at Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- Researcher at Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
- Advisor at Tierra Natal
- Chairman at Hispanic-Net
- Board Member at Women's eNews
- Board Member at James Burke Institute For Educational Innovation
- Partner at Ingenium Ventures
- Past
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- Director, RI Labs at Ricoh California Research Center
- Chairman of the Board at Instituto Pro Musica de California
- Founder at Indigo Financiera
- Advisory Board at MiraThis
- VP Business Development at m-Via
- Advisor at Merrill Lynch Latino Advisory Board
- Member of Microfinance Working Group at Business Women's Initiative on AIDS
- Reuters Fellow 2004-2005 at Reuters Foundation
- Board of Directors at Agent Software, www.agentsoftware.com
- Board of Advisors at AcrossWorld, www.acrossworld.com
- Founder at 1st Wednesdays
- Executive Committee at Hispanic-Net
- Venture Partner at NewVista Capital
- Executive Director at Women's Technology Cluster (now known as Astia)
- Board Member at Forum for Women Entrepreneurs
- Head, New Media at IDEO Product Development
- Director, Information Technology at Horsley Bridge Partners
- Education
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- Stanford University
- Stanford University
- Recommended
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19 people have recommended Margarita - Connections
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Margarita Quihuis’s Summary
A social entrepreneur and mentor capitalist, Margarita Quihuis's career has focused on innovation, technology incubation, access to capital and entrepreneurship. Her accomplishments include directorship of Astia (formerly known as the Women's Technology Cluster) where her portfolio companies raised $67 million in venture funding, venture capitalist, Reuters Fellow at Stanford, and Director of RI Labs for Ricoh Innovations. She is currently a member of the research team at Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab where she is focused on persuasive technology as it applies to peace innovation.
She was most recently Director of RI Labs for Ricoh Innovations, Inc. where she oversaw research efforts centered around discovering market opportunities from generational behavior (Millenials), cloud and mobile computing, emerging social technologies, crowdsourcing and open innovation.
Her past efforts include access to development capital through the productive use of remittances in Mexico and developing and advising mobile banking companies that serve the needs of transnational workers and their families. In 2004, Women's eNews named her as one of their '21 Leaders for the 21st Century' and was one of WITI's Women to Watch in 2003. In 2007 she was named 'One of The 100 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley.'
Ms Quihuis has served as a consultant to the US State Department on entrepreneurship. She has been widely quoted in the Asian Venture Capital Report, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, US News & World Report, Forbes ASAP, CNN and CBS MarketWatch.
Ms. Quihuis sits on the boards of UnaMesa, Women’s eNews, and the James Burke Institute. She is a past board member of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs, and was a member of the screening and coaching committees for Springboard 2000, the venture capital conference for women and was part of the working group for the Business Women’s Initiative on AIDS.
Margarita Quihuis’s Specialties:
social networks, social media strategy, business incubation, entrepreneurship, gender and technology, ICT for development, venture capital fund management, seed stage private equity, design, collaboration, microfinance, remittances, transnational labor
Margarita Quihuis’s Experience
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Researcher
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
(Higher Education industry)
August 2009 — Present (4 months)
The Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab creates insight into how computing products — from websites to mobile phone software — can be designed to change what people believe and what they do.
I am working on peace innovation, and have a particular interest in how we can use captology to make breakthroughs in education and healthcare. My current project is focused on combining open innovation, challenge prize models (ala X-Prize and Netflix Prize), persuasive technology and incubation concepts to spur new solutions to pressing global challenges. One of my small scale test beds for these ideas is Manor Labs, http://www.manorlabs.org/, where we are working with the City of Manor to apply persuasive technology techniques to foster innovation.
I am also part of the Peace Dot team (http://peace.stanford.edu), which launched in Oct 09 and handle social media outreach, evangelize the concept and work with partners to develop interventions that have measuerable, actionable behavior changes and results that support various antecedents to peace. -
Advisor
Tierra Natal
(Privately Held; Internet industry)
May 2007 — Present (2 years 7 months)
Tierra Natal is the first social networking site that reunites recently arrived Hispanic immigrants, hometown associations and their communities of origin. www.tierranatal.com
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Chairman
Hispanic-Net
(Information Technology and Services industry)
December 2006 — Present (3 years )
Founded in 2001, Hispanic-Net is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization where Hispanic entrepreneurs, executives, innovators and investors come together to create market leading companies.
