“I agree on the one condition it’s not going to be a girl power post, ok”? That’s what Gali Ross requested when I asked to profile her for TechCrunch. So this isn’t going to be a ‘girl power’ post, but the fact of the matter is that female entrepreneurs are a rare breed. Let’s all try a mental game together… How many female startup CEO’s can you name off the top of your head? I am embarrassed to say that I have trouble coming up with more than a handful, but I don’t think I am alone.
Here’s what I find strange about all this: I speak to VC’s and private investors regularly, and have never EVER heard anyone comment negatively on deal-flow based on the entrepreneur’s gender. Startups—at least this has been my experience—are weighted on the merits of the product, market and the team, but never on gender. Frankly, I can’t explain why female entrepreneurs are a rare commodity in our industry. (Feel free to enlighten me about the gender bias underpinning the tech industry in comments).
The situation in Israel is not much different. But it should only be the quality that counts… To that end, here are three Israeli female entrepreneurs worth keeping tabs on:
Amit Knaani is best known in the Israeli startup industry as the former Senior Product Manager of Wix.com. She quit the hot startup to join forces with Yami Glick, another well-known figure in the local startup scene. Together the two founded Vikido, a video messaging service designed to allow kids (3-9) and their parents to send and receive video messages using an an interface with no reading prerequisites.
A mother of two girls (hence her familiarity with the need for such a product), Amit has been in our little industry for 10 years now, starting as a photo editor at Israel’s largest news site Ynet. She then moved on to manage the biggest medical site in Israel doctors.co.il, doing everything from spec’ing to selling media to business development. It was there that she started thinking about the idea for Vikido, mostly due to gaps of communication experienced by sick kids (information, connection with friends and parents).
By then it was clear to her that she wanted to be involved in consumer products with strong community reach and the ability to make an impact on people and what they do on the web. That’s when the Wix gig came about.
Team Vikido is planning to launch its product in September. In the mean time they are hustling to get funding, writing code, and chronicling the trials and tribulations of startup life in a weekly article series on Ynet called ‘The Transparent Startup’.
Beta Access: Register here.
Twitter: Amit Knaani (@amitos), Team Vikido (@vikidoteam)
Orit Hashay has also been active in in Israeli startups for over 10 years, having taken on software and business development posts with public companies such as Emblaze and Comverse, as well as consulting for various Israeli startups.
Orit is also somewhat of a local serial entrepreneur. She’s founded a Yelp-ish review site called Ramkol.co.il and mit4mit.co.il, the second most popular wedding review site in Israel. Most recently Orit held the Entrepreneur in Residence role at Decima Ventures, where she was responsible for technical and market analysis. Decima is also where her newest venture, Vetrinas was born.
Vetrinas is a virtual shopping window to hundreds of stores from across the fashion Meccas of the world, be it London, New York, Paris or Milan. Vetrinas is targeting three segments: Consumers with an interest in high-fashion. Retailers that want to expose potential on/offline shoppers to specific products or brand advertising. And finally, shop window designers that can display their work (art) in order to attain job offers.
Orit coded all of Vetrina’s herself and intends to generate revenue by way of affiliation through the site and rev-share through widgets that will syndicate content to blogs and websites. Vetrinas is currently in Alpha.
Twitter: Orit Hashay (@orithashay), Vetrinas (@vetrinas)
Gali Ross is one those people you (or at least I) hated in school because she made you (me) look so lazy and unfocused. She took physics, math and political science. Not having gone unnoticed, she went on to become an intelligence officer in the Israeli Defense Forces and then later an Information Systems Engineering graduate of the Technion (Israel’s MIT).
She then joined eWave where she kept busy with project management and, afterward, marketing, sales and business development. Two years later she joined Israeli dev house Clementina as COO. That’s where she worked with Israeli startups such as my6sense, Spikko, and Footbo. Temptation was in the air and Gali couldn’t resist so she recruited a partner and founded Razoss.
Gali is still very protective of her product so details and access are limited. In vague terms it can be described as a browser-based content promotion platform, where the idea is to enhance the browser beyond content display, to content management and distribution.
Initial funding was provided by Dr. Yossi Vardi a little over a year ago and a second investment is near closing. The product is in private alpha, with a wider release intended in a few months.
Beta Access: Register here.
