Russia Hosts World’s First Crypto-Conference for Women

Women Investing in Women Digital and Qrypto Queens made history in Russia at the end of last month as Founder Anu Bhardwaj delivered the keynote address at the world's largest crypto conference for women.

The conference, hosted in Moscow by the Crypto Lady Association and Buzcoin, brought together leading women in cryptocurrency and blockchain to discuss everything from the technology of blockchain and mining cryptocurrency to investing and avoiding scams.

We're excited to become part of the growing movement in Russia as well as around the world as women are getting more involved in all areas of cryptocurrency and blockchain; from development and marketing to investing and leading conversations. It's all about women unleashing their potential to join and spearhead efforts in this growing field, and we believe in our shared responsibility to educate and support one another in this industry and advocate for more diversity, inclusion, involvement, and participation across all areas of crypto and blockchain.

Click through to read about the conference and the pioneering women leading the way in the cryptocurrency conversation. Learn more about the Crypto Lady Association, and subscribe to join us as we keep the conversation going about women leading the way in crypto and blockchain.

Last weekend on April 28-29, the first crypto-conference for women was held in the congress hall of the Golden Ring Hotel in Moscow. The organizer of the event, Crypto Lady Association, and the grand partner, BUZCOIN, which was recently launched by popular singer and TV host Olga Buzova.

More than 150 people attended the event featuring the leading experts of the crypto-industry, represented exclusively by the beautiful ladies.

The conference was opened by a guest from Los Angeles, Anu Bhardwaj, the founder and leader of Women Investing in Women Digital, the world’s largest digital media platform focusing on women and investment with a strong emphasis on women in blockchain.

Additionally, the speakers of the conference include the head of the interdepartmental group on the cryptocurrency for State Duma and the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs- Elina Sidorenko, the member of the expert council for State Duma on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies- Nadezhda Surova, an investor-practitioner, analyst of ICO projects, crypto-trader, member of the Russian Association of Cryptocurrency and Blockchain, and the teacher of the RMA business school- Julia Zakharchenko, as well as many other leading industry experts from different parts of the world – Hong Kong, USA, and the CIS.

The conference participants had the opportunity to learn about the prospects for the development of a new financial system, the ways to invest in digital gold, advanced blockchain technologies, the best points of buying and selling cryptocurrencies, and the investments in ICO projects as well as scams.

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5 Women-Founded Companies With Upcoming ICOs

Crypto Daily, a U.K.-based group of crypto enthusiasts, recently covered several ICOs launched as May begins—all founded by women. Read on and click through for summaries on each company and the founder; addressing financial services, personal data, crypto investing services, and even DNA. And continue to join us as we bring you the latest cryptocurrency and blockchain news and support women in this dynamic and growing field.

By Allyson Brooks

You may not have noticed, but there aren’t a lot of women in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world. This fact rings true in the entire finance and tech fields – brokerage firms, banks, tech startups and the like are male-dominated.

But, cryptocurrency was created to be disruptive; and I think should be disruptive to gender inequality in the tech and finance fields. As it stands, women’s participation in the cryptocurrency community hovers around 2 percent. That’s abysmal.

One of the many simple ways to support women-led blockchain and cryptocurrency initiatives is to participate in their initial coin offerings (ICOs.) Here are some ICOs you can buy in to this week.

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How Female Entrepreneurship Can Become Stronger

Business 2 Community, a website connecting professionals and businesses with one another and to consumers, explores how women can become even more successful as entrepreneurs. Female entrepreneurship has increased and flourished in recent years, but there are still opportunities for growth. The author builds on previous research into women entrepreneurs, but moves beyond tips to become a successful entrepreneur—and into how to grow and flourish as a woman business leader.

Read on for tips on funding, mentoring, and research, as well as five tips to build strength as a business owner.

By Greetje den Holder

Two months ago, in 9 Tips on How to Make Female Entrepreneurship Move Forward, I stated that it is time for female entrepreneurship to move forward and gave some tips on how to do that. In addition, I listed six books on female entrepreneurship that I will list again at the end of this blog, just because I find it important that women know where to find information.

In this blog post, however, I want to show what it takes for women to acquire money from VC firms, why mentoring is important for female entrepreneurship, and how women can become strong as entrepreneurs. Writing this blog post, I have had help from recent articles by Shellie Karabell, Sophie Jarvis, and Eve Ashworth.

Female entrepreneurs face a big gap

Female entrepreneurs face a big gap: the kind of gap that happens when the venture capital guys (emphasis on “guys”) will not invest in you to start up or scale up your projects. Annet Aris, selected as one of Amsterdam’s Tech 50 women in 2017, feels it is not the number of female entrepreneurs that is the issue. In fact, she feels it is about creating an environment that is supportive for female entrepreneurs: “VC firms seem to find it hard to give money to a woman. VCs are mostly men and women are mostly ignored.”

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Cryptocurrency Is Not Just a Boys’ Club

From Glamour’s May “Money Issue” comes a thorough examination of women in cryptocurrency. We all know one of the strengths of cryptocurrencies is that they, as the author states, “don’t care who you are.” Despite the fact that Bitcoin and the crypto world started, and grew, disproportionately male and white; there are plenty of women in the crypto world—and the same drive many women draw on to rise in a field full of men often helps them raise the bar for everyone.