More information about Hispanic-Net may be found on their website www.hispanic-net.org
My role in Hispanic-Net has encompassed fundraising, outreach, blog writing, public speaking, and maintaining an ongoing dialog with our members on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media. -
Board Member
Women's eNews
(Online Media industry)
June 2004 — Present (5 years 6 months)
Women's eNews is the definitive source of substantive news--unavailable anywhere else--covering issues of particular concern to women and providing women's perspectives on public policy. It enhances women's ability to define their own lives and to participate fully in every sector of human endeavor.
Head of technical subcommittee, responsible for organization's internally and externally facing IT infrastructure; social media outreach.
http://womensenews.org -
Board Member
James Burke Institute For Educational Innovation
(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Non-Profit Organization Management industry)
July 2003 — Present (6 years 5 months)
Founded by James Burke, the author, host, and narrator of the acclaimed television series Connections, the Institute exists to encourage innovative uses of educational technology.
www.k-web.org -
Partner
Ingenium Ventures
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
May 2001 — Present (8 years 7 months)
Advise and sit on the board of seed and early stage technology companies. Technology interests include semantic web, XML, materials and nanotechnology and appropriate technologies for developing world. Have advised on creation of venture capital industry for developing countries; nanotechnology as source of foriegn direct investment.
Incubate or maintain special interest in companies that have sustainability, triple-bottom line or a BOP focus as part of their overall market or objective. -
Director, RI Labs
Ricoh California Research Center
(Public Company; Information Technology and Services industry)
2008 — 2009 (1 year )
Led Ricoh Innovations new effort, RI Labs, where we transform our R&D results into web-based technology products and services to get market validation, elicit user co-invention and provide insights into future research directions.
Our first project is iCandy (http://icandy.ricohinnovations.com) where we are researching the utility of paper tokens as an alternative way of organizing, cataloging, accessing and retrieving digital information - specifically, itunes content, video (YouTube), photos (flickr) and other multimedia (slideshare, etc.).
We're interested in exploring how intelligent paper can act as a bridge between the physical and digital worlds.
My social media research and outreach for iCandy included experiments to drive online registration signups, participation and feedback through Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter. We instrumented our website, desktop and iPhone applications to gather usage data and behavior. We also explored the utility and potential of offering social capability to workflow applications and office devices.
Other aspects of my work include understanding and being a participant in social media, consumer trends, Gen Y/Millenials - attitudes, behaviors and technology adoption, social devices, mobile+cloud computing, and the future of work. -
Chairman of the Board
Instituto Pro Musica de California
(Performing Arts industry)
July 2008 — June 2009 (1 year )
The Coro Hispano de San Francisco is a San Francisco based performing arts non-profit dedicated to exploring and performing the choral literature of the peoples of Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Ranging from the 12th through the 20th century, this repertory embraces both classical and folk music from all parts of the Hispanic World, as well as ethnic music in Amerindian tongues. It is unique among performing arts groups in general and a jewel within the world of Hispanic arts groups. Coro represents the best and finest in Hispanic high culture.
More info at www.corohispano.org -
Founder
Indigo Financiera
(Financial Services industry)
June 2005 — June 2008 (3 years 1 month)
Indigo Financiera works with hometown associations and other recently arrived immigrant groups to help them increase and leverage their remittances for economic devleopment.
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Advisory Board
MiraThis
(Media Production industry)
April 2007 — March 2008 (1 year )
New startup focused on user-generated video content for acculturated Hispanics
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VP Business Development
m-Via
(Financial Services industry)
July 2006 — March 2007 (9 months)
Co-founder of mobile banking startup based in part on work from Reuters Digital Program focused on around remittances. As the subject matter expert on remittances, I identified the market landscape, built a network and database of over approximately 1000 hometown association leaders and clubs located throughout the United States and collaborated with researchers to share data and insights on immigrant remittance patterns in the United States, Latin America and Asia. Through my VC network, I contributed to m-VIa's fundraising process, providng access to investors interested in the mobile/mobile bankign space. I also spoke on a number of panels related to remittances and economic development.