Twitter: Gali Ross (@galiross), Razoss (@razoss)
grt post…thnx
hey, you forgot YAEL ELISH – founder of esnips and the former netsnippets product
Orit Hashay is the hawtest.
Of course things start off with a snarky mysogynistic quip. One might think it was meant to be ironic, and therefore quite witty, but when you see its author is named dicklicker, you realize you give too much credit.
For the record, being a horny male and objectifying women is not the same thing as hating or otherwise putting down women. You can enjoy hot bods and not be a misogynist.
Objectifying female entrepreneurs, especially in a public forum, is putting women down.
Please keep your enjoyment of hot bods to yourself.
Dennis Klicker (@dklicker) and acidboy
There’s nothing wrong with appreciating how someone looks. The problem is that when that’s the only thing you have to say, in a business forum about a business venture, you are implicitly stating that that’s how you value the person. Not for their smarts, their entrepreneurship, their interesting ideas. They are valued because they are Hot.
Since women in our culture are valued first for looks and men are valued first for their ability to make money, traditionally, the equivalent would be if you were covered in Techcrunch and the first thing that happened was a bunch of women rated you for your ability to make money. Nothing about the value of your ideas, your entrepreneurship, your interesting ideas. Nothing about who you are as a person.
Just how appealing are you based upon your ability to provide cash to a woman.
It’s objectifying in both directions. And stereotypically unimaginative.
These women are doing great things, making companies and putting into practice great ideas. That’s what they are here at Techcrunch to be valued for. I think in that sense, these women are really hot.
Ditto
Well I have to say, all three are kind of sexy, but Orit H is by far a creature with rare sexiness.
Girl #3 is the second sexiest.
It truly is a nice decoration item to the boring Verina of Israeli start up scene.
Yeh, Orit is hot.
By the way are these just jewish israelies or had you also researched non jewish israelies ?
Given socio-economic trends in Israel (Jews tend to be richer, Jewish women more empowered than Arab ones), I highly doubt there are a significant amount of non-Jewish women entrepreneurs.
Excuse me, but the reason there are fewer non-Jewish female entrepreneurs is not just because of money or empowerment: Arab society does not actively encourage their women to join the workforce, let alone pursue careers. In fact, women are generally discouraged from this type of activity. If you think I’m making this up, check out the latest UNDP report on the Arab world and the lengthy reference to gender equality issues – written by Arab scholars: http://arabstat...age.php?spid=14. Yes, the report is about our neighbors in the Middle East, but the cultural implications are the same.
Roi Carthi, are you always writing about people who previously hired you to advise their companies when you got fully paid? Where the hell is the ethics of Techcrunch? No shame? Unbelievable!
Carthy with a “y”.
And I consulted Wix many moons ago. A fact I disclosed several times. Seeing as this post only mentioned Wix as Amit’s previous employer I saw no reason to mention it as it has no relevance on the subject matter.
SO BORING!!!
another pr post from israel
I don’t think I can name any female SEOs…
Should I be ashamed?
By making this a “women to keep an eye on” post, you actually did create a “girl power” post. Couldnt you have just titled this “Israeli Entrepreneurs To Keep an Eye On”?
Can tell MG Siegler is on holiday. Very few posts on TechCrunch
Yeah, i’d tap that
Maybe it’s because it’s a Sunday post, maybe because it’s only 9:30AM in CA, but only two posts here and neither address the core question.
I suspect that given TC’s reach this would be one that’d be more easily answered via a few quick visits down Sand Hill Rd than asking for help in the comments section: why aren’t there more women entrepreneurs?
Of course, there’s a strong argument to be made that they answered the question on their own by posting about the fact they are women entrepreneurs first, and their businesses second. Sounds like Gali Ross knew this was likely to happen, asked them specifically not to do that, and they did it anyway.
Reporters are of course free to write whatever they feel like with whatever twist they want. But, in this case — by focusing on the gender of the founders over the business when specifically asked not to — I think the author answered his own question about whether women entrepreneurs are treated differently than men.
The nature of the post was to profile three women entrepreneurs. There’s no way to dance around that, it’s the theme of the post. That said, you touched on good points.
“Femme-preneur”? Yeah, that’s not patronizing at all. I’m sure it’s also an accident that you happened to choose a picture of Orit Hashay’s crotch.
You gotta drive up those page views somehow. Clearly, you’re not going to do it on the caliber of your research and writing.