Women leaders in the crypto field share their struggles, successes, goals, insights, inspirations, and expertise. There is an equalizing power of a currency and investment opportunity with no gatekeeper—and are taking advantage of it to make their mark. Tech development teams and cryptocurrency flourish when women are included, working toward better solutions for everyone, and as more women succeed in cryptocurrency they help one another grow and advance—truly a case of women investing in women.

Read below and click through for the full article to learn about women trailblazers in cryptocurrency and blockchain; including new innovations in tech and cryptocurrency, giving back, reaching out to minority communities, the importance of diversity, promoting the work of other women in the field, working toward a more equitable financial system and more.

By Morgen Peck

When dinner conversations turn to cryptocurrency, as they often do these days, I brace for a grilling, because I’ve been a reporter covering the topic for six years. “Do you own any?” “Is it too late to get rich?” “What’s the next big coin?” The answer is always the same: I’m neither an investor nor a financial adviser. (So no, I’m not going to tell you whether to buy or sell either.)

But the main reason I won’t give you advice is that, to me, the price tag on a digital coin is its most boring feature. What’s most fascinating about cryptocurrencies is they don’t care who you are. Be you a man, woman, person of color, trans, someone with bad credit, someone with no credit—if you can log on to a computer and push the right buttons, you can send money just like anyone else. That accessibility is a big part of what makes this technology such a breakthrough. There’s no gatekeeper.

That’s all possible because of how these currencies are built: Cryptocurrency transactions are processed and recorded by peer-to-peer networks—not any one individual, bank, or government. These networks get around relying on those institutions by putting to work a group of people on the network called miners. In the case of Bitcoin, for example, thousands of those miners are competing at this very moment to process a bunch of transactions and add them to a record called the blockchain. That competition is really a race to solve a series of cryptographic puzzles—the first one to make it across the finish line gets rewarded with a handful of new Bitcoins, hot off the minting press. Those entries in the blockchain record are then verified by other people on the network.

Think about that for a second: a group of strangers working together to secure a global currency and payment system without the authority of any formal institution. That’s technologically astounding. It’s also completely changing how we use money, because a lot of things happen when banks and governments are not making all the rules. Suddenly borders, time zones, and working hours become irrelevant. You can send a payment anywhere in the world at any time and have it go through, generally, within minutes—you don’t need permission from your bank, you don’t need to go through a company like PayPal or Venmo.“There’s a massive opportunity here to change the global financial structure, to change a lot of ways that society interacts with technology,” says Elizabeth Stark, the CEO of Lightning Labs, which, in March, released an early version of much anticipated software that is designed to make Bitcoin transactions faster, cheaper, and more private. “And it is crucially important that women participate.”

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All Raise Female VCs Team Up With Female Founders Across the U.S. to Pay It Forward

Female Founders Office Hours, a new group of leading women venture capitalists who reach out to help women with mentoring sessions between investors and founders, recently launched All Raise, a nonprofit organization geared toward connecting women investors and entrepreneurs to one another. Now the initiative is taking the next step, connecting with over a hundred women founders throughout the United States to help foster connections between women in the tech industry. Read more and click through to learn about the organization; mentoring sessions; the value of confidence and role models are for women in the field; and the importance of intentionally formed networks of mutually supportive, professional women—all dedicated to helping one another succeed.

By Bérénice Magistretti

A few months ago, a group of powerhouse female VCs came together to create Female Founders Office Hours, which provides one-on-one mentoring sessions between female investors and female founders. Last week, the group announced the official launch of All Raise, a nonprofit that aims to help women in venture capital and entrepreneurship connect and support one another. All Raise is now blazing full steam ahead and announced today that it has joined forces with more than 120 venture-backed female founders across the country to address an alarming issue in tech: the isolation women in the industry feel.

The All Raise movement is spearheaded by Cowboy Ventures’ Aileen Lee, who was joined by more than 30 other female VCs, including Forerunner Ventures’ Kirsten Green, Spark Capital’s Megan Quinn, and Sequoia Capital’s Jess Lee. Since launching the first Female Founders Office Hours in November, the group says it has received over 1,500 applications for one-on-one mentoring sessions across five events in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, and Boston. So far, the group has held over 200 meetings.

Now, to expand the initiative even further, an influential group of female founders from all stages and sectors is joining All Raise to pay it forward. Mentors include Stitch Fix’s Katrina Lake, Glossier’s Emily Weiss, Houzz’s Adi Tatarko, two of the Coffee Meets Bagel cofounders, Afton Vechery of Modern Fertility, and Felicia Curcuru of Binti, who before becoming a founder worked on the investor side at FundersClub.

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Image Credit: Sequoia Capital

Women Leaders in Crypto and Blockchain: Meredith Darden

We're continuing our conversations with women leaders in blockchain and cryptocurrency. Today, we hear from Meredith Darden, a communications specialist at PIVX who is passionate about connecting with others and building communities around cutting-edge tech and finance developments and opportunities. The crypto enthusiast, educator, and mother of two from Baton Rouge, Louisiana wants women to dive in and take advantage of opportunities available with crypto that often were not possible under traditional financial systems. She discusses how she discovered the potential for investing in the crypto ecosystem and blockchain technology, some exciting new projects and collaborations that open up new prospects and possibilities, the inspiring women who are involved in the field, how to encourage more women to join, and more.

How did you first become involved with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency?

