There is a massive lack for women in the tech industry, although there are a few tech companies that are led by women executives. To paint the picture, only 14.2% of executives of S&P 500 companies are women. In 2013, 26% of people in the mathematics and computer occupations were women. Chrissy Weems agrees with the fact that the cultural trend that makes women less likely to take the top executive decision in business starts in childhood, with both girls and boys less likely to support the student council’s run by girls.

The good news is that there are women who have overcome such hurdles and they are running successful tech companies. These founders are also looking at ways they can help women to become tech executives. Let us look at some of the top tech women and the companies they run.

JeKuDo Privacy Company – Elissa Shevinsky co-Founder, CEO

JeKuDo is a tech company that provides secure messaging services which works in the same fashion as Slack. Elissa is also a co-organizer of SecretCon which is a web security conference. She is also the editor of the book Lean Out.

For Elissa, she had a tough time in her journey in the tech space. For instance, it was hard for her to find collaborators when she became CEO of the company. She advises women to level up as soon as they can. According to Elissa, women need to become experts in their areas of expertise and make themselves noticed.

Women at this level need to look for mentors they can trust. Chrissy Weems and Elissa look forward to more women becoming investors and entrepreneurs so that they can make their way to the boardroom.

Full Circle Insights – Bonnie Crater, CEO

Full Circle Insights provides marketing campaign metrics. Bonnie Carter is now used to board meetings where more than 90% of the attendees are men. Bonnie knows that the gender composition of the leadership also reflects on the teams. At Full Circle, 46% of the employees are women.

To help women to get into tech companies, Bonnie advocates the Rooney Rule variation which is working for the NFL. At the NFL senior operation roles attracts interviews for minority candidates. For tech companies, it can be advantageous to have at least one woman candidate to be interviewed for the position.

Built.io – Neha Sampat, CEO

Built.io is a software company that provides a content management system, mobile application development, and an API platform to businesses and content individuals. Although Neha has received a lot of tech analysis more than her male counterparts, this has helped her to be more visible and hire a diverse team.

Neha believes that to level the playing ground for both men and women, more funding should go to women entrepreneurs, leadership training for girls, and educating people on gender bias.

Stayful- Cherryl Rosner, Co-Founder, CEO

Stayful is a website that helps travelers to book, and negotiate hotel rooms process. Cherryl started this business after she experienced frustrations in the hotel industry and after working at Hotels.com. She has been an advocate for women for a long time.

Cherryl has made it this far thanks to the support of advisors and investors. For women to succeed., Cherryl advocates for mentors to help women who have the potential to go for leadership positions.

Skimlinks- Alicia Navarro, Co-Founder, CEO

Alicia started coding when she was nine years old. She studied computer science and worked as a product manager, business consultant, and analyst before starting Skimlinks. Skimlinks is a company that allows publishers to track purchases and clicks that results from website links.

Alicia notes that as much as women need to be involved in the technical space as programmers or coders, women need to also look at other roles like managerial positions.