This week was a doozy
Incomplete thoughts to tech industry “upheaval”
Hi all,
Seriously, what a week. I’ve been on the phone talking, lamenting, yelling, strategizing, mobilizing…my brain.
There’s a lot to say, I can’t possibly get to all of it now, and a lot of it changes with every day. But here are a few things we are thinking about:
Holy cow how much does culture matter?
Industry culture, Silicon Valley culture, company culture. There’s a big, strong argument to be made that at least part of the blame sits on the ominous shoulders of “the space”. This was a gut-wrenching account that will make you….ugh. But what do we DO about this?
Future by and for women?
In that same piece though was one statement — “These problems are deeply connected; they both stem from a culture built by white men, run by white men, designed for white men.” This. This is what we want to focus on, and this is what we know needs to change. By changing this, can we impact culture? I’m biased, but this is why we get up every day here, because we think the answer is yes.
Shaherose Charania, Founder of Women 2.0, has always said that by focusing on early-stage, female-founded startups (and, my addition, female-friendly and inclusive startups), we stand to make the biggest long-term impact, because we can shape companies as they’re creating their culture. A future built with women at the table — leadership, engineering, founding, investing. At this point, I think our company PoC stage is over? :-)
Where’s the money coming from?
Our biggest fear (and one echoed from several great voices in the ecosystem)? That no male investor will want to be in the same room as a female founder, and that no female founder will want to be in the room as a male investor. Not good.
Gunna beat the drum again. It’s even more important now to be finding a way to involve men in this process. More on this soon.
Wild wild west
One thing we’ve been struggling with is solutions — how to surface the positive and productive ways forward from all of this (action is always one of our main drivers, but things aren’t usually this….complicated). Is it the right timing? What’s going to make an impact, or what’s fluff? How do you mobilize in a highly sensitive time? What’s the best way to take action? And a ton of others…..
There’s so much more to say. A few resources:
Advice for female founders
I don’t want to load a ton on you this week and want to stay relevant. We reached out to our awesome network for advice for female founders as they work to navigate the gender relationship associated with fundraising.
Send more to us, this is an ongoing conversation.
Policies and movement
We also put together a list of policy recommendations that are out there that companies can reference when they’re thinking about harassment and diversity. We were able to work with TechCrunch on a decency policy (included there), which is a great starting point.
We’ll be updating this regularly, so please also send us what you come across.
Women engineers
Don’t forget, we have 50+ jobs up on Lane.
This is more important than ever right now, as we’ve only got companies up there that are committed to inclusive workplaces.
I want to hear from you (seriously). How are you processing things this week? [Note: We’re happy to provide contributor space on our site or Medium for relevant thoughts].
Cheers,
Kate