Like many people I know, my introduction to cryptocurrency and blockchain was somewhat happenstance. As a single mom of two young children, one day I had the realization that it was up to me to make sure I diversified financially to set us up for the best possible future. I reached out to a friend who was privy to markets and investing, and he told me about Ethereum. He was so enthusiastic and on fire about it, I almost thought he was about to pitch me a MLM scam. Instead, he encouraged me to do my own research. From there, I was absolutely hooked, and I think my friends and family thought I was going crazy for a while. Initially I viewed cryptocurrency as an investment opportunity, but my focus quickly shifted as I realized the real implications of blockchain technology.

What is your background, and what do you and your company do now in the crypto world?

Surprising as it may be, my background has not been in finance or tech. The majority of my career has been spent in real estate, property management, and multifamily housing. Prior to that, I worked for Big Brothers Big Sisters in volunteer recruitment and training. Though I’ve always been interested and informed when it comes to technology, I never imagined I would leave my career to migrate in to tech. Since doing so, I have aligned myself with a couple projects that I believe provide meaningful, real-world solutions.

Currently, I am the communications specialist for PIVX, a privacy coin with a very community-centric focus. I’m very passionate about privacy and it’s important to me to make sure people understand the value in protecting information and data. PIVX makes instant, private transactions possible and as such, I was a fan of the project long before I joined the team. You can catch me on the website, YouTube channel, and other mediums sharing information about what we have going on.

I was recently brought on as the digital marketing lead at Digipharm. I cannot share many details just yet, but Digipharm is utilizing private and public blockchain solutions to create an ecosystem that will accelerate the restructure healthcare to a value based approach. I’m very grateful to be involved, and I am bursting at the seams to share with everyone what we have in the works!

What do you think are some of the most interesting developments in blockchain, and what do you think are some opportunities for development or things to watch today?

I am a cryptocurrency enthusiast, so I’ve always got my eyes on a whitepaper. There are quite a few projects out there that are making major move, but I won’t get too wild here.

One of my all-time favorite projects is Kyber Network, a decentralized exchange that will support cross-chain transactions. They’ve made many noteworthy partnerships over the last few months, and they offer numerous solutions outside of the cryptocurrency exchange that will benefit crypto as a whole. Another one of my favorites is Bloom, a company that aims to create a secure and fair global credit scoring model. They’ve partnered with district0x to create the Bloom Lending District, as well as several other cryptocurrency lenders with the goal of helping those who are unbanked have more access to fair lending.

My list could go on and on, but Kyber and Bloom are constantly backing up their words with action, so that’s an A-plus in my book.

The number women in cryptocurrency is still quite small, and it lies at the intersection of finance and technology—two areas in which women are still underrepresented. Is there an opportunity for women to get into this industry in ways that they haven’t in the past in these areas? Is there still work to be done to get more women involved, and if so, what?

Right now, one of the most beautiful things about the cryptocurrency space for me is the intelligent, inspired, driven women I’ve encountered. Many of us come from various backgrounds and work on projects that differ vastly, but it’s incredible to witness and experience the synergy despite the differences. Its seems like everywhere I turn, I am being supported and uplifted by ladies who have the same goals I do. I moderate Crypto Coin Trader Women’s Group, and we are nearly 4,000 women strong! I think that is a powerful indicator that women are feeling less afraid to not only invest in cryptocurrency, but to become more involved and have a voice. While there is not a huge presence of women, it’s growing every day. The best way to get more women involved is to make sure they feel welcomed and included. A few kind words can go a long way.

Is it an equal playing field? Do women have access to the same opportunities and information, and how can they best make their mark in this industry?

Through my own experience and conversations with other women, I don’t believe the playing field is equal. It’s no secret that women have many obstacles and uncomfortable situations to face in fields that are dominated by highly successful males. I have had several disconcerting experiences as a woman in crypto, but ultimately, they fuel me. It often feels like I have nothing and everything to prove all at the same time. I recently read an amazing piece on Kavita Gupta that encouraged women to “push back,” or to essentially draw a line in the sand and stick to it. That really resonated with me.

I find that the best way to make a mark in the industry is to be unwaveringly, joyfully, you. Don’t let anyone tell you that what you are saying or doing isn’t important, or that you are less than because you’re a woman. Take time to foster connections with other women, and seek them first for professional advice and assistance. We are stronger together!

Women Leaders in Crypto and Blockchain: Yasmeen Drummond

By Kimberly Hosey

In this new series, we're talking to leading women in the expanding industry of cryptocurrency and blockchain. Today we hear from Yasmeen Drummond: a passionate investor, blockchain advocate and educator, public health expert, and scientist from California who hopes to see both women and the blockchain industry benefit from women gaining the confidence, knowledge, and opportunities to become involved in this burgeoning field. She's been to The North American Bitcoin Conference in Miami, Florida, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in just the past few weeks, in addition to working to bring together inspiring and amazing women from around the world to help one another succeed in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

How did you first become involved with blockchain technology and cryptocurrency?

Back in 2012 a friend told me about how he was mining bitcoin and asked if I wanted some bitcoin instead of cash for his portion of the rent. Then I pretty much forgot about crypto for a while until 2014 when I heard about Ethereum. In the beginning of 2017 I finally bought some!

What is your background, and what do you do now in the crypto world?

I’ve always been a social butterfly and a nerd and this combination seems to be super killer in blockchain. I tend to gravitate towards smart, passionate people. We have enjoyable intellectual conversations, usually centered about crypto, and then we find ways to help elevate each other.

