Australian-born Katrina Garnett, formerly of Oracle Systems, formed Crossroads Software, with high powered investors like Ernst and Young and Michael Dell, to build bridges between incompatible applications, allowing a company's human resource software to "talk" to its payroll software, for example.

"Katrina spent another $500,000 to establish the Garnett Foundation, a non-profit that encourages girls to pursue careers in math and science. This summer she'll send 50 teens to a women-in-technology conference in San Jose to meet some of the powerhouse females in high tech. Maybe she should just invite them to Crossroads."

Purple Moon CEO Nancy Deyo and co-founder, Brenda Laurel, are set to prove that computers are where the girls are. After 20 years in the industry, and four years of research, the company, converging "technology, communication and entertainment" , is launching interactive adventure games for girls, and a Web site where girls can chat. Way cool-- another manifestation of how the Net is transforming establishment norms; women and now girls no longer have to ask the men to join their game - now we just start our own game.

July 7, 1997 Fortune Magazine