100 Women in Tech and Founders to Follow on Twitter

In the last 48 hours, Vice’s Motherboard and The Guardian published articles about how Elon Musk, Tim Cook, and other tech influencers barely follow any women on Twitter. Musk responded with a tweet that the Vice reporter was part of the PC police and that Musk only follows the media and reporters (who happen to be men).

It’s easy for influencers to feel snubbed by articles calling them out. But snubbing aside, the lack of diverse networks is incredibly problematic. Why? Because if you want to help solve the world’s toughest problems facing our communities nationally and globally, only listening and interacting with other influential men in your network gives you a severely limited perspective. You will only hear about how men (typically cisgender and white) view the world and their limited scope of how to solve problems. By narrowing your networks like this, you’ve filtered out so many other diverse perspectives, which would otherwise bring different and innovative ideas into your world.

I’ve witnessed how diverse networks have the power to shake up the startup world and the tech sphere. Over the past year and a half the Women Startup Challenge has introduced 1000+ diverse startup founders to a network of investors, which has led to more investments in women-led startups. But if these investors only networked with people who looked like them, they would have missed out on funding some big ideas and game changing ventures in areas like health tech, energy storage, and fintech, to name just a few.

If you want to start (or continue) listening to more diverse perspectives across Twitter, here’s a list of 100 women immersed in the worlds of tech, startups, investors, and media to get you started. There’s thousands more women that should be on this list, and I’d like to encourage you to continue adding to it. Feel free to post your name, background, and Twitter handle in the comments.

Entrepreneurs and Technologists

1. Alexa Andrzejewski, Cofounder, Foodspotting
2. Erica Baker, Build and Release Engineer/Diversity and Inclusion, Slack
3. Angela Benton, CEO, NewMe Accelerator
4. Dr. Sue Black, Tech Evangelist; Founder, Techmums; Campaigner, Bletchley Park
5. danah boyd, Principal Researcher, Microsoft Research; Founder, Data & Society
6. Joanne Bradford, Chief Operating Officer, SoFi
7. Lisa Mae Brunson, Founder, Wonder Women Tech
8. Jessica Butcher, Cofounder, Blippar
9. Kimberly Bryant, Founder, BlackGirlsCode
10. Angie Byron, Director of Community Development, Acquia
11. Elisa Camahort, Cofounder, BlogHer
12. Majora Carter, Cofounder, StartUp Box
13. Sandy Carter, Business Executive; Formerly Worldwide General Manager of Ecosystem Development and Social Business, IBM
14. Jean Case, CEO, Case Foundation
15. Angie Chang, Cofounder, Hackbright Academy
16. Shaherose Charania, Founder, Women2.0; Advisor, Republic.co
17. Tracy Chou, Former Pinterest Engineer
18. Katy Croff Bell, Engineer and Chief Scientist, Nautilus Live; Emerging Explorer, National Geographic
19. Morgan DeBaun, CEO and Founder, Blavity
20. Kelli Thomas-Drake, Founder, MyPurpleFolder
21. Caterina Fake, Founder, Findery; Cofounder of Kahvila Siili, Sesat School, Hunch, Flickr
22. Sibyl Edwards, President, DC Web Women; Cofounder, Black Female Founders
23. Jennifer Fleiss, Cofounder, Rent the Runway
24. Jessie Frazelle, Open Source Developer
25. Cindy Gallop, Founder, Make Love Not Porn
26. Lilibeth Gangas, CTCO, Kapor Center
27. Gesche Haas, Founder, Dreamers // Doers
28. Mary Hodder, Entrepreneur
29. Arianna Huffington, CEO, Thrive Global
30. Jennifer Hyman, Cofounder, Rent the Runway
31. Janet Ikpa, Diversity Program Manager, Twitter
32. Jorey Des Jardins, Cofounder, BlogHer
33. Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama; Chair of the White House Council on Women and Girls
34. Neelie Kroes, Board member, Salesforce and Rijksmuseum; Advisory Board, Uber
35. Alexandria Lafci, Cofounder, New Story
36. Fei-Fei Li, Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University, and Director of Stanford AI Lab
37. Holly Liu, Cofounder and Chief of Staff, Kabam
38. Sandi MacPherson, Founder, Quibb
39. Jessica O. Matthews, Inventor, Entrepreneur, and Social Scientist; Founder and CEO, Uncharted Play
40. Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo
41. Deldelp Medina, Director, code2040
42. Susan Mernit, Cofounder, Hack the Hood and Oakland Local
43. Erie Meyer, United States Digital Service, and Cofounder, Tech LadyMafia
44. Maci Peterson, Cofounder, On Second Thought
45. Shireen Mitchell, Founder, digitalsistas
46. Leanne Pittsford, Founder, Lesbians Who Tech
47. Nicole Sanchez, VP, Social Impact, Github
48. Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO, Girls Who Code
49. Clara Shih Founder and CEO, Hearsay Social; Board Member, Starbucks
50. Star Simpson, Engineer, Otherlab
51. Sukhinder Singh, Founder, theBoardlist
52. Aminatou Sow, Cofounder, Tech LadyMafia; Social Impact Marketing, Google
53. Megan Smith, CTO of US
54. Amanda Steinberg, Founder, DailyWorth
55. Debra Sterling, Founder, Goldieblox
56. Lisa Stone, Entrepreneur and Cofounder, BlogHer
57. Padmasree Warrior, CEO, NextEV USA
58. Susan Wojcicki, CEO, YouTube
59. Lea Verou, Human-Computer Interaction PHD Candidate, MIT, Web Developer, Author
60. Jessica Verrilli, Senior Director of Corp Dev and Strategy, Twitter and Investor
61. Natalie Villalobos, Head of Global Programs for WomenTechmakers, Google