I studied global public health and immunology at UC Berkeley, where I focused on surveillance epidemiology. I taught human sexuality and introduction to public health. I worked in government healthcare research for a while, then big pharma. We did anti bioterrorism research, manufactured a rare anti-toxin for infants, and conducted clinical trials. I got into tech in 2014 to assess healthcare solutions by looking at companies using machine learning or computer vision. I decided to become a VR content creator and looked at companies working on pain management and stress reduction through VR. Most of these were still very early and so I pivoted to blockchain because there was major stuff happening there and it was really exciting. I went back to get my MBA, finished in 2017 and founded Halo VC, a syndicate on AngelList that looks at startups including healthcare, blockchain and ICOs, and frontier technology.

Now I invest in quality ICOs and I create partnerships with ICOs to empower women. We do this by trying to secure allocations for women accredited investors through a women-led syndicate I started at the beginning of 2018. We do our own due diligence and are proofs of the community we have built so far of powerful, smart, and resourceful women. So far we have some amazing partnerships! Certain men in the space have been incredibly supportive in terms of cooperating on ways to bring more women into the space.

What do you think are some of the most interesting developments in blockchain, and what do you think are some opportunities for development or things to watch today?

Ethereum has been a major player in the space. Some of the coolest projects have been built upon it and so many ICOs are using an ERC20 token to launch their business ideas. The ability to write and execute smart contracts has been one of the coolest developments I know of—it’s what makes Ethereum so much more interesting than Bitcoin. Decentralized exchanges are also awesome. 0x is a great project that is building that out.

In terms of what to watch for, I think we are all waiting for a great stable coin. That will be a game changer.

There are also some ICOs in particular who have expressed a commitment to value gender inclusion and the desire to empower women; including Pryze, Refereum, Monero, and Bloom.

The number women in cryptocurrency is still quite small, and it lies at the intersection of finance and technology—two areas in which women are still underrepresented. Is there an opportunity for women to get into this industry in ways that they haven’t in the past in these areas? Is there still work to be done to get more women involved, and if so, what?

I love this question! I recently attended the Bitcoin Miami Conference and the sea of men is quite overwhelming. I keep telling people, next year I want it to be a sea of women! If any woman wants to contact me directly I would be happy to add her to Women in Blockchain and Team Block Society; organizations I have founded to bring women together to network, learn, and most importantly to co-invest. The main way women can get into this industry in ways they haven’t before is by becoming accredited investors and then getting into high quality ICOs early. This whole industry is a boys’ club—but the positive thing is that it’s a boys’ club very open and enthusiastic about smart women joining, so it’s important to network and meet the kind people who are of the abundance mindset. They will help you and be happy about it. Also, learn to practice this yourself. If there are women in your network, try not to see them as competition and instead figure out how your niches are different enough to help each other! There is room for every hardworking woman in the space.

Many of the successful founders in blockchain and crypto that I know started coding in their tweens. It would be great if all teenage girls had access to computers, internet, and a network of supportive people.

Another thing that would help young women to succeed in the space is to educate them on already existing blockchain and crypto platforms they can use to become financially independent. Augur, for example is a blockchain company that is creating a predictions platform. People will be able to log in, create markets, and make bets. Right now it’s in beta and users can go in and test it out with practice tokens. If we can get a bunch of young women learning how to use this system, they can be making real money on it within a couple of years. Learning how to make money online can give young women financial independence so they have more choices in life and can start their own companies if they choose to. At these conferences, I only meet about one female blockchain entrepreneur per every few hundred male blockchain founders.

Is it an equal playing field? Do women have access to the same opportunities and information, and how can they best make their mark in this industry?

I think if women help each other, read a bunch, and stay diligent; we can have the same opportunities as men. But we can’t wait for someone to put it in our lap and we have to be brave and face situations that might be uncomfortable. The best way for women to make our mark in this industry is by capitalizing on our skills. If you’re a badass marketing woman, find a powerful woman CTO (chief technology officer) and work together. We bring ourselves up by bringing ourselves together.

Contact Yasmeen Drummond at cryptoprincess@outlook.com, or find her on LinkedIn.

WEF 2018 first to be chaired entirely by women and this Indian entrepreneur is among them

The World Economic Forum will be led entirely by women this year, and a trailblazing entrepreneur and advocate from India will be one of the co-chairs.

The summit in Davos, Switzerland is the world's leading organization and meeting addressing international economic issues; tackling everything from political and academic topics to opportunities and problems in industries and around the world. The summit is usually led predominantly by men, and this will be the first time in its 48-year history that it will be co-chaired entirely by women.

Chetna Sinha; founder and chair of India's Mann Deshi Foundation, which supports female entrepreneurs; will join others including International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.

Sinha has made a career supporting women entrepreneurs—especially rural women entrepreneurs—in India.

Click through to learn more about Sinha's work and the Mann Deshi Foundation, as well as the discussion she will be leading with other women at WEF about "how to create a shared future in a fractured world."

To learn more about the World Economic Forum, visit www.weforum.org.

By Pragya Srivastava

While Narendra Modi will be the first Indian Prime Minister to attend the World Economic Forum in two decades at Davos and all eyes would be on his skills to hard-sell India Inc in the wake of recent reforms to top CEOs of the world, Indian entrepreneur Chetna Sinha will be creating history by becoming a part of ‘all-women’ co-chairs for the first time in 48 years. Chetna Sinha will join world women leaders and entrepreneurs, including IMF Director Christine Lagarde and former Norwegian PM Erna Solberg.