As an Israeli female entrepreneur I have to tell this post was inviting sexists comments, not because of your bad intentions, but because of the nature of this publication and its readers.
I still applaud you for raising the subject here – by bringing more women to the center of attention, more people will get used to the idea that women can and do lead startups.
This is important not necessarily to prove the point to men, but mostly to inspire other women.
There are a *LOT* of female entrepreneurs, just not in tech yet. Most of the business I know of started by women are in other spaces.
steven sachs i think your dyslexia is playing up
Very slow news day???
OMG, What’s next? Kazakhstan’s top entrepreneurs???
My list includes:
1. Booya Kasha
2. Yak Shimasha
3. Podioma Pakurima
I don’t understand why the fuck do you ppl take the pains to comment when you don’t have anything fuckin worthy to add to the article.
Writing such fucking comments ain’t better than the articles that you think are worthless.
You should appreciate…If not just shut up….when ppl are writing such articles and introducing us to something new which I doubt we would have known otherwise.
I still wonder whats so fuckin bad about the article that you gotta comment like this. It’s just the ppl I guess. They do act strange at times and you are no exception.
At the end of the day, it’s true that everyone is entitled to give their opinion. But what you gotta understand is that your fucking opinion won’t matter in any fuckin way. You are just wasting your time commenting.
Raja = Paul Carr?
Um, didn’t you pretty much do the same thing you complain about in your comment?
Did you really add anything to the discussion?
lol…+10.
My wife works at a very high level in the corporate world and while she kicks ass, the obstacles she faces based on gender are tenacious precisely because they are so subtle. When a guy doesn’t get VC funding, it is because his idea sucks or his presentation sucked or whatever. When a woman doesn’t get it, it could be because her idea sucks, but it also could be the VC people’s discomfort with having a woman leading the project. The inability to eliminate the latter is the difference – a guy rarely has to question whether or not the VC people they are working with are uncomfortable with a man heading the project. After all, how many venture capital teams are headed up by women? I would bet that even your readership here is predominantly male, so asking a bunch of guys whether or not there is gender discrimination in the tech world is sort of meaningless. Recognizing the inequity though isn’t the same as crying foul or asking for special accommodation in the market place for women, but I do think that any woman working in tech needs to know what the preconceptions of the people across the table from her may be. And she should recognize that they may be difficult to overcome unless she is prepared for some of them to be based purely on gender and not on her ideas.
Jake–as I noted in the post I have never heard a startup’s merits revolve around the founder’s gender.
Also, while certainly out-numbered there are a few women in key positions in VC here in Israel.
Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
I like your article by the way, and it’s always nice to learn about new start-ups.
Every time an article like this gets written, there are people asking “Why are there so few women in the tech industry?” Having been in the tech industry over 10 years, 6 of those being CEO of my own tech company, I think I can safely answer: it’s a few men in the tech industry who ruin it for everyone.
I posted some examples in 2005 on my blog:
http://www.eric...no-women-in-it/
I got so damn tired of having to prove myself over and over again. I got tired of being thought of as a “booth babe” and, when I introduced myself as the CEO, having guys’ mouths hang open, followed by them making a hasty retreat.
I got tired of being the only female CEO in my industry (web hosting) whose business was pushing more than a half-million in revenue a year (we were on track to go over $1M in revenue in 2007 when I sold my business.)
I got tired of having customers who refused to talk to me face-to-face because they “didn’t want to bother me” with the tech issues.
Most of the men in the tech industry are great. It’s that small percentage of misogynistic assholes that ruin it for everyone.
If you want examples, there are plenty of them on my blog post.
I’m starting a new Internet business now, but I am no longer doing the tech side of things. I love the Internet and I love technology. I will never be far away from this industry. But as far as running a tech company again? No, I really don’t want to.
-Erica
If it’s just a few men in the industry causing you problems then it shouldn’t be a big issue. Everybody, regardless of sex, meets jerks occasionally. One of the requirements of CEO is to be able to deal with jerks gracefully.
So, is the prevalence of sexist jerks higher than you say, or are you perhaps lacking the ability to deal with the occasional jerk?
Erica, while there are certainly misogynistic males in tech, I doubt that is the determining factor. Look at law: I have an older relative who experienced lots of sexism when she starting practicing; today though, attorneys are seemingly split along gender lines.
