She-changers in Silicon Valley

Alpha Girls:The Women 
 

Upstarts Who Took On Silicon Valley's Male Culture and Made the Deals of a LifeTime

Julian Guthrie

Hachette

Rs 599, 289 pages

The rise of Silicon Valley as the pre-eminent technological mecca of our time is not unaccompanied by problems. There is the concentration of power in the hands of a few companies, the nefarious ways in which social media is being abused, and the lack of regulatory oversight that has led to this state of affairs coming into play.

But there is another aspect of the technological industry that has been commented on in recent years: The lack of gender diversity. In 2012, Ellen Pao filed (and lost) a gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer Kleiner Perkins, a venture capital firm, for what she claimed were discriminatory hiring and promotion policies at the company. More recently, James Damore was fired by Google for writing a memo that said that biological differences between men and women may contribute to differences in choice of occupation, one reason there is a lack of women in tech.

Julian Guthrie, a San Francisco-based journalist, has observed Silicon Valley up close for a long time, and in the book under review, she profiles the lives of four women who triumphed over challenges to find success as venture capitalists. It is interesting that Ms Guthrie chooses to focus on venture capital rather than engineering in her book since that is perhaps a better indicator of where real power resides in tech.

Through the stories of these women, Ms Guthrie presents lessons in surviving, and thriving in, the cut-throat world of venture capital. Part of this project, she asserts, comes from women taking on roles and responsibilities actively, what Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg called “leaning in” in her bestselling book. Leaning in, Ms Sandberg says, is not just about proving oneself at work but an aspirational philosophy that encompasses networking and keeping an eye on latent opportunities.

Sonja Perkins was a young partner at Menlo Ventures when she was invited to a retreat by Thom Weisel, a storied investor. At the retreat, Perkins found she had been signed up for a downhill skiing race against former Olympic skiers and Navy seals. Having skied but half a dozen times in her life, Ms Perkins, nevertheless, did not shy away from the challenge, going down the hill slowly but steadily. Mr Weisel, impressed by her tenacity, introduced her to his circle of contacts at dinner that night.

Leaning in can have other dimensions. Through Theresia Gouw’s story, Ms Guthrie stresses the importance of having male allies. At Accel Partners, Ms Gouw learnt from Jim Goetz, a fellow VC, that there were rumours that she was flirting her way to deals. While she had been aware of such rumours, to hear them from another partner was an important confirmation and information that Ms Gouw found useful to keep abreast of.

Or take Mary Jane Elmore, who became one of the first female partners on the West Coast when she joined Institutional Venture Partners. Twenty-eight at the time, she was asked to fire a male founder twice her age. The book recounts how she used a mix of humour and tact to get the job done. 

Beyond the demands of day-to-day dealings, though, Ms Guthrie’s thesis is that women face unique challenges at the workplace. Magdalena Yesil, a founding member at Salesforce, was unable to attend the bell-ringing at the New York Stock Exchange when the company went public in 2004. Her son was unwell that day, and she says in the book that she should have found someone to take care of her son rather than missing out on a historic day for the company.

The reason the book may resonate with working women is not merely because it presents challenges that can be tackled by leaning in. As Ms Yesil’s case demonstrates, there are real differences in how men and women approach work and family, and no amount of workplace egalitarianism can mitigate them.

The four women Ms Guthrie profiles came together in 2010 to launch Broadway Angels, which has invested in blockchain companies and edutech. By sharing the early stories of these star women VCs, Ms Guthrie presents an aspirational model for other young women looking to storm this largely male bastion.