Alisa Miller’s Post

Thrilled to announce the nominees for VentureBeat's 6th Annual #WomeninAI Awards. Please join us in congratulating all of the exceptional nominees. Despite #AI being the #1 tech focus today, this VentureBeat Women in AI Awards was launched in 2019, almost 6 years ago, and we're proud to continue to spotlight women leaders in #tech. Investing in women in AI will create more valuable AI that better suits audiences, and boosts ROI for companies. The impact has never been more clear, or more important, and we’re proud to recognize leaders in AI who are making an impact. The winners will be revealed during #VBTransform in San Francisco on July 10th. Here's the full list of nominees:

We're thrilled that our co-founder Lindsay Richman has been nominated for VentureBeat's Women in #AI awards for Responsibility and Ethics in AI! We'll see you at #VBTransform on July 10th! #genai #womenintech #womeninai #startups #aistartups #ethicsinai #responsibleai

*** TechCrunch DISRUPT 2023 Top 3 *** #1 MAKERS Women of Disrupt Breakfast: Smart room, provoking icebreakers, and insightful panel on the impact of AI on women. (More below) #3 King Street Ventures Corporate Innovators party: Cocktails, conversation and truth bombs in the backroom. (More below) #3 Otter.ai roundtable: Using AI in meetings to provide real-time summaries and extract action items, so no-one's relegated to note-taker duty.  Easy but *necessary* event changes for next year: - Add a pronouns option on badges and app profiles - Rethink badge color coding. Black was limited access, white all-access. Cringed when I heard someone being told why they couldn't go upstairs. 😬 My free pass (thanks, TechCrunch!) didn’t grant access to every session so lmk if I missed your favorite! Food for thought from my fav events... #1 What the AI boom means for women w/ Monique Woodard (Cake Ventures), Naba Banerjee (Airbnb), Paula Goldman (Salesforce) - Garbage in, garbage out. Will diverse teams and transparency go far enough to eliminate bias in algorithms? - Will the benefits of AI be distributed equitably? When investing in startups, Monique wants to see the potential for positive impact on certain demographic groups commonly overlooked. - Will AI disproportionality displace jobs traditionally occupied by women? And/or will it reduce their tedious tasks so they have increased time for more rewarding responsibilities? #2   King Street Ventures Corporate Innovators party talks included: - Waleed Elgindy (Google) on truly understanding users in order to position tech innovations as relevant and compelling solutions to their needs, and the importance of inclusive marketing. - Scott Larson (Salesforce) on digging deep to offer benefits with emotional appeal, versus features that assume value is self-evident. Aka appealing to the heart over the head.  - Michael Rivo, Kevin Farnham - Regenerative Futures & Diego Molina on AI’s potential as tool and threat for creative industries, thankfully concluding that it’s more awesome than awful. #TCDisrupt2023 #WomenInTech #DiversityInTech #Marketing #AI

