“Conversations with Women” Series.
By Vera Kobalia on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Tamar Menteshashvili: Blockchain’s female guru on what it takes to lead in a male-dominated industry.
Tamar’s name kept coming up when I mentioned to people that I am going to China to do research into Blockchain technologies. “you got to meet this young Georgian woman! She is doing a doctorate in Blockchain at Shanghai’s Jiao Tong University!”, they would say, so I wrote her online and we agreed to meet for coffee once in Shanghai. She suggested Starbucks near my hotel, which turned out to be the largest Starbucks in the world so we spent the first 10 minutes of our meeting looking for each. “which corner? Which floor? Next to the beer or bread?” Yes, they sell both beer and bread loaves at this Starbucks. Tamar looks and acts like a 26-year old that she is. Energetic, dressed in casual rocker gear, with a loud contagious laugh. Her CV, on the other hand, is of someone around 40. I am really struggling to understand how one packs so much into 5–6 years. When I ask her about productivity, and juggling tasks, she brushes it off. “I have daily reminders set up, to prompt me of tasks and meetings”. I am sure there’s more to it.
After graduating from Free University in Georgia, she worked as a litigator but found she needed more inspiration, so she took the first leap abroad moving to Edinburgh. There she pursued a Master in Banking and Finance at the University of Edinburgh and volunteered at LEAPS encouraging high school kids to continue with higher education. While doing her research in the banking sector, she came across an article on blockchain. It lit a lightbulb in her head, and she was hooked ever since. At Jiao Tong she started the Blockchain Hub that is now home to 600 blockchain researchers and enthusiasts. Runs a start-up, Expread (though one would question if a company with 30+ employees and millions raised should be called a start-up) a back-end platform integrating blockchain technology-based solutions. Is an operations manager for lawless.tech and advises governments and the World Bank on the use of smart contracts (including recently Kazakhstan). She also sits on advisory boards of companies such as Spotcoin and writes for Forbes and other magazines. You can see why I wrote at the start that she is a 26-year-old going on 40.
How did you first come about blockchain?
While I was researching the banking and finance industries. The more you learn about it, the angrier you feel. I realized a lot of things could be changed and decentralized technologies are a good way to tackle these problems. At that time (2014) blockchain was a very new thing. This one article came across my desk. A very simple article, nothing related to bitcoin or trading. It was more philosophical, about our interactions with each other, with the state, and with private companies. It was like a light coming down on me from the sky. From that moment on I was reading and researching the subject non-stop.
It feels this is a male-dominated industry, do you feel this way?
It’s not a feeling, it’s a statistic. Currently, women represent only 4% of blockchain industry. When I started it was even worse. The first time I arrived in Shanghai, about 2 years ago, I remember entering a room with 500 people and seeing only two women. The whole day you could sense the male energy in the room. Of course, this affects the perception of what you’re capable of, or how others engage with you.
Two questions come out of that: first, why do you think that is? And second, how do you get yourself heard in a room where 498 out of 500 people are of the opposite sex?
It’s not a new thing. All computer science and tech-related industries are male-dominated. It comes from the roots — educational routes. It’s not true that girls are not capable of engaging in STEM subjects. It’s just the way we raise our kids. Girls are not raised as puzzle solvers. There is a lot of research into this that shows boys and girls have the same confidence levels before reaching school, and then it drops for girls. The higher the grade, the less the percentage of girls that think they can succeed in those subjects.
As for getting to be heard — it takes a lot of energy to be heard. You have to prove yourself in every single sentence that you say. My approach is to always research the place I go to beforehand. I know exactly whom I meet, what their interests are and what I can offer them in terms of my resources. I know what I’m good at, I know what I’m bad at. It’s always a lot of research and it’s never easy.
You mentioned that it all starts when we are kids. Were you brought up differently than other kids?
In my family the most important thing was trust. My parents gave me freedom of choice by trusting me. When I try to remember what I wanted to be as a kid, there wasn’t anything specific. Rather more goals, what I wanted to achieve. I wanted to see me as a person who brings change, something valuable. I wanted to be involved in science as I associated it with tangible changes. At the end of the day, I am pragmatic, and I realized I wasn’t extremely talented in sciences or very dedicated to it. So I chose to bring value and transform existing systems. Trust is very important, as well as self-esteem. My family always told me, I could achieve it all, as long as I put effort into it.
You lead a start-up, and now you have about 30 people working there. How does it feel to be a woman leading a team of men? Are they all men?
