On the 26th of March, I had the opportunity to attend an amazing panel called Women In Tech, which was held by Tech in Motion - Silicon Valley. Since March was recently dubbed Women’s History Month, there was no better way to celebrate it than this discussion, especially in Silicon Valley. This event rallied over 300 diverse attendees to gather at The Art Institute of California - Sunnyvale. This amazing venue even welcomed the guests with an array of appetizers from their culinary students (delicious).
After settling in, we were introduced to the panel by Perri Blake Gorman, CEO of Archive.ly, who would weave the conversations throughout the night, from the panelist responses to questions from the crowd. As if the number of attendees wasn’t impressive enough, the panel included some of the brightest women in the tech space of today. This panel included: Kimber Lockhart, Director of Engineering at Box, Sophia Perl, Director of Product Management for Mobile Ads at Yahoo!, Lisa Falzone, CEO and co-founder of Revel Systems, Marissa Louie, Principal Designer at Yahoo!, and Ewa Ding, Director of UX.
Perri started the discussion by asking the panel about their early experiences in business from the good, bad, and ugly, which is not to be confused with the Clint Eastwood classic. It was interesting how different these women’s experiences were, as they came from all different areas of business from the client side to the entrepreneurship side. One of the first to share her experiences was Kimber Lockhart, who started her own company very young.
"I caught the entrepreneurship bug while in college,” said Kimber. For her, catching this bug meant co-founding Increo, a web-based service that allows users to share and review documents in a secure space, which was acquired by Box in 2009. This is an amazing accomplishment as Box is one of the leaders in scalable content-sharing and has just filed for a $250M IPO.
Some early business experiences were very different for other panelists. Both Lisa and Marissa found out firsthand how difficult it was to break into the tech space as a bright woman. Lisa said that she didn’t realize there was sexism until she entered the business world, and as a female tech designer, Marissa didn't foresee the obstacles she'd face either.
”I never thought I was going to face challenges growing up,” Marissa recalled about her past. “I’ve been asked on dates when trying to have meetings with a VC, which is totally disrespectful.”
These adversities didn’t slow down these women one bit, however; Lisa moved on to become CEO and co-founder of Revel, and Marissa became a Principal Designer at Yahoo.
Kimber remembers being one of the few women in her companies and using that to her advantage starting out her career. “I also stuck out, like a sore thumb; it helps to step out and be unique,” said Kimber.
In the same conversation on women's empowerment, Lisa agreed that in order for women to get their name out there and be recognized in the tech space, women have to be supportive. “If we want more women with power, they need to help out other women,” Lisa stated. In such a competitive market, women should focus on bringing more women into the IT world, for the sake of gender equality in the workplace. This is not to be mistaken for a “girls club” or an anti-male movement, but instead an equal opportunity push.
Gender diversity should be at the core of every business strategy, giving organizations well-rounded teams to help solve any creative problem. In a recent article by Fast Company, gender diversity starts with the people. “Change must come from both individuals and institutions," the article states. "While many initiatives have focused on providing women the skills to more successfully navigate organizational environments, organizations must also hold themselves accountable to prioritize the support and development of a more diverse workforce.”
Not to mention, only 1.3% of founders at privately held, venture-backed companies are women, as stated by a Dow Jones article. This low percentage shows that women in the startup community should work together and make gender equality a priority. Should parents start encouraging their daughters to go into the tech space or should we leave it up to the school systems to promote women in IT? These are the conversations we should start having with friends, family and co-workers. The workplace has changed drastically from boomers to the current millennials coming out of school. Women in tech are disrupting the workplace and this gender equality is way overdue.
As one of the few males in attendance, I really got a better understanding of the challenges these women faced getting their foot in the door. It has opened my eyes to #WomenInTech and I strongly stand behind this movement, the future of women in tech, and for gender equality in the workplace. Special thanks to the entire panel for sharing your stories and to Tech in Motion for hosting the event.
PS: After the event I got to chat with Marissa Louie who was super nice and inspiring! Thanks for taking the time to chat and also thanks for the #selfie =)
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