Considering the Arab Innovation Academy in Doha, Qatar

I'm considering joining the Arab Innovation Academy (AIA). It's patterned on the European Innovation Academy, this new extreme accelerator for the Arab world is run by Maher Hakim, the managing director of the Qatar Science & Technology Park. I had the pleasure of working directly with Maher when he was the Chief of Chief Mentors at the European Innovation Academy in Nice in 2016! The AIA program will be delivered for the first time in Doha, Qatar in January 2018 

In the Winner's Circle: 50% of my teams won the 2017 European Innovation Academy, Italy

(To my teams: you are all stars!!)

Giving my Day 7 keynote in Turin, on how to build revenue-producing and meaningful community. "Find why your first users are invested and then deliver on their motivations," was among my recommendations to the participants of Europe's largest extreme accelerator

It was my pleasure to be the chief mentor to six start up teams in the Gaming, Media & Entertainment sector at the European Innovation Academy last month in Turin, Italy.

For ten foundational days, I guided 30 participants through team and business building before additional specialist mentors joined us to take them to pitch their startups to Silicon Valley and global investors. 

Out of 95 total teams, 4 of my teams progressed to the Pitching Carousel of 40 teams which presented to venture capitalists

• Sympha, a creative exchange for the indie music community
• aLive, a realtime nightlife promotion platform
• ARCatalogs, an augmented reality play for restaurants
• Kumpa, a gamification app that turns exercise into social workouts

3 of my teams then made it into the Top 10 winner's circle. You can read the Italian press on the winners.

• Kumpa
• the ranking app Totem (a last minute wild card entry, Totem also won the Nixon Peabody Trademark Scholarship)
• and ARCatalogs. 

So, 5 of my 6 teams made it to the final rounds of the program. That means 83% of our cohort 'showed' in the final rounds of the program.  This is a stupendous achievement, congratulations to all of you!

This is Kumpa, a sports gamification start-up that transforms your favorite games into fun and social workouts.

Shout out to these international mentors who also worked with my cohort on: marketing (Americans Jesse Leimgruber, PJ Leimgruber, and Italian Francesco Fiume), IT (Polish Bartek Jazwinski), and design (Estonian Tanel Eero), and, team dynamics (Italian Claudia Chiavarino). Also, thanks to Federico Mammano, my fellow chief mentor in the other Gaming, Media, and Entertainment cohort, for his pitching challenges and AR expertise! 

This is ARCatalogs which makes augmented reality menus for restaurants.

This is aLive, a nightlife platform where users can see and share what's happening around them in real time, leveraging the power of influencers. aLive made it to the Pitching Carousel round.

Here's BidCar, my sixth team, which was building a blind auction for car sales. Chief Business Officer Miguel Valdez delivered a 1 minute story-based pitch on Day 6 in front of another gaming, media, entertainment cohort and our design and IT mentors watching, on the right:

For your accomplishments in team building and business building, congrats to the winners, the carousel pitchers, all the teams of the Gaming, Media, and Entertainment cohorts, and all the teams of EIA Turin 2017. It was fun mentoring you and I look forward to seeing what you do next!

Joining Silicon Valley Jumpstart Program As A Mentor

Excited to join JUMPSTART PROGRAM as a mentor in this startup event produced by the Silicon Valley Forum and Wasabi Ventures Global.

You may recall I've already had the pleasure of working with Wasabi principal Jeff Abbott as a chief mentor for two summers at the European Innovation Academy. I'm looking forward to contributing to his new intensive program.

Launching in fall of 2017, this 6-day hands-on experience is designed for international startups and scaleups seeking to enter the US market. It will address technology, organization, cultural differences, marketing & sales, financing, and more.

