Did you know that 89% of Americans are comfortable with women in leadership, yet only 18% of the leadership positions are held by women? Of that 18% only 3% are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Crazy right? Even with those statistics women are leading change in the workforce with the likes of Marissa Mayer, Sheryl Sandberg, and Mary Barra all in top level executive positions in Fortune 500 companies. So with that I would like to introduce my new Wednesday Blog series, Working Woman Wednesday. This will be a day to recognize women who lead with passion and inspire others to do the same.
On my search for the perfect person to start my Working Woman series, Kelsey Falter caught my attention. Falter is a 24 year old CEO and founder of Poptip, a social analytics company. Her passion for business started early on her life at the age of 8 when she would stuff envelopes for her mother's business charging one cent per envelope. Not long after her first taste of business, she asked for a domain name (Spicyirish3.com) as a birthday present. After working on her website for awhile she got bored with the lack of creativity and tools on her site, that is when 9 year old Falter taught herself how to code.
The design bug stuck with her all the way into high school where she coded Myspace pages for the Tribune Company and even started and designed her own newspaper. After high school Falter attended Notre Dame where her interest in startups began. She took part in many projects as college students do, but she craved a challenge. She got involved with Dormbooks.com, a startup that involved buying and reselling textbooks. At Dormbooks.com she coded and designed their website as well as ran the operation at Notre Dame. In fact, there is even a story about her running out on a test because the website crashed. When she realized she was sacrificing school for the site, she knew she had to pursue something she was actually passionate about.
There was one thing Falter was sure she was passionate about and that was creative projects so Markover.com was born. This business focused on establishing a real time collaboration on projects between designers, advertisers, and clients. After securing $640,000 in funding from Lerer Ventures and SoftBank plus winning BetaBeat's Pitch competition, Markover was well on its way to becoming a successful startup. That's when TechStars noticed and strongly encouraged Falter to join their program in New York. While in the 2012 TechStars program Markover attempted to redesign their logo and enlisted help via the online community. They got so much feedback from Twitter and Facebook that an algorithm needed to be developed to decipher all the feedback so they wouldn't have to hand count each response. Falter and her team realized other businesses could utilize this type of algorithm and service to connect with their customers online. Markover then gave birth to PopTip, which now operates as a social analytics system that provides real time feedback to businesses using polls on social networking sites.
PopTip has since become a very successful business, making deals with major companies such as Budweiser, the NFL and the NBA. With the success of PopTip, Falter has risen in the business and tech spotlight. Her accomplishments include: Business Insider 25 and Under in NY Tech in 2012, L’Oreal Women in Digital Award in 2013, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Tech in 2014. Falter also has spoken at Bloomberg Next Big Thing Summit, Northside Festival, SXSW, and is a NYC Venture Fellow. Not only is she a great entrepreneur and business woman, she really knows her stuff when it comes to leading a successful team. Check out her tips on business and leadership in this DailyTekk article.
My time researching her story through numerous articles lead me to the realization that in order to get what you want and really achieve your dreams, you need to be very ambitious. For instance, Falter ran after Lerer of Lerer Ventures one day back in 2012 where she said "Mr. Lerer, Mr. Lerer. I'm pitching your son [Ben] but I realize I really should come talk to you, because if I don't win, I still want to talk to you." Now that's what I call the ambition of a working woman that is leading with passion!
How do you lead with passion?
On my search for the perfect person to start my Working Woman series, Kelsey Falter caught my attention. Falter is a 24 year old CEO and founder of Poptip, a social analytics company. Her passion for business started early on her life at the age of 8 when she would stuff envelopes for her mother's business charging one cent per envelope. Not long after her first taste of business, she asked for a domain name (Spicyirish3.com) as a birthday present. After working on her website for awhile she got bored with the lack of creativity and tools on her site, that is when 9 year old Falter taught herself how to code.
The design bug stuck with her all the way into high school where she coded Myspace pages for the Tribune Company and even started and designed her own newspaper. After high school Falter attended Notre Dame where her interest in startups began. She took part in many projects as college students do, but she craved a challenge. She got involved with Dormbooks.com, a startup that involved buying and reselling textbooks. At Dormbooks.com she coded and designed their website as well as ran the operation at Notre Dame. In fact, there is even a story about her running out on a test because the website crashed. When she realized she was sacrificing school for the site, she knew she had to pursue something she was actually passionate about.
There was one thing Falter was sure she was passionate about and that was creative projects so Markover.com was born. This business focused on establishing a real time collaboration on projects between designers, advertisers, and clients. After securing $640,000 in funding from Lerer Ventures and SoftBank plus winning BetaBeat's Pitch competition, Markover was well on its way to becoming a successful startup. That's when TechStars noticed and strongly encouraged Falter to join their program in New York. While in the 2012 TechStars program Markover attempted to redesign their logo and enlisted help via the online community. They got so much feedback from Twitter and Facebook that an algorithm needed to be developed to decipher all the feedback so they wouldn't have to hand count each response. Falter and her team realized other businesses could utilize this type of algorithm and service to connect with their customers online. Markover then gave birth to PopTip, which now operates as a social analytics system that provides real time feedback to businesses using polls on social networking sites.
PopTip has since become a very successful business, making deals with major companies such as Budweiser, the NFL and the NBA. With the success of PopTip, Falter has risen in the business and tech spotlight. Her accomplishments include: Business Insider 25 and Under in NY Tech in 2012, L’Oreal Women in Digital Award in 2013, and Forbes 30 Under 30 in Tech in 2014. Falter also has spoken at Bloomberg Next Big Thing Summit, Northside Festival, SXSW, and is a NYC Venture Fellow. Not only is she a great entrepreneur and business woman, she really knows her stuff when it comes to leading a successful team. Check out her tips on business and leadership in this DailyTekk article.
My time researching her story through numerous articles lead me to the realization that in order to get what you want and really achieve your dreams, you need to be very ambitious. For instance, Falter ran after Lerer of Lerer Ventures one day back in 2012 where she said "Mr. Lerer, Mr. Lerer. I'm pitching your son [Ben] but I realize I really should come talk to you, because if I don't win, I still want to talk to you." Now that's what I call the ambition of a working woman that is leading with passion!
How do you lead with passion?