Available. Good evening everybody. And welcome to tonights program hosted by Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley. My name is Maria Lazarini market president for the division were delighted to support tonights program. The Common Wealth club can you hear me . Commonwealth club convenes some of the most informative and thought provoking conversations from World Affairs to the work place. These forum support learning engagement in our communities. And they raise awareness of todays critical issue. Right now, if you turn on the news or check your twitter feed, youll see there is no conversation more timely than tonights discussion on gender equity and fostering work environments where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Ive been with bank of the west for over 35 years. So its quite fair to say that ive seen many changes in the Financial Services industry. One shift is the increased role of women, leaders in banking. For instance, bank of the west ceo was named one of the most powerful women in banking by the american banker. Other executives at our bank are head of small and immediate enterprises michelle and general counsel venn is a washington and our head of community and csr, jenny have been named as influencers in their area of specialty. In our parent company, bmp is committed to gender equity and a half of Board Members are women. So im very proud to represent a company that supports a culture of respect for all of its employees. One that is focused on ideas and business so that we do what is right for our customers and our community. And it is my hope that the conversations we have tonight inspire all of us to sport each other and have a safe environment for women. And now, its my pleasure to introduce emily chang author of bro open ya breaking up the boys club of Silicon Valley. Emily is a well known anchor executive producer of Bloomberg Technology and regularly speaks with top tech executives, with investors, and a entrepreneurs. As the host of bloomberg studios 1. 0 series. She began her career as news producer at nbc in new york then moved to nbcs affiliate in san diego where her reporting for msnbc won her five emmy awards. She spent several years at cnn as an International Correspondent in beijing and london before joining bloomberg. Emily is a linkedin influencer and member of the lean in community. She was named one of the top 100 influential tech people on twitter by Business Insider and 100 most influential tech women. Emily is a graduate Harvard University sits on the board of the Nonprofit Organization build. Moderating tonights program is gina, founder and ceo of Mighty Networks she was previously the ceo of ning entrepreneur in residents at angd anderson ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming emily chang and gina. [applause] hi everyone. [inaudible conversations] hello. You can tell shes a journalist used to doing the interview. But tonight i get to do the asking of the questions and im pretty excited it be. Ive also interviewed gina five times so shes excited to turntables on me. But put me in my place. Rng thank you all for being here tonight. I think this is going a wonderful conversation. I dont know if you guys know this but emily just wrote a book, and [laughter] its called brotopia about women in Silicon Valley and technology so i thought we could start tonight with a question. Superimportant most founders and people raising money get asked which is peer t. Suggested this in his Book Building startup to inventing the future to ask people, what important truth do you believe on which very few people agree with you. Well im not done. Given some of the jaw dropping research and statistics that you found in your book, really arranged this really radical idea that women should actually have equal opportunity and could contribute to Silicon Valley success, success in the Technology Industry not just women women, poem of color as well. So i was just curious where did you get such a radical idea . [laughter] you know, it was quite radical at the time. I started doing this two years ago so this was before trump, before me too. And you know, people would wise whisper about it and talk about it offcam and you get people in the chair it is skier rei to speak up. Nobody wants to be whistleblower and woman raising money doesnt want to risk not being able to raise money because shes calling out, you know, investors who are 93 male. And yet everybody had these sort of ideas about why women have been left out of the greatest Wealth Creation in the history of the world. Women account for 70 of the investors women get 2 of funding. 2 of funding lets marinate on that for a second. 62 billion, and you know people would have ideas about why are this is happened like its a pipeline problem. Silicon valley is everybody deserves to be where they are. Women just dont want to work in tech. They think it is boring. And then you know when i went back and i started doing some research, i realized well, in fact, women were part of the commuting industry in early days. Woman were actually not the hardware makers but involved in software of Early Computers because they were encouraged to study math so plenty of female programmers to go arranged they programmed for the military and for nasa think Hidden Figures but industry wide literally and then in the 60s and 70s as industry started to explode jobs became higher status and higher paying and quite frankly men wanted those jobs and so the industry was so desperate for new talent they hired two psychologists to develop a personal test to identify a good programmer. And they decided that good programmers, quote, dont like people. Which is interesting theres no evidence to suggest that people who dont like people are better at computers than anybody else theres also no evidence to suggest that men are better at computers than women but if you look for people that dont like people youll hire more men than women and these personality tests widely inthriewn cial used for Tech Companies for tech kaidz were talking about companies as big as ibm that solidified idea of the antisocial mostly white male nerd stereotownship that has existed for decades when it comes to engineer, entrepreneurs theyre looking for people who look like mark stuker burg and executives. And you know, unfortunately