techsisters

[techsisters]

Tech Sisters at Big Bank

Last month, on October 29 Tech Sisters had the pleasure of network at Bigbank offices in Tallinn.

As usual, we had three inspiring people sharing their stories with us. or those who couldn’t make it here’s are some highlights of the evening.

Heldink Rikk: Retrospectives are the key to reflect, change and improve!

A country girl who became part of a big city agile mafia in 2009, today Heldin is responsible for Agile transformation in Bigbank. Heldin says that what got her into this job was the only constant thing in her life: change.

She says this is what Agile is all about, and it’s probably the reason why she has now become an evangelist of this software development methodologies.

In her talk, Heldin went through the particular Agile methodology teams at Bibank use to deliver software: Scrum, which is also the most popular of all the Agile methodologies. She got a bit of a shock when she found out that from the agile practitioners in the audience the majority leaves out the most important of all scrum meetings: the retrospective. In her own words:

“The main idea of Scrum is: Inspect and Adapt. How can you change when you don’t stop and reflect on what went well and what went wrong? How can you change when you don’t make decisions on what to improve? You can never be truly agile if you don’t do retrospectives.”

She also talked about the challenge of knowing if your teams are doing good Scrum when you manage more than 3 teams. For that, she uses a tool called FlowHow: it consists of a game that collects teams data regarding scrum and it’s used for giving points. If a team is doing good in a particular area they get the maximum amount of points, otherwise the don’t get any. The results are assessed every month and the team with more points gets a prize.

Heldin thinks this tool helps teams truly understand what is Scrum. As an example she says that in Bigbank, some of the things that they had been trying to change for a while started to get fixed within a day of using it. To her, the game gives a very nice overview of where I need to put my focus as things are very visible and based on real data.

Her final word of advice is that if you are too busy or lazy to dig in more, there’s one thing you can take from this:

“Do retrospectives and keep on changing!”

Vilve Vene: believe and have courage!

Vilve started her career in the early 90s, a lucky time, she says, as everything was possible back then when Estonia had just announced its Independence.

Her first job was with a Swedish company that was particularly interested in recruiting Estonian women to be developers for a subsidiary they were opening in Estonia. According to them, women worked harder, were more diligent and asked for less money. Out of more than 500 applicants, she was one of the lucky 3 to be selected.

This year of intense development in the IT sector made her hungry for more, so she decided that it was time for a change. So she went to work with Hansabank, back then a startup that she described as:

“the bank of the new era, founded by young guys who wanted to change the world, build a better and more modern bank than any existing bank in western world – in other words do the real innovation in banking industry”.

Things started to change in 1999 when the company was bought by Swedes. After seeing the company culture and purpose slowly change, she decided to make a new move in 2002. The idea to start her own business with other friends came up while in Rome. She describes this decision as the equivalent of jumping out of a plane not being sure whether you have a parachute or not, since they were basically exchanging a very safe and well-paid job with all the benefits, for the unknown. It was themselves who would determine whether they got paid or not, by making things happen.

What she got from all of this was:

“Believe in yourself and have courage to take next steps! It is never easy and the path is never set for you!

_If you go to the office every morning and you find yourself unhappy and not really motivated or worse you don’t really accept decisions and behavior then you definitely need to change something. Somehow women often postpone taking action..._

If you think you can do it better than you boss does and you’re not good in adapting by your nature, maybe it’s time to try to start your own business. Many men do it easily. Very few women do it. Because we, women, we usually think we are not good enough yet, not ready yet. The reality is, that you’re never ready and you’re never good enough. But if you don’t try, you will never get good enough, and you’re never fully ready. You just have to start and you’re getting good enough. I wasn’t an exception, there were so many hesitations in my head and in my heart when I took the step to start my own company…”

Vilve has by now been running her own tech company for over 13 years. In all the changes she has seen in the industry there is one thing she notices remains unchanged: positions women in the IT world.

The core problem? She says it all comes down to ourselves as women: we underestimate ourselves. This is good news for us, however, as the solution is in our own hands. We have to start believing more in ourselves and go ahead and do things.

Some interesting data about her company, Icefire: they have 50% of women working in different positions, 2 of 5 board members are also women and half of team leaders and area managers are as well.

Maarika Susi: Be present and be balanced!

Maarika is a person with various facets in life which which she balances like a good dance every day of her life.

Her background is in Environmental Management, and she has worked in Sales, advertising, ecommerce and with startups.

She currently works as a Customer Success Manager in Pipedrive,as one of the organizers of Garage48 Hackathons and she also teaches Latin Dances.

What is it that keeps her going? The Highlight Reel! In her own words:

“Imagine yourself as an old lady. Think back over your life and recall your “Highlight reel”, the handful of perfect moments and the times where you truly felt alive:

- Was it when you were walking with your dog in the hometown beach and enjoying the sunset?

- Was it when you climbed the vast mountains in the rainforest with pouring rain somewhere in southern Uganda in search of mountain gorillas?

- Or was it when you were at a meeting in the office or stuck behind the laptop handling some budget issues?”

Her answer to this question is very clear, and that’s exactly what keeps her going. She advises people to focus on the present instead of living in the past or the future.

She believes men and women have both different and complementary roles in life, and this is something she applies in her dancing classes but also in other areas of her life. Her

Dance philosophy: the woman is like a beautiful painting and the man is like a frame that lets that painting shine.

Here are some books Maarika recommends:

“Naiseks olemise kunst”. Author: Katrin Saali Saul

“The power of now”. Author: Eckhart Tolle

“Sex at Dawn: The prehistoric origins of modern sexuality”. Authors: Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá

[techsisters]

Tech Sisters new season has kicked off!

Autumn is here and so is Tech Sisters with our new and exciting plans ready to be realized. This time we have something new and something old for you to discover and we hope it inspires you as much as it has done for us!

As some of you may have already noticed, we sent out our fist newsletter and we promise there will be more coming! We’ll keep you updated with what we’re up to and what is generally trending in the tech scene right now. So if you haven’t signed up for our newsletter yet, then this is the best time to do it!

Our season’s first long awaited networking event will take place in less than 2 weeks on the 23rd of September. This time we will be hosted by one of the greatest software development company in Estonia - Nortal. More info of the speakers can be found on the event page. Those of you, who are not able to attend this time, due to a limited number of seats, keep your head high because we have another event planned already on the 20th of October in BIGBANK. Stay tuned by liking our FB page or following us on Twitter to make sure you don’t miss out on anything! 

