#GoogleManifesto thoughts from a female founder funded thanks to Google's diversity program

It seems like there’s a daily story on the widening diversity gap and the disheartening treatment of minorities and women in tech. From the alleged dungeonous sexcapades of the folks at the Upload VR, to the founder of Uber Travis Kalanick stepping down for a hostile workplace culture to VC’s being sued for groping female tech entrepreneurs under the table while seeking funding and now the Google manifesto declaring women technically incapable and neurotic. As someone who has benefited from diversity efforts from companies like Google, Facebook and GEM, I can’t idly stand by while this very important issue is relegated to fruitless debates, likes and mere hashtags.

 In his manifesto to Google employees James Damore says “Abilities of men and women differ in part due to biological causes and that these differences may explain why we don’t see equal representation of women in tech and leadership.”

 He goes on to assert that women are neurotic and infers that it's another factor contributing to the lack of diversity in tech. He references both race and gender and walks a very dangerous line under the guise of an intellectual discussion. For all the people intimating that he was fired for "speaking freely", keep in mind that his manifesto wasn’t a personal blog post, it was a memo to Google employees. Damore’s passive aggressive non factual attention craving sexist rant has created a divisive hostile workplace. The #GoogleManifesto is reflective of how beneficiaries of inequalities justify their privilege with very bad science, innuendos and closed door policies.

As a former Deep Space Scientist, I am disturbed by the notion of certain humans being genetically pre qualified for tech and leadership. I went to college thanks to a scholarship for underrepresented minorities and ended up graduating #1 in my electrical engineering class of mostly males, the top graduate the year before me was also a woman - diversity programs provide the opportunity for qualified people who have been systematically and historically shutout to compete on equal footing. Deliberate action means leveling the playing field by doing what’s fair NOT bringing in the “intellectually unqualified” as many people assume about diversity initiatives.

I have developed multi-billion dollar game changing patented technologies for and used by the likes of Boeing, Lucas Films and Microsoft. Had these programs not existed these companies wouldn't have received the financial benefits of my industry changing innovations. Diversity programs are not warm and fuzzy niceties to 'right' a 'genetic wrong', they are business necessities to tap into a pool of under utilized resources with novel perspectives that are missing and creating holes in business.

It is not surprising that those who have spent their lives enshrouded in privilege are clueless to the fact that factors causing the disparity in tech and leadership are not merely based on what’s between people's legs or the color of their skin.

More harmful than his attention-seeking manifesto is the actual belief by many that women are less technically capable, which has contributed to the dire lack of funding that goes to women in tech. According to Fortune all-male founders received more than 97.6%($58.2B) of the estimated $60 billion in VC money invested in 2016. Meanwhile, women led companies received just 2.4% ($1.46B) according to data from PitchBook. Women of color have only received 0.2% of the venture capital from 2012 to 2014 according to Wired. At the root of the tech diversity gap is is how businesses are being funded not ability or temperament.

I am in the 2.4% that has been funded, thanks to a Google Diversity program that afforded me access to investors like Arlan Hamilton's Backstage Capital Fund who saw and believed in my ideas. These programs get you in the door, what you do after is based on merit not handouts!!! When ideas from one group are devalued and unsupported, they will die off. Providing a level playing ground for underrepresented groups is necessary to create positive financial outcomes for today's global businesses.

So how did we get to a point where anyone can launch open air assaults on race and gender, claim to know what women can and can't achieve, where investors can declare openly that they don’t invest in women and employers can force women into brothels all while at work?

This failing is a result of subconscious biases held by both men and women which has resulted in women being seen as less investable, less capable and less valuable. Since these biases are subconscious, they can only be dissolved with conscious action. 

Playing With A Loaded Deck. Currently most tech unicorns are males, these numbers are merely a reflection of how VC funds are allocated. If 97.6% of the companies are being built by males, where do you think the unicorns are going to come from? You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that math out – I just happen to be one.  If you don’t believe that allocating all available resources to one group and a fraction to another is a major problem, then you are part of the problem. A critical aspect of the gender gap is that it is NOT conscious sexism, but rather subconscious beliefs that have been created because of how the numbers are currently stacked

The gender gap doesn’t happen at the later stages of business. It starts at the seed stage. If women and people of color are not getting their ideas funded, then they cannot realistically progress to the growth stage where VC’s typically invest large sums therefore creating very few unicorns. (A measure of Silicon Valley Success).