Investors

1. Nisha Dua, Partner, BBG Ventures
2. Anu Duggal, Director, Female Founders Fund (F Cubed)
3. Kathryn Finney, Founder, digitalundivided
4. Melinda Gates, Co-Chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
5. Arlan Hamilton, Founder, Backstage Capital
6. Carolina Huaranca, Principal, Latinx at Kapor Capital
7. Jalak Jobanputra, Founding Partner, FuturePerfect Ventures
8. Shelly Kapoor Collins, Partner, Propeller Venture Capital
9. Freada Kapor Klein, Cofounder, Kapoor Capital
10. Sarah Kunst, Investor and Founder, Proday
11. Aileen Lee, Founder, Cowboy Ventures
12. Christine Lu, Impact Investor, America Innovates
13. Susan Lyne, President, BBG Ventures
14. Ann Miura-Ko, Cofounding Partner, FLOODGATE
15. Rehana Nathoo, VP of Social Innovation (Impact Investing), Case Foundation
16. Natalia Oberti Noguera, Founder and CEO, Pipeline Angels
17. Ellen Pao, Investor and Cofounder, Project Include
18. Heidi Roizen, Venture Capitalist and Operating Partner, DFJ
19. Kate Shillo, VC and Director, Galvanize
20. Joanne Wilson, Investor
21. Monique Woodard, Investor, 500 Startups

Media and Reporters

1. Davey Alba, Staff Writer, WIRED
2. Katie Benner, Reporter, NY Times Tech
3. Johana Bhuiyan, Senior reporter, Recode
4. Elizabeth Dwoskin, Correspondent, Washington Post Silicon Valley
5. Kerry Flynn, Business Reporter, Mashable
6. Jessica Guynn, Tech Reporter, USA TODAY
7. Xeni Jardin, Editor, Boing Boing
8. Lynne D. Johnson, Tech contributor
9. Sarah Lacy, Founder, Pando
10. Sage Lazzaro, Startups and Tech Writer, New York Observer
11. Danielle Morrill, Founder, Mattermark
12. Shalini Ramachandran, TV and Broadband Industry Reporter, Wall Street Journal
13. Katie Roof, Senior Writer, Techcrunch
14. Aarti Shahani, Tech Reporter, NPR
15. Kara Swisher, Founder, Recode
16. Goldie Taylor, Editor at Large, The Daily Beast
17. Amy Vernon, Startups and Tech Contributor, INC
18. Gillian B. White, Editor, The Atlantic