Chetna Sinha is a banker, activist and the president of micro-finance company Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank. Called a ‘silent crusader’ by Forbes magazine, Chetna Sinha has worked to make Maharashtra’s Mhaswad a destination for women entrepreneurship. Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank became the first bank in the country for and by rural women to get a cooperative license from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Chetna Sinha’s Mann Deshi Mahila Sahkari Bank aims to provide one million women entrepreneurs with access to knowledge and capital, enabling them to have personal and professional agency in their lives. According to Yale World Fellows, Chetna Sinha abandoned the urban lifestyle to pursue a career in farming in the drought-prone area of Maharashtra. As a result, she experienced first-hand the difficulties facing women in this region, from the lack of financial support to the fact that they were not treated as viable entrepreneurs.

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All the reasons women can be the future of cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency and blockchain—an industry at the intersection of finance and technology—has seen relatively few women get involved, despite growing interest in recent years. Unfortunately, even when women are involved, they can often face more challenges than their male colleagues. However, there are promising opportunities, and a lot of potential. Click through to read about women forming groups around bitcoin and cryptocurrency; the potential for blockchain technology to help solve problems and provide financial opportunities for women; and how, despite the low numbers of women currently in blockchain and crypto, the field could be "a way to circumvent that old boy’s club" of raising capital.

The future (of cryptocurrency) is female.

After Bitcoin surpassed $10,000 in value last week, much of the discourse revolved around whether there was a bubble around the most famous form of cryptocurrency. And little wonder: someone who held one bitcoin on December 31, 2016 would have seen their asset’s value climb nearly 11 times as of late Friday.

The majority of the (admittedly volatile) gains realized by bitcoin and crypto cousins like Ethereum this year however, have gone straight into the pockets of men. Estimates of the number of women investors and users of cryptocurrency vary, but most peg female participation at between 1% to 5%. “It’s tied to the larger issue of there being few women in tech and finance generally. Given that cryptocurrency sits at the intersection, this is exacerbated,” Angela Walch, a law professor and Research Fellow at the Centre for Blockchain Technologies at University College London, tells Moneyish.

Cryptocurrency is a digital alternative medium of exchange created, secured and transmitted via blockchain technology, which links and records transactions via cryptography. It is created, or “mined,” by computers. Bitcoin, its most famous iteration, has decidedly masculine roots. It was created by anonymously using a male Japanese moniker and its earliest cheerleaders were male P.C. gamers and libertarian members of the cyberpunk communities who liked that it isn’t controlled by a governmental central bank.

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This Refugee-Turned-Entrepreneur Owns 2 IHOP Restaurants, Her Own Soul Food Restaurant, and a $250 Million Real Estate Portfolio

Business Women brings us the story of Adenah Bayoh, who immigrated to the United States at 13 from Liberia. Thriving as a refugee already showed her resilience, but Bayoh continued to grow and prosper--and extends the growth and opportunities to everyone around her. Listed as one of Ebony Magazine’s Power 100, Bayoh opened multiple restaurants, has a portfolio with more than $250 million in urban redevelopment, and has used her wealth, projects, and connections to build up the communities around her. Read below and click through to follow Bayoh's journey through investing in real estate; using her earnings to open two IHOP franchies; her newest venture in real estate development; and how she helps families, nonprofit organizations, and more.

At age 13, Adenah Bayoh escaped the civil war in her native country of Liberia, immigrated to the United States and is now one of the most successful entrepreneurs in her home state of New Jersey. She is the founder and CEO of Adenah Bayoh and Companies, which is the parent corporation that owns IHOP franchises in Newark, Paterson, and Irvington, New Jersey.

She is also the owner of a real estate development portfolio with over $250 million in urban redevelopment projects. Because of the success of her flagship IHOP in Irvington, she is the second largest employer in the Township. Recently, Adenah launched Cornbread, her signature line of fast casual, farm-to-table, soul food restaurants.

Her inspiration

Adenah began her career as an entrepreneur at an early age. After attending a public high school in Newark, New Jersey and putting herself through college, she secured a job in banking and began purchasing multifamily homes as investments. Following the financial success of these investments, she left her banking position to concentrate on building her own businesses focused on transforming and empowering disadvantaged communities.

Inspired by her grandmother, who owned a restaurant in Liberia, Adenah decided to use the profits generated from her real estate investments to open an IHOP in Irvington, New Jersey. After overcoming financial challenges and a learning curve, she cut the ribbon on her first location at age 27, making her one of the youngest IHOP franchisees in the country.

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Women Are Becoming 401(k) Millionaires Earlier Than Men

Could women's tendency to avoid risk actually be an asset when it comes to saving for retirement? LearnVest, a women-led financial planning company, discussed the recent finding that more women are hitting $1 million in their 401(k) accounts. LearnVest explores how the stereotype about women being more risk-averse when it comes to investing is challenged by this picture, and also provides readers with tips to make the most of their own 401(k) savings. Click through to read all their advice and more.

By Julia Chang

Ladies, you’ve got this.

Usually when you hear the words “retirement” and “women” in the same sentence, the news is grim. But finally, there’s some positive news: The number of women who’ve reached the $1 million-plus mark in their 401(k) accounts has doubled over the last 12 years, according to Fidelity figures provided to The New York Times.

