Farewell Geekettes

Farewell Geekettes

 

This week I say farewell to the Geekettes organization and global community. The past 11+ years have been one of the most rewarding experiences of my lifetime and I am forever grateful for the support of my co-founders, ambassadors, community members and supporters. It’s been an honor working alongside an incredible group of people who have volunteered thousands of hours to help build our talks, workshops, hackathons, demo days, and mentorship programs. These experiences have connected women through a grassroots structure and built a space to share wisdom and experience. It's been a pleasure to watch the interaction between the women in our global community and to see the shared value in helping one another. 

Let’s revisit some Geekettes memories and milestones… 

In February of 2011, I invited a group of amazing women to a small Thai restaurant in Mitte and somehow I felt quite at home, I finally found my tribe. Towards the end of the meal, I looked up and asked “what if we were to form a group? A support network of women and call it…..Geekettes?!” I’ll never forget Jeannette Gusko’s eyes lighting up with an enthusiastic reply “YES! We must! We will!”. It was a no brainer, the women at the dinner fell in love with the idea. Within 24 hours, we had formed a private group, invited our friends, and had a logo created by a very talented Berlin-based designer, Nadja aka Blackboozillustrations. Et voila, Geekettes was born.

Fast forward to 2012, I partnered with Geekette’s first co-founder, Denise Philipp and lead evangelista, Lisa Lang. We met at the first Rails Girls meetup in Berlin and there was a profound connection between the three of us. As we grew our community, we decided to incorporate as a UG entity with the seed sponsorship we received from Deutsche Telekom. With this sponsorship, we were able to help set up our very own space to host events, hackathons, long form workshops and our office. We are forever grateful for that early support from both the DT and hub:raum teams. Thank you for helping us build an HQ! 

Over the years we found willing collaborators, passionate sponsors and recruited new members from all over the world. From techno producers to HR heads at major corporations, we discovered a deeper connection to the movement and an urgency to drive more women into our industry. Berlin’s DNA played a critical role in how we constructed programming and outreach. Art, tech and mentorship were some of the key ingredients that resonated most with our community.

In 2014, we expanded our network beyond Germany and added NYC, Hamburg, Maastricht, Portugal, Twin Cities, and London hubs. It felt like a larger movement with our global ambassadors embedded across Europe and the US. My team learned what inclusion meant to different workplace cultures and we recalibrated our goals, objectives and timelines to adjust to the new international approach.

In 2015, we built our first university focused program to attract the next generation of women and launched Demo Days for founders to pitch to European and US investors. We united women across Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. I look back at this period with great joy and gratitude.

I later relocated to Silicon Valley and reunited with my Geekettes’ Ambassadors, Hollie Haggans and Marily Nika. Both women had supported Geekettes at various points in our journey and later joined me as co-founders in October 2020. 

“I am really in awe to have experienced the power of community through the Geekettes. When people that are passionate about tech & innovation come together, magic happens. I’m very grateful I was a part of shaping this amazing community, I’ll always cherish these years.” - Co-founder, Marily Nika 

I’m grateful for my team’s support during the pandemic. The last few years have taught me a lot about resilience, patience and the importance of community. I’m really looking forward to 2022 and beyond. With programs and funds sprouting all over the world to support women, we’re definitely going to see some major progress. More women will continue starting their own businesses, break into engineering roles, and pioneer fresh ideas within the industry as a whole. I feel hopeful for the future. Onwards and upwards Geekettes! 

Thank you for this incredible adventure together. 

Prost, danke schön und tschüss…… xx 

Jess Erickson (Founder & CEO) - stay in touch on twitter @Jessjerickson

Major thanks to our team, mentors, and sponsors: 

Generous Sponsors: Deutsche Telekom, Google, SAP, Coca Cola, Sony Mobile, IBM, Lean In, Target, Lufthansa and SoundCloud 

My mother, Chi Erickson (OG Geekette and our biggest supporter, thanks for joining our global launch)

Co-founders: Denise Philipp (Berlin), Hollie Haggans (NYC), Marily Nika (SF/London) 

