Great post Elias Since joining VMware in Palo Alto I have moved heaven and earth to hire more women, but I've ended up with a team of >20 male product managers. It sucks, but even with direction our recruiters couldn't get the needed resume flow. We need more women in technology and working at companies like VMware will help the flow on effects to startups. Large companies can help with the contacts and experience to go out on your own.
Out of interest I was at the Startmate seminar in Sydney yesterday, and out of 70 people there was one woman. Not good. Come on ladies - we need you in our industry!!!! Let's reflect general society! Phil Montgomery On Nov 1, 1:33 pm, Elias Bizannes <elias.bizan...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Silicon Valley > Traditional Silicon Valley is based around Standford and today can be > generally considered anything within a 50 mile radius of the university. > Menlo Park (where Sand Hill Road -- home of VC's and the most expensive > real estate in the world); Palo Alto (the birth place of Hewlett Packard); > Mountain View (Hi Google!), etc. > Since the dot com days, technology startups have clustered around San > Francisco in the SoMa (South of Market) district which consists of > abandoned warehouses. Since then, the centre of gravity for Silicon Valley > has shifted up the peninsula to San Francisco, partly due to cheaper rents > (which are now expensive), the agglomeration of social media companies > thanks to Twitter but now also Groupon, Zynga, Eventbrite, and the like and > now a more practical reason which is that that is where the talent lives. > This issue of talent is why Visa relocated their > headquarters<http://articles.sfgate.com/2000-07-06/business/17654209_1_visa-usa-vi...> > a > decade ago as San Francisco is the cultural, financial and social heart of > the Peninsula -- but with technology startups and the increased focussed of > design and UX as a core competency, the Mission district which is adjacent > to SoMa is where all the hipsters (and designers) live. I've had portfolio > companies of mine say they would be willing to open their office or move > their HQ to San Francisco purely for this reason. > > That said, San Francisco sucks if you have a family: it's crowded, > expensive, and more importantly, the school systems is terrible based on a > weird random allocation where you can't control where you kid goes and just > generally poor quality education. San Francisco is very much a transient > city consisting of 25-40 year mostly single adults, living the life of a > matured partier. It may be the new centre of tech, but you don't want to > bring up your kids there in the same way you don't bring up your kids > living in the city of Sydney. > > On women > With StartupBus where we had over 600 applications, we went out of our way > to select women (we selected 158 people). In fact, there were cases the > selectors regretted it because they gave the benefit of the doubt and in > turned out some of the women selected shouldn't have made the cut. The > issue I want to raise here, is that despite our positive bias and going out > of our way to get women to apply, we just simply didn't have more women > apply and so couldn't select more. > > With CRV, we've done over 90 seed investments, 60 of which are active and > of which I work with about 30. Yes, nearly all of them are male (and if you > really want to know ethnic groups, Jewish, Indian, European) -- although I > recently met Rebecca Woodcock of Cake Health and was encouraged by her > intelligence and product vision -- who I don't consider a female role model > but just a smart founder which is how we should be treating women. I also > know for a fact, we don't actively discriminate against women with our > selection bias...there just aren't any out there applying. My boss gets 50 > deals a week referred to him...of the ones he talks to me about for my > feedback, not once do we talk about the people behind the product, where > you could be a black female Muslim for all I know. > > With my experience at both CRV and StartupBus, the issue isn't that we > don't have enough women taking leadership roles -- it's that we don't have > enough women applying, period. That said, things are changing. I'm meeting > a lot more women in tech, and not just in traditional PR and marketing > roles, but as developers. But if you really want to identity the root cause > of the problem, it comes down to that. > > Elias Bizanneshttp://eliasbizannes.com > *Coming to a freeway near you:*http://startupbus.com > > On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 5:36 AM, Kate Kendall <kendall.k...@gmail.com>wrote: > > > > > > > > > This thread is going to be hijacked! Apologies. Women – feel free to > > continue this in the Female Founder Friday one as that seems most relevant. > > :) > > > I've spent countless hours reading, writing and meeting with people on > > this very topic. It really is tough. I've also tried to create a female web > > entrepreneur community in Australia but it's just not there yet. We've got > > quite a few female geeks and many traditional female entrepreneurs but not > > really the two combined. When you hit the jackpot, these founders are busy > > getting shit done and pioneering, with practically no time to dedicate to > > advancing others. I've also commented before that there are hardly any true > > technical founders (Cathy Edwards from Chomp is always the standout). > > > First up, I don't believe the discussion should revolve around comparing > > circumstances with babies or relationship status. It's important to put > > the onus back on women to lead the change but I find it not constructive to > > blame them for what's the result of societal constructs. Women are always > > going to require time to have and raise children, so we need to create a > > structure that allows them to work with this.Coworking spaces are perfect > > for this. And for the record, stats show that female-founded startups of > > women post-children and over 40 are less likely to fail than other > > demographics. > > > We also need to introduce more diversity into VCs and angels as the common > > pattern recognition of successful startups currently = technical, male, > > 20s, white. Investors look for what they know, what's less risky. They tend > > to think female-founded startups are "cute" but not serious. You might have > > been following the Arrington's racist thing this week – true or not, there > > appears to be as much adversity issues for African > > American entrepreneurs as there are for women and if you're both, it's > > certainly a hard slog! After all, general attention, uptake and large-scale > > success usually lies where the funding is. > > > Regarding schooling and CS education, girls still aren't, and are becoming > > decreasingly so, interested in studying software or computer science (by > > declining enrolment rates). Contrary to popular belief, this isn't due to > > differences in the brain or biology between males and females, and females > > "sucking at science and maths". It's because they don't resonate with it as > > a career option because they haven't been shown how to. It's simply boring > > to them. And the mass media they've been subjected to just bangs on about > > fashion and aesthetics. I was lucky enough to give a talk at Girl Go For IT > > at Deakin University late last year, and one of my aims was to communicate > > and celebrate the benefits of entrepreneurship such as freedom, creation > > and contribution. Which brings me to... > > > The best thing we can do right now to help is by simple awareness. If > > other women see women starting up and excelling, they will begin to think > > they can too. People mostly envy people they can relate to. People don't > > get annoyed they're not Bill Gates, they get annoyed their industry friend > > raised some decent coin for their startup. Let's start promoting our few > > female web entrepreneurs more, and incite action in others. Let's start > > showing them the meaningful outcomes of technology and slowly attune them > > to the backend so they're empowered to directly do themselves. > > > I'm coming up to Sydney in a couple of weeks – how about a meetup on > > Monday 14 Nov to continue the conversation? There seems to be more female > > founders there. > > > Over and out. > > > Kate > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach > > Australia mailing list. Visthttp://siliconbeachaustralia.orgfor more > > > Forum rules > > 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. > > 2) No jobs postings. You can usehttp://siliconbeachaustralia.org/jobs > > > To post to this group, send email to > > silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. Vist http://siliconbeachaustralia.org for more Forum rules 1) No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself. 2) No jobs postings. 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