The impact of women entrepreneurs on the tech world
Tampa, Fla. (March 26, 2025) – March is not only the start of spring flowers and basketball brackets, but it’s also a time to recognize the hard work of women everywhere. This Women’s History Month, Connected Nation is recognizing strong women leaders in tech and how we couldn’t progress in the digital age without them! Many of these leaders are entrepreneurs who find great importance in closing the Digital Divide by sharing their technological breakthroughs with others.
Since the technology industry is considered a male-dominated field, women encounter many hurdles when pursuing these careers or creating their own. Women struggle to find employment in tech jobs and are often underpaid even if they do secure a position. Even as technological advancements have increased over the past 30 years, the ratio of women to men in tech roles has decreased. Additionally, women earn an average of $15,000 less than men in the same roles and face significant barriers to funding to start their own tech companies.
More equitable representation in tech fields is not only important for women, who make up half of the world’s population, but it’s also beneficial for businesses. Research shows that companies with women founders can generate 12% higher revenues than men in the same position.
Because of the still-too-prevalent employment and pay gap between women and men, it’s vital to recognize the women leaders who have paved the way for future entrepreneurs and learn their tips for success.
Canva: Recognizing community needs
Melanie Perkins is co-founder and CEO of Canva, an online graphic design platform that empowers anyone to create digital graphics easily, regardless of skill level.
Australian-born Perkins was only 19 when she launched what would become Canva. She realized that students spent entire semesters learning complex design software just to produce their school’s yearbook, so she developed a tool that made yearbook design a whole lot easier. By recognizing this one small need, she made graphic design more accessible and changed the way people use it today.
Perkins and her co-founders had to overcome many challenges before their company came to fruition, including being dismissed by most investors who believed her small startup could never live up to competitors. She persisted and stuck to her vision regardless of the pushback, and now is CEO to a platform with over 170 million users.
Her impact on the community doesn’t end there. Canva, currently valued at $40 billion, pledged to give away 80% of their fortune to the Canva Foundation for charitable causes. They’re using this money to give back to the world, from distributing money to vulnerable families in Southern Africa to planting trees for every print order they service.
“If the whole thing was about building wealth, that would be the most uninspiring thing I could possibly imagine,” Perkins said in an interview with Forbes.
Y Combinator: Women supporting women
Jessica Livingston created Y Combinator (YC) for those building small startups just like Canva. Thanks to her, over 2,000 businesses — including Airbnb and Instacart — exist today. YC is an incubator for developing and funding early-stage technology startups, setting them up for success within three months.
Livingston understands women face many obstacles as tech startup founders. She believes that even though there are more challenges for women, that doesn’t mean they should shy away from pursuing their vision. At YC’s Female Founders Conference, Livingston observed that there isn’t much news coverage of the many female entrepreneurs who quietly and successfully build their companies. She wants YC to be a place that supports all female founders.
“If you want to start a startup, just go ahead and do it, and don’t let yourself be intimidated or distracted by all the noise,” Livingston said in her keynote.
Lynda.com: Building digital skills
Lynda Weinman is dubbed by many as a “mother of the internet” for good reason. In 1995, she launched Lynda.com as a place where students could get free educational resources. Today, it has evolved into something far bigger.
Weinman, a former web design teacher, created the website with her husband, Bruce, as a way to communicate with her students. A year later, she published one of the first web design textbooks after realizing there were no books that explained the topic in terms an average reader would understand. After the book’s success, the Weimans started renting out high school computer labs to host weeklong web design classes. These courses soon became the main focus of the business; they got such a positive response, they had to turn people away.
At the company’s peak in 2001, it took a hit and had to move online to survive. Weinman didn’t give up and stuck to her mission of equipping people with digital skills. Her hard work paid off about five years later.
Lynda.com became a hub for free software trainings and tutorials for people from all walks of life. In 2015, LinkedIn bought the company for $1.5 billion, and the platform became LinkedIn Learning. Thanks to Weinman’s vision, people use the platform today to learn business, AI, tech, and creative skills, all from their own laptop. Worth $260 million, she became one of the most successful self-made women in America.
“You are going to get through all the hardships and pain, but they are necessary to make you stronger and wiser,” Weinman said in an interview with Forbes.
Pushing past the obstacles
These success stories demonstrate why it’s so important to support aspiring women leaders in tech, especially those who have long been overlooked. While acknowledging the challenges, many of these successful women leaders have chosen to push through regardless of the negative outlook on women in tech. Women like them, and many more, have made the biggest differences in history when they follow their dreams, despite facing inequality.
YC Founder Livingston agrees. “That’s not only the best plan for you personally, but it’s also the best way to fix these problems.”
Past Connected Nation Women’s History Month articles:
- Influential women in the technology industry: Radia Perlman
- Tech’s gender gap: Exploring women’s forgotten contributions
- How a national nonprofit is demonstrating ways to #BreakTechBias in technology
- Influential women in the tech industry: Susan Wojcicki
- It’s time for even more women to take on tech
- Pushing through barriers: What value women bring to the job market
About the author: Kailynn Bannon supports the Connected Nation team by writing blogs, editing videos and podcasts, managing social media, and creating newsletters. Her responsibilities also include researching video marketing trends and analyzing website and social media metrics, while enhancing various communications materials like brochures and event invitations.