From IPOs to acquisitions, these women entrepreneurs launched and grew successful mobile startups.

By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)

A few women pointed out that the upcomingMobileBeat 2012 conference has practically no women on the speaking page. Well, we think there are plenty of successful women running mobile startups.

Here are successful women entrepreneurs in the mobile space who have celebrated exits, managed major product launches and can speak to any number of mobile topics, from developing mobile apps to mobile advertising.

Smart mobile industry insights can be gleaned from the female founders of mobile companies below:

Carol Realini (Founder & Chairman, Obopay)
A serial entrepreneur, Carol Realini has successfully lead companies through initial public offerings as well as acquisitions. She created “mobile financial services to all” withObopay, her latest mobile payments and banking venture. Follow her on Twitter at @carolrealini.

Carrie Chitsey (Founder & CEO, 3Seventy)
Serial entrepreneur Carrie Chitsey founded 3Seventy, a leading provider of mobile customer relationship management (MCRM) SaaS solutions. She patentedBlinx, a mobile business card transmitted through SMS. Follow her on Twitter at @carriechitsey.

Cathy Edwards (Co-Founder & CTO, Chomp)
Mobile industry veteran Cathy Edwards co-founded app search engine Chomp, building the proprietary algorithm and launching on iPhone in 2010 and on Android in 2011. Chomp was acquired by Apple for $50M in February 2012. Follow her on Twitter at @cathye.

Cher Wang (Founder & Chairman, HTC)
The New York Times called her “one of the most powerful female executives in technology whom you have never heard of” – Cher Wang built HTC’s relationship with Google for the Android-based smartphone and the rest is history. Follow her company on Twitter at @htc.

Claire Boonstra (Co-Founder, Layar)
Co-founder Claire Boonstra has over 10 years of experience in mobile, new media and marketing. Her current venture isLayar, a mobile browser that allows you to find various items based upon augmented reality technology. Follow her on Twitter at @ClaireBoo.

Ingrid Lestiyo (Co-Founder & CEO, Mobsmith)
Former product manager Ingrid Lestiyo co-foundedMobsmith, a mobile ad-serving platform that offers both an agency side and a publisher side solution. Mobsmith was acquired by Rubicon Project for $10M in May 2012. Follow her startup on Twitter at @mobsmith.

Jennifer Lum (Co-Founder, Adelphic Mobile)
Mobile entrepreneur Jennifer Lum is co-founder ofAdelphic Mobile, was a core team member of Quattro Wireless (acquired by Apple) and m-Qube (acquired by VeriSign) and is an angel investor in mobile startups including Crashlytics, OnSwipe and Kinvey. Follow her on Twitter at @jenniferlum.

Pauline Alker (Co-Founder & CEO, A La Mobile)
Open Linux system platform for wireless handsets A La Mobile was co-founded by serial entrepreneur Pauline Alker. She served as chief executive at Amplify, Network Peripherals (IPOed) and Counterpoint Computers (acquired by Acer).

Petra Vorsteher (Co-Founder & EVP Strategic Alliances, Smaato)
Business development guru Petra Vorsteher co-founded mobile advertising startup Smaato. Prior to Smaato, she was a founding member of Intershop, helping grow the company to a publicly listed company with a market cap of $12B. Follow her startup on Twitter at @smaato.

Prerna Gupta (Co-Founder & CEO, Khush)
Prerna Gupta co-founded Khush in 2009 to develop intelligent music apps and led her startup to profitability. Khush was acquired by Smule in December 2011 for a “eight-figure deal” in cash and stock. Follow her on Twitter at @prernagupta.

Sarah Allen (Co-Founder & CTO, Mightyverse; Founder, Blazing Cloud)
Early in her career, Sarah Allen co-founded the company that created Adobe After Effects. She is currently co-founder and CTO for mobile startup Mightyverse and runs Blazing Cloud, a product-centric mobile application consulting firm. Follow her on Twitter at @ultrasaurus.

Know more female founders of mobile/tech companies that should speak at MobileBeat or another mobile conference? Let us know in the comments below!

Photo credit: Dave Lawler on Flickr.

