Women in Tech NY — A Community is Born
Outside it was freezing cold and windy, but inside it was warm and ready for the ladies of the Big Apple to arrive at the launch event of ICON’s Women in Tech NY chapter. We have been hosting ICON WiT events in Palo Alto and San Francisco for the past 3 years, but this was the first time we were doing this in NY and my team and I were thrilled.
Reflecting on the past 3 years I remember how our Palo Alto group got its start. Like many good things — it was born quite by accident when Tsipi Hotobeli, a Deputy Minister in the Israeli Government at that time, was on an official visit to Silicon Valley, and asked to meet with Israeli women in tech in the area. The Israeli Consul’s office contacted me, and we decided to extend the invitation to women in tech in the Israeli community outside of the current ICOn community. 50 women showed up for the breakfast event and it was such a special morning. Several of the women approached me and asked for more events like that, and in typical ICON style, we picked up the gauntlet, and with the assistance of a few who volunteered to help, we started the ICON WiT community in Palo Alto.
3 years later we are going strong with monthly meetings where community members share their inspiring stories of their professional and personal journey as a woman in tech. We’ve had Investors, CEOs and Founders of startups, Executives in major corporations, Product Managers and more. Once a quarter we host external speakers like Susan Wojcicki, CEO of Youtube, Laura Lauder, an Investor and Philanthropist, Effi Epstein, Managing Partner at Sound Ventures and more. The events are extremely popular and fill to capacity within 48 hours. It’s the highlight of the month for many of our community members. Additionally, wonderful connections have been forged — mentorship, career guidance, business leads and more. It’s a very supportive community and most important — it gives Israeli Women in Tech a moment to “let their hair down,” breathe, speak their native language, let their Israeli chutzpa run amok and just connect with other women that simply “get” them.
Now, standing in front of the nearly 100 ladies of The NY/Tri-State area (yes! We had some ladies from New Jersey and Connecticut!) who had braved the cold and shown up, I was excited for them; all of this is still ahead of them. Something great is being born today, and they don’t yet realize how meaningful this could be. I was also excited for the existing and upcoming chapters that we are planning in LA & Boston, who will now have another home away from home.
For me personally, the most exciting part of the ICON WiT meeting is hearing the women from within the community share their own personal stories. Oh boy. What amazing stories they have! With the help of our professional storyteller, Donna Griffit, each speaker is polished into a shiny diamond, finding the “theme” in their life and sharing the highs, the lows and the insights. It’s amazing to see that everyone has such an interesting story to tell. It’s an empowering experience for the audience, but also for the speakers themselves, some of them speaking about themselves for the first time.
The first speaker last night was Inbar Haham, a seasoned VC and the Managing partner of a newly minted Growth Fund investing in Israeli companies. Inbar spoke about her unconventional career path to the VC world, her moves back and forth between Israel and NYC, the importance of Personal Branding and also, trusting your gut when making important decisions. Inbar told us that women are often ridiculed for being too emotional about decisions — but listening to our gut is one of the greatest gifts we have as a woman. This has guided her with taking (or refusing) job offers, investments she’s made and more. Inbar was poised, professional and inspiring and I was so glad she was the first ever to speak in ICON WiT NYC event.
The second speaker was Noa Oron, an extremely charismatic Journalism school graduate turned Biz Dev Exec. Noa candidly spoke about her failures, successes, changes and transitions. I really connected with Noa’s story on transitioning from her comfort zone to the stress zone (normally you would want to go from comfort to stretch to stress, go to link to read about Karl Rohnke’s comfort/strech/stress model). I love putting myself outside my own comfort zone and I love pushing others out of theirs. By doing so for so many years, I feel like I’ve extended my comfort zone again and again and as a result my stress zone has become smaller and smaller. It is really a great tool for personal growth.
By the end of the evening the room was on fire, and everyone had forgotten about the blustery weather. Women were sharing that they had been in NY for years and always found it great to connect with new Israeli women, others shared that they were only in NYC for a few months and that this was one of the first events they went to and they were so relieved to have found “their tribe.” They all seemed to resonate with Noa’s sharing of the difference between change and transition — which as Israeli ex-pats or relocationists, we know all too well.
And there, right in front of our eyes, a community was born.
ICON is a non profit “pay it forward” community of people who are passionate about Israeli high tech & Innovation.
More information about ICON here and about ICON WiT here.