 Since most Unicorns in the tech world are males, most investors – both men and women have come to believe it’s all there’ll ever be. Thus, when women show up with big ideas, they are usually dismissed. On the other hand when young males show up, investors of all races and gender clamor around them because they have a direct line to that person becoming the next “ Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX), Evan Speigel (SnapChat), Travis Kalanick (Uber) and the list goes on. It is only natural that investors will assign capability to others that physically look like these other founders. Business is a numbers game, and VCs simply see investments in males as a faster path to an ROI since there are so many successes that they can point to. Subconscious bias is a result of social conditioning. If all the successes people have seen look the same, after a while they start to believe that’s all there is, until there is compelling evidence to disrupt that way of thinking.

Recently I was invited to speak at an event and given first class tickets on #Delta Airlines – when I got to the ticket counter the attendant said, “ Do you realize this is the first-class line? I’ll get to you when am done with the business travelers.” I asked for her manager, who further justified that business travelers are their main staple, and still offered no apology. I was humiliated by these Delta employees who held the bias that all business people wear suits.

The Meritocracy Hypocrisy. When you give one person a fighter jet and another a bicycle and expect both to perform at the same level, it's not a meritocracy - it's a hypocrisy. While one person is hitting the after burners and getting into Mach speed the other is sweating trying to peddle uphill. The privileged love to decry that the system is a meritocracy and pretend that the problem lies within those who are being discriminated against. Had I not received a GEM scholarship and participated in Aerospace Corporation's internship for minorities I would not have had the opportunity to enter the Tech world. The gap in Tech and leadership starts in the early stages of business where women are receiving less capital, and have less to show in order to access later stage capital to build global enterprises. Underrepresented minorities are judged with a flawed measuring 'merit' stick that favors those who have received 1000 times more.

What You Invest In Will Grow. Unicorns are not born full grown, they are regular ponies that are cleaned off, well-fed, and provided fertile grounds to thrive. People complained when President Obama rescued the auto industry by investing in Chrysler and GM. Thanks to the investment the company came from the dead, and have not only paid back their obligations, they have also created over 640,000 auto industry jobs.

While an employee with all the backing for my ideas at Boeing I was able to create multi-billion-dollar technologies. When I ventured on my own as the CEO of a publicly traded company (Next Galaxy). I was met with baseless venomous sexist and racist insults from strangers and doubters who attacked my capability. I struggled to raise capital for the company, but was unable to do so and that company never took off. After successfully securing funding for my second company(CEEK Virtual Reality) thanks to a Google Diversity program, I am realizing my vision. The new company has grown legs and is quickly becoming the global leader in mobile virtual reality entertainment. No one has a monopoly on technical capability, give people the opportunity and they will produce equal if not better results. Fortune reports that women-led businesses perform 3 times better than the S& P 500.

Why We Need Diversity Programs. Months after my last company closed its doors due to lack of funding, my new company, CEEK Virtual Reality was selected for a Google for Entrepreneurs Black Founder’s Exchange program where we met investors who saw the massive potential of our company and invested on the spot, other investors followed soon after. If Google hadn’t created a minority program for underrepresented founders and held Damore’s views, my company wouldn’t be among the leaders of the mobile virtual reality market, creating jobs, and headed for Unicorn status with the help of a highly regarded New York based investment firm who is now leading our Series A round.

Purveyors of the meritocracy mythology will lead you to believe that I previously didn’t get the capital I needed because my fonts were too big, “didn’t have what it took” or some equally pitiful excuse. Meanwhile they were getting funded with fruitless ideas with no revenue models presented on napkins.

Success Begets Success. The more successful an investor has been in the past, the greater the belief they have in repeating good future outcomes. Unfortunately, because there haven't been many major female tech successes, very few women are investing in tech startups. According to Aminta Ventures only 7.4% of those on Angel List who have invested in 1or more companies on are women. Most women are investing in fashion, organic foods, non-profits and women-related products because they've bought into the prevailing belief that women don't belong in "Tech." If you don't fuel good ideas, they won't take flight. If we want to balance the boat before it tips over, we need more women investing in others with big ideas.

Unfortunately, many of the tech diversity funds started by well meaning women, typically wives of male unicorns, are rooted in philanthropy rather than industry game changers. “All heart” investors are interested in warm and fuzzy ideas with or without business merit. The notion that “social impact” is about undertaking what feels like a charitable endeavor is a fallacy. The truth is, economically empowering women with the ability to make their own choices is the definition of true social impact. Invest in women and minorities with big transformative ideas without forcing them into non-profitable ventures you consider “social impact.”