Angie Chang co-founded Women 2.0 in 2006. She currently serves as Editor-In-Chief of Women 2.0 and is working to mainstream women in high-growth, high-tech entrepreneurship. Previously, Angie held roles in product management and web UI design. In 2008, Angie launched Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, asking that guys come as the “+1″ for once. Angie holds a B.A. in English and Social Welfare from UC Berkeley. Follow her on Twitter at @thisgirlangie.

This post was originally posted at Women 2.0.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2013/07/08/why-more-women-should-create-apps/

 

by Kelsey Meyer

Young men primarily run the tech world, but the consumers most advertisers want to reach are women. Why? Women account for 85 percent of all purchases, according to The Next Web. This creates a huge gap between those creating the supply (apps) and those furnishing the demand. The solution: More women should be involved in the process of conceptualizing, building, marketing, and monetizing mobile apps.

Why Advertisers Should Want to See More Female Developers

There’s a reason advertisers love online publications that cater to women: Women make most of the purchasing decisions for their households. If advertisers want to increase sales, they need to talk to the people who will determine whether their products are worth buying. If advertisers want to reach these women on mobile, they need to advertise on apps that women are using, and if women are going to be the primary targets of the app, they should probably be in the process of creating it.

The sad truth is that, at the moment, most programmers are male. Women are still extremely underrepresented in STEM jobs, and this can ultimately cause developers to design an app without the female consumer in mind. Whether that affects the functionality, the design, or the marketing of an app, the creation and selling processes are hampered. When more women are involved in the process, from conceptualization to developing to marketing, they’ll be better able to communicate to advertisers how female consumers will use the app and make purchasing decisions because of it.

I frequently see developers and designers turn an app pink or add other stereotypically female-oriented elements as an easy copout to make apps “appealing to women.” Apps that truly appeal to women don’t focus on the surface, but instead offer substance. In order to inspire women to make purchasing decisions because of engagement with an app, the app needs to add value to women’s lives.

Who, you ask, best knows how to add value to women’s lives? Most likely, other women.

How Women Can Do This: Teach Yourself or Take a Note from Carla White

The first thing women can do is to learn how to develop apps themselves. Between online resources like Code Academy or in-person classes like Dev Bootcamp, there are many opportunities to learn to code. If you have zero interest in learning to code but still have an app idea you want to see created, all hope is not lost.

I recently interviewed a female app creator named Carla White. Carla broke into the app scene with “Gratitude Journal.” She had started journaling what she was grateful for after the passing of a relative, and she realized there had to be an easier way to do it. She wanted to share her experience with others and created the gratitude app. She had zero technical experience, yet she created an app that quickly rose to #1 on the lifestyle section of the Apple App Store and was even featured by Oprah Winfrey.

The lesson of Carla’s story is that you don’t have to be tech-minded to create an app. Carla has now written a book that teaches anyone how to take a concept from “Idea to iPhone.” Her story proves that you can create a successful app that can reap great results. Even if you can’t distinguish JavaScript from HTML, you can still lead the process of creating an app that you’d actually want to use.

Apps We Want to See

It’s easy to say, “Okay, women, go out and create an app other women will use!” But when you browse the App Store, it can be overwhelming to attempt to think of something new. To help, I asked a few female friends of mine what kinds of apps they’d like to see.

Disclosure: There could be apps that accomplish these goals, but they either aren’t effective or aren’t marketed well — my female friends couldn’t find them!

1. A fitness app that specifically caters to women, or as my co-worker described it, “doesn’t look like it was based on a men’s locker room design”
2. A wedding app that could hold a user’s contacts for catering, flowers, etc., in one place and record payments and upcoming billing dates, as well as email or call the contacts straight from the app
3. An app that can track down any product in a magazine by taking a photo of the page
4. A baby purchase app that can track multiple registries for parents-to-be, along with a price comparison feature and lists to give parents-to-be ideas for items to register for
5. And my favorite suggestion from a co-worker: “I’m just excited to see more cat apps”

I look forward to seeing more women involved in the app creation process, developing apps I’d want to use. I’d love to hear your ideas for apps — or apps that you’ve worked on — in the comments.

Kelsey Meyer is the President of Influence & Co., one of the leading providers of high-quality expert content to the world’s top publications.