Only two girls. I sometimes joke about it that every day is survival mode.
I was lucky with my team. The decision-makers are 5 people and I’m the only female. It's not only diversity in terms of gender, but also cultural diversity that I’m facing. A lot of times I feel that that’s the stronger factor. I use different structural reasoning because of the cultural differences so my team can understand why I’m saying the things I’m saying.
You’ve lived and worked in the UK, in Georgia, how does interacting in the work environment differ in Shanghai?
It’s completely different. In China, you never say things directly. And you never expect people to approach you with their problems. For example, I had a case at my work, one of the IT guys came to me and said, “I’m saying this to you because I’m fed up, this is the last stage”. And I told him, “if you are facing those challenges, why didn’t you approach me earlier?” His response was, “if I say it, it means I can’t handle it any longer”. In our culture, people are more straightforward. They don’t wait too long to tell you that something is going wrong. That is one of the biggest challenges.
If you look at women in high-level positions in government or business, they are expected to behave a certain way, talk a certain way. Are those expectations different in the tech community or they still apply?
It still applies. It’s a constant balancing act for women in any industry. I remember once during negotiations I was the only woman at the table. I could see that the guys were not being direct and the discussion was not going anywhere. I took the lead and in a very straight-forward manner started telling everyone what we needed to do. One of the older guys at the table said, “You’re so tough, lady. Don’t be so tough!”
So what is this constant balancing act? You can’t be too aggressive or too mellow. You have to think twice about everything. When men interact with each other, do they give it so much thought? I doubt it. They just place their thoughts out there. Every time I say something I have to double-check if everyone around the table would be comfortable with what I have to say.
You spoke about gender differences but also cultural differences. When it comes to raising funds what are the major differences that you see in US/Europe vs China?
I have actively raised funds in China, so I will speak on those experiences. In China, investors are more open to giving to someone who they perceive as the same. The way the thinking works is — you have to be a part of this community in order to understand the local logic and to be successful. In the majority of cases, it makes sense. There are so many foreign businesses that come here, at a start-up stage or even at later stages, and they fail. One famous example is Uber vs DiDi. At the end of the day, Uber lost.
For me, it was difficult to prove at first that as a foreigner I could handle the business in an Asian context. I discovered that early on so I went out and found a trustworthy Chinese partner.
Where do you think that ability to be a risk taker comes from? Are you born being a risk taker or you learn to be one? And do you even have to be one?
I don’t see myself as a risk-taker. I see myself as a person who likes to listen and experience new things. And is not afraid of losing. I don’t think you always have to be a risk-taker, but you have to be open to new experiences.
Let’s go back to blockchain? Do you think today people have a better understanding of what it is? Then 3–4 years ago?
In the private sector — a much better understanding. At the same time I work with governments and I see that still there is so much to be learned. Politicians are interested in implementing the technology in the existing systems, but once they start asking questions, you realize that we are so far away from actual use cases in government institutions.
Why do you think the public sector officials struggle more to understand the technology and find the right implementation scenarios?
The way you think in public vs private sectors is quite different. In the private sector (business) you are motivated to find something that will increase the value. You want to discover new things for your business in order to be more competitive in the game. There’s less competition in the public sector. You don’t feel the pressure to innovate. In business, you feel that pressure on a daily basis. If you don’t do your research there are so many sharks in the water, you will be literally eaten by the others.
So the private sector will be the main driver of change?
Yes, but its no longer the cryptocurrencies. They drew a lot of attention to blockchain. And the hype around ICOs and investments with 30x income in 1 month, 1 week. This will clear up.
Gartner (global research and advisory firm) recently wrote that we are in the irrational exuberance period of blockchain industry development. We only have one or two use cases of blockchain, such as bitcoin. They’re predicting until 2025 we will not see a lot of added value in terms of business development by blockchain to the industry. This will change by around 2025 when we can expect a lot of use cases. Till then, there are many years of work.
Can you compare this period with anything in the past? for example, when the internet came into our lives?
Yes! A lot of people make that comparison. And as with the internet, we will see the ups and downs. If you remember the dot-com bubble, we can see similar patterns here. A lot of start-ups will fail, and the industry will clean itself up.
At the same time, blockchain is a very different thing, something we’ve never seen before. You don’t need permission from anyone to exist. That is a new thing. That is blockchain.
Where are we going to see you in 10 years?
As long as I enjoy what I do and I think I create value, I’m okay with doing anything.
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