Here are some facts. Ninety-three percent of investor money goes to startups founded by men. Just 11% of Silicon Valley executives, 10% of directors, 10% of committee members and 8% of committee chairs are women. At Fortune 500 companies, things aren’t much better, with just 11% of the executive workforce made up of women.

Here are some more facts. Private technology companies that are led by women return a 35% higher ROI. Publicly traded companies with women in

leadership roles in a broad range of industries have about a 27% performance advantage over companies that don’t.

There are lots of reasons that the tech world needs more women in leadership positions, but this is the stupid-obvious one: It’s a big competitive advantage.

To put it another way, if your startup or tech company isn’t actively working to put women in leadership roles, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

Learn the Mysterious Secrets of the Female Tech Executive’s Mind

With these facts in mind, we’ve scoured the planet to bring together three, genuine, bonafide women who are in leadership positions at tech companies. We’re bringing them together at two round-table discusses hosted by Echo-Factory and held at Apple Stores in Pasadena and Santa Monica.

Our hope is that our panelists will help to answer two critical questions:

  1. What gives companies with women in tech leadership positions such a strong competitive advantage?
  2. Why, despite this advantage, are women in tech leadership positions still so rare?

Meet the Panelists

Our panel comprises three incredibly impressive individuals coming to us from within the tech industry and ready to share their own experiences and insights when it comes to women in tech.

Renée LaBran, Senior Advisor, Idealab Renée serves on the board of directors for Rustic Canyon/Fontis (a growth stage fund). She is also a top advisor to Idealab, a preeminent tech incubator in Pasadena, and serves as Gov. Brown's appointee to the Board of Trustees of the State Bar of California as a non-attorney public member.

Max Powers, SVP, Business Operations, TeleSign Max heads Client Services and directs the operational business team for TeleSign, a leading Internet security platform. She leads global routing and makes sure Client Services helps TeleSign’s worldwide customers optimize service workflow and solve immediate real-world security and fraud challenges.

Natalie Sun, Creative Technologist, Next Art Natalie is a digital creative consultant, VR producer and art tech curator who likes to “tinker with technology and design great experiences that allow people to share their stories.” She is also the founder of Next Art Night, a series of events that focuses on future-making experiments by artists working in technology.

Meet the Moderator

Dea Goldsmith, CCO and Co-Founder, Echo-Factory Dea is responsible for all things creative at Pasadena-based advertising agency Echo-Factory. She spends the majority of her time thinking about, strategizing and iterating new ideas with her happy team of creatives. Dea is a firm believer in harnessing the power of technology in marketing to deliver explosive business growth.

RSVP

February 8th, 8-9:30 am
@Apple Store off West Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena
RSVP HERE

February 22nd, 8-9:30 am
@Apple Store on 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica
RSVP HERE

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