Women & Networking – Boulder, Co

Hi! I'm trying to create a start-up

Like Jane Goodall discovering the secret habits of apes, I had the rare experience of being surrounded by woman running their own business, or in the beginning stages of a start-up. The event Startup Women Meetup repeats every week on Tuesday morning at 8am at The Cup on Pearl St. It was all women,  very well attended and represented some very interesting and successful businesses.  It was, in a word, great. I don’t have a small business, at least not yet but even so I got a real injection of confidence for some reason. I guess it was being around women confidently (at least on the surface) moving in a productive direction.

At different points in your life, questions on how to move forward professionally are harder to answer because often times there is more than one answer, including not doing anything. But to be around people who are evaluating their options and working towards a goal can be a very positive and influencing experience.

I was most impressed to see a very young woman in attendance, who was asking for help with a Web site she was putting together for her cousin.  I thought to myself, “self, that’s awesome! to be introducing someone that young to an idea that she can be her own boss, she can develop and promote her own ideas was a fantastic experience”. I had written a post about why there were more men than women in startups and although I don’t have any definitive answers I think introducing young women to events like this can only help bridge that gap.

This was the first meeting I have attended but from what I gathered they most often have a speaker then there is time for individuals to ask questions about a business problem they may be having or to pass on information that may be useful for the whole team.

The event is called Startup Women Meetup and it repeats every week on Tuesday morning at 8am at The Cup on Pearl St. The organizer Fiona Schlachter is great. I knew her from Sun Microsystems and have had the great good fortune of running into her again.

Also, a big thank you to The Cup on Pearl St. It’s so nice of them to let groups like this meet; they have great coffee, great service, just an awesome place to strengthen community ties in Boulder!