that has shut out more than half of the population. Right. As you were thinking about taking on this project and writing a book, in addition to your day job. Why was this important if you i know why it is important to me but first of all it is just so unjust. But its not just the right thing to do. It is the smart thing to do. I mean Silicon Valley is control aring what we see and what we read. How we duet around, how we communicate how we shop. And for an industry that is transforming our lives every day people making products shouldnt be 95 male so were talking about a problem that snot just Silicon Valley problem or tech problem [applause] this is the worlds problem. This is a cultural crisis. I also have is three sons. You know people always say i have daughters i care well i have son and i really care about this. Because i fully believe that their lives will be better in a more e equal world but yes for all of the patient out will who have sons and daughters and want daughters to succeed in this industry theyre not gepg to stand a chance if industry doesnt change. [inaudible conversations] this is an extremely well researched book and one of the things that you did was to go into the statistics, research you mention one stat of two, one men 92 of intercapitalist women getting 2 of Venture Capital dollars at least on 2016 numbers im not sure that it really changed in the last year. So uber raised 20 something billion. Rent the runway run by jennifer i think raised 200 million one of the most female ceos and amount you know this, the amount much capital you raise if you with raise more money you get so many more chances to figure it out. You have so much more time. And so if youre a woman is getting 10 million and guy is 100 million who will get a better shot and that is systemic. So what percent of the other statistics that in your research you just were like oh, my god why isnt anybody talking about this . A few what are spsks . First of all like i said it wasnt this way. By 1984 mac was coming out windows is being introduced to the world. Women accounted for 37 of commuters science degrees it shall that what is since plummeted to 18 . And it has remained flat for the last decade theres been no progress in the percentage of women in computer science. That was number one. Number two, was the statistic about how quickly women are leaving this industry. You know so when i started writing this book a male investor said to me, you dont have a book. Its very oven. Women just want to be at home with their kids it is biological they want to take care of their kids. Thats the answer. And so i just nodded. What else would you have said . [laughter] women are twice as likely to leave tech but not leaving to care of their children but work in other fields. Women are 800 more likely to leave jobs in technology than in any other field. Yeah, when i heard 107 i was astonished why isnt anybody talking about this . And so for an industry that loves data well data tells the story. What is the one thing that, you know, as you were thinking because were talking about research were talking about data because were [laughter] in technology. We should probably know these things. What do you think it is that makes these numbers so easy to ignore . I think people believe that Silicon Valley is a mare took city and they can change world here and reason i call it brotopia that it is a modern ewe pope ya where anyone can change the world and make rules if they are a man. And if youre a woman it is harder. Speaking as i was reading the book i felt like the name of the book or the subtitle the sub tilings is breaking up the boys club of civil Silicon Valley but could be be dammedded you did and dammed if you dont. I think one of the things that was so fascinating in way in which you captured the research the the research is clear that stats are clear. But daytoday experiences of women working as engineers, working as executives working as startup founders. And one of the one of the quotes is, is it feels like everything i do is wrong. How does that, how does that happen . What are the different ways that those stats become a reality are . Because its not also its not just like any like women who are like working in Silicon Valley like these are women who graduate 50 or 53 i think it is from ivy league schools, and come to Silicon Valley and are dropping out at significantly higher rates. What was when you did what 300 interviews, 200 interviews how did that experience come into being around everything i do is wrong . So one of the most impactful moments of my reporting was two weeks after susan fouler posted her blog post that went viral for those of you dont know she wassage engineer at uber she had a very bad experience a Sexual Harassment at uber propositioned for sex by a male manager on second day and took screen shots of it and when she showed screen shots to hr they said, were going to let that slide because hes a high performer. And she wrote about it. And everyone was shocked and i had 12 women in tech over at my home for dinner two weeks ago couple of engineers from uber, and they werent shocked at all. And one of the most and so hard to describe you know what these women go through. But you know best way that i can think of to describe it is they are only women over and over again all day long. And it is exhausting it shall and theyre fed up and theyre frustrated and they feel like they have to constantly perform emotional labor just to prove they deserve to be there which is like a whole second job. I mean, there are studies that show and i some of these in the book that women gets a better grade than men but if you if you hide names but if you reveal the names, women get worst grades. So thats just one example. I think it was Something Like 25 more comments on their code reviews. Absolutely. But at the same time they love their jobs. They love having their opportunity to change the world. And so industry just has so much work to do to keep them here and at that dinner you know people were sharing their stories and some perform and shocking stories. But you know, it goes to level of bad behavior not just being tolerated but normalized so uber for example you know women would be invited to strip clubs in middle of the day by male managers you know in a position wait do i go . And where work will be done there maybe they decide who will get this project or that project. But im also put in this incredibly unkivel position and not go and uncool kid that doesnt get the next hot thing. Dammed if you do. Dammed if dont. Exactly. Whether it was at the dinner or as you talked to other, you know, women in in the course of reporting on the book, what has struck you as most insidious way women are kicked out of the arena . I think its just so systemic that the level to which women are outnumbered. You know, i also think that a huge part of the problem is that many men believe they have to lower their standards in order to hire women. And they dont say that outloud except in one instance which is actually reason that i decided to write this book. I was interviewing Michael Morse chairman of sequoia perhaps most successful ever invested in google and hes had a storied career. Web ban. Had some failures as well i actually think hes still arranged trying to make up for that. [laughter] and at the time sequoia had no female partners in november 2015 that i interviewed him and he said to me he was talking about how you know i asked him at which it was really interesting. You know, how do you identify a good Venture Capitalist he said i think it is difficult to tell at background if theyll be good in investing interesting since they have requirements and he started as a journalist and then got a chance to do investing and he was a incredible success and he had no parter ins in u. S. Investing business i said what is your responsibility to hire women and i was expecting some sort of canneddersned answer vel spoken. And he said to me well were looking very hard were completely blind to gender, race, sexual sexual sexuality wt preparedded to lower our standards and i i mean i just was like did he just say that . And to me it was this moment of truth. Where you know he said, what probably a lot of people unfortunately believe but no one is actually willing to say it. Not intelligent. Not on television i think thats part of the problem so everywhere i wect went people wanted to talk about what he said. Most were horrified some people understood where he was coming from. But unfortunately if that is really what people think, of course, women are going to catch a break. Yeah. Made a lot of friends you made a lot of friends there. [laughter] if you judge sequoia only on its actions didnt hire a woman for 44 years you cant tell me that in 44 years that best capital firm couldnt find a wol to hire. Yeah, youre right. [laughter] actually i when i was coming out of Business School in 2000, i was a company out of sai coy ya and when they were interviewing me and i was meeting with the partners one of the i think i think it was mike said hes like, we once hired a woman and it didnt end very well for us. [laughter] this is 2000 so a long time to look. A long time to look. Yep. In addition to your great relationship with sai sai so it was published in vanity fair about Silicon Valley sex party. I was curious as i was reading the book which first of all if youve read it and havent read the book the book is actually is really nuance and very thoughtful about the topic of sex parties the topic of getting invited to Conference Room g or a strip club around like the corner from called gold club in selma a center of startup land and to be fair they have a buffet. Well it is cheapest lunch in San Francisco 5 all you can eat buffet. And at 11 45 its a hot lufnlg spot hence yelp employees call it Conference Room g, and at 11 45 a. M. On a friday, i show up with a female colleague who agreed to accompany me on this very dangerous reporting mission. Theres a line out the door of workers for lunch at a strip club. So in that context what what was the most jaw dropping story that was shared with you . I mean there are so many. Into the book . You know, i staying on strip club example i peedly confessed you know woman came over to our table like im a journalist im just asking some questions do you mind to she was superhelpful and shes like yeah. Tech people from and named companies here all the time and come in groups of mostly guy sometimes woman tagging along for whatever reason. You know they talk about work and be the boss after the executives will walk in the door with their special badges and they people flock to them they may group to a private rule together. I mean, business is getting done in, you know, in the middle of the day in the heart of San Francisco at a strip club. And you know, were talking about you know part of it look sexism exist in every industry. But in Silicon Valley you know, this is supposed to be the most progressive industry in the world it certainly is the most powerful industry in the world. Yet people who connected and built selfdriving cars trying to take us to mars you know when you asked them what can we do about hiring women and diversity oh, thats just so hard i dont know how were going to solve that. And so one of the really Important Reasons i wanted to write it is simply the hypocrisy of it. But on top of that like, i fully believe that people who are taking us to mars and connecting the world and you know have given us rides at the push of a button i believe they can do this. Like they can hire women and pay them fairly. And another stat for you pay gap in Silicon Valley is five Times National average so if you control for job title, experience and geographical location pay gap is about 5 in Silicon Valley 28. 