Turning Girls into Tech Entrepreneurs with a Single App

The Technovation Challenge encourages girls to become tech entrepreneurs.

As part of the competition, teams of girls work together for 10 weeks to brainstorm and develop an idea for a mobile phone app. At the end, they create a prototype with online software called App Inventor, according to Jeri Countryman, director of curriculum at Iridescent, the nonprofit organization that runs the contest. The teams present their work to venture capital judges at regional and national pitch events. The winning team gets the opportunity to have its app professionally developed for the market. The Technovation Challenge, which started again last week, reaches out to high school teachers, who recruit students to participate in the event. The contest has grown from 45 girls in 2010 to 230 last year. Organizers expect the number to reach 400 to 500 this year. Such companies as Microsoft, Twitter, Google, and LinkedIn are hosting teams of girls and their female mentors and teaching assistants, who will create the apps.