Tech Sisters’ events are not only inspirational but also practical. Meaning that there will be at least one HTML & CSS workshop coming this year and many more in the future. Also if you happen to know any enthusiastic teenagers who are interested in IT and tech, give them our Digigirls web and Facebook page address, so that they’ll have the chance to be part of something awesome and also practical. This time we will visit other Estonian counties not only Tallinn, so spread the word about the events to your friends all over Estonia.

Anyone interested in Startups should already book their calendars on the 13th until the 15th of November because that’s when we’ll have another Garage48 Pärnu Women Special event happening in Pärnu. This time the theme of the event is Tourism! So get your best ideas and friends together and make your million dollar dream into a reality!

For those of you who got really excited just by reading this post and feel they have some spare time, motivation and wish to give back to the tech community, even when you’re not in tech world yourself, we’d love to have you on-board to help us spread the word even further. If you recognized yourself, dear future volunteer, please send us your motivation letter and contact info to team@techsister.org.

If all that above hasn’t inspired you enough, keep your eye on our Facebook page, because there are several fun and exciting events happening all the time and we’ll keep you posted as soon as we have more info ourselves!

We hope you have an inspiring autumn and that Tech Sisters’ events will have a saying in that as well! See you at the events!

[techsisters]

Tech Sisters’ Full House - Women’s HTML & CSS Workshop

In the spirit of Estonian ICT week, Tech Sisters decided to throw an epic HTML & CSS workshop to demystify tech for women, attracting participants from all walks of life to challenge themselves and try out web development. So by 5 pm on May 14th, Garage48 HUB was packed with 50 women, 50 laptops and 50 pairs of hands ready to write code - for the first time ever.

During the workshop, mentors helped participants go through the Codecademy Make a Website tutorial. By the end of the 3-hour workshop, everybody had had a taste of laying the foundation of a website with HTML, and styling it with some CSS. “I had always thought that learning web development was too difficult to even try,” admits Alice Aasmäe-Kahar who participated in the event. “But it turned out it’s like assembling a puzzle - and I love assembling puzzles!” She adds, “The whole gang of mentors and speakers was simply very inspiring.”

There were also great inspirational talks from amazing women making it happen in various roles in the tech industry. Elise Sass from Microsoft Estonia talked about how she first started out in tech, and how her ability to think like a programmer (granted she’s not a programmer) has helped her land some truly exciting jobs. Helen Kokk from YourDesignWorks also shared the story of her humble beginnings, as she dove head-first into front-end development and how she became a UX designer. Janika Liiv from Toggl shared her thoughts on why women should learn IT skills and encouraged everyone to challenge the status quo of the ‘brogrammer’ culture.

As per a survey conducted prior to the workshop, there was a variety of different reasons for wanting to participate in the workshop.They ranged from making a total career change, to having better choices on the job market, to a chance at a higher salary. There were women with ideas they wanted to be able to realise on their own, as well as women wishing to become freelancers. Someone even said they wanted to participate because “programming is sexy”. That is a totally legitimate motivation, by the way. 

“As a mentor, I was very pleased to have so many questions from the participants - questions that were on much broader topics than just about the tutorial,” says one of the founding members of Tech Sisters and a lecturer at Estonian IT College Katrin Loodus. “These kinds of in-depth thinkers, who are able to see the bigger picture, are exactly what the IT landscape needs.” 

At the end of the evening, another Tech Sisters’ volunteer and a mentor for the event Hanna-Mari Kirs shared some of the wisdom she gained when learning tech skills on her own. “When I first started to learn tech skills, it was really exciting, but with so many resources available, it also got really overwhelming really quickly,” says Hanna-Mari. “That’s when I learned to embrace the confusion and let go of the feeling that I have to understand everything as the information is presented to me, before I can move on. In fact, with learning tech skills, it’s really important to keep moving, practicing and asking questions. Having real problems to solve makes it so much easier to stay focused and motivated.”

The event’s main organiser Kaidi Ilves, who was also a mentor at the workshop, says this project is very dear to her heart. “Not only because I live and breathe tech every day but because I believe that when you make it easy and safe for women to learn coding from their peers, something exciting happens.” She also admits she was over the moon that the event received so much positive feedback from the participants. She says, “I hope we can make more of these events happen in the future. I’d really like to see a tight-knit community grow out of these and other Tech Sisters events, so women who want to learn tech skills have a place to ask advice and collaborate.“

Thank you all for participating in this event, and helping us kick off what is hopefully the beginning of a series of similar events. We would also like to give special thanks to Microsoft for supporting our event and our cause. 

[techsisters]

Järgmine Digigirls üritus toimub juba 23. mail ja sel korral Tartus

Järgmine üritus toimub 23. mail 2015 Tartus ZeroTurnaround-i kontoris. Ühtekokku võtame vastu 40 tüdrukut. Rohkem infot meie Facebooki lehelt

Registreeru siin!

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Järgmine Digigirls toimub Tallinnas 30. märtsil

Järgmine üritus toimub 30. märtsil 2015 Tallinnas Toggl-i kontoris. Ühtekokku võtame vastu 40 tüdrukut. Rohkem infot meie Facebooki lehel

Registreeru siin!

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Garage48 Pärnu Women Special 2014 event throught the eyes of Tech Sisters

So the second Garage48 Pärnu Women Special event is over for this time, but luckily all the wonderful people and valuable experiences stayed! Tech Sisters was happy to confirm that out of the 90 participants 40% yet again were female and the results showed that with the help of diverse teams a lot of new innovative ideas can be brought to life.

In order to archive the magical number of 50% of women in the same event next autumn, Tech Sisters would like to share some of the stories by our own volunteers who took part of the event. We hope that by reading their stories and what it meant for them to take part of this event will help you to find inspiration and motivation to join us next year as well! Bear in mind that for Carolyn, this was the first time to participate in any Garage48 events so far. Nevertheless they were brave enough to step out of their comfort zone and change the world small steps at a time. Now it's your turn! See you at Garage48 Pärnu Women Special event 2015! ;) Read more about the events held in Pärnu in 2013 and in 2014.

