Interview: Holly Hamann of BlogFrog (part 3 of 3)
BlogFrog August 2010 Video Newsletter from Rustin Banks on Vimeo.
[Note: This is the first of the Solid Startups interviews. Today's interview with Holly Hamman is the third of three parts. The first part is here, and the second is here. I want to thank Holly for setting a very high standard for the interview series, and for some unexpected and valuable insights. The video above is a good example of what led me to ask her to premiere the series.]
JL: It seems we may be on the verge of seeing more women founders in tech, but the numbers are still very low, despite research indicating that female-founded business generate higher profit, use less capital, and last longer. How can we get more women into the mix?
HH: Women need other women role models. Not because those women are any smarter or more successful than men, but because there is relatedness. Like it or not, it is a different experience to run a business, go after funding, sell partners, and be in the tech space as a women than it is as a man. Not better or worse, just different. When you can learn from other women about issues that only women encounter, it can transform a person’s potential. I also think that traditional male traits lend themselves well to success in the business world whether its assertiveness, leadership, strength (figuratively and literally), and logic. Again, I am not being sexist, just stating facts. Women can tend to intuitively lean toward service roles or support positions and be shy or more insecure about asking for what they really want. Women tend to underestimate how much knowledge and skills they have. Many women would be shocked to know what kind of support is out there is they asked for it or just went out and got it. I love seeing women walking and working with unstoppable focus. That kind of energy makes us all want to be a part of it. We can get more women into the mix by being role models, seeking out those who need support, putting ourselves out there so we can be found, and by creating supportive communities. And as cliché as it sounds, we’ll attract more women into the space when we stop complaining about how hard it is to be a women in business. Success is as much ours to have as it is anyone else’s, male or female.
JL: What advice would you give a young woman interested in pursuing a path in tech startups?
HH: My advice would be to seek out mentors (male or female), find a supportive community, and spend the time to find out what really, truly jazzes you. Is it developing and coding, marketing, operations, working with customers? Are you an idea person, a strategist, or a closer? Knowing these things will help you know which areas of tech will be the most fun for you. There will always be hard work, but when you find the area that you have passion for, you are destined to be better in that area than people who aren’t passionate. A passionate person has curiosity and digs into the nooks and crannies of a subject way deeper than someone just trying to cover the material. A passionate person makes more intuitive demands, fights harder, and doesn’t give up as easily. Tech start-ups are scrappy environments and they need people like that on their teams. As a gender, women are intuitive, community oriented, and have strong empathetic skills. Combine that with a drive to solve a customer problem or change the way an industry works and you’ve got a powerful force! The tech industry needs as much of that as it can get!
JL: What’s next for you?
HH: My partner and I launched BlogFrog about 18 months ago and I would still call us an early-stage start-up. We are angel-funded and working to execute on our core strategy, which is to build a social platform that enables millions of web users to create and power niche communities. We are focused on serving the women and mom space first and have over 40,000 mom bloggers in the network and reach almost 3 million moms each month. BlogFrog is now the largest network of mom blogs in the U.S. but we still have a long way to go. I work with thousands of bloggers all trying to build communities by sharing their amazing stories on their blogs. There is so much we are learning about how communities form, grow, and create influence. I could write a book! I also have to see my kids through the teen years and maybe take a vacation in there somewhere. That’s what’s next for me.
About Holly
Holly has spent her career launching and growing start-ups in the Internet, bio-medical, entertainment, video, and other tech industries. She has a passion for researching and studying internet and social media use by teens, GenY, and women. She is a blogger, public speaker, contributing writer on technology and marketing to various publications, is an American Marketing Association “Marketer of the Year” award recipient and a guest blogger for The HuffingtonPost. She lives outside Boulder, Colorado and blogs about technology and parenting teenagers. You can follow Holly on Twitter at@hollyk
