Tara Hunt’s piece on ‘the subtle sexism in tech’ (featuring some CTR favorites like Sheryl Sandberg, Sarah Prevette, Jessica Jackley and Cindy Gallop) has been getting attention, first by Ben Rooney at the WSJ and then from Allyson Shontell at Business Insider. Shontell picks up on Hunt’s anecdotes about male VCs saying about entire proposals, concepts and markets, basically, “Well, I don’t get this but maybe I’ll ask my wife”:
How many VC meetings have I been in where the VC turns to me and says, “Yeah. I just don’t get it. Maybe I’ll show it to my wife.” BURN! Really? Would he say that to a man pitching him the same concept?
Shontell hearkens back to our Change The Ratio discussion with Fred Wilson back in October, and his admission that VCs without expertise in a specific area will be less likely to ‘get’ that area. Even since October that does seem to be changing, as more and more great female-founded startups are being greenlit (and the raw numbers, as excellently pointed out by Aileen Lee, definitely help). But I still do see, and hear about, the ‘getting it’ problem across gender (and age and class) lines. So kudos to Tara for raising an often unpopular subject, and Ben and Allyson, for shining a light. As I have said often regarding CTR, the lopsided ratio in favor of dudes across the industry is usually more a function of an institutional blind spot than intentional exclusion. So shining this light is important. I am finding that, now that the topic is being raised, that VCs et al are realizing what they don’t know, and are excited to learn about it, because doing so will get them in on that sweet action. So, onward!
Getting back to the wife question though - I can’t help but hearken back to when I raised it on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt last September, and was dismissed. See below:
RACHEL: I have noticed that being a woman has made a difference, both sometimes beneficially but also—I have spoken to a lot of women but I’m not sure how many men in the audience have been told to watch their tone when they’re speaking authoritatively on something. I mean, there are little things—I don’t want to dwell on the negative. You talked about how you think a woman can come in with a great idea to a VC company and present it. I’ve been talking to people. I am now a lightning rod for women that want to tell me their stories. I have a ton of anecdotal stories about how a woman will be presenting to a room full of dudes and then they’ll be like, “Well, if that was such a good idea then my wife would have thought that.” And that is a true story, of a company that ended up being funded and is one of the hot female-started startups.
SARAH: Maybe that guy was a pig? Maybe that’s not a problem with the industry.
RACHEL: I’ve heard “the wife” as the example story in a few different ways.
SARAH: I guess it’s totally different in New York. I’ve been in Silicon Valley more than 10 years. I know lots of women who’ve started companies. I know women who’ve pitched companies that haven’t gotten funded. I’ve heard about inappropriate times where VCs wanted to take the founders to a strip club. I’ve heard weird things like that. I’ve never once heard an anecdote from someone who said, “My wife should have thought of this idea because—“ Have you ever heard that?
LAUREN: Sometimes maybe they use that to frame the demographic though? Maybe they’re saying, “I can’t see my wife using this” or something.
SARAH: Do you guys think it’s possible that this is a New York/San Francisco thing?
RACHEL: It was actually a story about coming back from a trip to the Valley.
Yes, I will take an “I told you so” 9 months late. Full transcript for this and other CTR events coming soon - as part of our Change The Ratio Year Anniversary Extravaganza! CTR is almost 1, and all of the above notwithstanding I think the real takeaway is this: It really is changing. That’s exciting. So, again - onward.