Berlin Ambassadors and Supporters: Lisa Lang, Mimmi Sveistrup Sjöklint, Aurélie Bazard, Amélie, Katharina Papke, Irina Botea, Basak Haznedaroglu, Jeanna Hamilton, Nadja Pia, Katharina Simbeck, Anita Heiberg, Alexa Shoen, Julinka Waesche, Tamara Atanasoska, Heikki Makijarvi, Ilya Levtov, Tina Kulow, Erin Grueber, Zoe Adamovicz, Caroline Drucker 

Hamburg Ambassadors: Diana Knodel, Tina Egolf, Bianca Steinke, Stefanie Langner

Munich Ambassadors: Sulamita Garcia, Maria Meier, Julia Knoerl, Steffi Feldmann, Dora Dzvonyar, Ninah Wambugu, Nadine von Frankenberg, Mari Av 

Twin Cities Ambassadors: Sara Heitkamp, Leah DeBruycker, Caroline Njambi Karanja, Jenna Pederson, Kristen Womack, Susan Greve, Casie Lynch, Beth Korth 

London Ambassadors: Claire Donoghue, Joanna Diep, Yulia Bulgakova

Lisbon & Porto Ambassadors: Inês Santos Silva, Ana Sofia Pinho, Ana Luísa Vieira, Sara Noronha Ramos

Gaza Ambassadors: Mai Temraz, Wafaa Bardawil 

NYC Ambassadors: Wendy Leung, Anna Siegel, Florencia Soto Nino Martinez, Lisa Tagliaferri, Saudia Ganie 

Maastricht Ambassador: Ana Florescu 

Meet the Gaza Geekettes

At Geekettes, our team and community speak dozens of languages, span multiple countries and time zones. We are a diverse organization that aims to connect with women in technology across different cultures, personalities, backgrounds, religions, abilities, belief systems and so much more. 

Geekettes has always taken active steps to bring the technology world closer together and to make it more inclusive. Over the 9+ years, we know that we’ve only scratched the surface in understanding what it takes to transform this industry and elevate women in their tech careers. In the process of growing Geekettes, we came across an opportunity to meet leaders from Gaza via the Gaza Sky Geeks accelerator program formerly led by Iliana Montauk. 

Gaza Sky Geeks ended up supporting us with great space and introduced us to two extraordinary women Mai Temraz and Wafaa Bardawil (would later become our very own Gaza Geekettes ambassadors). They did a fantastic job in leading a new chapter for our global org and taught us a lot in our journey to support women from different regions of the world. Nearly a decade later, I can now reflect and have a deeper appreciation for the experiences that led me to meet these pioneers from Gaza. Thank you to my Berlin mentor, Zoe Adamovicz for connecting us to these amazing leaders in the Middle East, none of this would have happened without your warm introduction. You’re always moving mountains for others. 

Today Mai and Iliana work on Manara, a social impact startup funded by Y Combinator, Reid Hoffman, Jessica Livingston, and other top investors. Their mission is to untap the full potential of talent in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA), with a focus on women computer scientists. In Palestine 52% of computer science students in university are women, but 83% of them are unemployed. Manara inspires & prepares them to apply to top global tech jobs, including companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon. (Manara is doubling the size of its team in the next 6 months and it’s remote-friendly, so if you have similar passions, check out their careers page.)     

Wafaa is now based in Dubai and has launched a large community Facebook/Meta Group  ملتقى سيدات المشاريع الصغيرة that supports 14K+ young entrepreneurs in the Middle East. “This community brings women together to support them, helps them share their projects with each other, share questions, ideas, and market their projects to the world. I love mentoring these women in marketing and amplifying their work.” - Wafaa 

Major Milestones

Next Generation (VEIP Program) 

Over the past few months, I’ve been busy supporting the Virtual Entrepreneurial Immersion Program (VEIP) for young professionals in Gaza, Palestine, a program funded by the U.S. State Department and designed and implemented by Legacy International in partnership with Amideast. The program focuses on sustainable social impact ventures, building, training, and supporting a network of emerging entrepreneurs and young professionals in Gaza, Palestine. I mentored two women-led startups that have a focus on disrupting ineffective systems and filling critically-needed gaps in the Gazan context.

