Talent is evenly distributed

As the founder of Red Planet Labs, I feel it’s important to make clear my principles on the kind of company I want to build. The reality is sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of discrimination are rampant in the world, the tech industry included. I believe companies that tolerate this kind of behavior are morally bankrupt. I also believe they act against their own interest by becoming a hostile place to diverse groups.

Ultimately, I believe talent is evenly distributed, but there are extra barriers for marginalized groups. I view it as a big part of my job to make sure those barriers are not allowed to exist at my company.

Admitting my tunnel vision

I’ve been dismayed since I started building the team at the underwhelming racial and gender diversity in the job applications we’ve received. Nothing seemed biased about any of the channels in which we were advertising our job openings (e.g. technical mailing lists). Yet our pool of applicants has been extremely male-dominated with noticeable gaps in racial diversity.

Looking back, our culture page was tunnel visioned on how I was addressing the issues I personally experienced working at companies in the past, like being a fully distributed company instead of colocated, and having a mandatory vacation policy instead of unlimited. It did not acknowledge the other issues people experience that a straight white male like myself does not.

Moving forward, I’m determined to improve this. Having not addressed these issues before on our website or blog, I understand how someone could look at our website, see five men, no women, and only one person of color, and be hesitant to apply. Why should we expect anyone to trust that our workplace is one where they will be respected and supported, where their contributions will be welcome and acknowledged, and where they can feel safe knowing that bigotry and discrimination are not tolerated?

Bigotry manifests itself differently in the workplace. In a workplace there’s an asymmetric power dynamic that puts your livelihood at stake, and this imbalance means there isn’t a good way to deal with the situation. That power dynamic puts the burden squarely on my shoulders to ensure our work environment remains inclusive as we grow.

Diversity of talent

For a long time I’ve recognized the geographic and educational diversity of talented people. This was just a simple observation from working in the industry. The best programmers I’ve known have not come from big name schools and have not been from tech centers like San Francisco. This is a big reason why I formed a fully distributed company.

Likewise, it should be self-evident that talented people are diverse in every other sense as well. Just as we’re a distributed company because we want to work with the best talent, I want to create an inclusive environment so the best talent will want to work with us. Companies are not inclusive by default, so I know I must actively work hard as the company grows to install mechanisms to discover inclusivity issues, enforce a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination, and create a supportive environment. It’s the right thing for the company, and it’s the right thing to do.

Conclusion

I have a selfish incentive for writing this post: I want to hire more awesome people. But more than that, I want Red Planet Labs to be a place where people of all identities can thrive in an environment of mutual respect.

There has been no semblance of bigotry or discrimination at Red Planet Labs so far, but it would be naive of me to think that will be the case forever as we grow. We as a company will have a lot of work to do to achieve and maintain that inclusive and diverse environment I aspire to. This touches recruiting, training, compensation, and more. More than anyone else, it falls on me as the founder to define and enforce these standards.

This blog post is just words. Whether I’ve succeeded will be determined by the actions I take when Red Planet Labs inevitably encounters issues in the future. I hope you hold me to the standard I’ve tried to set in this post.

Thanks to Daniel Higginbotham for helping think through diversity and inclusion issues and helping draft this post. Also thanks to Aaron Dixon, Garry Tan, Hugo Duncan, Jen Wolf, and Kim-Mai Cutler for their feedback on drafts of this post.