This is part of Folksonomy's Featured Female Entrepreneur of the Week series of interviews.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce Tara Hunt (a.k.a. miss rogue). Currently, she is the Marketing Lead at Citizen Agency. Before accepting this interview, she was the Online Marketing Director at Riya (the company who’s responsible for the “shopaphenomenal” startup Like.com), she also started the “must-read” blog, HorsePigCow, and most impressively, was the only female speaker at this year’s Future of Web Apps in London alongside other inspiring entrepreneurs.

What will it take to encourage more women to start companies?

I think there needs to be a few things in place before more women take the kind of risk associated with starting one's own company.

First, there needs to be a strong support network of peers, but by that I don't mean just business-y ones or networks where you are networking for business, but rather, groups of women who meet regularly socially.

Second, we need to see more public examples of women who succeed AND fail at business ventures.

Third, I think that having experienced failure is key. By that I mean, as life goes on, the experiences and lessons you learn in your journey are invaluable.

And finally, within our smaller circles, I've noticed a definite shift between the definition of success and the definition of someone who has achieved success. For many years, it was about drive, determination, focus, and killer instinct. I think that is changing. Relationships and quality of life play a huge part. These are the things that matter to me and many of the female entrepreneurs that I know.

What do you think is the biggest obstacle for women in today's world to start companies and how can we address that problem?

I'm not sure about what is the biggest obstacle, but what I do know is that there are obstacles everywhere. I am lucky to live in the entrepreneurial capital of the universe (from my perspective) and I've always been the type that take risks and follow my own instincts.

I could give a "flying snake" about whether I fail, succeed, or get rich. I just want to do what I love and do good stuff in the process.

But there are all sorts of pressures on women to be perfect such as they have to be responsible for their families first (which means to many that a sacrifice is necessary, where I believe there should be a balance instead), they have to compete on the same level as their male counterparts, and they have to be the sole beacon to other women, just to name a few. And yet, that is just for women who are privileged. There are still thousands of other obstacles in the way of women from other cultures and backgrounds.

Saying that, there are things we can change in ourselves as women who do have that privilege. Things we can control. For example, we need to take more risks. We need to stop saying, "Oh, I'm not good enough." Now that I've been on the conference organizing side, I'm observing too many instances of women turning down speaking engagements because they don't feel like they have something to offer and instead sending men in their stead. It's frustrating. These are all accomplished, admirable, amazing women, but they are shying away from the spotlight, which I believe, have the tendency to encourage other women to do the same.

Maybe, all we need is to encourage one another more. Perhaps, we need to provide more speaker training (we just recently ran a course at our office which was well-attended by women). or perhaps, for those of us who feel afraid, need to swallow that fear and get up in front of audiences and speak from our hearts. And that is just the beginning.

If cash flow was not an issue and you had had the choice to do any kind of startup, what would it be?

I would run a company that was totally 'lab-based' and experimental. I would want to build tools for parsing Microformats, build on OpenID libraries, and build all sorts of open source tools for independents, consultants, and startup entrepreneurs. I would try to build everything that I could think of, open source it, and then continue dabbling. I would also want to throw more time behind open source and women entrepreneurial projects. That being said, I'm not a developer. But I do love working with developers on creating great apps for people.

When it comes to entrepreneurship, do you think women have less opportunities than men, and how can we change this for the better?

Truly, I think we have more because of our propensity to empathize. I don't want to generalize, but the more human approach to business, creates 10 times the opportunities. Maybe these businesses aren't 'niche' and won't be the next Google, but they are definitely essential and can make anyone a healthy living. I suppose creating the opportunities for this would include continuing to shift our idea of success, being able to think beyond VC funding (VCs require a valuation of something like 10x+), and creating more support networks.

What or who is your greatest source of inspiration?

Female superheroes. Kathy Sierra, Caterina Fake, Amelia Earhart, Tank Girl, and any woman who has been told that she can't or shouldn't do something, but does it anyway. Women who behave badly. ;)

What is your personal motivation in being an entrepreneur?

Sleeping in just a little bit every morning. ;)

Message to Leave with:

The world is changing and there are more opportunities than ever for women to start their own businesses. The cost of failure is low and the pay-offs for success (in whatever way you want to define it) are high. Do it now. Do it often. Start it as an experiment. Face all of your fears. Get in front of large audiences and be proud of yourself for just being there. It's still scary, but if each of us who have the opportunity now do it, it will get easier and easier for subsequent generations.