8th March, the International Women’s Day, a day to observe the contribution of women to the world, that many women rejoice with lots of excitement and as a proud woman, and some clearly say that every day is a women’s day. Even we think the same, but what is bad in celebrating it together on the day, which internationally has been reserved for every woman.
Today, as a recognition to the contribution of women to the world, as a daughter, mother, wife, sister, a homemaker, an entrepreneur and what not, we are writing down a list of few of the most influential women in the tech world:
1. Lynda Weinman, Founder Lynda.com: Online learning and training have become quite popular these days, but over twenty years ago, it was not that of a common thing. It was Lynda Weiman, who founded one of the first online training websites Lynda.com, in 1995. The website offers a variety of courses for online software training as well as for learning creative, and business skills. Lynda has won the San Francisco Women on the WebTop 25 Women award in 1999.
2. Melanie Perkins, Founder Canva: Melanie Perkins is the Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer at Canva, which was founded in 2012, as an online tool to build beautiful graphic designs. The platform facilitates million of photographs, graphics and fonts, that people use to create awesome designs.
Perkins founded Canva in 2015, and in just four years, the company has raised to over 200 employees. According to 2018 reports, the company is valued at $1 billion. Melanie Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs in the tech industry.
3. Lara Setrakian, Founder News Deeply: From a journalist to an entrepreneur, Lara Setrakian is the founding CEO and Executive Editor of News Deeply. It is journalism and technology-based digital platform that hosts world news, discussions and knowledge exchange. She was among the top 9 most influential Young Professionals in Foreign Policy under 33 list by The Diplomatic Courier.
4. Limor Fried, Founder Adafruit: Being the only female entrepreneur among 15 finalists for the “Entrepreneur of the Year” list might be a great feeling. Limor Fried is that ‘only female’ who gave competition to the other 14 male entrepreneurs for the title in 2012.
Fried was studying electrical engineering at MIT when she founded Adafruit, the company which sells electronic kits, components, and tools, mainly for the hobbyist market. Her leadership skills can be estimated with the fact that Adafruit sold more than $3 million worth of product while having a team of only eight employees in 2010.
5. Rashmi Sinha, Founder Slideshare: An Indian-American businesswoman, who is the CEO and founder of SlideShare, the biggest presentation sharing platform, was named the No. 8 on its Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs list by Fortune in 2008. Rashmi Sinha was also among the World’s Top 10 Women Influencers in Web 2.0 by Fast Company.
6. Meredith Perry, Founder uBeam: Perry is a Paleobiology graduate from the University of Pennsylvania. She founded uBeam as a project for an invention competition. uBeam is a device that solves the problem of wired chargers, emitting power through which people can roam in a room with their laptops without connecting it with a charger.
Perry also performed zero gravity experiments at NASA Ames Research Center as a student ambassador.
7. Tracy Young, Founder Plangrid: A civil engineering pass out who opted to go to the site build buildings, instead of sitting in an office and make plans and designs. After gaining some experience, Young came to the conclusion that technology must get into construction, too, and built Plangrid. The app enables contractors and architects to collaborate on plans via their iPads.
Although this is a small list of women and only in the field of technology, there are millions of women having their influential part to every field, whether it is sports, education, journalism, architecture, entertainment, or any other field that exists.
On this special day, we wish all the Women out there a Happy Women’s Day.
Yashica is a Software Engineer turned Content Writer, who loves to write on social causes and expertise in writing technical stuff. She loves to watch movies and explore new places. She believes that you need to live once before you die. So experimenting with her life and career choices, she is trying to live her life to the fullest.