Limor Fried, 35, founder of the electronics and tutorial company, Adafruit
Ever want to make your own mini robot? Fried’s company, Adafruit, makes that possible, selling open-source hardware kits to let tech gurus or everyday hobbyists DIY their own products. It all started when Fried made her own MP3 player and put the how-to on her website. “People kept emailing me, saying, ‘I saw your project, and I want to build that too. Can you send me a kit?'” she says. “So I thought, Maybe I should start a company.” Fried, the first female engineer ever to appear on the cover of Wired, did just that, and last year Adafruit earned more than $22 million in revenue.
Her words to live by: “I get to choose my own destiny. And you can look however you want because you’re the boss.”
Ruzwana Bashir, CEO of peek.com
Ayah Bdeir, founder and CEO, littleBits Electronics
Laura Borel, product manager, Jawbone
Leah Busque, founder and CEO, TaskRabbit
Shaherose Charania, cofounder and CEO, Women 2.0
Limor Fried, founder of the electronics and tutorial company, Adafruit
Rebecca Garcia, developer evangelist, Squarespace, and co-founder, CoderDojo NYC
Laura I. Gómez, cofounder, Vyv
Sara Haider, lead Android engineer, Secret
Rachel Haot, chief digital officer and deputy secretary for technology, New York State
Ching-Yu Hu, cofounder, Skybox Imaging
Vanessa Hurst, founder and CEO, CodeMontage
Samantha John, and Jocelyn Leavitt, cofounders, Hopscotch
Nikki Kaufman, founder, Normal
Erica Kochi, cofounder and co-lead, UNICEFInnovation Unit
Vanessa Larco, senior product manager, Box
Dana Ledyard, managing director, Girls Who Code
Jess Lee, cofounder and CEO, Polyvore
Hilary Mason, founder and CEO, Fast Forward Labs
Erie Meyer, U.S. Digital Service, The White House
Kathryn Minshew, cofounder and CEO, The Muse
Isabelle Olsson, lead designer, Google
Michelle Phan, cofounder, ipsy.com
Lynn Root, back-end engineer, Spotify
Clara Shih, founder and CEO, Hearsay Social
Parisa Tabriz, security princess, Google
Erin Teague, director of product management, Yahoo
Kristen Titus, founding director, Tech Talent Pipeline at the City of New York
Deena Varshavskaya, founder and CEO, Wanelo
Amber Venz Box, president and co-founder,RewardStyle and liketoknow.it
Poornima Vijayashanker, founder, Femgineer
Hanna Wallach, researcher, Microsoft Research, and assistant professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Cassidy Williams, software engineer, Venmo
Arielle Zuckerberg, senior product manager, Humin
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: New Raspberry Pi Products, 503 CircuitPython Libraries and Much More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey