500 Startups, Walking The Talk Of Putting #WomenInTech
There are many organizations out there that self-proclaim to be the champions of feminism, encouraging more women into STEM careers, giving women leadership position or simply being avid campaigners for gender equality. Well, 500 Startups an early-stage investment firm, is perhaps the best example of one such organization that is not just talking the talk, but also walking the talk. The following are just a few demonstration of this:
The firm’s organization structure just shouts ‘Women Empowerment.’ Half of the 500 Startups’s managing partners and staff are women. More than one-third of the organization’s investing team are women. Over 25 percent of the companies in the firm’s portfolio are managed by female CEOs.
Christine Tsai, a Managing Partner at 500 Startups, told Sarah Buhr of TechCrunch, “The best thing women in tech can do is to invest in other women”.
Judging from the firm’s organization structure and that of the companies in its portfolio, it’s clearly evident that 500 Startups has been walking the talk. The firm has also been funding programs that support female-led businesses and bring more women on board of empowerment conversations. The company launched the 500 Women AngelList Syndicate, an initiative that will see $1 million invested in 10 companies with women at the top of management.
Tsai talked of her personal experience of gender prejudice; women in tech have to endure. But she urges people, to not just to talk about this problem, rather take an active role in addressing them and coming up with solutions.
Tsai says, “There is a problem, but we need to focus on the positive by getting more women in VC and investment roles and invest in the women.”
Another accelerator that has showed its commitment in including more women and diversity in its organization’s structure is the Y Combinator. In a previous blog post, the firm said that 20 percent of the startups it funds have at least one woman as their founders. YC also has four women as part of its full-time partners.
To read more on this, go to TechCrunch’s post by Sarah Buhr, by following this link.