It's for you if:

• You want to develop and refine your scaling strategy
• You believe you’re ready to enter the US market
• You want to broaden your network of potential customers, mentors, partners and investors in the US
• You want to jumpstart your efforts and make 6 months of progress in one week
• You want to have a clear plan before investing time and precious resources in developing a US presence via unfocused experimentation
• You’re ready to have an intense, action-packed week in Silicon Valley and make friends for life with other founders facing similar challenges 

September 5th is the last day to apply!

Love hanging with my fellow mentors, program leads, & university observers!

Fun dinner with chief mentors, VCs, university observers, life coaches & family from the European @innovationacademy in Turin!! Photos by Radha! #eiamoments #eia2017italy#eia2017turin #accelerator #startups#entrepreneurship #Torino #Turin

I love supporting global women entrepreneurs, like Sydney Alfonso

Considering getting evicted due to Netflix's Original Series Sense8, TBT

Joining ITUGate as a mentor

Happy to join the global mentors of Istanbul Technical University's International Start-Up Acceleration Program ITUGATE. During their six month stay in San Francisco this year, I'll be mentoring a set of technology-producing companies and entrepreneurs entering the US & international markets.

Read more about ITU ARI Teknokent's program to help companies to enter the US market and to provide access to Silicon Valley. It's based at Galvanize, one of the best startup centers in San Francisco. 

The Berkeley Method Bootcamp: Mentor & Pitch Judge

This was one of the startups I judged at The Berkeley Method Bootcamp, Fall 2016, UC Berkeley's Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology -- and the team our room sent to the finals.

Featured in a video interview for BMOE, talking about the issues of early stage startups.

Interviewed for a Growth Hacking thesis

...by an Irish entrepreneur from the European Innovation Academy this summer. Here are his questions, and my answers:

    •    What is growth hacking in your opinion?

Accelerating the usual rate of growth of a product or service.

    •    How relevant is growth hacking for start ups?

It’s required for startups to differentiate themselves from lifestyle businesses and other non-scaleable businesses.

    •    In your opinion, has there been a paradigm shift away from traditional sales and marketing? If so, is it here to stay? If not, why not?

Marketers would say no, growth hacking is the same as marketing. What might be different is the time scale.

    •    What are the characteristics required to be a growth hacker?

Knowing where people are, how they can be reached, and what it’s worth costing to do so.

    •    Is an appreciation of marketing and coding needed to growth hack successfully or is a deeper understanding required?

Expert growth hackers would probably say there is a deeper understanding, but I think anyone can be a growth hacker to a basic degree. I like growthhackers.com as a resource for newcomers.

    •    What method / methods of growth hacking did you or your organisation employ to gain traction? 

The last startup I worked with was so unfamiliar with growth hacking they refused to consider the San Francisco and Silicon Valley standards I suggested. They are not based in the USA. This would have been a way for them to level the playing field, and I suggest it for startups outside the USA.

    •    Should big data be embraced in the customer acquisition process or is privacy becoming more important?

If you can get access to data, by all means, use it. Also, don’t be a creep, and think of the user. There is plenty of data users don’t mind parting with for real value. It does not have to be a privacy issue.

    •    Are there a set of steps a startup can take in order to optimise the growth hacking process? Is growth hacking an art or a science or a combination of both?

It’s both an art and a science. As I suggested earlier, try tapping into the community of growth hackers at growthhackers.com

Chief Mentor At The European Innovation Academy

Honored to be a Chief Mentor at the European Innovation Academy this summer in Nice, France. (That's like Tim Gunn's role on Project Runway, for up to 7 groups of entrepreneurs.)

500 college student entrepreneurs will take an idea to a tech startup in 15 days in this program that brings together faculty from 75 nations, and education programs developed with universities and organizations like UC Berkeley, Stanford, Google, IBM and Amadeus.

Thanks to Ajda Mustafova for making this connection.

Global women's leadership issues advocacy, TBT

Nine years ago:

Seven years ago:

Leading A Social Brand Workshop For Young Pros In Silicon Valley

Loved speaking on social branding with Tanya Monsef Bunger to the Silicon Valley branch of TurkishWIN (Turkish Women's International Network).

