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Ronit Bohrer Hillel: The impact of organization on their Cloud Architecture

I am fortunate to have had a career in tech for the last 20 years. When I graduated from Computer Science, roughly 30 percent of my class were women. As my career progressed to software engineering leadership, those numbers declined to a point I was one among few women in my position. It was through this growth that I realized that the power is in our hands. We drive our career and it is in our inner strength that allows us to be successful. I also acknowledged that the journey is hard, and as such, it is all of our duty to help others along the way. Women in Cloud’s mission is just about that.  It is “to inspire, empower and accelerate the growth of women-led technology companies.” I want to join these amazing women to fulfil that mission.

I am passionate about helping women find that inner strength and accelerate in their journey. I was fortunate to have gained diverse experience from both startups and enterprises, engineering, management, and family life. Taking part in the Women in Cloud Summit 2020 will allow me to leverage that experience for the good of others. My personal journey is still in the making. Through this summit, I wish to be inspired by other women leaders and see how we all can connect to drive change together.

At the summit, I will take part in a tech panel about consideration of Building and Architecting in the cloud. By doing so I hope to serve as an example and inspire women to stay and grow their career in tech and in software engineering.

I am  humbled to meet women entrepreneurs and startup founders, learning their paths and seeing how they set goals to enable their companies to be successful. I am fascinated to see the courage needed to make this leap and invest all in a dream. I am also interested to connect to executive women leaders to learn how they made a difference to diversity and inclusion within their organizations. 

Economic inclusion ensures that everyone has an equal opportunity to participate and contribute to the economy. However we are not there yet! It is true that in some areas we are closer, as years of fighting and changing laws and behaviors helped make that difference. Yet, there is a long way ahead. The change starts  at our homes, our offices, and then is taken out to society. Come join us change society today, purchase tickets today to the summit and be a part of the inclusive community of tomorrow.

To get more information visit the summit website, and don’t forget to apply the 20% discount code: JOINME@WIC

See you there! 

Take action by joining our online network to get engaged today!

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Lindsay Lashell: Empowering Women Through Purpose-Driven Marketing

I first learned about Women in Cloud at the B Corp Champions’ Retreat, and I am so excited to find this community of women who are aligned in purpose. I chose to leave the Bay Area startup scene because of my frustration with the privilege, entitlement, and discrimination that are so pervasive in the companies I worked for. My path in digital entrepreneurship and marketing has led to my strong belief that job creation is one of the most beneficial things a human can do. Take that belief, add to it my passionate inclusive feminism and my broad experience with the internet and you’ve got a perfect match with Women in Cloud. 

One of the reasons I’m so excited about this community is my strong belief that every time we open our wallets, we are choosing a side. Personally, I do as much as I can to choose the side of women, immigrants, LGBTQ+ and other underestimated entrepreneurs. It is not just about how we spend our money, though. If we who identify as “underestimated” all boldly identify ourselves in our brands and our businesses, then it empowers others to choose us intentionally. This doesn’t just increase our opportunity among like-minded audience members, but will also increase awareness and opportunity for others like us. If we can get more people to be more conscious of the tremendous power that all participants in our economy hold, we can make things better for everyone.

So for me, my hope in joining the WIC community is that I’ll be able to both teach and learn:

  1. I want to support women entrepreneurs so that they have super efficient early stage marketing, resulting in quicker growth and less investment to scale, so that you own bigger chunks of your own success.
  2. I want to learn more about what is needed from folks like me. What questions do you have that you can’t find answers to? What are the best channels for me to share resources? Entrepreneurship is lonely, and I want everyone in the community to feel seen and supported.

I’m so excited that I’ll get to start working on that first goal with the content of my talk at the upcoming Summit! I know that launch marketing is tough–most entrepreneurs are still evolving your brand, your personas, and probably even your product. You do not have a lot of time or a ton of money to pay consultants, but communities like Women in Cloud exist to support and guide you through such tricky positions businesses and entrepreneurs often find themselves in. 

My presentation will give you the tools (with links to make them your own!) to define a shockingly practical and strategic marketing plan for your business. Instead of feeling guilty for not doing enough, I’ll teach you how to make your to do list shorter by getting more impact from your efforts.

We will talk through the MVPs of your essential marketing assets to get started and how to use them to create something you can start implementing on the Monday after the summit. The result is a part-time marketer’s dream: an actionable, strategically-informed content plan, so that you are empowered to build your audience and your opportunity.

My deepest joy is to empower women in their entrepreneurship. Absolutely anything I can do to advise, validate, or otherwise support, count me in! Purchase tickets today and experience a community like no other. I will be thrilled to talk to anyone who has questions about marketing, messaging, social media, audience growth, team growth, conscious leadership, efficiency in business practices, or knitting!

To get more information visit the summit website, and don’t forget to apply the 20% discount code: JOINME@WIC

See you there! Take action by joining our online network to get engaged today!

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Jenna Lange: Your Story can Change Lives

Much of the “join” movement is about who you know. 

My female friends are the center of my world. I trust they have my best interests at heart. My initial inspiration to join Women in Cloud was Carrie Francey. If Carrie says “do this,” I do it. And that is how I operate with many of my female friends. 

This is a community of women I am passionate about. They are blazing the trail—both in helping companies reach the cloud and helping women reach their potential. 

I have spent over 20 years helping leaders increase their impact in high stakes communication moments. I am passionate about empowering women to find and deliver stories they can use to drive impact. Whether their “impact” is in their corporations or communities, storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool for persuasion and influence. 

