CHANGING CULTURE: LESSONS FOR U.S. TECH COMPANIES AND STARTUPS FROM FRANCE AND VIVATECH

Kenya Wiley
Jul 10, 2017 · 4 min read

This past week, we’ve seen how women in tech have amplified their voices — speaking out against sexual harassment in Silicon Valley. Changing the overall culture for tech will not happen overnight, but we can all take steps to build an inclusive and innovative tech ecosystem.

I launched the Fashion Innovation Alliance in 2016 as a platform for policy, access, and innovation for the emerging field of fashion tech — a field where many startup founders are women. Through my experience as a female founder of color working with women entrepreneurs across the United States, I have seen firsthand the gender and racial imbalances among tech startups and investors. As internet pioneer Steve Case recently pointed out, last year just 10% of venture capital went to women and only 1% to African Americans.

U.S. tech companies have made efforts in the past to advance innovation and inclusion policies. Many have signed the “Tech Inclusion Pledge” as a commitment to increase diversity, and in April more than 160 tech companies highlighted the contributions of immigrant entrepreneurs to American innovation in rallying against President Trump’s second travel ban. However, when it comes to gender and geographic diversity, both the tech and investor communities continue to fall short. According to a study by Crunchbase, only 17% of U.S. based startups have a female founder. And while tech companies have spent millions to improve workplace conditions for female employees, a cover story by The Atlantic’s Liza Mundy, reveals that not much has changed. As for geographic diversity, tech venture capital in the United States continues to be concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Boston-New York-Washington corridor — severely limiting the reach of tech inclusion efforts for the majority of the country.

Across the Atlantic, at the recently-concluded VivaTech conference in Paris, I witnessed promising trends that the U.S. could learn much from as it seeks to improve gender and geographic diversity.

At the event — one of the world’s largest tech shows — established leaders in tech, fashion and retail demonstrated their support for a healthy innovation economy with programs not simply of self-promotion, but rather devoted to startups, innovation, and entrepreneurship. The luxury goods conglomerate LVMH alone brought 32 diverse startups to the conference as part of a completion for its Innovation Award.

1. Accept and advance gender and geographic diversity.

The VivaTech LVMH Innovation Award finalists not only represented 8 geographically diverse countries (France, the U.K., Canada, Finland, the U.S., China, Denmark and Switzerland), but many of the startups were headed by women or were represented by a senior female team member. Watching these women highlight their company’s products and services on an international platform before tech entrepreneurs, executives, and investors was a refreshing change from the typical U.S. tech convening. Additionally, the jury responsible for selecting the winner also included a diverse group — with women representing one-third of the panel of tech, hospitality, music, and startup leaders.

2. Invest in innovative startups and look to the future.

Like LVMH and France, the U.S. must make a commitment to research and to funding the future of innovation, and especially startups. On the first day of VivaTech, French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to work with and for startups by speaking of the government’s role as a “platform and not a constraint.” And as LVMH chief digital officer Ian Rogers noted during his opening remarks, “a healthy startup ecosystem is a sign of a healthy industry.”

The U.S. government does invest in tech innovation — the Department of Defense notably invests in everything from A.I. to innovative textiles — but it is critical that both public and private sectors emphasize design, creativity, fashion and technology in policy discussions separate from military funding. The Commerce Department’s Internet of Things multi-stakeholder initiative, and small business programs that expand funding for entrepreneurs are two programs deserving of increased focus. Innovations in tech that will truly transform lives require long-term commitments for research and capital, going beyond small research grants and one-off collaborations that create short-lived media buzz.

Public and private investors will also have to look outside of established science and technology networks to integrate all who are ready to contribute to the innovation economy. This means building supportive startup ecosystems in areas outside of Silicon Valley and the Northeast corridor, as Steve Case describes. It means considering the startup founder who did not attend a top-tier academic institution or participate in an elite accelerator program. And most importantly, it means promoting and maintaining a culture free of discrimination and harassment.

3. Promote an open, supportive environment for building relationships.

At VivaTech, not only did LVMH facilitate startups’ conference attendance, but their executives themselves engaged with startups by meeting with founders and expressing genuine interest in their products and services. There are countless forums here in the U.S. providing networking for startup founders, but when top executives go the extra mile to reach out personally and engage startups in open dialogue, the entire innovation economy benefits.

President Emmanuel Macron said at VivaTech that he wants “France to be a startup nation.” We can go further. If the U.S. and leading tech companies take lessons from the inclusivity on display at VivaTech we can all thrive in a startup world.

Kenya Wiley is the founder and CEO of the Fashion Innovation Alliance and was invited to attend VivaTech by smart fabric startup Loomia, a finalist for the LVMH Innovation Award.

Written by

Attorney + Writer + Advocate for fashion, tech & justice; Founder of the Fashion Innovation Alliance; Former Counsel for the Senate Homeland Security Committee

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