Pulling a Heidi — Inclusive Collaboration

[Originally published on June 18, 2015 on LinkedIn]

In 2004, Heidi Roizen, a legendary venture capitalist, was on my first corporate Board. As a first time co-founder of a software startup, I had no idea how lucky I was. When Heidi guides a Board, gender becomes invisible. I would not call Heidi a feminist, rather she is a natural master of fostering inclusive collaboration by keeping all of us on our toes, irrespective of gender or communication style.

Heidi defended me subtly and naturally without anyone — including me — realizing that was necessary.

John, I agree that Kristen’s point from earlier is worth repeating, but here is why I think you are saying something slightly different.

I don’t know who else could have said with such diplomacy, “Do you realize you just repeated what the woman said and without even realizing it?”

As interim CFO of countless technology startups, I’ve “pulled a Heidi” or two while attending hundreds of meetings to foster inclusive collaboration, despite the subconscious bias omnipresent in Silicon Valley and the technology world at large.

What was your last Heidi moment?

Kristen Koh Goldstein is the founder of BackOps and Scalus. Kristen, a mother of three, was motivated to start BackOps not only to create flexible work schedules for moms, but also to provide affordable back office services to small businesses. Scalus is the software that was formed to solve the communication, collaboration, and workflow needs of that remote workforce, but ranges much farther in its application. Together, Kristen’s companies are changing the face of tech, remote work, and SMB operations.