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Advisor
Merrill Lynch Latino Advisory Board
(Public Company; MER; Financial Services industry)
December 2004 — 2005 (1 year )
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Member of Microfinance Working Group
Business Women's Initiative on AIDS
(Partnership; 11-50 employees; Pharmaceuticals industry)
October 2004 — July 2005 (10 months)
BWI is the united vision of Mary Robinson, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and president of Ireland, and Mary Ann Leeper, President and Chief Operation Officer of the Female Health Company. Discussions at the World AIDS Conference this summer noted that there are a considerable number of women mobilizing to tackle the increasing prevalence of HIV/AIDS but that there is a discouraging lack of business women leaders actively engaged in the fight. Robinson and Leeper believe that the unique abilities of women corporate leaders could fill a major gap in helping to bring prevention, care and treatment to women in the developing world.
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Reuters Fellow 2004-2005
Reuters Foundation
(Public Company; RTR.L; Financial Services industry)
August 2004 — June 2005 (11 months)
Reuters fellow at Stanford University; fellowship focus is to develop an investment bank for the unbanked using remittances as a source of capital following the Working Assets business model. Subject matter expertise on cross-border remittances, transnational migration & markets, diasporas for developments, Hispanic hometown associations, financial innovation and microfinance broadly defined. Additional work on hybrid social entrepreneurship models, application and design of technology for developing country needs.
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Board of Directors
Agent Software, www.agentsoftware.com
(Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
October 2002 — 2005 (3 years )
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Board of Advisors
AcrossWorld, www.acrossworld.com
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
December 2002 — 2004 (2 years )
• Collaborated and moderated discussions between AcrossWorld, Silicon Valley thought leaders and the World Bank Institute via the WBI’s Global Development Learning Network (GDLN)
• Consulted on World Bank economic development proposals for Sri Lanka and Madagascar
• Coordinator for Global Virtual Assistant Network project focused on providing 10,000 women $10/day income providing internet-based services
• Project manager for Nepal Country Gateway proposal to InfoDev, a bi-national project that linked Silicon Valley based Nepalese diaspora to Nepal to foster growth of high tech services in Nepal -
Founder
1st Wednesdays
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
March 2002 — 2004 (2 years )
1st Wednesdays is networking lunch exclusively for women VC's so we can meet, build stronger relationships, improve our deal flow and be a force to be reckoned with. Success in this business is dependent, in large part, on the strength, breadth, and depth of our networks. First Wednesdays was created to facilitate more frequent interaction between us in a casual setting. The list has grown to over 190 members, ranging from Managing Directors, Partners, VPs and Associates with representation from Seattle, Silicon Valley, Southern California, the Midwest and the East Coast.
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Executive Committee
Hispanic-Net
(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
September 2002 — July 2003 (11 months)
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Venture Partner
NewVista Capital
(Partnership; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
March 2001 — May 2002 (1 year 3 months)
Led the due diligence efforts for new investments in the enterprise software, internet infrastructure, wireless and educational software markets, and held board member or board observer status of several New Vista portfolio companies, including Epicentric, Reach Communications, BridgeStream, Broadware and ZNYX.
Oversaw the creation for the firm’s best practices, creating LP reports, supervising quarterly reporting process and participating in the fundraising process.
Worked along with a placement agent on firm's fundraising efforts, established the firm’s relationships with fund managers, gatekeepers and institutional investors. -
Executive Director
Women's Technology Cluster (now known as Astia)
(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)
May 1999 — March 2001 (1 year 11 months)
Recognized as one of the top incubators in the country by Red Herring and eCompany, the WTC specializes in helping launch woman-founded tech and life science companies. As the first Director for the WTC, Ms. Quihuis’ responsibilities were comprehensive in scope, ranging from the physical set up of the incubator, development of the ongoing entrepreneurial curriculum, evaluation and selection of companies for admission, mentorship and coaching to the resident companies and access to the VC community.
Through her highly visible work with the WTC, Ms. Quihuis emerged both as a national advocate for women’s entrepreneurship in high technology and an expert on new models for high tech economic development, entrepreneurship and venture funding. The WTC emerged as a key ‘go-to’ laboratory for economic development and was used as an example for incubation efforts in Asia, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. During her tenure, WTC portfolio companies raised $67 million in capital. -
Board Member
Forum for Women Entrepreneurs
(Non-Profit; 1-10 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
January 1996 — January 2000 (4 years 1 month)
• Launched Venture Briefing Series, a monthly meeting between a small group of qualified entrepreneurs seeking funding and a seed stage venture capital group. Line up venture capitalists, select entrepreneurs.