Allies Not Silos. We need friends and allies who have been successful in ways that women haven’t been in tech. To nurture unicorns, we need people who have done it before or can identify this rarity. One of the reasons for consistent successes of reputable accelerators is the access to other highly successful companies within their network - it's building strength on top of strength. It is important that diversity funds work closely with allies who have had the type of successful outcomes that they are trying to achieve, so that we can build atop high structures rather than starting from the ground up each time. Areas and people who haven’t experienced massive business successes, frown on big ideas and try to “scale it down,” in contrast places like Silicon Valley love BIG IDEAS and focus on "scaling up."

People are not born inherently courageous; these traits are not genetically encoded but rather a result of successful experiences. In the absence of allies who have been there, it becomes a circular path of the blind leading the one-eyed into a heap of loose feces.

Nurture not Nature. Societal norms, not genetic abilities are contributing to the widening diversity gap in Tech. Women are expected from birth to step lightly on the earth, after all we are supposed to be made of sugar and spice. We spend countless hours achieving the perfect makeup, hair and dress. Men on the other hand are taught to wake up, shower, shake hair and walk into the world as they are. We are told fairy tales of dainty damsels in distress saved by knights in shining armor, so why would anyone believe that a damsel can slay the business dragon. This dynamic shows up in the confidence gap. “History” has taught us that men are more capable – we need to start telling “herstory” of greatness to help create a new narrative.

 Perfection Is A Philosophical Perversity. Male founders tend to rebound quickly from spectacular failures. Wired reports that startups founded by white males, that typically fail raise an average of $1.3 million in venture funding. Founders like Jason Goldberg (Fab.com) raised $336 Million, Parker Conrad (Zenefits) raised $583M, Rothenberg ventures and more have all had epic failures, and moved on to their next ventures practically unscathed.

Women tend to be judged by our worst, rather than best. Making women much harsher on each other. A particular female investor met with me more than 10 times, my meetings with her inevitably circled back to who wore the biggest pearls and who’s got the smallest waist, lunches with her felt more like two 6-year-olds playing tea party and dress up than two grown adults having a business lunch. She inevitably decided to pass on our deal because my last company was unsuccessful in raising capital. She lacked the experience to understand that many of the most successful startups have had difficulty on the way to success.

Every one of the most idealized companies in tech today have been met with challenges along the way. Elon Musk’s companies at one point faced the possibility of bankruptcy. The company received a loan from Mercedes-Benz while on life support, in addition to that President Obama’s Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program loaned Tesla $465 million which helped, Tesla build out its production facility. If it were not for the government loan, Tesla Motors may not be around today. Elon recollected this period in an interview stating “I felt like a pile of shit. I didn’t think we would overcome it. I thought things were probably fucking doomed.” The Coolest Cooler – one of the most successful crowd funded projects of all times, failed the first time they ran the campaign. There are very few women early investors in some of today’s biggest tech companies, because early stages of startups are not always pretty. Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, puts it best. “If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you’ve launched too late.”

 Those looking for perfection will always be behind the curve. Perfection is a mathematical and philosophical perversity that cannot be achieved. Failure is a necessary variable in the formula for success, show me a perfect startup and I’ll show you a startup that’s not trying hard enough, not taking chances.

In business, you either win or you learn, but you don’t win all the time. No one does. Where one’s comfort zone ends is where life begins, without trying, learning and growing you can’t win big.

Join the Cause. If you are in an organization that has a fund or business opportunities please make it your mission to connect with underrepresented startups. If you’ve been successful, pay it forward. Don’t just talk – take action. As Martin Luther King, Jr. aptly stated “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” As more women get funding to build tech businesses, more women will be in leadership positions, more women will study engineering and more female unicorns will emerge. As one goes forward, so we all! After reading this post, point a thumb instead of a finger at the person we need to take conscious action - YOU.

Digital Cinema Pioneer Mary Spio is the Founder of CEEK VR - developers of Virtual Reality Experiences for Entertainment and Education. Spio has been award numerous Technology patents in real-time satellite streaming and Virtual Reality Technologies. Mary is the author of It’s Not Rocket Science: 7 Game-Changing Traits for Uncommon Success. (Penguin Books)