5 so at the very least look at all of the data we navidad tay on paper just pay women what youre paying the men. Seems pretty simple. And to be fair some executives have said im going to make up for were going make up for the pay gap. There are good people in the book. That was really the best part and there are some amazing female founders i talk about this story of katrina lake who founded fix Online Personal Styling Service and the first a investors she talked to said no and you know ultimately one with said yes an she took her Company Public at a 2 billion market cap nobody believes in her and pitchings to male investor with a female focused idea it can be hard to understand it. Great men in the book many had of the men are on third or four company who have changed their way willing to admit it so i interviewed max who was a cofounder of paypal admitted to me early on that he only hired people he knew which were other male students from the university of illinois. And as a result, the papal mafia became this sort of literally one of the most powerful networks in the world all men like not a single woman. At his next company, he sort of did the same thing and then it became pretty broy with a lot of drinking and push out bros had to fire some people he had to like , you know, double down on culture. And then by the time he got to Third Company not everyone has a chance to do three which, you know, as we know men get more chances. A firm hes really focused on hiring and prioritizing and promoting women and willing to talk about this and im making mistake so stewart founder of slack, you know hes made this sort of his cause celeb and hell tweet about it and every time he tweets he gets a spike in are from diverse candidates. So by the way, telling people you care about diversity, matters to the people who care about diversity. And you know, he he now has 43. 5 women at the company which is far better be than the industry average thats not perfect. Twitter ceo former twitter ceo dick at his latest company he decided not to hire he wouldnt hire another man until he hired a woman and vice vice versa bece if you go too far and wait too long before you know trying to pox on diversity like it is too late. And, in fact, it may be slower in the beginning but as you go on, you can actually move more quickly because you dont ask is women on the street if they like your rocket but ask the women in the room. Theres a lot of reasons this makes sense. Pledgets another one that was not in the book actually was marked theyve done a comprehensive pay equalized carling and if a Company Biggest sales force can do it. Everyone can do it. How do you feel again in reporting the book how did we get to the latest culture of bros . Because one of the things i would observe having started my career on wall street and in coming in Silicon Valley really pretty early on having also grown up here is it wasnt always like this. Even sort of the latest series of bad behaviors. It wasnt always like this. And what seems to be the case is also one a number of Venture Capital firms come out explicitly saying we only want to invest in essentially men who look like bill gates and Mark Zuckerberg you have a tremendous am of first time founders ceos who are also getting a significant amount of money the term unicorn coined by lee lee didnt exist as a term in a thing before six years ago. Five years ago. And then there has been a number of different trends and things that have happened where i think you say this in the book that is fantastic which is you know, the social network was supposed to be a cautionary tale not like a guide book. It wasnt like a how to movie and so you know im just curious if as you looked at either things in the course of reporting that have gotten worse and some things that have gotten better, and how has that progressed especially given, you know, the last nine months where in another way that Silicon Valley really led the charge and been inno vattive in pioneering really pioneered in part because of your reporting and others stories of Sexual Harassment and sexual assault. By the way i think the me too movement started in Silicon Valley and with ellen powell doing her Venture Capital firm and susan fowler or since allegation in Silicon Valley that happens month before Harvey Weinstein but company i want to talk about in reference to your question is google. And theyre much like the industry average so 30 overall, women 20 women in technical roles. In the early days, larry founders of google actually focused on hiring strong women. And they hired some amazing women like susan who built ad business and now youtube and convince google to buy youtube and marissa myer who developed the user interface the simple search bar that we all use many, many times every day. And Sharon Sandburg who scaled the ad business and then dot same thing at took and as google grew, wengts public and soft exploded inside over the first decade of 2000, they lost focus and they were focused on filling seats andon getting through financial crisis. And in 2012 they lifted heads up like oh, my god where are all of the women and their numbers had plummeted to the average of everybody else. And i think that is just the perfect example of what can be done. When you make it a priority again not just the right thing to do but the smart thing look at these amazing women. And what they did for google and i dont think they got enough credit for it. This needs it be a top priority one, two, or three and cant be something number 15 while we care about that. And i think theres just too much talk and not enough action. At all but it certainly goes to show that not only is it possible but it makes business sense and there are plenty of studies to show that you know companies with diverse leadership and sports actually have better financial returns you know again for industry that loves data lets look at the data. Right. So weve really spent our first 30 minutes here together talking about some dark topics. Dark data some dark topics what is what is the triumphs that you found in reporting your book . I mean i actually think you know, susan cheryl are a great triumph what are other triumphs that you have found . People like katrina wake and people like gina who have been honestly talking to gene about about this like she lives it so you know im honestly humbled that you foal like ive done the subject justice. At the end of the book i interviewed six teenage girls all learned how to code and they are so excited about coming into this amazing industry and doing their part to change the world. But they read the news. And they know whats going on at uber they heard about what travis did and going to the strip club and they know i actually learned Something Interesting this your book as well about him in that he asked his girlfriend at the time if she could find other women to bring into threesomes. Which actually i dont feel like has really been reported in terms of yet another way in which that Company Really seems to have led a great built a great culture from the top. [laughter] so you know the reason that i included that and i really wanted to make sure that i was really focused on things that affect work. You know if you dig into too much into personal lives and you know, it may be may not necessarily be relevant to culture what is created. You know, travis at the same time that susan fowler was getting harassed by her manager, went it a strip club with several other o uber executives. In seoul and had i spoke with his exgirlfriend you know she talked about how it was easier for executives to get close if he shared their lifestyle. Again that lifestyle might shut out some women and if youre the head if youer hr you get a complaingt from susan fowler and find out your executive went to strip club in seoul you night not be so focused on susan fowler or you have way bigger you know what to deal with. And at the end of the day when they did that comprehensive they hired eric holder to do the investigation on Sexual Harassment uber had 45 cases of Sexual Harassment im like is that common . 