I the lopsided ratio in college CE/CS programs (85/15 at my university) really sets the stage for the lopsided workplace ratios. And that is coming mostly from just growing up. Boys are encouraged to tinker with stuff far more than girls; continue along this line and boys will be left far more interested in technology, systems, etc. (all about tinkering).
This may seem crude, but in my opinion the source of at least a portion of the disadvantage women has are their own preconceptions of the obstacles they will face just because they are women.
If you go into a situation (such as starting a company) thinking it will be harder for you (because you’re a women), then you have something to blame all your failures and misfortunes on. I didn’t get that VC funding? (Was it because my idea sucked, or because I’m a women?) That guy just looked at my tits… damn bastard (He must be really horny, or is it just because I have ketchup on my shirt from that hamburger?)
Fact is, every entrepreneur has his or her advantages and disadvantages. Every entrepreneur has gone through miserable failures. Every true entrepreneur has learned to make use of what they have in front of them to the best of their ability, and learn from their mistakes.
I read your article, and yes I can agree with some points. But you seem to magnify the conceived disadvantages that women have. It’s smart to be aware of the obstacles that are ahead of you, but it is dangerous to keep looking over your shoulder to identify these obstacles in real life (accurately or not).
You take the sentence in the beginning of the article that is accurate that states “Men, in general, are bigger risk takers than women” and change that into an incorrect statement that “Men are bigger risk takers than women.” This is an example of the maginifcation of an obstacle. It is indeed true that women, as a whole, partake in less risky behaviors as men. Men are also twice as likely to die from cancer, not wear sunscreen, not exercise, and smoke.
I would undoubtedly encourage a women entrepreneur as much as any man. I am just afraid that in some cases the exaggeration of limitations due to race, age, and gender are too often more debilitating than the actual prejudice that exists.
I think I understand your point. The issue isn’t that there are few like that, but that few people would have power or effect to ruin your mojo-which is quite crucial especially to run a business-, not that it happens but it could happen. The issue that minority-I think we can call women in this industry as minority- experiences, the majority lacks imagination to understand. They might think they understand but just they can’t. I’m not trying to trash anyone or any comment but it is just a fact. Human isn’t designed to be that way, at least it is not automatic. While making a comment on this kind of issue, people might be assuming or presuming on what they really don’t know of, which would make their remarks miss the mark. The problem here is of course they are not aware of it. Anyway good luck!
The mistake is that by joining yourself to a “minority” you give yourself some privileged “victim” status. The truth is that being a woman (especially an attractive women) open so many more doors than it closes. The truth is that most women don’t *like* technology, don’t *want* to do startups, and have easier methods to attain wealth, influence, and leisure.
There are many more things people are discriminated against than being a woman. If you think being a “hawty” is such a handicap, you could avoid it. No one is forcing you to put on lipstick, high healed shoes, wear tight clothes and expose your cleavage.
You can choose to rationalize away your failure for belong to a clique or you can choose to accept that the world isn’t perfect and decide to be judged on your individual merit, and work to overcome your individual limitations. Everyone has them, not just pretty girls.
Please, just read the 101.
On your privilege
cool
anyone know the office mailing address for Techcrunch Uk & Techcrunch usa ?
The post would be more meaningful if it where to discuss web Female entrepreneurs to watch for ….. instead of a specific country I am sure there are Australian, Japanese or German web women entrepreneur to watch for ……
Fair point, but I’m TechCrunch’s *Israeli* correspondent…
@TCCritic, the difference between kazakhstan and israel is this….
“2008 Deloitte & Touche survey shows that in six key areas — telecom, microchips, software, biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, and clean energy — “Israel ranked second only to the United States in technological innovation.””
So…to jump out as an entreprenour in israel, you do have to be extremely good….there are a lot to choose from over there.
-guillermo
Link?
I agree with some of the comments that by pointing out the gender keeps the gender as part of the conversation. A guick search reveals not only hundreds of women in CEO positions, but as heads of startups also.
I wonder how many men who are CEOs of startups we can name, unless we are living in that world? Or how about naming any startups at all? Again, if we are not living in Silicon Valley or an incubator — or memorizing those “top 100″ lists that appear from time to time, probably not many.