First up we have Kaisa Holsting, who took part in Garage48 Pärnu event as a designer:

"I remember my first Garage48 exactly one year ago when I was nervous as hell to take part in it. Now, when I've already got to the 3rd event I must say all the anxiety was for nothing and I'm a big believer in this type of startup events. During the time I've been involved with Garage48 I've had to face other people’s misconceptions about this type of events but overall, here's what I usually state to people who are interested:   Step 1: Register. Even if you think that you don't have an amazing life-changing idea or superb skills in something it's the perfect environment to put your skills to the test and to get some real experience. Sure it's a short real-life experience but it's definitely worth it. Besides the technical skills - development processes, programming languages, marketing and design - you also get a really good understanding about team work and learn to collaborate with others.   Step 2: Give it your all. Passion means everything. What I love about these events is the talented crowd that is there. You can't help feel energized and inspired by all the enthusiastic project managers and participants.   Step 3: Enjoy the experience. Yes, it's a learning experience. Yes, some of the projects end up as winners and continue to grow into a startup business. The idea is to have fun and better your skills while there... so don't forget to live and laugh a little while being there. When you're already sleep deprived, then there's a tendency for that to happen organically anyway ;)"

From another perspective you can also read more about her experience as a front-end developer Carolyn Fischer:

Going there, I was already part of a team with whom we met for a couple of times for dinner and discussed our idea, to create StoryStreams, a platform to share pictorial stories about people and events from different perspectives. The idea was great, we had a multicultural team that consisted of two people with a background in filmmaking industry (Charu and Viola), one who works at a startup and fills multiple roles (Maria) and me, a system administrator stepping in to developers' shoes. The only problem was that we needed at least a designer and one more developer to get approval. Kaisa decided to join us as a designer, no developer was ready to step in. When teams were announced, as the very last thing the organizers asked if someone would be willing to join our group and finally an exchange student from Croatia (Joel) agreed to help us out and promised he can do anything we want in an hour.

Great, we had a team and were accepted! But somehow it still felt pretty hopeless – I was a young developer, still learning and definitely needed some elbow support along the way and Joel was still in another team. After some desperation, I decided to just start cracking some code and see where I get. Surprisingly, but Saturday morning (well, two hours of sleep) there was a working first prototype with possibility to create stories and upload pictures, add tags, filter topics by tags and show thumbnails of the pictures on the home page. Not much, but it proved that given the situational pressure, I actually can write code in contrary to what I believed. On Saturday evening our room was filled with lots of laughter, cause who said it couldn't be fun? Some people came to hang with us only cause we were supposedly the only team who could be heard downstairs. A day later we got another developer in our team (Jüri) as some other ideas didn't work out and he helped with design. By Sunday evening the product was working fine for the demo, and even despite the lack of sleep we felt extremely energized and joyful. After all, there is nothing more pleasing than succeeding.

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 Mentored online coding bootcamps - what are they all about?

So you’re a Social Sciences major. You’re not a techie, you hate math and you think programmers are some kind of anti-social aliens that you have nothing in common with. But you read the news. And what they say is “tech is the literacy of the modern world”, and “if you want financial freedom, learn to code” and then there was something about a prodigy kid who learned to code on his own and got accepted to an Ivy League university at 12. You try to ignore it, because no way YOU can learn programming, but you can’t help but feel you’re missing out on something huge.

It’s true. The buzz about the tech industry is real and the demand for skilled people doesn’t show signs of slowing down any time soon. But luckily, the odds are in your favour. We’re talking about the growing number of top-notch online developer bootcamps. They’re a great way to get acquainted with technology without having to quit your job, make long-term commitments to studying at a university or giving out huge amounts of money for courses, all before you even know if you can really get along with tech.   

Our very own Tech Sisters volunteer Hanna-Mari has first-hand experience. “After graduating from the university with a degree in education - a field I didn’t want to pursue a career in - I found myself in need for some serious marketable skills. That’s when I stumbled upon Skillcrush - an online mentored program that helps you build your tech knowledge from the ground up, teaching you the basics of web design and development.

The people behind Skillcrush were concerned with the small percentage of women in the tech industry, so their primary goal was to introduce tech to women. Men are absolutely welcome to join, but the student base is mostly female and all the mentors are women too. But the best thing for me was the awesome community of students helping each other out. And of course, the mentors are always there for you too, helping you solve any problems ranging from bugs in your code to career advice. Also, Skillcrush managed to blow that stereotype of programmers as boring weirdos right over. The industry is really full of amazing innovators and out of the box thinkers who welcome newcomers with open arms.

It’s been some nine months since I enrolled in their 101 course and I can honestly say it’s the best career decision I’ve ever made. I’ve been able to take on a lot more tech-related tasks at work and it gave me the nudge to keep exploring the tech world, so at the moment I’m up to my elbows in Android development. I love it!”

How can you get started? Here’s a Course Report webinar with the alumni of all major mentored online programs out there. Check ‘em out, pick your favourite and indulge yourself in the endless possibilities of the tech world. And who knows, you might just end up liking it.

[techsisters]

Tech Sisters Networking event - The season kicked off!

A new season is here and Tech Sisters has already gotten off to a great start!

This autumn we kicked off with our oldest traditional event: The Tech Sisters Networking event. A nice number of enthusiastic participants filled the bright venue at the Garage48 HUB where they were greeted by snacks, hot drinks and, of course, great speakers ready to share their experiences with them. For those who missed it, here's what happened:

The first presenter of the night was Katrin Loodus, one of the Tech Sisters co-founders, who opened up the evening by reviewing what the organisation has achieved so far, sharing the plans for upcoming events and, most importantly, introducing Tech Sisters as an organisation. “We want to get more women excited about technology,” she said.

This goal feeds into making the technology industry a more diverse world. That means that even if our focus is on women, we are happy to get everyone in. From organising Garage48 hackathons to Digigirls, a project focused on introducing tech industry to teenagers, the variety of our events is growing and so is the attendance. So if you feel you want be a part of the tech community in Estonia, get to meet the most influential movers and shakers in the industry and hang out with other like-minded people, we encourage you to join our volunteers. And yes, men and non-techies are all welcome!

Our second speaker was Neta Haiby-Weiss, who flew in from Israel to talk about her beginnings in the tech world, the startup panorama in her home country and her current role as CTO in Microsoft Ventures Accelerators.