47 cases no there should be like one 82 . Had a company of that size . That is culture gone really wrong. But wii talking about price spots. I really feel optimistic about new uber krrk oh, met him and when i, you know, told uber i was writing this book and theres stuff you night not like in it theyre like were grateful for susan and brought about a culture change and they talk to employees but they say it is different and you know i believe that with the right leadership and the right compass that companies change even a company of that size. I agree. I agree. I think weve seen it and weve seen cultures change. You mentioned facebook in the early days and facebook after cheryl joined and scaled up they scaled up in a different way than google scaled up and its been fantastic. So one of the questions we got from the audience is, you know, what advice would you give a woman graduating from college entering technology wanting to be an engineer . So right so i would say look for a place thats really going to support you. I mean, you dont need to take the hottest job at the hottest company on the block look for a place where you feel that you feel shares your values. Where you think you can find your team because i think having your team within an organization is really important people who will support you and people who will advocate for you it was interesting when i had women over for dinner i had in my head startups must be worst because theyre just crazy and theres no assistance in place. And what they told me is no, it really dpengdz on your manager, in fact, it is kind of like playing russia roulette if you get a bad manager youre screw foods you get a good manager it can make all of the difference in the world no wheart what is beginning on arranged you. So to women you know its first of all persist. But you know there are Goods Companies out there. Who are thinking about these things a lot and find those place. In the stories that you that you have done and certainly in the book but then also beyond, you know we talked about some of the bright spots. Give us three more. Give us three more. Oh awe you know, i jack dorothy at twitter a ceo of square doing interesting things about hiring and promoting women where if a new woman is hired on to the Engineering Team theyll put her on a team that lz has women so shes not alone on a team with men an theres a sacrifice there because she you know, there will be some more teams that are all men. But shes a i believe to then build that network. And you know, once she has that network can go to other parts of the company. So speaking of twitter, you know, one of my favorite chapters of the book that we havent talked about very much is the eighth chapter where i it shall where i pose this question what if women built the internet . What if women have equal seat at the table from the beginning. What might be different . Is and i interviewed ed williams cofounder of twitter and i asked him well do you think if if women have been involved in the founding of twitter that Online Harassment wouldnt be such a problem . And he was like yeah. We werent thinking about that. We werent thinking about how our product could be used to send Death Threats but amazing and cheerful things to be done with our product. And when got to facebook, they had only 66 million users it was in 2008. And she started asking questions about content left on the site and where bring up this rape joke or sthig thats violent towards women and these were questions that no one had already asked before and mark approached it from a platform perspective and she approached it from an individual perspective. And she was like what is this person going to feel like in their dorm room if they see this online . And as a result she had some dramatic impact on the content potses i think thats why it look facebook is not perfect they have a lot of a lot to work on. But its just a much more friendly place than twitter is. I think theres an interesting lesson there because mark made as much space for cheryl as she did for him and it has resulted in a really a partnership that really works. So i think that might dip into do you need one more . I have more. Do we need a couple. We need a couple. [laughter] actually this is a great question from the audience. And i think its relevant to one, just hats off to you guy bauds all of the questions are great, great. How are we going to solve this and what will we do about this which is also really indicative of the fact that we all work many an industry this this room where we solve about process problems every single day emily youve done a wonderful job documenting the problems and keeping the data and the Research Front and center. Whats so cool to me is that we all get to involve this. And it really does have all of the characteristics of not only something solvable but a tremendous opportunity. And those are Cultural Values that we have as an industry that we can tap into to take advantage of so while this lines i think this is a fantastic question. Which is you know what are the shared characteristics of women who dont lead the industry . Who are staying in the became . Game, and who are really seeking to check this culture, challenge this culture. Call out this culture and look for Solutions Based on this culture . So i think youre living testament it that. I was not looking for that but ill take