Getting More Women in Tech

0:00 sodina they've already started compiling

0:01 the data for this year and it's no

0:03 better than it was last year two percent

0:07 which makes no sense of course when

0:08 women are half the population

0:10 what gives

0:12 well first of all happy international

0:14 women's day emily and thank you so much

0:16 for having me and for uh and for

0:18 bringing this important topic to the

0:19 conversation i am still hopeful and as i

0:22 told you last week i would actually say

0:23 i'm optimistic af

0:25 um the data is not quite up to date in

0:28 terms of where we are for 2022 at least

0:31 from what i'm seeing i think there is

0:33 still tremendous opportunity i have to

0:36 say and maybe i'm biased the companies

0:38 that i'm seeing are not only

0:41 solo women founders who are coming from

0:43 deeply technical and clinical fields but

0:46 across the board more diverse than i've

0:49 ever seen in prior years things are

0:51 changing and i expect the data to follow

0:53 suit

0:54 okay what about check writers like

0:56 yourself 14.

0:58 percent of czech writers now are women

1:01 we know that's critical to getting more

1:03 women and a greater diversity of ideas

1:06 funded but even that number i believe

1:08 it's up from like 11 a couple of years

1:10 ago it's moving so slowly

1:14 it really is and it's not enough i we

1:16 have a long way to go and there is data

1:18 which kaufman fellows has published

1:20 along with a plethora of other data

1:21 including from bloomberg on the

1:23 importance of cap table diversity not

1:26 only in terms of founding teams but on

1:28 the performance of those teams on the

1:30 performance of those boards on revenues

1:33 on faster time to exit so this is not

1:36 about diversity for diversity sake or

1:38 even for the sake of a holiday like

1:40 today it's fundamentally good for

1:42 business it's good for investors it's

1:44 good for lps and it's good for our

1:46 economy so we we really need to move the

1:48 needle here and i'm again excited to to

1:51 see all of the young talent that's

1:53 coming to the table people who may not

1:55 have considered a future inventor before

1:58 uh some of the role models that they've

1:59 had the chance to see elevated in recent

2:02 years

2:02 well women can't change the world alone

2:05 we're gonna need the help of men and i'm

2:06 curious in the board room are you seeing

2:09 male investors male check writers more

2:11 open to women founders or women ideas

2:14 you know or is it still the women

2:16 funding the smart breast pump or the

2:19 women's health tech

2:21 solution

2:22 not only am i seeing investors more open

2:25 to it i'm actually seeing incredible

2:26 companies that are innovating for women

2:29 in women's health and in other areas

2:31 that are founded by men

2:33 and some of those happen to be in my

2:35 portfolio and so i do think there's been

2:37 a tied shift there have been incredibly

2:39 competitive deals um that that we've had

2:41 the chance to participate in and many of

2:43 the folks coming to the table uh are are

2:45 men

2:46 and so it's really not a gendered

2:48 preference here i think it's folks are

2:49 starting to see that this is

2:51 fundamentally good for the world good

2:54 for our economy and and good for our

2:57 investors

2:58 what kind of role do you think investors

3:00 have on keeping the pressure on

3:03 especially for younger startups where

3:05 you are more involved making sure they

3:08 have diverse teams making sure they have

3:10 women on the board making sure that

3:12 women are promoted so that they don't

3:14 become

3:15 as sort of male dominated as the big

3:18 tech companies that have the power today

3:21 it's absolutely critical emily and it

3:23 has to start in the earliest days this

3:25 is not something where you can check the

3:26 box right before you go public and

3:28 decide to add uh you know a quote

3:30 unquote diverse member to your board

3:32 because it's uh it's required at that

3:34 point it really does need to be baked

3:36 into the dna of the company at the

3:37 founding stage and again i'm seeing that

3:40 happening even in new co-creation

3:42 in terms of the first hires in terms of

3:44 thoughtful founders who recognize the

3:47 importance of that

3:48 around the boardroom and around the cap

3:50 table as well it's very difficult to do

3:52 it thoughtfully if you wait too long

3:54 women make up 30 to 35 percent of

3:59 employees at big tech companies but it's

4:01 much smaller when you look at those

4:03 prime technical roles about 24 of those

4:06 top tech

4:07 engineering roles you know it's going to

4:09 take

4:10 years decades maybe for some of these

4:13 bigger companies to change it's like

4:15 trying to turn

4:16 the titanic

4:18 how optimistic are you for the next

4:20 generation of bigger

4:23 tech companies are we on the right

4:25 trajectory

4:26 yeah well speaking of data and 10 years

4:28 it was 10 years ago when i was at google

4:30 and and they first released their

4:32 diversity numbers when it specifically

4:34 when it comes to women in computer

4:35 science and technical roles and they

4:38 were dismal and uh following google a

4:41 number of the other large fangs also

4:43 released their numbers and there were

4:44 myriad efforts to address the gender gap

4:47 starting in elementary school i mean we

4:49 know now that these kind of biases and

4:51 self-perceptions can be formed as early

4:53 as 18 months of age so it's not

4:56 something that will move immediately and

4:58 quickly it's uh it's not that easy to

5:00 generate you know multiple phds

5:03 overnight we have to start that early

5:06 and not young we have to see characters

5:08 in tv shows that you know are

5:11 excellent engineers and happen to be

5:13 women not exceptional because they are

5:16 women we need to see those types of role

5:18 models on bloomberg tech which you do

5:21 constantly these this type of

5:23 representation is absolutely critical

5:24 and i think that we'll see that uh

5:26 precipitate over time in terms of the

5:28 numbers it won't happen quickly but it

5:30 can't happen quickly enough

5:32 we try but all of us even us can

5:34 certainly do better i want to ask about

5:36 some of the most rapidly growing parts

5:38 of the tech economy crypto web 3 for

5:41 example do you see um women

5:44 you know taking a fair share of the pie

5:46 in some of these burgeoning industries

5:47 because i think the narrative is that

5:49 some of these new

5:51 new tech

5:52 sub industries are still quite male

5:54 dominant quickly

5:56 in many cases they are but there are

5:58 incredible organizations coming to the

5:59 table like my bff that are working to

6:01 change that like women in the world and

6:03 like our new partner at lux grace who's

6:05 focused on web 3 among other things