Meet the women who haven't asked for permission from Silicon Valley to chase their dreams. They are going for it -- building the next generation of tech start-ups, investing in each other's ventures, crushing male hacker stereotypes and rallying women and girls everywhere to join the digital revolution. Geek Girl Rising isn't about the famous tech trailblazers you already know, like Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer. Instead, veteran journalists Heather Cabot and Samantha Walravens introduce readers to the fearless female entrepreneurs and technologists fighting at the grassroots level for an ownership stake in the revolution that's changing the way we live, work and connect to each other.

Readers will meet Debbie Sterling, inventor of GoldieBlox, the first engineering toy for girls, which topples the notion that only boys can build. They'll get a peek inside YouTube sensation Michelle Phan's ipsy studios, where she is grooming the next generation of digital video stars while leading her own mega e-commerce beauty business. They will sit down with Tracy Chou, former lead software developer at Pinterest, whose public urging in 2013 helped push Silicon Valley tech giants to reveal the tiny number of women in their ranks, propelling the "women in tech" conversation to front pages. They will tour the headquarters of The Muse, the hottest career site for millennials and meet its intrepid CEO, Kathryn Minshew, who stared down sexism while raising millions of dollars to fund the company she co-founded. And they will journey around the country to meet a new crop of female investors, including Theresia Gouw and Kathryn Finney, who are infusing women-led tech start-ups with much needed capital. These women are the rebels proving that a female point of view matters in the age of technology and can rock big returns. At a time when women hold 26% of computing jobs in the U.S. and make up a tiny fraction of the entrepreneurs launching new tech companies, their stories shine a light on new role models who prove that in the fast-moving innovation economy, there is a place for anyone who has a big idea and the passion to build it.

HEATHER CABOT is an award-winning journalist, adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, angel investor and contributor to Women@Forbes. She is a former ABC News correspondent and anchor of World News Now/World News This Morning. Cabot jumped into the digital revolution when she was hired to serve as the Web Life Editor for Yahoo! in 2007. During her tenure, she reported on how the Internet was transforming everyday lives as a regular guest on Today, GMA, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, nationally syndicated talk shows and dozens of local TV and radio stations across the U.S. and Canada. She advises several women-led startups and is a managing director of Golden Seeds and member of Pipeline Angels and Plum Alley. Cabot first started investigating the gender gap in tech as a researcher on the 1995 PBS documentary “Minerva’s Machine: Women and Computing,” which profiled female tech pioneers, including U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Grace Hopper. Cabot resides in the New York City area with her husband, tween twins and their goldendoodle named Midnight. More at heathercabot.com.

SAMANTHA WALRAVENS is an award-winning journalist, work-life expert and author/editor of the best-selling anthology, TORN: True Stories of Kids, Career & the Conflict of Modern Motherhood, lauded by the New York Times as a book "filled with the voices of women trying to solve an impossible equation, all doing the best they can" and hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "a welcome addition to the body of work of books about the work/life balance." Samantha writes for Women@Forbes, the Huffington Post, Disney Interactive and Modern Mom, and is a sought-after speaker on the topic of women, career and work-life success. She has spoken nationwide at organizations including Google, Goldman Sachs, UBS, Deloitte, Princeton University and the Society of Women Engineers, has been interviewed on Today, Good Morning America and NPR. Samantha began her career as a technology reporter for PC World magazine and led marketing communications for Tumbleweed Software, a Silicon Valley software security company. She is a member of Pipeline Angels, an angel network that invests in early-stage, women-led startups, and serves on the Alumni Schools Committee for Princeton University. Samantha resides in Marin County, California with her husband and four children. More at