it. Confidence [laughter] vision. You know, motivation. Those are all characteristics that investors love to see and male l entrepreneur and unfortunately sometimes in female entrepreneurs if they see that, they doubt it thats what research says. I think number one, we need to funds more women. I think about all of the women who never got a chance to start the next facebook. Think about if women maybe we would have another facebook or google or apple. Maybe the internet would be completely different and maybe we wouldnt all be into other peoples world. We need to ponged more women and we need to give them more money. So their Companies Stand a better chance. We need more women hired and start caring about this issue. Historically Lps Limited Partners who fund venture firms they care about returns so i actually have a quote from an lp that says some of the best nfsz tores arent the best people. But what they have the best returns. Therefore, we invest in them. And you pointed out that the majority of lps are actually women. That was interesting i expected it to be not as diverse but, in fact, a lot more in the lp community which i thought was interesting and theyll often say they dont have power buzz a benchmark they have the power and do i to get into those funds. So they have power and they have power to change her. So with all of that and its all of this and right i think it come down to ceos and first of all the female ceo that i mentioned like katrina, i mean, i think her work force is close to 50 50 and so just having women in leadership positions you know, it repeats itself. They attract other women they attract diverse talent. But since most of the people in power are men. It is incumbent to make this a priority and you know some of the thing that theyve done if you focus on just wear awareness saying youre likely to sell a woman short that wont have a lot of impact if you give them tools to on actions that they can take to combat their own biases that can have an impact so for example, if youre doing interviews maybe you dont even start the interview this will you got a qualified female candidate or a qualified candidate of color. Youre doing more structured review and feedback systems simply way that feedback delivered can be very gendered but a comprehensive pay review and asking your employeeses to source diverse kains and referrals are lifelet of the industry, in fact, some Employee Company pay their employee for referrals you refer someone youre likely to refer people who look like you . But if you ask people to refer diverse candidates generally they can find. Yeah. I want to come back to the characteristics for a second and then i have a comment about the like a do and a dont in the referral model. Actually let me start with nap how many people in the audience male or female love when someone calls you up and is like hey would you be interested in this opportunity. Weve totally need a woman. [laughter] or you know we totally need a guy for this do you think we can do us a favor and come interview for this thing because we just totally need somebody like you. I have actually heard that more times than than one should. But i want to come back to shared characteristics because youve painted a pretty bleak picture. And so you know as youve been talking and certainly in reading the book, thinking about fact that almost down it a question every question that has come in so far has been so what do we do about it . How can we solve it . And i know when i look at the statistics and i look at you know my access to capital is going to be 1. 5 billion versus 60 billion is a female ceo and a female founder. I have to come back to mission. I have to come back to mission. When i think about not just the the mission 6 my company in terms of unlocking opportunity and unlocking ways for more people to access intreep neuroship but when had i also think about the fact that i know that i can have a unique impact because of my point of view because of my experience. There were actually a fair number of women in the early days of social building amazing product ares. Building amazing services. It wasnt just cheryl of facebook. Naomi for example was like their first head of growth and has done incredible things in that culture had along with a lot of other incredibly talented women in that organize. When i just look around this amazing audience, i think about passion. I think about resilience and i think about mis. The mission to build amazing things. And the mission to do it in large part because if we do it, it also means that other people are going to come in and see and say oh, wait this actually this happened. We can actually have more people who dont look like this guy. No offense. [laughter] no just kidding. I kidding around. Kidding arranged. Hes wearing tie. Its you know [laughter] and i think its really i think that that is something that fund mentally we have an opportunity to do differently and leave tonight reinvigorated for the fight. So a little bit more data on that point of points. Good or bad data . Important data. When investors are looking say a man and a woman voice exact same slide show presentation. Man is more likely to get the fund and more funding. The same characteristics or that are views as positive for women are negative. They think it is young if shes young shes inexperienced if a man is cautious they think thats great. If a woman is cautious, oh, no she can never do to. And invest tores are looking at a man or woman do we like this idea can reexecute when theyre looking at a woman theyre like does she have what it takes so some of the qualify qualifications we need more women like you to have in order to start these companies to break down walls brick by brick investors see those they doubt them. Right if you come to the table and i cant tell you how many women. I give a vaition their pitch they didnt believe me but maybe if i was a guy they would. So these are again, like the biases that invest or force immediate to be aware of. That women just need to break through. You actually said this, though, one of the things that i thought was interest about that number is then and then you said even those Revenue Growth was promising for 50bc pass on them harder to raise a series b than a series a but then like in the next chapter the author sharon closely