It was a pleasure to mentor Venus Women’s Joy space co-founded by Deema Abu-Nijela, Ne’ma Sabra, Shima Abu-Seria, and Sally El-Hato. Deema studied English at the University of Gaza, Sally studied English literature at Al Azhar University, and Ne’ma studied applied sciences with a focus on Anesthesia and Resuscitation at the University College of Applied Science. They come from incredible backgrounds and have a keen interest in supporting their society - specifically supporting women who do not have the same opportunities to be open and to express themselves freely. They strive to build a space that allows women to be more creative since these spaces do not currently exist outside of their homes. Nearly all women wear hijab, and there are very strict cultural norms in Gaza. Their top line goal is to create a space for women to be joyous and connect with other women. This is a space that allows them to remove their hijabs and wear what they want, free from judgement, sexual harassment, responsibilities at home raising their children. Venus Women’s Joy space provides a place for fun, creative expression, exploration, wellness activities, fitness, and so much more. I truly hope to visit this space someday!

Beautiful Collage the Venus Women’s Joy team created! (I will miss our sessions together)

“I wanted to create something for myself, set my own rules, create a friendly environment and work in a place of joy and peace.” In 2021, I learned that due to the circumstances of COVID19, life can be challenging and it doesn’t stop for anything. We have to keep pushing forward and make use of every second to develop ourselves.” - Sally. 

The second startup I mentored focuses on a mother’s pregnancy & birthing training founded by Aya, a young new mother based in Gaza. She studied English literature at the University of Al-Aqsa and hopes to launch her own business in the near future. Aya's company helps address the critical lack of and need for high quality and accessible information to support women during pregnancy and birthing. Important statistics: 25% of pregnant women in Gaza are at risk for death during childbirth and require specialized health care during pregnancy. Factors include weakened primary health care, stock outs of essential drugs/disposables, lack of access to family planning services and essential education. I should also note the shortage of healthcare facilities also result in the discharge of babies and moms just 2-3 hours after delivery. Additionally, cultural norms also result in a higher rate of adolescent pregnancies among girls between the ages of 15-19 years old (much higher than other Palestinian territories). This space needs a lot of attention and I believe Aya and others will come up with new solutions in the near future.

Aya is up against a lot of challenges but has the determination and resilience to push forward. When she’s not busy building her startup, she’s teaching her brothers, sisters and fellow students in her community. Aya’s mother is her true role model that gives her strength. “She is always positive. Imagine a world such as this one, always so positive and amazing. She is so kind and I really love her and she is my role model. When she smiles, she smiles for you.” 

“Life is not easy but we need to keep fighting and make it easier and creating new opportunities. We all need to use our time wisely because we don’t do a lot of things that we want to do” - Aya 

As a collective, we deep dived into weekly sessions and discussed customer segments/pains/needs, developed a marketing strategy, business plans, fundraising and growth/exit strategies. We learned so much from one another and I felt a deep connection with these women despite being thousands of miles away. I was excited to see the start of their entrepreneurial journeys and the impact they will have on many women’s lives in Gaza, and the greater Middle East. It once again reminded me of why we need to continue supporting each other. Solidarity is everything. If we can continue to bring talented women together and share their stories, hopefully it will inspire the next generation of female leaders. 

“I learned that I need to invest time into myself. I need to prioritize how to improve myself via reading, writing, knowing what is good for me and what can truly help my community. The VEIP program taught us that you need to have a network, reach out to many people around you and be aware of entrepreneurship opportunities. We also learned how to develop a biz idea, organize and how to market it better.” - Deema 

“At VEIP I learned how to take risks, try testing some of our ideas, leveraging the business model canvas and learning how to market our projects and finance some of them too.”  -Ne’ma 

With a growing population of youth in Gaza and high unemployment rates, we might see a spike in entrepreneurship out of necessity and opportunity. Many younger folks have access to technology and have big ideas but they need capital and that's where the rest of the world can help out. Some people would argue that places like Gaza have too much political instability and the risk is high for investment. But what I see is a huge opportunity and a place to find bold founders. They must be brave to deal with the gaps in investment but also manage daily political and economic hurdles. Even in major times of uncertainty (COVID pandemic), the Geekettes team sees a huge opportunity in many parts of the world. With the right density of talent, creativity, connectivity, capital and the belief you can build, anything is possible. 

