Sara Mauskopf

Founder of Winnie, Formerly Head of Product at Postmates

Sara Mauskopf joined on-demand delivery company Postmates back in July to lead the Product team. Prior to Postmates, Sara was a Group Product Manager at Twitter, having joined the company in 2010. She started her career at YouTube and Google as a Partner Technology Manager (a role that’s a mix of partnerships and engineering). Sara graduated with a bachelors degree in Computer Science from MIT. She was recently named one of the 30 Most Important Women Under 30 in Tech by Business Insider.

What got you into Computer Science?

I like to joke that I was peer pressured into being a Computer Science major. I went to MIT and started out as a math major because growing up I always loved math. But believe it or not, Computer Science was the cool major at MIT and I became jealous of my CS major friends who got to hang out and work on problem sets together.

At first I didn’t think I’d excel at Computer Science, but after taking MIT’s introductory course, I realized I was pretty good at it, and most of all, that it was really rewarding to actually build stuff. So, I switched my major to Computer Science sophomore year and never looked back.

Describe a time you’ve felt sexism or discrimination in the workplace or classroom. How did you handle it?

If I had time, I’d write a book about all the annoying stuff I’ve had to deal with as a woman in tech, but I barely have enough time to shower these days.

For example, there have been a few times when a male colleague was given a project or position or promotion that I really thought I deserved. There have been times a male colleague was recognized for work that I actually did. And there have been times I’ve received performance feedback (“too aggressive”) that I’m certain I would have never received if I were a man.

Once there was an executive who, within a couple weeks of joining the company and meeting me, told me that he didn’t picture me as a “world class guy” (his exact words) and that was why he was re-orging me below someone else (a guy).

In general, I think what’s worked best for me is picking my battles carefully. Life isn’t fair and there have definitely been times I’ve gotten the short end of the stick.

But if I had quit every job when things got tough or felt unfair, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

By the same token, there have been times I’ve walked away and been better for it (the “world class guy” incident was one of those times.)

What makes being a woman in tech worth it?

It’s too exciting in tech right now not to be in tech. I think working in tech is the best shot I have at making a real impact on the world. Ultimately, working on something that can impact millions of lives is what gets me out of bed each day.

I also see being a woman in tech as an opportunity to change the ratio of women in tech, especially women in leadership roles in tech.

Now that I’m pregnant, I am more driven than ever to make something of myself, if for no other reason than to prove it can be done.

I talked to the CEO the other day about a room to pump at work after I have the baby. He was very supportive, and in a small way, I feel like a trailblazer being the first woman at my company to have a baby while working there. Of course, working with such awesome and supportive colleagues definitely makes my “trailblazing” easier and enjoyable.

What advice do you have for any girls pursuing a future in tech?

For anyone pursuing a future in tech, my best advice is to not let rejection get you down. In fact, let it motivate you. In college, I applied for an internship at Google and was rejected. The next year I applied again and got a full-time job there.

The difference between those two interviews was some better preparation on my part, and frankly, just some luck in the questions I was asked the following year. If I had let rejection stop me from reapplying, I might not even be in San Francisco working in the heart of tech today.

Be relentless. Don’t take rejection personally. You can be the best, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.