Even more impressive? Women actually reach the milestone faster than men do, at an average age of 58½ versus 59.3.

Stereotypes about women being more risk averse than men didn’t ring true in the research. Among Fidelity’s 401(k) millionaires who earn less than $150,000, the sexes had similar investing habits; women hold about 77% of their nest egg in stocks, versus 76% for men. And both had similar rates of return and had saved for approximately the same amount of time, about 30 years.

So what’s behind these women’s retirement success? They’re putting away a higher percentage of their pay. Women in that same income demographic are saving an average of 18.1% of their salaries and receiving a 6.8% employer match, which means that the equivalent of nearly a quarter of their income is going toward retirement each year. That total for men, including the match, is at 22.8%. (This, despite the fact that these women earn a lower average salary than men — $117,000 versus $118,800.)

These stats should give us all some motivation to kick up a notch that 401(k) contribution we may have put on the back burner. What baby steps can you take now that could make a big difference down the line? Here are a few suggestions.

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Women In Cryptocurrency and How to Engage Them More

Ivy Riane at Medium.com examines the lack of women—in cryptocurrency and in finance in general—and makes the case that the newness of the crypto space presents an opportunity for women to become established as equal players in the industry.

Click through to learn about how assumptions about women's abilities keep the from entering tech and finances spaces, women's difficulties getting into industries and spaces not traditionally "meant" for them, how the future of the crypto world will benefit from the involvement of more women, and how cryptocurrency is another example of benefiting the global economy as they empower themselves. The article also provides tips for women to participate and become more involved in the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain.

By Ivy Riane

I am part of quite a few cryptocurrency and business groups on Facebook and a common topic that I see being discussed lately is the apparent lack of women in the cryptocurrency space.

According to the recent numbers:

· Facebook engagement in groups about cryptocurrency is about 9% female

· Twitter engagement of women about cryptocurrency is about 4%

These are not my numbers but I was shocked when I saw them!

One Woman Looking to Change Things

I recently started following Laura Shin on Twitter and I am quite impressed by how she is working to change the perception of cryptocurrency and of women in the space. She is a Senior Editor at Forbes and hosts the Unchained Podcast.

According to an article that I read, she has been in the space for three years and got her start working full time for Forbes when they started their Forbes FinTech 50 initiative in 2015.

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Women and Cryptocurrency: How Steemit Can Attract Women to the Crypto World

The social media platform Steemit reflects on how the company can bring more women to the growing industry of blockchain and cryptocurrency. A conversation prompted by a post by a Steemit blogger highlighting the under-representation of women in cryptocurrency led to a discussion encompassing the influences of assumption and social pressure on who joins the crypto world, financial hurdles that disproportionately affect women, and some leading female voices and communities in the field.

Read below and click through to learn more about the advantages women can bring to the industry, the role of blogging and social media, and how socially focused companies and initiatives like Steemit are positioned to help promote women in this dynamic industry.

A few day ago, @gavvet shared a post about some interesting demographic data about Steemit that showed how male presence is still highly dominant on Steemit. I wasn't surprised. When I first started my journey on Steemit and learning more about the crypto world I knew I was getting into a male territory since, similarly to other tech-powered communities, anything related to cryptocurrency is still predominantly male.

The reason to that can be attributed to the social mindset that lean some fields to the male or female side. Men get interested in the crypto world because other men are starting to invest on it. Women don't because it's not an area they feel women should step their feet into. In addition, the lack of women in the crypto world is due to the fact that in many places, like Brazil and India, a big part of women are still not financially independent and still rely on the males of their family for money-related decision making.

The Female Representation on the Cryptocurrency World

Although women, in general, haven't been attracted to cryptocurrency subjects, there are some important names representing the gender, such as Michele Seven. Known as Bitcoin Belle, she participates in discussions and podcasts about the future of Bitcoin and together with Pua Pyland, the author of the blog The Bitcoin Wife hosts a chat where 130 women from all around the world discuss cryptocurrencies and blockchain.

The forum led to the creation of the London Women in Bitcoin meetups, organized by Rhian Lewis - a digital journalist at thetimes.co.uk, co-developer of CountMyCrypto, a cryptocurrency calculator, and altcoin monitor - and Magdalena, also known as Bitcoin Mama.

The advantage of these meetups comparing to any other similar to them are that women feel more comfortable to participate and learn since general crypto meetups are regularly perceived as directed towards men. Where women perhaps would never have courage or the desire to participate in discussions with men whom they would perceive as being intimidatingly knowledgeable to address beginner questions. So it's important to remark that the question of the inclusion of women in the crypto community is directly related to how its promoters address the wider community.

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Women in Blockchain: Shroog Al Saquabi @ IBM

Digital Currency Group sits down with Shroog Al Saquabi, a senior digital consultant and blockchain champion at IBM, to discuss the wide-ranging and sometimes complicated world of blockchain. She talks about learning about blockchain from the ground up, the power and transformative potential of blockchain technology, and how the complexity behind the industry and technology poses some of the biggest challenges in terms of education—but also presents some amazing opportunities. Click through to read all of her insights.

By Meltem Demirors

Shroog Al Saqaubi is a Senior Digital Consultant and Blockchain Champion at IBM. She’s spent the last 5 years in IT industry, and has been focused on blockchain technology for nearly a year.