Part I It's 242AM and with a mug of black coffee handy, I think I have recharged my battery enough to be able to write a proper "thank you" to people who helped make the Women In Tech Regatta the Netherlands a success earlier this week and last week. If there is an error in this post, then you can be certain it was written by me and not generative AI. ;) Aside from organizational responsibilities, I did get to step back into the panel activity, which is how I got to know the Regatta in the first place. One of the benefits is being able to invite people to join panels. It can be particularly useful to invite people you would love to have a conversation with any day of the week as they inspire you. For the session "The Machines Made Me Do It and other Tall Tales", Morraya Benhammou and Sarita Bajnath (she/her) shared their time, enthusiasm, sharp questions and knowledge around our comfort at handing over so much of daily living to "the machines". One phrase that has continued to stick with me is from Morraya's question about why we are so accepting of mechanizing our humanity. Sarita's energy and focus on what we are bringing into the technology as our human baggage reminds us of why we need to be looking at who is making the technology. Both of these women embody the spirit of activism that we need in the tech world to make sure the choices we are making a responsible for us as a society and not only for the companies selling tech. In Rotterdam, during the session "Tech Talks: How this Stuff Really Works", Anita Vink-Abaisa and Lutske de Leeuw took us into the world of VR and Machine Learning, respectively. Both of them started their journey into tech with a strong sense of curiousity about how stuff works and just start exploring it. Thank you for making tech knowledge more accessible, Anita and Lutske! "What the Startup World Doesn't Talk About Enough" was conceived out of a conversation I had earlier in the year with another female founder. I wanted to create a session where it was openly discussed what some of the challenges are as opposed to the Silicon Valley Be the Next Unicorn messaging. With thanks to Kimberly Ofori, Alexis Podolny 🚀, Tessa de Flines and Raymond Hannes for sharing their time and experiences to tackle some of the difficult topics in the room! Anna Farrenkopf (she/her), one of the most courageous people I know, willingly stepped in to lead the panel "Courageous Leaders Needed: Standing Up for yourself, your team, your company, your community". Joined by Cheryl Gilbert, Apoorva Abhinav and Morraya Benhammou it was time to talk about what forms courage takes. I thank these fierce women for their transparency.| During the same time, Selina Thompson was moderating the session "Looking Into the Crystal Ball of Tech: What's Next?" We wanted to highlight founders who are building tech that solves societal problems and Zsofia Kollar, Tyrell Pantophlet and Veroniek Vermeulen (Silatha) all shared their amazing solutions.

I advocate a lot for representation of women in data, and think about it even more. (I even dream about diamond shimmery inclusive data, but story for another day.) Because representation in data affects products, experiences, outcomes, opportunities, everything. You know where else representation matters? Capital. And yet: only 2 % of venture capital funding goes to women. I had the same reaction as Serena Williams when I first heard that… I must have misheard. But seriously, mind bogglingly, 98% of funding still goes to male founders, and only 2% to women (women of color a tiny fraction of that). https://lnkd.in/gi6Wbtyg So last year I became a limited partner with How Women Invest Fund II, to bring women to the venture table. That broadens the lens of what is deemed valuable and worth venture funds. And it generates value for all in every sense of the word. How did I pick this fund to invest in? Because the numbers were good, the CEO Julie Castro Abrams compelling, the other partners awe inspiring, and most of all, the mission aligned with my values. So I could not be more thrilled to be part of a discussion tomorrow, April 17, with founders sharing how they are responsibly leveraging AI and machine learning to revolutionize industries, and VCs who are investing in them and the kind of future I want (Tatyana Mamut, Michele Colucci, Esq., Chenxi Wang, Ph.D., Lu Zhang, Lake Dai, Katie Trauth Taylor, PhD, Charlotte Dales, Mia Umanos, Winsome Kirton, Shobha Mallarapu, MSEE, PMP, CISA, Ruzanna Queenan, CFA, MBA, Belinda Wong, Mae Chan, Anuradha Gali, Nicole O'Neill Ash, ACC. If you’re curious about any of it, join us! https://lnkd.in/g5qW7EyM And if always happy to talk about bringing more women to the table, or build our own. #WomenInTech #VentureCapital #AI #MachineLearning #HowWomenInvest

Bit of an emotional video for me, quite unlike me, but if my journey helps just one person who is struggling like I was then it's worth it. There are times in life when the right person gets put in your path for a reason. Before I met Máirín Murray and the TechFoundHer crew my dream of bringing Nimue AI, my tech platform, to life was nothing more than a pipe dream. I had absolutely no idea what to do, where to start or whether or not I could even do it. I had tried in 2017 to start the journey of another platform but failed. Mairin's guidance has given me the confidence to go and make it happen, to do whatever it takes to make this platform a reality. Her insightful analysis and advice around my personal hang-ups and helping me unpick the ecosystem have been nothing short of amazing. And thanks to this community and Mairin's introductions I met Alison McMurtrie who, over the last number of weeks has guided and advised me in ways I cannot even begin to quantify, having someone to be honest and vulnerable and ask stupid questions to without judgement has been transformative in my own personal journey. In the last 24 hours Alison pulled a blinder and helped me apply for the Women In Innovation fund. By doing so, she has helped me focus my thoughts and create the structure, basis and foundation of what will become Nimue AI. I cannot recommend Mairin or Alison's mentoring and consulting services highly enough. So...what's Nimue AI? Well, I haven't spoke publicly about it yet but now I want to tell the world because I'm so proud of where I am today thanks to Alison helping me shape it all overnight. Check out my YouTube video for the Women In Innovation application and the description for more info - would love any and all feedback, positive and negative >> https://lnkd.in/dGh9ASgb 💜 #NimueAI

