It’s a coincidence this week that the 2 posts published on startupolic are on women in tech… as you’ve probably seen my post on Wednesday about Lady Pitch Night happening in Paris in April. Most of us, startup founders, has already seen that tech entrepreneurship is rather populated with men. We could debate the reasons, but that could be a subject for another post.
I’ve asked some time ago charming tech blogger Roxanne Varza to write me a guest post… what she has kindly done today. Roxanne, a French girl but Silicon Valley native, is pretty engaged on the European tech startup scene and is currently serving Microsoft France as Startup Lead. She is the former Editor of TechCrunch France, co-organizes the annual Failcon Paris conference and has cofounded Girls in Tech in both Paris and London. She shares her thoughts on entrepreneurship in France/Europe on Techbaguette.com. So here’s her post!
In honor of March 8th, which is International Women’s Day, I naturally wanted to celebrate female entrepreneurs. Now, there are many top level females working in tech around the world – before writing this post I could name a few in a handful of different countries. But when it came to Switzerland, I stalled. So for anyone who – like me – didn’t know any female entrepreneurs from Switerland, now you do.
1. Stella Viktoria Scheiffer, BringBee (Polyport)
Founded in 2011, Zurich-based BringBee (by Polyport) is a little bit like carpooling sites Blablacar or Lyft, except it lets drivers carry parcels instead of people. Not bad for anyone who would rather get a package instantly than wait for the post. You can see Stella (who has a degree in engineering) pitching the startup at Venture Leaders pitch.
2. Eileen-Monika Schuch, Coolbrandz
In a way a bit like Betalist, Lausanne-based Coolbrandz has developed an online community that she describes as a « word of mouth » platform. In other words, it lets users try products and give provide feedback to brands. Fun fact : based on her Linkedin profile, she started out her career as a restaurant manager at the Hazlewood Castle in the UK.
3. Annick Mokoi, Upper East Style
Geneva-based Upper East Style is founded by Annick Mokoi and Antoine Mathys. In many ways similar to France’s InstantLuxe, the platform serves as a market place for users to buy and sell high end second-hand fashion and accessory items. The 2 twenty-something cofounders have grown the company to 6 people within a year.
4. Olga Steidl, Talkbits
Names by The Moscow Times as one of the 10 Russian entrepreneurs to watch in 2012, Olga is now based in Zurich running the show at Talkbits. The company develops a voice messaging application and service that allows users to send, receive and discover voice messages (it’s been called the Twitter for voice messages by CNET). Prior to her role as CEO of the reinvented walkie-talkie, Olga worked for a number of impressive establishments – including Russian Internet empire Yandex. If you’re a startup, you may get a chance to run into her as she’s mentored at both Seedcamp and Springboard (now Techstars).
5. Jasmin Samsudeen, Parkit
26-year-old Jasmin has developed Parkit, an iPhone application similar to Be Park, ZenPark or Kurbkarma that lets users share and monetize their private parking spaces with others in an Airbnb type way.
There are definitely more impressive Swiss female entrepreneurs out there, so if you know of one be sure to list them in the comments.