How did you first get introduced to the idea of blockchain technology?

I got introduced to Blockchain late 2015, I had heard the hype about this mysterious technology and I didn’t understand exactly what all the hype was about.

Early in 2016, I had a discussion with one of our IBM Middle East and Africa blockchain experts about what blockchain technology is and how it works. The first thing I understood was “it’s like a linked list data structure built on top of distributed database” and he gave me an example about how we can use it to track the provenance of luxury goods.

Then in Aug 2016, there were business and technical training courses held by IBM in Dubai, which were the first of its kind in the region as it was going very deep into the technology and included a day focused just on the writing of smart contracts. I was lucky enough to get a chance to attend them. These courses made things much clearer and understandable, but for some reason, I wasn’t convinced enough that we don’t have yet a technology that can provide the same solution and I started comparing it with some existing technologies. Since then, I’ve dedicated a lot of time learning about this technology and I’ve worked hard to understand it more and more and to differentiate it from existing technologies. Blockchain encompasses a broad category of technologies, every day I find myself discovering something new that makes me believe more that it has a critical role to play in the future of the business world. However, I have to remind myself we are still in its early stages.

At the beginning of 2017, I was appointed as IBM’s Blockchain Champion for Saudi Arabia, and have started teaching the local team about blockchain as well as engaging with IBM clients to help them understand how blockchain can transform their businesses.

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How More Women Are Stepping Up To Fund Women Entrepreneurs In 2018

We love to see women truly investing in women, and this article from Forbes makes a case that 2018 can be a stellar year for women with capital funding women entrepreneurs. Read on to discover how a growing movement to stand up to sexism and reduced opportunities for women has been galvanized by diverse funding models, a focus on underrepresented entrepreneurs, angel investors, efforts to bridge the gap in venture capital and elsewhere, and women putting their money to work for their causes—and for other women—to truly make a difference.

By Geri Stengel, WOMEN@FORBES

Evidence has found that women business owners start and raise less capital than their male counterparts. Yet, the credit risk of women-owned firms that are six or more years old are indistinguishable from their male counterparts, according to Small Business Credit Survey Report on Women-Owned Firms. The under-capitalization of women-owned firms places significant limits on their growth.

Women’s activism to correct this injustice has been building, as evidenced by the rising tide of financing options for women entrepreneurs. Now, the #MeToo movement could bring a tidal wave of funding as women are inspired to stand up and speak out against sexism.

Whether you have $25 or $25 million, here’s how women have made it possible for you to help create a tsunami of funding for women entrepreneurs.

1. Jessica Jackley cofounded Kiva so people could lend small amounts of money to entrepreneurs in the developing world. In 2009, Kiva brought its crowdfunding micro-lending model to the U.S. With a little help from friends, U.S. women entrepreneurs can raise up to a $10,000, interest-free loan through Kiva. Typically, five to 30 people you know can lend as little as $25. The rest comes from the Kiva lender community. It’s not just micro businesses which need small loans but scaling businesses too.
2. Catherine Berman and Yuliya Tarasava founded CNote. It enables savers to earn 40X greater return than a saving account by investing in women- and minority-owned businesses. It’s first product provides 2.5% interest versus the 0.06% traditional banks offer. CNote invests 100% of your dollars in Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs). These loans range from a few thousand dollars to $500,000.
3. Vicki Saunders created SheEO’s Radical Generosity to provide women entrepreneurs with larger interest-free loans. In the U.S., five hundred women (activators) make a tax-deductible contribution of $1,100, (including a $100 processing fee). Entrepreneurs compete to be one of five to divide the kitty. Activators not only become financiers but, similar to angel investors, share their expertise, connections and marketing support to help grow the companies they support.

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Women in Bitcoin and Blockchain Tech — An Opportunity

Digital Currency Group's Meltem Demirors discusses women's role in the budding industry of blockchain. She notes that women make up a minority of participants in blockchain and cryptocurrency—but many see room for growth. Opportunities abound for mentorship, education, and other ways to encourage and support more women in the growing and rich field, providing what Demirors calls "a tremendous opportunity."

Click through to read more about women's prospects in bitcoin and blockchain, current statistics and the environment and demographic makeup in cryptocurrency today, some of the women who are already standing out in the field, and more.

By Meltem Demirors

When I first started my journey down the bitcoin rabbit hole, I never expected to be surrounded by so many women. People always seem surprised that there are a lot of women who work on various problems — whether technical, academic, commercial, regulatory, or PR — in both bitcoin and blockchain technology.

It’s been fantastic to be surrounded by such a supportive group of powerful, highly intelligent women who are tackling some of the most challenging problems the budding bitcoin and blockchain technology community will face over the coming decades. One of the things that I’ve been excited about working on is more efforts to get diversity into the spotlight — it’s still very much a man’s world, and the stats reveal some exciting opportunities for our community.

Important caveat: This post is not intended to be critical, but constructive so I hope it comes across that way. Feel free to leave critiques in the comments or send me a note at meltem at dcg dot co if you want to provide feedback or talk offline.