Neta explained how she noticed the low number of women participating in certain industries from a very young age. From high school she went onto majoring in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, and while in the earlier school years there was usually a proportion of 50:50 men and women, in this particular major there were only 3 girls. Though initially a strange experience, she got used to it and found herself fitting into the community.

Before going to university, where she studied Industrial Engineering, she went to the Israeli Defense Forces where she learned that most of the startup ideas in Israel are born in the Intelligence Forces. As an example, there was ICQ, created to be used in the army and afterwards turned into a startup.

She also shared some of the lessons she learned about the startup world from her first job at VocalTec, the inventors of Internet Telephony. Some of the most important lessons:

The team is the most important thing. The idea matters, but it is the people who make it happen.

Conflicts will arise, and that is okay. It’s like in a marriage - you need to know how to make up.

Another important lesson from Neta, not startup related, was about career change:

When you want to change disciplines it is easier to do it within the company you are working with, where you know the product and the people.

  Our last speaker of the night was Kaili Kleemeier, an ex-Skyper, currently the CEO of her own startup Deekit and a true believer in the Tech Sisters cause. Needless to say she is one of our volunteers.

Kaili’s presentation was a warm conversation with the audience. Her first job was at the age of 16 when she started painting for money. Not long after, she went to work for Tartu city government on projects aimed at helping the less fortunate kids and teens. A very challenging job, given many of the teens she helped were even older than her. She did the maths and concluded that if she liked teaching and if she liked English she should study to become an English teacher, but it didn't take her long until she realised she’d much rather be somewhere else. She decided to move to Tallinn.

Kaili joined Skype as a customer support agent in 2005, but was soon offered more exciting projects. Skype’s payment systems needed to be redesigned and they needed all hands on deck, so Kaili joined the team responsible for revamping the payments.

She soon had a baby and was ready for a long maternity leave, but was asked to come back early. She then found herself at work with a 6-month-old baby and being on call 24/7. She called it “interesting”, but we all know she’s secretly a superhero.

From her experience, she told us that:

To be a successful professional you do not need a major. You just need to make sure you do something you really like, and be ready to learn really fast. You can always study later if you’d like.

She then shared some of the lessons she has learned and continues to learn for good teamwork. Some of these lessons she learned during her period in Skype:

Good communication is key. For this, teams need: - To have a common goal (to communicate). - To know how to communicate using different channels. - Information.

This realisation is what got her and her team of co-founders to come up with Deekit. They all spent years researching ways to improve the collaboration problems they had identified. But most importantly, she knows

For a great team, you need people who compliment each other's weaknesses, because nobody can know everything.

She keeps this in mind when hiring new people, and she also makes sure that the personality of the candidates is a fit for the rest of the team.

The technical stuff can always be taught, but not the attitude.

Overall, it was a great event. We hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as we did. We will be back with a new event on September 30th, so keep an eye on our feed!

[techsisters]

10th of September - Season's First Networking Event

On Wednesday, 10th of September we start the season with our traditional networking event. Bring a friend and come listen to Neta Haiby-Weiss, who is currently Chief Technology Office at Microsoft Ventures Accelerator and Viktoria Ruubel on her adventures in combining fashion and technology.

The event starts 18:00 at Garage48 Hub (Rävala pst 7).

Katrin Loodus - one of the co-founders of Tech Sisters and a Lecturer at Estonian IT College, she will be doing a short presentation about Tech Sisters and our future plans.

Neta Haiby-Weiss - currently Chief Technology Office at Microsoft Ventures Accelerator. Prior to joining Microsoft Ventures Accelerator, she worked as a senior program manager on Microsoft SQL Server and Windows Live. She has also worked in VocalTec, where she defined and built VoIP communication platforms for Telecom operators.

Kaili Kleemeier - with a strong technical background as a former skyper, she is currently busy with building her own startup called Deekit and is the owner of Viiul, which deals with software consulting and development services. Starting of this autumn, she is also one of the volunteers of Tech Sisters.

[techsisters]

TSoW: Garage48 mentor and Tech Sisters' volunteer Elise Sass

Everybody remembers Garage48 hackathon held in Pärnu last year, where there were a record number of female participants, Go Work A Bit and Timber Diameter, right? Well it’s happening again and Tech Sisters is happy to be part of it as well. So we invite you to join us from the 10th to the 12th of October in Pärnu to bring more diversity to our tech community through some awesome and intensive teamwork! Sign up today, because registration is already open!

To mentor during the process, Garage48 has a team of successful women to help out. This week we would like to introduce you to Elise Sass, who has long been involved with Garage48 and is the co-founder of Startup Wise Guys. Elise is also one of the inspiring women who joined Tech Sisters' team this autumn as a volunteer. Here is her wisdom to share with you all, enjoy!

Why should women start creating startups and how do startups differ from usual businesses?

Startups are scalable businesses. This is why I don't consider opening a muffin cafeteria a startup - scalable means that you should be able to keep costs low while the revenue grows. With a cafeteria business the costs increase together with the number of clients or locations. If you innovate the muffin business by finding a way how to bake muffins quicker, for example clients make an order through a mobile app and a drone will deliver the orders - then it's a startup and we can talk about scaling the business. 

I am not one of those women who says that women should do everything by themselves, I just feel that too many women have been holding themselves back, their participation in startup teams as founders from day 1 should be bigger. 

  Pitching and presentation hold a significant part in attracting co-partners, a skilled team and investors. What are the secrets behind a captivating pitch and a solid presentation? 

The secret is - "Be yourself"! It doesn't matter if you're pitching to co-founders or investors, you need to present the way you feel comfortable. It still means that you need lots of practice and should be able to deliver a 1 minute or a 5 minute pitch the moment you wake up. I have seen that at Garage48 events so many times - those presenters who feel comfortable on stage from the beginning, don't think they need to practice and they are just "OK, on Sunday evening...", but often those girls or boys who are not used to presenting, who are really anxious and nervous, but spend lots of time practicing -  script, voice, hands, gestures -  they will be excellent. Everybody needs to practice!

  Can you name startups that are run by ambitious women and whose team also consists of more women than men?

