Looking for women-founded and women-run technology companies

February 25, 2015 9:52 AM

I am a woman whose experience in technology is eerily similar to that of the women in these two articles. I am at a breaking point. But rather than leave the field, I would like to shift employment so that I'm working at exclusively women-led or women-run companies. Can anyone provide some ideas for potential places to apply for full-time employment?

For what it's worth, a technology department that's only partly made up of female employees is not good enough, so please don't recommend any of the companies listed there. I'm looking for openly feminist and LGBTQ-inclusive companies or startups with a female majority. I'm a web developer in Chicago and maybe willing to relocate. Unfortunately I can't really manage working in a part-time or volunteer capacity.

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (12 answers total)

This is woman-founded: Groove but I see no reason to believe they are hiring. With looking at the About page, it appears to be a two-person company at the moment, one woman, one man. But maybe that impression is inaccurate.

Y-Combinator recently had a Female Founder's Conference. That page lists their speakers -- all women -- and the companies they either founded or helped found. Though this occurred in the San Francisco Bay Area, so I am guessing most or all of those companies would be located in that region.

I have a couple of other thoughts, not related to your actual question. You can memail/email me if you want to hear them.

Best of luck.
posted by Michele in California at 10:17 AM on February 25, 2015

Maybe the companies run by the women profiled in this article? Or at least maybe researching/networking with those women might lead you to good opportunities.
posted by aka burlap at 10:21 AM on February 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Limor Fried, Adafruit Industries.
posted by apparently at 10:32 AM on February 25, 2015

Woopie
posted by DarlingBri at 10:34 AM on February 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Bloom Digital is everything that you're looking for - company is 3/4 women, they just released a queer-positive dating game - but they aren't big enough to hire full time. Might be worth having as contacts, though.
posted by clawsoon at 10:52 AM on February 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Think about joining us at ShopAtHome, if you would consider Denver. We're not majority anything, we have awesome people at all levels, many of them just happen to be women.

If you want gory details: Vice Presidents, most Directors, Product owners, numerous programming team leads.
posted by nickggully at 11:13 AM on February 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Dreamwidth?
posted by wrabbit at 11:52 AM on February 25, 2015

If you a Rails/JS developer I know a very small woman owned company that is looking for someone, you can memail me. Otherwise, I might use the speaker list, etc. for the Lesbians who tech upcoming conf as a starting point.
posted by snowymorninblues at 12:05 PM on February 25, 2015

I'd check with 1871 - they have a women's program and the companies may be looking for people. Also the WBDC may have some leads on employment from the companies it supports.

I have some other ideas if you're willing to look outside Chicago. Memail me.
posted by emkelley at 12:29 PM on February 25, 2015

Do you find jewelry and fashion interesting? Are you willing to relocate to San Francisco, which I know is a challenging thing? If so, maybe Rocksbox? I went to college with one of the co-founders (and she was also my dog's favorite dogsitter) and I can vouch for her, and presumably her team's, overall awesome-ness.
posted by olinerd at 1:08 PM on February 25, 2015

Glassbreakers - mentioned in this feather-ruffling article - sounds like a good place to look into...or to join and ask this same question.
posted by hampanda at 10:02 PM on February 25, 2015

Rent the Runway: woman-founded, woman-run, woman CTO, located in NYC.
posted by glass origami robot at 1:44 AM on February 26, 2015