Diversity Woman Magazine

FALL 2015

Leadership and Executive Development for women of all races, cultures and backgrounds

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d i v e r s i t y w o m a n . c o m Fa l l 2 0 1 5 D I V E R S I T Y W O M A N 31 issue, things might change more quickly. Tis is happening, albeit slowly. As more women rise to become partners in ven- ture capital frms, things will change. In two years Barrica hopes to see wom- en leading more tech companies. "At con- ferences, I hope to see a third, if not half, of workshops led by women." MARIAM NAFICY "This generation is open-minded." Mariam Nafcy started in the tech space back in the 1990s when she founded Eve. com, an e-commerce cosmetics company. She sold the company just before the dot- com bust and says today's young tech workers, part of the Millennial generation, are more open-minded than when she was raising money nearly 20 years ago. "I remember receiving some commen- tary on my physical appearance," she says. "I remember getting a lot of comments about how no one was going to shop on- line, which now I think is priceless." When raising money for Minted 10 years later, Nafcy met with a new genera- tion of venture capitalists. "Tere is so much negative talk about this situation, but the positive part is that many of the people starting businesses now are not the same people who were starting businesses the last time around," she says. "Tey are a generation younger. Te people in positions of infuence are also younger. I fnd this generation to be quite open-minded when it comes to women in tech, which has really helped me in my business." CAITLIN MACGREGOR "The positives outweigh the negatives." Caitlin MacGregor, cofounder and CEO of Plum, a job search platform based in Waterloo, Ontario, says her start-up community isn't an old boys' club, but there is a certain level of ftting into a mold that helps start-up entrepreneurs. "Tere is a Mark Zuckerberg pattern- matching efect," she says. "If you look and act like Mark, you are a refection of the tech sector and there is a willingness for investors to take a chance on you." Despite her lack of resemblance to Facebook's founder, MacGregor has managed to get funding for her com- pany by being herself. Te challenges of being a women in tech, she says, revolve around lack of exposure early on. "Te sharing of information and the normalization of start-up life aren't spreading within female networks as much as within male networks," she says. "It is not intentional exclusion." What is helping this situation is the creation of organizations like Women's Startup Lab that provide a community for female tech founders. Visionaries like Sandberg help, too, by providing role models that are outside of the Zucker- berg archetype. "When [Yahoo! CEO] Marissa Mayer brought her baby into the ofce, it sent a message that I can do it, too. I started bringing my kid in at six months old. It helps to see what your peer group looks like," she says, adding that she also ben- efted from participating in Springboard Enterprises, an all-female tech accel- erator. "I think the positives of being a woman in tech outweigh the negatives. Tere are a lot of opportunities out there for women." DW Katie Morell is a San Francisco–based jour- nalist who specializes in business, travel, and human-interest topics. Read more of her work at katiemorell.com. We Mean Business > Advice for female tech founders Digital luminaries offer words of wisdom ANDREA BARRICA, entrepreneur-in- residence at 500 Startups "Hold on to your business idea while you build your network at another start- up." "Look for investors that fund women." RUZWANA BASHIR, founder of Peek "Get involved. Talk to the companies that aim for balance, for cultures of meritocracy and inclu- sion." "Don't take money from people you don't respect." CAITLIN MACGREGOR, cofounder and CEO of Plum "Make a conscious effort to fgure out what you want to be portrayed as and own that. As a female CEO, you don't want to walk into an investor meeting and be an- swering what brand of dress you're wearing. Manage your impression." FRAN MAIER, founder of Match. com and TRUSTe "Find good mentors." MARIAM NAFICY, founder and CEO of Minted "Take risks early." "Do not under- estimate yourself." "Focus completely on results."

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