Valley Girls: Lessons From Female Founders in the Silicon Valley and Beyond
2025 Business Book Awards Shortlist for Business Journey

Women who are smart enough to have the kind of big ideas that can change the world are also smart enough to understand that the odds are stacked against them.

In the past decade, all-female founding teams never received more than 3% of the US venture capital pool. Women'seeking capital run up against negative stereotypes, cultural biases, sexual harassment, and discrimination. These factors push some of the most innovative ideas and talents onto the sidelines.

And yet, there is a path forward for any woman with a great idea and the passion to succeed.

Author Kelley Steven-Waiss, founder and CEO of Hitch Works Inc., a cloud-based skills mapping and intelligence platform, ought to know. She experienced the dynamics of raising capital as a woman founder firsthand. Leaving the safety of a career as CHRO of a major technology company, she dove into the challenging waters of venture capital first as an intrapreneur and then an entrepreneur. What she encountered wasn’t always an easy road. And yet, she not only succeeded, but just two years later, she helped to steer her company through a strategic acquisition to a major platform company.

Now, Steven-Waiss is paying it forward by giving inspiration and insight to others pursuing a big idea while female. In her book, Valley Girls, she provides readers with a roadmap of how she and a dozen other women like her beat the odds. With clear eyes and hard-won insight, Steven-Waiss presents their exhilarating and sometimes disappointing experiences alongside her own, demonstrating the unique obstacles that await women founders and showing that there is hope.

She offers inspiration, role models, and a clear path to empower women to get into the game. Each founder’s story provides a guiding light for a different element of the female entrepreneur’s journey including:

  • Mastering the idea stage and whiteboarding
  • Navigating early setbacks
  • Pitching venture capital
  • Bootstrapping and angel investment
  • Managing the post-funding stage
  • Thriving through intrapreneurship
  • Balancing family and personal commitments
  • Handling stress and anxiety
  • Overcoming inevitable setbacks
  • Crafting the successful exit.

Valley Girls speaks to women at every stage of their entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial journey and to every C-suite executive and venture capitalist, male or female, who wants to find the next big thing. As Steven-Waiss demonstrates, the winners of the next decades will be those able to tap into the best ideas no matter who brings them to the table. This impassioned call-to-action and clear-eyed guide shows the way to that better future.

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Valley Girls: Lessons From Female Founders in the Silicon Valley and Beyond
2025 Business Book Awards Shortlist for Business Journey

Women who are smart enough to have the kind of big ideas that can change the world are also smart enough to understand that the odds are stacked against them.

In the past decade, all-female founding teams never received more than 3% of the US venture capital pool. Women'seeking capital run up against negative stereotypes, cultural biases, sexual harassment, and discrimination. These factors push some of the most innovative ideas and talents onto the sidelines.

And yet, there is a path forward for any woman with a great idea and the passion to succeed.

Author Kelley Steven-Waiss, founder and CEO of Hitch Works Inc., a cloud-based skills mapping and intelligence platform, ought to know. She experienced the dynamics of raising capital as a woman founder firsthand. Leaving the safety of a career as CHRO of a major technology company, she dove into the challenging waters of venture capital first as an intrapreneur and then an entrepreneur. What she encountered wasn’t always an easy road. And yet, she not only succeeded, but just two years later, she helped to steer her company through a strategic acquisition to a major platform company.

Now, Steven-Waiss is paying it forward by giving inspiration and insight to others pursuing a big idea while female. In her book, Valley Girls, she provides readers with a roadmap of how she and a dozen other women like her beat the odds. With clear eyes and hard-won insight, Steven-Waiss presents their exhilarating and sometimes disappointing experiences alongside her own, demonstrating the unique obstacles that await women founders and showing that there is hope.