• Organized FWE’s eSeries program, two series of 8 seminars for early stage entrepreneurs with CEOs, venture capitalists and attorneys as featured speakers. Arranged all speakers, reviewed entrepreneur applications.
• Organized a monthly breakfast series where entrepreneurs have met with corporate securities, labor- and immigration-law attorneys, experts on branding and positioning, and members of the angel community.
• Advised entrepreneurs on business plan development, market research, company formation issues and facilitate access to relevant service providers and potential seed and early stage investors.
• Webmaster of www.fwe.org website and technical lead of www.fwe.org site redesign. -
Head, New Media
IDEO Product Development
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Design industry)
April 1996 — January 1998 (1 year 10 months)
Led New Media development for IDEO Product Development. While there she grew and ran the group in its mission to evaluate how the Internet could be leveraged most effectively for IDEO’s business. She led IDEO's initial efforts in the use of video on the internet through the Monday Morning Media project.
In addition, Ms. Quihuis led studies on gender and technology in product design for interactive on-line services and consumer level information appliances; and she also created new models for multimedia oriented knowledge management systems. -
Director, Information Technology
Horsley Bridge Partners
(Partnership; 11-50 employees; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)
April 1990 — April 1996 (6 years 1 month)
• Directed all information technology strategies and activities for a privately held venture capital investment firm. General management and budget responsibility for IT and data analysis teams.
• Led client/server database development team for enterprise-wide investment application which captured investments, stock distributions, portfolio accounting, resulting in 2-4x productivity gains across the company and a 4x increase in capital under management.
• Deep domain expertise on venture capital and venture capital fund-of-funds process
Margarita Quihuis’s Education
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Stanford University
Visiting Scholar , Reuters Digital Vision Fellow , 2004 — 2005
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Stanford University
Additional Information
Margarita Quihuis’s Websites:
Margarita Quihuis’s Interests:
Technology and New markets: technology innovation, design, millennial generation, future of work, cloud computing, social media strategies and social persuasion; social devices, Enterprise 2.0, physical/digital interfaces Social and Creative Capital: emerging markets, remittances for economic development and productive investment, financial innovation and microfinance broadly defined, increasing access to capital, base of the pyramid, demographics, diaspora for development, Access to Capital: venture capital, private equity, fund of funds, economic development, media, incubation, innovation, Ethic and Diaspora Markets Latin America, Hispanic markets, Latinos, crossborder development, crossborder payment, transnational labor, transnational migration, political policy Women's Economic Development technology incubation, access to capital, entrepreneurship
Margarita Quihuis’s Groups:
Hispanic-Net, Astia (formerly known as the Women's Technology Cluster), Women's eNews, Coro Hispano, James Burke Institute, Angels Forum, VC TaskForce
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ReutersDVF -
Astia Community -
Hispanic Net -
Women 2.0 -
Silicon Valley NewTech Meetup -
Great Free Apps -
New Media Hire -
DokoDare -
Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing -
The Future of Wealth -
Technology Entrepreneurs
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Manor Labs
Margarita Quihuis’s Honors:
100 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley, 2007
21 Leaders for the 21st Century, Women's eNews 2004
Women to Watch, WITI 2003
Ricoh Press:
http://bit.ly/RA2bB
Media coverage on iCandy project
Press on Remittances:
Stanford Social Innovation Review:
http://bit.ly/rVDI
Press on Leadership:
100 Most Influential Latinos in Silicon Valley
http://bit.ly/fqJSB
Women's eNews 21 Leaders for the 21st Century:
http://bit.ly/O8Mlv
SJ Business Journal:
http://bit.ly/21TuNW
Press on Women's Entrepreneurship:
San Jose Mercury News:
http://bit.ly/3TgrLh
Wired News:
http://bit.ly/KUkSE
Christian Science Monitor:
http://bit.ly/apJOu
Forbes:
http://bit.ly/daEA
US News & World Report:
http://bit.ly/3NHjch
