From Here to Autonomy

Femalities: A breakdown of SXSW and a lot of other stuff from a woman's point of view

Jory Des Jardins — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:33:40 -0700

Don't know what it is--the fact that I've just emerged from a weekend at SXSW, it was International Women's Day on Friday, I got snubbed by a "prominent" male investor/entrepreneur that in the virtual world I respected, though in person not so much--but I am feeling my womanness of late. And no, guys, it's not because it's that time of the month. If anything, it's the world who's experiencing a hormonal shift. A digital analyst that I bumped into at SX in the lobby of the Hilton asked me what struck me as the big story at SX. I gave...

The Storyteller: and how finding my "word" helped me embrace entrepreneurism

Jory Des Jardins — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:04:35 -0800

Years ago (and I mean YEARS--back in 2001), I was referred to Kimberly Wiefling as a coach by a dear friend. I was in my 20s and working at a dying tech startup and silently panicking about what to do with myself. I'd moved from New York to San Francisco to work at this startup, and now that it was in a death spiral, with the excitement of taking a company to acquisition or IPO dried up, I felt like a fish out of water. My career in publishing was back in New York, I reasoned, but over the past...

In the wake of horror, why do we blame each other?

Jory Des Jardins — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:30:04 -0700

My heart goes out to everyone on the East Coast who has lost power, property, and in a few cases, loved ones, due to Hurricane Sandy. I sit here in mostly Sunny California (OK, it rained last night during Halloween, but it doesn't blip on the inconvenience scale) and truly feel for everyone in the Tri-State area. But I feel a deeper sadness for a horrific tragedy that occurred just a few days before. One so painful that I can't even read an entire story about it or link to it--the tragic slaying of two children by their nanny. One...

Scenes from Maternity Leave, Installment #1: Nesting

Jory Des Jardins — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 15:28:46 -0700

Some people have a rodent problem; at my house it's the catalogues that seem to enter through the walls and procreate. They showed up in trickles and then seemed to arrive at a steadier rate the closer we got to the arrival of my second daughter. Now, a week into her life, it seems they are being drop-shipped in bulk. Or perhaps I'm just noticing them more. I try to resist earmarking every page of the LL Bean catalog. It's a funny thing--the hormonal shifts that accompany the post-natal period. All of a sudden I could see myself in a...

The Parasite Economy

Jory Des Jardins — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 13:12:20 -0700

Who would have thunk that Gymboree could shed light on the dilemmas of tech and media businesses? As I do every week, I was with my daughter at a play class for 2 year olds. She has a thing for picking up balls and tossing them into a bin--something I don't discourage. She's rather obsessive about it; she likes to pick up EVERY ball, even the ones in the far corners of the room. I watched her pick up on behalf of the rest of the kids, and just as she was about to toss in the last ball, a...

BlogHer'12: It isn't about ME?

Jory Des Jardins — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:37:38 -0700

As the chatter about the BlogHer'12 Conference intensifies this week, I find myself in both an enviable and jealous place. Enviable, because I have the first-time luxury of viewing the excitement as others in the community do--in blog posts, on Twitter and across social media--something that Lisa, Elisa, and I try to do but never really get to do while we're onsite at BlogHer. Jealous, because I am watching from the sidelines this year--36 weeks pregnant. And while confident in my decision to not fly to NYC and run around on my feet all week (like I did at BH'10,...

On working and having babies

Jory Des Jardins — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 15:12:20 -0700

Bless you Marissa Mayer for taking the helm of Yahoo while being six months pregnant. I'm not joking! While you are hardly the first CEO/Mama to exist, you took the job at the height of your career, which just happened to coincide with those years when mothers/gynecologists/childbearing friends start to needle with good intentions about the approach of the "cliff"--you know the one; when good ovarian eggs suddenly become less easy to come by. You were in a position of power, and already pregnant, when a board concluded that they needed your talents. You didn't need to be apologetic or...

A Woman in Tech/Media's Take on Yahoo's Hiring of Marissa Mayer as CEO

Jory Des Jardins — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 16:06:43 -0700

I've had 24 hours to marinate on the news of Marissa Mayer's appointment as CEO of Yahoo. Initially I was shocked by the immediacy of it all--Mayer resigned from Google Monday and started her new post at Yahoo! today, just days after reports of Jason Kilar taking himself out of consideration and Ross Levinsohn seeming the logical next choice. It seemed a Hail Mary move to save a company that was stroking out in the press; a shot of adrenaline thrust into the heart of an Internet giant that could either save it, or leave it a near-corpse, damaged from...

Don't Hate me Because I Leave the Office at 4pm

Jory Des Jardins — Sat, 05 May 2012 15:36:15 -0700

It was such a provocative headline on Inc.com I just had to check it out: "Sheryl Sandberg Leaves Work at 5:30. Why Can't You?" Provocative, I suppose, to women who work full time, on their own or on someone else's business, and who at some point in their careers wanted more in their work day than just work. Women like me, who clicked on the headline in her news aggregator, wondering, "and just how does she do that?" The Inc. Magazine piece cites a video for Makers.com, a video project on AOL, in which Sandberg says: "I walk out of...

How Entrepreneurs Should Network, According to Moi

Jory Des Jardins — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 19:47:28 -0700

BlogHer has held events for seven years now, and all of them have something special about them. The Annual (we'll have our EIGHTH this year!!) in the summer is like a wedding--It's overwhelming, and yet, the show must go on. I always end up feeling like I didn't get to speak to anyone for any substantive length of time. Our smaller events are equally important, but feel less formal. For instance, with BlogHer Food I'm more an observer who moderates a panel from time to time. I get to experience more of these events as an attendee experiences them. BlogHer...