She offers inspiration, role models, and a clear path to empower women to get into the game. Each founder’s story provides a guiding light for a different element of the female entrepreneur’s journey including:

  • Mastering the idea stage and whiteboarding
  • Navigating early setbacks
  • Pitching venture capital
  • Bootstrapping and angel investment
  • Managing the post-funding stage
  • Thriving through intrapreneurship
  • Balancing family and personal commitments
  • Handling stress and anxiety
  • Overcoming inevitable setbacks
  • Crafting the successful exit.

Valley Girls speaks to women at every stage of their entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial journey and to every C-suite executive and venture capitalist, male or female, who wants to find the next big thing. As Steven-Waiss demonstrates, the winners of the next decades will be those able to tap into the best ideas no matter who brings them to the table. This impassioned call-to-action and clear-eyed guide shows the way to that better future.

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Valley Girls: Lessons From Female Founders in the Silicon Valley and Beyond

Valley Girls: Lessons From Female Founders in the Silicon Valley and Beyond

Valley Girls: Lessons From Female Founders in the Silicon Valley and Beyond

Valley Girls: Lessons From Female Founders in the Silicon Valley and Beyond

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Overview

2025 Business Book Awards Shortlist for Business Journey

Women who are smart enough to have the kind of big ideas that can change the world are also smart enough to understand that the odds are stacked against them.

In the past decade, all-female founding teams never received more than 3% of the US venture capital pool. Women'seeking capital run up against negative stereotypes, cultural biases, sexual harassment, and discrimination. These factors push some of the most innovative ideas and talents onto the sidelines.

And yet, there is a path forward for any woman with a great idea and the passion to succeed.

Author Kelley Steven-Waiss, founder and CEO of Hitch Works Inc., a cloud-based skills mapping and intelligence platform, ought to know. She experienced the dynamics of raising capital as a woman founder firsthand. Leaving the safety of a career as CHRO of a major technology company, she dove into the challenging waters of venture capital first as an intrapreneur and then an entrepreneur. What she encountered wasn’t always an easy road. And yet, she not only succeeded, but just two years later, she helped to steer her company through a strategic acquisition to a major platform company.

Now, Steven-Waiss is paying it forward by giving inspiration and insight to others pursuing a big idea while female. In her book, Valley Girls, she provides readers with a roadmap of how she and a dozen other women like her beat the odds. With clear eyes and hard-won insight, Steven-Waiss presents their exhilarating and sometimes disappointing experiences alongside her own, demonstrating the unique obstacles that await women founders and showing that there is hope.

She offers inspiration, role models, and a clear path to empower women to get into the game. Each founder’s story provides a guiding light for a different element of the female entrepreneur’s journey including:

  • Mastering the idea stage and whiteboarding
  • Navigating early setbacks
  • Pitching venture capital
  • Bootstrapping and angel investment
  • Managing the post-funding stage
  • Thriving through intrapreneurship
  • Balancing family and personal commitments
  • Handling stress and anxiety
  • Overcoming inevitable setbacks
  • Crafting the successful exit.

Valley Girls speaks to women at every stage of their entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial journey and to every C-suite executive and venture capitalist, male or female, who wants to find the next big thing. As Steven-Waiss demonstrates, the winners of the next decades will be those able to tap into the best ideas no matter who brings them to the table. This impassioned call-to-action and clear-eyed guide shows the way to that better future.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9798887502175
Publisher: Advantage Media Group, Inc.
Publication date: 03/05/2024
Pages: 182
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

KELLEY STEVEN-WAISS is a Chief Transformation Officer at ServiceNow. Prior, she was the founder and CEO of Hitch Works Inc. (acquired by ServiceNow in 2022), a cloud-based skills mapping and intelligence platform,that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to match project-based opportunities to internal employee skill profiles. Before becoming an entrepreneur, she spent over twenty-five years in executive management and consulting, including 13+ years as a CHRO. Kelley is a sought-after speaker on the future of work, a board director for FormFactor, Inc., and is passionate about promoting and mentoring future female founders. Her first book was The Inside Gig: How Sharing Untapped Talent Across Boundaries Unleashes Organizational Capacity (2020). Currently based in Los Gatos, California, she is married and the mother of four.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

