Valley Girls - by Kelley Steven-Waiss (Hardcover)

About the Book

Valley Girls is an impassioned call-to-action and a clear-eyed guide for every woman with a brilliant business idea who has been sitting on the sidelines. It offers inspiration, role models, and a clear path to empower women to follow their dreams.

Author Kelley Steven-Waiss, founder and former CEO of the SaaS tech start-up Hitch Works ("Hitch"), knew that less than 3% of venture capital went to all-women founding teams in the year she set out to be an entrepreneur. And yet, she managed to succeed. Now, she gives other women the benefit of her experience as well as that of the diverse female founders she interviewed. What did they all have in common? Which strategies brought success and which failed? How did they persevere through the hard times? This practical, hands-on guide and the powerful and passionate women profiled in it answer these questions and more, paving the way for all women to succeed.

Book Synopsis

2025 Business Book Awards Winner for Business Journey

Women who are smart enough to have the kind of big ideas that can change the world are also smart enough to understand that the odds are stacked against them.

In the past decade, all-female founding teams never received more than 3% of the US venture capital pool. Women seeking capital run up against negative stereotypes, cultural biases, sexual harassment, and discrimination. These factors push some of the most innovative ideas and talents onto the sidelines.

And yet, there is a path forward for any woman with a great idea and the passion to succeed.

Author Kelley Steven-Waiss, founder and CEO of Hitch Works Inc., a cloud-based skills mapping and intelligence platform, ought to know. She experienced the dynamics of raising capital as a woman founder firsthand. Leaving the safety of a career as CHRO of a major technology company, she dove into the challenging waters of venture capital first as an intrapreneur and then an entrepreneur. What she encountered wasn't always an easy road. And yet, she not only succeeded, but just two years later, she helped to steer her company through a strategic acquisition to a major platform company.

Now, Steven-Waiss is paying it forward by giving inspiration and insight to others pursuing a big idea while female. In her book, Valley Girls, she provides readers with a roadmap of how she and a dozen other women like her beat the odds. With clear eyes and hard-won insight, Steven-Waiss presents their exhilarating and sometimes disappointing experiences alongside her own, demonstrating the unique obstacles that await women founders and showing that there is hope.

She offers inspiration, role models, and a clear path to empower women to get into the game. Each founder's story provides a guiding light for a different element of the female entrepreneur's journey including:

• Mastering the idea stage and whiteboarding
• Navigating early setbacks
• Pitching venture capital
• Bootstrapping and angel investment
• Managing the post-funding stage
• Thriving through intrapreneurship
• Balancing family and personal commitments
• Handling stress and anxiety
• Overcoming inevitable setbacks
• Crafting the successful exit.

Valley Girls speaks to women at every stage of their entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial journey and to every C-suite executive and venture capitalist, male or female, who wants to find the next big thing. As Steven-Waiss demonstrates, the winners of the next decades will be those able to tap into the best ideas no matter who brings them to the table. This impassioned call-to-action and clear-eyed guide shows the way to that better future.

Review Quotes

This is an important book, not just for women, but for anyone with a dream and an idea. Kelley Steven-Waiss has shown us what's possible when you combine dreams and ideas with passion, purpose, and grit. I've known Kelley for many years, and as the father of two daughters, I've often described her to them as a role model for what women can accomplish. Valley Girls shines a spotlight on what's possible when passion becomes the fuel for living one's dream and bringing a bold idea to the world. More importantly, I hope this book shines a long-overdue spotlight on the enormous contribution women can make if we would only kick open the doors that have held them back!

-Richard Mirabile, Ph.D.

Founder and CEO of Success Factor Systems (now SAP SuccessFactors)

This book surely would have helped me "stick to it" in 1997, when at twenty-six years old I stood for my first VC pitch. All I remember from it was "cool product, kid, but where are your cofounders?" As a Valley Girl entrepreneur, now in her 50s with one successful exit, and one still building, I'm energized by Kelley's synthesis of our experience. She brilliantly illustrates the lessons and stories that display how we push forward, how we channel our resilience and perseverance, and how we overcome! This is a book for everyone invested in ensuring the next generation of great companies is launched by the best variety of individuals our world has to offer.

-Coco Brown

Founder and CEO of Athena Alliance; 100 Most Powerful People of Silicon Valley

This book illustrates what is possible when you build a culture of inclusion, where the best ideas can open new and adjacent markets or create value. Great leaders support innovation from all areas of the company and empower women at all levels to be seen, valued, and heard. I was fortunate to partner with Kelley along her entrepreneurial journey when I was the CEO of HERE Technologies and to share her vision for the future of work. Kelley's message in the book is clear-the world will benefit from more female intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs disrupting the status quo.

-Edzard Overbeek

former CEO of HERE Technologies and board director of KPN and CVC

Valley Girls represents the core philosophy Kelley has lived in her professional life. I have had the privilege of being a part of her journey from CHRO to entrepreneur and seeing first-hand how she took many of the concepts as a thought leader in the future of work and applied them to her own career. In these pages, she has an inspirational message to female innovators to live a growth mindset, go after their dreams, and to pursue each of their entrepreneurial paths with eyes wide open.

-John Boudreau, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist, University of Southern California, author of Reinventing Jobs, Lead the Work, Work Without Jobs, and Investing in People

Valley Girls is a must read for all aspiring entrepreneurs and investors, regardless of their gender. Kelley Steven-Waiss builds upon her eye-opening personal experience with incredible stories of women who have achieved success by embracing their own strengths and lifting others up instead of conforming to the stereotype of the hard-charging disruptor that has been historically glorified in Silicon Valley. Valley Girls provides a much-needed expanded blueprint for how it looks to change the world with technology and will surely inspire a new generation of collaborative leaders.

-Allison Baum-Gates

General Partner, SemperVirens and author of Breaking Into Venture