  Well - I am happy to name the startups from last Garage48 Women Special - GoWorkaBit - ambitious team, mostly women who are in lead. If anyone would say that women don't take risks, then they should meet the GoWorkaBit team :) I also admire the Timber Diameter team, though they operate in a "all-men" sector, there are several women in the team -  I would bring out Anna-Greta from the team as a great example of a woman working in tech world but not with tech background, but as a Marketing Manager. Testlio is another team from Estonia with 2 cofounders  -  Kristel and Marko - which has been through TechStars accelerator, which is one of the best ones in the world.

  Behind every great startup there is a great team. How to motivate your team in the start, when building a business is a totally new playfield?

  Not every person feels good in a startup -  and it's totally OK. This is why it's good to come to Garage48 event and test yourself, if your eyes still shine after fighting a development bug for 4 hours during the night. Building a startup to a scalable business is quite similar to first 48 hours at a hackathon -  ideas, bugs, things not going according to the plan, team members filling tasks beyond their skills and responsibilities. Instead of saying what it takes to keep a tee together - I could like to say what I have seen in teams who can make it to the top. They never give up -  hard times come, sometimes in weeks you won't see solutions to development problems, agreement from new clients or interest from investors. In this case the best teams just keep on going, they are passionate about their views and ideas - they listen and learn but at the end of the day they make their own decisions. 

A diverse team is a good starting point, not only different skills and experience, but also men and women, different backgrounds. I have seen that best friends might not make best teams -  and not because they will start to fight, but because their network is also the same. Team members need to bring in different information and knowledge, only then you can see problems quicker and deal with them before it burns.

Why do you think women are sometimes afraid of creating a startup?

  Why people (men and women) are afraid to start their own business? It's a responsibility and risking with everything, even though it has a lot to offer. I don't really think women are afraid to start new things, but I believe many of them have never considered it as a possibility for themselves. So the first step would be to come and join Garage48 and see if the startup bug is contagious ;)

  From your everyday work with startups, can you confirm that women are as likely to succeed and kickstart successful startups as men?

  Well... the few startups where I have seen women as co-founders seem to be doing even better in average than others! Garage48 Women Special was one of the most successful hackathons and there were 40% of women.

  What happens after the Garage48 event? How and where to get further funding to your startup?

  The real work starts after the hackathon. Before all the funding and other things - teams should decide who are the members, who continue and who are not, both decisions are fine. It's important that those who want to continue would be allowed and given support by others. Team should sit down and decide what are the next steps they want to take -  business, product, marketing, sales. Team should look around for possible startup programs that could support them with training, network and funding. It's important that team would continue to go to events and build their network in order to grow their business and opportunities, but also spend time on developing the product.  Funding is a 2-sided sword. Of course it's great to get funding and grow fast, but at the same time getting money too soon might decrease the chances for success because of several reasons. 

Teams who are bootstrapping are more creative to find solutions to their issues and next plans, funding also brings additional responsibilities and other shareholders around the table who need to agree on next steps.

  Contact Elise: @elisesass

[techsisters]

Tech Sisters is happy to announce: Garage48 Pärnu 2014 Women Special is happening again!

Everybody remembers Garage48 hackathon held in Pärnu last year, where there were a record number of female paricipants, Go Work A Bit and Timber Diameter, right? Well it's happening again and Tech Sisters is happy to part of it all again. So we invite you to join us this October in Pärnu to bring more diversity to our tech community through awsome and intensive teamwork! Sign up today, because registration is already open!

Just to give you a hint how awsome it all is going to be, we'll share these interviews made with our talented mentors and organizers. First up is Michelle Surya, who will be joining the event with the support of US Embassy, and here are her inspiring thougths.

What would you say about yourself in 5 sentences?

I get excited about everything I do. I love to meet new people, see new places and learn about new things. I think that every meeting, every person, every instance is an opportunity to understand, to relate, and to grow as a person and as a professional. I am passionate about new technologies, early stage companies and about the teams behind them.  But most specifically, I’m interested to learn about the individual people and what motivates them.

What are your current projects related to technology?

I’m thrilled to share that I’ve just joined an incredible company that is based in Estonia founded by Kristel Viidik and Marko Kruustuk – Testlio. I’ll be leading their sales efforts from San Francisco, helping to grow their customer base and scale the business. I come from the mobile development world so this next move is a perfect fit for both my experience and my network. But what really attracts me to this company is the team. They are young, eager, hardworking people that love what they do and do it well. I believe that Team is number one – if you are lucky enough to find people that you trust and that value you, its nothing to ignore, in fact it should be celebrated.

Most recently I was leading sales activities for Appurify, a San Francisco based startup backed by Google Ventures. On June 24, during the Keynote at Google I/O 2014, they announced the acquisition of Appurify’s mobile testing platform. Prior to Appurify, I was running enterprise accounts in North American and European territories at Crittercism. Their investors include Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Shasta Ventures and a number of others.

How did you discover and first become engaged in technology? 

Growing up in the Bay Area I was always surrounded by the largest and most innovative technology companies but it wasn’t until I was in college that I became more and more aware of how impactful the startup community was.  I stumbled into my first job while I was still in school, consulting for early stage tech companies as mobile was just evolving into what it is today. I learned so much about how to craft and shape a message, how to articulate a company’s core competency in the most effective way, and how a team should focus their energy to reach maximum success. I never missed an opportunity to talk to a founder about their idea and the lengthy stories that led them to it. This was addicting to me, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

What or who inspires you?

‘Who inspires me’ is the right question – people inspire me, everyone from toddlers to seniors, fancy developers to nerdy execs. Mostly the ones that are intelligent and hardworking inspire me. But first and foremost they are solid, nice, genuine individuals that rarely take life too seriously. I’m fortunate to have been inspired greatly by some that I now call my best friends. They know who they are.

I can watch them from a distance, handle a difficult business conversation with grace and ease, then the next moment make a fool of themselves with embarrassing honesty and not lose one ounce of respect from those around them, but in turn, make us love them even more. People are attracted to that.

It isn’t just about fun and games though. I find inspiration in those that are savvy, creative, unique and not afraid to show it. We all hold these qualities and yet we’re not all brave enough to put it out there. But, why not?

What was the most important thing that you’ve learned in the past year and how did you learn it? 

