How important is a woman's perspective for Web 2.0 startups?

As a woman who is also a co-founder, I'm very curious about how different groups of people relate to what I'm building. The sites I've been involved in have been on the social network side of 2.0, so I'm very interested in seeing what people who tend to get obsessed about relationships can add to what I'm building. Often, but not exclusively, these people are women.

As a demographic, our lives differ from men's in subtle and surprising ways. Our motivations for getting on the web and our needs in general are different. You can find a lot of data online about these kinds of things.

I find it hard to generalize based on the people I know, who aren't typical of either gender. I hang out with geeks of both genders and tend to ask people what they think according their areas of expertise or the relationship I have with them.

So far, I have asked three women whose opinions I trust and there was a marked difference in the response to the quality of the prototype, in comparison to the men's response.

More than anything else, I observed that more importance was given to aesthetics in general by women.

Does this small sample space scale? Can you share your experience?

They're both important. In my own experience, I discover good ideas by talking about them with other men, but I refine the idea and work out all the details by talking about them with the women in my life (mom and girlfriend). If I get the woman's approval, I know it's a good one ;)

I was showing the templates that my graphics designer created for my web site to a female colleague:

she: I like this one.

me: the one with the orange background?!!

she: yes, it looks nice.

me: well...it's colorful; but for everyday use, you'd prefer the blue shade of course.

she: no, I like the orange.

me: are you serious?

she: yes.

me: you would want to see this page every day?!!!

she: yes.

me: hmmmmm

That's when I realized that it's important to add theme customization.

Who are your potential customers? The higher the percentage of women who make up your customers, the more important a woman's perspective is during the design phase.

Unless you're targeting a specific gender / race / etc I'd suggest getting advice and opinions from as many people of diverse backgrounds as possible.

In Kawasaki's book, he says a critical thing is to let a woman read your business plan. They can tell if it's BS.