Today, Libby is responsible for coordinating Facebook's partnerships with public figures, non-profits, and media organizations. Before coming to Facebook, Leffler worked as a strategist at Google's Online Sales and Operations group, which Sandberg managed. She's a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley's business school.