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Laura Ferguson

Tell us your story.

I took my first coding class at the start of the PC revolution, at age 11, learning Basic. From there, I was hooked. I took a Pascal class in high school, and then studied computer science as a Math major in college. I graduated and got a "computer consulting" job, and went on to graduate school in artificial intelligence, education and cognitive psychology. Then back to work building educational software, software for industry and then leading the development team rebuilding the election data processing software for CNN. I started exploring entrepreneurship a few years ago and helped launch Create.io in 2013.

What advice to you have to share with other women and young girls?

The most important thing is to do this because you love it. To persevere and know that in the end the beautiful things you build will always be with you. Build software to enhance peoples lives, to help people communicate better, to help people learn and often just for fun. Don't hesitate, just do it!

Pass it on!

So many mentors, champions and allies have helped me. Colleagues from work (male and female) by the dozens, friends, and even, yes, Sheryl Sandburg have inspired me. Most of all my husband and my daughter inspire me to strive to become who I want to be.

The Women in Tech campaign exists to help redefine what women in technology means in the 21st century. Started independently by a group of professional women who, after many impassioned discussions about women in tech knew we wanted to expand this definition beyond 'traditional' technology skills. To us, it includes most every current, emerging or evolving role within an organization. By featuring leaders and emerging leaders across industries who embody this we hope to collectively 'stand up', be proud of our place in the digital world and inspire young women or those new to the 'tech space' to get involved.