I’d be more interested in what Roi is reading to find the Israeli startups, as opposed to any other country. I personally know women in South Africa, Australia, and yes, even here in the USA, who head tech startups. Maybe we need to define tech again? Not all startups are about programming, software or hardware. A lot of women-owned tech startups focus on what women need (health and support) or how women shop (food, fashion, children).
I will,shortly, post some of these women on my blog , as well as women in top offices in general. We may not be a majority in these positions, but it is often based on our own agendas, not those expectations put on us by others.
I’ll be happy to read it when publish
He’s an Israeli, living in Israel, writing for a tech news site.
And he probably reads the business sections of Maariv or Yediyot for news about startups, or Israeli blogs, in Hebrew, because he’s an Israeli, who reads Hebrew, in Israel.
Femme-preneurs? Seriously?
I know! I find it moderately offensive that females who start companies cannot also be considered as “entrepreneurs” but have to be singled-out as “femme-preneurs.”
Vetrina’s looks promising. Vikido sounds kind of neat but also kind of useless. I’m not sure what the use cases are.
Instead of focusing on “women entrepreneurs”, why not focus on startups working on bringing brick-and-mortar shopping to the web, or the children’s sector. Why not do a piece on all of the various startups working on solving problems in those areas? That would be interesting.
somehow I could recall only the Zivity CEO after reading this post…:-) and not the name yet….duh.
~ marvin
Stay away from our women!
Good post Roi – Wix is a tremendous company, and I can’t wait to see what Razoss tools will enable.
Keep up the good work
Why don’t you cover http://yousuggest.us and our client from print media http://talktoht.com (Hindustan Times) who has recently started crowdsourcing on ideas??
I tried so many times to contact you for coverage. Still waiting for your response Michael…:(
~ marvin
its about who you know. your not in the loop so no coverage for you
And how does one get to know anyone else?
wink wink*
~ cheers,
Marvin
Vetrina’s has to be one of the coolest concepts I have seen in the fashion industry. Everyone else is doing their “trend spotting show me your style” type of apps. This stands out. Congrats
Roi-
There are probably more female entrepreneurs than male entrepreneurs.
Just not in the technology business.
I was born into, grew up in and work in the tech business. Hope to die in it too
How about Entrepreneurs from other Countries? This is so boring and so one way. There are many women from other Countries who are Entrepreneurs and way smarter than these three chicks.
YUP. Elizabeth Holmes.
http://www.theranos.com
Why does it have to be Israeli?
Why not just female entrepreneurs in general?
Pfft.
Is this a paid advertisement? how much does it cost? I too have a bunch to promote!
“Feel free to enlighten me about the gender bias underpinning the tech industry in comments”
seems like about half of these comments demonstrate the gender bias in the tech industry
Funny how it’s about “Israeli” but barley hear much about other nations. I guess TechCrunch is ran by Jews as well.
No kidding. I think we’ve met at the Arringtons Bar-Mitzvah.
So, how are female entrepreneurs doing in your country?
TC really needs a bury option
I agree…Mike is on the record for that we all know it.
David Cohen
Wow Khaled, Wow.
Someone needs to put down their copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and get out a bit…
It is absolutely ridiculous that TechCrunch has a post where the author thinks it’s a mystery why so few women are CEOs of startups. The research is very clear.
Less than 10% of all pitches to VCs are from women CEOs. (citation: Golden Seeds)
The majority of small businesses in the US are founded by women. But they have fewer than three employees. (citation: department of labor)
All things being equal (equal experience, equal earnings, equal kids ) women are much more likely than men to CHOOSE to cut back their work in order to be with their kids. It is not forced, not unfair, it is just how women are wired and it’s not anything that we see changing any time soon. (citation: Catalyst Research)
So women do small businesses to get control over their time. You do not gain control over your time by getting VC funding. It’s a crazy life — long hours, extremely tough competition, and unstable finances. (citation: techcrunch. it’s in these post all the time)
I have written many posts on this very topic. Here’s a link to one:
http://blog.pen...new-millennium/
Penelope
Penelope–thanks for sharing this info.
Tnx, interesting (blog&comment)
“The majority of small businesses in the US are founded by women. But they have fewer than three employees. (citation: department of labor)”
If you took out Avon or Mary Kay, I am sure that number would average out significantly.
Just how women are “wired”, huh? Nothing whatsoever to do with cultural influences, subtle or otherwise?
Looks like I’m missing some essential female characteristic.
