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About Anne

“The Mother of Startups”

Anne Ahola Ward was dubbed “The Mother of Startups” by CNN, she is an Entrepreneur, Futurist, and published O’Reilly author. Ward is a Silicon Valley tech industry leader who frequently speaks on the topics of privacy, technology trends and social media at conferences and on television.

She is best known for her strategic growth science capabilities as an SEO for numerous successful startups over the past decade. Ward was an early entrant into the field of search engine optimization and in 2009 co-founded leading digital marketing agency, CircleClick. Ward has worked to devise social media strategies for world-renowned enterprises as well as startups (at nearly every stage of growth). Ward was named one of Entrepreneur’s “27 Top Masters of Marketing that everyone can learn from” in 2014, and “Top 50 Inspirational Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2017.” As a web developer she helped build Apple’s Distinguished Educator community, which was one of the first true influencer programs to exist. She’s also been invited to join social media influencer programs for Comedy Central, Funny or Die and the elite IBM Futurist Program. Most recently, she made computing industry history as the first woman to complete an STO under the ERC 884 standard.

Anne's Specialties

Anne has thrived in numerous areas of technology, having mastered almost every role in web development including DBA, webmaster, developer, graphic designer, and video editor. She was an early influencer in the field of search engine optimization, and currently specializes in analytics and social media.

Growth Science

SEO

Scaling Startups

Data & Analytics Management

Traffic Generation

Social Media

“Anne is truly a 'people person' and one of the most innovative people I have worked with, not to mention an expert in everything digital. A strategic entrepreneur, Anne is all about real results and relationships.”
Kate Harris

“Anne is an expert in creating brand stickiness on the web. She understands that communicating ideas in the public forum of the worldwide web demands more than good content to be successful.”
Heidi Groshelle

“Anne is able to analyze business and social situations within one visit and not only understand inner workings and identify issues, but also offer solutions. I learned a great deal from her leadership. She is the type of person who enters a game three steps ahead of those who have already been playing. ”
Page McMillan