The Elephant in the Valley
It began through the Kleiner Perkins v. Ellen Pao trial. Trae Vassallo, a Kleiner Perkins general partner of eleven years was subpoenaed to testify. During her testimony she had to talk about some of her experiences in the workplace, one of which was harassment.
“I had a number of folks that said wow thanks for sharing, I had a similar experience. I was shocked by the number of people who told me that and I’m shocked people don’t talk about it often.”
At first, Trae just felt so alone. However, she soon found that everyone felt that way, like they did something wrong for sharing their story. While it was a comfort that she wasn’t alone, that illuminated how this is a massive problem. It is a massive problem and no one’s talking about it. After Ellen Pao v. Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Trae and a cohort of successful women put out a survey of two hundred very experienced women.
“Over 60 percent have been sexually harassed in their career. Yeah okay, this is a problem. It was just one of the first times we had some of these numbers. The idea is not to point fingers or make a salacious headline but at least say, ‘hey this is a problem.’ Women are finally coming forward, and boards are taking action on bad behavior, helping move conversation forward where people aren’t afraid and use the media to this advantage.”
Trae ended up leaving KPCB right before the trial and didn’t know what she was going to do next. She wanted to continue to do what she loved so she started seed investing to stay in the flow and connect with entrepreneurs. It forced her to reassess: “What do I care about? What makes me happy? What gives me meaning? What do people value in me? Was it just the Kleiner name and the checkbook?”
It turns out that Trae cared about investing based on the right culture. Trae’s seed investing taught her that people do care about what she has to say. She grew the confidence to start a new fund and a new culture with the right partners. Partners like Neil Sequiera, who was like Trae and had spent a great number of years in the industry yet wanted to do something slightly different. Slightly earlier stage investment and, as it turns out, exceptional company cultures became their sweet spot.
It is not just about women entrepreneurs. It is about women engineers, board members, investors, etc. We need more women everywhere in tech. When we have more women everywhere in tech, we’ll have more CEOs. Trae explains, “I like places where it is easy to put people in who happen to be female. One of the first companies we invested in, the first independent board member was an incredibly talented woman, and I can find these companies partly because my network is partly women. Look at your calendar. Who are you meeting with? Is it a diverse set of people? If you keep meeting with guys, you’re not meeting with a diverse set of people.”
This post is part of a blog series where I share tidbits from my book, Women in Venture Capital and expand upon some of the themes within the book. If you’d like to join me in this discussion, please feel free to email me at kjc83@georgetown.edu or connect with me on LinkedIn. Also, you can find my book on Amazon — here is the link to buy it: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KMHC853
