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View Poornima’s bio, speaking engagements, background on Femgineer and its products, hi-res photos, and videos.
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Poornima Vijayashanker Founder
Boilerplate
Femgineer is an educational company based in Palo Alto, CA that provides lean product development courses, guides, and resources designed to empower tech entrepreneurs of all backgrounds and promote inclusivity in the tech industry. Since 2007, Femgineer has guided innovators toward rewarding tech careers by teaching them how to launch and grow profitable products and companies. For more information on Femgineer, please email help@femgineer.com or visit http://www.femgineer.com.
Background on the Company
Femgineer started in 2007 as a blog to share Poornima Vijayashanker’s experiences as founding engineer at Mint.com. Today, it is an education company with a mission to teach innovators how to build great software products so they can find freedom in their careers, make a positive impact on people’s lives, and make the tech world more inclusive and flexible. Femgineer’s team includes instructors and writers who are experts on product development, design, and marketing. The company’s students and readers are women and men around the world, both technical and non-technical, who are passionate about tech.
LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT COURSE: Femgineer runs a Lean Product Development Course, which teaches students how to take a product idea, launch it as a software product, and turn it into a profitable business. The course features an 8-module step-by-step process, community support, and mentorship from experts in design, marketing, and software development. Learn more
HOW TO TRANSFORM YOUR IDEAS INTO SOFTWARE PRODUCTS_BOOK:In 2014, Poornima published a 348-page guide to help readers take an idea and turn it into a software product. It features step-by-step exercises, 7 interviews with successful startup founders and early employees, 13 case studies on companies like Mint.com, AirBnB, and Zappos. Learn more
SPEAKING: Poornima runs corporate workshops at startups and Fortune 500 companies, and speaks at conferences on topics related to entrepreneurship and technical careers. Learn more
FAQs
What does Femgineer do?
Femgineer develops courses, guides, workshops, and talks that teach the principles of software product development, design, marketing, and funding.
For whom?
Femgineer’s education services are for innovators who are passionate about building great software: both independent entrepreneurs and professionals at tech companies, both men and women, both technical and non-technic
Why?
So that our students can lead rewarding careers, build a business they love that gives them and their employees freedom, and make a positive impact on the people their software serve. We hope to redefine the model of a successful tech company and professional career, making the culture of the tech industry more inclusive and flexible.
What is Femgineer's specialty?
Our specialty is software, so we focus on helping people build mobile and web apps. We also place an emphasis on taking action, and push our students to produce tangible results.
Poornima’s Bio
Short Bio (125 words)
Poornima Vijayashanker is an entrepreneur, engineer, author, and speaker who has made her mark on the tech world. A graduate of Duke University, Poornima was the founding engineer at Mint where she helped build, launch, and scale the product until it was acquired by Intuit. Following the acquisition, Poornima went on to launch Femgineer, an education company for tech professionals and entrepreneurs who want to learn how to build software products and companies.
Poornima speaks at industry events around the world and has authored the book, How to Transform Your Ideas into Software Products, and Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking with Karen Catlin. Having served as the EIR at 500 Startups, Poornima has also lectured at her alma mater’s Pratt School of Engineering.
Medium-length Bio (214 words)
Poornima Vijayashanker is an entrepreneur, engineer, author, and speaker who has made her mark on the tech world. Poornima’s fascination with technology began at the age of three when she discovered that her father made “chips” and “wafers”, or in other words, “potato chips” and “cookies”. After visiting her father’s fab (fabrication lab), nine-year-old Poornima learned what chips and wafers were and became inspired by technology’s potential for humanity.
A graduate of Duke University with a double major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Poornima became the founding engineer at Mint where she helped build, launch, and scale the product until it was acquired by Intuit. Following the acquisition, Poornima went on to launch her own companies: BizeeBee, a CRM solution for the fitness industry, and Femgineer, an education company for tech professionals and entrepreneurs who want to learn how to build software products and companies.
