Debbie Cheng and Lindsay Tabas of the I School class of 2007 have been named finalists for the Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition. Their venture, "Skill Shop", aims to optimize IT resources by simplifying the process of putting the right people on the right projects; "Skill Shop" originated as their Final Project for their master's degrees at the I School in 2007.
The Skill Shop project attempts to address the inefficiency faced by large IT organizations when assembling project teams. The system manages this internal marketplace by increasing the findability of employees through a customized taxonomy of IT skills, to optimize the end-to-end process of resource allocation on projects.
Women 2.0 announced this week that Cheng and Tabas's proposal is one of five finalists who will compete this weekend for the competition prize. The Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition gives promising business ventures the opportunity to make a pitch to venture capitalists, seasoned entrepreneurs, and successful women executives, and honors the most promising ideas.
In a unique twist, the competition requires all applicants to submit their ideas on a a paper napkin (accompanied by a more formal business plan).
The five finalists will present their pitches live for the judges and audience at the Women 2.0 Conference on Saturday, May 10 at Stanford University. The winner will be announced at the conference.
Debbie Cheng (CMO/CTO) has always been passionate about technology. She received her Master's in Information
Management & Systems from UC Berkeley in May 2007 and is now working at Chevron Global
Marketing IT. At Chevron she is involved in a variety of projects including a Social Computing
Proof of Concept where she has been exploring the use of web 2.0 technologies, including blogs
and wikis within the enterprise. Prior to moving to California for graduate school, Debbie was at
MIT where she received her B.S. in Management Science (IT and Marketing concentrations). Her
research interests include exploring the privacy implications of emerging technologies, biomimicry
and sustainable business and the adoption of disruptive technologies. When Debbie is not busy
scheming new business ideas with her partner Lindsay she can be found rock climbing,
snowboarding and eating sushi.
Lindsay Tabas (CEO/CIO) is a jane-of-most-trades in technology, having worked on (to name a few) projects
addressing child obesity, regional collaboration on transportation systems, designing for
services versus products, and open-source solutions for small to mid-sized businesses. Her skills run the
gamut from product design to software development, and everything in between.
Lindsay and her business partner, Debbie, met as graduate students at the School of Information
at the University of California at Berkeley. Before moving to the Bay Area, Lindsay received her
B.S. in Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia, and earned herself a reputation for
building student organizations over a variety of different interests. Currently, she is the Senior
Business Analyst for Sycle.net, the hearing industry's leading practice management system,
located at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.
Women 2.0 aims to increase the number of young women entrepreneurs by encouraging women to work with and in the field of technology, providing resources that will lead to the launch of their company, and networking women with other female entrepreneurs, experienced executives, and investors. Women 2.0 connects like-minded, motivated young women in the Silicon Valley to swap energy, ideas, and experiences with each other. They promote the collaboration and growth of women in entrepreneurship, technology, and business and provide opportunities for young women to interact with successful women from a broad spectrum of industries.