Not getting into whether this post is misogynist or not (personally I think it’s good to profile female CEOs since tech is so male-dominated), but can we immediately retire the term ‘femme-preneur’? In addition to being near-meaningless (literally it would mean a male ‘woman taker’) it implies that somehow the entrepreneurship that women do is different than that done by men. They’re entrepreneurs. They’re women. No point in trying to coin buzzy-sounding titles.
I would just like to point out the fact, that Technology has a predominately Male workforce (expecially in my bay area experience). That being said, it is logical that the majority of leaders are men. If its not an equal workforce, there will not be an equal ratio of men:women leaders.
This is sexist!!
You are. Think about it.
how am i?
I’ve written about female tech entrepreneurs quite a lot including the redoutable Penelope above. They tend to be interesting people so my first problem with this post is that it’s quite boring. The second is the comments on the relative hotness of the featured startup founders. Of course we understand that men will notice what you look like but it shouldn’t be the only thing worth commenting on.
Ok, this may seem a little far-fetched but Israel is probably the only country where also women are supposed to do military service (2 years if I’m not absolutely wrong).
My guess is that this results in a broader acceptation of Women being leaders in the Israeli society. After all, a CEO is nothing else than a leader and I am sure the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) produces some good ones.
just my 2 digits…
this story seems out of place on tech blog like techcrucnh. you would expect to see that in traditional media like People magzine.
Interesting article. I’m glad to see Israeli tech world highlighted.
First TechCrunch article i’ve ever fully read. Being an Israeli I was immediately drawn to this article, especially because i had no clue of any female israeli internet entrepreneurs.
We israelis say we have a good sense of entrepreneurialism, I can definitely agree with that.
Great article! Negative comments are plain jealous don’t even bother worrying about it mate.
Why is techcrunch so obsessed with the jews? First the whining articles about facebook and the holocaust and now the top israeli women? What’s next? Pics of your friend’s bar mitzvah? Do an article about arabs internet at least once and I won’t think you’re biased.
Jews do get a lot of coverage here. I was wondering that myself
I was thinking that too! But then I saw the so called Israeli women’s pictures and they’re not even Jewish! Everyone knows that Jews don’t look like that. They are way too pretty and missing those disgusting big noses that every Jewish person has!
+1 funny
as they do everywhere.
my question is: if i grow a pair of tits, will that raise my chances of getting featured on techcrunch next sunday?
What ‘Arab Internet’ are you referring to? The one that is constantly being blocked or surveyed by the governments? Please enlighten all of us here in the West about the advancements and the contributions being made in this part of the world. Please note that posting videos of kidnappers being beheaded does not advance our industry.
Someone famous once said that the only way to succeed in anything is to give it everything. While we have infiltrated top colleges, even business schools to the point where they are at or close to 50% female, there’s still a ceiling whether perceived, desired, or imposed for women in the work place.
A) We have so much distracting us — being a mom, having kids, ’softer’ industries that we are socialized to pursue (if I had a dime, everyone thought I ought to pursue fashion or home decorating, I’d be too wealthy and busy to leave this comment!)
B) We still don’t make as much as you guys dollar for dollar. This can be so enraging at times as to dissuade us in and of itself.
C) To succeed as a start-up CEO, you’ve got about the same odds as winning a lottery. Networking increases those odds. I can’t ask a male superior to play golf without some eye brows raised, whether by him or by a co-worker. Havind role models increases those odds. Without hardly any role models out there, who do we look to?? Previous successes increase those odds. And that becomes a chicken or egg type problem.
D) Self esteem effect that not only comes from all of the above, but continued sexism on our society has on women’s drive to succeed.
So, I am not surprised at all. Question is, what, if anything do we do about it?
1. Great job, Roi on the article!
2. Thanks Amit, Orit and Gal for being such great trailblazers. And good for you, Gal, that you wouldn’t participate if it were a ‘girl power’ article (which I’m not certain it wasn’t)
3. Write more articles on women such as Cristina Morgan, who’ve made it big time. (Vice Chairman at JP Morgan/Chase) and Kerry O’Rourke Biscof (a senior VP at AOL)
4. Study women like Cristina and Kerry. What do they and women at their level of success share in common? trends?
5. Evaporate sexism from our world. (That will never happen. But another famous person once said, pursue perfection, even if you can’t expect it.)