The last year has been quite a ride for me. I learned more in the last year than I have in my entire career, where do I begin… The list is long for the experiences I had and the lessons I took from them - most were amazing and some very, very tough - but I think the most important thing I remember and that I remind myself of constantly is this – This is my life, I live it for me, not for anyone else. I am smart and capable and I need to trust myself, my gut.

When I stray away from what my core is telling me to do I find that things begin to unravel.  People will tell you that you don’t have enough experience, that you did it the wrong way, that they wouldn’t have hired you – so what. You are strong and valuable and can do anything you set your mind to. If you believe something, don’t be afraid to explore it. Let them underestimate you but don’t let them slow you down.

Instead of living in fear that something won’t work out, get excited. Especially being in technology, every product and company is something new to this world; no one has the right answer. Get smart people in a room that you enjoy working with and have fun trying to figure it out. You may not get it right the first time, or the second or third, but learn to work and get it wrong fast, and have a good fucking time doing it.

Surround yourself with people that lift you up and allow you to be You. When you trust your team and expect great things out of them, they will, more often than not, rise to the occasion. 

What would be your message to newby female techmakers to give them a heads up or encouragement?

Trust yourself, do NOT live in fear. Fear nothing and get excited about everything. When something doesn’t go right, laugh at it and move on.

A number of times, when I’ve done something really well, or made a big impact, someone has asked me, ‘How did you know?’ Answer is, I didn’t. I just had to trust a gut feeling and make a conscious move toward the end goal. Those brainstorming conversations often go something like:

“Is this the best possible way?”

“I have no fucking clue.”

“Perfect. Lets do this.”

You are just as capable as the guy before you and the guy that comes next. Your ideas, opinions, and statements matter. Not only do they matter, they can make a difference; they can make THE difference.

Focus in on the goal, be clear about who your customer is, simultaneously pay attention to detail while being fully aware of the big picture, and make moves that feel right.

Be humble, be honest, listen to others, learn any chance you get, and persevere. I’ll leave you with a favorite quote of mine. It resonates with me still, every time I read it.

“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.

Almost everything--all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure--these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. 

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. “ – Steve Jobs

  Contact Michelle via Twitter:  @MichelleSurya

[techsisters]

Tech Sisters networking event at ICT Week

Our this week's networking event took place at IT College on Tuesday, April 29th and was part of the Estonian ICT Week. We had three wonderful speakers: Liis Peetermann, Kaisa Holsting and Olga Dalton.

First up was Liis, who's been the designer of many startups in Estonia, New York and Chile. Here are ten tips she shared with us.

Startups are not forever.

Value your customers. Real customers are the best validation for your idea.

Be passionate about your work. If you're not, perhaps it's time for a change.

People don't pay for good ideas, they pay for good products.

Know your target audience

Location does matter.

Don't get too emotional.

Anything worthwhile takes time.

You will fail many times. Accept it.

Anyone can do it.

Next up was Kaisa Holsting, a woman of many trades - artist, musician, marketer, training specialist, handicrafter (to name a few). She's been a training specialist and coordinator at Skype, but right now she's the product marketer at Fleep, a chat app for small businesses. Kaisa told us about getting over stage fright (the answer is karaoke) and staying true to yourself. According to her experience, it's not the paper that matters, it's being open minded and showing up and getting the work done. Her presentation was so powerful that a couple of people from the audience shed a tear or two. Probably the first time in our socialising events' history!

Our third speaker was Olga who introduced us the concept of she++. she++ is about advertising IT field to women, supporting them and introducing inspiring examples and role models. Their long time goal is to create a IT agency for women, that would bring together women looking for jobs in the IT field and businesses looking for employees. They're currently only in the idea phase of the project, but Tech Sisters hope the agency will soon become a reality, because their goals are very similar to ours.

[techsisters]

Tech Sisters Networking Event in Estonian IT College

During the ICT week on Tuesday, 29th of April we are having another networking event. This time it takes place at the Estonian Information Technology College (Raja 4C, Tallinn). You can find us in room 314! Event starts at 18:00 As always we got some great speakers in store: Kaisa Holsting is currently responsible for marketing at Fleep, previously has been working at Skype and is always trying to find creative ways to express herself. Liis Peetermann is a freelance designer, she was one of the founding members of Fleep and been involved with a lot of other startups. Also was a HackStar in Tech Stars accelerator.  Olga Dalton is an iOs Developer at Axinom and also working on getting her Master’s degree in Cyber Security. We also have an open mic session, so if anyone has anything to share, we are more than happy to give them the floor. The event is in English.

[techsisters]

TSW #16: Aet Toose

Our Tech Sister of the Week #16 is Aet Toose, a remarkably passionate and opinionated tech woman.

Tell us something about yourself or how would you describe yourself with 5 sentences?

I’m almost intolerably opinionated and loud, the term ‘as political as a Russian tank’ has been used in reference to me more than once. I’m incredibly demanding of both myself and others, sometimes to a fault. I enjoy working with dogs and hunting. I am a project-based person, meaning I must constantly have a new project to work on, a goal to meet or promise to fulfill. I enjoy and loathe people with equal passion, which makes working in tech very fitting for me.

How did you discover and first become engaged in technology?

My mother had a computer at work in the early 90s and brought home one of the discarded ones from the office. I spent a lot of my time as a preteen playing Civilization II and Prehistoric on it. Later I got into more serious gaming as well as writing in some online communities and started building basic websites for people to earn a bit of spending cash.

I wasn’t sure that I would go into IT at all, even at the end of high school. For a long time I thought I would get a law degree, but gave up on that as I felt I was a bit too frank to do a good job at it. Then I wanted to become a Civil Engineer with my second option being IT (I was an avid World of Warcraft gamer back then and all of my friends worked in IT, so it seemed like a good idea). I finally chose IT because of something my parents said to me. My grandfather told this to my mother when she was trying to decide what to study. He told her, “Don’t go somewhere where you’ll be a mediocre engineer, go somewhere where you can be somebody.”. At the end of the day I felt I could do more in IT than in engineering and I’m glad I made that decision.

What are your current projects related to technology?

I tend to get involved deeply in my work projects as far as tech goes and my passion projects often turn into work as well. Currently I’m working on a Ruby on Rails web service as a tech lead/web development architect for Navionics that allows users to update their naval cartography chips. It’s an interesting project as we’re trying to cobble together information from a lot of sources while at the same time upgrading a woefully out of date backend.

