The rare woman tech start-up founder
The first time that I became really aware of how unusual it was to be a female start-up founder was a couple of months back. At the time, I was writing a series of articles about entrepreneurship based on the book Founders at Work (you can find links to all the articles here). When I finished the series, I sent a note to Jessica Livingston, the author and co-founder of Y Combinator, to thank her for the book because it had a big impact on me. The following is a small snippet of her reply:
“I am especially pleased that you have started your own thing as a woman. Female founders seem so few and far between.”
I think it might be because I don’t live in Silicon Valley (where I live, start-ups themselves are few and far between) but I hadn’t thought too much about the rarity of a female founder until I read Livingston’s email. Since then, I have thought quite a bit about it. And today, this post - Girls in Tech (Yes, They Exist) -Â by Sarah Lacy crossed my Google Reader, and I wanted to share it. One of my favorite bits:
“It’s understandable not wanting to be treated as a “token.” But the way I look at it, if I’ve got disadvantages of being a woman in a male-dominated industry, why not take the advantages?”
The topic Sarah’s post is that men and women are different. And it’s true, that might account for there being fewer women founders. But, although it may have been said many times in many ways, I think it’s a mistake to gloss over the issue of having kids. It is possible that I believe this is such a major factor because I read Penelope Trunk’s blog, which, honestly, scares the hell out of me. (Go read some of those posts, you’ll fall in love with her blog, but you’ll be scared, too!)
For every start-up founder, I think, balancing a career with the rest of life is something to think about. But as a woman, the issue rarely leaves my mind. It adds urgency, pressure and stress. And I’m sure for some women, this trifecta of bad emotion is enough to keep them from starting that start-up.
What do you think?
Tags: entrepreneurs, founders, Jessica Livingston, Sarah Lacy, start-up, women
May 1st, 2008 at 12:35 am
My wife and I cofounded http://tipjoy.com
She was the only woman founder in the Winter-08 Y Combinator batch of startups.
Ohh, and we have a 1 year old son. It is entirely possible to do this, but it isn’t the most common choice for people like us. The tipping point in making the plunge into the startup was when we realized the worst case scenerio was going back to our excellent jobs at big companies. There is nothing to lose once you realize that.
I’ve been trying to think of ways the married founding team + kid could act like a Purple Cow to get us more press.
May 1st, 2008 at 12:59 am
I think you have brought up an important point. More bloggers need to address this issue. People keep discussing about balance in startup, startup life, aspects of startup (tech, pr, marketing) etc.. Though people fail to think about the issue of having a balance in the industry. Women obviously an important part of the startup ecosystem. I fail to believe that in this are we have come to a saturation point. I think women need to take initiative and and make the leap. I would personally like to see more women founders.
The reason I am passionate about this topic is because of my girlfriend. In the past few years she has been really passionate about the tech scene and doing a startup. She currently works for Fotoflexer.com and loves it.
May 1st, 2008 at 3:35 am
I think you are right. I’m a girl tech start-up founder, just closing my second year. And yes, that ‘rest of life’ balance worry never goes away. It’s a lot easier to resolve if you’re a man than a woman. As for the ‘token’ comment, if you know your stuff, being ‘different’ is great because you stand out.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:13 am
@Ivan - Wow, congratulations on starting a company AND having a 1-year-old. That is completely amazing, I imagine that you are pretty tired. :) The point you make about the alternative - going back to the big company - is such a good one because for those of us who love the start-up life, we’re going to figure out a way to make the start-up + family work for us.
My friend Julie that I visited in Philly a couple of weekends ago reminded me that as the founder, I could set things up however I want - I can have a special office and an employee just to take care of kids, for example. While I may or may not do that, her point was a good one - I am so used to the big-company mindset and thinking within the ways that people usually deal with having kids, that I forgot to think creatively about it. But her suggestion really freed me up and took a lot of pressure off because now I remember that I will have options.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Ha! I love Penelope Trunk’s blog, but it scares me to death too! Now it’s like a car wreck for me. I can’t stop reading, even though maybe sometimes I think I should.
I can see why you run into a lack of women as a tech startup founder. In general, there aren’t a lot of women in true tech roles, even in established tech businesses. I hate that! I went to a job interview a few years ago where I was asked if it would bother me to be the only woman, because the interviewer said their tech dept. was a “total boys club” and may not be for me.
Have confidence that being a woman in your industry gives you and edge by making you more even memorable to potential clients and investors.
And maybe you will inspire some other women to get off the fence and get into this!
May 1st, 2008 at 1:44 pm
@Melissa Thanks!
One thing that has really helped us is that we can work whenever we want - something that makes big companies cringe. We routinely get hours of work done after our son goes to sleep. Flexible schedules are generally very good for productivity - if you’re in the mindset to get work done whenever, you don’t get stuck in the “so close to 5pm I can get anything done” doldrums.
May 1st, 2008 at 6:44 pm
hey there! thanks for reading and the link!
we did talk a little about this at the event. frankly, i think you can’t have it all and that’s why i don’t have kids. i know that is horrifying to some women (including my mom!). but i operate my career like a startup. i have a businessweek column, i co-host a show on yahoo, have a blog and am promoting one book, working on the proposal for another. i’ve worked 24/7 for more than ten years to get all of this but i can’t rest. i have to be speak at conferences, go to parties and have dinner with CEOs and VCs several nights a week. my mom was planning to get a phd and decided to have kids instead. she had a vastly scaled down career from what she’d planned because she knew she couldn’t do both well and felt she had to chose. i guess i feel the same way, but have chosen the other route.
May 1st, 2008 at 9:25 pm
@sarah Thanks for your comment. I totally see where you’re coming from and respect the choice that you’ve made - and that you’re willing to talk about the decision and face the skeptism. The trick for me is that I want both - the career and the family - and in the middle of the 24/7 start-up experience I’m really realizing just how hard that will be.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:59 am
here’s something that i can’t stop thinking about. in general, women start companies at a faster a rate as men do, but women do not take in venture funding nearly as often as men do.
i do not believe that this is because vc’s (men) don’t want to fund women. in fact, i’m going out for funding now and i am not having any problem not being part of a boys club or whatever.
i think the reason women don’t go for venture funding is because women don’t want to build huge companies because it’s too scary to build a huge company and take care of kids. so women build smaller companies.
but i was talking to a woman who just took in venture capital, and she pointed out that if you raise enough money, you don’t have to wear fifty hats, and you can focus on long-term issues and you can have a manageable lifestyle — well, relative to the life of an entrepreneur of a small startup wearing many hats and working very long hours.
i think about this a lot. that maybe women would have an easier time doing startups if we all aimed really big — took in $30 million in venture funding and streamlined our vision for our job as an entrepreneur.
just a thought. and, of course, thanks for linking to all the posts i’ve written about how hard a time i have figuring all this out.
penelope
June 24th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
I am a woman who now works at a tech start-up and ran an online business from home during college. When I ask myself why women aren’t forming tech start-ups..
The main thing that comes to mind is education.
My company asks for a degree in computer science, math, physics or engineering (or related experience) for 85% of its positions. People who know tech create tech and if they have been working in the industry have probably made connections in the field. Being a physics major, I can tell you, the amount of woman in the field might be growing, but it is nowhere near 50/50. My office is has 19 guys and 3 women.
Maybe once just as many women as men are present in the software engineering and physics classes, have joined the workforce and have made solid connections they will be making just as many start-ups.