Read:
The Essential Difference: Male And Female Brains And The Truth About Autism
http://www.amaz...1538&sr=1-1
According to Dr. Baron-Cohen’s ES model, women tend to be more (E) empathic and men more (S) systemic. IT/Engineering are systemic fields and innovators probably tend to be more systemic than empathic. There are exceptions.
BTW I’m in Israel a lot (just left Tel Aviv end of last week) and it is a hot, hot place regarding startups and innovation. It is one thing to read about it but another to experience it. If you haven’t been there, you must go at least once for other reasons as well (e.g. historical interest). Beaches and swimming in Tel Aviv are great as well. I go for an early morning wake up swim when I’m there. You’re on the Rivera.
What i’ve learned about TechCrunch today:
1. Several of its commenters are raging idiots. Seriously, these people know how to work a computer?
2. Apparently, there is no real moderator to speak of… Sexist/Rude/Biggoted/Pseudo-Cynical comments are welcome.
3. Yes, it does post quite a few Israel Related articles. hmmm…. could that be due to the fact that Israel has a live and kicking SU scene with fresh, new ideas backed by a strong foundation of entrepreneurship and a history of groundbreaking technological advances? Perhaps?
3. On the other hand, an occasional post on the tech scene in the Arab world would be very much appreciated, especially in relation to the Palestinians in Israel.
Bizarre. Would TechCrunch do a story valorizing businesspeople of apartheid-era South Africa?
What next? “Exciting developments in Israeli white phosphorous technology”? “Using social networks for ethnic cleansing”?
Interesting.
So our mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan which killed innocent civilians during combat should restrict TC from reporting on tech from the US or any NATO-ally country.
Why don’t you continue reading the tech articles in Aljazeera and leave your comments there instead?
The US does not have apartheid-style laws. If it did, of course I would accept a call for divestment, boycotts and sanctions. Wouldn’t you? Perhaps you opposed South African apartheid, even though the US government accused the ANC of being terrorists. No one with a conscience accepts Israeli apartheid.
Just by repeating the big word ‘appathied’ doesn’t make it so.
In South Africa the whites were a minority and not were threatened with annihilation (suicide bombers and other acts of terrorism) by the blacks. Their actions were strictly based on race.
In Israel – the restrictions on the Palestinians were made out of security measures – something you fail to understand – and the results are clear by the substantial drop in deaths resulting from terrorist acts.
Also, most Israelis will gladly support a Palestinian state along Israel if it would bring peace and security to Israel and not be a launching ground for Iranian-made missiles into Israel like the Gaza Strip.
But ask yourself why the Palestinians did not establish a state when they were occupied by the Jordanians/Egyptians up until 1967? Could it be that they are just a pawn in a sick game to de-legitimize Israel?
Please take your bias views elsewhere. I am sure Aljazeera will be happy if you post on their site. This is a TECH web-site so treat it accordingly.
WTF wrote: “In South Africa the whites were a minority and not were threatened with annihilation (suicide bombers and other acts of terrorism) by the blacks. Their actions were strictly based on race.”
I encourage you to read this high sourced Wikipedia article. It details for the most part the situation in the West Bank — an area in which there are expanding Israeli settlements outside of the security barrier:
http://en.wikip...artheid_analogy
You state that there should be a Palestinian state. In fact, there is an attempt to create a Palestinian state with the historically Arab East Jerusalem as its capital. This is being frustrated because of Israeli leaders at the moment. Netanyahu is committed to expanding settlements and he has also stated that Jerusalem isn’t to be shared and has ramped of forced evacuations of non-Jewish Arabs from their homes in East Jerusalem.
Here is an article about the recent evictions of non-Jewish Arabs from their East Jerusalem homes:
http://www.tele...-Jerusalem.html
These evictions of non-Jews has been condemned by the US as unhelpful to making peace just today in Haaretz:
http://www.haar...es/1104779.html
Moderators: Please email me before deleting my comment, thx.
I’m pretty sure apartheid era South Africa didn’t have any black members in it’s Parliament, Israel’s Knesset has 11 Arab members and 3 Arab political parties with Knesset members.
Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy all the rights their Jewish brethren do, and do not have to fulfill all their responsibilities (mandatory military duty).
another day in apartheid israel:
http://mondowei...eli-racism.html
TWF said that: “So our mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan which killed innocent civilians during combat should restrict TC from reporting on tech from the US or any NATO-ally country.”