It’s clear that a major entrepreneurial shift is taking place in the Middle East and the startup ecosystem has grown exponentially over the years. I’m particularly happy to see women at the helm of building startups and I hope they secure funding and more support as they grow their businesses. Today there are many successful startups and we’re seeing more founders across the region building digital solutions for local problems. 

There is still so much we can do to support our fellow Geekettes both in Gaza and worldwide. I encourage everyone in our community to keep mentoring and supporting each other as we move forward in these challenging times. I’m excited to see what Deema, Ne’ma, Shaima, Sally, and Aya will build in 2022 and I hope they will continue to help other women build a stronger network of global mentors, advisors, investors and fellow peers within the startup ecosystem. Thank you to Katie Curiel, Jason Scott, Iliana Mountauk, Mai Temraz, Wafaa Bardawil and Zoe Adamovicz for continuing to pave the way for others and bringing our worlds closer together. 

I’m rooting for you Gaza Geekettes! 

Cheers to 2022 and beyond,
Jess Erickson (Founder & CEO of Geekettes)

Happy Holidays from Your Geekettes Team

On behalf of the Geekettes team, we'd like to wish you happy holidays! As 2018 comes to a close and we reflect on what a big year the Geekettes has had, we immediately think of each of our members, sponsors and guest speakers. A big THANK YOU from all of us. - Love, Jess, Caroline, Hollie, Joanna, Claudia, Yulia, Irina, Dora, Mari, Steffi, Diana & Marily.

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HAMBURG GEEKETTES

"My journey began in February 2013. I attended the first Berlin Geekettes hackathon and immediately fell in love with the spirit and the atmosphere of this community. It was exactly what I - as a women in tech - had been missing. After a few calls with Jess she agreed on the experiment to launch a Geekettes chapter in Hamburg. We launched our hub at the Facebook office in Hamburg and never looked back. In retrospect we accomplished a lot. First we launched the 'Dine and Discuss' networking series (with more than 80 female speakers all together), two wonderful hackathons with 100+ participants attending each, panels at Social Media Week, a Code Talks conference, and most importantly plenty, of new connections and friendships established overtime.

After nearly six years, my journey with Geekettes is coming to an end. I've decided to step back as the Hamburg ambassador and will pass on the baton to the next generation. I am extremely thankful for this wonderful group, many new friendships and for Jess and Denise to have started the Berlin Geekettes and turning them into the Global Geekettes. Looking forward to future events organized by the new chapter leads in 2019!” - Diana 

First Hamburg Geekettes Dine & Discuss

Berlin & Hamburg Geekettes Team

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NYC GEEKETTES

"We had a great year in NYC, from producing panels, workshops, and some fabulous solo talks. We partnered with some great new hosts like Harvest and WeWork, in addition to adding two new organizers, Weslee Berke and Saudia Ganie, to help drive the mission of increasing the number of women in tech. Looking forward to 2019!" -Hollie 

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BERLIN GEEKETTES

"2018 was an amazing and busy year for the Berlin Geekettes. Now that it's almost over, we want to take a step back to say thank you to all our partners (Contentful, Lean In, Formlabs, Strengths Circle) and most importantly, to our incredible community. We hope to see you all next year, be it at a workshop, panel discussion or meetup. Here's to 2019!" - Irina

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MUNICH GEEKETTES

"The Munich community had a blast this year! We organized five speaker nights around topics ranging from leadership to cryptocurrencies, and hosted an additional five community meet-ups. We can’t wait to keep going in 2019 - see you there!" - Dora, Mari & Steffi 

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LONDON GEEKETTES

"We’ve had an excellent year with several workshops both on technical and soft skills! Special thanks to our sponsors Twitter, Football Radar and Facebook London. We’re looking forward to continuing our work in 2019 in the style of workshop sessions, which has worked so well so far. We have several things coming together, and are as excited as ever about welcoming both new and old members!" - Claudia, Yulia & Joanna

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Meet Munich Geekettes New Ambassadors

 

Dora Dzvonyar

 

Links

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DzDorie

Linkedin: https://de.linkedin.com/pub/dora-dzvonyar/5a/274/216

What is your background?