Thanks to our experts @AnastasiaAshman @TMonsefBunger, @CarrFerrell for hosting us, and amazing SF Chapter team! pic.twitter.com/aGmmQGvuAd

— TurkishWIN (@turkishwin) December 3, 2015

The event took place at Carr & Ferrell LLP. Menlo Park, December, 2015.

Set 2016 Intentions for Your Online Presence from Anastasia Ashman

Dynamite Waiting To Happen: My Fantasy Speaker List For A Conference On Global Women Entrepreneurs

Originally posted 12/9/2013, still want this to happen!

Thinking about who I’d want to hear from on the topic of global women entrepreneurship, started a list of women whose thinking, feats and contributions in those three colliding spheres happen to bowl me over, and have, for YEARS.

And when I write ‘global’ I don’t mean ‘outside of the US’. I mean global thinker. Global acknowledger. A woman owning her spot that’s bigger than a particular place. Someone who considers deeply on a regular basis what it takes to operate in the world, and in the world today. This incorporates media, and politics, the economy, culture and society, business and tech.

To me, ‘global’ means people connecting dots that have never been connected before. These global women entrepreneurs are necessarily feminist, they are people pioneering their lives and work in ways we can all learn from.

I’d love to see them all speak together, both separately and in panel discussions.

Female wisdom nurturer, creative thinker and author Justine Musk. Haven’t met her in person yet, but will soon, and we will compare some odd overlaps in our lives, like rocket scientist pasts, and writing books influenced by The Great Gatsby featuring characters with multiple personalities. Know her mind and her heart, and her capacity to help us all be who we really want to be.

Multidisciplinary strategist, educator and jeweler Shefaly Yogendra, whose principled verve and deep perspective I’ve been enjoying on Twitter and Quora for many years. We’ve only managed to spend a morning together in London but I know there are many more adventures and discussions yet to have.

My fellow global nomad, Istanbul writing group colleague and author Nassim Assefi, who’s the director of stage content for TEDMED’14 as well as a global women’s health doctor and single mama extraordinaire. The woman attended at the birth of her own daughter. She wins everything in my book.

Worldwide people connector and super-techy Joyent SmartOS community manager Deirdre Straughan, a fellow international operator I met through a Twitter friend who went to boarding school with her in India. She’s forgotten more than most of us will ever know about digital publishing, and the Italian culture. She’s also the kind of woman to say, “I rock!” and be quite right.

LadyBits founder and “feminist cyborg” Arikia Millikan, who’s pioneering a new media model for writing that tech-savvy women want to read, and she’s doing it during a year’s trip around the world.

Future thinker Nilofer Merchant, author of the totally prescient Social Era Rules and role model for me in making good use of her resources, and telling us what she wants and what she cares about and what she sees, even (and especially?) when it costs her to do so. Nilofer suggests Al Jazeera politics and economy columnist Sarah Kendzior, whose writing on Central Asia has also captivated me.

More names started coming.

Another Bryn Mawr woman, an immigration and startup specialist who I met through the expatriate network and then in person on the Expat Harem book tour in Washington D.C., Kirin Kalia.

There’s global entrepreneurship author of “Steve Jobs Lives In Pakistan” Elmira Bayrasli, who I met through the Expat Harem blog’s discussions about our mirror-image lives as she is a New Yorker of Turkish descent. Elmira’s launching FPInterrupted, a startup to raise the voices of women in foreign policy.

More insistent names are coming to me.

Like new media-old media-McKinsey social media dynamo Aparna Mukherjee, who I’ve had the pleasure of being wowed by in Manila, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, New York, San Francisco and Istanbul since we met at an Asia-Pacific college reunion in the 1990s.

Like Michele Wucker, author and president of World Policy Institute.

I think we SHOULD make it happen, Fifi Haroon, mediamaker and political activist. (Fifi was my mate at college and we’ve been working our way back to each other for 30 years!)