Poornima has been fascinated by technology since she was 3. Her father, a hardware engineer, made “chips” and “wafers,” which she thought were potato chips and cookies! Eventually her dad took her to his fab (fabrication laboratory) when she was 9, where she sat and watched how chips and wafers were made and tested. Inspired by all that technology could do for humanity, she double majored in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Duke University, then moved to Silicon Valley, where she was lured into startup land. She was the founding engineer at Mint.com. Since its acquisition she has gone on to start two more companies: BizeeBee, a CRM solution for fitness businesses, and Femgineer, an education company for tech professionals and entrepreneurs. She recently taught at Duke University’s Pratt School of Engineering.
The blog part of Femgineer started out as Poornima’s creative outlet, where she wrote about engineering, then startups and entrepreneurship, and 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 turned the blog into a business to help other tech women level up their careers. Poornima’s blog is still one of Femgineer’s free resources, where you can find her thoughts on everything from silliness in serious moments, to the myth of effortless perfection, to ways to think about funding product development. You can keep in touch with Poornima and see her latest online workshops, book excerpts, and thoughts on life and startups via Twitter.
For more information on Bullish Conference 2014, click here. (And use code FEMINISTUNICORN for $50 off!)