I am doing a PhD in applied software engineering, which means I get to teach students how to develop mobile applications! I am also a curator and speaker coach for TEDxTUM, a group devoted to ideas worth spreading in the Munich area, and I am a freelance trainer at HABA Digitalwerkstatt where we help children, parents and teachers to discover and learn to create things with digital technology.

What inspired you to become a software engineer?

I see software engineering as a toolset to build solutions to whatever problems you see around you. It’s also a very collaborative and communicative field in which one gets to meet people from different backgrounds and learns to understand their issues.

Why did you become a Geekettes ambassador?

Having met many amazing women in technology, I stopped believing that both genders can’t achieve the same goals in these fields, and nobody can convince me otherwise. I hope that by fostering the Munich Geekettes community, we can do the same for our attendees.

Tell a fun fact about yourself.

I like to give funny names to my digital devices. For example, my iPhone is called “Umberto”.

Any advice for your local/global Geekettes?  

Find the thing that makes you get up even though you are hungover, and go for it.

 

Steffi Feldmann

Links

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SteffiFeldmann

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steffifeldmann/

What is your background?

I used to study electrical engineering - never finished though ;-) After that, I studied International Business Communications - which I actually finished.

During my last semester at uni, I founded my first company in Munich. I haven’t stopped founding ever since. :-) Up until today I’ve founded 7 (tech) startups within the last 5 years.

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

Building your own thing, taking risks, taking everything into your own hands: that’s what I find fascinating about being an entrepreneur! Plus, I’d be awful as an employee working for a big company tbh ;-)

Why did you become a Geekettes ambassador?

I absolutely share the Geekettes’s mission and I strongly believe that society as well as the corporate (tech) world can only benefit from empowered women. Munich needs the Geekettes and I’m happy to be able to contribute to that.

Tell a fun fact about yourself.

I was once told that there’s only one person with more facial expressions than me: Jim Carrey. Not sure whether that was a compliment or not ;)

What is the best advice you ever received?

Never change who you are - for no-one. (Even though it sometimes seems to be the easier route.)

Any advice for your local/global Geekettes?  

Accept the challenge and celebrate failure! At least in my experience, that’s the quickest way to learn and grow.

Mariana Avezum

Links

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariana-avezum-b1792856/

What is your background?

Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, it took me a computer science degree and countless memories in Munich to calm down from the crazy city. Some would argue I still haven't calmed down. After deciding that getting a fast degree wasn't really my thing, I spent the last year of my  masters leading the WARR Hyperloop team, which eventually won the first ever SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. Today I'm still ever-bound to university, and doing a PhD to try to figure out how we can optimize (city!) traffic.

What inspired you to become a Computer Scientist?

My friends. It wasn't until my longest friend ever started to study CS, and explained to me what it actually was, that I realized it was a perfect fit. How can you not love using logic and technology to solve a few of the world's problems? Add that and amazing people working on amazing projects, and you really do see the impact small groups can actually make.

Why did you become a Geekettes ambassador?

To help bring together some of the aforementioned amazing people working on amazing projects. I really feel that if people talked (and listened!) more to another, human potential could be increased by orders of magnitude. Also, we are all women with similar problems, and hopefully by telling others how we overcame them, some more women can apply to the field.

Tell a fun fact about yourself.

I can prepare exactly one brazilian snack, and bring the same thing to every "Represent your country" event, but since it's always a different group, people think it's awesome. Germans really do like it. I buy the dough mostly done.

What is the best advice you ever received?

Allow me to quote Robert Frost:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Any advice for your local/global Geekettes?  

Don't be scared, but more important than that, don't give up on the things you believe in. I don't know anyone who ever succeeded in anything, that didn't question it 135436397 times before if it was actually going to work.