Numbers Don’t Lie

Just looking at the DCG portfolio of companies we’ve invested in over the last 3 years, here’s what I found (full disclosure — using mostly publicly available information from company websites, CrunchBase, LinkedIn, etc. so numbers are intended to be directional, not absolute)

• Our 67 portfolio companies collectively employ 944 people (amazing!). Of those, 163 are women. That’s 17% which is on the low end for tech, but it is much higher than I anticipated. The geometric average (mean) per company was 12%.
• 23 of our 67 companies, or over one third, employ no women at all. None of these companies have over 10 employees. This suggests women are typically not involved in the early stages of company building, which may be because:
• The most common role for women is (in order) Executive Assistant, Office Manager, PR / Marketing / Communications, Regulatory / Compliance, Finance
• There were only 4 female engineers in my sample set. Overall, there are probably about a dozen female engineers in the entire space.
• The company with the highest ratio of women employed 50% women, and it was one of only a handful of companies that employed non-white females. The second highest employed 46%. The next was below 30%.

What I see from looking at these numbers is a tremendous opportunity. We can build the community we want if we all work together to address issues at all stages of the funnel. I would love to bring together all of the leaders in the bitcoin community and identify how we can all become more aware, more proactive, and more pragmatic in building a rich, diverse community of stakeholders.

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Women in Blockchain: Carolyn Reckhow at ConsenSys

We've been following the series from Digital Currency Group highlighting women in Blockchain, and were inspired by this interview with Carolyn Reckhow, director of operations at ConsenSys. Reckhow discusses what interests and compels her about cryptocurrency, the applications and potential of Blockchain, her role at ConsenSys and what it means to be part of a burgeoning industry, her company's focus on consumer applications in the Blockchain industry, and more. Read an excerpt below, and click through to read more.

Connect with Reckhow on LinkedIn.

By Meltem Demirors

When did you get into bitcoin?

I never got into Bitcoin, though I followed it a bit on Reddit in 2011. What really captured my interest was the advent of Ethereum, in particular the way that it was presented to me from peers in law and social science academia — as a paradigm shifting technology with incredible social, economic, and political implications. I was getting a graduate degree in Boston in winter 2014/15 when I was introduced to some folks that quickly became friends. They were a melange of people working/studying at Harvard Law and the MIT Media Lab and had all been brought together by their interest in smart contracts and Ethereum. We formed an informal working group we called a “salon” where we gathered weekly and nerded out about DAOs, smart contracts, the sharing economy, and a variety of blockchain use cases. Primavera de Filippi (one of the salon members) invited me to attend the first COALA blockchain workshop in March 2015. I flew out to Palo Alto where I joined a hackathon team with two members of ConsenSys. We won the hackathon with Fabriq, a identity and reputation management app for communities built on Ethereum. Not long after working with the Fabriq team to launch a prototype in May 2015, I officially joined the ConsenSys team.

What did you do before you got into this?

I was in academia, specifically social sciences. Long before this I worked as a therapist/social worker….and I still definitely practice as a “therapist” everyday running Ops for ConsenSys.

What’s been the most interesting experience you’ve had in your role so far?

Just being a part of the “blockchain 2.0”/Ethereum industry as it has grown from a research project into helping Fortune 500 companies build production blockchain applications. That’s been exciting beyond belief.

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Bitcoin: New Financial System or Same Old Boys' Club?

By VALENTINA ZARYA

December 15, 2017

As the price of Bitcoin soared to record highs this week—$10,000, $15,000, then $17,000—the meteoric rise that turned early investors into paper billionaires fueled talk of how the cryptocurrency and its underlying technology, blockchain, could wholly remake the banking system. As MIT researchers argued in a Harvard Business Review article earlier this year: “Blockchain will do to the banking system what the Internet did to media.”

Among the many questions about the future of Bitcoin and its peers—Is it a bubble? Will it pop?—is whether the cryptocurrency industry, like its traditional predecessor, will be molded mainly by men.

Like so many other aspects of the relatively new and purposefully cryptic assets, an answer is difficult to pin down. There’s little data on the gender makeup of investors and entrepreneurs, but to women already in the field, it feels like cryptocurrency is following in banking’s loafer-shaped footsteps.

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Finances push half of women out of college

biz journals.com - Unexpected college expenses have an impact on where students choose to go to school and if they graduate, according to a new study.

Charles Schwab and 1,000 Dreams Fund, a scholarship program for young women, surveyed 1,092 men and women between the ages of 18 and 25 about how their financial knowledge affected their college experience.

Young women were more likely than young men to feel they weren't prepared to manage their money while in college – 51 percent versus 39 percent – and 52 percent of young women said they had to drop out because of finances, per the study. The majority of female students – 68 percent – said their financial standing also impacted their school choice.

About 74 percent of students said they couldn't afford extra college activities like study abroad programs and unpaid internships, even though the same percentage of students believe those are important to reaching professional goals.

A recent study from Thrivent Student Loan Resources found that 68 percent of college students believe they should be paying for all or most of their college education.

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(Photo: zimmytws)

Anu Bhardwaj Interviewed on DubaiEye’s Nightline Podcast with Dr. James Piecowye

We’re so excited to have our founder, Anu Bhardwaj, featured on DubaiEye’s Nightline Podcast with Dr. James Piecowye. She discusses what first led her to explore women’s investing potential, the founding and growth of Women Investing in Women and The State of Women, challenges and opportunities facing women investors especially in the Middle East, the role men and women play in investing and gender equality, and much more.

“The only way we’re going to solve this issue of getting more women-led companies funded is by getting more women investors. So that’s really our goal: to educate, inspire and motivate women to really sit at the table and make these decisions,” she tells Piecowye.