This is an important book, not just for women, but for anyone with a dream and an idea. Kelley Steven-Waiss has shown us what’s possible when you combine dreams and ideas with passion, purpose, and grit. I’ve known Kelley for many years, and as the father of two daughters, I’ve often described her to them as a role model for what women can accomplish. Valley Girls shines a spotlight on what’s possible when passion becomes the fuel for living one’s dream and bringing a bold idea to the world. More importantly, I hope this book shines a long-overdue spotlight on the enormous contribution women can make if we would only kick open the doors that have held them back!

—Richard Mirabile, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO of Success Factor Systems (now SAP SuccessFactors)

This book surely would have helped me “stick to it” in 1997, when at twenty-six years old I stood for my first VC pitch. All I remember from it was "cool product, kid, but where are your cofounders?" As a Valley Girl entrepreneur, now in her 50s with one successful exit, and one still building, I'm energized by Kelley's synthesis of our experience. She brilliantly illustrates the lessons and stories that display how we push forward, how we channel our resilience and perseverance, and how we overcome! This is a book for everyone invested in ensuring the next generation of great companies is launched by the best variety of individuals our world has to offer.

—Coco Brown
Founder and CEO of Athena Alliance; 100 Most Powerful People of Silicon Valley

This book illustrates what is possible when you build a culture of inclusion, where the best ideas can open new and adjacent markets or create value. Great leaders support innovation from all areas of the company and empower women at all levels to be seen, valued, and heard. I was fortunate to partner with Kelley along her entrepreneurial journey when I was the CEO of HERE Technologies and to share her vision for the future of work. Kelley’s message in the book is clear—the world will benefit from more female intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs disrupting the status quo.

—Edzard Overbeek
former CEO of HERE Technologies and board director of KPN and CVC

Valley Girls represents the core philosophy Kelley has lived in her professional life. I have had the privilege of being a part of her journey from CHRO to entrepreneur and seeing first-hand how she took many of the concepts as a thought leader in the future of work and applied them to her own career. In these pages, she has an inspirational message to female innovators to live a growth mindset, go after their dreams, and to pursue each of their entrepreneurial paths with eyes wide open.

—John Boudreau, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist, University of Southern California, author of Reinventing Jobs, Lead the Work, Work Without Jobs, and Investing in People

Valley Girls is a must read for all aspiring entrepreneurs and investors, regardless of their gender. Kelley Steven-Waiss builds upon her eye-opening personal experience with incredible stories of women who have achieved success by embracing their own strengths and lifting others up instead of conforming to the stereotype of the hard-charging disruptor that has been historically glorified in Silicon Valley. Valley Girls provides a much-needed expanded blueprint for how it looks to change the world with technology and will surely inspire a new generation of collaborative leaders.

—Allison Baum-Gates
General Partner, SemperVirens and author of Breaking Into Venture

Valley Girls is an empowering beacon for aspiring women entrepreneurs. With invaluable insights, strategies, and stories from successful trailblazers, this book invites all of us to rewrite the rules and create meaningful impact together. Kelley’s experience is inspiring as a roadmap for entrepreneurial dreams to become a reality.

—Eva Sage-Gavin
Senior Managing Director, Talent and Human Potential at Accenture

The proverbial climb to the top can be a lonely one. In her book, Kelley Steven-Waiss pulls back the curtain to reveal a sisterhood of successful women who candidly share the setbacks and triumphs of their journeys, showcasing that with hard work, passion, and perseverance everyone can achieve extraordinary things. A great reminder that, as leaders, we should act with an abundance versus scarcity mindset, celebrate the wins of those around us, and champion the next generation in order achieve a world of equality, opportunity, and diversity.