Want 7 more brilliant WOMEN in TECH to inspire you this next week? I’ve just updated the BETTER STORIES site with a few more keynotes and a new piece of research from: 🎛️ Limor Fried Founder of Adafruit Industries. Adafruit is a unique achievement in that it has grown into a multi-million dollar company without any Venture Capital funding, making Limor a great role model for determination and creating opportunity by taking a different path. 💷 Anne Boden Founder & Former CEO Starling Bank talking about raising $300M and building a $1.5Bn business against all the odds. ⚕️ Surbhi Sarna Y-Combinator's first healthcare and biotech focused Group Partner. She built a biotech company from nothing and sold it for $275M. (Her book "Without a Doubt" published last year is excellent). 📦 Leah Busque Founder of TaskRabbit sharing 5 lessons she learned from building TaskRabbit from the ground up (and then selling it to IKEA). 🧬 Alice Zhang Founder & CEO of Verge Genomics on using AI to apply a pioneering approach to drug discovery, in order to dramatically improve the lives of patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases. 🎟️ Julia Hartz The co-founder of Eventbrite on creating connections in the age of AI and unlocking the power of multi-platform storytelling. 🐝 Ana Paula De Jesus Assis IBM’s General Manager for EMEA sponsored a new report recently that is well worth a read: “Female Leadership in the World of AI (2024)” ⬇️ Click “VISIT MY WEBSITE” to visit BetterStories if you'd like to find out more…

♥️ For all the female founders and beyond - you deserve to be treated every day good :)! 🌞 Still, a bit more flowers than usual :). Keep building in the #web3 and #AI ecosystem.  I’m sure your bets will bring wins! #web3 #ai #women #founders #mintventuresxyz

AI is changing how we live work and learn. Whether you want to learn more about AI, work in AI, use models within your business or create something truly unique and innovative, this event is for you. Come along and have some fun as we explore AI with this amazing panel of women. #aiuk #womeninai #femalefounders #aini

💥 "Women #investors outperform their male counterparts." 💥 "Research by #KPMG, Goldman Sachs etc show that in times of #market upheaval & downturn, #investments managed by #women fare better than #assets handled by their male colleagues. The latest data collected from #InvestmentMetrics reinforces this trend." (quote link in comments) I attended a launch event for AwakenAngels recently & was blown away by the multi #purpose #impact the initiative has & will continue to have on the Irish investment landscape by solely focusing on & elevating Female Founders on one side of the marketplace & coaching novice, budding Female Investors on the buy side. Sinead Crowley Mary McKenna, MBE Mary Ann Pierce #Web3 (€3.25bn market size 2023) & #AI (€196.6bn market size 2023) are, as the numbers speak, HUGE market opportunities & women can take & are entitled to equal share of this potential! Come along to this evenings event (register below) to see for yourself what this team of women are co-creating! What Ireland & every #economy needs are more female decision makers. Women, diverse thinkers & open mindsets, who decide what & who is a worthy #risk to bet on at early, mid or late stage of the investment cycle. 🎬 We need new sustainable investment models that are better suited to include, elevate & sustain the lifetime of a business & not just a 5 year pump & dump cycle which clearly doesn't elevate all, in fact, it seems to systemically exclude women & diversity. Lets pay attention to & celebrate those that are breaking the mould & challenging the status quo! 🙋♀️ 👏 BlockW Women in Immersive Technologies Europe TechFoundHer The SMEChain - Subject Matter Explorer & Venture Partner Dr. Alessandra Sala