This project has also expanded my horizons quite a bit. Working in safe, well-managed Swedish-based IT corporations leaves you dazed and confused when you enter a tech environment that is not quite as advanced as we’re used to in Estonia. If you get the chance I urge everyone to get out of your comfort zone and work abroad or at least on projects that are vastly different from what your norm is. You never learn to appreciate what you had before you’re in a situation where the same kind of tools and knowledge is not available. It’s an uphill battle trying to bring what you consider ‘normal’ into a different situation, but I think it’s a lesson that’s better learned sooner rather than later.

I also occasionally consult for Elion on their web development through my own company, Hooligan, and am hoping to do more consulting work soon.

What is the biggest problem you have ever come across with technology?

Technology is rarely the issue, the problem is firmly rooted in the people behind it. For me the biggest and by far the most frustrating issue has been getting people to figure out what they actually want and then breaking it into manageable pieces. Anything can be accomplished with enough time and resources (money!) but people responsible for envisioning requirements rarely have an idea as to what they’re trying to solve or achieve. Molding these vague desires into something functional and useful has always been the biggest challenge for me.

What would be your message to newbie female tech makers to give them a heads up or encouragement?

Tech isn’t hard or scary. If you have a solid head on your shoulders and logic doesn’t scare you (why should it!) then odds are very good that you’ll have more flexibility and opportunities in IT than you would anywhere else.

Most people who go to college know nothing about programming languages, IDEs, development models or database structures. A big chunk of the stuff you need to know will be taught in college and you’ll be given the tools and capability to find and learn the rest.

What are the top 5 apps you can’t live without?

On a daily basis I use Skype for work and socializing and Plex for general amusement. Dropbox helps me manage my ever-increasing list of ‘things’ that need to be available on all possible gadgets (laptops, PCs, phone, tablet, etc). I’m a big fan of f.lux for keeping my eyes happy during long working days at the computer. Last but not least if I didn’t have a really loud alarm clock on my phone I doubt I’d get anything done, ever.

What or who inspires or has inspired you the most?

I’ve gotten my inspiration from colleagues and friends, whose success and aspirations constantly push me to do better, learn more and go further. I also enjoy competing with myself and have found that I can often surprise myself if I just focus my energy and attention on something for long enough.

[techsisters]

TSW #15: Kei Karlson

Our Tech Sister of the Week #15 is Kei Karlson, a former HR person at Manpower, Garage48 participant and co-founder of GoWorkaBit. 

What would you say about yourself in 5 sentences? I love people and I love innovation that makes difference in their lives. My background is in Human Resources. I have always considered myself good at soft areas (and no, this does not mean software in any way :) ). Tech and me…it has always been a complicated relationship.

What are your current projects related to technology? I am a Co-Founder of GoWorkaBit. We change the way work gets done, by matching companies' just-in-time workforce needs with people's lifestyles. GoWorkaBit gives people the freedom to choose when, where and how they work. And we do it using the technology. Our web app is built from scratch by our awesome development team. This is the first time for me to be so closely involved in software development and it is exciting to learn and see how it´s done. I am more of a creative, “go with the flow” kind of person than an analytical planner, so it´s quite useful for me to see how important it is to describe and analyze all the tasks in backlog and sprint to get things done in a right way. I have realized that if developers get creative with the badly described tasks, results can be surprising.

How did you discover and first become engaged in technology? I think that first engagement was in my grandfather’s garage. I loved to play around him with all the hard tech tools. Yep, I mean the old-fashioned angle polishers and belt sanders. Not sure they are called tech nowadays though. I don´t know much about technology, but I have always had ideas about what kind of technology solutions I would need or use. About 2 years ago I participated in Garage48 for the first time. I had a crazy idea that evolved from my interest in augmented reality. I thought that it would be supercool to make something that used audio instead of visuals. Imagine strolling through the streets and hear the City. I found other crazy people and made a proto during 48 hours. My team was even the runner up and I pitched the idea to the music industry gurus during Tallinn Music Week. They thought that this was too crazy at this time. Maybe it was :).

What or who inspires you? I have mostly been inspired by people and the fact that human willpower is so great and anything is possible when you really put your mind to it. Take extreme sports or science for example. People push the limits on a daily basis and make unbelievable things happen. I have been very lucky, because I have worked with great people who have inspired me and created an environment that allows to be creative. I worked for 7 years in Manpower, the best HR company in Estonia. Yes, I know I am biased, but that´s true anyway ;) I had the chance to meet with hundreds of people from different areas, including tech. And people who do what they love with passion are always inspiring. But when I feel short of inspiration or fresh ideas, I always read news form totally different field. This works, try it at home: when you need new idea about marketing, read some astrophysics blog. Or when you are having trouble with PHP, browse The Cool Hunter. It works for me, at least with marketing and physics. For PHP and me…nothing really works :D

Start-ups, apps, projects you recommend to follow or are especially fond of? When GoWorkaBit was accepted to Seedcamp family and we started to spend a lot of time in London, apps that give directions and information how to get from A to B, entered my favorites' list. There was a tube strike during the first week we were in London and CityMapper was a life-saver. The fact that it also shows you how many calories you will burn on the way is supercool. Of course I would recommend to follow and use GoWorkaBit! It will be the new power in how people work and how companies can adjust their work to just-in-time model.

What was the most important thing that you’ve learned in the past year and how did you learn it? Last year has been all about learnings. GoWorkaBit started in Garage48 XX edition last year. In traditional way, idea authors (companies) recruit members to the team. In Garage48 it is other way around. It has been always interesting for me how it works out at all. But it does. The most important thing that I have known before, but confirmed to myself during last months is that everything is possible and it's damn exciting to change the world : )

What would be your message to newby female techmakers to give them a heads up or encouragement? First of all, you don´t have to be high-level tech savvy yourself to create cool tech solutions, you just have to find those people who are. Spread your passion and people will follow! The team is most important for making things happen, it´s damn hard to create innovation alone. Hell, it´s impossible, I think. So team up, show your passion, work hard, ask advice, make mistakes fast and learn from them. And most importantly, have fun doing all that!

[techsisters]

Networking event at Toggl

Our this year’s first networking event was held last week on Tuesday at Teamweek’s office. The decision to change the venue seemed to be a good one, because there were more people present than at the previous events at Garage48 Hub. Our main guests this night were Annika Helendi (Toggl), our own Mari-Liis Lind and Triin Üksvärav (Timber Diameter).

