The Gender Issue Part II

My twitter stream and email inbox has been full of links to the NY Times article published yesterday — Out of the Loop in Silicon Valley.

It is great to see that a conversation is finally evolving on the importance of gender diversity in the technology and venture capital sectors. On my trip to Rwanda last year I wrote a blog post on why I thought diversity in general was important.

When I meet with startups one of the first reactions/comments is that they have never met a female VC before. We exist, and I count close friends, and investors that I admire greatly, in the ranks. I have also worked with many male VCs who have funded women led companies and are supportive of women. However, after 11 years as a venture capitalist, I can say this industry is one of the most male dominated that I have encountered (including investment banking — many larger firms have diversity programs, shareholders and boards that provide incentives and oversight on this issue).

Successful companies grow out of an ecosystem and network of support, and that includes mentors, investors and role models. Integration of different viewpoints and backgrounds is not always easy but research validates that there is long term payoff for any short term challenges that may exist:

For those with a bottom-line approach, analysts say it makes a difference when women are in the garages where tech start-ups are founded or the boardrooms where they are funded. Studies have found that teams with both women and men are more profitable and innovative. Mixed-gender teams have produced information technology patents that are cited 26 percent to 42 percent more often than the norm, according to the National Center for Women and Information Technology.

Building out an ecosystem that gives ALL smart, talented entrepreneurs access to funding, and support for their fledgling businesses will benefit everyone in the long term. When I helped launch NYCSeed with Owen Davis a couple of years ago, the goal was to provide this network of support in addition to seed funding. And everyone, including the most successful serial entrepreneurs, can benefit from these networks.

But this access becomes particularly important for first time entrepreneurs, and I am seeing an increasing number of women in this category. These women are thinking just as big as their male counterparts (and sometimes are better at weighing the risks and alternate scenarios!) As technology usage becomes more mainstream and diffuses into more industries and disciplines, more women are becoming creators and users of technology as a default.

That’s why I sat on the board of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs in 1999 in Silicon Valley when I started my venture career, and continue to support women entrepreneurs through Astia, Girls in Tech and a host of other organizations. That’s why I am moderating a panel of incredible women entrepreneurs on the topic of Social Media for Social Change this Monday April 19 at GreenSpaces with Echoing Green and NYWSE. And stay tuned for a panel of tech company founders who have successfully raised venture funding, including Heidi Messer (LinkShare, WorldEvolved) Stephanie Sarka (goto.com, new stealth startup), Jen Bekman (20×200) and Jenny Fleiss (Rent the Runway) on May 27 with GIT and Astia hosted at Polaris Ventures‘ Dogpatch Labs in NYC.

This is not about singling out women just because they are women, but because they are building businesses that are going to make a significant impact on our lives in the future (while generating a nice return for their investors along the way….)

Interview on Fox Business News

Last month I sat down with Fox Business News to provide advice to entrepreneurs looking for venture funding. There is visibly more interest in tech entrepreneurship in NYC, which is encouraging to see.
This is a clip of the video.

An accompanying written Q&A with several VCs discussing the current state of the VC market.

The Daily Beast’s Foray into E-Books

Today, The Daily Beast announced a joint venture with Perseus Book Group, with Tina Brown noting that there is “a gap between online writing and full-length books that [is] no longer being fully met by a dwindling market for magazines.”

The effort will utilize Daily Beast writers to publish books of 150 pages or less on a shorter cycle than traditional publishing houses.  The books will initially be available in digital form, but the original announcement did not outline how much they would cost.  Writers, however, would receive a greater % of profits than under the current book publishing model.

I applaud the Daily Beast for this experiment.  In the spirit of new paradigms of media consumption, consumers will have yet another option– more timely, in depth articles, at (hopefully) price points that reflect their inherent value to the readers.  Writers can have access to a broader audience, opportunity to publish more in-depth pieces, and better monetize their talents. 

I also see crowdsourcing potential here, with readers suggesting topics and/or voting on them, so that writers can gauge their potential audience’s interests before writing an article.  Of course, I’d also hope that writers will take risks, spurring demand for topics post-publication.  Above all, it is encouraging to see companies pushing the boundaries of current business models, and acknowledging that market forces will prevail as more power rests with the consumer. No doubt business models will continue to evolve across industries with greater velocity than ever before, which makes this a fascinating time to be a an investor, consumer and entrepreneur.

