So many of my conversations with women in tech can be summarized as validating the following, “You are not crazy. This is fucked up.”
For women in tech, trusted Real Talk (not to be confused with #realtalk) is rare and usually done offline (the better to avoid Hacker News thread). Which is why I loved this post, How To Survive as a Female Founder. It has practical advice, manages to still be funny and touch on essential subjects of Real Talk– namely grinding (at work, at yourself) and looking up one day to see that all that effort is not getting you as far as your male peers. The game is rigged. So what do you do?
“I’ve been struggling for years to make this work, and signs indicate that it is finally on the cusp of taking off.
But the road has been long and hard. There were late rent checks, metro turnstyles hopped when I didn’t have the cash to pay (one time immediately after giving a keynote at a DC tech conference). A kind, sensible lawyer sister (and teacher mom) who let me put charges on their credit cards and pay them back later when I didn’t see another option. Understandably concerned relatives who told me that it was time to “get a real job.” A lot of it sucked. But what sucks the most is that I saw male friends with startups get a lot more support, more readily…and often with less traction to show.”