Susan Mernit is a co-founder of Pink Garage, a new online community and resource for women entrepreneurs, and a product development, business strategy and social media consultant who recently ran the 2008-09 Knight News Challenge, awarding $5MM to support innovative local projects that expand online news and community discourse.

She is actively consulting with non-profits, start-ups, foundations and mission-driven companies on business and product development strategy and execution, social media strategy, and on leadership and reinvention.

Passionate about women's issues and women entrepreneurs, she recently led a guerilla action to mentor women applying to ycombinator, an early stage tech incubator. Her last startup (Peoples' Software Company) was selected as a 2008 TechStars incubator company (techstars.org) She is a BlogHer contributing editor on Sex & Relationships, a former exec at Yahoo, AOL, Netscape and Advance Internet,  a dedicated blogger and  a long time online news and media person.

She is currently involved in  the Public Media Collaborative, a new group organizing to train and mentor  nonprofits and local commmunity groups in using social media tools to deepen member engagement, reach new audiences, market campaigns, and use micro-donation.

Susan has some free handouts and white papers you can check out:

• Using social media for social change (written for WeMedia 2009)
• The social media toolbox (written for Knight Foundation Information Needs of Communities session)
• Build your brand through social media (presented at Maynard Institute workshop)
  

Places to follow Susan:
Susan Mernit's blog: susanmernit.com
Twitter: susanmernit
Friendfeed: smernit
BlogHer: blogher.com/blog/susan-mernit
Huffington Post: huffingtonpost.com/susan-mernit/

Susan's LinkedIn resume is here, and her wikipedia entry here.

Short bio

Susan Mernit is a 15 year veteran of building web businesses that create great customer and shareholder value, She's accomplished leader and web pioneer who's adept at using social media, expert at product development and product strategy, and skilled at leading--and empowering--teams, both on a staff and a consulting basis. She likes working with both start-ups and established companies and helping them create new business opportunities and solve problems.

Susan has been named one of the top women in web 2.0, tech and social media multiple times, and has created products and business that have won Codies, Eppys, and have had successful exits. Susan speaks at and attends social media, tech innovation and online media events and is an active blogger and consultant.(She is also working on a new startup).

Susan is available to do consulting projects and contract work on a retainer or project basis for a small number of clients; see Services, Projects, and Clients for more info.

Her LinkedIn resume is here, and her wikipedia entry here.

Places to follow Susan:
Susan Mernit's blog: susanmernit.com
Twitter: susanmernit
Friendfeed: smernit
BlogHer: blogher.com/blog/susan-mernit
Huffington Post: huffingtonpost.com/susan-mernit/

Longer bio

Susan has been a VP at Netscape and AOL, a senior director of Product Development at Yahoo!, a social media and web strategy/product development consultant, an editorial director for local new and media sites, and a developer of social media marketing and community strategies. She has a track record of building & marketing products, developing organizations and optimizing revenue for companies including AOL, Netscape, Yahoo! and Advance Internet.

Currently, Susan is a consultant to the Knight Foundation, managing The Knight News Challenge, a program that gives away $5MM annually, the co-founder of People's Software, a tech start-up and 2008 TechStars company, and a consultant to start-ups, foundations, non-profits and media companies.

As the #2 person at Yahoo! Personals, Susan led teams focused on monetizing a subscription service, building cross-function teams, sequencing product development, writing specs and creating good user experiences. She learned quite a bit about user acquisition, conversion and retention/engagement from a product and product marketing perspective. In past roles, Susan has been a top editor, blogger, and manager for large-scale web businesses and has successfully managed through quite a bit of organizational change.

Currently, Susan is passionate about the innovative work she's doing for the Knight Foundation using social media tools to improve to quality and diversity of the KNC08 worldwide applicant pool and she'd like to use the knowledge she's gained doing this in other projects.

Susan combines vision and pragmatism, and is really good at getting things done. She values leading and empowering teams and enjoys the conference program planning, public speaking and facilitation she has done.

Check out her LinkedIn Profile and the Wikipedia entry for more info. Or send her an email.

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