studied entrepreneurship says men set bigger goal and women make businesses sustainable. Well no kidding. Like what act of capital women are dumb. So [laughter] ive heard this over and over again that women lack vision. They dont lack vision. When you do not go into a meeting siewmging you will be believed or that youll even be heard the first time this has why i say we need resilience and we need mission because when you have a mission you go into next room an the net rooming a the next room. An amazing bright pot so female entrepreneur named jen ka a smart breast pump Company Started with her husband and they have some horrifying stories but ill tell you a good one. She has three sons, so we bonded over that. She was having trouble raising money. And they gave up their apartment and moved into a minivan for a month and drove Cross Country to save money and buy some extra runway and they worked on the road. And that got them to their next round. And you know, what i pose this question to her. What about the event to doubt that you can do it. If anyone doubts i can do this ill punch them in the face. [laughter] you know, there are women who are willing to sacrifice and you know punch out those wallets. And question need to believe that they can. Because this can. They have to believe that they can. I think thats the most important thing because if youre dammed if you do and youre dammed if you dont, might as well be yourself. I mean absolutely. [applause] sort of seems reasonable. Okay another question with which i think is fantastic. What is something that you used to believe that you have since changed your mind about after writing this book . Uhhuh you know, i i wanted to believe that civil Silicon Valley was a and many had gotten to where they were because they worked hard but more than anything i now realize that luck has a lot to do with it and that Silicon Valley is not that that it is, in fact, impossible to achieve because it completely ignores the privilege that play for winners and discrimination in larger systemic factors working gns everyone else, and the escalator is moving a lot faster for some than it is for others about and you know as much as i would have loved to believe that everything that has happened here is fair it is not. And, in fact, who you believe youre operating you can act more antimore because you believe everything is working correctly poem are in the right spot. And you you ignore and lose sight of the fact that, in fact, it is not after writing this ignorance can only be willful. Lots need to change. The one thing, though, coming back to our how to we solve this question but i kind of feel at this point it is kind of like an open question to keep coming back to this. In my experience, trying to remember that all of the time is like carrying 50 extra pounds on your shoulders and its not particularly constructive. The truth will set you free but first it will piss you off but thats where were at right now. [laughter] but i think theres a Human Element to this which is one, everybody lot lot loves a winned two, that the reason why mission is so important in startups, in your job, in your company, and believing in it. Is mission can trump that 50 pound weight that just feels heavier and heavier with every dismissal or with every meeting that youre in it that you dont feel heard an you dont foal believed. And that is what we all have to also do and help with each other. So as long as you guys have a friend that you can also call and be like i cannot believe this just happened and then let it go otherwise that rate of dropping out is beginning to get higher. So look so real solution is 50 women at venture capitol 50 and 50 these thing wouldnt happen if we had more equality. Its not going to happen overnight. But that when we can stop talking about this thats success. Yep. Speaking of talking we have a question about Family Friendly and how amazingly Family Friendly Silicon Valley is. [laughter] and i want to point out the person that wrote this question flag that this is an issue for both men and women. Last time i checked everybody played their part. [laughter] so Silicon Valley has some of the most amazing perks in the world and if you go to facebook or google, i mean, it is look a college storm fantasy land free food, breakfast lunch and dinner to bring your pets to work to get a haircut. You can get a massaging my god its amazing. You can get a ride they have fleets of tricked out buses going back and forth between the city and the park and mountain view. But you know you have kids youre on your own. You know theres theres not a lot of child care or options. And there is this, you know, sort of work hard play hard work late dynamic. You know pouk has had 50 overnight hackathons. I interviewed brett taylor cto of facebook a dad, he said to me, is mark disuker bring asked me to a dinner meeting i couldnt say no. He was he was 25. Brett a few years older and having his had first child when people went on maternity it was 50 50 whether they would come back so when brett started next company quip hes were leaving at 5 30 i wont sending email or make other people feel like they have to respond to me, and guess what it attracted a diverse more diverse work force i think they were like close to 40 women but youre right it is an issue for mom and dads, and you know, coming back to mike moore. He recently wrote an op ed in Financial Times where he compared the United States to china and talked about how everyone in china workings so much harder than in the u. S. And we need to be afraid with china surpassing and even women in china theyll go on business trip and not see their kids and husbands will meet them and bring them their child doesnt that sound amazing . So ive livered in china. I dont know if you ever lived in china. Wrid for two years longer you do the longer you realize you dont know and it is a complex and nuance culture but to belie they have more freedom to pursue their careers than in the United States completely ridiculous and misleading this is a country that had one child policy as of years ago and women forced abortion to avoid breaking the law being a hard worker is not at odds with having a family and pathetic wanting to see people outside of the office, in fact, we need people to be well rounded and leading balanced lives