Presence, Persuasion, Perseverance and Planning are all part of success in high-stakes moments. But storytelling is an essential component that often goes unnoticed. Finding stories that drive impact is difficult, as is delivering these stories in a way that connects and compels. It requires practice and confidence. So this has become my mission: to help women confidently deliver stories that can change lives in their organizations and beyond.

At Women in Cloud Summit 2020, I will specifically address: 

  • Practical tips for finding and delivering stories with impact
  • Communicating with confidence and clarity
  • Quickly creating a story that is relevant to your audience

As a speaker, I will focus on ensuring women are given an opportunity to tell their story and tell it right. I look forward to meeting everybody who is interested in advancing their mission through clear and compelling communication. 

Stories have always had the power to influence mindsets and change the course of history. Women in Cloud is one such story that needs to be given attention, to ensure women of tomorrow will not go through discriminations made in today’s society. This calls us to pool our resources together to take collective action. 

Women in Cloud’s mission is very aligned to my mission of helping drive impact by finding and telling stories that can change lives. 

We have to ask ourselves, “How can we step into uncomfortable moments to drive change?” Do we acknowledge and take advantage of the opportunities we are given? Do we reach out to ensure everyone has a voice? For me, this means looking in the places where we don’t typically look for opportunities. 

This summit gives me hope for the next generation of women who we can inspire with the stories we tell today. Purchase tickets today and be a part of a story bigger than yourself. 

To get more information visit the summit website, and don’t forget to apply the 20% discount code: JOINME@WIC

See you there! Take action by joining our online network to get engaged today!

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Sherlaender “Lani” Phillips: Women In Cloud Summit – Technology, Leadership And Transforming Businesses

Throughout my career, I have purposefully focused on technology, as I see it as a vehicle to make a real difference in the world. I am excited to be among so many female “tech” entrepreneurs who are using their love for technology to solve key business and world challenges. Women in Cloud represents my community of trailblazers who are committed to creating economic opportunities for all.

As a member of the Women in Cloud community, I am passionate about expanding my network with like-minded individuals. I want to be a student and learn from others’ experiences and gain access to some of the most innovative solutions and services available. I also want to give back and be of service to the other women who are dedicating themselves to Women In Cloud and what it stands for. My involvement with Women in Cloud enables me to exercise my passion for technology, leadership and transforming businesses.

This year at Women in Cloud Summit 2020, my session is “How the Best Leaders Create Inclusive Cultures.” This will be an interactive session, exploring key concepts such as practicing Awareness, exercising Curiosity and demonstrating Courage. We will discuss best practices for inclusion, and you will have time to reflect on how you show up today across Awareness, Curiosity and Courage. Practical tips will be shared with the goal of creating a community of like-minded individuals who will partner with you on your journey to be a more inclusive leader.

An inclusive environment is necessary for collective action. Economic inclusion means providing fair and equitable opportunities for all businesses in a diverse and inclusive way. This enables us to close the “opportunity” gap, chip away at the unconscious and conscious biases towards these different communities and enable small, diverse businesses to compete.

I am excited to connect with everyone at the Summit. The session topics are timely, and the speaker lineup is powerful. I personally am prepared to learn as much as I can, to establish my own action plan, and to network with and be of service to as many people as possible. This event should not be missed. Purchase tickets today to join us in Seattle on January 25 to learn, understand, contribute, and grow during and after the Summit.For more information visit the Summit website, and don’t forget to apply the 20% discount code: JOINME@WIC

See you there! Take action by joining our online network to get engaged today!

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Gillian Muessig: The Capitalization Stack – How to Fund your Startup Without Losing your Company

Women continue to receive low single digit percentages of venture capital nationwide and worldwide. Yet, women startup leaders consistently return ~35% higher ROI to their funds. While just 0.06% of all companies will ever receive venture capital funding, these companies are the cream of the crop. Yet 80% of every venture capital funded company fails within five years. Clearly, venture capital funding is not the right match for many high potential startups.

I joined the Women in Cloud to help women better understand the broader funding options available to them so they build brilliant companies, hold onto the optimal percentage of their equity, and thrive. I believe there is a huge economic push women will contribute to, if shown the direction and given an opportunity. I am extremely passionate about equity and parity in access to the opportunities of business entrepreneurship. 

Money is power. We may not like that equation, but we had better deal with it! Until women have the advantages of their male colleagues in entrepreneurship, we have not achieved our goals. 

On January 25, at the Women in Cloud Summit 2020, I will be speaking on a business track panel at 11:45am, as well as meeting attendees at the Meet the Speaker Table and possibly a roundtable (look for it and sign up!) to investors about the powerful data behind the financial advantages of investing in women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs about how to capitalize early stage startups beyond conventional equity investment models. 

We do not use one piece of software; we use an IT stack. Likewise, do not think, “I must exchange equity for cash.” Think instead about your complete capitalization stack. Understanding the full suite of options available to you as a founder will increase your chances of surviving and thriving in business.

Purchase tickets here and join us on January 25th. Our collective forces and resources can increase access to technology careers and entrepreneurship for women; indeed. We ‘vote’ with our dollars. Where and how we invest our own capital makes the difference between putting up with the status quo and actually making change happen.

To get more information visit the summit website, and apply this 20% discount code: JOINME@WIC

See you there! Take action by joining our online network today!

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