9 Women in Tech Building Apps That Make a Difference

By Rahul Varshneya • edited by Dan Bova • Nov 04, 2013

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While tech has largely been a male-dominated industry, things are gradually beginning to change. We may not be seeing this in the corporate world just yet, but you can definitely see new sparks in the startup space.

Shazzie, TV presenter and author.

Shazzie Sleep Easily

Cathy Edwards, Co-founder, Chomp.

Finding an app through the Apple App Store search was tedious until Chomp came along in 2009. Building on a proprietary algorithm and launching the iPhone app in 2010, Cathy Edwards‘ search engine quickly grew in popularity charts — so much so that Apple acquired the company for $50 million in 2012.

Robyn Exton, Founder, Dattch.

This dating app caters to lesbian and bisexual women. Dattch‘s nearly an all-woman team is led by founder Robyn Exton. The angel-funded startup is part of Wayra‘s London accelerator. Robyn spent several years working on international brands at a brand consultancy, then decided to take the plunge, making good use of her spare time doing research and learning to code.

Lisa Bettany, Co-founder, Camera+.

An app that has already crossed the 10-million-download mark, Camera+ was developed by Lisa Bettany who has a background in photography.

Brittney Bean, Co-founder, Songdrop.

Brittney Bean Songdrop

Christiane Kerr, author and Founder, Calm for Kids.

Christiane Kerr Calm for Kids bedtime meditation apps

Jocelyn Leavitt, Co-founder, Hopscotch.

This award-winning app has rave reviews on the app store. Jocelyn Leavitt created Hopscotch so that kids could learn how to code in an engaging and fun way. She’s a former teacher who wished she had studied engineering. Hopscotch is her way to compensate for that.

Jennifer Hyman, Co-founder, Rent The Runway.

A company backed by over $55 million in venture funding, Rent The Runway has recently launched its iPhone app with the understanding that their target customer is a woman on-the-go. Jennifer Hyman co-founded the online store in 2009 to lease designer dresses to women at a fraction of the retail price.

Alexandra Jordan, Super Fun Kid Time.

This app for scheduling kids’ playdates, which plans to launch it in November, was developed by 9-year-old programmer, Alexandra Jordan, who has proven that age is not a barrier in learning to program in Ruby and HTML. She recently presented Super Fun Kid Time at the TechCrunch Disrupt.