—Kirsten Rhodes
San Francisco Managing Principal, Deloitte LLP

Realistic while at the same time inspiring! Valley Girls provides a candid look at the bias that exists and what it takes to succeed as a female entrepreneur by sharing lessons and hard-learned wisdom from some of the most visionary leaders in the Silicon Valley today. Waiss provides a thoughtful reminder of the value of an abundance mindset over a scarcity mindset—a lesson that applies not only to entrepreneurs but to people in all phases of their career and life journey. Worth the read!

—Dawn Zier
former CEO of Nutrisystem and Chair of The Hain Celestial Group

In Valley Girls, Kelley Steven-Waiss has captured vivid snapshots of the undeniable contributions of Silicon Valley's iconic women entrepreneurs. Her own tremendous accomplishments provide her with a unique lens for illustrating the untold story of the women founders who helped shape technology's landscape of innovation.

—Gary A. Bolles
author of The Next Rules of Work and Chair for the Future of Work for Singularity University

The “start-up founder’s journey” has been well documented in many strong selling books, yet almost exclusively from the male perspective. In a world where women continue to break barriers, Valley Girls offers us a view of that journey from the female perspective. This book is an indispensable resource, empowering women to embrace their unique capabilities to tackle the opportunities and risks founders face. A must-read for every woman ready to make her mark as an entrepreneur.

—Angel Mendez
former COO of HERE Technologies, Chairman of LevaData, Board director of Kinaxis, Peloton Interactive, Sleep Number Corporation, P33 Chicago

In my almost fifty years of building the Radford Survey business, I have had the opportunity to meet and work with many very talented women. They are a large part of why Silicon Valley is so successful and important to our world. Kelley Steven-Waiss has the unique perspective by operating at the highest level in the organization as a CHRO and founding a company which was acquired by Service Now. I dare say there is no one else that could have written a book like this about the experience of female founders in the Silicon Valley.

—John Radford
Founder of the Radford Surveys

Valley Girls: Lessons from Female Founders in the Silicon Valley and Beyond is a beacon of inspiration for aspiring women entrepreneurs, offering a roadmap to triumph against all odds. Valley Girls is not just a story of resilience, but a call to action for women to break barriers, challenge norms, and carve a space for themselves in the entrepreneurial world. Kelley’s captivating and insightful book serves as a guiding light, reminding us that when women with big ideas step into the arena, they pave the way for progress, innovation, and a more inclusive tomorrow. Valley Girls is a must-read for anyone seeking to make a difference, proving that when women dare to dream, they can achieve the extraordinary.

—Amy Cappellanti-Wolf
former CHRO of Cohesity, Board Director of BetterWorks, D-Wave, Wellist

Good leaders provide direction, purpose, and reason for a group or organization to follow. They also share their knowledge, wisdom, and experience with others. Their leadership becomes a calling to serve others. Kelley Steven-Waiss is a leader who generously shares her wisdom in Valley Girls—a fun read and totally on target for today's business and social climate.

—Jenny Dearborn
CXO Operator, Board Director, Angel Investor, former CHRO, author of Data-Driven Leader

I've had the honor and pleasure of working for women at almost every level—from management, to CEO, to founder. Kelley Steven-Waiss has always been a leader in our profession. And she’s one part of a long history of powerful women who drove change to impact climate, built companies from zero to hero, and tackled the significant challenge of equal opportunity for America's workforce. I am so grateful for the inspiring women in Valley Girls who paved paths, dispelled myths, and busted stereotypes so that my daughter and so many other young women can continue to carry the torch forward. Thank you, Kelley for bringing these important and compelling stories to light.

—Dean Carter
CHRO, Fossil, Patagonia, Guild Education

That old saying “it takes one to know one” can be applied here. The author, a success story in her own right, knows that nothing much happens without struggle. She knows the treacherous path, the dangerous path, and the sweet path of getting there. That’s why these chapters and the lessons in them will stick for a long time.

—Dr. Beverly Kaye
Author, thought leader, keynote speaker

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