Development Through Self Empowerment

While in Rwanda, I went on long drives, for it’s the only way to see this beautiful country.  Some roads are paved but many are not — one day, it took us 10 hours to travel a little over 200 kilometers on a bumpy dirt road winding through the hills.  Along those drives I’d get diverse glimpses into local life, from the suburbs of larger cities to bustling villages to remote standalone houses.  I’d see people transporting everything, from tea to water jugs to clothes, on their heads (one particular source of amusement was a group of women who had dug some dirt with shovels and then carried the full shovels on their heads, balancing them perfectly!)  And then there were the children.  They would all stop and stare.  After recovering, they would inevitably react in one of two ways:  they would either wave with a big smile, or outstretch palms, yelling out, seeing foreigners as a source of free money.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about aid to developing nations, especially after my summer working on a UNIDO (United Nations Development Organization) project in Tanzania training women entrepreneurs.  I was based in Dar es Salaam and saw two aid vehicles for every car on the road.  This in a country that has enjoyed a long stretch of political stability.  I was perplexed on how little there was to show for the large amounts of aid seemingly pouring in.  The project I was working on taught women basic business skills, including microfinance management, marketing and production. This aligned with my belief in self-empowerment and giving people tools, including education, to better their lives.  During my time there, I started to see how some of the foreign aid was creating a culture of dependency and entitlement, and not of self sufficiency.

Education, building businesses and technological development all take a long time to show results and success metrics can be hard to measure.  This is the reason that many companies stop investing in R&D and longer term projects during economic downturns.  However, it is imperative, especially as we look at developing countries, that both shorter term needs (such as food, immunizations, healthcare) are coupled with longer term initiatives that promote development for the future.  Technology can be a key driver here, and we are seeing it in agricultural innovation and in the alternative energy sector.  Education (including teacher development) and preventative healthcare are other areas that are important to invest in.  The Gates Foundation has been a leader in using private enterprise principles in holding NGOs accountable for their strategy and the proliferation of social venture funds (including Echoing Green, which I have been a supporter of for years) are positive steps towards finding innovative solutions to some of these difficult issues.

On my next trip to Rwanda I hope to see only smiling faces waving and none with outstretched hands.  And with that thought, I bid this wonderful country adieu and look forward to returning someday….

A Gorilla’s Eyes

Yesterday I went mountain gorilla tracking in Volcanoes National Park in the Virungas. Unlike the elusive chimpanzees I tracked a few days ago in Nyungwe Forest, visitors are able to get very close to the animals. Several habituated groups exist, and the one I visited was a particularly playful one, so much so that one of the toddlers kept coming up to me to peer into my camera lens. This was much to the chagrin of my guide, as the dominant silverback was a few feet away and kept looking over. The hour I spent with them was magical, as it gave great insight into the lives of these creatures. They are inquisitive, gentle, massive and muscular and therefore quite destructive as they move through the forest (graceful they are not!), but love to play. I sat transfixed watching the silverback grooming one of the younger ones, while several others engaged in a well spirited wrestling match nearby, and others tumbled out (quite literally!) of the forest to watch. Looking into the eyes of the youngest ones was not unlike looking into human babies’ eyes, with that same look of wonder and curiosity staring back at you.

As I watched them, I wondered what these gorillas think of the destruction that humans have caused in the region. Despite their size, the mountain gorillas subsist on a vegetarian diet and will fight only to defend their groups. Yet many have been the victims of poachers and rebel groups in the Congo. Their habitat has been disturbed by refugees fleeing the genocide and the Congo civil war. In 2007, National Geographic chronicled the murder of a gorilla family with moving photos taken by Brent Stirson.

Then I read the NY Times this morning, with news of a bloody week in Afghanistan, more bombings in Iraq, and increased violence in Chechnya. And I know what these gorillas would think. They would come close, peer into our eyes, shake their heads, maybe lift their fingers to their heads, and return to their play.

Mountain Gorilla, Rwanda