Poornima speaks at industry events around the world and conducts private workshops, where she shares her insights, inspiration, and knowledge with global audiences. Additionally, Poornima has authored the book, How to Transform Your Ideas into Software Products, and Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking with Karen Catlin. Having served as the EIR at 500 Startups, Poornima has also lectured at her alma mater’s Pratt School of Engineering.
Long Bio (372 words)
Poornima Vijayashanker is an entrepreneur, engineer, author, and speaker who has made her mark on the tech world. Her fascination with technology began at the age of three when she discovered that her father made “chips” and “wafers”, or in other words, “potato chips” and “cookies”. After visiting her father’s fab (fabrication lab), nine-year-old Poornima learned what chips and wafers were and became inspired by technology’s potential for humanity.
After graduating from Duke University with a double major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Poornima set her sights on Silicon Valley where she was lured into the land of startups. She became a founding engineer at Mint where she helped build, launch, and scale the product until it was acquired by Intuit. Following the acquisition, Poornima launched her own companies: BizeeBee, a CRM solution for the fitness industry, and Femgineer, an education company for tech professionals and entrepreneurs who want to learn how to build software products and companies.
Femgineer began as a blog about engineering, but then expanded to include posts about startups and entrepreneurship to create more robust content, which took off as she began collecting a dedicated following. Her modest goals — to have a creative outlet and showcase how women can be sophisticated and cultured while still being engineers — resonated with the community and she has since turned the blog into a business to help other professional tech women level up their careers. Today, Femgineer has evolved into an education company that teaches all tech professionals and entrepreneurs how to build forward-thinking products and companies. Poornima’s blog is still one of Femgineer’s free resources, where she continues to share her thoughts on everything from silliness in serious moments, to the myth of effortless perfection, to ways to think about funding product development.
Having found her voice in the tech scene by speaking at industry events and conducting private workshops, Poornima shares her insights, inspiration, and knowledge with audiences around the world. Poornima has authored the book, How to Transform Your Ideas into Software Products, and most recently, Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking with Karen Catlin. Poornima has also served as the EIR at 500 Startups and lectured at her alma mater’s Pratt School of Engineering.
Recent Speaking Engagements
Poornima is a prolific public speaker who speaks at conferences and hosts workshops at universities, startups, and Fortune 500 companies.
Speaking
“Taking the Time to Tinker”
Poornima’s talk at TEDxNavesink on May 2014
Karen’s Bio
Short Bio
Karen Catlin is a leadership coach and advocate for women in the tech industry. She coaches professionals in public speaking and last year she delivered a TEDx talk: “Women in Tech – The Missing Force.” Karen is on the Board of Directors of The CLUB, an incubator of women leaders. Through Brown University Women’s Launch Pad, she mentors young women about to start their careers.
Formerly, Karen was a vice president at Adobe Systems. In 2015, the California State Assembly honored her with the Wonder Women Tech Innovator Award for outstanding achievements in business and technology and for being a role model for women.
Karen holds a degree in Computer Science from Brown University.
Long Bio
Karen Catlin is a leadership coach, author, and speaker who is an influential leader in the tech industry. Karen has held several positions at Adobe Systems and eventually became a vice president to the CTO. Following her time at Adobe, Karen launched Karen Catlin Consulting to focus her energy on developing tech’s next generation of powerful women leaders and advising tech companies during their quest to improve gender diversity.
Karen, who holds a Computer Science degree from Brown University, was honored with the 2015 Wonder Women in Tech Innovator Award by the California State Assembly for her outstanding achievements in business and technology and for being a role model for women. Additionally, Karen is on the Board of Directors of The CLUB, An Incubator of Women Leaders, and mentors young women through Brown University Women’s Launch Pad.
Karen has written articles for Inc., Fast Company, The Daily Beast, and Women 2.0, and most recently, she has collaborated on the book, Present! A Techie’s Guide to Public Speaking with Poornima Vijayashanker. Karen speaks at events and conferences around the world, and in 2014, delivered her TEDx talk: Women in Tech – The Missing Force.