Annika Helendi is Toggl’s lead generation manager and she told us about the apps she uses the most in her daily job. Following is a short summary of them all.

Feedly - Feedly is a feed reader, probably one of the best alternatives to Google Reader after it got put down.

Google Analytics - Not surprisingly, Google Analytics is the tool Annika uses the most to keep her eye on the visitors and their activity on Toggl’s site.

HootSuite - a social media dashboard to manage and measure your social networks.

Optimizely - software for A/B testing.

Teamweek - Toggl has a very active blog running and in order to keep track of the planned posts, they use Teamweek. So when someone fails to write a post for a certain date or the order of the posts is changed, things can be reorganized fast and neatly.

PlaceIt - PlaceIt is a tool for generating product screenshots in realistic environments.

Moz - Moz lets you find out whenever your brand name, competitors, and any other important terms are mentioned on the web. It’s a rather expensive one, though, but the one-month free trial might actually be all you need.

And last but not the least, something funny for the nearing 1st of April: LemmeTweetThatForYou for making fake tweets.

Next up was Mari-Liis Lind who’s currently business developer at Velvet Creative Alliance. Her interest in technology goes back to the early 1980s, when her dad visited DDR and brought a couple of toy trains home with him. Next came the first computers, Pac-Man game and changing e-mails with far away friends. But Mari-Liis didn’t end up studying informatics or design, she actually went and got a degree in law from Tartu University. She’s worked in Helsinki and Brussels, and in one way or another, she’s been involved in EstVCA, start smart, EstBAN and Estonian Startup Leaders Club. Mari-Liis not only talked about herself, but also about Tech Sisters’ plans for this year. We have many workshops in store for you and we plan to continue organising the monthly networking events. More info will be posted on our Facebook page, once we know the exact dates and venues.

Our last speaker this evening was Triin Üksvärav who talked about Timber Diameter, the winning app of last year’s Garage48 hackathon at Pärnu. As the name suggests, Timber Diameter will measure timber, either the diameter of the logs or the cubage of a whole pile of timber. Just take a photo and the app will do the rest.

Using the app instead of people has many benefits:

measurements are done quickly;

Increased revenue as the application provides accurate information;

up-to-date warehouse inventory information;

decrease in payroll costs.

After winning Garage48 in autumn 2013, they started their journey on Ajujaht competition and that’s what is taking up most of their time right now, too. They’re improving their app and tackling the problems associated with making the measuring process more accurate.

Another project Triin has been involved in, is Tööandja.ee. Tööandja.ee lets employees rate employers. The goal is to raise awareness of the companies who provide flexible work conditions, i.e. for disabled people, part time jobs for parents of small children etc.

We’re glad that our open mic offer was welcomed warmly. Marko Nemberg used the chance to invite everyone to a gamification themed evening with Gabe Zichermann and Taavi Lindmaa. Hannes and Anthony from Eliis, a software for kindergartens, told us about their work and future plans. If you yourself have something to tell us and our audience, feel free to do that at our next networking event!

[techsisters]

TSW #14: Mari-Liis Lind

This week's tech sister is Mari-Liis Lind. She's one of Tech Sisters' co-founders and a business developer at Velvet Creative Alliance, who has so many tech and non-tech projects going on the whole time, that even we have trouble keeping track of them all! That's why we're so glad she took the time to answer our questions and give a glimpse into her current projects.

How did you discover and first become engaged in technology?

I guess my first contact with a computer was back in late 80s, when my father bought us our first PC. Back then, as a pre-teen, I used it most to play games though. I remember I became more attached to computers in mid-nineties when I started actively using e-mail for communication with friends abroad. Until today, I still appreciate the most the technology as the enabler of communications (both direct and indirect). I dug deeper into technology in 2007 when I joined the venture firm Ambient Sound Investments, where I started as a project manager for a startup in their incubator and later worked as an investment associate scouting for new interesting startups and managing a number of portfolio companies. During that time we initiated a series of best-practice sharing events for our portfolio companies which later evolved into the Startup Leaders Club.

What are your current projects related to technology?

Currently, I am an advisor to Garage48 Foundation that arranges 48-hour hackathons and hosts a co-working space in central Tallinn. I am also one of the co-founders behind Tech Sisters. My main focus is getting teenaged girls excited about technology. Last autumn we launched the first Digigirls event in Tallinn - a practical 1-day workshop where women working in tech introduce the field and career opportunities to girls. We cover the fields of programming, design, testing, databases, marketing and project management. This year we plan to take the concept nation-wide.

If you could change the world with technology, what would you do?

Technology is changing the world. With or without me. While I prefer to see tech mostly as facilitator (democratization of information, communication, better self-awareness, personalized medicine etc), I realize that it can also isolate us from the actual world and thus make us lonelier.

What are the top 5 (technology) blogs you’re following?

I regularly follow TechCrunch, Wired, Mashable, Venture Beat and The Verge. I also keep an eye on Kickstarter blog to discover new cool grass-root level inventor / tech projects. As an Apple-addict, I read the Mac Rumors. Out of person blogs the first ones that come to my mind are Ben Horowitz's and Guy Kawasaki's for tech and venture capital related stuff. That's already many beyond 5 and it's just the beginning of my list.

Where would be the best place for women to start experimenting with technology?

The internet. It is full of free resources and tutorials. For learning to code, I would recommend Codecademy.org, tryruby.org Scratch.mit.edu and codecombat.com. I also recommend to take a look at Khan Academy's computer sience course and Coursera's startup engineering course. In Estonia, I would recommend to take part in Garage48 hackathons and at Tech Sisters events.

What is the most exciting part of your work?

The most fascinating part of working in a design agency is to get to think of how people actually use products / services (what are their desires and motivations) and how to make the products and services add value to people's lives.

What are the top 5 apps you can’t live without?

Spotify for my daily dose of music. For time management I use two calendar apps - Peek - a beautiful and simple calendar app for my most personal stuff and Sunrise - for everything else. I track my notes with Evernote and use Skype for communication with friends and family. The most recent discovery and favorite is Pocket for organizing and storing all the content that I want to read but am unable to read right away upon discovery.

Again, that was six. Duh.