It should be stated that Langley isn’t referring to battlefield “mistakes” when he makes an apartheid comparison but rather he is making a comparison that is widely made.
The fact is that there are very scary similarities between Israel’s occupation and settler enterprise in the West Bank and South Africa’s former system of apartheid:
http://en.wikip...artheid_analogy
I do think it is inappropriate for TechCrunch to do so much PR for Israel’s high tech community when the country, with support from its population, continues to engage in such horrible practices against the non-Jewish non-citizens who are within its domain of control (e.g. the West Bank and East Jerusalem specifically.)
Just today, there were more evictions of non-Jewish Arabs from homes they have long lived in East Jerusalem:
http://mondowei...-jerusalem.html
If you think the criticism of Israel’s actions are just ill-reasoned ramblings on Al Jazeera, you have been misinformed as to what is truly going on. It isn’t pretty what is going on over there.
to Momograph and B – the question still remains – why wasnt a Palestinian state ever created?
Before Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 – the Jordanians and Egyptians occupied it and before that the British and the Ottomans- but there was no mention of a Palestinian identity.
There was no claim to Jerusalem either?
Ask yourself – why?
Don’t you see that the Palestinian cause was created not to create a state but to abolish an existing state – Israel. If the Arabs had accepted the U.N. partition in 1948 – and not engage in multiple wars against the Jews – the Arabs would still have control of the occupied territories. And not use Israel as a scapegoat for all their problems.
WTF: There is currently a credible multilateral push towards creating a Palestinian state that can coexist peacefully with Israel. I view it as a noble goal.
Reaching selectively back to the past isn’t that useful unless you want to advocate the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians to make more room for Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
To monograph,
As I said before – most Israelis would welcome a Palestinian state – if it would not come on the expense of Israel’s security – and I personally hope both sides would reach an agreement that would be acceptable to both sides.
But I view a lot of these comments criticizing only one side – Israel – and doing so in these apolitical forums (a tech site) as unjustified and filled with bias and hatred.
You guys should stop bickering and listen to what the Palestinian politicians are saying themselves. Hitler threatened to murder all the Jews but we didn’t listen.
Why do so called “liberals” think they can convince the Palestinians to live near Israel when the Palestinians want Israel destroyed “more than life itself (see: Suicide Bombings”
Neither Hamas nor Fatah are willing to accept a state if it means recognizing Israel as a Jewish state.
http://www.yout...h?v=iTQ5CNYLoXE
And Hamas:
http://www.yout...ature=quicklist
How dare you defend Hamas and Fatah and claim to be seeking peace. To the average person it just seems like you, like the Palestinian leadership, want the murder of the Jewish population of Israel.
So I find this post interesting… As pointed out by BizDev4SU there appears to be 0 moderation and I wonder how many of TechCrunch’s readers are actually female and how many over the years have been put off from reading and interacting with commenting here due to the flaming, rudeness and arrogance of some of the people here?
I can’t imagine many females would want to put themselves out and comment in what could be seen as a relatively unsafe environment.
By allowing comments like this to be published TechCrunch are also making the site less youth friendly so tomorrow’s entrepreneurs may not be learning as much as they should be as parents wouldn’t want to see this sort of language in anything their child might read.
On the note of female entrepreneurs, inspire, encourage & support them…
What about middle aged men – preneurs in Israel like me?
And my 1/2M user website – http://www.tripcart.com/
Great post Roi!
Calling them femmes is something I find to be 1) disrespectful and 2) completely disregards Ross’ request for it not to be a girl power post. Just because they are women in a male dominated business (oh, wait, all business is dominated by men. Go figure!) does not mean they should be treated like they are lesser by covering them in such a way that undermines gender equality. By covering them in this manner TC has proven once again that women’s rights are far from a dead issue.
And your post is one example of why the number of women in the workplace isn’t that high — you are a bit overly sensitive.
Offended by the use of ‘femme-preneurs’? Please. A post promoting women in the workplace is bad because the author was trying to be clever?
Don’t get your panties in a wad so much.
Sexism being regarded as clever. A novel concept – not.
i like Gali Ross… she’s so ‘wifey’..
Sorry i couldn’t resist..
HOWEVER, kudos to the 3. It’s good to see entrepreneurs from the female gender making waves in the Internet industry… Good luck and keep up the good work!