Name: Equality in Silicon Valley Is Improving, but We Still Have a Long Way to Go
Uploaded: 2019-07-15
Duration: 7 min 52 s
Description: All Raise CEO Pam Kostka provides an update from the 2017 Town Hall.

Good afternoon. I'm excited to be here today to provide the update on gender and equality and tech. Last week, my husband, my daughter, and I got up really early on a Sunday morning so we wouldn't miss a moment of the Women's World Cup final, and I'm sure that played out in many Houses of people in this room but in my house it was important and notable because we like to embrace our inner teenager on Sunday's and sleeping as late as possibly can. And it was crazy because we were glued for two hours to our TV And we held our breath every time the ball approached the US goal and we screamed at the top of our lungs. Every time the woman scored. And what a spectacular victory they delivered for us. The second consecutive and fourth annual World Cup victory. And for my daughter and I it felt very personal. Because it didn't feel like just their victory, it felt like our victory too. Because this wasn't about more than sports. It was more than a global championship. It was about inspiring women everywhere, both on the field and off the field as they continue to fight for equal pay. And womae everywhere had been racking wins across multiple fields. 127 women now serve in Congress. And we have more women in Fortune 500 boards than ever before. 40 % of new board seats last year were filled by women. And women in the boardroom may well have had a positive impact on the C- suite. Last month, we have 33 new female Fortune 500 CEOs serving, a new record. And in tech, in specifically, in the first half of 2019, we saw the birth of 10 female- led unicorns. Which is on pace to blow past the 12 that was a record set last year. But before we get too excited about celebrating smashing victories, let's put this in perspective. There are about 500 seats in this room. And if each seat represented a fortune 500 company The number of women in the room would fill only the first two rows. Now clearly we have better gender representation here today. But we're running a marathon when it comes to gender diversity, and we're only in the first mile or two. And when it comes to tech specifically, last year, there was as much no news as good news. Female investors rose from 9 % to 11 % last year, which was amazing, but at the same time 72 % of venture firms still operate without a single female investor. So it should really come as no surprise then for the second year in a row. The needle is stuck with just 2 % of investment going to female founded companies. With $ 130 billion invested, this is a rounding error. And for women of color, the statistics are even worse. [ UNKNOWN ] female founders raised . 32 % of the money. And Black woman, six 10000th of a percent, these numbers don't even register on the graph. And when a woman goes to raise her money and successful; y secures an investment, she raises on average $ 0. 46 for every $ 1 that a man raises. This is as if we were giving our sons a $ 10 weekly allowance And our daughters $ 4 and 60 cents. I don't know about your household, but that would not fly in my household. And despite raising 50 % less capital, a woman does routinely outperform her male counterpart, generating two times the amount of revenue over a five year period. Our industry like to pride itself on being visionary innovative and moving faster to disrupt the status quo. But when it comes to diversity we are stack. We're stagnating and standing still comes with consequences. We're leaving money, real money on the table. Diverse companies are proven to power deliver powerful bottom line results 19 % higher revenue on average due to innovation. A 42 % increase in return on sales. A 53 % increase in return on equity and a 66 % increase in return on invested capital. These economics speak for themselves. Diversity is game changing for the bottom line of a business and growing one slice of the pie does not come at the expense of growing others. It grows the pie for all of us. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So in the language of technology jargon, investing in a diverse and equitable tech ecosystem is a moonshot investment, without any of the downside risk. It's a sure thing So with so much opportunity at stake it's time for tech to have a new version and a visionary vision where people of diverse backgrounds have the opportunity to participate in and and shape the funding founding and building of technology companies. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] A vision where there diverse perspectives have the opportunity to deliver powerful economic outcomes. A vision for where the returns are shared across everyone so that they have an opportunity To invest in the next generation of technology companies and products as well as to shape our politics and our policies. Look around the room because it's [ UNKNOWN ] on the leaders in this room to help deliver the new version of visionary. We must be both the catalyst and the continued focus that will make diversity our new normal. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] So how do we begin to move forward? It's simple. Just ask the question [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Ask every vendor that comes to present to your company to present their diversity and inclusion statistics. By doing so, we will normalize that diversity inclusion is a strategic criterion in our decision making. Ask every CEO To present quarterly their diverse employee and retention numbers. By doing so we will normalize that diversity is a strategic imperative in driving innovation and outstanding outcomes for our companies. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Ask your management teams to build diverse and inclusive teams. And tie their metrics and their bonuses to their success. By doing so, we will make diversity not just a leadership issue, but a company wide responsibility. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] And ask if you're a founder for diversity in your cap table. By doing so you'll guarantee that you get a competitive advantage that will help accelerate your successful outcome. And finally, my ask to all of you is that you share your diversity and inclusion numbers next year. We can celebrate on the stage our success together. Together we will create the new version of visionary. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Equality in Silicon Valley Is Improving, but We Still Have a Long Way to Go

Politics

All Raise CEO Pam Kostka provides an update from the 2017 Town Hall.