so that they can sustain their work ethic over a long career. Buzz contrary to popular belief nothing in Silicon Valley happens overnight. It took eight years for facebook to go public. uber has been arranged for nine years still not. This is a long haul. And we need people of all backgrounds and a culture that supports people of all background and ages that is underreported in this industry. Is that the sequel . Yeah. Age is a sequel. Fnlings i couldnt find da it not a lot of data so when i get that. But yeah you know again it is common sense. I think i think this next question is really interesting. In lite of the the fact that you can have somebody with a lot of power with a lot of write something about great somebodys company and culture is but youre doing this here selling those myths this question is how do you feel companies and managers can dispel mists entire like the pipeline problem that undermine inclusion in tech and elsewhere i think it is such a great question feel like were already in this together line this is so good because you know, its its sometimes feels like when youre talking about this stuff. That there is so many different parts of it that somebody tries to capture in one thing and almost like walking in quick sand. First of all give it to your manager. Solid recommendation. [laughter] this is why i think, you know, its not only leading from the top but communicating to your work force about why this is a priority and you know, raising awareness about why we need to combat and all have tools to combat unconscience biases im sure you ahead about james engineer at google, who recently wrote a memo to the company that went viral in which he claimed that men with buy logically more suited to this job than women. And understandably that people off. It was, in fact, the same lazy argument that the psychologist used in the 1960s to justify you know why they were hiring poem and it is simply not true. There is no evidence to support that. Girl and boys perform exactly the same in math. They perform exactly the same in computer science. Any differences are culture or o social and not gendered and so overall i think we food to expand our idea of who can do this job. Expand or idea of who can be a good investor expand idea of who can start a company they dont all look like mark. In fact, they look like gina. Yeah, ill take it. So last question if you look out over o next 12 24 months, what are you the most excited about right now . Im the most excited about starting meaningful conversation about this i know it might upset people the truth can piss some people off and some of this is New Territory you know particularly regard to social scene. But no good change comes without some people feeling a little unkivel. Uncomfortable and i came into this without an agenda. I am a a journalist reporting what i see and people changing the world every day can do this. And an optimist but they heed to believe that they can do this and that they should. And so im really excited to start that conversation and i think this inspires emotional debate it is a or very personal topic but i hope people listen im excited to share they message and hope people will listen. Use the data. Of course theyre going to listen. I hope so. Weve got a few in the room who are listening so thank you guys. Thank you guys so much. So much for coming [applause] i hep you enjoyed this Evenings Program brought if you by the Commonwealth Club zip Silicon Valley we would like to thank emily chan grgs and like to thank gina , of course, i want to add mly anchor executive producer of Bloomberg Technology and gina founder and ceo of Mighty Networks. I also want to thank the audience here in sangt clara and this is of you joining us on radio and the web and now this meeting of the Commonwealth Club is adjourned. But what what youve been looking for the signing of the book form a line here in the center and then proceed for your signature. [applause] booktv is roongtly covered several book on technology that include talks by former world chess champion on artificial engines and ellen on her 20year career. And tech entrepreneur brian deer on the precor to Online Community plato system visit booktv. Org and Type Technology book in the search bar. Several programs will appear and can all be watched in their entirety online. Heres a look at upcoming book fair and around the country on march 10th and 11th live from the university of arizona for the tucson festival 6 of books with author talk and callins this year is msnbc and max boothing in thive journalist david k. John and and many other authors later in march it is the virginia festival of the book in charlottesville. And then National Black wriers conference in brooklyn, new york. In april, were headed to texas for san antonio book festival live once again at the Los Angeles Times festival of books for more informs about upcoming book fair and festivals an to watch previous festival coverage, click the book fairs tab on our website, booktv touring. Booktv tapes throughout the country all year long heres a look at the some of the vent events were covering this woke at a Graduate Center and queen Joshua Freeman examine how the onset of Factory Production included world social and political norms. That night will be at 6th and in washington, d. C. To hear yale law professor amy examine tribalism in america. On tows, we head to brps and noble in new york city where experimental cognitive it scientist steven explores the thought processes behind extremism on making the case that country is in better shape than you might think gite the headlines. Thursday, will be at New York University to hear professor Melissa Schilling highlight the lives and achievements of several innovatorses including albert einstein, elon muck, Benjamin Franklin and marie curry among others and on sunday, well be live from noon to 3 p. M. Eastern for our indeath program taking your calls with historical novellest part of our 2018 special fiction edition of indepth thats a look at some of the events booktv will be covering this week. Many of these events are open to the public. Look for them to air in near future on booktv on cspan2. Hello good afternoon welcome to the Wallace Center at the franklin president ial Library Museum were
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